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Chapter 815 Luoyang Offensive and Defensive Battle (3)

The key to a city offensive and defensive battle is how to take advantage of one's own geographical advantages. On this point, Zhang Mingwu obviously has a lot of experience. He didn't line up all the troops on the city wall, but only put a thousand soldiers on the city wall. However, [-] civilians were sent to the city to assist in the defense. Two civilians with long wooden forks stood next to the [-] shield swordsmen, and the rest were in the back row, ready to throw wood and rolling stones at any time. When the long ladder of King Deyue's army was thrown up to the top of the city, two strong men with wooden forks first resisted the long ladder with all their strength, twisted it hard, and easily pushed the long ladder down. The dead soldiers of the Yue King Army went up to the top of the city, while the rest of the [-] guards of the Eastern Palace who had originally set up a shield array put down their shields, and used serial crossbows to kill the densely packed officers and soldiers of the Yue King Army below the city. Min Zhuang stepped forward and threw wood and rolling stones, and the various ministries cooperated quite tacitly, so that the King Yue's army who rushed to the city suffered heavy casualties, but they couldn't even get to the top of the city.

"Ladder, go up, go up!"

Seeing the dead and wounded strikers, Gan Zhuangwu, who rode his horse and rushed to the bottom of the city, turned red-eyed immediately, roaring and urging the slow-moving siege ladder to move forward.

Li Zhen dared to delay the siege of the city under tremendous pressure, relying on sharp weapons such as the siege ladder, but saw that the [-]-foot-tall ladder had three floors, and the top floor was surrounded by three-foot-high baffles. Ten archers are densely packed. Relying on the advantage of being a lot higher than the city wall, they can easily suppress the defenders at the top of the city. The lower level is basically flush with the city wall. When you lean against the city wall, you can take advantage of the trend and rush up. As for the bottom layer, there is no one there when you march. Only after the ladder is close to the city wall, the soldiers who follow the ladder can rush into the bottom layer and rush up along the spiral passage on the bottom layer. The first two floors are to maintain the continuity of the attack. This kind of equipment is undoubtedly a sharp weapon in siege warfare. Of course, the siege ladder is not without flaws. People come to push it towards the city, but once it leans against the city wall, it can immediately exert tremendous power, which is beyond comparison.

"The oil bomb is ready, throw it!"

As soon as he saw the ladder rumbling, Zhang Mingwu couldn't help laughing, not for anything else, but because this big guy covered in rawhide and seemingly capable of setting fire met a kerosene bomb that was inflammable, and he was simply a dead target , is purely a role of giving credit. For this, Zhang Mingwu had already prepared for it. After the ladder drove unsteadily along the embankment and passed the moat, before it leaned against the city wall, Zhang Mingwu roared and gave the order.

"Boom, boom..."

At Zhang Mingwu's order, [-] strong men in the army threw the kerosene bombs with ignited fuses towards the giant siege ladder. Three people waited on one of them. The soldiers were shot and killed by the crossbowmen on the top of the ladder, but most of the kerosene bombs hit the target accurately, and the explosions hit the target again and again, and the fire broke out instantly, even though the officers and soldiers of the King Yue Army on the ladder fought desperately. Fighting, but they couldn't suppress the fire, instead they caught fire, but after a while, the siege ladders that had finally approached the city wall were all burned into huge torches, and the soldiers on top Unable to be burned, You Ruo jumped down like a dumpling. Not only did he die, but what was even worse was that the fire was directed to the officers and soldiers in the city, and the whole city was in chaos.

"pour oil!"

Although Gan Zhuangwu's troops under the city were in chaos, Zhang Mingwu didn't intend to let it go, but he waved his hand with a smirk and roared again, and his own soldiers who had already prepared rushed to the city carrying oil drums. At the plate, the hot oil that had just been boiled was poured down without hesitation, and in just a moment, the whole city was a sea of ​​flames, and the poor nearly five thousand soldiers of the Yue king who rushed to the city were burnt to the ground, crying and howling, and rushed out of the sea of ​​flames , the ten pavilions have already lost more than seven pavilions, and only a thousand remnants escaped back to the main formation by luck.

"Attack, attack again, don't stop!"

Looking at the raging fire below the city, Li Zhen's smug ambition instantly vanished, she was dumbfounded at first, then suddenly trembled, and roared from embarrassment to anger, really out of breath.

When Li Zhen lost his temper, even though Li Su, who was ordered to attack the second wave, was afraid, he didn't dare to bite the bullet. It's just that he had learned his lesson this time, and he didn't dare to use the cumbersome siege ladder again. He directly leaned against the city wall, but put all the ten ladders under his command on the side of the moat to be used as arrow towers, and the task of rushing to the city was handed over to the three thousand infantry who carried the long ladders to rush to the city. The pressure on the defenders suddenly increased a lot, and the casualties also began to increase gradually, especially Min Zhuang, who was not covered by armor, was shot and killed by the crossbowmen on the ladder to the city. The side that favors the Yue King's army is tilted.

"Change to heavy bullets, target: rushing to the city ladder, let it go!"

Seeing that his side was gradually becoming passive under the pressure of the ladder to rush to the city, Fang Xiaoshan, who was in charge of commanding the catapult on the top of the city, became anxious. Min Zhuang, who was operating the trebuchet, picked up huge stone marbles one after another, and quickly adjusted the throwing angle of the trebuchet. Amid the sound of slogans, each of them was two times bigger than before, weighing more than a hundred Stone bombs weighing [-] kilograms soared into the sky, crossed the city wall with a parabolic trajectory, and slammed into the city ladder beside the moat. After more than ten rounds, most of the ladders lined up by the king's army of Yue were finally destroyed. Although the remaining three ladders were still in good condition, the crossbowmen on them were defeated by the defenders' catapults. Terrified, no matter how much the officers yelled at them, they refused to go up the ladder to die again. The Yue Wang Army's originally smooth attack momentum fell into a stagnation state again, and they could only rely on the long ladder to fight to the death. , Gradually I can't stand it anymore.

At noon in the battle, Li Su lost more than half of his troops. Seeing that the fortified city was hard to fall, his morale was completely lost. He had to retreat back to the main line in embarrassment. The second round of strong attack ended in failure. , but the state and results are obviously much better than the first round. Not to mention killing and injuring hundreds of people, even the mighty guards of the East Palace suffered more than two hundred casualties, which made the King Yue army suffer even more. What is encouraging is that the troops rushing to the city have killed the top of the city several times. Although they failed to gain a firm foothold and were killed by the defenders, at least the King Yue army saw a glimmer of hope for victory.

"Father, my son, please order to rush to the city. If you don't destroy this city, you will not withdraw your troops!"

Seeing that the two groups of attacking troops returned in disastrous defeat, Li Chong couldn't hold back any longer, so he stepped forward immediately, bowed his body, and called for the battle loudly.

"Okay, my son dares to fight, for my father, I should personally beat the drums to cheer for my son!"

Although the number of troops lost in the two battles has exceeded [-], Li Zhen did not soften his heart, because in the previous battle, he had already seen the hope of victory, and he was thinking about who to send for the third wave Going into the battle, seeing the eldest son so boldly pleading for his life, he was overjoyed, clapped his hands, and promised in relief.

"My son obeys!"

Li Chong has always regarded Li Xian as his imaginary enemy, and he always dreamed of defeating Li Xian on the battlefield. Now that he finally had the opportunity to compete with Li Xian, he was very excited. The horse rushed back to the main formation, gave an order, and the [-] elites to which it belonged began to press forward.

"Dong dong dong..."

As soon as Li Chong's subordinates moved, Li Zhen, who was very excited, took off his helmet, held two drumsticks, and beat the drum vigorously. Amidst the rumbling drums, the horns blasted mournfully. , the fighting spirit soared to the sky for nine days.

"Go, ask Wang Fangming to send all the cloth bags I gave to the city!"

Seeing that it was Li Chong who was leading his troops out, Li Xian frowned involuntarily, and when he took a closer look at his military appearance, he immediately judged that this group of troops was definitely the most elite troops in Xiangzhou's army. He ignored it, waved his hand, and shouted, the guards who were waiting on his side hurriedly agreed, ran down the city gate in a hurry, and went to summon Wang Fangming without mentioning it.

Li Chong's troops rushed quickly, and the tactics were still the same as Li Su's before. The difference was that Li Chong had as many as 1000 ladders for the city, and his troops were more powerful than Li Su. The number of troops was significantly higher. Even though Zhang Mingwu had deployed a reserve team of [-] people, and the catapult positions were firing endlessly, it was still difficult to completely contain the wave after wave of Li Chong's troops. Bo's strong attack exposed several flaws in the city defense. At the end of the battle, Li Chong's troops stood on the top of the city for the first time. Dozens of brave men desperately guarded the two long ladders at the breakthrough to cover The follow-up troops frantically rushed to the top of the city along the breakthrough, and the situation was already quite dangerous for the defenders.

"Okay, go up, follow up, go to the city to kill, if anyone kills Li Xian, he will be rewarded with ten thousand guan, and he will be made a ten thousand household lord!"

Li Chong was originally commanding at a place about a hundred steps away from the city. Seeing that his soldiers had already established themselves on the top of the city, he was 12 excited. He shouted and ordered a heavy reward, as if the city had been completely conquered by him.

"Your Majesty, I have brought the cloth pouch, Your Majesty please let me know!"

The fierce battle on the top of the city was in full swing, but Li Xian remained unmoved, standing like a mountain at the city gate, except for occasional shots to push away the shooting arrows, he never interfered with Zhang Mingwu's actions at all. Commander, even though King Yue's army had already occupied a small section of the city wall, Li Xian still stood there calmly, as if nothing had happened, until Wang Fangming led several servants to rush over under the arrows, Li Xian's expressionless face There was just a faint smile on his face...

(End of this chapter)