"Kill!"

"It's coming up again!"

“…… I, I'll you! ”

"Hold on! Hold! ”

"I can't stop it, I can't stop it......"

"The newcomer will back off for me and let Lao Tzu come!"

I saw that on the wall of Kunyang City, nearly a thousand black tiger thieves were stubbornly guarding the defense line, and they launched a fierce battle with the new Chu army that was constantly attacking the city wall.

Don't look at Zhao Yu, who lives in the city gate tower and commands the overall situation, he is calm and calm, but in fact, he also has a cold sweat in his heart, ready to send the county army that temporarily retreats to the second line at any time.

Could it be that Zhao Yu has no confidence in the black tiger thieves under his command?

In fact, he really didn't have much confidence, not because of anything else, but because there were too few old black tiger thieves on the city wall.

The so-called black tiger thief is now composed of two parts.

Some of them are veterans who have lived from the Yang Tong period to today, they have experienced five encirclement and suppression from officers and soldiers and the army, and since then they have undergone Chen Mo's army-like training, so not only is their strength comparable to that of soldiers, but their temperament is more rebellious and fierce, like Wang Qing and Liu Tu are the most typical examples.

The other part is the powerful villagers like Xu Bai and Wang Ping, who may not have joined the cottage for a long time, and even some of them were recruited when the refugees poured into Kunyang a while ago, but most of these people were born in Jiangxia County, Runan County and the southern counties of Yingchuan County, and they have certain skills, and they have dealt with rebels and green forest thieves.

If it is said that the black tiger thieves on the city wall at this moment are all composed of these two types of black tiger thief veterans, then Zhao Yu is not so worried, but the problem is that these two types of black tiger thief veterans only account for about half of the nearly 1,000 people, not even 500 people, and the other half are basically civilians from other counties who have not been recruited for a long time.

And what these nearly 1,000 Black Tiger Thieves were facing was a rebel army comparable to a regular army, and there were 3,000 of them.

Therefore, despite the advantages provided by the city wall, Zhao Yu still pinched a cold sweat in his heart.

Unexpectedly, the battle situation between the two was much better than Zhao Yu expected, the rebel army of as many as 3,000 people, in a full stick of incense, was stunned that they didn't even touch the edge of the city wall, and the results were even worse than the previous puppet thieves - the previous puppet thieves, there were still a few people who took the opportunity to jump on the city wall.

Of course, this also means that the rebel army has a weight in the hearts of this black tiger thief, so that the latter does not dare to take it lightly.

"Block, block down......

Wielding a sword to kill a rebel sergeant who tried to jump onto the city wall, Shi Yuan, the head catcher of Kunyang County, who was covered in blood, panted and looked around.

The art of war says, one blow, then decline, three and exhaustion, this is not false at all, the first round of the rebel army into the battlefield, its offensive is fierce, compared with the previous pseudo-thief's weak offensive can not be the same at all, at least when he was commanding the county army to fight with the pseudo-thief, Ishihara can still take the time to say a few words with Xu Bai, but at this time in the face of the rebel army's offensive, he closed his lips tightly, and did not dare to speak easily unless he gave an order.

The idea of retaining physical strength, mainly due to the offensive of the rebel army, brought him too much psychological pressure, so that he had no time to think about irrelevant things, and there was only one thought in his head: block! Defend the walls!

Even Ishihara, who has had a career as a ranger for several years and has experienced several years of experience as a county pawn, is still like this, let alone the black tiger thief on the side?

At this moment on the battlefield, in addition to the old pawns of the Black Tiger Thief, they will also scold and roar, and the new pawns who have just joined the Black Tiger Thief, they can't even control their voices in the face of such a battle situation, and they can't shout if they want to.

This includes Tang Hong, who was appreciated by Liu Tu, and other county officials who volunteered to stay.

"Kill!"

"Ahh

"Block! Obstruct! ”

"Oil tanks! Oil tanks are needed here! ”

With just a hasty glance, Ishihara could see the fierce battle on the city walls.

He saw that in the area of the city wall as far as his eye could see, the number of black tiger thieves had plummeted by thirty percent, which meant that at least three of the ten black tiger thieves had turned into corpses.

If the entire city wall was in this state, it would mean that the Black Tiger Thieves had already lost nearly three hundred people in a stick of incense.

One-third of the people killed or injured in a stick of incense are not a heavy price.

But what makes Ishihara feel fortunate is that even after suffering such heavy casualties, the black tiger thieves' sharpness has not diminished at all, especially those old soldiers of the black tiger thieves, as long as they are not seriously injured, even if their physical strength is exhausted and they are out of breath, these people will shout confusing words such as 'meritorious' and 'mother-in-law', and with amazing perseverance, they will kill the rebels who tried to climb the city wall again and again.

Seeing that scene with his own eyes, Rao is Ishihara must also admit that the tenacity of the black tiger thief can be called the top existence among the bandits, officers and soldiers, and even the army he has seen.

Of course, Ishihara also knew the reason - the original tenacity of the old black tiger thief was impeccable, and after its leader Zhou Hu put forward the order of 'assigning women as daughters-in-law according to merit', this gang of black tiger thief old soldiers went completely crazy.

Do these guys think that if they kill a few more attacking rebel soldiers, they can allocate a few more women?

But no matter what, this group of black tiger thieves who have given up their lives for their mother-in-law really makes people feel at ease.

『……』

Ishihara glanced at the city wall farther away, only to see that on that section of the city wall, Wang Qing, the left commander of the black tiger thief, was killing the attacking rebels with a grim smile in one hand and a dao in the other.

He knew that Wang Qing looked like a handsome son of a rich and noble family, acting unruly, but once he killed someone, this guy could be called the most ferocious one of the Black Tiger Thieves, and every knife he swung out carried a ferocity that seemed to chop the enemy's skull - this kind of murderer was quite rare even in the Black Tiger Village.

Although he didn't want to admit it, Ishihara had to admit that with the current siege strength of the rebel army, his county army was indeed unstoppable, and it was no wonder that Zhou Hu withdrew their county army and replaced them with black tiger thieves under his command.

After all, in addition to the advantage of the old pawn, the black tiger thief also has a key advantage, that is, there are top-notch individuals in this group of people, this kind of people are commonly known as fierce generals!

The Black Tiger Thief has four 'fierce generals', Chen Mo, Wang Qing, Chu Yan, and Niu Heng.

Among them, except for Chu Yan's main village of Black Tiger Village in the north of the county, the other three are on this city wall at the moment.

To say that these people have invincible courage is of course an exaggeration, but Ishihara saw with his own eyes that in just one stick of incense, Wang Qing had killed more than a dozen rebel soldiers one after another, and even changed his sword to two.

This is a shocking achievement, you must know that killing an enemy soldier on the battlefield is already an old pawn; If you can kill three people, you are called elite; And if you kill more than ten people, you are basically a warrior, and it is a very fierce kind.

In addition to Wang Qing, Chen Mo, another fierce general of the Black Tiger Thief, also participated in the fight, although because of the location, Ishihara could not see it with his own eyes, but he believed that Chen Mo's 'achievements' would surpass Wang Qing, after all, this Chen Da Commander was the Black Tiger Thief's 'first fierce general'.

Zhang Jing, one of the 'Five Tigers of Chenmen', had fought with Chen Mo when he led them to encircle and suppress the black tiger thieves, and because he admired the latter's martial arts, he promised the position of 'military marquis' when he fought with him, but unfortunately he was ignored by Chen Mo.

So far in this battle, the morale of the Black Tiger Thieves has not dropped due to nearly three hundred casualties, but has gradually risen, and the two warriors, Chen Mo and Wang Qing, have also played a vital role.

It's just that the casualties of the black tiger thief are too great?

Rao is Ishihara actually longed for the Black Tiger Thief to be killed and injured at the bottom of his heart, and he was also worried about this at the moment, for fear that after the Black Tiger Thief was killed and wounded, he Kunyang County Army would not be able to replace the Black Tiger Thief and continue to defend the city wall.

Fortunately, the rebel army, which was the besieging side of the city, suffered more casualties.

Based on a personal estimate, Ishihara guessed that the rebels' casualties ranged from 800 to 1,000, and the casualty ratio was about three times that of the Black Tiger Thieves.

Don't think this number is ugly, as the besieging side, the proportion of rebel soldiers killed in battle has shrunk to 1 to 3, which is enough to prove the strength of this rebel army - remember what is the ratio of battle losses between the puppet thieves and the county army? One to fifteen!

Gradually, the offensive of the rebel army slowed down, and the black tiger thieves on the city wall were exhausted one by one.

The time of a stick of incense may seem short, but for both sides fighting on the battlefield, it is a long time, enough to exhaust physical strength and demoralize.

However, the rebels outside the city were more numerous, and they had the opportunity to attack in rotation, while the black tiger thieves on the city walls did not.

What's worse is that the rebel soldiers outside the city, as well as the cover of 2,000 crossbowmen.

Once the momentum of the rebels besieging the city was suppressed by the black tiger thieves on the city wall, the rebel general Song Zan would temporarily let the soldiers withdraw from the city wall, and then send someone to urge another general, Chen Lang, to order his crossbowmen to fire several volleys at the black tiger thieves on the city wall.

At first, the Black Tiger Thieves suffered a loss in this tactic, and when they saw that the rebels outside the city were not only no longer attacking, but had the momentum of retreating, they mistakenly thought that they had repelled the rebels, and were about to cheer, but suddenly they were baptized by a rain of arrows from 2,000 rebel crossbowmen.

Some black tiger thieves who lost their shields during the fight for various reasons were killed by random arrows on the spot.

In desperation, the Black Tiger Thieves could only swallow their cheers back to their stomachs, swallow their anger, and hide under their shields to resist the enemy's rain of arrows.

This rain of arrows may be just a salvo, or it may be two or three rounds, and no one can guess what order the rebel general on the opposite side has given.

And the worst thing is that sometimes the black tiger thief thinks it is a gap between two volleys, but the rebel foot soldiers on the opposite side suddenly attack and kill the black tiger thief by surprise again.

Fortunately, the black tiger thieves are thieves and thieves, clever people, and have a good eye, and in the interval between the enemy's volleys, they know how to peek outside the city behind the battlements, otherwise they will be replaced by some wooden and wooden brains, and they will be attacked by the rebels immediately.

Once the rebels attack the city wall in a big way, it is almost equivalent to a loss, and it is difficult to have a chance to recover.

Under the tactics of the rebels, the Black Tiger Thieves defended extremely difficult, but even in this difficult situation, the Black Tiger Thieves still showed extraordinary resilience, causing the rebels outside the city to return again and again.

Seeing that although the morale of the black tiger thieves on the city wall was not exhausted, their physical strength had been exhausted to the point where they could not stand on a stable footing, even Ishihara began to consider the issue of reinforcements.

He didn't understand why Zhou Hu, the leader of the Black Tiger Thieves, had delayed sending reinforcements.

You must know that he Kunyang still has the combat power to reinforce the Black Tiger Thieves, such as the county army that resisted the attack of the first two groups of pseudo-thieves.

Although those county soldiers may not be able to stop the rebels outside the city when they attack with all their might, if it is the rebel army outside the city that has gradually slowed down the momentum of the siege, the county soldiers in the city can replace the black tiger thieves.

As long as the county army obeys the command, don't suffer too many casualties in the rebels' siege tactics.

However, such a question was understood after Ishihara glanced at the distance outside the city - over there, there were still 5,000 rebel troops standing still, and Zhou Hu reserved the county army that had preliminary combat experience, most of which were on guard against those rebels.

I have to say that Ishihara is still far-sighted, but the 'two' beside Zhao Yu at the moment obviously didn't realize this.

When they learned that in just one stick of incense, the black tiger thieves had suffered thirty percent of casualties, and the county commander Liu Bi and the county commander Li Xu turned pale with fright.

And Li Xu continued to persuade Zhao Yu: "Zhou, Zhou leader, the people of Guizhai have suffered thirty percent of casualties, and they are exhausted and tired, so they will definitely not be able to stop the attack of the rebels, so it is better to send our county army to defend the city instead of the Black Tigers, right?" ”

"No."

Zhao Yu immediately pointed out Li Xu's mistake: "Although my Black Tiger people have suffered thirty percent casualties, these casualties are basically new soldiers, as long as the old soldiers are still there, the rebels may not be able to attack easily." …… Li Xiancheng may not have noticed that compared with the beginning, the current offensive of the rebels outside the city has gradually become declining, so as long as the morale of the brothers on the city wall is not discouraged, it is basically impossible for the rebels to attack the city wall. ”

Of course, he didn't say what he said, according to his observation, the rebel army outside the city, its offensive has indeed become much weaker, to put it simply, it is the brave resistance of the black tigers under his command that stunned this group of rebels who are faintly proud of the regular army - probably the latter did not expect to encounter such fierce resistance.

In this case, the rebels outside the city have already had a little fear in their hearts for the black tiger thieves wrapped in black scarves on the city wall, and the morale of the black tiger thieves is generally high, even if they don't send reinforcements, they may not be able to defend the city wall, but just take a risk.

But this risk, Zhao Yu thinks is necessary.

In this regard, he explained to Liu Bi and Li Xu: "The rebels outside the city, there are still as many as 5,000 people still standing still, and these 5,000 people are enough to launch an attack on the other side of the city wall of Kunyang, so we must leave a force that can resist." …… This side of the southern city wall is in danger, and I can send a brotherhood to buy respite for my brethren in the Black Tiger Village; However, if the county army was ordered to reinforce the southern city wall, once the other half of the rebel army launched an offensive on the western or eastern city wall, the people of the Brotherhood would not be able to resist the rebels, and they would be defeated in the blink of an eye. ”

Without explaining like this, Liu Bi and Li Xu immediately understood.

If the defending force of Kunyang is divided into grades, the black tiger thieves are considered 'superior', which can withstand the offensive of the rebels on the opposite side, while the county army is considered 'medium', although it may not be able to withstand the offensive of the rebels, but at least it can support for a period of time; however, the untrained Brotherhood personnel can only be regarded as 'inferior', and if they are placed alone on one side of the city wall, it is equivalent to surrendering the city wall to the rebels.

Therefore, no matter how difficult the Black Tiger Thief's recent situation is, Zhao Yu will not immediately join the county army, at best, it will only allow the people of the Brotherhood to buy time - unless the five thousand troops in the distance outside the city also join the attack on this side of the city wall.

This is the most reasonable choice.

Of course, considering that there were only five or six hundred black tiger thieves left on the south city wall, but they still had to resist the attack of the rebels' 2,000 foot soldiers and 2,000 crossbowmen, Zhao Yu didn't want his team to be wiped out.

Therefore, he sent someone to summon Chen Cai, the chief steward of the Brotherhood, and instructed the latter: "Chen Cai, the brothers on the city wall need reinforcements and a chance to breathe, but there are still 5,000 rebels standing still, I can't send the county army to reinforce them, I need the assistance of the Brotherhood." ”

As soon as he heard this, Chen Cai didn't care that Liu Bi and Li Xu were beside him, and immediately clasped his fists and saluted: "Please give the order of the big leader." ”

Seeing this, Zhao Yu ordered in a deep voice: "I order you to organize a group of people to carry all the oil tanks in reserve on the city wall, smash them at the rebels outside the city, burn the rebels' long ladder as much as possible, and fight for the brothers on the city wall a chance to breathe." ”

"All, all?" Chen Cai was slightly startled.

As if guessing Chen Cai's thoughts, Zhao Yu nodded and said in a deep voice: "Today's battle is the most critical, as long as you can defend the city wall, it is worth using all the oil in the city." ”

Hearing this, Chen Cai did not hesitate any longer, and immediately clenched his fists and said, "Yes, I will arrange it." ”

After a while, Chen Cai said goodbye to Zhao Yu and came to the city along the stone on the inner side of the city wall.

In fact, in order to cope with the attack of the rebels, not only did the county government announce that the whole city had entered 'wartime control' according to Zhao Yu's instructions, but Chen Cai also mobilized according to Zhao Yu's instructions and organized a 'militia' of no less than 5,000 people as a reserve to defend the city.

Compared with the Black Tiger Thieves and the Kunyang County Army, two garrisons that must be on the front line, although the militia of 5,000 people has also undergone superficial training and can be sent to the city wall in case of emergency, but in general, this militia is mainly responsible for logistics and maintaining law and order.

For example, Zhao Yu ordered the workshop to build a batch of shields, and it was the responsibility of the militia to move these thousands of shields from the workshop in the city to the foot of the city wall.

This includes the transportation of oil tanks, boiling water, and other things that defend the city.

Therefore, after receiving Zhao Yu's order, Chen Cai quickly gathered five hundred militiamen and prepared to lead them to support the city walls.

Some people may think that 500 militia is too little, but in fact, it is useless to have more, because the place on the city wall that can be footed is so large, if you send more militia, it will affect the black tiger thief to kill the enemy.

Looking at the five hundred militiamen with uneasy looks on their faces, Chen Cai thought for a while, and finally decided to come to encourage them.

I saw him standing in front of the five hundred militiamen, and said with a serious face: "Brothers of my brotherhood, at this moment, on the city wall on the south side, the brothers of the Black Tiger Village are fighting bloodily, for us and others, for the villagers and elders of Kunyang, bravely fighting with the rebels and the green forest thieves, they have suffered heavy casualties, but they will not retreat!" …… Considering that half of the rebels outside the city had not made any action for the time being, Chief Zhou had carefully considered and was ready to leave the county army behind to resist those rebels, so now only we could reinforce those brave brothers in the Black Tiger Village. …… I know that your brothers have only undergone a short period of training, and we don't even have weapons and armor, but Leader Zhou doesn't ask us to fight the rebels, what we need to do is to carry oil cans up the city wall, smash them at the attacking rebels, smash them into the long ladder outside the city, and then drop the torches......"

Speaking of this, he spread his hands, and a relaxed smile appeared on his serious face: "I believe you also think that this is a very simple matter. ”

As he expected, the five hundred militiamen were relieved when they heard this.

Seeing this, Chen Cai's face became serious again, and he said in a deep voice: "Although it is simple, there will still be dangers, but I hope that the brothers of my brotherhood will not complain, because the brothers of the Black Tiger Village who are fighting on the city wall at this moment, they are more dangerous than us." …… If there is no objection, on! ”

At the sound of the order, 500 militiamen flocked to the oil canisters placed on the inside of the city walls—in fact, there were also earth-filled earthen baskets, rough wood, and other 'weapons' to defend the city, and the oil canisters were just one of them.

I saw that under the leadership of Chen Cai, these 500 militiamen rushed to the city wall with oil cans, sassal wood and other objects, and smashed the things in their hands at the rebel soldiers on the long ladder outside the city.

At the moment of this battle, the oil tank can be said to be the most feared thing for the rebels outside the city, because as long as it is drenched and stained with fire, the fire that is only burned to a local location at first will soon spread to the whole body, and when the fire is extinguished, the burned person is basically dead.

Even, the most miserable thing is that the rebel soldiers who are drenched in oil all over their bodies, once they are stained with fire, they cannot be extinguished at all, and can only be burned alive and burned into a charred corpse in front of everyone.

"Bang bang!"

"Bang!"

When they found another can of oil on the city wall, the rebel soldiers besieging the city were terrified.

As soon as they were hit by an oil can, the rebel soldiers would immediately jump down the ladder to avoid being ignited by the torches dropped from the city.

But the problem is that these rebel soldiers can run on long legs, but the long ladder outside the city can't be easily moved.

No, in a short period of time, more than two dozen long ladders were burned, and although the nearby rebel soldiers tried desperately to extinguish the fire, they were unable to save most of them.

“……”

Looking at those crackling and burning long ladders, Song Zan, the general of the New Chu Army, frowned deeply.

After a moment-long battle, he finally realized how difficult the group of soldiers with black scarves on the Kunyang city wall was.

Glancing at the corpses of his own soldiers all over the place, Song Zan hesitated for a moment, and finally sent a herald to ask for help from the general Huang Kang.

At the same time, in the distance of the New Chu Army's main formation, Huang Kang, the general of the New Chu Army, also witnessed the fierce resistance of Kunyang County, and set his eyes on the west and east sides of Kunyang County, looking back and forth.

Suddenly, he ordered in a deep voice: "Ji Wu, I order you to lead three thousand foot soldiers to attack the city wall on the west side of Kunyang!" ”

"Yes!"

A general named Ji Wu rode out of the column and responded with his fists clenched.