Horse on the World

Chapter 683 Xiaoaihe Offense and Defense (Re-middle)

The water of Xiaoai River, which is not deep at all, has completely dried up, exposing the river bed covered with pebbles and silt. From time to time, fish bounced a few times in the thick mud, making the last dying struggle. Without the river water, Hengdao camped heavy The soldiers moved more quickly. They placed huge logs directly on the river bed, threw bundles of firewood on it, and then put some planks or gravel on them, and forcibly opened a road in the center of the river bed. The Tongqu Avenue, which is about a hundred feet wide, comes.

The heavy ordnance of the Hengdao Battalion quickly crossed the river, and with their backs against the river bank, the trebuchet was assembled again, and in front of the trebuchet, the eight-ox crossbow that hadn't shown up in the previous battle also showed its ferocious face. The platform was placed in front of the trebuchet, with one crossbow and four arrows, and the flashing arrows were aimed at the city wall of the Xiaoai River defense line.

Different from the arrows used in the past, this time the arrows on the eight-ox crossbow were as thick as a child's arm. In addition to the spear point in front, there were two barbs on the side, which looked a bit awkward.

After a night of repairing, Wang Peng's Hengdao Battalion regained its vitality and formed three attacking squares along the city wall of Xiaoai River. When the army came out of the camp, the soldiers held their horses in their arms and watched the opposite battlefield quietly. In the siege battle, the cavalry was not very useful, and they had to wait for the infantry to open a passage for them.

Guan Xinglong visited Wang Peng's Hengdao Camp in person, and looked up at the opposite city wall. It was quiet there, except for the flying flags, there seemed to be no one there, but everyone knew that once the attack started, the Hengdao Camp would be greeted from above. It will be blood and fire.

"General Guan, are you really not going to dig the embankment to release the water? It's a pity. When the flood comes, everything will stop. We don't need to fight, and the defense line of Xiaoai River will collapse." Wang Peng smacked his lips and said to Guan Xinglong decided to cross the river to attack instead of digging up the dammed lake upstream, feeling extremely strange. He worked so hard to block the Xiaoai River. Could it be that he just left it there and discarded it?
Guan Xinglong laughed loudly, "Of course it won't work, I just want to scare them."

"Scare them?" Wang Peng almost fell off his horse, and sent a whole battalion there, spending countless energy and money, just to scare them. Zhou Bin ran away with half of the Qinzhou soldiers.This is also equivalent to reducing a lot of resistance to Wang Peng's siege.

"It's just to scare them!" Guan Xinglong smiled smugly. "The drunken man doesn't care about the wine, he cares about the mountains and rivers." Shaking his head, Guan Xinglong actually dropped his words.

Wang Peng looked at Guan Xinglong suspiciously. He was Guan Xinglong's old subordinate. He naturally knew that although his chief was literate, he really didn't have much ink in his stomach. He really didn't understand why the old chief was so excited.

"Don't understand?" Guan Xinglong tilted his head, with a sly smile on his lips.

Wang Peng shook his head.

Guan Xinglong sighed, feeling a little regretful, it's like an extremely clever chef who spent all his time cooking a table of delicacies from mountains and seas, but unexpectedly met a guy whose taste buds have completely failed, he can't taste the taste at all, and naturally he can't feel it The chef's painstaking effort.

"At this time, Li Guo's main force is no longer in Wutou." Guan Xinglong suddenly said without thinking.The line of sight has crossed the Xiaoaihe city defense, looking at the continuous Qinling Mountains in the distance.

"Not in Wutou anymore?" Wang Peng was puzzled for a while, then suddenly came to his senses, "General, they go..."

Guan Xinglong nodded triumphantly, "The purpose of building a dam upstream is just to scare their people out. Otherwise, if our 1 people attack the opponent's Xiaoai River, which is guarded by more than [-] people, we will suffer no matter what we do! Then attack them, encircle them five times, we are one-on-one, if the opponent is not intimidated by our Dingzhou soldiers' unparalleled combat ability in field battles, it is not impossible to go out of the city to fight in the field. Surprise them, and we will fight them outside .”

At this time, Wang Peng had fully understood Guan Xinglong's combat intentions. He built a dam at Wutou to give the opponent the illusion that the Dingzhou army was about to flood the city, so the opponent had to abandon the city in order to preserve his strength and avoid being a fish. After the completion of the Wutou dam, Li Guo's infantry battalion had already left there, and secretly inserted behind the opponent. No wonder the general wanted to transfer Li Feng's cavalry battalion to Wutou, just to prevent Wutou from disappearing. The fact of Li Guo's infantry battalion was exposed. It is more than [-] miles away from Wutou. It takes several hours for the cavalry to come and go. When the opponent is convinced, withdrawal becomes inevitable. At this time, Wutou must be playing an empty city plan. At most, Li Guo left a very small number of people to guard the dam.

"The general is good at tricks, even I was deceived." Wang Peng looked at Guan Xinglong with admiration, his eyes were full of admiration, it turned out that the general used a trick to scare the snake.The Qinzhou army who had withdrawn from Xiaoaihe absolutely could not have imagined that on their way back, there would be a Dingzhou army waiting in full force, waiting for them to sneak in after setting up a trap!

Guan Xinglong pursed his mouth and said in his heart, it's too easy to lie to you kid.

"Of course you have to hide it from me. Otherwise, how could your Hengdao Battalion work so hard and fight bloody battles yesterday? Everything is to convince the opponent. Wang Peng, today's siege battle, You still have to do your best. You are here to fight against the remnants of the Xiaoaihe defense line for several weeks, while Li Guo is facing more than [-] Qinzhou soldiers. It is no easier than you. Annihilating them all at once, and letting that Zhou Bin escape with some people, it will be even more difficult for you to attack, so you must take down the Xiaoaihe defense line as soon as possible."

"General, if that's the case, why don't we just turn the water on and fuck it!" Wang Peng laughed. "It's not that the last general is afraid of death, but I feel sorry for you guys. The casualties in the siege battle are really heavy. I really hate the siege. It's better to be on the grassland. Everyone, set up a battle, you come and go , Whoever can't bear it, wins."

Guan Xinglong said indifferently: "I also hate siege operations, but there is no way, we may encounter more of this kind of siege operations in the future, if we can't even defeat the shabby city defense like Xiaoaihe, we will encounter those fortified cities in the future." Chenggubao, what should we do, take a detour? Yes, we can indeed release water to destroy the defense line of the Xiaoai River, but have you ever thought that it will destroy not only the defense line of the Xiaoai River, but also countless roads? , the flood is rushing all the way, the momentum is astonishing, will it alarm the other party, the other party is not a fool, don't he know how to run? When he runs, we can only watch from the other side of the river. The flood has destroyed the road If we want to chase, we can't pursue it, and Li Guoke, who is on the other side of the river, will suffer. What I want is to wipe out the opponent's vitality, not an empty Xiaoaihe defense line."

Wang Peng was startled, and thought to himself that this was the reason, "The general thought it all out, it's Wang Peng and Meng Lang."

Guan Xinglong smiled slightly, "It's good for you to be sympathetic to your subordinates, but Wang Peng, you have to learn to look at problems from a higher perspective, and don't just limit your eyes to your army. Otherwise, you can only be a A battalion general, but can't go to a higher place."

Wang Peng was apprehensive, "Thank you for your teaching, General, I will finally understand."

Guan Xinglong nodded, "It's good to understand. For a good general, you can't just read the book of war. General Guo Shanfeng taught his generals Xiong Dehai, Jiang Heiniu and others bit by bit in the battle. These people are now But they are all grown ups, and I hope that you, like them, can stand alone in the future."

"Yes, thank you General!"

"Let's start attacking. Remember, before Zhou Bin fled back, he had to capture Xiao Aihe's defenses or let the other side take the initiative to withdraw. Without the city defenses, even if the two of them met, in the field battle, a group of remnants defeated How can I stop my unparalleled Dingzhou army!" Guan Xinglong said.

Wang Peng nodded, "The last general is gone."

"You go, I'm here to support you."

After a night of silence, the war drums rang again suddenly, and the steel ropes of dozens of trebuchets were suddenly tightened. The city defense on the opposite side.After throwing a stone bullet, the throwing soldiers immediately turned the winch desperately to pull the throwing arm back, while other shirtless soldiers picked up the stone bullets and strode towards the trebuchet, throwing the stone bullets. The bombs are relocated.

The crossbow arrows on the eight-ox crossbow whizzed out with his characteristic whistling sound, and the tip of the spear shone coldly in the sun, and each crossbow arrow flying fast in the air had a very thin tail dragging on it. Pay attention, I really can't see it.Those are the steel wire ropes tied to the spear shaft, and the other ends of these steel wire ropes are tied to the crossbars, and the crossbars are connected to the horses through other equipment. At the end of the wire rope, there are four war horses waiting in full battle.

Dingzhou's long-range attack was irresistible, and the Qinzhou soldiers above the city defense could only shrink in the battle shed, or in a blind corner, waiting for the storm-like attack to pass as soon as possible.Waiting for the opponent's infantry to start attacking the city with ants. At that time, it will be the time when the sword will see blood and the gun will kill. Compared with now, the soldiers of Qinzhou are eager to fight the enemy face to face, instead of being passively beaten like this now. Can't fight back.

Hundreds of eight-ox crossbows did not fly to the top of the city, but penetrated deeply into the city walls. These city walls only used giant logs as piles, filled with mud and water stones in the middle, and connected the giant logs with cross-pieces. The upper mud, although it looks wide and tall, is not very strong. The powerful eight-ox crossbow flew over and nailed it to the wall, and immediately penetrated deeply.

Seeing the eight-ox crossbow piercing into the city wall, the cavalry who had been prepared for a long time immediately rode their horses and ran to the other side of the Xiaoai River. Straight, the front hooves of the horse under the knight's crotch stood up, took a few steps back, and then, under the heavy blow of the cavalry, stepped forward with great difficulty.

Under the pull of hundreds of wire ropes, the 100-meter-long city wall shot by the eight-ox crossbow shook, while the eight-ox crossbow suddenly retracted, and some crossbow arrows flew upside down, flying upside down for tens of meters in the air After that, it fell to the ground, and the barbs on the other crossbow bolts hooked on the main wooden posts of the city wall, and they made rattling noises under the desperate pulling of the horses.

"General, general!" A captain of the Qinzhou military academy held up his shield, rushed to a cave where soldiers were hiding, and shouted in panic at Zhou Zuxun.

"What are you panicking about? Did this little battle make you so panicked?" Zhou Zuxun cursed angrily.

"General, it's not good. The other party is tying a rope to the eight-ox crossbow arrow, trying to pull down our city wall. Now it can't hold it for more than 100 meters."

Zhou Zuxun was startled, stood up and ran out of the battle shed. The soldiers around him rushed forward holding their shields and surrounded him.

Standing on the city wall, Zhou Zuxun saw dozens of steel wire ropes stretched straight at a glance. Feeling the trembling of the city wall, Zhou Zuxun turned pale.

"Yes!" The former captain replied loudly.

"You, you, and you, lead your team, bring your saber, and follow me." The captain raised a saber and ran towards the precarious section of the city wall.

With a bang, a wooden stake finally couldn't withstand the strong pull, and broke from it. The four war horses on the opposite side suddenly neighed, and they spread their hooves happily and rushed out, losing the strength supported by the wooden stake. A section of the wall suddenly collapsed downwards. Although it did not cause any damage to the entire wall, everyone understood that since this method is effective, as long as it continues like this, the wall will sooner or later be destroyed by the opponent. Pull down.

A soldier from Qinzhou was lying on the city wall, slashing down with the saber in his hand, and with a bang, the extremely tight steel wire rope was cut off from it.Another group of Qinzhou soldiers followed closely, lying on the city wall, slashing at the wire rope with their knives.

Flying stones rained down on their heads, and the archers of the Hengdao Battalion, who had approached the city wall for a certain distance, drew their bows and fired arrows, shooting at these Qinzhou soldiers who had completely exposed their bodies to the outside.

The steel wire ropes were cut off one by one, and a Qinzhou soldier named Rope Cutting was shot off the city wall, or was hit by a stone bullet. In less than a stick of incense, dozens of steel wire ropes were cut off, and the Qinzhou soldiers paid the price. Forty or fifty lives were lost, and another twenty or thirty wire ropes successfully completed the task, and each of them broke the hooked stake.

The Ba Niu crossbow kept firing this kind of crossbow arrows with steel wire ropes, and the Hengdao Battalion under the command of Wang Peng also began to advance towards the place where the Ba Niu crossbow concentrated shooting. The archers kept pouring out arrow rain to cover the infantry advancing .

Seeing that the wooden stakes were broken, Zhou Zuxun knew that he had to give it a go. Otherwise, if the opponent continued to work like this, he would hardly survive even a day. The world-shaking Dingzhou cavalry will inevitably swarm in.Zhou Zuxun looked at the other side of the river. Rows of cavalry were holding the reins, sitting on the ground, looking at this side eagerly.

"The whole army goes to the city, counterattack." Zhou Zuxun yelled, "All trebuchets, eight-ox crossbows, full-scale shooting, targets, and siege infantry." Zhou Zuxun was helpless. I only have to be beaten. The ordnance I managed to save is completely disposable. After one round, it will inevitably incur a storm of blows from the opponent. I hope they can kill more opponents during the collapse. siege infantry.

Immediately behind the Xiaoaihe line of defense, a cloud of stone bullets shot at Wang Peng's siege infantry.The shields of all the infantry were lifted above their heads, and they were connected together with fasteners to form a huge tortoise shell to minimize the impact of the stone bullets per unit area. Even so, the stone bullets fell from a height of tens of meters When they came, the soldiers directly below still had their arms broken and fell to the ground. After a round of stone bombs, several blank areas appeared in Wang Peng's three infantry phalanx.

Wang Peng was unmoved, and without blinking his eyelids, he also walked forward. Under these turtle shells, a stone bomb just fell, just on his right side, and several soldiers fell in front of his eyes. Stepping over the bodies of these people, Wang Peng shouted: "Dingzhou Army, advance! Dingzhou Army, Wan Sheng!"

Thousands of siege infantry shouted in unison, the blank space was quickly filled, and the tortoise shell kept moving forward.

Standing under the banner of the Chinese army, Guan Xinglong looked at the countless human heads that suddenly appeared on the top of the city, and smiled coldly, "Destroy the opponent's trebuchet and eight-ox crossbow, and then exchange for stone bullets."

After several rounds of attacks by Dingzhou trebuchets, the long-range weapons of the Xiaoaihe defense line completely misfired. The throwers suffered heavy casualties, and the trebuchets were basically smashed into pieces of wood.On the other side, the throwers in Dingzhou saw that the opponent had completely lost their long-range suppression ability, so they immediately put bags of gravel wrapped in cloth or net bags on the trebuchet, pulled the trigger, and launched it.

The huge force lost the cloth bag or the net bag and shattered in the air, and the broken stones on the facade immediately flew in all directions. The broken stones covering the sky and the sun fell on the city like rain, and screams immediately sounded from the city. The stones were all selected, and they were all sharp-edged stones. When they were hit by the trebuchet, they flew around like shotguns, mercilessly killing and wounding the defenders on the city.

At this time, dozens of wooden piles were pulled out again, and a part of the city wall collapsed, and the fallen mounds of earth and stones formed a slope. Wang Peng led a sentry and frantically followed the A ramp rushed up.

Just now Zhou Zuxun was hit by a piece of gravel on his helmet. The huge force made him dizzy, and his helmet was also dented. He rushed up, and before he could think about it, he drew out his saber and roared, "Follow me!" and rushed towards the gap.

Under the city, the eight-ox crossbow had already turned in one direction, turning its attacking firepower to the other city wall.The trebuchet began to extend its range, mercilessly pouring gravel over the opponent's head.

"Kill!" Wang Peng, who rushed up, met Zhou Zuxun who rushed over with a saber at the top of the slope.

"Damn it, watch the stick!" Wang Peng roared, with several feathered arrows stuck in his body, he crushed Mount Tai, and the cooked copper stick slammed down with the sound of the wind.

(End of this chapter)