On the twentieth day of July, that is, the fifth day of the Qi army's continuous attack on the city of Qiyang.

Before dusk, Tian Zhang, who rushed from Dushan day and night to the area of Qianyang, led a small group of people to watch from afar the attack of the general Tian Jing on Qiyang City.

Although he did not watch the whole battle, as far as Tian Zhang saw, his deputy general Tian Jing did not make a mistake when he commanded the attack on Qiangyang City, and he was step-by-step and quite orderly, but it was a pity that he could not attack the city wall of Qiangyang City.

As dusk approached, Tian Jing had no choice but to order the withdrawal of troops, and at this time Tian Zhang ordered the soldiers driving the chariot to drive forward and meet Tian Jing.

"Zhangzi."

"Hmm, Tian Jing, it's hard work."

"It's not hard, it's just ...... Alas. ”

When greeting each other, Tian Jing glanced back at the city wall of Qiyang City, and said with a little annoyance: "This Qiyang is no less than Hangu Pass. ”

Hearing this, Tian Zhang couldn't help but be a little surprised, after all, as far as he knew, Tian Jing was not the kind of person who deliberately elevated the enemy to evade responsibility.

"How?" He asked.

I saw Tian Jing staring at the city in the distance, and said in a deep voice: "So far, for five days, I have led the army under my command to attack the city, and the number of soldiers and soldiers every day is about 10,000, and about half of the casualties after the battle, even though the casualties of the Song army in the city are slightly smaller, but the roughly estimated casualties are at least more than 15,000...... But even so, the defense of Qiangyang City has not weakened at all, and the morale of the Song army is still high, but the soldiers of our army are almost unable to support it......"

"Is the morale of the Song army still high?" Hearing this, Tian Zhang also glanced at Qiyang City.

If they didn't have a general understanding of the defensive strength of Forcing Yang City before, but as Tian Jing attacked Forcing Yang City for five days in a row, the approximate strength in the city was almost clear to Tian Jing.

Tian Jing didn't know why, there might have been less than 20,000 troops in the city, until he attacked the city on the fourth day, Dai Yingzhi led about 6,000 soldiers from the north to support the city, in other words, the defenders of the city were almost 25,000 people - in fact, the strength of the Song army in the city was actually more, but Dai Busheng, Dai Jing, Le Yi and others led about 18,000 people to attack the hinterland of the Qi country, which made the number of Song troops in the area of Qiyang far less than the Qi army.

"Is it because of the relationship between Prince Song and Dai Wu?" Tian Zhang frowned and asked.

In his opinion, in this case, the Song army in the city can still be inspired to resist, I am afraid that only the crown prince Dai Wu is the crown prince of the Song State, and his sitting in the city can naturally greatly encourage the soldiers and civilians of the Song State in the city.

A prince Dai Wu, plus a "Ying Disease", it is really difficult to conquer this Yang City.

"It should be."

Tian Jing nodded, and immediately seemed to think of something, and said: "However, it seems that this side of the north city wall is not commanded by Dai Wu, the prince of Song, but another person, this guy can accurately grasp the momentum of our army every time, and when our army's offensive slows down a little, he immediately seizes the opportunity to rotate the soldiers, so that the exhausted and wounded soldiers can withdraw to the city, and at the same time immediately replenish the soldiers with full strength; And when our army's offensive was urgent, he always sent troops to reinforce in time, and even personally led people to reinforce the city wall, so that every wave of our army's offensive was forcibly blocked by this person......"

Hearing this, Tian Zhang subconsciously narrowed his eyes and asked in a deep voice, "Who is this person?" ”

"I don't know." Tian Jing shook his head and said, "I only know that the Song soldiers in the city all call him 'Zuo Sima'. ”

"Zomas...... In other words, it is the deputy general of the crown prince Dai Wu, well, it seems that this person is the "Ying Disease"! If I had the chance, I would have liked to see him.'"

Finally, after a glance at the city of Qianyang, Tian Zhang and Tian Jing returned to the camp together to discuss the matter of resuming the attack on Qiyang tomorrow.

They all knew very well that if they still couldn't capture the Yang in the future, then for the sake of the combat strength of the soldiers of the other army, they would have to carry out a reorganization and recuperation so that the soldiers could recover their strength, and this meant that the goal of capturing the Yang would have to be postponed again.

At this time, watching the Qi army outside the city slowly withdraw from the city wall, the Song soldiers guarding the city couldn't help cheering, even if they knew that the Qi army would still make a comeback tomorrow.

"Zosima, the Qi army has retreated, you can drink saliva first." A clever Song soldier walked up to Meng Zhong with a bowl and said respectfully.

"I'm tired."

Meng Zhong smiled at the soldier, then took the bowl and drank it slowly.

After all, in the past two days, the momentum of the Qi army's siege of the city was extremely fierce, almost every time it attacked from morning to dusk, so that Meng Zhong had no time to drink water and eat.

No, he hasn't eaten a drop of water today.

And when Meng Zhong was drinking water, a complaint came from not far away.

"The gang finally retreated, but I'm so tired that I can't lift my hands......"

Meng Zhong turned his head to look and saw Meng Hu, who was covered in blood, dragging a sharp sword, slowly walking towards this side.

It is worth mentioning that after hearing Meng Hu's complaints, several Song soldiers nearby immediately surrounded Meng Hu as if they were good, this one helped him pinch his shoulders, and the other helped him pinch his hands.

"This guy ......"

Looking at Meng Zhong's enjoyment, Meng Zhong couldn't help but shake his head slightly.

I have to say that it was not Meng Hu who forced those soldiers to do these things, but those soldiers from the heart, after all, in the past few days, Meng Zhong and Meng Hu often personally led troops to reinforce the city walls on both sides, which gave the two the opportunity to save many Song soldiers who were once almost killed by the Qi army.

No, after a few days, Meng Zhong, the "Zuo Sima", and Meng Hu, the "Meng Pawn Chief", gradually gained prestige among the Song soldiers - different from the prestige of the crown prince Dai Wu, this is the prestige that Meng Zhong and Meng Hu fought hard for.

"Boom—"

The north city gate slowly opened, and immediately, the generals Bian Kou and Huan Fang in the north city gate each took a team of Song soldiers out of the city to clean up the battlefield.

The so-called cleaning up of the battlefield is roughly to mend the corpse of an enemy soldier after the battle, and then strip off the armor of the enemy soldiers and take away the weapons left by the Qi army on the ground, which is a treatment that only the victorious side can get.

At this time, I am afraid that it is a rare time for the Song soldiers to be happy, after all, the armor of the Qi army is still quite good, put on their own armor, although the action is somewhat inconvenient, but the victory is in the defense ability greatly increased, just like the former Xinwei Army, in the case of wearing three layers of armor, the enemy's sword blade can not pierce its armor at once, what is this concept?

"Don't rob, go back to the city as soon as you're done!"

Seeing that the soldiers outside the city were laughing and fighting because of the robbery of armor when they cleaned up the battlefield, Meng Zhong scolded a few words in the city.

Immediately, Bian Kou and Huan Fang reprimanded those soldiers, and took the rest of the soldiers to quickly clean up the battlefield.

To put it bluntly, it is to see if there is a corpse outside the city that has not yet breathed, if it is unfortunate enough to fall under the city of your own soldier still has a breath, then immediately carry it to the city to recuperate, if it is an enemy soldier who still has a breath, then give the other party a sword, let him completely swallow.

However, so far, there have been few encounters with the two non-commissioned officers who still have breathing.

About a moment or so, the Song soldiers outside the city moved all the corpses outside the city to the inner wall of the city wall, and then stripped off the armor and buried the corpses, leaving only patches of blood-stained land outside the city.

"Biankou."

"Yes."

"Sit in the castle tower for me."

"Whoa!"

After the incident, Meng Zhong instructed Bian Kou to sit in the city gate tower for him, and he took Meng Hu to the city in a chariot.

On the way to the inner city, Meng Zhong saw many Song people in the city going back and forth, helping the Song soldiers to transport grain and grass, as well as defensive equipment such as sasswood.

Seeing that scene, Meng Zhong said sincerely: "The prince has contributed a lot to the fact that Yang City can be defended. ”

It is true that although the crown prince Dai Wu claimed to have read military books, he really had little experience in leading troops to fight, but his Royal Highness the prince had a good personality.

Two days ago, when Meng Zhong realized that the Qi army would continue to attack the city of Qiyang, he had made a suggestion to the crown prince Dai Wu: only by seeking the assistance of the people in the city, the army and the people working together can have a chance to repel the invading Qi army.

When the crown prince Dai Wu heard this, he took his guards to visit the people in the city, bowing from house to house, begging for help from the people in the city, and did not feel at all that it was a shame to bow down to the people in his honorable position.

And this is what Meng Zhong admires most about the crown prince Dai Wu - although this prince was taught a little naivety by the two important ministers of Hui Ang and Xue Juzhou, and lacked the things that a king should have, such as prestige, but his character is really excellent, even Meng Zhong can't help but praise it: It is worthy of being carefully taught by his brother Hui An.

Under the sincere plea of the crown prince, the people in the city spontaneously organized themselves to help the Song army transport food and materials, and even many people went directly to the military camp in the city to help the Song army cook, boil water, and take care of the wounded soldiers, which greatly reduced the fatigue of the Song soldiers in chores, so that they could devote all their physical strength and energy to fighting the Qi army.

Because of this, Meng Zhong once said to Meng Hu in private: The character of the crown prince Dai Wu is worthy of the strength of an army!

Not long after, Meng Zhong found the crown prince Dai Wu in the castle, who was guarding a pot with firewood burning underneath.

Seeing this, after Meng Hu stopped the chariot, Meng Zhong turned over and jumped out of the chariot, and said to Prince Dai Wu jokingly as he walked: "What, Prince, don't carry rice this time?" ”

Hearing this, the crown prince Dai Wu, who had already stood up at this time, also laughed a little embarrassedly and explained: "They thought I was stupid, so they just asked me to guard this pot and pour rice into it after the water boiled......"

Hearing his words, the nearby Song soldiers who were busy boiling water and cooking rice and the people in the city couldn't help laughing.

"It's a really good atmosphere......

After glancing at the Song soldiers and the people in the city who came to help, Meng Zhong said secretly.

As he saw, the crown prince Dai Wu really got close to the soldiers and the people, not that others can't do it, but as Dai Wu, he can ignore the dignity and humility of the army and the people, which is really something that most nobles in the world can't do, or simply disdain to do.

For example, Xue Gong Tianwen, whom Meng Zhong once encountered, was known as a famous scholar with "three thousand monks", but his devotion to ordinary civilians was no less than that of other nobles - it was only that he had some staff members such as Feng Tan and Wei who valued civilians by his side, so that Tian Wen also gained a reputation for treating civilians well.

But in essence, Tian Wen still looks down on civilians.

Come to think of it, only the crown prince Dai Wu, who has been taught by Hui An, Xue Juzhou and others with Confucianism since he was a child, will pay attention to the common people and the people's hearts from the bottom of his heart.

"That's good."

Meng Zhong said secretly.

Although he was a disciple of Taoism, he agreed with Mencius's ideas of "benevolent government" and "valuing the people".

I think that the Teng State back then was far weaker than the Song State, but it made the Song State suffer a lot, because Teng Hong, Teng Hu's father and son were benevolent and won the hearts of the people, so that when the Song State attacked the Teng State, almost all the Teng people helped its monarch resist the Song army.

Although Teng was finally destroyed by the Song State, it was only because the strength of the two countries was too different, not a matter of popular will.

And now, although the Song State is not as strong as the Qi State - it may take two Song States to be on par with the Qi State, but if the royal family can win the hearts of the people, the Qi State may not be able to do anything to the Song State. [PS: The economy and army of the Song State are actually stronger than the Yan State, but it is in the land of the four wars, surrounded by the three powerful countries of Qi, Wei, and Chu (all of which have dominated the Central Plains), except for attacking the Wei Kingdom to the north as in history (that is, King Zhao Wuling acquiesced to the annexation of the Wei State by the Song Dynasty), otherwise it is really difficult to expand externally, unlike the Yan State in a corner. 】

But unfortunately, the current monarch of the Song Kingdom, Dai Yan, is not a monarch who pays attention to the hearts of the people, but fortunately, the crown prince Dai Wu has excellent morality, as Hui Ang once said, he put all his expectations on the prince Dai Wu.

Indeed, the crown prince Dai Wu is indeed worthy of Hui An's hope, even if it is Meng Zhong, he feels quite good about this prince.

After laughing with each other for a while, the crown prince Dai Wu asked Meng Zhongdao: "Meng Qing, do you say that the Qi army will come to attack the city tomorrow?" As far as I know, the soldiers have been wounded in the past two days, and if they continue like this, I am afraid that it will ......."

Hearing this, Meng Zhong nodded slightly.

After all, what the crown prince Dai Wu said was right, because the Qi army had repeatedly attacked the city in the past few days, and there was no interval for a day, which led to more and more wounded Song soldiers in the city, so that in the end, many soldiers could only go into battle with injuries, and even he Meng Zhong himself, his left arm was pierced by an arrow, not to mention others.

After thinking about it, he comforted the crown prince Dai Wu and said: "Don't worry, the prince, I think it will be difficult for the Qi army to hold out for a long time with such an offensive." Today, I watched from the city, and found that the offensive of the Qi soldiers had weakened a lot compared with the previous days, and the continuous attack in the past few days was also a great burden on the Qi army, but Na Tian Jing refused to give me a chance to breathe, so he stepped up the siege of the city...... For another day or two at most, the Qi army will definitely not be able to support it first. ”

"I hope so."

The crown prince Dai Wu nodded wistfully, and then he asked Meng Zhongdao: "By the way, Meng Qing, the soldiers under Uncle Yingzhi, why did you leave 3,000 people and not send them to defend the city?" Although the number is small, if these 3,000 men participate in the battle, the soldiers in the city will be able to breathe a little......"

What he said was Dai Yingzhi, who rushed back and forth to help the sun two days ago.

After all, Tian Jing, Tian Touch, and Tian Da jointly led 60,000 Qi troops to attack the city, and the strength of the way to force Yang was only 18,000 people, in this case, Meng Zhong naturally wanted to recall Dai Busheng's 6,000 troops stationed in Zaolin, after all, counting the days, Dai Busheng, Dai Jing, Le Yi and others had already invaded the hinterland of Qi, and Tian Zhang had no sign of sending troops to Tancheng again, and then let Dai Yingzhi be stationed in Zaolin at this time, to be honest, it was not of much significance, it was better to transfer back to Qiyang to prevent the Qi army from breaking through this city.

However, after Dai Yingzhi led 6,000 troops back to Qiyang, Meng Zhong only let half of them participate in the defense of the city, and the remaining 3,000 people, but he let Dai Yingzhi stay still in the city.

First, the strength of the Qi army's siege of the city is actually getting weaker and weaker as time goes by, and it is not necessary to send all 6,000 soldiers; Second, it was Meng Zhong who wanted to leave an intact army in case of emergency.

For example, when the Qi army retreated, he took the opportunity to pursue the Qi army, and took advantage of the situation to recover Teng County, Xue Yi or something - those were the lands that his Song State lost in this battle, could he just watch it be occupied by the Qi State?

Yes, Meng Zhong's idea is not only to repel the Qi army, he also wants the Qi State to spit out all the Song State cities captured in this battle, so that the Qi State will not get the slightest return for the loss of troops and generals, only in this way, when the Qi Wangtian attacks the Song State again, will he weigh it.

The next day, July 21, the Qi army attacked the city of Qiyang for the sixth consecutive day.

Before giving the order to attack, Tian Jing once again used heavy rewards to motivate the morale of his subordinates, and improved it again on the basis of the previous one.

For example, after the defeat of the forced sun, each soldier of the whole army was rewarded with 20 sword coins, and the first 200 soldiers who took the lead in attacking the city wall were each rewarded with 300 acres of land, two houses, and 30 catties of copper.

It is no exaggeration to say that as long as you can squeeze into the quota of 200 people, it is enough for a family of eight to be rich in the past life.

It is conceivable that Tian Zhang and Tian Jing want to defeat the urgency of Yang City.

Under this heavy reward, the Qi soldiers regained their spirits, but they were so tired from the siege that their cheers for the reward were far less loud than they had been on the first day.

And in this regard, Tian Zhang and Tian Jing have nothing to do, after all, the matter has come to this point, and they can only bite the bullet and storm the city, praying that they can break the city today - at least let them see the hope of breaking the city.

"Attack!"

With Tian Jing's order, the Qi army rushed to the north wall of Qiyang City like a tide.

I have to say that when this battle is fought, the formation is no longer important, or the Qi soldiers no longer have so much energy to maintain the formation, and there is only one thought left in their hearts, that is, attack! Storm the city wall of the sun!

"Shoot the arrows!"

With the order of Huan Fang, who was standing on the city, the crossbowmen deployed in the city immediately used projectiles to shoot the enemy troops outside the city.

I have to say that the crossbowmen are fine, but the archers, the continuous drawing of the bow in the past few days has caused the few archers to strain their arm muscles one by one, so that their hands usually tremble when they hold something, but at this moment, they clenched their teeth, regardless of the soreness of their arms, and pulled the bowstring with all their strength until they were exhausted, and the whole person collapsed to the ground.

"Whoosh-"

Bursts of continuous but untidy arrows, three or three fell on the heads of the Qi soldiers outside the city, both in terms of accuracy and shooting distance, are much inferior to the previous two days, no way, the archers in the city are exhausted, even after a night of rest, but due to muscle strain, they only shot one or two arrows, they completely lost their combat ability.

The key is to look at the foot soldiers of the Song army on the city wall.

"Bang bang bang-"

"Bang bang—"

Long ladders were erected under the city walls.

Seeing this, the generals who seemed to be guarding the city wall, such as Bian Kou, Xiang Kai, Huan Fang, and Menghu, immediately commanded their soldiers to smash down with sassal wood, but they still couldn't stop the Qi army from using long ladders to climb the city wall.

"The Qi army is attacking!"

"White Blade!"

Almost at the same time, Bian Kou, Xiang Kai, Huan Fang, and Meng Hu commanded the nearby Song soldiers to block the city wall, ignoring the danger of enemy arrows overhead, and stabbed the enemy soldiers who tried to climb up with their weapons.

"Bang!"

"Bang!"

One soldier after another fell from the city wall, or Qi soldiers, or Song soldiers, the intensity of the scene was even more intense than in previous days.

"It seems that today is the 'final battle' of the Qi army......

Meng Zhong took a deep look at the main formation of the Qi army outside the city.

In view of the fact that the offensive of the Qi army has been getting weaker and weaker day by day in the past two days, he originally thought that this was the same today, but he did not expect that today's battle had just begun, and the Qi army showed combat capabilities comparable to those of the first day.

This undoubtedly means that today may be the last attempt of the Qi army during the continuous siege of the city in the past few days, as long as it can block this attack, the Qi army, which has completely lost its sharpness, can only recuperate.

"In that case......

A thought flashed in his heart, and Meng Zhong immediately ordered: "The Qi army is already at the end of the crossbow, as long as this attack is blocked, the Qi army will retreat." The order went down, and ordered Dai Yingzhi to lead his 3,000 soldiers to immediately go to the city wall to defend, and at this time he must not be suppressed by the Qi army in terms of momentum! ”

"Whoa!"

The soldiers on the left and right immediately rushed into the city.

At this time, Tian Jing outside the city was also watching the battle situation.

Suddenly, he gave the order for the whole army to attack, trying to use the tactics of the sea of people to crush the city of Qianyang.

But when the second wave of troops he sent arrived at the city, many Song soldiers suddenly poured out of the city wall, and these Song soldiers crowded the entire city wall, so that the Qi soldiers had no space to stand at all, and often just attacked the city wall, they were killed by the Song soldiers in three directions, and even the corpses were thrown under the city as a sassalore, knocking down a bunch of Qi soldiers.

I saw that these Song soldiers were quick and fast, and they didn't look like they were injured at all, and they were obviously the 3,000 soldiers that Meng Zhong had set aside in case of emergency.

The arrival of these 3,000 soldiers made the offensive of the Qi army once again suppressed by the Song soldiers.

"Again!"

Seeing this scene, Tian Jing patted the railing on the chariot he was in hatefully.

Glancing at the annoyed Tian Jing, Tian Zhang frowned and continued to look at Forcing Yang City.

He knew that those reinforced Song soldiers had been stationed in the city before, calculating the speed of their reinforcement of the city wall, that is to say, Tian Jing had just ordered the whole army to attack, and the main general of the opposite Yang City had already recruited wounded soldiers to participate in the defense of the city—maybe even earlier.

"Pretty accurate in the battle...... Could it be that through the momentum of our sergeants and soldiers when they attacked the city today, they judged that our army would launch the final onslaught today, so they summoned the wounded soldiers in the city early before Tian Jing ordered the whole army to attack? What an amazing guy......

Thinking of this, Tian Zhang hesitated slightly, and then said to Tian Jing: "So far, I can only hold on!" ”

Tian Jing was stunned, and immediately understood what Tian Zhang meant, and immediately sent someone to send an order: "Command the front army, all press, such a long section of the city wall, I don't believe that the Song soldiers can hold it all!" ”

Under Tian Jing's order, the Qi troops of the remaining phalanxes also quickly rushed to Qiyang City.

Up to now, the 40,000 Qi troops brought by Tian Jing have killed more than 10,000 people in the siege of the city for five consecutive days, and after removing the seriously wounded soldiers, there are only about 23,000 troops left.

And these 23,000 soldiers were all sent to the battlefield by Tian Jing at this moment, and at the same time launched a fierce attack on the entire north wall of Qiyang City, so that as far as the eye could see, the entire north city wall was full of soldiers using long ladders to climb the city wall, like dense ants.

Ant-attached tactics, worthy of the name.