On the north city wall, the offensive of the Qi army seemed to break the flood of the embankment, surging up the city wall in waves, and then blocked by the defense line formed by the Song soldiers on the city wall with their bodies, as if they had slapped the rocks and were shaken back, they fell from the city wall one after another, and smashed into the crowd under the city wall.

But even so, there was still a steady stream of Qi soldiers frantically flocking to the city wall, not only to conquer the city in front of them, but also to get the high reward promised by Zuo Sima Tianjing.

After all, as long as they can kill the first two hundred people on the city wall, they can get a reward that is enough for the whole family to eat for a lifetime, and this reward is enough to make people crazy!

"Ah——!h

"Roar!"

In a roar that boosted his might, waves of Qi soldiers rushed to the city wall one after another, regardless of the dead and wounded, just to attack the city wall first, but the Song soldiers on the opposite side did not lose to them at all in terms of momentum, and completely blocked every gap in the city wall, as long as there was a gap, the Song soldiers behind would immediately block it and take over the defensive position of Tong Ze, who died in battle.

"For the Song Kingdom! For His Royal Highness the Crown Prince! Don't take a step! ”

"For the Prince!"

Many Song soldiers shouted slogans, not giving the Qi army the slightest chance to attack the city wall.

At this moment, the affinity of the crown prince Dai Wu was vividly expressed, and almost all the Song soldiers on the city wall were willing to fight for this prince, even if they sacrificed themselves for it.

I have to say that even if it is Song Wangyan, I am afraid that he is not so supported and supported by these Song soldiers.

"Hold on! Resist! ”

"Attack! Attack it! ”

In the midst of countless shouts, one after another soldiers of the Qi and Song armies fought bloody battles on the city wall, and the blood splashed from the human body completely stained the city wall under their feet, so that from a distance, the entire northern city wall seemed to be watered with red blood, which looked particularly bewitching and weird.

A Qi soldier who attacked the city wall had just stabbed a Song soldier with the long ge in his hand, and was immediately pushed down the long ladder by the rest of the Song soldiers with long weapons, screaming and falling to death under the city.

A Song soldier had just pierced the chest of a Qi soldier with a weapon, and was immediately stabbed to the ground by the Qi soldier who flew up from behind the latter.

At this time, the northern city wall was like a meat grinder, and the survival rate of ordinary soldiers was almost unimaginably low, and it may be just a blink of an eye, and dozens or hundreds of soldiers of the Qi and Song armies were killed, and they died on the wall of Qiyang City without being remembered at all.

"Stop them! Block them! ”

After cutting down two Qi soldiers one after another, Xiang Kai gasped and commanded the nearby Song soldiers.

The Qi army's offensive was so fierce that if it weren't for their Zuo Sima Mengzhong who sent 3,000 intact soldiers under Dai Yingzhi to the city wall in time, I am afraid that this city wall would have been breached by the Qi army at this moment.

But the price of this was that in just a quarter of an hour, the 3,000 intact soldiers lost about 500 killed, and countless more wounded.

Counting the casualties of the opposing Qi soldiers, the corpses on the city wall were rapidly piling up at this moment, and it had reached the point where people had no place to stand.

Thinking of this, Xiang Kai immediately ordered: "Quick! Come and move the corpses of our soldiers to the city, and as for the corpses of the Qi soldiers, they will all be thrown off the city wall for me!" ”

"Obey!"

After hearing Xiang Kai's order, the nearby Song soldiers, while struggling to resist the Qi army, while carrying the corpses of their own soldiers under the city, threw the corpses of the enemy soldiers out of the city wall and used them as sassaloas, knocking down a large number of Qi soldiers who were still trying to rush up the city wall.

But even so, the momentum of the Qi army's siege of the city did not weaken in the slightest.

"Qi Jun is crazy!"

Because of the reinforcements, the military Sima Dai Yingzhi was also on the city wall to resist the Song soldiers at this moment.

He saw that the walls of the city were full of the corpses of soldiers from both sides of the enemy, and even the air was filled with a strong smell of blood.

Dai Yingzhi has been the military commander of the Song State for more than 20 years, even if he has fought with the Qi State no less than several times, but so far he has not seen the Qi army attack him so fiercely Song State, even if the Song State took advantage of Tian Zhang's Hangu Pass to lead the attack on the Qin State, and took the opportunity to attack the Qi State and seize five cities, the resistance of the Qi State at that time was not so fierce.

It can be seen that Qi Guo is indeed determined to take the opportunity to annex his Song State this time.

『…… How can it be as you wish?'

Thinking of this, Dai Yingzhi also carried a sharp sword to personally kill those Qi troops.

I have to say that unlike Dai Busheng, who is known for his bravery, Dai Yingzhi, the military sima, actually appears more often as an elegant image, and even once talked with the Confucian sage Mencius on the issue of taxation, and was slightly ridiculed by Mencius with a fable of "holding chickens".

But at this moment, this military commander, who usually pays attention to his own image, can no longer take care of much, and takes the lead, inspiring the nearby Song soldiers through his own brave actions to kill the enemy, so that the morale of the nearby Song soldiers is not reduced by his own casualties in the slightest.

Of course, it was more because the fierce battle on the city wall at the moment was so fierce that the Song soldiers had no time to be afraid, and they had only one thought in their hearts: to fight for the Song Kingdom! Fight for His Royal Highness the Crown Prince, who is willing to mingle with them!

"Kill!"

"Kill ——!"

Such a high-intensity battle lasted for half an hour, even though there were Song soldiers on the city wall to deal with the corpses one after another, but the speed of the corpses was still faster than the speed of those soldiers, and under the city, the corpses of the Qi soldiers had almost piled up to half the height of the city wall, so that more and more Qi soldiers simply erected the long ladder obliquely on the corpse mountain, which greatly reduced the possibility of the long ladder being overthrown by the Song soldiers in the city.

"It's too much loss......

At this time, in the area of the city gate tower, Meng Zhong was concerned about the casualties of the soldiers on both sides on the city wall, and he was anxious.

You must know that today's siege battle has only lasted for an hour so far, but the casualties of the two armies have already reached the casualties of the whole day of fighting yesterday and the day before yesterday.

The scorching sun in the sky has not yet moved to the right space, which means that it is not yet noon, which means that there are at least two or three hours left before dusk.

You know, if you keep fighting at this intensity, I'm afraid that as long as it takes another hour, the Song soldiers in the city will probably have almost all the casualties.

"Zosima! Zosima! ”

Suddenly, Bian Kou, the blood-stained guard of the North City Gate, hurriedly ran to the city gate tower and said to Meng Zhong eagerly: "Zuo Sima, the west city wall is almost unbearable, so it is better to retreat to the second city wall." ”

The west city wall in his mouth refers to the west section of the city wall to the west of the city gate tower in the north city wall, which is also the place where Menghu is now guarding.

Because the offensive of the Qi army is too fierce today, Meng Zhong has sent all the guards in the area of his north city wall to the city wall, so that at this time, on the north city wall, Dai Yingzhi and Xiang Kai defend the eastern section, and Meng Hu and Huan defend the western section, as for the border kou, they assisted Meng Zhong to defend the city gate, which barely blocked the offensive of the Qi army.

“……”

After listening to Bian Kou's urgent report, Meng Zhong turned his head to look at the western section of the city wall, and immediately shook his head and said, "You can divide a part of the troops to reinforce the western section of the city wall, as for retreating...... There must be no retreat! After that, he saw that Bian Kou's face showed a look of anxiety and incomprehension, so he simply explained: "The Qi army has been attacking the sun for six consecutive days, and they are also extremely tired, today's madness is just their last attempt, if they retreat at this time, it will definitely greatly boost the morale of the Qi army, prompting them to continue to hold on and continue to attack the city, even if they can't fight today, they will come tomorrow...... Only by holding on and making the Qi army realize that they could not capture this city will they choose to retreat temporarily. ”

Bian Kou suddenly realized this, nodded and immediately said: "In this case, I will immediately send five hundred people to reinforce the city wall on the west side!" ”

With that, he clenched his fists, turned and left.

Glancing at the back of Bian Kou's departure, Meng Zhong focused his attention on the battle on the city wall.

Although the current battle situation, the casualties of his Song soldiers are indeed too heavy, but in fact, the losses of the Qi soldiers on the opposite side are even greater, after all, his Song army also has a strong city wall to rely on, which makes the Qi army have to spend nearly twice as many casualties to kill a Song soldier - of course, this is the beginning, as for today, because the soldiers of the Qi and Song armies are exhausted, so that the initial casualty ratio of almost one to two has gradually been reduced to three to five, and it is still slowly shrinking.

As for whether it is possible to slowly reduce the casualty ratio to one to one, the answer is impossible, because according to the fierce battle at present, let alone reaching one to one, even before reaching two to three, the soldiers of the Qi and Song sides have already been killed and wounded.

In all fairness, this achievement is already excellent, after all, the Qi army has more than 60,000 people, and the Song army in Yang City, including Dai Yingzhi's army, is only about 25,000 people, a difference of three armies.

Even if they were exhausted, Song Wangyan would never blame Meng Zhong for this, but would instead reward Meng Zhong.

It's just that war is by no means a numbers game, every Song soldier is a living person, as the current commander of Forcing Yang City, Meng Zhong naturally hopes that more Song soldiers can survive this fierce battle, and he will spare no effort in this regard.

But unfortunately, for now, he really has no good way, after all, on a battlefield of this scale, the strength of the individual is too weak, and more importantly, he still has to rely on his own soldiers to use human lives to accumulate advantages, and then turn advantages into victories.

He could only secretly comfort himself who was getting more and more anxious: he could hold on, he could hold on, but after all, the losses of the Qi army would be greater.

But when he learned that his own soldiers on the city wall were rapidly being depleted, he couldn't help but clench his fists, hating his weakness.

"If I had a squad of cavalry...... If I had the strength of Lian Po and Niu Qian, I might ......

Shaking his head, Meng Zhong threw all the unrealistic thoughts in his heart behind him.

After that, the battle on the city wall lasted for half an hour, although with the bloody battle of the Song army generals on the city wall, the north city wall was still firmly in the hands of the Song army, but the price was that the number of casualties was getting bigger and bigger - although Meng Zhong didn't have time to count for the time being, but according to his visual observation, the number of Song soldiers on the city wall was much weaker than before, and this was still under the condition that he continued to send troops to reinforce.

At this moment, Meng Zhong couldn't help but regret a little, regretting that he was too big, and he shouldn't have sent Dai Busheng and Dai Jing's nearly 20,000 troops to counterattack the Qi State, otherwise, how could the Qi army outside the city force him to such a point?

But reason also told him that sending Dai Busheng and Dai Jing to counterattack Qi State, so that Qi State can also taste the taste of being attacked by foreign enemies, this is the fastest way to stop this war - to end the war with war, and force Qi Wang Tiandi to give up attacking Song by making Qi suffer huge losses in the war.

"Calm down! Calm down!'

After secretly reminding himself of two sentences, Meng Zhong took a breath quietly, still looking at the battlefield expressionlessly, and even deliberately showed a smile as if he was holding the victory, so as not to panic the Song soldiers around him who frequently peeked at his expression.

Yes, anyone can panic, but he, the lord, can't panic, otherwise how will this battle be fought?

"Are there any troops available in the city?"

Watching the battle on the city wall, Meng Zhong carefully calculated in his mind.

But what made him a little helpless was that there were almost no available troops in the city at the moment, except for the east city gate, because it had not been attacked by the Qi army in the past few days, there were still more than a thousand intact soldiers.

The question is, if the more than 1,000 soldiers are transferred to the north gate, will they be able to hold out until dusk? You know, the damn sun in the sky has just moved to the right sky!

What's more important is that if the soldiers are drawn from the East City Gate, the defense of the East City Gate will inevitably be weak, and if the Qi military first sends a surprise army to ambush on the outskirts of the East City Gate, it will be too late to return to help.

"Do you take the risk of drawing the remaining 1,000 troops from the East City Gate, or do you want the soldiers in the city who are not seriously injured to rush to the city wall for reinforcements?"

Meng Zhong thought to himself.

To be honest, he didn't really want to choose either option.

Let's talk about the East City Gate first, although the Qi army may not attack the East City Gate in the end, so that the Song soldiers there were wasted their combat strength, but the war pays attention to "first standing undefeated and then seeking victory", the defense on the side of the East City Gate is already weak, if it is completely empty at this moment, once the Qi army really ambushes a soldier outside the city, then the situation of breaking the city in an instant, and the results of more than 25,000 Song soldiers who have worked hard for five days will be instantly lost.

Therefore, in the spirit of being responsible for the sacrificed soldiers, Meng Zhong did not want to mobilize the soldiers of the East City Gate to avoid any accidents.

But the requisition of wounded soldiers...... To tell the truth, unless it is a seriously wounded soldier, as long as the wounded soldier is not seriously injured, in fact, almost all of them have already gone to the city wall to defend, where are there any wounded soldiers available?

Neither can the soldiers of the East City Gate be transferred, and there are no wounded soldiers to be requisitioned, and the West City Gate and the South City Gate are also difficult to support the North City Gate because of the fierce attack of the Qi generals Tian Touch and Tian Da, which leads to Meng Zhong now falling into an embarrassing situation where there are no soldiers available.

"If you give me another 5,000 soldiers...... No, even if it is 3,000 troops, so that the soldiers on the city wall can take turns to rest, I believe that the casualties and losses of the soldiers here will be greatly reduced, tsk! Troops, troops, ......

Just as Meng Zhong was thinking about where to squeeze out some more troops to reinforce the northern city wall, he suddenly heard a shout from not far away and asked, "What are you waiting for the city wall to do?" Don't add to the chaos, quickly retreat from the city wall. ”

Immediately, some noisy voices sounded, as if they wanted to help defend the city.

"Huh?"

Meng Zhong frowned, turned around and walked in the direction where the voice came from, and didn't go far before he saw a group of civilians standing not far away, these people seemed to have come up from the steps on the inner side of the city wall, but at this moment they were blocked by the Song soldiers on the city wall, and there seemed to be some dispute between them.

"What's going on?"

Meng Zhong walked over and asked.

The Song soldiers who were there at that time all recognized Meng Zhong as Zuo Sima, the crown prince Dai Wu, and the chief general who had commanded them to resist the Qi army in the past few days. ”

"Oh?"

Meng Zhong turned his head to look at the civilians, only to see that some of these people were wearing the armor of the Qi army, some were only holding a long ge, and some were simply barehanded.

After thinking about it, he persuaded: "Ladies and gentlemen, war is not child's play. I would like to thank you for your desire to help defend the city, but you have not been trained and your numbers are small enough to ......."

"This Zosi, there are quite a few people waiting for us! Almost all the men in the city are here! ”

In the crowd, a man in his twenties interjected.

"What?"

Stunned, Meng Zhong walked to the inner side of the city wall suspiciously, took a look at the city, and sure enough, he saw that the city wall was full of men and women dressed as civilians, and the number was probably not less than three thousand.

"Could it be that the prince pleaded with the civilians of the city to help defend the city?"

Meng Zhong secretly guessed in his heart.

After all, at this moment, in the city of Qiyang, in addition to his order to forcibly recruit civilians in the city, only the crown prince Dai Wu has the ability - after all, this prince has mingled with the soldiers and civilians in the city during this time, and enjoys a good reputation in the hearts of the soldiers and civilians.

At this time, a burly man about forty years old walked out of the crowd, and he hugged his fist towards Meng Zhong, and said in a deep voice: "This Zosima, please allow us to help defend the city!" ”

"Who told you to come?" Meng Zhong frowned and said.

Hearing this, the man explained: "It was His Royal Highness the Crown Prince who learned that the situation at the North City Gate was critical, and personally went to the city to ask us for ......help," he paused slightly, raised his right hand into a fist, and said impassionedly: "We are also the sons of the Song Kingdom, how can we sit back and watch the Qi Kingdom annex my Song Kingdom?" …… We also know that our generation is just some farmers with brute strength, but for the sake of the Song Kingdom and His Royal Highness the Prince, we will never be stingy with this life! ”

As soon as the words ended, a shout rang out from the crowd behind him.

"For the Song Kingdom!"

"For His Royal Highness the Crown Prince!"

『……』

Looking at this group of excited civilians, Meng Zhong couldn't help but hesitate a little.

Admittedly, he was in dire need of available soldiers at the moment, but that didn't mean he would allow these untrained civilians to climb the city walls to help defend the city, after all, even two men might not be worth a trained Song soldier.

After a slight hesitation, he asked, "Where is the prince?" ”

As soon as the words fell, the voice of the crown prince Dai Wu came from the city: "Zuo Sima, I'm here." ”

As he spoke, the crown prince Dai Wu squeezed through the crowd and came to the city.

When he came to the city, seeing Meng Zhong looking at him inexplicably, the crown prince Dai Wu hurriedly explained: "I learned in the city that the soldiers in this area of the northern city wall have suffered heavy casualties, or there is a danger of being broken by the Qi army, so I implore the people in the city to defend the city together...... Dai Wu didn't have time to discuss with Qing, so he made his own opinion, and asked Qing to forgive me. ”

『……』

Looking at the sincere face of the crown prince Dai Wu in front of him, and then looking at the civilians around him who volunteered to help defend the city, Meng Zhong didn't know what to say for a while.

And at this moment, there were Song soldiers on the city wall not far away, and suddenly shouted anxiously: "Qi army! The Qi army is attacking again! ”

Seeing this, the crown prince Dai Wu's face turned straight, turned around and bowed to those civilians, and said sincerely: "Everyone, my people of the Song Kingdom, please help Dai Wu, please help my country's soldiers!" ”

Hearing this, the man who had just spoken to Meng Zhong immediately waved his arm and shouted, "Have you ever heard the words of His Royal Highness the Crown Prince?" Assist in defending the city, and never let the Qi army attack the city! ”

"Oh, oh, oh-"

Meng Zhong and a few nearby soldiers didn't have time to stop them, and they saw that the civilians were pouring up the city wall, or blocking the city wall with weapons in hand, or picking up weapons on the ground.

In the chaos, even the crown prince Dai Wu, under the protection of a team of guards, rushed to the city wall, apparently preparing to defend the city wall with the soldiers and civilians on the city wall.

"Zosima, this ...... What can I do? ”

Several nearby soldiers looked at Meng Zhong at a loss.

Glancing at His Royal Highness the Crown Prince in the distance, who he couldn't stop, and then carefully looked at the civilians around him who were holding weapons and looking nervous, but with firm eyes, Meng Zhong let out a long breath and said with a somewhat helpless wry smile: "Even if we stop it at this moment, I guess we can't stop it......

As he spoke, he restrained the wry smile on his face and ordered in a deep voice: "In this case, don't let down these civilians, don't let down His Royal Highness the Prince, pass the order, tell the soldiers in the city to hurry up and recover their strength, bandage their wounds, and if you have spare strength, please be sure to assist and teach these civilians how to resist the Qi army and reduce their casualties as much as possible." ”

"Whoa!"

At the same time, the Qi army under the city launched a fierce offensive again, and Meng Zhong clearly saw that those civilians lost dozens of people as soon as they came up because of their lack of relevant experience - this was still within Meng Zhong's line of sight, and outside his line of sight, I don't know how many civilians died under the offensive of the Qi army.

But even so, those civilians did not flinch at all, just like the crown prince Dai Wu who led them - in fact, the crown prince Dai Wu's martial arts were not as good as Meng Zhong, but at this moment, the prince of the Song State was fearless, personally fighting on the city wall, and inspired the nearby soldiers and civilians with his actions.

"His Royal Highness the Crown Prince has come down!"

"His Royal Highness the Crown Prince personally went up to the city wall to defend the city with us!"

"Long live the Prince!"

"Hooray!" [PS: The word long live appeared before Qin, for example, when Tian Wen's staff Feng Tan burned the bonds, the civilians of Xue Yi shouted long live. As the self-proclaimed word "I" is, it was not only used by monarchs in the first place. 】

"For the Prince! For the Song Kingdom! Kill all these soldiers! ”

"Kill—"

For a time, the soldiers and civilians of the Song State on the city of Qiyang broke out with an incomparable momentum of Chu, not to mention the Song army, even Meng Zhong felt secretly frightened, and was shocked that in this era, when the monarch or prince came to the battlefield in person, what kind of encouragement did he have for his own soldiers on the battlefield.

『…… Although it was not my intention, but in any case, the sun is worry-free today."

Thinking of this, Meng Zhong secretly breathed a sigh of relief.

At the same time, in the main formation of the Qi army outside the city, Tian Zhang and Tian Jing also quickly noticed the changes in the city of Qiyang.

When he realized that the civilians in the city of Qiyang spontaneously helped the prince Dai Wu and helped the Song soldiers defending the city to defend the city wall, Tian Zhang knew that he was destined to not be able to defeat the city today.

"Retreat, Tian Jing." He said with regret.

"Retreat?" Tian Jing glanced up at the scorching sun that had just been tilting to the west, and a little reluctance flashed on his face.

Seeing this, Tian Zhang shook his head and sighed: "Although it is a pity, since the soldiers and civilians in Qiyang City are all united, then even if our army does everything we can, don't want to conquer this city...... If we continue to fight, we will only increase the casualties. ”

Hearing this, Tian Jing lowered his head and remained silent.

Eventually, he let out a long sigh.

"The order goes down...... The whole army retreated. ”