3

Compared with the anxious commander in Gu Yu's camp, Liu Feng was already like an ant on a hot pot at this time. It takes more than a day to return to Jiangxia Mountain, and it is impossible to be harassed by Gu Yu and others behind it, so it may be too late to withdraw the army immediately. If you stick to this place, you are likely to be flanked by the Red Dragon Army, and you have no chance of winning. What made this even more uneasy was that the rumors that he and Gu Yu were discussing the military situation had spread everywhere, and the generals were silent on the surface, but behind the scenes, there were many discussions. If he continues to stand still, he is always in danger of being admonished by the soldiers.

Liu Feng inspected the Guyu camp again and again throughout the day, and saw that it was still full of loopholes as in the previous days, so he wanted to capture this battalion to stop the loss of Jiangxia, and at the same time clear a passage for reinforcements from Lujiang to recapture Jiangxia in the future. What's more, he also thought that if he could find an opportunity to kill Gu Yu, he could clear the rumors for himself.

When the twilight was getting thicker, Liu Feng summoned the whole army, and when the soldiers heard that they could fight, the morale of the whole army was greatly boosted, and the rumors about Liu Feng also subsided a lot for a while, which made him quickly arrange his plan. He divided the whole army into four groups. One group broke the camp defense, wrapped their feet in linen, attached bamboo strips to their mouths, and covered their bodies with black muddy water; The second group consisted of 800 hussars, armed with spears and sabers, and prepared with fuel and fire for use in the camp; The three groups are light and heavy infantry, and the whole army can be killed when the fire starts in the camp; Four groups of crossbowmen shot fleeing enemies outside the camp.

After sunset, when there was only sunset, the gate of Liu Feng's camp slowly opened, and 5,000 men and horses quietly left the city in order. The whole army did not have a single torch, but groped its way forward on the winding mountain road by the blue and purple dim light of the sky after sunset. This day coincides with the day of viewing, and before the mountain road is completely dark, a bright moon slowly rises from the sky, outlining the mountains and forests with a cold light. By the moonlight, it didn't take long for Liu Fengjun to approach the Gu Yu camp.

When the sentries were a little tired, a group of hundreds of soldiers covered in black mud looked at them, and the soldiers who only stood guard outside the fence were quickly swept away one by one. Then the sound of horses' hooves was heard, and the black mud soldiers pulled the fence of the large camp, and the cavalry followed the momentum, and for a time sparks flew in one after another, and the tightly arranged military tents were one after another and ignited a sky-high fire.

In the firelight, Liu Feng led the infantry straight into the camp, searching for Gu Yu's whereabouts in the daylight barracks. He rushed straight to the camp with his saber, and when he broke open the tent, he saw that there was no one inside, and there were no soldiers resisting around him.

As he was sighing, he saw a light on the mountainside, followed by a rain of arrows, and the soldiers around him fell in pieces.

"Quickly withdraw, withdraw to the battalion!"

The heavy infantry hurriedly covered over, covering Liu Feng's breakthrough with thick armor and body, and the cavalry assaulted to the flanks and rear of the two wings, killing a bloody way for everyone. Seeing that he was about to rush into the valley and escape from the ambush range, he suddenly heard a sound of horses' hooves. I saw a fire galloping on the side of the valley, and if I looked closely, it was the black-armored cavalry all over the mountains.

"The thief will leave!"

I saw Lin Yu dressed in a black robe and black armor, and a jujube lance rushed over first. The heavy infantry hurriedly organized a military formation to meet the attack, but saw a hammer coming from the six-edged Zaoyang lance with a turned flower, and the human-high iron shield instantly collapsed into a lump, and the blue-black armor pieces flew all over the sky, and the soldiers who were hammered fell to the ground one after another, bleeding from the seven orifices.

This Lin Yu came again, Liu Feng lowered his head to dodge, and saw the hammer head with a big head smashing down against him. He hurriedly took the next blow with his saber in the scabbard, only to see sparks burst out, and the back of the scabbard was pressed straight against his shoulder by the hammer. The horse let out a long howl and fell to his knees. Liu Feng also felt that his hands and shoulders were numb as if they had been struck by lightning. Lin Yu pressed the Zaoyang lance against the blade and went back, and Liu Feng's knife was taken off. Then Lin Yu rounded the Zaoyang lance again, and hit Liu Feng's head with a hammer.

"My life is at my disposal."

Liu Feng was sighing, and then he heard a woman shouting: "Wait! ”

The wind hung in his ears, and when Lin Yu heard the voice, he hurriedly lifted the hammer for half a minute, and waved it over against Liu Feng's head. Liu Feng looked back, and a woman in green clothes came quickly in the firelight, and he saw at a glance that it was Gu Yu.

"What have you come here to do to dishonor me?" When Gu Yu got a little closer, Liu Feng pulled up his mount and said coldly, "I really regret that I didn't kill you with a knife on the mountain at that time." ”

Gu Yu rode forward, raised the corners of his mouth slightly, and replied, "You are not the only one who talks about me like this. ”

4

After leaving 4,000 defenders, on the 17th, Yuan Xian led 12,000 troops to Jiangxia (this Jiangxia is not today's Jiangxia District of Wuhan, but is located in the Xinzhou area). Although this Jiangxia is a lonely city in the north of the Yangtze River, it is a military fortress that has been built for many years, the city is four zhang high, and the pond is three zhang wide. Although there were not many defenders at this time, the towers on the city, bed crossbows, rolling wood and thunder stones were everywhere. And Yuan Xian's Red Dragon Army traveled lightly and hurriedly, except for capturing some bed crossbows in Anlu City and making some self-made ladders, there was no more siege baggage.

Yuan Xian besieged the city on three sides, and people used bed crossbows as long-range support, heavy infantry covered the crossbowmen to suppress the firepower above the city, light infantry crossed the moat with ladders, and then set up siege ladders under the city to climb the city walls. After an attack, although the Red Dragon Army climbed to the head of the city several times, due to the blockage of the moat, it was difficult for the follow-up troops to continuously support the head of the city. In addition, the castle bed crossbow could cover left and right, and several attacks were repulsed. Seeing this situation, Yuan Xian stopped the attack in order to reduce casualties, and led the army to build pontoon bridges and siege towers on the spot, count the battle damage, and treat the wounded.

After noon, the army entered the surrounding mountains and forests to cut down tall and straight timber such as cedar and pine, and built a huge frame with thick logs several zhang long as bones. The frame is reinforced with fork-shaped logs, and the levels are separated by wooden planks, and the levels are horizontally connected by bamboo ladders. After connecting the bamboo ladder, everyone led a section of it with ropes, and the other side was jacked up with wooden stakes, and the tower frame was erected step by step. After erection, the small logs were covered in turn, and then covered with iron shields, so that even the burning bow and crossbow could not hurt it in the slightest.

At dawn the next day, under a ray of morning light, dozens of siege towers were as tall as buildings, standing upright on the opposite side of Jiangxia City Tower. Each siege tower is more than one zhang long and wide, five zhang high, there is an arrow platform, the arrow platform is set up according to the bed crossbow, and it can also accommodate more than a dozen crossbowmen to fire a salvo.

The bugles roared, the war drums trembled faintly, and dozens of tall towers slowly approached one side of the city wall under the push of the crowd, and built a towering fire point by the moat. Light and heavy infantry threw pre-made sandbags, driftwood, etc., into the moat, and in a short time several passages were established in the river.

Arrows flew over the city walls, and the soldiers under the city took the opportunity to quickly strengthen the passage in the river, using logs to the left and right of it, and shields covering the surface. After about half an hour of back and forth, more than a dozen sand banks were built in the moat. Seeing this, Yuan Xian ordered the siege tower to be close to the city wall.

The tower trembled through the sand embankment, and its head was draped over the tower and rested firmly on the foundation of the city on the other side of the river. The tall wolf's teeth were slapped on the battlements of the city wall, and the soldiers who had been on standby for a long time rushed out of the tower cabin together, and the defenders at the head of the city were instantly united.

Yuan Xian felt a lot more relieved when he saw this, the troop projection volume of several towers was far more and stable than that of the cloud ladder. The infantry climbed the tower along the sand bank and climbed to the top of the city in the blink of an eye, and was protected by wooden fences on both sides, so there were many unnecessary casualties.

Just when everyone felt that they were safe, a cold light suddenly passed through the city, and they saw an iron arrow dragging a long iron cable into the tower at one end of the city wall. Then something fell from the top of the city, and the chain was quickly driven, and then the straight chain pulled the tower up to one side, and then slowly fell to the other side.

Yuan Xian knew that it was not good when she saw the situation, but perhaps because she couldn't do anything for a while, she saw the tower slowly falling, as if she had seen the sunset, but she felt that there was still some sense of art.

One tower fell and the other was implicated, and several towers were connected like dominoes for a while. A puff of smoke rose from the foot of the city wall, sweeping the city like sand. Many soldiers hid in time and escaped from the smoke and dust, and some were unlucky, either crushed to death in the wreckage of the tower, or fell into the water and were pierced by wooden rafters, or fainted and drowned and choked to death.

"General!" Zhao Yu hurriedly ran back from the front line, shaking his dusty head and shouting, "The front has collapsed again." ”

"Let's let the front ones withdraw first." Far from being angry and reproachful, Yuan Xian was in an unusually calm mood.

"Then you won't fight today?"

"Don't fight, I've broken a thousand brothers in the past two days, and it's not cost-effective to fight like this." Yuan Xian said, "We have tried all the methods that we can think of at the moment to make the craftsmen take some time to prepare some stone crossbow trebuchets." ”

Zhao Qian was still in a hurry, but after thinking about it, Yuan Xian's mind was not above this city. In other words, how 10,000 people besiege this city is nine out of ten, but when it will be captured is not certain. And today has passed eight days before the day of the army, and there are two more days before Jiangxia, Gu Yu's appointment can be regarded as her failure to fulfill, and in the current situation, she can't blame everyone for not doing things well.

"General, I haven't seen the military division for a few days, and in the entire Jiangxia battlefield, she pointed to our half of the Red Dragon Army to solve it?" Zhao Yu deliberately brought up the matter.

"I don't know what she's going to do." Yuan Xian replied, "But in this situation, even if she comes, I don't think she can quickly get down to this Jiangxia City." ”

At this time, the scout is fast malay.

"General, there are two groups of people on the north side, all the way to the northwest, under the banner of their own family, they should be the troops of the military division. Another way came from the northeast, like Yingyue's reinforcements, with three or four thousand people. ”

Yuan Xian felt inexplicable when he heard this, how could his own men and horses and the enemy army come side by side. "Quickly order the front-line brothers to organize a defensive line, and do not let reinforcements enter the city."

Before the order was delivered, another scout came to report.

"General, pass on the message of the military division, don't stop Yingyue's reinforcements too much, and put it in the city, and explain it when she comes back."

Yuan Xian was even more confused when she heard this, "What kind of plan is this?" "But since she promised to obey Gu Yu's arrangement before, and now it is still within ten days, she has to do what she wants." After that, he ordered all the troops to return to the camp for repairs, and when they saw the reinforcements of Yingyue, they did not attack and did not obstruct them. ”