The sky was bright, and countless thieves and ants crawled towards Fanyang City, and a large number of siege equipment were sandwiched between the ant soldiers, slowly moving towards the city wall. The moat on the outside of the city wall has long been filled with earth and rocks, and the siege thieves can calmly reach the bottom of the city wall.

Such a powerful siege has lasted for three days in a row, and the resistance in the city is becoming more and more weak, Qiu Bai and Zhang Yan are worried about this, but they feel powerless, Shi Chaoqing is like a child who has made a mistake and does not dare to face reality, hiding in the palace of the king all day long, ignoring the affairs of the city, and ignoring the so-called court officials.

The officials and generals who have no backbone have long been in fear, pondering the way out in the future, how can they send such an incompetent person to death?

Zhang Yan persuaded Shi Chaoqing for two days in a row, but it had no effect, Shi Chaoqing agreed happily, but there was no reaction.

"Shi Chaoqing is the mud that can't support the wall, no wonder Shi Chaoyi dares to attack the city with such fanfare, if it weren't for us, this Fanyang City would have changed hands long ago, and Shi Chaoqing has also become a dry bone in the grave. That thief Siming is cunning and brave, but he couldn't imagine choosing such a scumbag son as his heir!"

Qiu Bai's words were very straightforward and unkind. Now the city wall is full of chaos, the soldiers are tired of dealing with the siege of the thief, and no one pays attention to the conversation between Zhang Yan and Qiu Bai.

These days, Shi Chaoyi's rebels have built a large number of cloud chariots that can go straight to the city wall, and the defenders of the city have no good way to deal with this kind of large-scale siege equipment, so they can only pour fierce fire oil on it and ignite it to burn it completely, but it also takes at least a quarter of an hour to burn, and this time is enough for a large number of siege rebels to pour onto the city wall.

Therefore, almost every half an hour, a group of thieves will rush to the city wall, and the bloody white-knuckle battle has been carried out I don't know how many times, Qiu Bai and his troops as a mobile force, ready to support any weak points that may be breached.

Taking advantage of the moment when Zhang Yan came to him to discuss the affairs of the city, he took a break and took a breath.

Regarding Qiu Bai's complaints, Zhang Yan also thought deeply, Shi Chaoqing is definitely not a person worthy of support, the former gentle, courteous and thrifty, and the corporal of Lixian have all become cowardly, cowardly and mediocre.

"Shi Chaoqing is indecisive and mediocre, you and I can make a big plan, otherwise ......"

Speaking of this, Zhang Yan suddenly said what he meant.

"Shi Chaoqing finally couldn't bear it anymore and promised Cao Dun to join the battle of city defense, I'm afraid that something will happen, so I'm here to inform you!"

Qiu Bai was stunned, since Feng Changqing fell ill these days, he and He Chang discussed the matter of defending the city, and now Cao Dun suddenly participated, after all, this person is Shi Siming's old department, and there are many old departments in the "Yan Army", and their prestige is very high, these are incomparable to them.

But then, Qiu Bai said:

"Cao Dun shouldn't have doubts about you and me yet, as long as he guards the city honestly and doesn't engage in other moths, everything will be under control, and there is no need to embarrass this person!"

Zhang Yan nodded.

"Today's thieves are attacking a lot compared to the previous two days, it seems that Shi Chaoyi is in a hurry, why not start attacking the camp at night from now on, stirring them upset, if you can burn the siege equipment, it will be of great help to defend the city!"

"Yes, I will discuss this matter with He Chang, his mind has been on Feng Changqing for the past few days. ”

Speaking of Feng Changqing, Zhang Yan sighed:

"A belt of famous generals has been reduced to this...... He, he should be in the next day or two!"

Qiu Bai's heart was gloomy.

"The oil is exhausted, even if Da Luo Jinxian is powerless, but this is fine, at least he is relieved, and if he dies on the battlefield of defeating the enemy, the imperial court will definitely not be stingy with posthumous gifts!

Although he is just a small military commander, he is clear about the complex relationship between the government and the opposition.

The imperial court is a big ship, and anyone who wants to harness it must obey a myriad of rules, some of which are on the surface, and some of which cannot be laid out. Qin Jin, as the leader of the Shenwu Army, leaned towards the government and the opposition with the great merit of recovering the two capitals, but in order to support this broken ship full of wounds, it was sometimes inevitable to go with the flow in order to win the hearts and minds of the people and unite the inside. After all, quelling the unrest is now the top priority of the imperial court.

Feng Changqing is about to die, and he will no longer pose a practical threat to anyone, and after his death, he will be honored and invited to buy people's hearts, which will naturally become something that everyone is happy to see.

Although Qiu Bai also scoffed at the ruthlessness of this so-called rule, however, it was a rare situation in the period of Tianbao Zhide to be able to eliminate partisan strife and the center to twist into a rope.

Emperor Xuanzong was the best at the trick of balancing power, when Li Linfu was in power, he used the crown prince as a containment, and when Yang Guozhong was in power, he also used the prince as a restraint. Therefore, Li Linfu and Yang Guozhong have exhausted all means, and the prince is still standing, this is not the prince's luck, or Li Yang's incompetence, the most fundamental reason is that Emperor Xuanzong does not want the prince to step down, but he does not want the prince's strength to sit big and difficult to control.

This kind of balance of power makes the factions attack each other and restrain each other, and it is difficult for either party to pose a threat to the imperial power, but this method is harmless when there is nothing to do in the peaceful years, once faced with a sudden disaster, just as the building of Tianbao 14 years will fall, the restriction will become an internal strife, and the external war has become a means to eradicate dissent, with its own selfishness, sacrificing the overall situation of the world, and the reason for the defeat and defeat of the year is all this.

The appearance of Feng Changqing will bring variables to the already balanced forces of all parties in the imperial court, so it is natural that those in power do not want Feng Changqing to return to the center to cause chaos. Even if Qin Jin deliberately transferred him back after taking power, the elders of the Shenwu Army like Lu Qi were still full of deep jealousy towards him.

Qiu Bai was silent for a while, these things have little to do with him, as long as he keeps Fan Yang from falling into the hands of Shi Chaoyi, once the overall situation of Hedong is opened, it will be considered a great success.

However, looking at the current situation, the Hedong Shenwu Army has been delayed, the morale of the defenders of Fan Yang is getting sluggish, and the offensive of the siege thieves is also fierce day by day, and he does not dare to guarantee how long he can hold out.

Suddenly, an idea made Jobber sweat coldly.

"The morale of the army in the city is fluctuating, and the prison country is an incompetent fool, Brother Zhang, you say, will it cause a mutiny?"

This reminded Zhang Yan that the ministers and many generals in the city could not see Shi Chaoqing, and they had long been panicked, even if they launched a mutiny to find a way out, it was not surprising.

"Why don't you use Cao Dun to inspect the officials and generals to prevent them from making trouble?"

In this way, Cao Dun would not be allowed to participate in the defense of the city, which would pose a threat to the plan to open the city in the future, and the situation in the city would be stabilized.

While they were discussing, there was a sudden loud noise above their heads, followed by a flurry of rubble, and in an instant, Qiu Bai felt a pain on his face, and the next moment he was pounced by the guards beside him, and another burst of rubble fell from the sky and smashed on them.

Soon, Qiu Bai reacted from the sudden shock, immediately got up, looked out at the female wall, and the pupils shrank violently, but saw a stone cannon higher than the wall of Fanyang slowly moving.

Stone Cannon!

Stone cannon has always been used as a weapon for the Shenwu Army, and it is invincible on the battlefield, and today it suddenly appeared in the righteous army of the Shi Dynasty, which really surprised Qiu Bai.

Zhang Yan had never seen a stone cannon, and Zheng Jing had never seen a stone cannon, and they were both stunned by this huge siege weapon.

"W-what the fuck is this!"

Shi Chaoyi's stone cannon fired not stones, but huge iron balls, which smashed on the rammed earth city wall was a deep pit, and the pit cracked and peeled off along the edge. When it was smashed on the buildings of the city wall, the houses collapsed and fell into ruins.

Almost the vast majority of the soldiers in the city had never seen such a powerful weapon as the stone cannon, and the originally orderly defenders of the city instantly scurried around like headless flies, for fear of being hit by this terrible ghost and leaving no bones.

"The stone cannon is the thing of the Shenwu Army, how, how did it get to the Shi Dynasty Righteous Army?"

In fact, the technique of the stone cannon is simple, as long as you understand the principle, or use the soldiers who have fiddled with it, and then add skilled craftsmen, it is not difficult to imitate the stone cannon.

It is precisely because the principle of stone cannon is simple and relatively easy to manufacture that Qin Jin has never had the idea of keeping it secret, which is like fire in paper, and it can't be contained.

"Report! Report! Beicheng, the city wall has collapsed, traitor, traitor has entered the city! He, He Changshi has already gone first, remind Qiu Changshi to be careful!"

The change came suddenly, and Qiu Boteng, who was originally bent on his waist, stood up straight.

"What if the rebels are so strong? Who dares to go out to battle and go out of the city with Qiu to burn these stone cannons!"

Qiu Bai knew that if he didn't destroy these stone cannons, let dozens or even hundreds of catties of iron balls bombard indiscriminately, the city wall of Fanyang would be smashed sooner or later.

Those who can fight with Qiu Bai are only more than 1,000 elites under Feng Changqing, these are all veterans of a hundred battles, compared to the rabble in the city, they are as straight as the sky and the earth, and they were originally not easily dispatched as a reserve force, but now the situation is critical, and they have to be used.

The five hundred elite horsemen quickly gathered, and Qiu Bai specially prepared two skins of fierce fire oil for each person, whether they could destroy those stone cannons in a surprise attack in a battle with ten thousand horses, it was all up to these things.

"Open the gates!"

With Qiu Bai's order, the east gate of Fanyang, which had been closed for half a month, slowly opened in a squeak, and the outside of the east gate was relatively calm, and there were no attacking rebels, so he specially chose this place to go out of the city.

Five hundred elite cavalry swept out, and the rebel rangers outside the city who were responsible for monitoring the movement in the east of the city were dumbfounded, they could not have imagined that Fanyang City would dare to take the initiative to launch a counterattack. However, when they found that there were only hundreds of cavalry less than a thousand who went out of the city to counterattack, they didn't care about the joke. If the five hundred cavalry dare to attack them, the battle-hardened "Great Yan Iron Cavalry", wouldn't it be like hitting a stone with an egg, and there will be no return?