At the end of Qin, I became a son of the plane

Chapter 174, the difficult-to-open grain road and the Qin army’s response.

But Cao Xing also understood that Han Xin was under the greatest pressure here, so he thought for a while and said, "If I don't have 10, I will give you 5 long arrows at most. You must also fight the battle well for me. Don't waste every long arrow!"

Han Xin said happily: "No!"

"Beat the war drum and suppress the voices of the enemies on the opposite side! The sound is so small, you think we are afraid of them. When did our Han army fear the Qin army?" Cao Xing roared.

"Dong dong dong!" Violent drumming suddenly sounded over Xiuwu County.

When the Han soldiers heard this voice, they felt their blood boiling, the voice was full of strength, and their spirits were lifted.

The war drummers on both sides continue to increase their strength to suppress the other side. From this moment on, the prelude to the war is about to begin.

The Qin army's military formation stayed at the 300-step position of Xiuwu City, waiting for the general's order.

Meng Tianfang looked at Meng Tian and said, "General, please give me an order?"

Meng Tian said calmly: "You are the commander-in-chief of the army, and it is up to you to issue orders."

"Raise your shield!" Han Xin shouted when he saw this scene.

The Qin army shot arrows at the city wall like a rainstorm.

A large number of Han soldiers on the city wall were shot by long arrows because they failed to escape in time or were unlucky. They shouted in fear to relieve their pain. For a time, there were countless wailing sounds on the city wall.

However, the Han army still had a large number of long arrows in their hands. After losing their suppression, Wang Jin and the crossbowmen began to shoot at the Qin soldiers under the city. The distance was closer under the city, and the lethality of the crossbows was even more powerful. Although there was sand and dust blocking it, But the hit rate didn't drop much.

However, the accuracy of the Han army's crossbows was extremely high. Almost every 10 long arrows could hit a Qin army. However, the effect was not very good when heavy rains flooded the Qin army.

At this time, the soldiers of the Qin Army's archery battalion also shot more than 3 long arrows for three consecutive rounds. The long arrows in their hands were exhausted and they began to retreat. This is the disadvantage of coverage shooting. It consumes a lot of long arrows, and all the archers' long arrows can be shot in three rounds.

The crossbow arrows on the wall of Xiuwu kept shooting at the Qin soldiers. Some of the Qin soldiers were hit by arrows and fell down. They screamed and rocks whizzed down. The Qin army's screams filled the entire battlefield.

"shoot!"

After attacking for more than an hour, the army suffered hundreds of casualties, which was already close to 10% of the casualties of the soldiers in the front camp. With such tragic casualties, the enemy's walls were not even touched.

When the sand fell down, there was suddenly dust flying under the Xiuwu County city wall, and nothing could be seen clearly.

As Meng Tianfang's order was issued, the soldiers of the Qin Army's crossbow battalion slowly approached Xiuwu's city wall with neat steps. After marching to a distance of 100 steps, the army changed from a column to a horizontal formation. Then all the archers set up their bows and pointed their long arrows at Xiuwu City, in a state of excitement.

But on the battlefield, after all, the number of Qin army's archers far exceeded the number of Han army's crossbows. The Han army was quickly suppressed and could not raise its head.

"Throw down the sand so that the enemy can't see anything!" The Han soldiers poured down the bamboo baskets one by one. The bamboo basket is full of steamed and dried fine sand.

Meng Tianfang immediately ordered loudly: "The crossbowmen of the left camp suppressed the enemy's firepower. After Xiuwu was suppressed, the soldiers of the front camp quickly charged to attack the city! The rear camp was on standby, ready to assist the front camp in attacking the city. The right camp was on guard to prevent the enemy. Raid!"

"Kill!" The soldiers from the front camp of the Qin Army took this opportunity to rush towards the Xiuwu County wall with their ladders, and then hung dozens of ladders on the city wall.

Xu Fan adheres to the principle that professional people do professional things. The crossbowmen under the Han army, except when they need to cover and suppress the enemy, most of the time the crossbowman is the one who can shoot the most accurately to kill the enemy.

Looking at these soldiers getting taller and taller, the sound of the war drums became more and more intense. These war drums encouraged the Qin soldiers and encouraged them to climb this damn city wall.

Meng Tian nodded slightly with satisfaction. This arrangement was extremely rigorous. Although the city may not be conquered, there were no gaps and there would be no chance of being surprised by the enemy.

"Qin people are like archery targets. This is so good for shooting! Pull the bowstring faster! Shoot faster, brothers, don't let these Qin people escape." Wang Jin shouted excitedly.

"Shhhhhh!"

After rushing to the city wall, the soldiers of the Qin army began to spread out in teams. Among them were the counterattack archers to suppress fire on the city wall, the shield soldiers guarding the soldiers to block the crossbow arrows fired from the city wall, and the assault team at the rear. One by one, these soldiers climbed up the ladder, holding a short sword in one hand and a shield in the other. The city wall quickly climbed to a height of 2-3 feet.

The Han army's crossbows had a high hit rate because the shooting method was completely different from the Qin army's.

"Puff, puff, puff!" The archers of the Qin Army fell to the ground one by one, and the wailing sounds of the Qin Army soldiers could be heard endlessly.

The Han troops on the city wall kept throwing stones the size of heads and huge trees with sections at the Qin soldiers.

Meng Tian, ​​who had been watching the movements of the Han army in Xiuwu County under the city wall, soon discovered that the enemy's crossbowmen had wrong shooting frequency and hit rate. After careful observation for a long time, he discovered that the crossbowmen who appeared near the female wall were the same person. After thinking for a moment, he figured out the reason.

In Meng Tian's opinion, being able to formulate reasonable tactics can be regarded as a qualified general, and those who can innovate tactics are famous generals, and the rebels on the opposite side have already become famous generals for their innovations in bow and crossbow tactics.

In the Han army, crossbowmen were organized into units. The soldier with the most accurate archery was the main crossbowman. During battle, he specialized in shooting arrows to kill the enemy. Don't think about other things, but there will be a strong soldier beside the crossbowman to protect the crossbowman as a shield soldier. The remaining three people are responsible for pulling the bowstring of the crossbow. Generally, such a shooting unit has between 3 to 5 crossbows and is equipped with 200 long arrows. Under this streamlined operation where everyone performs their own duties, the shooting frequency is several times faster than that of archers, and the hit rate is higher.

Meng Tian, ​​who was at the rear of the battlefield, had a solemn expression on his face when he saw the Qin army's tragic casualties.

Two of Han Xin's soldiers protected Han Xin with shields.

Especially when Wang Jin and the others aimed their crossbow arrows at the Qin soldiers climbing the ladder, almost every Qin soldier would be shot dead by crossbow arrows before they even got close to the top of the city wall. Countless Qin soldiers were wailing below the city.

"Pull the wounded down to rescue. Wang Jin, are you dead? Hurry up and fight back for Nai Gong!" Han Xin said angrily.

"My eyes!" The most miserable ones were the Qin soldiers at the top of the city wall. Not only were they disgraced by the sand, but several of them were unlucky enough to have sand get into their eyes and fall down the ladder to their death.

Then he was a little surprised and said: "This rebel general really has some potential to become a famous general."

Originally he was a relatively aloof person, but after several days of fighting and under the tremendous pressure of war, he became a reckless man who spoke dirty words.

"Dong dong dong!" Qin Jun's drummer increased the frequency of beating to boost the morale of his troops.

"Throw stones!" Han Xin shouted.

Wang Jin shouted: "Arrowmen, shoot in the direction of the Qin army's archery camp!"

"Boom, boom, boom!" Crossbow arrows were also shot out one after another in Xiuwu City. Compared with the average and neat arrow rain of the Qin army, the Han army's crossbow arrows were extremely scattered. Each one was out of scale and the number was extremely rare. It was a bit like a sparse spring rain. It looked powerless and could not intimidate people. .

"Ta-ta-ta!" The arrow rain roared like a huge black cloud, and the long arrows were like wind and thunder, nailing hard on the Xiuwu city wall, the arrow tower, and the soldiers' shields. Different things make different sounds because of the impact, but the common thing is that these sounds are so terrifying.

"understood!"

After receiving the order, the messengers immediately rushed to each battalion to convey Meng Tianfang's order.

Meng Tianfang ordered: "Order the front camp to retreat and the rear camp to catch up. The archers and others will continue to suppress the rebels on the city wall and give the rear camp soldiers an opportunity to attack the city."

"Dang, Dang, Dang!" Ming Jin's voice came, and the soldiers of the Qin Army who had already suffered heavy casualties fled here one after another!

"Dong dong dong!" Soon the sound of war drums sounded again, and the soldiers of the Qin army in the rear camp approached the city wall with solemn steps.

"Boohoo!" The Qin army's archers once again covered the top of the Xiuwu City wall with rain of arrows.

"Raise your shield and hide!" Han Xin ordered loudly.

Shield Soldiers raise their shields to protect their comrades. Under the protection of their comrades, Wang Jin and others quickly counterattacked the Qin army's rain arrows, constantly shooting the Qin army rushing towards the city wall.

But after all, the Qin Army had a large number of archers, so Wang Jin and the others were eventually suppressed. The Qin Army soldiers quickly advanced to the city. Braving the dense rain of arrows, the soldiers climbed onto the ladders set up by their robes and continued to climb. A dozen Qin soldiers around were pressing the roots of the ladder to make it firm. The other soldiers held their shields high and guarded both sides of the ladder. The Qin soldiers each performed their duties to protect the safety of their own robes.

"Dong dong dong!" The fierce war drums resounded across the battlefield again.

The siege soldiers of the Qin army were like beasts breaking out of their cages, launching continuous attacks on Xiuwu City in order to completely conquer the city wall.

Han Xin shouted loudly: "Soldiers, kill the enemy!"

The soldiers of the Han army were full of morale and shouted: "Kill the enemy!"

The battle reached its most intense level. Soldiers from both sides fought over the distance of the city wall. The defenders began to hit the Qin soldiers with stones, roll huge logs, shoot with arrows, and anything that could be used as weapons. The Qin soldiers suffered heavy losses. After that, he kept screaming and fell to the foot of the city wall.

The siege battle has entered a fierce stage. Arrows from both sides are flying, but mainly the long arrows of the Han army. The Qin army suppresses the Han army with arrow rain. The long arrows in their hands have been consumed. Now only the Wang army leads the crossbow soldiers on the battlefield. , constantly harvesting the lives of Qin soldiers.

On the wall of Xiuwu County, stones were thrown at the Qin army one by one, and rows of giant trees rolled rapidly along the ladder towards the Qin army, severely injuring the Qin soldiers below the ladder.

The soldiers of the Qin army were either shot to death by long arrows or knocked away by giant trees, and soon died. Soon the corpses of the Qin army were scattered everywhere under the Xiuwu city wall. The injured Qin soldiers were also wailing, and their wailing voices continued to weaken. The fighting will of Qin soldiers.

Although the soldiers behind were still taking turns to attack the Xiuwu City Wall, they were already bluffing. As long as they saw stones or giant trees, they would immediately flee from the city wall. The Qin soldiers fighting behind them did not even have the top of the city wall. After boarding, the soldiers were also in a state of dispersing. Although it is shameful to catch fish on the battlefield, it can save your life. Instead of climbing the city, it is better to hide behind the shield to resist the enemy's crossbows.

"Ming Jin, please withdraw your troops. Morale has been lost and the soldiers have no will to fight. If we continue to attack, it will be a waste of soldiers' lives." Meng Tian said with a solemn expression.

Meng Tianfang originally wanted to show off in front of Meng Tian, ​​but ended up losing face. However, he did not dare to disobey Meng Tian's order and could only order the troops to retreat.

"Dang, Dang, Dang, Dang!" Ming Jin's voice reached the battlefield, and the Qin soldiers retreated quickly like a tide.

Although this was only a short confrontation, Meng Tian could already see that the rebels were extremely determined to defend the city and that their weapons were extremely abundant. In particular, the enemy's number of long arrows actually exceeded that of Da Qin. During the siege, the rebels' The crossbow arrows never stopped. If he hadn't seen it with his own eyes, Meng Tian wouldn't have believed it was true.

But as a veteran, Meng Tian understands that it is difficult to break through a well-equipped city like Xiuwu City, and it will pay an extremely heavy price. There are tens of thousands of rebels in the entire Hanoi County, even if Meng Tian releases the 5 Even if all the elites were polished, it might not be possible to open up the connection with Ao Cang. Meng Tian had already planned to find another way.

In Xiuwu City, the Han soldiers repelled the Qin attack again, and the soldiers cheered to vent their joy.

"Order the civilians to clean the battlefield and transport the wounded down for treatment!"

Under Han Xin's order, a large number of civilians climbed onto the city wall. They cleaned up the blood stains, collected useful weapons such as long arrows, and brought the wounded to the medical room for treatment.

On the city wall, Han Xin saw Sima Supervisor Lu Wan who was counting the wounded and asked: "How are the casualties this time?"

"Sixty-two people were killed and 47 were slightly or seriously wounded."

"One-tenth of the casualties." Han Xin calculated: "The Qin army attacked very fiercely today!"

This is the first time such heavy casualties have occurred.

Sima Supervisor Lu Wan said: "But we killed more than a thousand Qin soldiers, which is also a great achievement."

Han Xin said: "Find strong men from among the civilians to fill the gaps in our army!"

Lu Wan said: "No!"

Han Xin has been doing this kind of thing. At first, it was because he only had 1000 soldiers in Xiuwu City. He was worried that the military strength was not enough, so he had been training the young men in the city and used them as reserves at any time to supplement the troops.

Later, when Cao Xing reinforced Xiu Wu, Han Xin only had to guard one city wall, but he found that the additional soldiers could quickly integrate into the army, so he kept using this method to replenish soldiers, because he understood that the war had just begun. The soldiers in his hands were consumed too much, and he would not have a share in the subsequent war.

Han Xin continued to ask: "How many long arrows were consumed today?"

Lu Wan said: "More than 4 pieces!"

Han Xin immediately shouted angrily: "Wang Jin!"

"No!" Wang Jin didn't know what was going on, so he ran over and said.

"You're a prodigal, you've consumed more than half of our army's inventory in one go."

Wang Jin was unconvinced and said: "The Qin army attacked so fiercely today. The city wall was scaled by them. I don't know how many brothers will die by then. Sima, don't you often say that if you can use up crossbows, use less soldiers? Now you blame me for using up crossbows." Da, if we hadn't shot quickly today, our brothers would have suffered at least half more casualties. It's really easy for you to shoot hundreds of long arrows in a row."

Han Xin also understood that Wang Jin was right. The Qin army launched an army of 20,000 to attack the city. Without the powerful use of crossbows and arrows, several times more people would have died here today. He just wanted to vent his anger.

He thought for a while and said: "Lu Jianjun, go to the rear and ask the civilians to help make more long arrows. Tell them that we have few crossbow arrows, and we have to use our lives to fill them. They don't want their relatives to die on the battlefield." .”

Cao Xing not only supported with troops, but also brought some blacksmiths, carpenters and lathes' equipment, mainly to repair weapons such as long arrows. Just like the long arrows on the battlefield, they can still be used as long as the arrowheads are knocked flat.

"promise!"

The main tent of the Qin army.

Meng Tianfang showed today's losses to Meng Tian. When Meng Tian saw that there were more than 1500 casualties recorded on it, he was also shocked. Although he had a premonition that there would be many casualties today, he did not expect that there would be so many.

He could feel the sharpness of the rebel crossbows. Although there were only a few hundred crossbowmen, their shooting frequency was extremely fast and their hit rate was extremely high. It was much more efficient than the Qin Army's archery covering and suppression. This kind of crossbows used This method doubled the strength of the defenders. He estimated that the rebel casualties might be around a hundred people.

Even if Meng Tian had 30 troops, he couldn't afford such a : casualty ratio.

After Meng Tian watched a battle and learned about the strong fighting power of the Xiu Wu rebels, he ordered Meng Tianfang to besiege Xiu Wu, and then left here and returned to the Chaoge Qin Army Camp.

Then he summoned Zhang Han and other senior Qin generals to talk about the situation in his Xiuwu City and said: "The rebels are very strict with Hanoi County. It is very difficult for us to open the Aocang grain road."

Zhang Han said: "General, it is no longer possible to advance westward, and what we really control in Zhao is only a few counties, and they are all counties that lack food and grass to support the army. Only Ye County has slightly more food and grass, but it is still It is not enough to meet the needs of the 30-strong army, so we can only continue to move eastward to open up connections with Qidi. Our army will occupy Anyang, Ye County, Dongwuyang and other places along the Yellow River, and open up connections with Jibei County to obtain grain and grass from Linzi."

This is almost the only way for them to obtain food and grass that can satisfy their 30-strong army.

But Meng Tian was a little worried and said: "There are already 15 troops stationed in Qidi, and Feng Jie still has to deal with hundreds of thousands of rebels. Can he still support our battlefield?"

Zhang Han said: "Qi has not been destroyed by war in the past few decades. The fields are fertile and the population is large. It could support hundreds of thousands of Qi troops back then. Now it is not difficult to support hundreds of thousands of our troops."

Then Zhang Han looked at Handan in the north and said: "Now it is difficult for our army to break through the front line of the Yellow River. Handan is an eyesore. The general should find a way to remove it. Even if it cannot be removed, Handan's influence must be minimized. It cannot be allowed to Zhao Jun is back from the ashes."

Meng Tian also had this idea, so he ordered: "Sima Xin!"

"The general is here!"

"You lead 3 soldiers north to Handan. If you have a chance, you will conquer Handan. If you don't have a chance, you will besiege Handan."

Sima Xin said: "No!"

(End of this chapter)