Da Wei Chun

Chapter 597
The defenders put on a desperate posture, shooting their bows and arrows extremely densely.

Several city crossbows were also launched one after another, and with a strange creaking sound, several crossbow spears were fired.

The power is stronger than the step bow, but it is also limited.

The shooting range can be over a hundred steps, and occasionally one or two is a little stronger, and you need to be lucky to hit one or two.But at most, it is to push the knight off the horse or knock the horse down, which will not cause casualties at all.

The reason is that the age of this thing can be traced back to when Li Chengzhi's grandfather Li Qi was in the army of Wuwei.Afterwards, Wuwei withdrew from the town and established a county, and this thing became useless.

But because it was a heavy weapon on the military register, it could neither be thrown away, nor dared to dismantle it, so the new county guard moved it into the arsenal, and the pile lasted for ten years, leaving it to eat ashes.

After Li Shao took office as the governor of Liangzhou last year, he checked the arsenal before digging it out, and asked the craftsmen to piece it together. Only seven or eight of the nearly fifty old crossbows were assembled.

But for ten years, even the iron has been corroded, not to mention the wood, how much power can it have?
To be able to shoot a crossbow spear and shoot it a hundred paces away is already a craftsman who is pedantic and has racked his brains.Li Shao could only be better than nothing, and put it on the city wall to strengthen his army.

……

Yuan Hui hid behind the crossbow, squinting his eyes with two slits, staring closely at the northwest direction.

But the more he looked, the more frightened he became.

Arrows rained like locusts, dropping down the city one wave after another.Although the formation of the enemy soldiers was very sparse, fortunately the rain of arrows was so dense that many of the former troops under the city had been shot like hedgehogs.From time to time, crossbow guns will be shot down, knocking down the enemy cavalry.

But the strange thing is that the enemy army did not fight back, such as throwing bows towards the city, and did not dodge, as if they had accepted their fate.

At worst, it's time to move the front line back to avoid the direct range of the defenders?
At this time, the west and north cities were already raining arrows, and even the carts and crossbows had been moved out, while the east and south cities remained on hold.If anyone is the enemy commander, he should also suspect that the defenders should break out westward or northward.

But the situation below the city is still the same at this time. The enemy general did not send an extra soldier from the east and south to the west and north cities for reinforcements, nor did they patrol behind the formation to intercept.

Yuan Hui couldn't figure it out: the enemy commander thought it was a suspicious strategy, or did he think that he had a chance to win and believed that it was a breakthrough in the city, no matter which side he came from, it was impossible to succeed?

Staring at the nameless pole in the enemy's rear line, with only a golden sun embroidered on it, Yuan Hui frowned more and more.

If it is really Li's trilogy, there must be firearms to help.But I looked around, and I didn't see the small stone cannons used to throw mines, and the oil tanks that I saw in the secret performances of the embroidered clothes envoy many times.

But can't wait any longer.

God knows where and how many reinforcements from the enemy have come?
With every extra moment, the hope of escaping the sky will be slimmed down.

That is to say, simply follow the plan?
That's all for the west city, if you leave the city by the north gate, you can escape across the Yellow River or escape to Bogulu.

At least you can avoid the enemy general...

Yuan Hui gritted his teeth fiercely, and shouted in a deep voice, "Su Pu!"

A general took two quick steps, clasped his fists in response, and said, "Mr. Shi!"

"Where is the Chinese army?"

"We have already gathered under the city, we just wait for Shi Jun's order!"

"Go, go to Beicheng!"

Yuan Hui took three steps in parallel and went down the city quickly.A group of personal guards followed closely behind, protecting him and rushing towards the North City.

……

"Prefect Xin, Mr. Shi has an order: order all the soldiers who can draw their bows in the west and north cities to move to the south city..."

Just now he made himself shoot non-stop, now it's only a few moments before he wants to switch to Nancheng again?

What kind of tricks is this Yuan Hui playing?
Xin Xiong was suspicious: "Su general, dare to ask Shi Junyu where?"

"It's in Nancheng, waiting for the prefect!"

"Then who is stationed here?"

"Of course it will be replaced by Mr. Shi!"

Su Pu pointed down the city, "When the two cities change defenses and the eunuchs attack the south city, the enemy in the north city will definitely relax. Then there will be a good opportunity to break through, and a certain one will lead a thousand armored cavalry straight to the enemy's formation.

Let the enemy's armor and shield be thick, but there are only more than a thousand, and if you want to besiege the city wall for four or five miles, how thick can the formation be?It will definitely be able to charge and collapse... When a certain breaks through, Shi Jun will take advantage of the chaos of the enemy and thieves to close the city gate..."

Xin Xiong looked down the city in the direction Su Pu pointed.It is exactly as he said, the city wall is only one wall and it is more than four miles long, and the enemy cavalry only has more than a thousand horses. No matter how sparse the formation is, how thick can it be?

It's also strange, I've never seen such a battle, did the enemy general never think that the defenders would send cavalry to break through?

Or does the enemy still think that Wuwei County is the same as in previous years, with no more than a thousand guards, few armors, and few horses, and only a few thousand cavalry can be trapped to death?
Xin Xiong guessed the formation of the enemy, but never thought that Yuan Hui would play tricks.As soon as he responded in a hurry, he hurriedly shouted and shouted at the archers on the city to move to the south city.

Seeing that no more arrows were thrown from the city, Li Zhang heaved a sigh of relief.

Although there is no damage yet, only dozens of injuries, but just the pressure of the rain of arrows and the shooting of the former army like hedgehogs makes people breathless.

It is also fortunate that the front line is all the old troops of Jingzhou, which can be said to be fierce soldiers in many battles. If it is replaced by the new army, or the third battalion of Hu cavalry, the formation will collapse long ago.

He hesitated for a while, and was about to change the defense of the army so that the former army could have a rest, when he suddenly heard a whistle from the south.

This was the meaning of ordering Li Zhang to be on strict guard. After passing the order, Li Zhang recalled Li Liang's confession, and couldn't help feeling tense: Is it possible that the defenders in the city are going to break through from the west and north gates at this time?

It's really possible.

Although the offensive of the defenders in the west and north cities only lasted half an hour, the arrows were thrown down as if they didn't want money.With this sudden pause, even himself, the chief general, couldn't help feeling relieved, let alone the soldiers under his command?

If I were to be the defender, I couldn't guarantee that I wouldn't suddenly break out of the encirclement when the enemy troops outside the city were relaxing...

With such suspicion in his heart, Li Zhang repeatedly ordered the front line not to act rashly and strictly guarded.

Then he concentrated again and looked into the city.

Today's Li Zhang, compared with two years ago, can be said to be on the top of the ladder, more than doubled.Looking at it, it really made him see some tricks.

There is only smoke and dust rising in the city, like a fog dragon, slowly floating up.If you distinguish carefully, it seems that from south to north, the more north you go, the thicker it is, and the south you go, it becomes lighter.

Li Zhang's face changed slightly, and he jumped off the horse like flying again, lying on the ground and listening for a few breaths.

This is clearly the dust stirred up by hundreds or even thousands of armored horses running past, and it looks like they ran from the south of the city to the north of the city.But there was no sound of horseshoes in the ears, indicating that the armored cavalry had already gathered at one place, near the north gate...

He turned up abruptly and shouted sharply: "Hurry up, put the Firearms Battalion on alert, the enemy will leave the city through the north gate..."

He followed without delay, raised the copper whistle and blew twice.The whistle turned two corners, and the order was clear and unmistakable, referring to the north gate.

The guards on the other side waved their banners fiercely, one as an aid to the sentry orders, and the other as a warning to Li Liang in the south city, indicating that the defenders should break through to the north.

Li Liang sat on the horse, looked at the smoke that had faded and there were almost no traces, and nodded slightly: Li Zhang has advanced by leaps and bounds, and now he is somewhat like a father.

"Send an order to order the East and South Battalions to prepare to break through!"

"promise!"

The confidant delivered the order in an orderly manner, but Li Xiaoyan, the deputy general, was a little puzzled: "Brother, what do you mean?"

His thinking was very simple: since Li Zhang warned the defenders that the defenders wanted to break through the northern formation, the gates of the northern city must be opened, even if the city was broken, they should also enter through the north gate, but why did Li Liang do the opposite?

"It can only be regarded as planning for a rainy day, and being prepared!"

Li Liang was not very sure, but murmured: "Mr. Pile, he is a death penalty.

But he was very good at making money, flattering Gao Ying, and he spared no expense in bribing Gao Zhao, Yuan Ying, Yuan Cheng and others, so that he was exonerated.How much backbone and blood can such a character have?
Yiliang thought that since he had seen through our origins, he knew that his fate was not long, and nine times out of ten he would ask death for words and brazenly break out of the encirclement.Yuan Hui could only get in with the armored cavalry that had broken through to survive.

Regardless of whether the soldiers and civilians in the city, or the officials of the state city, if they knew that Yuan Hui had abandoned the city and fled, would he have the heart to defend it?If Li Zhang can break through the North City, the South City will naturally be defeated, let alone surrender..."

I see?

Li Xiaoyan expressed his admiration.

But as soon as the words fell, they heard a drum beating from Beicheng.

Did the defenders really break out from the north gate?
……

Why did Li Liang prefer to brave the rain of locust arrows, but also to make the former army stick to a hundred steps below the city?
It's not just that you are afraid of being too far away and the formation is too sparse, which will leave a bigger gap, which will give the enemy an opportunity to take advantage of.

But the firing range of the fire crossbow is only a hundred steps, no matter how far it is, it is not enough to hit the top of the city and the city gate.

This is also one of the reasons why the former army is all Baijia old troops.

Because of the entire West Sea, now only the four thousand soldiers who followed Li Song to the west know how to use all kinds of firearms and mines.

At this moment, as soon as the city gate opened and the suspension bridge fell, a brigade of former troops raised their crossbows in unison and pointed at the city gate.

But they didn't fire the crossbow immediately, but after more than a hundred horsemen had rushed out of the city gate, the soldiers blew on the fire switch and ignited the fuse at the end of the fire crossbow.

The principle is very simple. In fact, a tube of gunpowder is tied to the crossbow bolt, but the weight is not light.One tube is worth a catty, so even a three-stone crossbow that shoots a hundred feet away can now shoot more than a hundred steps.

……

In just a few breaths, three or four hundred armored cavalry jumped out of the three gates, just in the middle of the half.Yuan Hui was both surprised and delighted to see that the enemy cavalry under the city were still in a sparse formation, neither stepped forward to intercept them, nor saw reinforcements from the enemy troops from other cities.

With this mere three-story cavalry formation, how can it stop a thousand armored cavalry from charging?
Of course, Yuan Hui also saw the crossbow machine held in the hands of the enemy soldiers, as well as the sparks and blue smoke ignited from the tail.

But his impression still remained on the step of the secret recipe presented by Li Chengzhi, thinking that all thunder weapons must be in the shape of a pot, which must be shaken before bombing the enemy and projected with a stone cannon.

What is shot with a crossbow is just a rocket.

Even the rockets are powerful, and they are like maggots attached to the bones, but how many arrows can they shoot in just a hundred steps?
Three or four hundred cavalry were killed or injured...

Yuan Hui took a deep breath and shouted sharply: "Let's join forces, Yafeng, kill..."

With an order, the three armored cavalry soldiers joined together and formed a push formation, aiming at a large arrow, slamming towards the north without going forward.

At the same time, Li Zhang violently waved his hand.A drum sounded, and hundreds of crossbows were fired.

The first round of one hundred crossbows were all firework shells, just to disrupt the enemy's formation.Just listening to the chaotic sound of "eat, eat, eat" and "cracking", seven or eight out of ten horses were startled immediately.

As soon as Yafeng picked up his horse speed, he was able to charge ten feet away, and there was no formation for thousands of riders.Hundreds of horses ran around like headless chickens.

The explosives were used in the second round, but what was shot was the rear of the enemy cavalry, that is, the place near the city gate and the suspension bridge.

Without it, it's just that the frightened horses no longer distinguish between the enemy and the enemy, fearing that they will hurt themselves after rushing over with bombs.

The reason why they shot at the rear was that the startled horses rushed halfway at most before the bomb exploded.The second is to take the opportunity to blow up the suspension bridge and the city gate, so that the defenders in the city cannot be closed.

After only three rounds, a thousand armored riders were already in a mess, not to mention horses, even people were frightened and flustered.

My ears are full of people roaring and neighing, and I can no longer hear the orders clearly.And because of the smoke and dust all around, I don't know the direction.

Yuan Hui's face was full of ferocity, and he kept slashing at the horse's butt with a knife.The war horse neighed in pain and kept charging forward, but the surroundings were either startled horses or chaotic soldiers, how could it be possible to rush out?
He only felt five thunderbolts, and there was only one thought in his mind: It's over?

Why is it never written in Li Chengzhi's secret recipe that firearms still have such usage?
With this sharp weapon, why didn't the generals of the Li family use it to attack the city as soon as they besieged the city?
And since using this thing is like stealing one's ears and stealing one's bell, one cannot hide its origin, so why bother the enemy commander to pretend to be Hu Qi?
Hearing a sudden explosion and feeling a shock in his ribs, Yuan Hui felt himself flying.

Endless pain hit the nerves like a tide, and when he was dying, Yuan Hui was like a blessing to his soul.

The reason why the enemy generals encircled and did not attack was clearly because they calculated that they would jump over the wall in a hurry and break out of the encirclement brazenly.

Since you can easily deceive the city gate, why do you need to force it?

The reason why he pretended to be Hu Qi was naturally to deceive the court.Presumably the enemy commander is [-]% sure that none of the soldiers and civilians in the city will escape, let alone leak any news.

Li Chengzhi, has turned his back...

With such a thought in his mind, Yuan Hui completely lost consciousness...

……

Five hundred crossbowmen only fired one round, one hundred fireworks and four hundred explosives defeated Yuan Hui's thousand armored cavalry.

The city is even more like a purgatory, with stumps everywhere and howling everywhere.

Li Zhang has seen this situation countless times, and it is already boring, and he has trained his nerves like steel.

He sat on the horse, standing a hundred feet away from the city gate, his eyes were like lightning, and he could have a panoramic view of the battle situation as much as possible.

Where there is a rout of soldiers escaping, he will give an urgent order to order the rear armored cavalry to surround and intercept them.Just like that, not a single fish that slipped through the net escaped.

The former army had stopped firing their crossbows, the smoke and dust gradually fell, and the eyes gradually became able to see.

The city gate and the drawbridge have long been blown to pieces, and the foot-deep moat has been filled more than half with human and horse corpses.The defenders on the city had long since disappeared.

Through the door opening, one can vaguely see the cavalry who have not left the city wandering around in the urn city, dare not enter, but have nowhere to retreat.

Haha, the defenders actually closed the inner city gate?
Li Zhang chuckled, and shouted loudly: "The front army is on guard, the rear army is filling the river!"

(End of this chapter)