Horse on the World

Chapter 997 Advance, Dingzhou soldiers ([-])

"Attack like thunder, defend like a rock!" Li Qing was very satisfied with the performance of the Dingzhou Army's Fengli Division and the Stormy Bear Camp in today's two battles, especially at night when they cleanly captured the soldiers who came to steal the camp. Tens of thousands of enemy troops were routed and trailed behind the opponent's defeated troops, captured several positions along the way, and advanced about a mile and a half. Compared with the battle during the day, the battle at night was not only easy , and the results are also very large.

"Starting tomorrow, the other three cities will also start attacking at a certain intensity, so that Luoyang City cannot form large-scale reinforcements to Zhan Degong's side. In this way, it will be beneficial for Zhan Degong to control the entire southern city." Li Qing Pointing at the map behind him, he said.

"Yes!" All the generals said excitedly. Although I have achieved good results today, I am not the one who stands out in the limelight. Tomorrow, all fronts will attack at the same time, and they must maintain a certain intensity. If I accidentally take the lead in Nancheng Yes, then I'm sorry, we'll take care of this trick.

"Guo Quan, Wei Xin, give us two days to take down the outer positions in Nancheng and break through to the moat." Li Qing looked at the two generals.

"I promise to arrive on time!" The two generals hurriedly stood up.

Beginning on the eighth day of September, hundreds of thousands of Dingzhou troops began to attack from all sides. Gunpowder and smoke rose from the outskirts of Luoyang. Although they tried their best to stop them, it was still difficult to resist the advance of the Dingzhou army. Seeing that the peripheral defenders were really resisting Unable to stop the strong attack of the Dingzhou Army, Luoyang City began to consciously shrink its forces, withdrawing its forces step by step to Luoyang City, and began to give up the outer defense.And prepare to use the tall and steep city walls of Luoyang City to resist.

Nancheng was the first to abandon the outer positions. At noon on September [-], the Dingzhou Army's Fengli Division Wang Zhenbu had already pushed beyond the moat.

The sandbags piled up like a mountain outside the city made people feel trembling. They were prepared by the Dingzhou Army to fill up the moat. The moat in Luoyang was more than [-] meters wide. Being completely destroyed, if the Dingzhou Army wants to rush through the moat and directly attack Luoyang City, the first step is to break through the moat.

After inspecting the defenses on the outer city, when Zhan Degong returned to his residence, he saw Xie Ke sitting in the room with a smile on his face. Going to the door, he blamed and said: "What are you doing here? Are you not afraid of arousing suspicion?"

Xie Ke chuckled, "I'm the servant of the Ministry of Industry, but this time I'm here to inspect the defensive facilities in the city for the purpose of deploying supplies. I didn't just come here casually."

Zhan Degong breathed a sigh of relief, and sat beside Xie Ke, "When will we do it?"

"Just tonight!" Xie Ke said with his head held high.

Zhan Degong was surprised, "Tonight? Even if I open the city gate here, how do you cross the river? The moat is more than [-] meters wide, how do you cross the river on a large scale?"

"This is a simple matter for us!" Xie Ke said: "You just need to open the city gate at the third watch tonight. After the city gate is opened, your task is to restrain your troops and let them grow old. Just stay there honestly."

"The south gate city is broken, and the other sides will definitely mobilize troops to counterattack immediately. Without my army, can you hold the city?" Zhan Degong asked doubtfully.

"General Zhan's contribution to the Kaicheng Uprising has been great enough, you must give some soup to the Dingzhou generals outside, otherwise you will arrange everything, and the outside generals will have no credit to take, and they will inevitably hold grudges against you. "Xie Ke said half-truthfully.

I know that the other party must have other arrangements, and I can't say whether to take credit for it. If I don't use my own soldiers to fight, then of course it is good. The soldiers under my command are all locals, and they are very familiar with Guo Fengxian's army. They really turned against each other. , it's really hard to say what the result will be?

"At the middle of the night, the gate of the South City, the three small gates will open at the same time." Zhan Degong said.

The [-] soldiers of the Tiger Battalion were quietly lurking in the darkness. Apart from weapons, they also carried a large number of things ready to cross the river.

Just after the second watch, at the appointed place in the city, a burning incense head drew three circles in the air, and Qian Duo, who had already lost his temper, jumped up and roared, "Cross the river!"

The soldiers of the Tiger Battalion jumped up and rushed towards the moat. The first ones to rush to the river were soldiers carrying wooden cages. Dragging these cages, the soldiers jumped down the river without hesitation.

The soldiers behind rushed forward one after another, either hugging or carrying iron pillars one by one.With the sound of Kaka, the iron pillars were placed on the cage one by one. In an instant, the two iron pillars connected the two banks. The soldiers behind rushed up holding the iron plates and put the iron plates on On the cage, rivets one after another quickly riveted the iron pillars and iron plates on the cage together.

At the same time, there are seven or eight groups working on the same job at the same time.

As the three nearby were pushed together by the soldiers of the Tiger Battalion and riveted tightly, a pontoon bridge about ten meters wide appeared on the moat.

On the city, Zhan Degong stared dumbfounded at the Dingzhou soldiers below the city who built several floating bridges on the moat in less than a stick of incense, and the first batch of infantry had already rushed across the bridges. .

The gate of the city was already wide open. Seeing the soldiers from the Tiger Battalion rushing into the city, Xie Ke smiled and turned to Zhan Degong, "General Zhan, why don't we both go and have a few drinks?"

Zhan Degong smiled wryly, "Is there anything else I can do? Let's go and have a few drinks." Xie Ke laughed and took Zhan Degong's hand, and they left together.

The Tiger Battalion quickly took over Nancheng. Outside the city, the sound of horseshoes could be heard overwhelmingly. The first to leap into the city was the Changsheng Battalion, the emblem of Dingzhou.

The Tiger Battalion ran up the city wall and quickly controlled the key points. All the crossbows, crossbows and other weapons aimed at the outside of the city were switched in one direction. Seeing the cavalry of the Changsheng Battalion leaping into the city, Qian Duo laughed loudly, " Come on, send a signal, the other three directions can attack!"

With a bang, a firework flew into the sky, and bloomed into a beautiful flower in the sky.

The ministries of Dingzhou, which had already been prepared, launched an attack on Luoyang City almost at the same time.

Guo Fengxian was awakened by the sound of war drums in his dream. He had been busy all day and had just rested. In a daze, he jumped up, and the soldiers rushed into the room, "General, set State troops are on the offensive."

When Guo Fengxian rushed to the top of the city, he saw the attacking formation of the Dingzhou army, and immediately took a deep breath. The opponent was launching a general attack. He was holding his head high, aiming at the top of the city, while the infantry were carrying steel beams and wooden cages one by one, and fell towards the moat.

The steel knife in Yang Yidao's hand fell heavily.

"Fire, the general attack begins!"

"fire!"

Before the battle, hundreds of Shenwei cannons burst into flames at the same time, and a deafening bang resounded through the night sky.

"Be careful, general!" The soldiers behind him rushed up and threw Guo Fengxian to the ground. Several people pressed on him, and the shells fell on the city wall, sweeping away everything they touched. A whole layer was cut off in a moment.Guo Fengxian felt a warm liquid flow down the back of his head, he reached out his hand to touch it, and brought it to his eyes, it was blood.Several soldiers lying on him got up and dragged the other one away. A broken spear was inserted into the man's head, and if he leaned a little lower, he would stab Guo Fengxian to death on the spot.

"General, get down quickly!" A soldier shouted: "The horse will have a second round of bombing."

Guo Fengxian pushed away his own soldiers and rushed to the edge of the city wall, ignoring the shells flying over his head again. He opened his eyes wide and watched the Dingzhou soldiers rushing over under the cover of artillery fire quickly build an iron bridge on the moat. In this short moment, their bridge has extended to the center of the moat.

"Fight, prepare to fight!" Guo Fengxian roared loudly.

Seeing Guo Fengxian standing by the wall, the Luoyang soldiers who were about to turn back to find a place to hide took courage again, turned back, operated the eight-ox crossbow, and the catapults began to attack the Dingzhou soldiers who were crossing the river.

With the bombardment of Shenwei cannons, the city suffered heavy losses, but because Guo Fengxian insisted on standing on the front line, the Luoyang soldiers behind still rushed to the top of the city despite the artillery fire, desperately attacking the soldiers crossing the river.

Dingzhou soldiers in the river began to suffer large-scale casualties.Whenever there was a gap between the artillery bombardment, the Luoyang soldiers stood up and poured arrow rain down the city desperately.

"General, General Guo, it's not good!" A general scrambled over and ran over, lying beside Guo Fengxian, and shouted: "The south city is broken, the south city is broken!"

"What did you say, what's wrong with Nancheng?" Guo Fengxian asked loudly amidst the sound of roaring artillery fire.

"The south city is broken, and the Dingzhou army has entered the city!"

Guo Fengxian was stunned for a moment, "What are you farting? Even if the opponent has the mighty cannon, Luoyang City can be breached so easily."

"The opponent did not break it!" The general cried: "Zhan Degong surrendered, he opened the city gate, Dingzhou cavalry entered the city, and the large-scale cavalry is cutting off the communication channel between us and other friendly troops! "
"Zhan Degong surrendered?" Guo Fengxian stared blankly at the other party. At this time, in the gap between the roar of shells, he could vaguely hear the sound of thunderous hoofbeats in the city, and the slogan of Dingzhou Army Wansheng was even louder. is clearly audible.

The fingernails were deeply embedded in the palm of the hand, and blood was immediately pinched out. I don't know which ancestor once said that if Luoyang was breached, it must be broken from the inside. For thousands of years, this has really become An iron rule, once again fulfilled today.

"Retreat, retreat to the imperial city!" Guo Fengxian roared, striding down the city.

The Dingzhou army under the city obviously also knew the news that the city had been broken, so they rushed to the iron bridge that had been built, rushing across the river.

(End of this chapter)