"Woo ......" With the sound of a loud bull's horn, more than 20,000 Great Wei soldiers shouted loudly and rushed towards the city wall, looking black and oppressive, very scary.

In the face of such a large army, Du Xiao, the commander of the Huiyang Mansion Guard, shouted very calmly: "Fight." ”

Hearing his words, the soldiers crouching at the head of the city immediately clenched their weapons in their hands and stared intently at the enemy below.

After several days of fierce defensive battles, even the recruits in the city have gradually adapted to it, and they are no longer as nervous as they were at the beginning.

At this time, there was not a single civilian in the entire Huiyang City, and the people had already been transferred to other places. Some were only 20,000 defenders, and they were veterans and recruits, and each was half a recruit.

Since there were no civilians in the city to protect, the burden was greatly reduced, allowing these defenders to defend the city more freely.

What's more, because their "master" is by their side, the recruits are also much more stable mentally, and they also have more determination to fight to the death with the "master".

That's right, the 20,000 defenders are the newly trained soldiers formed by pairing in the name of master and apprentice, and it is also the first actual combat of this newly trained army on the battlefield.

Ning Zhiyuan is a veteran of the battlefield, so he naturally knows very well that no matter what method is used, it is impossible to train new recruits into veterans who can take charge of themselves in just a few months or half a year.

Therefore, when he stepped up his military training, what he trained these recruits the most was how to defend the city, which was also the main direction taught by the veterans who were their "masters".

Ning Zhiyuan only asked these recruits to be able to defend the city, which was enough.

As for the future, it depends on how many people will survive after this battle.

When more than 20,000 Wei troops were about a stone's throw away from the city wall, Li Zhihai, the general in charge of leading the army, immediately ordered the archers in the array to shoot arrows at the head of the city.

Although there were less than 2,000 archers, the arrows flew towards the city in a volley.

"Shield."

With the command of Du Xiao, the soldiers at the front of the city immediately erected a large shield more than one person high to form an impermeable shield wall.

Like a big hail hitting the roof, the shield was violently vibrated at the same time, there was a crisp sound of "beep horn", and most of the arrows shot by the Wei archers were shot on the big shield.

But a small number of arrows passed through the gaps and landed on the soldiers in the rear. Those who were hit by the arrow were either killed or wounded, and more than 20 people fell in an instant.

These soldiers who were hit by arrows will soon be carried down for healing.

"Crossbowmen prepare, aim at the opposing archers as much as possible." After the first round of bows and arrows, Duchaud gave the order.

The crossbowman, who had already wound his crossbow, immediately looked through the gap between the shield walls, raised his powerful crossbow and aimed it at the archer opposite.

"Put!"

With a loud shout from Du Chaux, all the powerful crossbows fired in volley, and countless arrows flew towards the enemy on the opposite side at a speed far faster than ordinary bows and arrows.

Since the two sides were only one arrow away, and the range of the strong crossbow was far superior to that of the bow and arrow, under this round of volleys, hundreds of Wei archers immediately fell to the ground, and the arrows shot at the head of the city were also much less.

Not daring to wait for the crossbowmen of the Northwest Army to re-wind, Liu An, the governor of the five armies, immediately ordered the siege of the city.

Under his orders, more than a dozen ladders soon climbed up the city, and then many Wei soldiers quickly climbed up the city with the back of their knives.

At the same time, dozens of sturdy soldiers rushed to the city gates carrying logs with arrows in their shields.

"Archers and spearmen ready!"

Facing the approaching Wei army, the commander made Du Xiao give a new order.

The crossbowmen quickly retreated, replaced by a large number of archers and spearmen, and then, under the cover of the shield wall, the archers bent their bows together and aimed at the Wei army below.

"Shoot the arrows!"

As this order sounded, countless bowstrings sounded at the same time, and a large number of arrows flew in unison, flying like a storm towards the Wei army who were trying to climb up and the sturdy soldiers who were about to ram the city gate, killing hundreds of people in an instant.

In this condescending situation, the Wei army below was almost completely exposed to the range of the Northwest Army.

With round after round of bows and arrows fired volleys, many Wei soldiers were shot directly into sugar gourds, and the screams continued.

Even if a Wei soldier occasionally managed to climb to the top of the city, he was quickly stabbed down by the spearmen standing next to the archers.

When a soldier weighing hundreds of pounds fell from a three-zhang high wall, its gravity was strong enough to crush his colleagues below to death.

The Northwest Army has fought with the Hu people for so many years, and it is especially experienced in defending the city.

In addition to the various strategies used against people, there are also special methods to deal with the ladder.

The easiest and most effective way is to pour the oil on the ladder and light a fire to burn it.

However, this method is more dangerous, and you have to poke your body out.

This can only be done by experienced veterans, and recruits really can't do it.

I saw dozens of veterans, under the cover of their comrades holding shields, leaning out their bodies and pouring the fire oil that had been prepared long ago on the ladder while risking being shot by the bows and arrows below.

Although several people were shot by random arrows during this time, most of them managed to do so.

As soon as the oil is poured, an archer will shoot the rocket at the ladder and set it on fire.

This trick really worked, and as one ladder after another was ignited, the Wei army's offensive that had lost its climbing tools suddenly slowed down until a new ladder was brought in.

The fierce siege lasted from morning to evening, and the Wei army, after paying more than 4,000 casualties, could not get close to the city. And more than 30 of their ladders were also burned, and they could only withdraw their troops.

On the other hand, on the side of the Northwest Army, more than 300 people were killed and wounded.

The casualty ratio of both sides was less than one-tenth, and this offensive and defensive battle was definitely a great victory for the Northwest Army.

Looking at the retreating Wei soldiers and the large number of corpses under the city, Du Xiao, the commander of the Huiyang Mansion Guard, was not too happy, because he knew very well in his heart that the real bitter battle was far from beginning.

Excluding the people who could not fight, the Wei army had at least 600,000 or 700,000 people, and the casualties of 3 or 4,000 people were just a drop in the bucket.

And their duty is to defend Huiyang City until reinforcements arrive.

However, only Du Xiao knew that reinforcements would not come, and this Huiyang City would become the burial place of their defenders.

As early as a few months ago, the marshal Ning Zhiyuan personally met with him and gave him a military order: to defend Huiyang City.

This stubborn defense is really to fight every soldier and defend to the end.

Because the marshal made it very clear that the northwest battalion would not send reinforcements to support, and everything could only rely on themselves. So it's a dead mission with no return.

Dashuai also promised him that once the Ning family really won the world in the future, no matter whether he Du Xiao was dead or alive, the Ning family would make him a marquis, and he would be hereditary and his descendants would be forever shaded.

The generals under his command will also be posthumously crowned accordingly, and in the future, everyone's names will be written into the list of loyal ministers for a hundred generations, and they will never be allowed to die in vain.

Du Xiao accepted this military order without thinking about it at that time, and willingly agreed.

From the day he decided to become a soldier, he had long been mentally prepared that sooner or later he would die on the battlefield.

He was lucky, not only did he not die, but he also became a soldier all the way to a thousand households.

He is more than forty years old this year, and the thousands of households who can be the fifth grade have almost reached the end of his career.

However, the commander of the Huiyang Mansion Guard Station is a local member of Zheng Sanpin, and his appointment is equivalent to several promotions.

Even if this is a dead mission with no return, as long as he thinks that the Du family will be able to be crowned a marquis after his death, and the hereditary replacement, he feels that it is worth it more than anything.

He wanted his sons and grandsons to have the day when they became human beings, and this was something he had always dreamed of.

And the marshal has always been counted, since he said so, Du Xiao naturally did not have any doubts, so he immediately accepted the military order, and in this way became the new commander of the Huiyang Mansion Guard.

He was the only one who knew about it, and even his lieutenants and Chito didn't know about it.

Because not everyone is willing to die rather than surrender, he must stabilize the morale of the army in order to carry out this military order to the end.

For this reason, he also deliberately sealed all the city gates with bricks and stones, so that the huge city gates became a nominal decoration, completely cut off the retreat of the soldiers, and at the same time eliminated the city gates, the biggest weakness of the city defense.

As for the replenishment, the city has long stored food and water that can be consumed by the whole army for more than three months. There were many bows and arrows, spears, fire oil and other weapons used to defend the city in the treasury.

In this way, unless the Wei army really besieged the city for more than three months, it would not be able to consume them at all.

All these preparations have only one purpose, and that is to defend to the end.

Du Xiao believes that it is not only in Huiyang City that has been given the order by the marshal to defend it.

Du Xiao's judgment was correct, not only Huiyang City, but also all the larger cities around, Ning Zhiyuan gave the commander in charge of defending the city an order to defend to the end.

It may be cruel, but it's also a helpless move.

Military generals, including Ning Zhiyuan and Li Dingbei, knew very well that the northwest was different from the south, and most of the areas were plains with flat rivers, and there were not so many dangerous places that could be used as a location for sneak attacks, and it was even more difficult to set up an ambush.

Moreover, an experienced battlefield veteran like An Guogong is almost impossible to lure the enemy deep and lure him into the trap.

This kind of little trick can only be used on some hot-brained Leng Touqing, and it is useless for a veteran like An Guogong.

In particular, from the fact that he used this method of mobilizing the strength of the whole army to push all the way through, it can be seen that An Guogong is determined to use this steady and steady method to win this battle.

In this case, the only way for the Northwest Army to deal with it was to use one city after another to consume the opponent's forces as best they could, and then lead the main force of the army to the northwest inland region.

When the Wei army was exhausted, it was the best time for them to launch a counteroffensive.

The so-called Ci is not in charge of the army, although the military generals, including Ning Zhiyuan, usually cherish their subordinates, but when it comes to fighting, they will never be soft.

In order to achieve victory, no matter how many casualties are paid, no matter how many casualties are paid.

Fighting a war is meant to kill people, how can there be so many human feelings to talk about.