Late Tang

This time, the post-war rest time was very short. After a brief discussion on the pirate side, they finally decided to take down the castle no matter what.In order to vent his anger, Zheng Balang dispatched troops to raid the four camps outside the city, intending to take the soldiers' families as hostages.But when hundreds of pirates entered the camps, they suddenly found that the four camps were already empty, and there was not even a single person there.

The crazy pirates directly set fire to the four big camps, and the tents were ignited. The wind set the fire, and soon the island was already on fire, and half of the island was burned red.The burning of the pirates basically showed their determination to attack.Although none of the merchants at the four wharfs of Shamen Island came to the rescue, when the fire broke out, the troops stationed on the three islands of Daxie Zhai, South Island, and Daheishan, which surrounded Salmon Island, could no longer pretend to be unaware. Even if it is symbolic, they have to send troops to Salmon Island, and they will arrive after dawn at the latest.

The pirates divided up several troops and pretended to attack the east and south walls, trying to divert the tiger away from the mountain.However, although half of the two city walls have been demolished, they are still half the height of a person.Here, Li Jing arranged for many people to stand guard with spears and bamboo poles. When the pirates came, they just poked them, smashed stones, poured hot oil and boiled water.Not many pirates pretended to attack, and Zheng Balang simply called them back after several unsuccessful attacks.

The Shamen town army deliberately left a few gaps, waiting for the pirates to enter.Previously, because of these three gaps, the pirates could easily enter each time, but each time there were not many people entering, resulting in a large army, but it became a refueling tactic, and they were defeated twice.Zheng Balang became angry, and refused to send more soldiers in. He knew that if the fight continued like this, his superiority in soldiers would be completely useless.He directly summoned the pirates, removed the wood of the camp gate from the barracks outside the castle, and temporarily made it into a hammer.

Hundreds of pirates carried more than a dozen hammers and slammed into the city wall beside the gap, intending to smash the broken wall between the three gaps and open a bigger gap.In order to cover these people, Zheng Balang personally gathered all the pirates with bows and shot arrows behind them for cover.Li Jing in the city tried to lead the saber players to charge up twice, but both times were repelled by the arrow rain, and they couldn't stop those people from hitting the wall at all.

After two tentative attacks and several more wounded, Li Jing decisively ordered to retreat behind the shield wall.

Zhang Chengzong had a bloody gash on his forehead, and he grinned and said to Li Jing, "My lord, you can't fight hard like this. The thieves have become smarter now, and they are covered by bows and arrows." Liu Shouqian frowned and said, "But let them do like this Hitting the wall is not a solution either. Once the wall is broken and the three gaps are connected together, we can no longer let a group kill a group as before. At that time, the pirates will rush in and advance step by step. But we can only fight recklessly." He paused and said: "General, why don't I take my brothers out of the city from the east, go around behind the pirates and attack them, attacking them from both inside and outside."

Li Jing knew that until now, he probably didn't have any tricks to speak of.The next battle can only be fought hard.However, he has been counting the time. It has been more than an hour since the war started, and it is not far away from Liang.He has been waiting for news from Lin Wei, not knowing how the battle is going.

"Alright, you two bring a team of servants and four hundred auxiliary soldiers. They haven't participated in the battle just now, and it's time to go on the field. You quietly leave the city from the east city and go around to the pirate's right wing. Don't worry about that. Do it, just ambush there. According to the agreement, Vice Admiral Lin and Martial General Lin should be attacking the fleet at the Pirate Wharf right now, and it is estimated that it will be soon. As long as they take down the remaining pirates on the fleet, they will return to the army to fight .They have 100 family members, more than 200 cavalry, and a team of Qiu Shengong and more than [-] crew members on the Haining. As soon as they arrive, you immediately attack from the right wing."

The three agreed on a signal, and once Lin Wei returned to the army, they would immediately encircle and counterattack on three sides.If Lin Wei never came back, then without Li Jing's special signal, they would have to lurk outside the city and not be exposed.

Immediately, Li Jing sent another team to the pier quietly to check the battle at the pier and inform them of Li Jing's plan.

Afterwards, Li Jing asked the soldiers to take advantage of the last spare time to eat quickly. The meals were steamed buns, boiled eggs and jerky prepared earlier. Although they were all cold, no one cared about them at this time, they were all first-hand With a knife in hand, he ate cold boiled water with one hand.A meal was devoured in less than a moment.

"Bang!" Another part of the city wall was knocked down, and the gap became wider and wider.

Li Jing immediately summoned all the soldiers, with square shields in the center, seven hundred spearmen on the two wings, followed by sword and shield soldiers, and then crossbowmen behind the formation.Everyone knows that this time is no better than the previous two times, only hard work.The previous two times Li Jing fought back aggressively, but this time, he decided to defend with an iron wall.

The longer the time dragged on, the more impatient the pirates became, and the more beneficial it was to Li Jing and the others.He just wants to drag it now, drag it to Lin Wei and the others to deal with the pirates at the pier and return to the army.After dragging until dawn, pirates have scruples about officers and soldiers.As long as he holds on, this victory belongs to them.

More than a thousand people nervously lined up in a crescent formation, and one after another torches were crackling and burning, illuminating the west city like daylight.The night's cold wind howled, frost and mist filled the air, and the faces of the frozen people were red and their fingers were swollen.But no one is tired, this is a battle that will determine the life and death of them and Shamen Town.

Li Jing distributed all the hundreds of pieces of equipment seized on the battlefield just now, especially the more than 200 pieces of iron armor, more than 100 pieces of leather armor, and more than 300 copper helmets, and immediately let half of the soldiers of the spear logistics team match them Armor and helmet, the defense power has been greatly improved in an all-round way.In addition, Li Jing also equipped many minzhuang with spears and horizontal knives, and temporarily armed six teams of 300 spear teams and six teams of [-] horizontal knives.These people were transferred to the two wings as a reserve team.Although most of these newly armed people are teenagers and half-old men, they can also gain momentum at critical times, and they are urgently needed.

The collapse of the city wall in sections also means that the pirates' final strong attack is getting closer and closer.

The cold wind blew across his face like a knife, and there was a sharp pain on his face.All the white air exhaled from his mouth made Li Jing feel that his nose was numb, so he could only breathe with his mouth open.Standing motionless in the cold wind for a long time, Li Jing felt that he was going to be frozen, as if his body had already merged with the cold armor on his body.Time passed little by little, and there was still no movement on the west side of the castle.

Li Jing looked around at the sergeants of Shamen Town who were lined up in formation. They were even worse than him, and they were already shaking with ice, their teeth chattering.

"Bang!" Another large section of the city wall was knocked down. Once this section of the wall fell, the three gaps were completely connected together, and a large gap about ten feet long appeared in front of everyone.Li Jing gritted his teeth. As a result, the city wall has completely lost its defensive function, and now the pirates can enter in a neat square formation.

"Raise the spear!"

"Steady your ground!"

Holding the long sword in his hand, Li Jing shouted loudly, whether he can defeat the pirates tonight depends on whether he can survive the current wave.The spearmen in the first row tilted their spears according to the order, and the end pierced the ground fiercely, and then the spear points of the second row raised slightly, followed by the third row, the fourth row, and the fifth row. Row, six rows of spears in a row.The spears at the bottom were almost half mixed with the ground, and then the layers became higher and higher, and the last six rows of spears formed a fan-shaped forest of steel thorns in front of the formation.This formation was originally used by spearmen to deal with cavalry, but at this time it was used by Li Jing to form a formation against pirates.The deployment of this formation also showed Li Jing's determination to defend resolutely.

In front of the collapsed city wall where the dust and smoke hadn't cleared away, Zheng Balang looked at the soldiers and horses in the city that had spread out their spikes like a hedgehog and shrank back, with a sinister smile on the corner of his mouth.

"Kill me!"

Following his experience, a row of twenty crossbows suddenly came up behind the pirate formation.This is a heavy crossbow brought by the royal guards. It is used by many people. It has a range of three hundred steps and fires iron crossbow arrows.The Fuyuan crossbow requires two people to operate, and it is very powerful.

Under normal circumstances, bows and crossbows have armor penetration range of 1, accuracy range of 2, and damage range of 3.This means that the range of the Fuyuan Crossbow is [-] steps, and the maximum killing distance for unarmored targets is [-] steps. In fact, the shooting range should be farther, and [-] steps is only an effective killing distance.Accuracy two indicates that the accuracy range of the crossbow arrow should be two hundred steps, and accurate shooting can only be performed within two hundred steps.And one hundred steps is the range of armor-piercing damage.

The distance between the array in the city and the pirates is one arrow away, eighty steps away.The shooting range of bows and arrows is generally effective at about sixty steps, eighty steps, and most archers have lost their lethality at night.It's just that what Li Jing didn't expect was that the pirate not only had a crossbow, but also a heavy crossbow with [-] steps.

Twenty iron crossbows came with a sharp whistle, and the soldiers in the front row hadn't figured out what was going on, but the twenty crossbows had penetrated into Li Jing's formation.Several screams sounded, and more than a dozen people fell down immediately.Except for a few crossbow arrows that just hit the shield, all the other crossbow arrows were shot at people.The dense array didn't need much precision at all, and it completely hit the target. Although the soldiers in the front row were all wearing iron armor, within [-] steps, when encountering the iron crossbow arrows shot by the Fuyuan Crossbow with a range of [-] steps, there was nothing at all. No effect.

"Raise the shield!" Li Jing's eyes burst into flames, and the casualties in this battle were already comparable to the previous battle.

Another twenty iron crossbows were shot, and the strange soldiers with swords and shields raised their shields one after another, and erected a shield wall in front of the formation, but apart from the square iron shields of the strange soldiers, the cowhide round wooden platoons of the regiment soldiers could not block the crossbow arrows at all. It shattered instantly, and even the soldiers behind were also injured.

Wave after wave, the pirates' Fuyuan crossbows kept shooting. Although Li Jing was struggling to support, the shields were still shattering and wounding. no more.As the soldiers continued to fall, the array began to become precarious and might collapse at any time.

Outside the city, Zheng Balang swung his sword and shouted angrily, "Kill me!"

The pirate who had already been gearing up for a while suddenly screamed wildly, brandishing all kinds of weapons and slapping him like a wolf.

(To be continued)