In the early morning, before the sun rises, the sky and the earth are shrouded in dim light and a faint white mist. Guo Shao, as usual, walked out of a tiled house, the wooden barrel at the door was soaked in hammered willow branches, and he took the willow branches and began to brush his teeth.

Only at this time, the outside of Shouzhou City is so peaceful, and the surroundings are gradually lively, just like the early morning of the market, and like the craftsmen who make the sunrise and rest, just camping here, and the battle has not yet begun. People have just had breakfast, and before they are fully in the mood, they are slowly preparing for the day, and the sun has not yet set. The generals didn't rush much.

Behind the first earthen wall and wooden fence, some soldiers were buttering the stone-throwing trucks, some were wiping them with cloths, and some craftsmen were "clanging" to rivet hammers.

Finally, the first rays of sunlight like sharp arrows pierced the mist, and the heavens and the earth seemed to suddenly light up. One of the soldiers straightened up, lazily trying to take a breath in the sun. But at this moment, I suddenly saw the city gate slowly open. The soldier couldn't believe his eyes, so he quickly rubbed his eyes and looked again, and the drawbridge was also being lowered.

"Bang!" The drawbridge was erected on the banks of the dry moat. Suddenly, a group of cavalrymen and horses wearing iron armor rushed out.

The soldiers and soldiers of Zhou in the fence were all shocked, stunned there, no one dared to believe that Nan ** could still come out after being surrounded for two months! Finally, someone shouted: "The Shouzhou soldiers are coming!" ”

Groups of elite knights galloped forward on horseback, their sturdy figures and the brilliance of steel forming a powerful landscape in the rising sun.

One of them raised his sword and shouted, "Win all battles!" The knights shouted loudly, the sound of horses' hooves suddenly became urgent, the friction of swords and armor resounded with the characteristic accent of metal, and the heavy horses galloped up, approaching in a blink of an eye. There was no deflection in the direction, as if it had been premeditated a long time ago, and it approached the wooden gate in the fortifications of the Zhou army. On the arrow towers on both sides, a Zhou army archer pulled the bowstring and pulled the first arrow of the battle with a "snap".

A knight was hit by an arrow under his collarbone, fell off his horse with a crooked body, and fell heavily on the solid earth with a "clang".

At the gate of the wall, some Zhou soldiers were hurriedly putting the horses outside, hurriedly closing the gate of the wall, and were carrying the wood. "Whoosh ......" a swarm of bee arrows flew, some nailed to the wooden door, some pierced through the cracks, and immediately fell to the shouting of several people, these soldiers had no armor, only helmets and goggles, and the arrows were killed and wounded.

The cavalry had already rushed to the front of the wall, and turned around from the front of the door, and one of the knights pulled the bowstring with great skill. "Smack!" Arrows flew out from the side, piercing the eyebrows of a soldier nearby. The knights in front dismounted, moved the horses away, and slammed open the gate again.

The sergeant Zhou inside turned around and ran. But at this time, the ** cavalry had rushed up, and the knight in front of him was holding a cherry spear, his body was on the side of the horse, and he stabbed the cherry spear into the back of the soldier cleanly. More cavalry poured into the fortifications, and people fled in all directions, being slashed and shot in all directions.

A horse rushed to the side of a huge catapult, and the man on the horse smashed a crockpot in his hand, and with a "bang", the crockpot smashed into the wood and shattered, and the black fire oil poured down from the wooden frame. Almost at the same time, a torch flew upside down in the back, and with a "boom", the fire and smoke rushed together. The whole catapult was burned in an instant, and the movement was clean.

…… Guo Shao rode out to the west, looking at the smoke billowing everywhere in the wilderness, his face was already very ugly. At this time, a knight rushed over, met Guo Shao, and hurriedly dismounted and reported: "Recruit the envoy, the Tang soldiers poured out from the west gate and attacked my camp!" ”

Guo Shao didn't say anything, just looked at the fires and black smoke everywhere in the distance, and felt that what came to report was nonsense.

Not long after, Li Chuyun and several generals rode along the road to follow, and said: "The First Army is gathering into an army, and the two commanders are ready, come here!" When Guo Shao looked back, he could hear the footsteps of "click......click", and the infantry in a queue was trotting forward, and the military generals on horseback shouted next to the team.

Guo Shao did not answer anyone's words. He looked at the scene in front of him and knew that ** had broken through at least the first line of defense; Because the catapults had a limited range and were heavy, most of the equipment was in the first line of defense, and the losses were heavy. But he didn't say anything that didn't matter, so what's the use of saying that it's useless?

He swallowed a mouthful of saliva and said in a deep voice: "In the second line of defense, the first army of the front division of the left wing (west) hall is stationed in the southeast of the city gate, and the tooth soldiers of the Suzhou Assassin are stationed in the south...... Immediately take the command flag, send fast horses to deliver the order, and order the garrison troops to line up in place not to be chaotic and wait for the opportunity to move. ”

"Order!"

Guo Shao said again: "The commanders of the First Army of the Hujie Army immediately sent reinforcements to the West Gate. ”

At this time, a subordinate general said: "Seeing that something is wrong here, will the second army in the southeast rush over to reinforce it?" ”

Li Chuyun replied: "It should be, Wang Zhang will not die at such a time and wait for orders." ”

The general reminded again: "Will you use the strategy of diverting the tiger from the mountain to attack the west?" ”

Li Chuyun pondered for a moment and said: "Tang Bing is just a sudden sneak attack, and he can only break through my front by surprise; Now that the war has begun, it may be difficult to send more troops from the east. Moreover, the defenders were limited in strength, unless they wanted to abandon the city for a decisive battle. Otherwise, I don't think it's a smart thing to do at this time. ”

After hearing this, Guo Shao immediately decided: "Send someone to order Wang Zhang, and let him send reinforcements from the south of the city." ”

At this time, the forward infantry of the First Army had marched up, and Guo Shao asked Li Chuyun to lead the First Army to follow up, and decided to attack Nan** in battle. Then he led Yang, Luo, Luo Yanhuan and his own soldiers, a total of forty or fifty horsemen, to the west of the city.

After running for two miles, I saw the ** cavalry opening the way with heavy cavalry and sweeping towards the south of the city. At first glance, it seems that the momentum is huge, but there are only two or three hundred horses in the forward group.

The cavalry came from the west, the victory was in the momentum, the large number of defenders in the front position of the Zhou army were chaotic and did not form an array, and the number of people could not fight the cavalry in a dense formation, and it was extremely unbearable, and they were covered by the cavalry, and the chickens and dogs jumped and ran around.

Seeing this, Luo Yanhuan turned around and asked for help, seeing Guo Shao nodding, he immediately rushed forward, and several fierce generals and dozens of horsemen followed behind, Guo Shao also rushed up and pulled out *** from his back.

"Smack!" Luo Yan galloped around the horse and leaned over to shoot. One arrow at a time, he killed several enemies in succession, and when he approached the enemy's horse, he abandoned his bow and arrow, and drew his iron sword. The generals also carried long weapons and killed generals, all of them were determined to be military generals since they were children, and they were skilled. Although the Zhou army horse team has few people, it is very fierce, and as soon as the enemy is connected, the protrusion of the ** horse team is killed; The cavalry that followed behind was horrified when they saw this, and they did not dare to step forward in fear, so they turned their horses and ran westward.

Guo Shao and the others followed, and soon saw that the ** infantry was fighting in the fierce fire and smoke. It seems that the largest group of infantry also wants to attack westward, but some miscellaneous troops of the Zhou army rushed out from the second fence on the flank, and they are killing in a mess.

The miscellaneous troops of the Zhou army seemed to be part of the tooth soldiers and a large group of township soldiers in Suzhou, and there were very few people who were not fully clothed and armored, and their combat power was limited and they could not break through the southern ** flank. Seeing a group of ** infantry advancing to this side in the middle road, Guo Shao hurriedly shouted: "Let's go!" ”

The generals followed him and turned their horses' heads and ran backwards reflexively, but the Southern Tang infantry team could not keep up with their legs and was soon left behind.

After about a stick of incense, a commander of the First Army of the Hujie Army rushed to the battlefield first, and the troops trotted up in a hurry, and encountered the infantry brigade that was rushing south. The commander of the Hujie army didn't say a word, and shouted: "Kill!" "The army rushed up, completely ignoring the procession and running up desperately. The two groups of men and horses fought in the middle, and the swords were waved like a large pot of water was boiling.

Soon, the remaining six commanders of the Hujie Army also arrived one after another, and the battle line spread to both flanks, and several corps outflanked and attacked left and right. Not long after, the fighting Tang soldiers were defeated, broke and fled westward, were pressed by the Hujie army, and abandoned the corpses all the way.

Guo Shao followed the soldiers and horses of the Hujie army to chase and kill Erlidi, and saw that the west gate of Shouzhou was opened, and the cavalry of the south ** took the lead in entering the city, and the army that did not disperse behind also entered the city. Then came the chaotic rout.

The Hujie soldiers climbed straight out from inside the fence and pursued the city gate. After a short time, the drawbridge was pulled up, and the rout behind shouted and screamed, and many rolled into the dry riverbed.

Guo Shao's generals and horses were the first to rush to the city gate, at this time the arrows on the city tower rained down, and the soldiers who rushed too fast were hit by several arrows, and everyone had to retreat backwards. When the Hujie army kept up, the Southern Tang rebels who had not entered the city simply surrendered one after another, and took the initiative to walk over with their backs to the city wall.

There was a tidal wave of shouting from all sides, but the fighting was gradually over.

Guo Shao felt that this battle was won, because the circle of siege fortifications was larger than the city wall, two hundred steps away from the city, and the circumference was at least twenty miles. Cannot prevent ** from breaking through the line of defense. But because of the early preparations, they were surrounded and intercepted from several sides, and they were defeated...... The enemy was defeated before retreating into the city!

However, in fact, the results of the battle could not be counted in this way, and I saw that most of the catapults and ladders in the west of the city were still burning and smoking, and there were also parts of ordnance that were being transported from Bagong Mountain on the edge of the river were burned all the way. Losing so much equipment at once, he was still rushed out of the city defenders. Guo Shao felt that things were very bad.

Previously, he was also wary of the possibility of rushing out to counterattack, but he really couldn't be determined. Liu Renzhan really did it! It really surprised Guo Shao.

In the thick smoke, Guo Shao sat on the horse and looked around without saying a word for a long time, falling into Chen Si. He suddenly said to Li Chuyun: "Maybe we were careless and didn't pay enough attention to the defenders' counterattack before we were attacked?" ”