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Under the Tiger Prison, the siege war has reached the most critical moment.

The Wei army's trebuchets smashed the tiger prison into tatters, and the defending Zheng army hid in the Tibetan battlements behind. After the trebuchet stopped firing, it climbed up to the top of the city again.

At this time, after Zhang Gongjin, the defender of the Zheng army, gave an order, many movable curtains appeared on the city. This is a kind of mosquito net, with wooden pillars as bones and cowhide as a surface.

The leather was soft and tough, and the arrows under the city were shot at parabolic angles, and even if they were shot, they did not pose a threat to the soldiers hidden in the tent, while the defenders were able to return fire with their arrows through the breaches.

Zhang Gongjin was standing on the city tower at the moment, observing that the formation of the Wei army outside the city was moving towards the city wall. So he hurriedly deployed the defenders to the city wall that was being attacked as quickly as possible.

At the same time, he ordered to fire a large number of arrows and rolling stones to beat wood, and use trebuchets to throw incendiary canisters to destroy the enemy's formation, while Xu Shiji, the general of the Wagang Army who commanded the attack, immediately ordered the trebuchet and the well fence to be returned to each other in color.

"Shoot your crossbow arrows and prepare for the siege!" Xu Shiji shouted at this time.

He stood on a small dirt slope piled up by the Wei army in the distance of the city wall, and waved his flag to command. Rows of large bed crossbows were aimed at the walls and then catapulted. Crossbow arrows as thick as wooden sticks slammed into the walls with a sharp roar. Rows nailed into thick walls. In this way, when the Wei soldiers rushed to the city wall, they could use this to climb to the top of the city.

Groups of Wei soldiers carried their shields, pushed siege wagons and trench boards loaded with wooden wheels, and rushed forward quickly under the cover of arrows.

Although the moat outside the Tiger Prison Pass has been widened and deepened, the water flow has been cut off by Li Mi sending Shan Xiongxin upstream, and the water in the moat is only about a foot deep, and such a water depth naturally cannot pose any obstacle to the Wei army's attack.

However, Wang Shichong obviously had this in mind, and he also planted a bamboo nail in the moat with a sharp handle, so that the defenders would be pierced through the soles of their feet as soon as they stepped on it.

"Peng, Peng, Peng......"

Although the wheels and axles had been smeared with oil, the siege vehicle still made a "creaking" sound when it turned. The craftsmen of the Wei army, carefully crafted the moat filling board, braved the dense rain of arrows on the city, and finally spread it to the water surface of the moat, and then turned the twist to extend the other half of the folded plank forward. It was placed on the opposite bank of the river, forming a passage through the moat.

And like this kind of trench board, there are still many upper tools in the Wei army, and they are next to each other, forming more than ten bridge decks about ten zhang wide, which has turned the entire moat into a flat ground.

"Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh......" Under Zhang Gongjin's order, the defenders' arrows were replaced by rockets, and they no longer shot the Wei soldiers, but instead shot the pontoon bridge deck, trying to burn the pontoon bridge with rockets.

But the trench boards in the Wei army were designed by skilled craftsmen specially recruited by Xu Shiji, and these conventional attacks had been taken into account. The wooden planks of the trench board are wrapped in iron sheets, and the arrows are difficult to hurt, unless they are baked over a large fire, like the flame on the rocket arrow, because it cannot shoot through the board, it is difficult to hurt the filler, let alone burn it.

"The moat has lost its effect! Come on! A large group of Wei soldiers shouted, holding shields and broadswords in hand, and ran across the bridge.

The archers of the Wei army, on the other hand, stood far away, with their large numbers of crossbows, pouring sharp arrows on the city, carrying out the final suppression.

And on the head of the city of Tiger Pass, except for the giant bow and crossbow, it is difficult for ordinary bows and arrows to shoot in front of the archers of the Wei army. Even if some individual arrows are fired, they are blocked by the shield-bearer standing in front, and it is difficult to have a lethal effect. Therefore, the archers of the Wei army could have no scruples and wantonly carry out suppressive attacks.

Due to the suppression and cover of their own archers, the Zheng army at the head of the city did not dare to stand up and shoot arrows at will, and the arrows they shot sporadically only wounded a few Wei soldiers. It was impossible to stop its offensive at all, and after the pontoon bridge was erected, a large number of Wei soldiers resisted the ladder to the city.

At this time, after Li Mi's order, the Wei army launched a general attack.

Because the predecessor of the Wei army, the Wagang Army, had been in war since the day it was established, fighting with the Sui army, fighting with other peasant rebel armies, and even civil war. So they have more combat experience than Zheng Jun. Without losing much of his men and horses, he put the ladder on the city wall.

When the cloud ladder was erected on the city wall, Yang Gongqing, Zhang Gongjin's deputy general, gave an order. Countless rambling rods with several zhang long stalks immediately poked out from the top of the city, and before the ladder was firmly established, many of them were pushed down by the ramming rods, and the Wei soldiers who had just climbed on it fell to the ground with a bang, and the wailing sounded loudly.

And Zheng Jun's equipment to defend the city was obviously a little unexpected by Li Mi, he didn't expect Wang Shichong to be so well prepared.

However, he did not stop there. After pondering for a moment, Li Mi ordered: "Change the ladder and continue to attack!" ”

As soon as Xu Shiji's banner waved, the Wei soldiers in the rear rushed forward against a new batch of ladders. These ladders differ from their predecessors in that they are equipped with two hooks at the top. During the attack, the soldiers threw the hook against the wall, and the hook was so firmly nailed to the wall that the ram could not break it.

The siege soldiers could climb at full speed without worrying about the ladder falling down at all, and many of them climbed up with a large sword in their mouths with the help of hard crossbow arrows shot at the city walls.

But Yang Gongqing was not incompetent, once he found that the ladder of the Wei army could not be knocked open, he waved the banner again and again and began to respond.

A moment later, there was a surge of people on the city wall, and many Zheng soldiers dressed in yellow appeared at the head of the city with long skins in their hands.

Li Mi stood on the mound of earth and watched from a distance, only to see that the front end of the skin bag suddenly spit out long tongues of fire, and the tongues of fire fell on the ladder and immediately attached a piece, burning violently.

He couldn't help but be surprised: secretly as far as he knew, Wang Shichong was not in the Tiger Prison Pass, but in Luoyang City. The defenders of the city here should be his generals Zhang Gongjin and Yang Gongqing. These two people are so powerful that they have designed such an arson weapon.

This weapon, like the flamethrower of later generations, is called a blazing flamethrower. The so-called fierce fire is sulfur, and it was also called fierce fire oil in the Sui Dynasty. Sulfur is packed into a skin bag, with a vent in front and a hair dryer in the back, which can compress air and spray flames, which is highly lethal. Even in the original Sui army, there were few troops. Only a few of them are in the Imperial Guards. After Wang Shichong occupied the eastern capital of Luoyang, he naturally obtained all the equipment of the Imperial Forest Army. Therefore, it is not surprising that there is a fierce fire spitting sac on the tiger prison.

After pondering for a while, Li Mi said to Wang Bodang: "Bodang, tell Xu Shiji to push the well bar up and suppress the enemy's fierce fire spittle!" ”

Uncle Wang immediately received the order to go down and inform.

After Xu Shiji received the order, he also waved the banner, and the Wei soldiers in the rear pushed more than ten tall well railings and slowly pressed towards the city wall.

The well railing is a high platform made of wooden frames, and at the bottom are four stout wooden posts, equipped with pulleys for everyone to push. Much higher than the city walls.

Originally, the main intention of the designer of the well fence was to let the main general stand in the distance, so that he could condescend and watch the movement in the city. Later, however, the besieging army realized that it was possible to place crossbowmen on the well railings and then condescendingly shoot the defenders.

As long as these more than ten well fences are close to the head of the Tiger Prison Pass, they can shoot at Zheng Jun. Xu Shiji also specially arranged tasks for the archers above. They were asked to focus on shooting the Zheng soldiers who were manipulating the fire spray sacs.

And Li Mi's response obviously had a good effect. Under the attack of arrows like rain, the soldiers of the Zheng army who were holding fierce fire spitts fell to the ground one after another, and their effect was immediately greatly reduced. So that the Wei army could calmly arrange, and then sent a large number of ladders to the city of Tiger Prison Pass, and began to climb.

Seeing this, Zhang Gongjin immediately organized a group of archers to go up to the city, and the Wei army crossbowmen on the well fence to shoot, for a while, the city was like locusts, and both sides paid heavy losses.

Of course, siege warfare is not just a display of various siege equipment, nor is it a victory that can be achieved only by whether these weapons are advanced or not. The final victory or defeat is still decided by the generals and soldiers of both sides.

In general siege warfare, the defenders always have the upper hand. And when the siege soldiers climbed to the top of the city, met the defenders in close combat, and fought bloodily, it was the time when the casualty rate in the siege battle was the highest.

Huge boulders were lifted onto the city walls, and then smashed down to the shouts of the Zheng army, smashing the heads of the besieging Wei soldiers. Many of the Wei soldiers besieging the city screamed and fell to the ground, being smashed to pieces. Even if they didn't die, their legs were broken and their wails rang out.

A siege vehicle rushing to the city gate was stuck in the wheels by the Zheng soldiers at the head of the city, and it was unable to move, and then the fire oil was immediately poured down from the city wall, followed by a torch, and the siege vehicle was set on fire. The Wei soldiers pushing the cart were also connected, covered in flames, and ran out from under the bezel of the siege vehicle screaming. But they were killed by arrows on the ground.

Tiger Prison has now become a slaughterhouse, and corpses are everywhere above and below the city. A puff of smoke drifted from the walls, formed by the burning ladders on the walls and the dust created by the boulders smashing on the walls. The siege of the Wei army, as before, was again in a stalemate.

Li Mi saw that he couldn't make a plan, and he had another plan, he ordered the siege vehicles to continue to hit the city gate, and at the same time, he sent more than ten chariots to secretly approach the city wall, and began to dig tunnels, preparing to sneak into the city through the tunnels.

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