In the world after the cold wave, winter always comes earlier than later.
On the second day after the Ningguo army arrived outside Jiangxia City, an unusually sudden wind and snow fell to the ground.
In just one night, the originally green earth was covered with a layer of snow-white.
However, the first heavy snowfall of winter did not stop people’s activities.
Driven by strong will, the soldiers inside and outside the city still took action. Driven by the generals, they endured the coldness of winter and walked out of the camp tremblingly.
The sound of the golden drum sounded, followed by the shouts and the guidance of flags, and the Ningren camp outside the city, which was already full of people, became lively in an instant.
The soldiers climbed out of the tent and formed a line under the leadership of the corps commander. Immediately afterwards, several lines of soldiers formed a team, and under the leadership of the team leader, they merged with each other and reorganized into pawns. Finally, the five soldiers gathered together to form the most basic formation, which was rehearsed on the battlefield.
Shen Qiu led a group of ministers and stood on a high lookout carriage. Countless war horses under his feet were able to pull and push, and slowly drove out of the camp towards the center of the battlefield.
The watch carriage is ten feet high and is made of countless huge and thick trees and metal parts made of fine materials. It is strong and majestic.
Standing on the balcony at the top of the watchcar, you can almost look down at the mountainside behind Jiangxia City.
Looking towards the mountain city from here, the entire city can be seen at a glance.
Shen Qiu looked at the various towers and arrow towers piled up on the mountainside, the densely arranged catapults and crossbows, the winding road up the mountain, the dangerous mountain topography, and the three-foot-high city wall built against the mountain at the foot of the mountain. He couldn't help but suck it out.
Although he rarely fights abroad and has little experience in commanding troops, he has served as a general in Vietnam and has a lot of knowledge about military formations.
At this time, I only looked at Jiangxia City in front of me and at the various defense facilities in the city. Without attacking at all, I could tell at a glance that this was definitely one of the few fortified cities in the world.
If you want to break this city by ordinary means, it will be extremely difficult.
Even if it can be defeated, the final casualties will be an unimaginable number.
After mentally assessing the possible losses in attacking this city, Shen Qiu couldn't help but slap the eaves beside him, and secretly said with hatred: "Such a strong city and a beautiful place is actually occupied by the Chu thieves, not the king's master." Controlled. Xiao Yue's clan is my sinner in Jinling."
No wonder Shen Qiu hated it so much, he couldn't help but blame the previous royal family who had abdicated.
It is true that the mess left by Qian Yue was too big and too incompetent.
Ever since their Linhai family crossed south, they had overcome obstacles for thousands of years, and with the lineage of the Three Emperors, they had continuously conquered barbarian tribes one after another.
In the process of conquest, it also experienced countless hardships, experienced many disasters, and even faced more than one disaster of national annihilation.
But no matter how many difficulties or dangers they encountered, the Linhai Family managed to overcome it through concerted efforts and soon ushered in new development.
Even with the repeated dynasty changes, the alternation of power within the six surnames and seven clans was ultimately maintained. The territory originally laid down can also be guaranteed to be generally intact, and there will be no loss of troops or territory.
But in the last years of Qianyue, all the previous routines were broken.
First, the three kingdoms of Changsha, Nanhai, and Ninghai were established, and then the two kingdoms of Xichuan and Hanzhong emerged. In the end, these vassal states gradually broke away from the tributary system of the Jinling Dynasty, and Ning State completely lost the land west of the Dajiang River and south of Wuling.
The loss of these lands almost means that after thousands of years of development and the development achievements of four generations of dynasties, they were all lost in one fell swoop.
These Linhai aristocratic families, the Jinling Dynasty, lost half of their interests in one fell swoop.
How could Shen Qiu and the family behind Shen Qiu not feel secret hatred for such a huge loss and setback.
It is this kind of resentment that makes the Xiao family, who has abdicated in recent years and become one of the seven clans, not very popular with others and is ostracized and disliked by all clans.
If there were not marriages between the Xiao family's daughters in each family, they would also marry many women into the Xiao family. They are all relatives, and the relationship is so close that they cannot be separated at all.
Otherwise, all the families and clans that had suffered such heavy losses would have united long ago to exterminate the Xiao clan to vent their hatred.
Fortunately, Mrs. Xiao has also noticed this and knows that she is not popular with others. In recent years, she has been extremely low-key. The children of the family have chosen to stay behind closed doors and act as transparent persons.
Out of sight, out of mind, not many people bothered them.
But looking at Jiangxia City at this moment, looking at the extremely strong and almost impossible to capture the fortress, Shen Qiu couldn't help but cursed when he thought of the culprit who lost this city.
You can see that he is angry.
Next to Shen Qiu, there was a heroic general following him. Hearing Shen Qiu's secret curse, his brows jumped.
This heroic general was none other than Bai Yi'an, the new Marquis of Wu'an who had received funding from Shen Qiu four years ago, succeeded in breaking through his innateness, and inherited his grandfather's name.
Since breaking through the Xiantian, Bai Yi'an, who inherited the martial arts of his ancestors, quickly stood out from the crowd of Xiantian by virtue of his innate martial arts that can be combined with military spirit, and became one of the top three masters in the Ning Kingdom under Shen Qiu.
And because his innate martial arts was very good at commanding troops, Shen Qiu took Bai Yian along with him on this expedition, as the deputy commander of the main army, assisting him in commanding the 400,000 troops under his command.
At this time, after the army arrived, Shen Qiu was preparing to lead his army out of the camp and attack Jiangxia City to test the strength of the Chu army. Bai Yian, as the actual commander of the army, naturally followed him to observe.
But before the army was launched, Shen Qiu seemed to have lost his temper, which immediately made Bai Yi'an feel bad.
He knew that His Majesty was afraid of Jiangxia City in his heart, so he turned his anger on the Xiao family, but now was not the time to engage in internal strife and purges, nor could he engage in such things.
The dissatisfaction with the Xiao family is almost universal among the six surnames and seven clans in Linhai.
Even within the Xiao family, there are many complaints against Emperor Hongdao and Emperor Longqing. They believe that these two fathers and sons brought the good Xiao family dynasty to its downfall and brought the family to its current situation.
But no matter how many of these dissatisfactions there were, all Xiao's culpability disappeared and ceased to exist as they abdicated.
The rules of the game for the Linhai Family are that the previous royal family abdicates, and then the new family representative takes over. From then on, they can straighten out the government, clean up the country, and start a new prosperous dynasty.
The former royal family that abdicated became a new aristocratic family, and the succeeding royal family could not settle the past.
Otherwise, you will punish me, and I will punish you, and the six surnames and seven tribes will kill each other. Under this bloody game, everyone will have been exterminated long ago.
How can we still be like now, marrying each other, advancing and retreating together, and enjoying thousands of years of wealth together?
Therefore, no matter how dissatisfied he was with Xiao, the other party abided by the rules of the game and chose to abdicate.
So as the successor, no matter what, you can't liquidate the other party.
Because this breaks the balance and breaks the rules.
Once the balance and rules are broken, no matter how small, the cracks will expand and eventually lead to destruction.
Therefore, seeing that the emperor seemed to have the idea of liquidating the Xiao family, the heroic general hurriedly said: "Your Majesty, the army has been arrayed, and the equipment, bows and crossbows have been displayed. It is ready to launch a test attack."
As soon as these words came out, Shen Qiu's attention was drawn back from Xiao's fault.
He looked down.
To the left and right of the observation car, on the white wilderness, I saw groups of soldiers lined up neatly. They were orderly distributed in the nearby area for several miles according to the direction of the troops, the battalion number and the flag.
The 50,000 soldiers and horses dispatched this time to prepare for the trial attack on Jiangxia City have all been assembled.
Tens of thousands of troops stood on the field, with bright armor and robes, hunting flags, swords and guns like light, and a cold light.
Crowds of people gathered together, turning the originally white land into a sea of yellow.
Yes, like Chu State, Ning State’s military robes are also in yellow.
When the country was founded in Changsha, Lu Yuan used the Taoist book of Taiping he practiced and his birth date to establish the system of honoring the land as a virtue in the name of Taoist Huang Tian.
The system was established. From then on, all kinds of dresses, ceremonies, military robes and other clothing in Chu State were mainly yellow.
Therefore, the military robes of the Chu army are naturally yellow.
As for the Ningguo court in Jiangdong, as a new dynasty that accepted the abdication of Yue and had an orderly inheritance, it naturally inherited the mantle of the previous dynasty. It was impossible for the dynasty to adopt the theory of mutual restraint of the five elements like the dynasty that used violence to revolutionize the tripod.
Therefore, the originally normal water defeated fire, but the new dynasty regarded water as virtue, so it was impossible to appear in Ningguo.
Ningguo adopted the past practice of dynasty rotation among Linhai aristocratic families, based on the theory of the mutual development of the five elements, adopted the theory that fire produces earth, established a dynasty system, and created a new dynasty.
Therefore, Ning State and Chu State are actually the same. They both believe that they have native virtues and adopt yellow clothes.
From this aspect, Ning and Chu, the two Jiangnan overlords, were at war at this time, each wanting to defeat the other and unify Yangzhou.
In a sense, the two sides are competing for Yangzhou on the surface, but in fact they are competing for Tudor orthodoxy.
In this battle, the one who finally wins will naturally unify Yangzhou and unify Tu De, proving that he is orthodox.
The world came to a wonderful conclusion at this moment.
However, Shen Qiu had no time to think about the above.
At this time, he looked at his carefully trained and mighty army, and his original fear of Jiang Xia was reduced a lot, and he felt a sense of pride and ambition.
The past has become worse and worse, and half of the inheritance of the ancestors has been lost. He can be called a sinner.
But now that he is leading his troops eastward, he will defeat the great enemy Chu, reorganize the old mountains and rivers, and regain the inheritance of his ancestors.
Even after conquering the Chu State, they were able to take advantage of the situation and take over the foundations that their predecessors in Xiangyang, Hanzhong, and Qianzhong failed to develop, pushing the Ning State's hegemony to a new peak.
Perhaps in the end, the great cause of wiping out Lingnan and Southwest and unifying Yangzhou will be completed by his own hands.
By then, with these achievements, he will become the most outstanding among the emperors of the ten dynasties of Jinling since he crossed the river.
With this achievement, even if in the end, because of his longevity, he may not be able to continue to lead Ningguo and go north to survive in this catastrophe of the Nine Provinces.
But under Jiuquan, it was enough to meet the previous emperors.
'And to accomplish all this, we must first defeat the great enemy Chu, so that the divided hegemony of Yangzhou can be completely unified. '
Shen Qiu whispered in his heart, igniting a strong fighting spirit.
Then he looked at Jiangxia City, which was in the distance. At this time, in his eyes, he didn't seem to think that the group was impregnable anymore.
In front of me, who has inherited the legacy of the previous emperors of more than ten dynasties, how can a mere Chu State or a mere Lu Yuan be worth thousands of years of accumulation and heritage?
He's just a guy who took advantage of luck and took advantage of the opportunity.
This kind of clown will be beaten back to his original form today and fall into the dust.
In front of his own army of hundreds of thousands, even the so-called emerging hegemons and even the so-called famous generals are like grass and vulnerable.
Now, let's take over Jiangxia City and give King Chu a surprise.
With this thought flashing through his mind, Shen Qiu immediately ordered: "Instruct the front troops to attack the city!"
With a command from the Holy Spirit, the army that was ready to go below the chariot immediately began to move like a tide.
First, catapults, wells, and ballistae were pushed up from the rear of the army and moved to the front of the army.
Subsequently, after adjustments by the soldiers, the engineering equipment was quickly adjusted. Following an order, countless burning stones and oil cans, and long-haired crossbow arrows whizzing through the air, with billowing smoke, Like clouds and raindrops, it instantly enveloped a city wall.
The huge boulder fell on the city head, instantly crushing the soldiers standing on it into a pulp. The broken stone after colliding with the bluestone city wall continued to explode with huge force, blasting the surrounding area into pieces of meat.
The flaming oil tank exploded due to high temperature in mid-air, and the broken tiles turned into sharp blades, beating the soldiers below into a honeycomb.
The burning flames did not stop, scattering on the top of the city, turning the crying soldiers into torches.
The roaring long-haired crossbow arrows cut off each soldier at the waist. Finally, with the remaining strength, they were strung into gourds and nailed to the wall.
In just an instant, with the first round of projections, the city above Jiangxia turned into a terrifying hell.
And while this covering attack disrupted the city's position, the wells and ladders at the rear were also pushed by the Ningren soldiers and slowly approached the city.
The crossbowmen stood on the well that was level with the city wall or even higher, pouring arrows towards the city.
The ladder leaned against the city wall, and countless soldiers below took advantage of the stairs, protected by the outer wooden planks, to climb towards the chaotic city top.
It was just a preliminary attack, and Ning Ren showed off his terrifying firepower and skills.
This scene made Lu Yuan, who saw this scene from the observation platform on the mountainside, frown: "There are still too many new soldiers, and many of them are not well trained. Even if they are called combat soldiers, in the end, even the county soldiers are not even soldiers." Not as good as that, just a little better than a civilian husband."
He looked at the performance of the Chu soldiers on the city wall and shook his head dissatisfied.
In recent years, the Chu army has successively expanded its army. In less than a year, it doubled the size of its troops and recruited 250,000 new troops.
There are so many recruits, even if the army is trained according to the standards of combat soldiers, how can it be possible to train a recruit with no foundation into a real combat soldier in a short period of time.
Just like in front of you, the panicked and panic-stricken soldiers of the Chu army appeared on the top of the city.
These Chu soldiers were all new recruits recruited in November and December last year. Their basic training time was less than a year, let alone battlefield experience.
Those local and county soldiers who have been on the battlefield, or have suppressed bandits, killed people, and seen blood are stronger than these new recruits.
At least those prefecture and county soldiers placed on top of this city would not be panicked and almost collapsed by Ning Guo's round of attacks.
But the soldiers who were still new recruits obviously couldn't do this.
"The soldiers' foundation is still good, but they lack experience. They have been training for almost a year, and they are already proficient in various battle formation orders and killing techniques.
The only bad thing is the fighting on the battlefield. "
Next to Lu Yuan, Chu Wei, who was transferred here and participated in the battle together, also saw the performance of the soldiers below.
However, he was not too dissatisfied with this. Instead, he was quite optimistic and said: "Now we take advantage of the opportunity to defend the city and let the soldiers fight with the Ning people. As long as you practice a few times and your hands are stained with blood, you will see Once you are used to life and death, you will quickly transform from the flames of war and become a qualified elite soldier."
After serving in the army for more than 20 years, Chu Wei can be considered a veteran on the battlefield.
In the eyes of a veteran like him, the casualties of soldiers have always been just a number. As long as the goal can be achieved and the war can be won, no matter how many people die, it is worth it.
And looking at it now.
With the strong city of Jiangxia, even if the soldiers in the city are inexperienced, it is easy to defend the city with the support of the city.
Even taking advantage of this opportunity to defend the city, it is extremely cost-effective to use this kind of war that is intense enough but can control casualties within a certain range to temper the soldiers who were originally just recruits.
If we can take the opportunity to train an elite army, even if tens of thousands of people die and half of the soldiers in the city die, it is actually worth it.
Even if the number of veterans who emerged from the war was only half the number, their value and role were far higher than the original 100,000 recruits.
However, this price is somewhat dissatisfying to Lu Yuan who needs population and soldiers to provide luck.
Of course, Lu Yuan also knew that as long as there is a war, death is inevitable.
But if fewer people die, it is better than more people die.
So after watching for a while and seeing the new soldiers boarding the city under the fierce attack of the Ning people, he finally couldn't bear it anymore and also ordered: "Every unit of the machine and chariot, target the Ning army approaching the city." Dabu, smash me hard and cum hard!"
The words fell.
After receiving orders from behind, countless soldiers manipulating crossbows and catapults finally rained down countless blows on the Ning soldiers who were already approaching the city wall, as well as the Ning people's various siege equipment within range. The stone cannonball was lost.
After the Chu people endured Wu Yangyang's terrifying attack, it was soon Ning Ren's turn to enjoy it.
Between you and me, blood and fire, wailing and pain, death and madness, turned this walled place into a terrifying purgatory.
