"Forward—"

Behind Li Ziweng, the standard-bearer held the battle flag of the eighth battalion of the fire gun high. The flags of the Protectors vary from one to the other, but the flags of the Flame Battalion are all flames. As if under the banner of a raging flame that burned everything, the gunners were lined up in a neat line, with a hundred gunners in each row, and five rows as one commander, and the gunners around the phalanx had already made good spears, and the gunners in the middle hung their spears on their waists, holding the firecrackers with good sticks in one hand and the firecrackers in the other, carefully advancing shoulder to shoulder.

At the end of the day, the sun was in the east, and the huge shadow of Xiangyang City was dragging diagonally in front of the western city wall, and in the shadows that walked in, the eyes of all the firecrackers were dark. The arrows at the head of the city were more dense, and the long arrows fell in arcs and rained down on the phalanx of the firecrackers, and those who were hit by the arrows fell down with a scream, while the others continued on their way with pale faces.

"Left and right, left and right ......"

Bao Qizhang held the spear with the spear stabbed, and Xiangyang City seemed to be a towering giant standing in front of him. Many of the musketeers were first-time fighters and now walked through the ranks with their heads covered by their instincts during training. The soldiers of the Fire Battalion followed the shield carts of the Baggage Battalion with heavy steps. At this moment, arrows began to be fired from the top of the city, and the shield cart could only block a little behind it, and its cover was better than nothing for the firecrackers who were in a neat row a dozen paces away.

"The next one to be hit by the arrow won't be me, Lao Tzu hasn't tasted the taste of a woman yet, so I'm dead," Guo Hong swallowed. He suppressed the fear in his heart, and desperately thought about the words and stories of the marquis immediately: "There will be no seeds, maybe, Lao Tzu will be next." It is better to die on the battlefield than to die in the workshop like a mouse or a cockroach. ”

The shield cart stopped at a distance of more than 20 paces from the city wall, and the officers of the baggage battalion calculated very accurately, and made a right angle to the height of the city wall, and the Liao army at the head of the city was exactly within the range of the firearms. "Stand!" The officers of the Musket Battalion shouted orders. The Gun Battalion and the Bow Battalion were parked behind the shield carts. The range of the bow and arrow is longer than that of the firearm, and the bow and arrow of the Xia Kingdom especially emphasizes the range. When the first row of firecrackers squatted down, and the second row of firecrackers hurriedly erected the firecrackers, the arrow formation of the Iron Bone Army had been formed. The crossbowman bends his bow and raises it diagonally. There was a sharpshooter in every ten-man team of the bow and crossbow battalion, and without waiting for the officer's order, he shot an arrow and threw the long arrow at the head of the city, and the arrows fell on the head of Xiangyang without exception. Then, fifteen hundred archers bent their bows and arrows together, and each Xia crossbowman had his own self-confidence, but they all followed the military order and took the same team of archers.

"Shoot the arrows—" the centurion commanded in a loud voice.

"Whoosh-" "Whoosh-" Hundreds of arrows burst through the air and shot diagonally upward. After an instant, the screams of the arrows sounded at the head of the city, and almost at the same time, the arrows shot by the Liao army were also a little sparse. At this time, the firecracker finally set up the firecracker. Maintaining a formation within the range of arrows at the head of the city is actually not much different from the casualties of the siege camp. But almost all of the musketeers were relieved that they had stopped advancing. So much so that he can endure the constant fall of people around him in the rain of arrows.

Li Ziweng stood in the rain of arrows that kept coming down, instinctively feeling fear. He was born in the general's family, but most of his service time was spent in the Tiger Wing Army and the Marching Division, and it was the first time he really experienced siege warfare. To be honest, this level of "rain of arrows" was a little more sparse than he had imagined, after all, the space on the city walls was limited, and the area below the city was more open. However, it was difficult for almost everyone to remain calm when the arrows "whizzed" past them, when the soldiers fell with screams, when the ears were filled with the wails of the wounded and the roars of other officers.

"Fire—"

A loud shout woke Li Ziweng from self-blame. His face was flushed, and he was distracted for a moment. Wang Qizhi, a guy who usually looks mediocre, actually maintains his composure.

"A fierce general will be a pawn." Li Ziweng muttered, he raised his head, stared at the arrows shot at the city as if he did not admit defeat, and repeated loudly: "Fire!" "Fire!" Bao Qizhang and Guo Hong ordered loudly almost at the same time, and the firecrackers lit the fuse, and a moment later, "Bang Bang" smoke rose everywhere, and hundreds of guns shot towards the city, and the screams from the city became more and more intense.

"Damn," complained one of the crossbowmen, "the firebolt battalion will fire a few more times, and the human form of the city will not be clear." ”

"They don't care, they don't aim anyway." The comrade next to him smiled, "Firing artillery can also scare and scare people." He stretched his arm, bent his bow and set up his arrow, and shot an arrow, which flew lightly to the head of the city. During the time the firebolt fires, the crossbowman can shoot at least three arrows. However, the fire battalion also had a task, which was to use spears to resist the onslaught of the cavalry. Partnered with the Musket Battalion and the Spear Battalion, the crossbowmen did not have to risk huge sacrifices to draw their swords in hand-to-hand combat.

The Rushing Car and the Ladder Cart continued to advance towards the city wall, and the Sword and Shield Battalion quickly overtook the Fire Gun Camp and followed closely behind the Rushing Car and the Ladder Car. In the face of the brutal battle of the city, all the sword and shield hands had grim faces. Just wait for the officer to give the order to disband the formation, either grab a place in the battle shed of the rushing car and ladder car, or hurry to the bottom of the city wall, which is the dead end of the bow and arrow at the head of the city, but you have to be careful of rolling wood and stones, boiling oil and gold juice, these damn things. According to the military government's regulations, the siege must be patient, and it is best to bombard the city for a long time with siege equipment such as siege guns and stone throwers, and then launch a decisive attack after destroying the will and resistance of the defenders in the city. But now the situation is peculiar, and with almost no shelling and throwing stones, the brutal siege battle begins.

"Go!" The centurion shouted morale under the ladder cart. The sword and shield hand holds the horizontal knife in his mouth, holds the square shield on his head with one hand, and climbs the ladder with the other hand, as nimble as an ape. All the sergeants bit their lips and crawled towards the city with all their life's skills. Someone kept snorting and being smashed down, but no wails or screams could be heard. There were corpses lying all over the city. The stones and rolling logs at the head of the city continued to fall, and those who were hit were either killed or injured, and in less than a stick of incense, the two sword and shield battalions besieging the city were killed and wounded nearly 100 people.

"General," Gao Gongmao's face couldn't bear it, "The sergeant is the pillar of the country, and the damage is too heavy, why don't you retreat first, and then attack the city after the artillery bombards the city wall." At this time, with a loud "boom", the artillery battalion finally began to shell, and several black shells crossed the battlefield, although they did not hit the city wall, but fell in the city of Xiangyang.

"Boom-"

"Boom-"

Thick clouds of smoke rose, and shells kept flying towards the head of Xiangyang City. The artillery position, which was supposed to be in order, was chaotic, and the ammunition truck was parked directly behind the gun position, which was absolutely forbidden by Zhao Xingde in the order. Any one enemy hit with a red-hot bomb would be enough to cause a carnage-like explosion. The horses did not have time to lead to the back, and were tied less than ten feet away from the guns, and the gunners scrambled to reload their ammunition. "There's really no rules." Centurion Guo Zidong secretly complained while commanding, "If General Zhao was here, he would definitely not have opened fire without building a fortification." He looked ahead worriedly, the artillery fort was close to nothing, two battalions of musketeers, two battalions of spearmen were equal to the formation of a formation on the flat ground to protect the artillery. However, the military order could not be disobeyed, and every piece of artillery in the artillery battalion was set up and fired at the head of Xiangyang City at the fastest speed.

Heavy iron bullets fell into Xiangyang City, occasionally cannonballs hit the city wall, bricks and stones flew sideways, wooden war towers were directly penetrated by cannonballs, and the Liao troops crowded in the war tower to release arrows screamed again and again. In the field of vision of the clairvoyant mirror, the Liao army at the head of the city was obviously much panicked. Although there are iron barrel cannons left by the Song army at the head of the city, the range and accuracy are not as good as those of the Xia State.

"That's just a breath away. The Liao army was attacked by the enemy, and the Song army had already entered the city, so it was just a breath away. ”

Wu Jie put down the clairvoyant mirror and ordered, "The artillery battalion will bombard the city wall, and the musketeers will also go up to attack the city." The White Feather Army kept an eye on the point, preventing the Liao cavalry from rushing out. ”

After the order was handed down, the fire gun battalion disbanded the phalanx, and more than 2,000 people followed the shield cart and the ladder cart close to the city wall. The increasingly accurate artillery bombardment under the city also doubled the pressure on the defenders at the head of the city. At the top of several cloud ladders, the Xia army that had ascended the city had already met the Liao army in close quarters. The sergeants are skilled in martial arts, and often one person can block two or three Liao troops without falling behind. Xia Jun was not in a hurry to attack, and three or four sword and shield men stood in a circle around the ladder. The city wall is narrow, the Liao army is blocked by the big shield when the arrow is released, and the front fights, for a time it is impossible to drive these sword and shield hands with big shoulders and round waists and heavy armor down the city, with more and more sword and shield hands who climb the city, a melee is formed in the city wall.

Yelu Yangliu, the general of the North Courtyard, rushed back from the melee regiment, and couldn't find Dutong Xiao Lira, he recognized a hurried soldier as Dutong's personal soldier, and asked loudly: "Where is Lord Dutong?" "The capital is great, great, your lord......" The soldier was speechless for a long time, and at this time, someone in the city exclaimed: "The cavalry has been drawn out of camp!" Yelu Yang Liuyi threw this personal soldier on the ground, rushed to the inside of the battlement and looked forward, only to see the Khitan cavalry originally stationed in the gate of the urn city galloping along the street into the distance. In front of a group of cavalry generals, it was vaguely Xiangyang who stayed behind and was the commander of the infantry army. The cavalry general shouted loudly, and the horses had to gallop all the way to the west, and Xiao Lira's figure disappeared behind the narrow alleys.

"What did Xiao Dutong do when he transferred the cavalry?" Yelu Yang Liu was shocked, "Is it to rescue Xicheng?" But the battle in Dongcheng is so fierce, if he doesn't sit here, I'm afraid we won't be able to withstand it. He went to the rescue of Xicheng, why didn't he say hello to me, and took the cavalry away. Thinking of another possibility, Yelu Yang Liu's body was like falling into the ice valley, "Impossible, if he loses Xiangyang City, isn't he afraid that His Majesty will cut off his head?" ”

In the sound of "booming" cannons, arrows kept "swishing" and flying over with guns, and the shouts of killing on the city wall became louder and louder.

Although the firecrackers are not skilled enough in martial arts, and the firecrackers go back and forth to block and stab a few moves, there are more and more firecrackers who go to the city, which greatly shares the pressure of the sergeants.