5

Warm red smoke shrouded the tall wooden walls, and the eyes under the walls could only reach the battlements. One side of the wall is poked with feathers, and the other side is crowded with armor. Black-clad soldiers were masked with damp cloths, armed with bows and crossbows or spears, leaning in a row against the battlements, glancing down the city when the arrows were scarce.

After the bows and crossbows were sparse, the horns were faintly heard, and the hooves and shouts of the horses changed from sparse to dense, and then to like a landslide and a tsunami. Some soldiers couldn't bear to get up and raise their crossbows, looking for targets in the thick smoke, but were hurriedly pressed down by the captain.

"It's not time yet!"

"Get down!"

As soon as the words fell, the whistling sound stopped in one place, and the air condensed so that people's hearts tightened, as if their ears were covered by something. As soon as I let go, I saw the long hair of the stone like a flock of crows, crackling and falling on the city. The soldiers dodged under a large shield in twos and threes, and raised their shields above their heads, level with the battlements. For a while, there was a chaotic sound of ping-pong at the head of the city, which shocked the soldiers under the shield and gritted their teeth.

The rain of stone spears lasted only for a moment, but it lasted until the end, and one shield was nearly a hundred catties heavy. Outside the city, the hula cavalry withdrew, and they heard the pace of a drum beating in order.

"That's the real thing!"

On the tower, Zhong Li saw that several guard towers were holding red lights high at the same time, so he was also busy raising the lights. Under the tower, Qin Lang could see that this was the preparation of the bow and crossbow.

A series of ladders towered out of the smoke, leveled over the trench, the red light on the sentry tower was raised again, and Zhong Li's red light was waved down.

"Shoot the arrows!"

The bows and crossbows on the wall shot out in unison to the trench, clanging and clanging on the shield armor of the phalanx, and someone in front of them was hit by an arrow, and someone came to fill it up, and there were bows and crossbows to return fire in the gaps. The man who fell from the arrow on the wall under the wall stirred up clusters of swirling sparks in the fiery trenches. A fearless soldier stepped on the corpse in the trench, and raised his shield in front of him, covering the soldiers behind him to break the phalanx and pass through the ladder. Although a lot of arrows were shot down, the white-clothed troops under the city still gathered more and more.

The walls of the city and the slope of the earth that was wide in front of them were full of arrows, and those who crossed the ditch climbed with arrows. When the city saw this white cloth, it was like a swarm of white beetles squirming towards a piece of fat, and it could not be shot by arrows.

The red lights of the watchtower on the east side are strolicking with white lights, and the watchtowers on the southeast and northeast sides are also lit up with red lights. Seeing this, Zhong Li still waved the red light, but he hurriedly ordered Qin Lang under the tower: "Quickly order Xia Mao to gather the rest of the crossbowmen under the East City, and wait for the 'Golden Soup' to be used before releasing the arrows." ”

Seeing Qin Lang's scout galloping away, Gu Yu turned around and asked Zhong Li, who was busy with his work, "What is the 'golden soup' in your mouth?" ”

"A weapon to defend the city."

Zhong Li deliberately sold Guanzi, and Gu Yu threw his eyes to Dongcheng. I saw dozens of cauldrons under Dongcheng burning at some point, and they poured white smoke. The soldiers of the city scooped something with wooden barrels and handed it to the city with ropes. When there was a bucket for every three or five people, the Dongcheng watchtower was lit up again.

"It's time for the 'golden soup'."

Zhong Li turned around and said a word to Gu Yu and waved the signal, and then waved the signal at the sentry tower. The soldiers in the city carried a bucket and poured the boiling "golden soup" with a brush, some aiming at the soldiers climbing the wall, and some aiming at the piles of people under the city. Those who were touched either threw away their armor, or jumped from the city, or plunged into the trenches and rolled in the fire and water, and in an instant the strict armor array became ants in the pot.

Hearing the screams, Xia Mao ordered more than a thousand crossbowmen gathered under the city to fire arrows together. The arrows crossed the city wall and smashed like hail at the soldiers gathered in the trench, and the soldiers who were in chaos were wounded and killed for a while, and spread all over the city, and those who were lucky enough to survive did not dare to take another half step forward.

With only bows and crossbows and wailing, the battlefield seemed quiet for a while. The fire in the trench was so relieved by the "golden soup" and the corpses that the smoke screen turned from warm red to a dull red purple, and the towering place had already disappeared into darkness.

"Throw two towels up." Zhong Li walked to the inside of the tower and said to Qin Lang under the tower.

Qin Lang took the face towel handed over, copied the stones on the city wall, wrapped them a few times, and threw them towards the tower with all his might. Zhong Li saw the black shadow flashing, and stretched out his hand to copy it back.

"Give." Zhong Li first took out a face towel and handed it to Gu Yu, and the face towel made of linen strips was a little wrinkled by Qin Lang.

"What do you want to do here? I've long been used to being smoked, not to mention that it's been dispersed a lot. Gu Yu asked, looking at the strip of cloth.

Seeing that she was a little disgusted with this rag, Zhong Li said with bad intentions: "You smell it hard." ”

Gu Yu only sniffed lightly and felt a bit of a rotten smell, and when she smelled it carefully, the thick rancid smell of cooking mixed with the smoke made her almost vomit between the distinctions. Looking at Zhong Li again, he had already folded the two cloths together and was tying them to his mouth and nose.

"Well, it's much more refreshing now!" He didn't forget to deliberately take a deep breath after tying it.

"Some people are born with a lack of virtue in the five elements, right?" Gu Yu sat back in the corner of the tower angrily, turning his back to the fence, not daring to let out of the air again. "This is what you call 'golden soup'?"

"Exactly. The only drawback is that 'one thousand enemies are wounded and eight hundred are self-inflicted'. Zhong Li said and took out a white silk handkerchief from his armor, carefully folded it and handed it to Gu Yu, seeing that she was still unangry and pulled it in her hand, he continued: "I have also improved, two points of human and animal manure plus six points of water is fundamental, and adding two points of soft mud can increase viscosity, and it is a layer of skin when it gets on people." When cooking, cover the cauldron and sprinkle some oil on it to avoid the smell, and once it is sprinkled, the flavor will come out. ”

"You'd love to study these pickles." If ordinary people said this kind of thing with such relish, Gu Yu would feel funny, but now she could only honestly put on the face towel first.

"It doesn't work well. This taste is secondary, and I am reluctant to change to other ingredients because this thing has stamina. If you have never seen this thing, put the scalded wounded with other wounded, or if you are not isolated, then there will be a plague in the barracks. More people are killed by infection than we do. ”

"Your bacteriological warfare method was banned by international law 200 years ago, right?"

"It's not like I don't live in that world right now."

"yes, it's just a game." Gu Yu replied a little coldly.

As the two of them were talking, a different sound was suddenly added to the monotonous battlefield, the sharp and scattered roars were replaced by the more rigorous and slow sound of the infantry marching, and the creaking of the axles could be faintly heard between the gaps in the steps. The veterans listened attentively, and busily taught the recruits on both sides to gather back into the battlements and wind all the loose bows and crossbows.

"Isn't it over yet?"

"Just now they were just some new recruits who tried to make sense of reality, how could the main force of the Northern Front only have this ability?" Zhong Li looked out of the city again, and several points of light could be faintly seen outside the smoke screen. The point of light slowly approached with the sound of steel, and something black and swarthy under the point of light slowly appeared in the remnants of the fire under the city.

"Siege Tower!"

The siege towers are lined up in a row to enter the field of vision, and the gray and black towers rise from the top of the smoke screen, and even Zhong Li, who is on the tower, can see that the tower is several feet high against the city wall.

"That's too high, isn't it?" Qin Lang's discussion under the tower made Zhong Li hear it.

"Isn't it used to climb the wall, don't you see that there are no people standing on it?" Zhong Li counted the number of siege towers one by one from the beginning, and when he counted to twelve, the smile on his face was already strange but confident.

"That's the big thing!" It was as if he was announcing.

Lifting his helmet, he took out his saber and examined it, he held up the white light and then turned to Gu Yu and said, "You come to my place and the scenery is just right." Then he walked to the entrance of the ladder and said to the tower: "Go, work!" ”

6

The siege tower of the north front is one zhang square, four zhang high, and can carry fifty people when fully loaded, and now only some sand and gravel weights are placed in it, and the side of the person is also sealed with a wooden plank. There are several logs on the left and right, which can be advanced by forty people. There are 100 teams on the left and right sides of the tower, all of them are shields and heavy armor, and there are two rows of three columns of phalanxes behind them, with rifles on the left and right, and bows and crossbows in the middle.

When the soldiers on the wall saw the siege tower approaching, they fired fire, and the rockets stuck in front of the tower, but they did not stop it from pressing against the wall. Seeing that the tower was about to rush into the trench, there was no intention of stopping.

"Get out of the way!"

The soldiers listened to the commander's order to remove the battlements one by one, and they heard the sound of falling water one after another, and when they turned around, they saw the blazing towers smashing down the walls like a landslide. In an instant, stone fire burst out, and the wooden wall was smashed like a paper shell. The loud sound accompanied by scattered dust and wood chips stunned the soldiers left on the remnant wall, and the smoke and dust in the sky instantly obscured everyone's sight. Without waiting to discern the situation, the arrows and arrows struck again like a torrential rain.

"Hold on to the wall, hold on!"

The surviving soldiers didn't have time to catch their breath, so they hurriedly pulled up their comrades around them and hid back in the battlements. The close-range crossbow hit the wooden wall, and the thick wood of the bowl could be broken from it, and the thin shield could be shattered with a single blow.

The crossbow lasted only a moment, and the soldiers who remained on the wall had a chance to probe the situation. The city wall of more than 100 zhang on the east side of the city was smashed by the high tower into more than a dozen sections of different lengths, and the high towers were embedded in the city wall one by one, connecting the other side of the ditch outside the city like a bridge. Xia Mao, who had just joined the army and commanded the battle in the city, did not know when he withdrew, and there were only more than a thousand soldiers left in the eastern city.

Torches were scattered around the walls, and the only light on the walls came from the still burning remains of the tower. The horn sounded outside the city, and thousands of Cylsteel knives smashed on the shield at the same time, making a shocking metal sound, and the sound of killing roared out together, rushing like a huge wave.

The soldiers of the city were busy searching for what they could use, and a dozen or dozens of people were ready to hold on to the ruins like an isolated island. However, for a while, the twelve bridges were like a torrent of steel, and thousands of white-armored iron troops rushed to the head of the city, instantly submerging the east city wall. The infantry soldiers at the head didn't care about the remnants of the city at all, and poured straight into and out of the city, and the broken ironclad army was sandwiched from both ends, squeezing the living space of the remnants of the city with shield walls and spears.

"Don't be stunned, get to work!" In the darkness, someone could hear someone shouting, and some veterans could tell that it was Zhong Li's voice.

With the prestige, I saw a flash of fire galloping forward, and I fixed my eyes on a burning chariot, with more than a dozen spears in front of the cart straight forward, and behind it was a row of strong men struggling to push the cart.

"Get out of the way!"

Zhong Li led the people to push the cart from the south wall of the city to the east city, and when he turned the corner, the cart ran away. After accelerating more than ten zhang, the car rushed straight to the ironclad array lined up on the city wall. Although the iron armor array was strong and sharp, it rushed out of a huge gap as soon as the fire rushed. Some were nailed to the car because they couldn't dodge, some jumped off the city wall, and some were caught under the car. Zhong Li took advantage of the scattered formation, holding a hammer in one hand and a hammer in the other, and rushed into the enemy formation with Qin Lang and the others.

Seeing that it was the general who went into battle in person, the remnants of the soldiers on the wall were demoralized for a while, and they all learned to attack in front with heavy objects, and then fought with the ironclad army in close combat. At this time, half of the 10,000 people of the Beifeng Army had rushed in and out of the city, and half of them were still outside the city, and the sudden fierce battle on the city attracted the attention of the troops in front and behind, and the progress of entering the city was stuck for a while.

Outside the city, there was a sudden roar of thunder and fire, and the soldiers in the city could only see the scarlet from the explosion through the smoke. In between the sounds of swords, the sound of horses' hooves was heard, followed by the sound of killing and shouting.

Originally, when Zhong Li came just now, Hu Yang led the cavalry out of the south city gate and outflanked the rear of the northern front on the same side. Two thousand cavalrymen carried oil pots and threw them from behind the enemy to set them on fire. After a line hundreds of feet long, a wall of fire ignited in a moment. Hu Yang and others took advantage of the battle again, either charging into the battle with spears or hammering with flails.

Hu Yang took the lead with a pair of stars and flails, and opened his bow left and right. The left bracelet is one foot three long, and the head weighs seven pounds and seven taels, and the main one is for protection; The right hand chain is two feet one long, the head weighs twelve pounds, and the main attack. He rode his horse and hammered, and everywhere the six-edged hammer head went, his armor was dented, and blood splattered. The iron armor of the North Striker shattered like a ripe watermelon in front of these hammers.

In the firelight, only the blood armor flew sideways, and the Beifeng Legion did not care about the battle in the city, and poured out of the city one after another, in a vain attempt to avoid the impact of the cavalry on the city wall. At this time, the head of the stone castle in the inner city was bright, and I don't know when Xia Mao had stood all over the city with thousands of crossbowmen.

Seeing that they were being flanked from the front and back, the Northern Forward Legion could only take advantage of the numerical advantage to forcibly attack the city wall, and at this moment, the fallen siege towers could not withstand the double pressure of flames and iron armor, and began to collapse one after another. Seeing this situation, Zhong Li knew that the overall situation had been decided, and he hurriedly asked Qin Lang to take over the command of the city, and he took out to command all parties to stabilize their positions, squeezing the last living space of the Beifeng Army little by little.

7

In normal times, the ink dragon chess that covered the sky and the sun finally gathered at the head of the east city out of the city. After holding out for nearly two hours, the last 1,000 men of the Northern Striker Corps surrendered. After ordering Xia Mao to count the battle damage, Qin Lang arranged for the prisoners to be surrendered, and after Hu Yang cleaned up the battlefield, Zhong Li seemed to remember something, so he left the city.

"Grandma's, but I found it!" Outside the city, Hu Yang turned over a broken corpse, and finally found the twelve-pound hammer head that he had beaten because of his stumbling feet in the trench filled with grease and blood and floating corpses.

He jumped out of the trench and waited for the black and red blood to run down his armor and hands before he picked up the hammer and examined it carefully. The original six-edged hammer head had been smashed into an iron ball, and only half of the iron ring near the thickness of a finger remained, and the iron stubble that should have been sharp at the fracture had been sharpened by something.

"I'm going to have to ask for something new from this 'little ghost'." He wiped the iron ball with his sleeve and tucked it into his armor, and when he looked up, he suddenly felt a wave of dizziness, but only for a moment.

Returning to the commanding tower, the dark purple clothes were no longer visible, and Zhong Li pondered whether he could go back to sleep when he saw that the overall situation was decided, or he couldn't stand the strong smell of fishy and oil smoke on the tower.

Looking at the tower, the originally neat wooden city wall now looks like corn gnawed by dogs, more than a dozen guard towers, only the charred black shelves remain, and the black ground exposed by the corpse is soaked in blood, but the gloomy weather is now clear.

A refreshing wind blew, and the thick smoke and the smell of half-cooked blood filled with fresh breath, and the scorched black earth was only filled with green smoke that was still wafting intermittently, and the sunlight cast rays from the side of the East China Sea through the clouds and mist, and also shook Zhong Li's eyes.

After fixing his eyes, Zhong Li seemed to see something in the distance through the mist, like a miserable white sail floating on the sea one by one, connecting into a shadowless fleet. When the wind blew again, there was a faint pattern on the sail, and he carefully distinguished, it was three blue-black snowflakes.

"Dai Ying!" He chuckled in his heart. If you look at it again, you can see the silver armor of white flowers shining in the sun.

"Hurry back to the city, the main force of Beifeng is still there!"