What are you talking about, the Northwest Army is attacking Yinglin City?! After hearing the report of the spies who came desperately after a long time, not to mention Xie Yuheng and the others, even An Guogong, who was deeper than the city government, couldn't help but change his face.

"Yes, sir.

Just about three hours ago, about 60,000 Northwest Army suddenly attacked Yinglin City.

Since the entire Yinglin City was surrounded by the Northwest Legion, the villain could not contact Lord Liu in the city, so he had to come over alone to inform the adults of the matter. ”

After listening to what happened, An Guogong only felt that his heart was beating like a drum and his eyelids were jumping.

It wasn't that he didn't imagine that the Northwest Army might take advantage of the opportunity to attack Yinglin while they were attacking Fengyang City.

Because most of their grain and grass are stored in Yinglin City, this is the most important place. That's why he deliberately sent his henchman Liu An, the governor of the Five Armies, and his grandson Xie Changyu to lead the army to guard Yinglin.

At the beginning, the 20,000 Northwest Army guarding Yinglin City, it took six days for the Wei army to be defeated, and it took nearly 70,000 casualties to finally defeat it.

Now the Wei army has been replaced to defend the city, and the number of defenders has increased to 40,000, which is twice as much as before.

Even with the bravery of the Northwest Army, it would definitely not have been possible to defeat it without spending four or five days and paying 70,000 or 80,000 casualties.

In addition, Fengyang is only two days away from Yinglin, and if you ride a fast horse, it will take half a day.

If the enemy really attacks, as long as Yinglin City can support it for a day or two, the army will have time to go back and fight the enemy and strangle the enemy under the city.

Therefore, even if it were him, he would not dare to take this risk.

Whoever dares to do this must be a madman.

But he never expected that Ning Zhiyuan was such a madman who would dare to attack Lin Cheng's idea.

With Ning Zhiyuan's many years of experience, he is not the kind of person who does it casually without being sure.

Could it be that the Ning family was really sure that they could capture Yinglin City, which had 40,000 defenders, with 60,000 people in a day or two?

Thinking of this, An Guogong couldn't think about it anymore, and immediately ordered the whole army to rush to Yinglin, and let the cavalry go first, and be sure to rush there as quickly as possible to reinforce.

The forest with a large amount of grain and grass must not be lost! Not only An Guogong, but also the common idea of all the high-ranking Wei army.

After a period of chaos, the entire army was quickly mobilized. Under the urging of generals at all levels, whether it was regular soldiers or ordinary people, they were all ordered to rush to Yinglin City desperately.

In terms of the number of war horses, the Wei army was less than half of that of the Northwest Army. But even so, eighty percent of the cavalry in the army was urgently called up, and then a cavalry brigade of 18,000 men was formed and set off immediately.

It's all about the same goal, rushing there for reinforcements as quickly as possible.

……………………

Just when the Wei army was racing against time to catch up, the siege battle on the side of Yinglin City was in full swing.

Indeed, at this time, there were 40,000 defenders in Yinglin City, although they were not as brave and good at fighting as the Northwest Army, but they also had the power to fight by relying on the benefits of the city.

On the other hand, the besieging Northwest Army only has about 60,000 people, and it stands to reason that this amount of strength is indeed unlikely to be able to capture Yinglin City, which has high walls and a large number of soldiers.

But Ning Zhiyuan, the general of the Northwest, dared to take such a risk, so he naturally had something to rely on.

And the thing he relied on was related to a suggestion from his little son-in-law Chi Fei.

The reason why Ning Zhiyuan insisted on taking Yinglin City was not only to let the Wei army run out of food, so as to checkmate them directly. Another and more important purpose was to devour a large amount of grain and grass in the city.

There is grain and grass for more than one million Wei troops in the city for nearly three months, which is definitely a big fat meat for the Northwest Army, which is short of military food.

As long as these grains and grasses are successfully obtained, the dilemma of the Northwest Army's shortage of military rations will be greatly alleviated.

With these two great benefits, this Yinglin City must be obtained.

A few days ago, when Ning Zhiyuan and a group of generals in the northwest camp made a plan to attack Yinglin City, Ning Zhiyuan planned to send more veterans to take the city in the shortest possible time.

But in this way, the number of veterans on the frontal battlefield will be greatly reduced, and the gap can only be filled with new soldiers.

This is a very dangerous thing for Ning Zhiyuan, who is using his example as bait, so he is opposed by many generals.

Chi Fei knew that his father-in-law was not only the head of the Ning family, but also the backbone of the Northwest Army, and he must not have an accident, and he also felt that such an arrangement was inappropriate.

But the sneak attack on Yinglin City does require more combat power, otherwise it will be difficult to realize this plan.

Since the number of veterans cannot be increased, the combat power of new recruits can only be increased.

So Chi Fei made a bold suggestion, maybe he could try to adopt the Hu people's tactics.

The reason why the Hu people have been able to attack cities and plunder land everywhere for many years and run rampant is that in addition to the fierceness of the soldiers themselves, there is also a crucial siege law: that is, the original continuous archery array created by the first king of the Great Turks, King Bayu.

A few years ago, after Chi Fei heard about Hu Ren's method of continuous shooting, he was very interested in it, and deeply felt that this tactic was indeed a strong siege tactic.

Through this special method of warfare, regardless of the casualties of the archers, the Hu people were able to quickly climb up to the top of the city and engage in hand-to-hand combat with the enemy under the cover of a large number of archers behind them.

With the ferocity of the Hu people, once they successfully climbed to the top of the city, for most of the soldiers defending the city with average combat strength, it was simply a catastrophe, and the city was often taken strongly in a few rounds.

The Hu people relied on this fierce and fearless style of play to capture one city after another in the surrounding areas.

Since the father-in-law insisted on taking Yinglin City at any cost, it was better to use this kind of battle method that had been used by the Hu people for many years and was really effective to attack the city.

Moreover, their Northwest Army had a greater advantage over the Hu people, that is, they had flintlock pistols that were more powerful and had a longer range than ordinary bows and arrows. This may be a way to open up the situation more quickly.

After listening to Chi Fei's suggestion, Ning Zhiyuan and the others were immediately interested, and immediately began to discuss the possibility of this style of play.

And now the method used by the Northwest Army to deal with the defenders of Yinglin is the improved method of continuous fire by the Hu people.

In order to achieve this tactic, Ning Zhiyuan directly transferred 7,600 archers to participate in this sneak attack battle.

In addition to this group of archers, there were more than 2,300 musketeers belonging to the Shenji Battalion.

These two thousand three hundred people, plus the five thousand people around Ning Zhiyuan, this is all the people of the Shenji Battalion.

In other words, of the 60,000 soldiers, only 50,000 were actually responsible for the siege, and the remaining 10,000 were all long-range shooters responsible for cover.

In this battle, Ning Zhiyuan can be said to have really bet on most of his net worth.

In order to protect these archers and musketeers as much as possible, Ning Zhiyuan gave them helmets and armor for cavalry.

Due to the need to shoot arrows and guns, these ranged shooters do not have access to shields, so this helmet and armor are the only equipment they can use to protect themselves.

At the beginning of the siege, the more than 7,600 archers lined up in two rows, front and rear.

They were followed by 2,300 musketeers in 460 columns of five.

Both archers and musketeers stood motionless and kept shooting arrows and shots in the direction of the city, within the effective range of their arrows and lead bullets.

Even if you are hit by an arrow flying down from the castle, you can't move, unless you are seriously injured or unable to draw your bow, you can back down and give up your position to others.

These shooters had only one purpose, and that was to try to cover their comrades as much as possible to climb the walls and engage in hand-to-hand combat with the enemy.

Although ordinary bows and arrows cannot penetrate the helmet and armor of the archer, it is difficult to block the attack of a strong crossbow at such a high distance from the enemy.

Under several rounds of crossbow attacks by the Wei army, many archers and musketeers were still wounded or killed by crossbow arrows.

But even if someone was hit by an arrow, as long as the archer who could still move, he still gritted his teeth and held on to shoot the arrow at the head of the city, and no one retreated.

This is true for archers, and siege soldiers are no exception.

Countless Northwest veterans gritted their blades with their teeth, rushed to the city regardless of life and death, and then quickly climbed up the ladder under the cover of a large number of shooters behind them.

Even if a comrade above his head was directly stabbed by a spear, he would continue to climb up without changing his face.

At this time, all the veterans of the Northwest knew very well in their hearts that this was a real battle of life and death.

If you can't take the city as soon as possible, you will probably be wiped out as soon as enemy reinforcements arrive.

Therefore, everyone is working hard, not only for themselves, but also for the sake of their colleagues.

In the face of the Northwest Army's fearless fighting style, the Wei soldiers felt unprecedented pressure.

It was the first time they had faced this kind of play similar to that of Hu Ren, which could simply overwhelm people.

Under the dense arrow attack from below the city, they could barely lift their heads.

As long as they accidentally expose their bodies, they are likely to be shot by flying arrows.

Countless arrows hit the shield like hail with speed and force, making a crisp sound of "beep horn".

In order to resist these almost non-stop arrow attacks, the Wei soldiers could only passively hold a large shield more than a person high and try their best to resist.

In this case, not to mention fighting back, it would be nice to be able to hold on.

Some of the soldiers were unable to form a tight shield wall with large shields because they were standing loosely, so that many arrows could fly in large numbers through the gaps and hit many soldiers in the rear.

From here, you can see the difference between the Wei soldiers who fought less and the northwestern soldiers who fought all year round.

A low-level mistake like this would have been almost impossible for a veteran of the Northwest Army.

"Hold on, you must hold on to me! The army is coming, and even if you die, you will hold out until the army returns! Liu An, the governor of the five armies who was supervising the battle at the head of the city, shouted loudly with a pale face.

Xie Changyu, who was standing behind him, also had a very ugly face at this time.

He never expected that the Northwest Army would choose this time to sneak attack Yinglin City.

He didn't expect that the Northwest Army would use the tactics of the sworn enemy of the Hu people to attack the city.

After witnessing this famous burst shooting method in person, Xie Changyu knew the horror of this tactic.

Under the indiscriminate arrow attack of thousands of archers, the soldiers did not even dare to raise their heads, let alone make effective counterattacks.

I could only watch as the siege soldiers below climbed up the ladder until they reached the top of the city and engaged the soldiers in hand-to-hand combat.

Although they have managed to repel several rounds of attacks, their side has also suffered heavy losses.

The fierceness of the Northwest Army is no less than that of the Hu people.

Often, it takes at least three or four people to deal with a soldier of the Northwest Army.

Moreover, these Northwest barbarians are all outlaws who do not want to die, and in the face of the attack of the soldiers at the head of the city, they often do not dodge or dodge, and would rather fight to take a knife themselves than kill the enemy.

Such ruthlessness is really chilling.

In addition to these, there is one more thing that he cares about.

Behind the archers, there stood a bunch of soldiers with oddly shaped iron rods.

Whenever the trumpeter standing next to him shouted "fire", the iron bars would emit a burst of fire and smoke would rise, and it was unknown what they were doing.

But it didn't take long for Xie Changyu's question to be answered quickly, and it was answered in a way that he witnessed with his own eyes.

Just as he passed near a soldier holding a large shield, suddenly the soldier let out a miserable scream, and the whole person fell directly, and the big shield that he was holding in his hand also fell to the ground at once.

As soon as the shield fell, more than a dozen arrows flew in one after another from the gap, hitting the soldiers who had not had time to react.

"What are you still doing in a daze, why don't you hurry up and put up the arrow shield!" Seeing this, Xie Changyu immediately shouted loudly.

After being drunk like this, the other soldiers reacted, and hurriedly picked up the big shield at the risk of death, and then erected it again, so as to fill the gap.

Xie Changyu's sharp eyes found that a circular hole the size of a thumb appeared under the re-erected arrow shield at some point.

Seeing this hole, Xie Changyu's face suddenly changed, and he immediately walked to the fallen soldier to check his injuries.

At this time, the soldier had stopped breathing and became a corpse, Xie Changyu looked intently, and saw that the soldier had no arrow wound on his body, but there was a palm-sized wound on his chest, and the flesh and blood were blurred and miserable.

Could it be that the arrow shield was pierced by something?

Seeing this scene, Xie Changyu had an extremely terrifying thought in his heart.

As if to test his suspicions, it wasn't long before several more soldiers fell to the ground screaming, with similar horrific wounds on their bodies.

And these soldiers, almost without exception, are all people standing behind the arrow shield, and there is no possibility of being hit by stray arrows.

Xie Changyu went to observe the big shields one by one, and sure enough, they all found that there were circular holes the size of thumbs on them.

At this moment, Xie Changyu's face suddenly turned pale.

He could already be sure that the Northwest Army really had something capable of penetrating the thick arrow shield.

didn't think much about it, he immediately told Liu An, the governor of the five armies, about it.

Liu An's face also changed greatly after seeing the holes in those arrows and shields and the wounds of the soldiers.

This one-man tall arrow shield is made of thick wood, and the outside is covered with raw cowhide, which is enough to resist the attack of a strong crossbow, and is the most important life-saving tool for the soldiers defending the city.

Now that it has been easily penetrated, how can this not make Liu An and the others shocked.

What kind of demon magic did this Northwest Army have to penetrate such a thick shield.