With the temporary retreat of the Khitan army, the first battle between the attacking and defending sides came to an end.

After the Khitan soldiers retreated, the corpses left behind that were not transported in time were spread from the side of the moat to half a mile away, not to mention seven or eight hundred, not counting the seriously wounded soldiers who were dragged away, and it is estimated that only the concentrated shooting of crossbow arrows also left three or four hundred corpses of the Khitan soldiers.

The sky was cloudless, blue as a wash, and with a little relief, Liu Fan sat down comfortably at the battlement and said to Dong Zi: "Hurry up and ask the gang to send some food up, and inform the troops to hurry up and eat and rest." ”

casually said to Uncle Su who had just sat down, "Uncle, is there a way to get those six planks into the moat?" ”

Uncle Su thought for a while and said: "No, although the Khitan soldiers have retreated, but the two thousand people on its two wings do not leave the saddle, that is, to prevent our army from making trouble, as soon as there is a situation, a few hundred steps away from the Khitan cavalry in a blink of an eye, and the west gate has been sealed with bricks and stones, from the north and south gates bypass or from the city wall to hang down one or two people do not do anything, there are too many people, the target is too big, and it has become a live target for the Khitan cavalry before it is close to the plank." ”

Liu Fan thought about it again and said, "Then forget it, what about the casualties?" ”

Uncle Su replied: "Captain Gangqu came over and said that our side lost eighty-seven people and seriously injured fifty-nine, and the Shenwu Army was slightly better, and the total number of killed and seriously injured was also about one hundred and thirteen. This is just the beginning, and the real danger is behind. ”

Knowing that Liu Fan had forgotten everything about the past after waking up, Uncle Su continued: "The defense of Ganzhou City in the fourth year of Zhihe was in charge of the Ganzhou Army, I don't know very well, but in the second year of Zhihe, the Jincheng A Brigade was also responsible for defending this section of the west city wall, that is, you and Dong Zi had just been replenished from Jincheng Mansion, and the new barracks outside the east gate had not yet been assigned to the soldiers, and the city defense battle had been fought for three days, and in the end, the corpses of the enemy and us piled up outside the city were more than one person high, and I was also injured and accidentally fell down to pick up a life in the pile of dead people, After that battle, there were not many people left in the First Brigade. As he spoke, he couldn't help but slowly shake his head.

Before the second quarter of the first month, the second attack of the Khitan army on the city of Ganzhou began.

As before, the cavalry on the left and right flanks circled around the city and suppressed it with cavalry bows, and the infantry team first continued to push the trebuchet slowly into the range of fire, and as the trebuchet began to throw at the city, after a sharp and short horn sound, the siege team carried the ladder and rushed to Ganzhou City from a hundred paces away.

Liu Fan held the battlement and looked at the approaching charging team, and said without looking back: "Dong Zi, you send someone over to tell Geng Dawei, let him divide the crossbowmen into three teams, one team wraps a wooden plank, wait for the cavalry to retreat, use crossbow arrows to show me the three plank bridges, and fill the Khitan soldiers on the plank bridge into the trenches, if the crossbow arrows are not enough, use the foot bow." Bring me another Mo knife. ”

Although Liu Fan's idea was very beautiful, the reality was very skinny, and after less than a moment, the facts made Liu Fan understand how difficult it was to block the enemy on the plank bridge.

With the slow retreat of the Khitan cavalry, the Khitan infantry that had entered the firing range was quickly divided into two parts, one was composed of shield soldiers and archers, the shield soldiers were responsible for blocking the crossbows shot by the city head, and the archers used the arrow rain to suppress the counterattack of the city head.

The other was led by the Khitan soldiers carrying the ladder, followed by a large number of assault soldiers equipped with heavy weapons, the sound of killing shook the sky, and the Khitan soldiers shouted unintelligible slogans in their mouths, and pounced on Ganzhou City like a flood beast.

Although the intensive suppression of the Khitan archers caused the casualties of the defenders at the head of the city to rise rapidly, but under the continuous counterattack of the defenders regardless of life and death, it also effectively hindered the advance speed of the Khitan assault force, especially the concentrated shooting of the strong crossbow designed by Liu Fan, and the Khitan attacking troops who stepped on the plank bridge were estimated to fall on the plank bridge three out of ten, of course, their own losses were also very heavy, and the casualties of the 200 crossbowmen of the Ding battalion had reached more than 40 people.

The enemy army who crossed the moat quickly put the crude ladder that had just been made yesterday on the city wall, and quickly climbed upward, and the cauldron sent by the baggage soldiers at the head of the city had been pushed to the edge of the battlement of the city wall, and a batch of wooden barrels had already been prepared, and the straight knife soldiers carried the wooden barrels to scoop up the hot oil from the pot, and splashed down from the city head according to the ladder, and the Khitan soldiers who were climbing the ladder were poured with hot oil, and the screams were heart-rending one after another, and they fell down from the ladder like stones, and the Khitan soldiers who occasionally dodged the hot oil were greeted by spears and short crossbowsand rolled down the ladder without a single stop.

But the Khitan soldiers seem to be a group of bloodthirsty wolves, still climbing up one after another, with the hot oil buckets poured down, the Khitan soldiers fell down from the ladder like dumplings, and soon became a pile in the root of the city wall, with the Ding battalion captain Qu Yongping an order, the spearmen threw the torches that had been lit down the city wall, and a raging fire was instantly ignited under the city wall, and a fire smoke separated the Ganzhou city wall from the moat, and the Khitan soldiers in the sea of fire were on fire and smoking, struggling and howling, struggling to get up, and fell to the ground without taking a few steps, A puff of black smoke evaporated upwards and rushed straight into the sky, and the clear sky finally had one more 'dark cloud', and the Khitan soldiers who first rushed to the city of Ganzhou were buried in this earthly Shura field together with the cloud ladder under this 'dark cloud'.

Looking at the Khitan army struggling and howling under the city, the soldiers of the Jincheng Army A Brigade did not show pity in their eyes, because they knew very well that in the second and fourth years of He, the Khitan bandits not only turned Ganzhou into a Shura field, but also turned a small half of the northwest into a Shura field, and countless family members and friends died tragically under their butcher's knives, if they were a little unbearable on the battlefield, maybe it would not be long before they would be wailing themselves, pity was weakness, and weakness on the battlefield was equivalent to sending themselves to hell!

Liu Fan saw that the soldiers of the First Brigade had been falling since the beginning of the war, and at this time, he personally watched the human tragedy of blood and fire directed by himself, and his not very strong heart finally couldn't bear it.

Although the weather in the autumn afternoon is still hot, Liu Fan feels as if his body is cold to the bone, a heart beats in his chest like a drum, and he feels like he will erupt from his body at any time, his throat is dry like a fire is burning, and his brain is chaotic, as if he was directly hollowed out with a big soup spoon. Fortunately, all the plans were carefully planned and deduced several times last night, and at this time, the school posts below could be implemented step by step, and the casual arrangement could not be wrong.

Fortunately, the residual sense in his mind told him that he must not be chaotic at this time, and a mess may affect the two thousand people in front of him, and it was this residual reason that helped Liu Fan slowly calm down, making him realize that at this time he was the chief general of the army in charge of the party, and the slightest mistake could make these soldiers who obeyed his command lose ......their lives.

He had no choice but to use what was left of his sanity to force himself to face this cruel human purgatory.

As soon as the Khitan army saw that the situation was not right, they immediately changed their strategy, ignoring the flames that were still burning under the city, and another wave of Khitan soldiers rushed up with a ladder, this wave of Khitan soldiers had obviously seen the power of the oil, holding a weapon in one hand, holding a shield in the other, and using a shield on the top of the head for protection, the hot oil splashed down, and it was only poured on the shield, and it was difficult to hurt itself for a while, so insist on two or three breaths, as long as you find a way to cross the city head and occupy a space at the head of the city, then the Ganzhou city wall is basically in hand.

But the soldiers will block, the water will come to cover, the siege war in history is not so simple, just listen to another order, the head of the city of Ganzhou suddenly rolled wood and stones fell like raindrops, and the Khitan soldiers who had not yet climbed to the battlement were all smashed into meat and mud by the wood and stones, and fell into the smoke of the fire that was still burning below.

Whether it is pouring hot oil or hitting with rolling wood and stones, the archers on both sides have not stopped at all, and the Khitan archers fifty steps away from the city wall are not only suppressing the city defenders with projectiles, but also using point shooting at this time, especially those Khitan archers with good archery skills, aiming at the top of the ladder early, as long as there are soldiers defending the city, more than a dozen feather arrows will immediately swish past, and they can often harvest the lives of a soldier defending the city.

The archers commanded by Qu Yongping at the head of the city were also shooting downward all the time, and some of the soldiers' thumbs were oozing blood, although the overall hit rate was not very high, but it still effectively delayed the offensive speed of the Khitan army.

The crossbowmen, who had been commanded by Geng Dawei, had been concentrating on the three planks, using crossbows or rifles to bring the enemy down on the bridge deck.

Since the beginning of the second quarter of the first month, the attacking and defending sides have been fighting back and forth for nearly two hours, and the city wall has maintained an almost chaotic situation since the Khitan soldiers took the ladder.

Not only were all the soldiers idle, but more than 200 baggage soldiers were responsible for replenishing the equipment for defending the city, carrying away the increasing number of corpses and seriously wounded soldiers, and providing simple care to the lightly wounded soldiers.

Liu Fan, Dong Zi and a few guards also had no time to spare, constantly running around the city wall, sorting out coordination, making decisions on the spot, fighting fires, and immediately joining the defense army when they had a little free time.