Eighth year of Chongzhen

Chapter 97 Fake Attack
Zhang Xianzhong sat on a chair hundreds of steps away from the city wall, watching the scene in front of him from a distance.With his men fleeing back, his first siege ended in failure.

He snorted a little dissatisfied. The refugees who joined the battle for the first time had no combat experience. It stands to reason that some old thieves should be the backbone to lead these novices. After a few battles, the newcomers will quickly grow into veterans.But his purpose of attacking the city today was not to destroy the city, so he simply sent refugees who had never been on the battlefield. Anyway, there are a lot of refugees, and if you die a thousand, you can recruit [-] immediately, as long as you have money and food in hand.

But if you always send refugees to attack the city, not to mention the loss of manpower, morale will also be greatly hit.The defense side is just the opposite, morale will be greatly improved, so it is still necessary to put a little pressure on the defense side.

With a wave of Zhang Xianzhong's hand, Sun Kewang understood immediately, and shouted: "Follow me!", more than a dozen of Zhang Xianzhong's personal soldiers drew their knives out of their sheaths, and followed behind Sun Kewang, facing the dozens of thieves who had retreated from defeat.

Sun Kewang rushed into the fleeing thieves first, and swung the knife horizontally with both hands. The head of a rogue flew up several feet and landed on the ground. Gululu rolled a few steps before stopping with his face facing upwards. squirt.The thief's face was full of horror, his eyes were round and his mouth was slightly open, as if he didn't believe what happened.

Sun Kewang raised his knife again and slashed obliquely. During the sound of exhaling, a bandit soldier had no time to dodge, and screamed miserably, his shoulders and back were cut in two.

More than a dozen of Zhang Xianzhong's personal soldiers swarmed up. The defeated soldiers who were terrified by the scene outside the city, but who could withstand the slashing and killing by this group of highly skilled and well-equipped elites, screamed continuously, and retreated in an instant. All the thieves were beheaded on the spot.

Sun Kewang turned back holding the long knife that was still bleeding, and there was nothing unusual on his face.Li Dingguo frowned slightly, feeling a little unbearable in his heart.He felt that it was the commander's mistake to let these untrained refugees go into battle, and now he is beheading the defeated soldiers. Although this can deter the soldiers, it will also cause them to panic.

Zhang Xianzhong nodded in satisfaction, and ordered: "Two hundred veterans, one hundred shield bearers, one hundred archers, four hundred recruits, fight again! Three ladders! I hope you will supervise the battle!"

With the continuous sound of orders, the second wave of bandit soldiers who attacked the city came out from the formation. More than a dozen bandit soldiers carried three ladders and rushed to the city wall first. A section of the city wall on the west side of the South Gate.

A hundred archers approached the city wall under the cover of shield bearers, and the bandit soldiers carrying ladders approached the city wall in fear, only to find that just like last time, there was no movement from the city guards.The thieves bravely set up the three ladders not far apart. After fixing the long ladder with their hands and feet, they began to pray for the protection of the gods and Buddhas in the sky. They could clearly see the short fierce battle just now, and the defenders threw it down. The boulder kills are amazing too.

The archers came near the erected ladder and stood more than ten steps away from the city wall. The shieldmen gathered around them, ready to raise their shields to cover them at any time.The [-] attacking bandits were also approaching the ladder.

The leader commanding the archers shouted loudly: "Nock the arrow!"

A hundred archers put their arrows on the bowstring one after another, and then took a step back to pull the bowstring, leaning back towards the midair.

The thieves attacking the city quickened their pace and approached the ladder. A group of experienced veterans climbed up the ladder first and then climbed up halfway in less than ten breaths.

Same as last time, there was a sound of a gong, and the figures of officers and soldiers appeared on the crenel, raising the stone and preparing to smash it down.

"shoot!"

With the sound of the bowstring, a hundred long arrows shot into the air in the blink of an eye. After exhaustion, the arrows turned around and pierced towards the officers and soldiers on the top of the city.

Immediately there was a scream from the top of the city, some stones were smashed down, and some officers and soldiers were shot by long arrows before the stones were smashed down.The bamboo hats worn by the soldiers of the guards were made of cloth, and they were directly pierced by the sharp arrows, and they fell to their death without even making a sound.

Because the defense area is relatively small, several guard soldiers took turns to smash down the stones, so only a few stones were thrown down in the first round, and then the city was covered by bows and arrows, and dozens of guard soldiers or Dead or injured, there was a faint and rapid shout from the top of the city: "Spread! Scatter! Shields! Shields!"

The few stones that were dropped did not cause much damage to the bandits. Since they were thrown directly at the bandits on the ladders, the bandits on the two ladders were knocked and rolled to the ground. The top of the city was suppressed by bows and arrows, and there were no continuous stones falling down, so this time only one bandit soldier was killed and several people were injured.

The bandit archers continued to shoot towards the top of the city. Under the cover of this intensive firepower, the leading bandit soldiers on the three ladders climbed to the top of the city one after another. The bandit archers stopped shooting arrows. In a short period of time, each shot five With only one arrow, the archer's arm has already started to tingle.

The guards in the interior hadn't been through the battle formation for many years. When they saw the bandits entering the city, they immediately panicked. The city was in chaos. Jump off the crenel, swing a knife and raise a gun to kill the officers and soldiers.

There are hundreds of officers and soldiers in this area. Although most of them are terrified, they are still brave.More than a dozen officers and soldiers from the guard station shouted, and under the leadership of a Baihu, they surrounded the bandit soldiers who ascended the city in a semicircle. rushed forward.

With a muffled sound, the weight of the body and the shield, plus the speed of the impact combined to knock a bandit soldier to the ground, and more than a dozen guard soldiers stabbed wildly with their guns. The shield was small, but it couldn't withstand the stabbing of more than a dozen long spears, and the knife in his hand was a short weapon. Before they could get close, he was stabbed and knocked to the ground.

The hundred household roared: "Block the crenel!" Then he fitted himself up and rushed to a bandit soldier standing on the crenel, raised his shield with both hands and pushed forward suddenly, the bandit soldier screamed and jumped from a height of six or seven meters. The head of the city fell to the bottom of the city, and fell into the densely packed bandit soldiers below the city. Suddenly, all the people turned their backs, and the bandit soldiers shouted and cursed.

At this moment, Li Long rushed over with a group of people. He held an iron rod about several feet long, and threw it down on a bandit who had just appeared on a ladder. The bandit's head was smashed to pieces. The body rolled directly from the ladder, and a bunch of bandits behind were knocked down.

Seeing the bravery of the general, the soldiers of the guard immediately boosted their morale, cut down with their spears and bayonets, and killed all the thieves who climbed the city.

Under Li Long's loud shouts, gray bottles and stones were thrown down like raindrops, and the thieves under the city fled away screaming and screaming. Although this is safe, but if you want to shoot arrows again, the damage to the officers and soldiers will be minimal.

Seeing that he still couldn't succeed this time, Sun Kewang sighed slightly and said, "Ming Jin!"

A rush of gongs sounded, and the timid bandit soldiers who wanted to retreat but were afraid of being hacked by the supervisor, or were smashed by the officers and soldiers if they didn't retreat, all ran back as if they heard the Sanskrit sound. Many recruits were afraid of running slowly. He threw away his weapon and fled back empty-handed.

There was another round of cheers from the top of the city. Li Long ordered to hook the thief's ladder to the city with an iron hook, so as not to use it when the thief attacked the city again, and then arranged for manpower to clean the battlefield and rescue the wounded. As for the thief's body, He was lifted up by the officers and soldiers and thrown under the city.

Sun Kewang counted the number of soldiers, found out the soldiers who had discarded their weapons and fled back, and then ordered them all to beheaded. For a while, dozens of bandit soldiers died in their own hands.The second siege caused dozens of casualties.But the significance of this siege lies in the fact that after finding out the strength of the city defenders, if an attack is really going to be launched, dozens of ladders will be erected, and elite old thieves will be the main force. Sun Kewang is confident that he can break through Shouzhou in less than a quarter of an hour. The soldiers of the guards are indeed vulnerable, not much better than ordinary refugees, they just occupy a geographical advantage.

Sun Kewang led the team back to the main formation, ordered the soldiers to return to the team, then came to Zhang Xianzhong, cupped his hands and said: "Father, more than [-] people have been lost this time, but the strength of the city guards has also been proven, my son dare to say, It takes less than a quarter of an hour to climb to the top of Shouzhou city!"

Zhang Xianzhong said with a smile: "I have also seen that these guards are far inferior to the frontier army. This is a good thing! When the time comes, they will take Shouzhou! It is hoped that people will be sent to collect the corpses and bury them on the spot !"

Sun Kewang took the order to point out two hundred refugees in the battle, and sent a small leader to the city with a white flag. Several big pits were dug a hundred paces away, and then more than two hundred corpses of thieves were thrown into them and buried. These two small battles were officially over.

The reason why Zhang Xianzhong ordered the burial of the corpse was not because of the outburst of compassion and the brilliance of humanitarianism.The main reason is that it is too hot. If the corpses are not buried in time, a plague may occur. Once it spreads, it is not impossible for the entire army to be wiped out.

Of course Li Long also understood this truth, so the two sides hit it off immediately, and the officers and soldiers even dropped some bamboo baskets from the city with ropes, filled with quicklime, and sprinkled them in the pit at that time, which can better eliminate the possible epidemic poison .

(End of this chapter)