A round of golden hooks hung in the sky, the stars were scarce, and the night was getting thicker, but outside the city of Ezhou, there was a sound of killing.

Countless bonfires were lit in the wilderness outside the Qingyuan Gate, and the near city wall was as bright as day. Ezhou is surrounded by water on three sides, under the threat of the Han army's gunboats, the Xiangyang army can not be used, only the east of the city is a wilderness, suitable for the army to attack the city, so Cao Di will attack Ezhou The focus is here. Relying on the large number of soldiers and generals, and not talking about anything real and false, they directly lined up the iron barrel cannons and stone throwers that were transported, and thousands of soldiers pushed all kinds of siege equipment to storm the east city. Stone projectiles were thrown over, smashing the city walls with a thud, and once the battlements and war sheds were shot, they were smashed to pieces.

Several times the soldiers attacked the city, and were driven down by the elite of the city. As soon as the tents at the head of the city were destroyed, the defenders reinforced them with door panels and timber. From time to time, the head of the city poured boiling oil and gold juice, scalding the soldiers who were attached to the city to the skin and flesh, and the fire on the gun emplacements flashed and roared, shaking the ground slightly. The defenders' artillery was inaccurate, but it was constantly firing shotguns, and there was a rain of bullets scattered under the city.

"Survive this night, reinforcements are coming!" Fan Changheng shouted, holding the iron knife in one hand and waving it in a fist with the other, as if he had great confidence in the battle situation. In the evening, Lord Shangshu of the Ministry of War personally gave him a reward and a farewell from Bapin to Fan Changheng. Fan Changheng distributed the money to his subordinates on the spot, but folded the precious place and hid it closely. Now, his throat was completely dumb, and his eyes were red, reflecting not exhaustion, but almost morbid excitement.

The city was in a mess, the ground was slimy, and I don't know if it was water, oil, or blood. There are constantly people wailing when they are hit by arrows, some people are stuck in the chest by broken wooden bars, and some people are even smashed into meat sauce by stone bullets. Screams, cries, shouts, arrows breaking through the air, stone bullets slamming down on the walls, the roar of our artillery, the flickering firelight, the smoke was heavy, and the ground was constantly trembling. At this moment, following this somewhat awe-inspiring centurion makes people feel a little bit relied on.

"Reinforcements, reinforcements are coming!" Fan Changheng's eyes were bloodshot, his voice was hoarse, and he repeatedly shouted loudly, "General Zhao, General Yue, and General Han are leading 100,000 troops to help in the starry night, and they will arrive tomorrow!" Tomorrow is coming! The villagers looked at the new centurion with some awe, with a shield on his head, constantly moving stones and rolling logs on the city wall, and then smashed them down according to the Song army under the city. At the head of Ezhou City, countless officers and township soldiers, for their different beliefs and hopes, gritted their teeth and tried their last strength, using blood and flesh to make up for the gap with the siege army. The casualties of the inexperienced officers and village soldiers were enormous, but those who survived were more or less skilled and better able to face the cold battlefields of life and death.

Cao Liangshi was dressed all over his body and sat in the arrow tower of Qingyuan Gate. The few crossbowmen in Ezhou City were concentrated in the area of the eastern city wall, and the soldiers in armor ran back and forth in the arrow tower. This arrow tower is located in the middle of the east city wall, condescending, the most critical, the strength of the enemy and my attack and defense is clear at a glance, so Cao Liangshi personally sat here, he did not interfere with the city tower guarding matters, there were several flag officers standing beside him, once the city wall was tight, he sent troops and horses to help with the lantern flag.

Dust continues to fall from the roof of the building, the sound of killing inside and outside the city tower is shocking, but Cao Liangshi has a solemn air in his life, one by one, the command of the soldiers, flag officers, and even the commander of the army, when he stepped into the arrow tower, he was anxious and angry, but when he walked to Cao Liangshi, he was holding his breath and sucking sound, respectfully.

"The enemy army is strong," Chen Que, the general of the city gate, advised, "please Lord Cao retreat to Huanghu Shanzi City." ”

"I vow to live and die with this tower," Cao Liangshi's eyes were slightly cold, and he said in a deep voice: "The city is full of old and weak people, if the city gate is lost, Cao Mou should be martyred with the city, so as not to implicate it senselessly, so that the city is full of people and children." "If the city wall is lost, the general trend has gone, with the morale of the village soldiers, it will inevitably collapse on the whole line at one point, and it is impossible to support the retreat, and it is even more impossible to retreat to the sub-city. He had a sword in his lap. This sword was not used to kill the enemy, but once the Xiangyang army broke through the city wall, he committed suicide and martyred the city.

Ezhou city is high in the west and low in the east. On the Huanghu Mountain in the west, most of them are government offices, and most of the people in the market live in the east city wall. The outside of the city is surrounded by water on three sides, and only the east is land, so there are many people living outside the east city wall. Usually climb the Qingyuan City Tower to look, the grass market outside the city is extremely prosperous, bustling, and busy. Since the Xiangyang army came to the city, many people from outside the city fled to the city, and the eastern city was even more overcrowded, and the streets on both sides were also full of shacks for homeless people, who lived on porridge shacks every day. Once the city gate is lost, if the two armies fight along the streets and alleys of Dongcheng again, it will definitely be a situation of misery. Therefore, Cao Liangshi would rather let go of the opportunity of the emergency and die in the city than let these people suffer from the war. After all, it was not the Khitans who attacked the city, but another army of the Great Song Dynasty.

Chen Qu said loudly: "Adults are the parents of the people, and the last general will swear to guard this city gate to the death." The traitor wanted to harm the adult, so he stepped on Chen's corpse and went over. He bowed deeply to Cao Liangshi and strode out with his saber. He already had the will to die in his heart, and according to this onslaught, the city wall would be in danger at any time, and if there were no reinforcements, the city would be broken in a few days. Although Chen Quan is only a military general, but these days I have heard and witnessed, and I am extremely convinced of the governance of the Ezhou Prime Minister's Mansion.

The Ezhou army built several artillery forts outside the city wall, because the construction was hasty, the forts were far lower than the original city, and when the Xiangyang army began to attack the city not long after, the Ezhou army took the initiative to drag the artillery into the city and gave up the forts. Groups of soldiers threw dirt bags and firewood piles under the city like ants, and used these fortifications that were originally built under the city as a foundation to pile up mountains of earth for the siege. The arrows at the head of the city were weak, and the stones that were dropped became the material for the construction of the mountain, which grew in height at a rate almost perceptible to the human eye, and some soldiers carried poles several zhang long to the top, almost reaching the top of the wall. The defenders at the head of the city shouted in exclamation, and the boiling oil and stones kept falling on the heads of the soldiers under the walls.

"It's so slow, when will we be able to take this city!" Cao Di was rarely angry, he turned his head and said, "Our army has been fighting with the Ezhou rebels for more than ten days, and there are very serious casualties, can Liu Xianggong send his subordinates to help!" "Yesterday evening, Liu Yanqing, the deputy envoy of the Privy Council, led his troops to retreat to Ezhou, which not only brought heavy pressure to the grain and grass of the army, but also made Cao Di feel the pressure of the Liao army that followed closely.

Liu Yanqing sighed and explained in a low voice: "Cao Xianggong, our army has fought and retreated all the way, and the soldiers are tired and tired. If you force your soldiers to fight, you are afraid that it will backfire and even cause a mutiny. ”

Liu Yanqing originally left the general Li Qiong to lead 10,000 troops to stay in Xiangyang, but he didn't expect that as soon as the front foot left, Li Qiong surrendered the Liao army on the back foot, and Xiangyang fell so quickly that Liu Yanqing was forced to lead his troops to speed up the retreat like a frightened bird, and abandoned the old and weak and the baggage along the way, so that he could retreat to Ezhou without danger and merge with Cao Di's army. Liu Yanqing originally thought that Ezhou was just an empty city, and Cao Di's army had already occupied it. Then the two armies combined forces in one place, taking advantage of Ezhou's food and salary and the dangers of the river, they were still able to stabilize their positions, but who would have thought that the Ezhou army was stubbornly resisting, and Cao Di's tens of thousands of elite soldiers were delayed for more than ten days and could not enter the city.

Hearing Liu Yanqing's prevarication, Cao Di's face became even more gloomy, he pressed the urge to turn his face, and no longer persuaded him, but only turned his head and stepped up to urge his subordinates to attack the city. One after another group of elites of the Xijing camp rushed up, and were smashed back by the artillery and gravel at the head of the city, and the soldiers were killed and wounded, but Cao Di's face was as pale as iron, and he immediately moved on the high slope three miles away from the city wall, as if the city wall was not broken, and he had been supervising the battle here. The night breeze was slightly cold, Liu Yanqing looked embarrassed and stationed beside Cao Di, he retreated all the way from Xiangyang, he was really tired, so he excused himself to check his subordinates and went back to the Chinese military camp tent to rest.

Cao Di's face sank like water, and when Liu Yanqing walked away, he turned his head to look at the Liu family's military camp on the opposite bank of the river, and let out a slightly imperceptible "hum" on the wing of his nose, and then turned his gaze back to Ezhou Dongcheng. In any case, Liu Yanqing still has more than 40,000 elite soldiers in the southeast battalion, and now even if he is dissatisfied, he has nothing to do, and it is not too late to take Ezhou to stabilize the situation, and then slowly concoct this old "mediocre general".

For the people fighting inside and outside the city walls of Ezhou, it was an infinitely long dark night, and countless people lost their lives.

On the other side of the river, in the shade of the trees, a pair of cold eyes watched all this.

"Immortal God bless, the harder you fight, the better, anyway, it's all the blood of the Song people." Yeluqi said secretly, he turned to his subordinates and smiled, "No matter which family wins, as soon as His Majesty's army arrives, all of them will surrender to the hooves of the Khitans." ”

In the dark, hundreds of cavalry rushed to the outside of the Hongshan Temple in Dongshan, Ezhou. The sound of artillery was faintly heard, and the cavalry couldn't help but show excited looks. Three Jiangxia County students who were staying in Hongshan Temple heard the movement outside, came out to check, and saw Zhao Xingde leading the troops back to help, all of them were surprised, and they called Mr.

"It's finally here." Yang Zaixing said with a smile, not at all afraid that he was on the side of tens of thousands of enemy troops.

"Rest for an hour." Zhao Xingde nodded and said, "At dawn, let's rush into the city!" ”

"Yes!" The generals whispered yes. Six hundred miles of galloping, although Zhao Xingde deliberately conserved horsepower, there were still only more than 600 horses to reach the end. The cavalry removed the excess weight on their horses, and while recuperating their horsepower, they put on the heavy armor they had when they rushed into battle, and sat cross-legged on the ground with their eyes closed and waited for the moment of battle.

A hint of fish belly white gradually appeared in the east, and the first rays of sunlight appeared on the top of Dongshan Mountain.