Chapter 123: The Battle of Pengcheng (Part II)
Fierce battle! A real battle! The largest and bloodiest brutal battle since the young marshal's army began!
The sound of war drums crumbled, and the arrows of the warring sides flew around like locusts, whistling on the battlefield full of corpses, covering the winter sun again and again, and the Qin soldiers who charged under the rain of arrows were constantly killed and wounded by arrows, making screams or muffled snorts, although the young marshal soldiers hiding behind the sheep and horse walls and at the top of the camp wall were protected by fortifications, they were still constantly being shot by the arrows of the Qin army that shot directly or projectilely, splashing dark red blood-colored waves.
Drawing the lessons of the failure of the last attack on the camp, the Qin army no longer let the long shield line up in a horizontal line to cover the crossbowmen to use the trebuchet of the young marshal army as a target, but instead arranged the long shield in the shape of fish scales, so as to reduce the possibility of being hit by the trebuchet of the young marshal army, and also discharged four thousand crossbowmen with long shields in one breath, and at the same time suppressed the defenders of the southwest two gates of the young marshal army camp. Directly smashed a long shield platoon of the Qin army, creating an ideal opportunity for the crossbowmen of the army to take advantage of the chaos to kill the enemy.
On the contrary, because it was aimed at a fixed target, the trebuchet of the Qin army received a more ideal effect, dozens of pounds of solid stones adsorbed the water mist in the air, and smashed the camp wall of the young marshal army again and again, smashed the barracks wall of the young marshal built of rammed earth into many depressions, and also smashed the female wall at the top of the camp wall to many corners, the defenders of the young marshal army on the city wall, and the young marshal army bowmen behind the sheep and horse wall, some of them did not have time to snort at all, and they were stoned to death by the Qin army's stone throwing.
Fortunately, the range of the Qin army's towed trebuchet is not as good as that of the bow and crossbow, and it is necessary to concentrate manpower to pull the rope and send stones within the range of the bow and crossbow of the young marshal army, and the young marshal soldiers still have the opportunity to carry out counterattacks and limit the firing speed and frequency of the Qin army's trebuchet. However, in this way, of course, the officers and men of the young marshal army had no way to deal with the Qin army's trench and bridge convoy with all their might, and the Qin army's trench convoy took the opportunity to quickly approach the first line of the young marshal's army to protect the camp and build the trench bridge at the risk of death.
The rain of arrows of the young marshal's army was almost all concentrated on the Qin army's trench convoy at this moment, only the soldiers of the Qin army who were protected by the round shield kept getting arrows, and some people fell into the trench in a panic and were stabbed into meat skewers by the sharp stakes in the trench. But even so, the stubborn Qin soldiers still followed one after another, constantly put the trench bridge vehicles on the opposite bank, set up a temporary trench bridge, and successfully broke through the first line of camp protection trenches of the young marshal's army.
The battle was even more fierce, in order to prevent the enemy from crossing the trench and approaching the second line of guard trenches, the crossbowmen of the young marshal's army frantically fired arrows until many people collapsed from strength, forcing Xiang Kang to quickly send troops out of the camp to rotate the troops outside the camp whose physical strength had seriously decreased. The same is true on the Qin army's side, in order to cover the entrenchment convoy to build the bridge, many Qin soldiers are so tired that their faces are covered with sweat, but they are still desperately pulling the strings and casting feather arrows.
The failure to build a sheep and horse wall between the two trenches to provide a buffer was undoubtedly a major failure of the young marshal's army in the construction of the camp, resulting in the Qin army's trench bridge convoy breaking through the first trench, and directly pushing the trench bridge car to the second trench to quickly build a bridge, Xiang Kang finally found out that it was too late to rescue and recover, so he could only watch the Qin army build a bridge on the second trench and open the road to the barracks wall and the sheep and horse wall.
The courage of the soldiers of the Qin army is also worthy of admiration, just after building a few bridges on the second trench, immediately some Qin soldiers rushed directly through the trench and hit the young marshal crossbowmen behind the sheep and horse wall, although the young marshal army crossbowmen also immediately pulled out their swords and resisted bravely, hacking and killing many Qin soldiers who dared to die like this, but the effect of bow and crossbow suppression was greatly affected, more trench and bridge vehicles successively set up the second line of camp protection trenches, and more Qin soldiers and soldiers also took the opportunity to rush to the sheep and horse wall to fight, forming a vicious circle.
Finally, after nearly an hour of arduous fighting, and after paying a considerable price, more than 70 of the first batch of 80 trench and bridge vehicles dispatched by the Qin army were successively built on the two guards of the young marshal's army, opening more than 20 roads to the wall of the young marshal's barracks. Zhang Ping, who personally led the army to attack the west gate of the camp of the young marshal's army, did not hesitate, and immediately ordered the two thousand elite of Longxi under his command to step forward and carry a flying ladder to storm the west gate of the camp of the young marshal's army.
The same is true on the south gate, although some are reluctant to use the elite of Longxi, the core backbone of the Qin army, but limited by Zhang Ping's strict orders, Yao Ang, who led the army to attack the south gate of the camp of the young marshal's army, still dispatched 2,000 elite soldiers, supplemented by 2,000 infantry, and cooperated with the main force to launch a strong attack on the southern section of the young marshal's army camp at the same time.
The real attack officially began, the elite of the Qin army who strode out of the battle first trot, and then gradually accelerated, and when they were about to enter the range of the bow and crossbow of the young marshal army, they shouted in unison, and charged together, while the young marshal soldiers above and below the camp wall were frantically releasing arrows, desperately weakening the Qin army's attacking team. At the same time, at the same time, an accident happened, and in the camp of the young marshal's army, waves of arrows suddenly flew out, whistling in a parabola flying up and down, and nailed to the heads of the Qin army's officers and soldiers, and many Qin soldiers were caught off guard in the face of the young marshal's army's suddenly expanded firepower, and the casualties suddenly expanded a lot.
"Throwing arrows from the battalion? Do thieves still have this ability? ”
Zhang Ping was stunned, although Zhang Ping knew very well how the young marshal's soldiers did this, and knew that the young marshal's army must have an observer hand on the women's wall, and through the banner of the observer, he commanded the archers in the camp to release arrows, and killed and injured the Qin soldiers outside the camp with a cluster of blind shots. But the young marshal army had never used this trick before, so Zhang Ping and the soldiers of the Qin army always thought that the rabble of the young marshal army did not have this skill, so they were caught off guard. Then Zhang Ping immediately came to his senses and couldn't help scolding: "Treacherous dog thief!" I deliberately kept this trick all the time, specially used to deal with the elite of the general's attacking camp! ”
It's a pity that the young marshal's army is not very skilled in blind shooting in the rear, and most of the bows and arrows released by the throwing are still missing, although the elite of the Qin army who were killed and injured a lot by luck still failed to stop the Qin army's charge, and the well-trained elite of the Qin army still quickly rushed through the first line of the young marshal's army to protect the camp trench, forcing the young marshal soldiers behind the sheep and horse wall to retreat in a hurry, and the cat's waist ran to the north gate of the camp facing Gushui to return to the camp. At the same time, there was no projectile angle, and the young marshal archers in the city had no choice but to give up blind shooting.
The blood really began to flow, when the soldiers of the Qin army shouted and rushed through the second trench of the young marshal's army, scrambling to set up the flying ladder to the top of the young marshal's barracks wall that was only one zhang high, all the intrigues and despicable tricks were useless, and only the courage, fighting spirit and tenacity of the soldiers on both sides determined the victory or defeat of the two sides.
The elite of the Qin army in Longxi is indeed worthy of its reputation, against the stone ash bottle that the young marshal army continues to smash, only the first charge, there are no less than twenty people rushed to the top of the camp wall of the young marshal army, fortunately, the young marshal soldiers have long been prepared for this, the enemy just came up and immediately stabbed with Ge pecked spears, and the young marshal soldiers guarding behind the female wall used swords or slashed or stabbed, and the long and short weapons cooperated to kill the Qin soldiers in a hurry, and killed several Qin soldiers who tried to cross the female wall in one go, and the remaining soldiers were also successfully blocked by the young marshal soldiers outside the female wall, was forced to fight with the solid young marshal soldiers under the feet across the women's wall, although it also caused some casualties to the young marshal soldiers, but because there was only a flying ladder under their feet to borrow strength, most of them were quickly stabbed down and pushed down the flying ladder and fell half to death.
More flying ladders were put on the wall one after another, so that more Qin soldiers rushed to the top of the camp wall one after another, and the pressure on the young marshal army was also increasing, and the top of the camp wall could be seen everywhere The soldiers on both sides could be seen fighting across the female wall, and there was the sound of shouting and sword collision everywhere, from time to time, the red-eyed Qin soldiers jumped over the women's wall with death, and the young marshal soldiers behind the female wall fought hand-to-hand combat, at the cost of their own sacrifices, in exchange for the formation disorder of the young marshal army, so that more Qin soldiers and soldiers could have the opportunity to rush to the camp wall. After only a few moments of fighting, the battalion wall defense line of the young marshal's army was already in danger of crumbling.
"Hold on! Resist! Resist Lao Tzu! You can't go back, you can't go back a step! ”
I never thought that the elite combat effectiveness of the Qin army would be so strong, so quickly beat myself to the point that I couldn't parry, the young marshal general Zheng Bu who was guarding the west camp wall had his eyes blood-red, in addition to letting the supervising team decisively kill the timid retreating self-soldiers, and personally rushed to the enemy with his own soldiers, killing the enemy with his own hands, and was forced by the supervising team, and seeing that the main generals of the self-army were so brave, Zheng Bujun's soldiers regained some courage, stood firm and stood with their own swords and spears, and roared just to fight with the enemy who kept crossing the female wall, During this period, there were also many tragic pictures of soldiers hugging each other and dying together.
The situation at the south gate of the camp is similar, the brave and elite Qin soldiers soon rushed to the top of the camp wall, killing the young marshal soldiers led by Xiang Guan were frightened, and they could only rely on the advantages of fortifications to support themselves, and they could not completely kill the enemy at all.
Seeing this scene, Zhang Ping, the chief general of the Qin army, was of course triumphant, and he believed that the self-army would definitely be able to break through the camp of the young marshal's army today, and annihilate Xiang Kang in one fell swoop It took a lot of effort to form the main force of the young marshal army, but at this time, a Qin army scout suddenly came from the north bank of Gushui and reported to Zhang Ping the news that Liu Ji's subordinate of the anti-Qin rebel army was rapidly approaching Pengcheng. Zhang Ping was furious when he heard this, and roared: "Bold rebel! Knowing that the general's army was here, he dared to come to the rescue of Xiang Kang's traitor, and he was looking for death! ”
"General, you must not let Liu Ji's rebel army get close to Gushui." The subordinates next to him admonished: "Our army is fighting hard against Xiang Kang's thief army, if he is close to Gushui and does not need him to cross the river for reinforcements, our morale and fighting spirit will be affected immediately, and the thief army will definitely be demoralized, then our battle will not be easy to fight." Therefore, the last general thinks that we should take the initiative to send troops to meet the attack and defeat Liu Ji's rebels in the middle of the road, so as not to affect our attack on the rebel camp. ”
Zhang Ping nodded, first asked Liu Laosan's reinforcements of about 3,000 people, and then immediately sent an order to the troops left behind in the camp, asking the defenders of the large camp to send 3,000 troops to cross the valley immediately, take the initiative to go north to meet Liu Laosan's army, and explained that Liu Laosan's army must be defeated in the middle, and Liu Laosan's army must not be allowed to form close to the bank of the valley.
After making this arrangement, Zhang Ping, who was slightly distracted, hurriedly turned back to look at the offensive and defensive situation of the camp wall battlefield, and what made Zhang Ping angry was that he was only so slightly distracted, and the situation on the camp wall battlefield had already changed a lot. Although the soldiers of the Qin army were brave and good at fighting, they suffered from relying on flying ladders to climb the wall, the investment of troops was slow, and the fierce momentum of the drum was gradually neutralized, and they were gradually pulled into a stalemate.
Angry that under the influence of Liu Laosan's reinforcements, he missed the best opportunity to quickly invest in the follow-up army, Zhang Ping did not dare to hesitate, and immediately invested 2,000 troops in the front to strengthen the offensive, and sent 2,000 troops to carry the collision wood to directly attack the two gates to the west of the young marshal's army camp, Xiang Kang did not dare to slack off when he saw it in the camp, and immediately ordered the fierce general Long He to lead 500 carefully selected warriors to climb the wall to help Zheng Bu resist the offensive of the Qin army.
The Qin army sent 2,000 reinforcements, and Xiang Kang only sent 500 reinforcements on his side, not because the total strength of the young marshal's army was at an absolute disadvantage, but because the space at the top of the camp wall was narrow, and the reinforcements could not stand at any time, so they could only put so many reinforcements at a time, and the space under the camp wall was relatively open, so Zhang Ping could put in so many reinforcements in one go.
Zhang Ping just saw that the space under the camp wall could accommodate so many Qin troops, but he forgot that the trench that the young marshal army had worked so hard to dig still existed, and the Qin army reinforcements still had to step on the trench bridge car to rush across the trench and join the battlefield, so even if the Qin army's reinforcements set off first, they were doomed to not be able to enter the battlefield immediately. The young marshal's side was unhindered, and Long He led five hundred young marshal warriors to charge at once, and quickly stepped on the steps built before and rushed directly to the camp wall, taking the lead in joining the battle.
The battle situation of the camp wall has also changed again, so that the soldiers of the Qin army are secretly frightened, the young marshal soldiers who have just come up not only have the advantage of physical strength, but also the combat effectiveness of individual soldiers is obviously higher than that of the previous defenders on the wall, many soldiers still hold narrow long knives in their hands that they have never seen before, and they are slashing and slashing, even if they hit the helmet, they can also cause heavy damage to the Qin soldiers. And what made the Qin soldiers even more frightened was that these young marshals were still fighting very hard, forgetting their lives between rushing and killing, and they didn't think about hurting their allies by mistake at all.
Even the elite of the Qin army was a little unable to resist the fierce strength of the young marshal's reinforcements, and the number of casualties rose rapidly, and the position at the head of the wall that had been occupied with great difficulty was gradually recaptured by the officers and soldiers of the young marshal's army, and even began to appear that the Qin soldiers gradually retreated from the head of the wall to the bottom of the wall. Even if the Qin army that came later was gradually put into the battlefield, the young marshal soldiers who had already relieved their breath still firmly resisted the attack of the Qin army, and the two sides repeatedly tug-of-war on the camp wall, and there was always a stalemate.
The battle situation on the side of the camp gate is also extremely fierce, the crossbow arrows cast by the young marshal army in turn are like a metal storm, constantly shooting the Qin infantry who are carrying the crashing wood and charging down, but the Qin army soldiers have always persevered, repeatedly hitting the two west camp gates of the young marshal army, even if the corpses are heavy, they do not flinch, they are as tenacious as a group of single-celled creatures, and they have successfully touched the camp gate of the young marshal army more than once.
The situation on the battlefield of the South Gate has changed slightly, because there are more recruits in the department of the young marshal army Xiang Guan, and the situation is more critical than the battlefield of the West Gate.
The sound of war drums on the battlefield has already resounded through the heavens and the earth, and the small snow particles as fine as powder have quietly fallen unconsciously, but the officers and soldiers of the two armies on the battlefield are unaware, shouting and roaring just desperately to beckon the enemy with their weapons, each desperately moving forward, desperately fighting for the position at the top of the narrow camp wall, the camp wall of the young marshal's army was stained red, and the corpses were piled up under the wall, and the corpses at the top of the camp wall were also dense, and the soldiers on both sides were already stepping on the corpses and fighting with the seriously wounded.
As the vanguard of the Longxi elite consumption is too much, Yao Ang took the lead in withdrawing the elite of Longxi, replacing the ordinary Qin army composed of Lishan prisoners to fight, Xiang Zhuang did not dare to slack off, taking advantage of the opportunity of the Qin army's temporary retreat, quickly withdrew the Xiang champion team that had suffered heavy casualties, and sent another 3,000 troops to the wall to change the defense, and the Qin army that came again continued to start a bloody battle.
Unable to withstand the repeated beggings of his generals, Zhang Ping was also forced to withdraw the Longxi elite who had gone into battle before, and replaced the last two thousand Longxi elites in his hands to attack the camp, Xiang Kang also seized the opportunity to withdraw Zheng Bu's army, which was already on the verge of collapse, and let Chao Zhi lead the army into battle and take over Zheng Bu to guard the camp wall.
The battle only subsided a little because of the rotation of the army, and then immediately unfolded more in full swing, and the physical strength of the two sides cut and killed me across the female wall, fighting so dark, the sun and the moon were dark, and at the same time, they repeatedly tug-of-war, and no one would take half a step back.
Time passed rapidly minute by minute, and cold sweat gradually appeared on Xiang Kang's forehead, because Xiang Kang could see that although the self-army was still able to withstand it now, it never had any chance to completely defeat the enemy, and the Qin army, which had twice as many troops as itself, only needed to continue to fight like this, and it was likely that it would suddenly make a breakthrough and successfully enter its own camp, which would bring disastrous consequences to the main force of the self-army, Xiang Kang was so anxious, but there was no way.
Zhang Ping also saw this, so no matter how tragic the battle ahead was, and how huge the casualties of the Qin army soldiers were, Zhang Ping never frowned, and let the front tug of war consume, and was determined to consume the young marshal army and take down this Great Qin camp that killed countless Great Qin warriors.
The battle was so tragic that it could not be described with pen and ink, the soldiers on both sides who had been hoarse in their voices slashed and chopped, stepped on the corpses and stumps to fight frantically, and the soldiers on both sides continued to roll down from the camp wall, and it was not uncommon for the soldiers on both sides to scuffle together and die together, and the red-eyed Qin soldiers continued to sacrifice their lives to jump over the women's wall, and the young marshal soldiers with the same blood-red eyes were desperately slashing, and the blood under the camp wall had flowed so much that even the soil could not absorb it, and began to converge into a pool of blood.
Still still can't be tug-of-war, the precarious defense line of the young marshal's army may be broken through by the Qin army at any time, and the sword of Damocles hanging above Xiang Kang's head may also suddenly fall at any time, cutting Xiang Kang in two.
At this time, the west gate of Pengcheng is ready to open the city gate at any time to let the defeated troops of the young marshal army enter the city, if it is not for the heavy responsibility of defending the city, Xiang Sheng, who is connected with Xiang Kang, Xiang Zhuang and others, must have personally led the army out of the city to come to reinforcements.
It was still at this time that a miracle suddenly appeared, in the shouts from the north, Liu Laosan's red banner suddenly appeared on the north bank of Gushui, and what is even more incredible is that in front of Liu Laosan's military flag, there was a large group of defeated soldiers of the Qin army who lost their armor and fled south in embarrassment by Liu Laosan's army like a duck.
Seeing this scene, of course, the morale of the young marshal army was thunderous, and the morale that had seriously declined after a long battle was almost instantaneously returned to the top, but the Qin army was in an uproar, and the morale suddenly fell to the bottom, and it was quickly killed by the morale of the young marshal army, and the position at the head of the wall that it had worked hard to occupy was lost in a blink of an eye, and the flying ladder on the wall was also overturned by the young marshal army one after another, and the offensive was suddenly frustrated. Zhang Ping yelled in disbelief: "How is it possible? How can it be? How could our army be defeated by Liu Ji's rabble? ”
Contrary to Zhang Ping's desperate yelling, Xiang Kang was in high spirits, first praising Liu Laosan for being unambiguous in the anti-Qin matter, and then immediately shouted: "Beat the drum!" Fight the enemy! Take this opportunity to kill the Tyrannical Qin army! ”
The young marshal army drummer, who had long been exhausted, was also resurrected in situ at this moment, categorically refused the rotation request kindly put forward by his companions, and struggled to swing the heavy drum hammer and beat the cowhide drum violently, the young marshal soldiers were encouraged, and saw the good news of the arrival of the reinforcements with their own eyes.
At the same time, Liu Laosan's gorgeous chariot also appeared on the north bank of Gushui, looking at the battlefield on the south bank that was already full of corpses, Liu Laosan laughed and said: "Xiang Kang, Xiang Shaoshuai, I owe you a favor, but this time I have paid it back with interest!" I will pay you back, and you will remember to pay me back in the future! ”