Horse on the World

Chapter 944
On the stone steps leading to the top of the fortress, the blood had already congealed, and the bluish-white road surface turned purple-black after several days of bloody battles. The Dingzhou Marine Corps has suffered casualties on this road about [-] meters long. More than [-] team members have been recruited, but the fortress has not yet been captured. What's more terrible is that according to information from the Military Intelligence Department, reinforcements from Luoyang have already boarded boats and are going down the river. It will only take five days at most to reach Qingtan ．

Seeing that the second battalion, which rotated the first battalion to attack, returned without success again, and one after another corpses and wounded soldiers were carried back and walked in front of him, Zheng Zhiqiang gritted his teeth and slammed Pulling out his saber, he strode forward, "Guards, follow me!" he shouted.

"Impossible!" The two commanding generals of the first battalion and the second battalion who had just retreated grabbed Zheng Zhiqiang, "General Zheng, you are the leader of the first army, so you can't take the risk of attacking."
Zheng Zhiqiang took a sip, "You two bastards have fought for many days and haven't made a single step. What can I do if I don't go? Are you counting on you? I can't count on it."

The two generals were blushing, gritted their teeth, and lowered their heads. They had tried their best, and the soldiers were risking their lives to attack, but in the face of this natural danger, it was beyond human power to change it.Seeing the roaring Zheng Zhiqiang, Chang Kuan, the commander of the second battalion, blushed, drew his sword and walked up, "General Zheng, I will lead the team to charge up, if I can't take it down, I will either die on it, or I will go up." Let my soldiers lift my brain back."

"Wait a minute!" The artillery captain who had been staying below pulled Chang Kuan and looked back at Zheng Zhiqiang, "General Zheng, the fortress blocking us is a stone wall. You can’t get a foothold on it, without these heavy weapons, you can’t break through the stone wall, brothers will die if you go up, you can’t fight like this.”

Zheng Zhiqiang had a gloomy face, "How else can we fight if we don't fight this way? Apart from exchanging lives for lives and using superior forces to kill our opponents, is there any good way for us to fight?"
"I've been thinking about it for the past few days. I don't know if it's okay? Why don't General Zheng let us go up and have a try?" said the artillery captain.

"What can you do? They won't be able to hit it, let alone you, unless you can let the Shenwei Cannon go up." Zheng Zhiqiang said.

The artillery captain said: "The elevation angle of the Shenwei cannon is not enough, and it won't do anything if it goes up. However, if the cannon can't go up, the ammunition can go up. We can use gunpowder!"

Zheng Zhiqiang's eyes lit up, he stepped forward and grabbed the captain, "Say it, tell me, how do you use it?"

"General Zheng, the gunpowder used to launch shells, we wrapped it up, put iron nails and other things in it, and then installed the lead wires. After igniting it, we shot it into the wall with an eight-ox crossbow. When the gunpowder exploded, those iron nails and other things would explode. To become the most powerful murderer, as long as we kill the enemy army behind the wall in large numbers, it will not be a problem for us to attack." The captain said.

Zheng Zhiqiang jumped up all of a sudden, "Bastard, you didn't say it earlier!"

The lieutenant showed distress, "It's just that the shooting angle of the eight-ox crossbow is not enough!"

Zheng Zhiqiang let out a sigh of relief, "We can't lift the Shenwei cannon, can't we lift the eight-ox crossbow, Chang Kuan, come here!"
"Have a group of eight soldiers, pick up the eight oxen crossbows, and launch them on their shoulders." Zheng Zhiqiang said.

Chang Kuan was startled, "General Zheng, the recoil of the eight-ox crossbow is astonishing, how can manpower resist it?"
Zheng Zhiqiang gritted his teeth, "Choose those with good physical fitness. If eight people can't do it, then ten people. Even if every time a bullet is fired, these ten people will be killed or injured, but the gunpowder exploded and the damage caused by the opponent will always be lost." It will be greater than this number. Now our battle loss ratio with the opponent is one to ten, and we can only change one opponent if we die ten people. As long as we can reach one to one, we will win the paper, go!"
"I understand at the end." Chang Kuan nodded solemnly.Turn around and leave.
"General Zheng, I'll go up in person," said the artillery captain.
"Forget it!" Zheng Zhiqiang said, "This is a job of a narrow escape. If you die, I won't be able to explain to General Deng."
The lieutenant of the Artillery Corps smiled, "General Zheng, the amount of gunpowder is the most powerful, and the length of the lead wire is required to make the explosive fall right behind the stone wall and explode. All of these require our specialized technicians to go up and understand. I am worried that it is an honor for a soldier to die in battle, and we are also soldiers, so I have no complaints even if we die in battle for the victory of the Dingzhou Army."
Zheng Zhiqiang stared at the other party, "Okay, we soldiers in Dingzhou don't have any cowards, go ahead and take down Qingtan, I'll give you the first credit and guarantee your promotion to general."

The lieutenant of artillery said with a smile: "If I come back alive, I will thank the general."
Zu Yan stood on the stone wall and stared at the Dingzhou army below. After ten days of hard fighting, the defenders above the fortress suffered extremely heavy casualties. About 1000 people could never stand up again, and about [-] of them there are hundreds

People were on the first line of defense, caught off guard, and were bombarded by the opponent's mighty cannon.
The fierceness of the Dingzhou army's attack shocked him. If he was in command of another army, he would definitely give up in the face of such a high casualty rate. It won't be long before another more ferocious attack will be launched.

On the stone steps in front of the stone wall, the original color can no longer be seen, the purple-black congealed blood is shocking, the opponent's attack is so fierce, Zu Yan has personally come to sit in the fortress since yesterday, this is the last natural danger of the fortress Now, if this place is lost, the fortress will definitely not be able to hold it. The 1000 defenders lost about 1000 people, and the other [-] people took turns to defend here.

"General, they're coming up again!" The Chinese military officer pointed down and said.

"Get ready for battle! The crossbows are ready, the cannons are ready, the archers are ready!" Following the repeated orders, rows of archers rushed up the city wall, pulling the bows and stringing them, and the crossbows creaked open. Bowstring, loaded crossbow arrows.
Dingzhou soldiers used large shields to clear the way. Dozens of iron shields moved forward slowly up and down like a tortoise shell. After advancing for a certain distance, they stopped. The top of the tortoise shell suddenly opened. Holding two eight-ox crossbows, four people in the front, six in the middle, and ten people in the back, and the ten people in the back were wearing heavy Kai, and pressed the base of the eight-ox crossbow firmly on their shoulders. Behind them, several teams The Dingzhou army stood next to each other, and they used their bodies to withstand the people in front.

"My God!" Zu Yan exclaimed, the eight-ox crossbow was too heavy, and it was shot flat. Due to the angle of the shot, the Dingzhou army could not use this heavy weapon to attack its own army during the attack. How could he not It would have occurred to the Dingzhou Army to come up with such a method. Zu Yan didn't need to think about it to know that under the strong recoil of the eight-ox crossbow when it was fired, the soldiers supporting the rear seat would be seriously injured if they did not die.
"Aim at their eight-ox crossbow, shoot!" Zu Yan shouted.

Chichi arrows shot out like raindrops. On the stone steps, the frontmost shield was raised high, and the clanging sound was heard endlessly. Inside the tortoise shell, the artillery captain shouted in a low voice: "Light it up!"
The torch immediately ignites the fuse.

"Fire!" The trigger was pulled, and the eight crossbow arrows on the two eight-ox crossbows buzzed, and flew out of the strings, flying towards the stone wall with a burning line of fire.

With the firing of the eight-ox crossbow, the huge shock force caused the ten soldiers in heavy armor in the back seat to fall backwards suddenly, and the sound of heavy armor cracking and sinking was heard clearly, which was also mixed with broken bones. Voices.The bodies of the ten people who fell backwards were forcibly resisted by the whole team of soldiers behind them. They had already passed out from the pain, but because of the support behind them, they still could not stand.
"Change, change!" An officer ordered loudly.Immediately, ten more heavily armored soldiers went up, and the ten soldiers who were seriously injured were immediately carried off the battlefield.
Eight crossbow arrows crossed the stone wall like a flash, and shot into the dense formation of defensive soldiers with a ding sound. A few unlucky soldiers were pierced by eight crossbow arrows on the spot, and they died without a hum. Seeing through, the eight bull crossbow arrows were nailed heavily to the ground, still at the trembling tail, and the burning fuse on a package shortened rapidly.

The sound of explosions one after another caused Zu Yan on the stone wall to turn around in astonishment. The eight-ox crossbow that had just been shot in exploded, and the swishing sound resounded through the entire defense line. In the situation of dozens of people, this time, soldiers were swept to the ground one by one. What's worse, most of them did not die, but fell to the ground in pain, hissing and howling.
Zu Yan's middle officer died on the ground not far from Zu Yan, half of his head was cut off, and his brains were sprayed all over the ground.

"Shenwei Cannon!" The term flashed in his mind, but the other party was clearly firing a crossbow, and Zu Yan's mind instantly became chaotic.
"Fire!" the lieutenant of artillery ordered again.
"emission!"

Another eight crossbow arrows came out of the string.Different from the last time, this time with the launch of the crossbow arrows, there were swarms of Dingzhou marines.They shouted and charged upwards.

The opponent was a little dizzy from the first round of explosions, and they didn't think of fighting back until they rushed tens of meters.
The loud bang sounded again, and several soldiers behind Zu Yan rushed forward, pressing Zu Yan tightly under him. Zu Yan felt his neck was hot, and tried to turn over, but saw a The soldier rolled softly to the side, his head and back were pierced with iron nails the length of a finger.

"Ba Niu, Ba Niu, aim at their crossbow arrows and knock them down." Zu Yan cried out sadly.

On the stone wall, several eight-ox crossbows fired at the same time. The huge crossbow arrows pierced the large shields blocking the artillerymen, and then penetrated the soldiers' bodies. Once the crossbows went down, several people fell down, but more The shield soldiers rushed forward desperately, raised their shields, and stood firmly in front of the artillerymen, one by one, the one in front pressed the shield with his body, and the one behind put his big shield on the body of the brother in front, The flesh and blood resisted the attack of the opponent's eight-ox crossbow.

"Light it up!" Seeing the blood flowing under his feet and the bodies of his comrades piling up in front of him, the artillery lieutenant's eyes filled with tears, and he gave the order again in a hoarse voice.
This was the first time he faced death so close, facing his comrades lying on the ground one after another.

(End of this chapter)