Zhao Zhen has always been confident, the men and horses of the same strength are pressed up to fight, not afraid of casualties, the elite of the Chuzhou army has an overwhelming advantage in the face of the Chishan army.

More than half of the veterans of the Chuzhou army, and the new slaves and maids are all selected and strong, the armor is more sophisticated, and the food and supplies are more sufficient.

The first capital of the Chishan Army on the opposite side, although it is known as the elite, but there are still nearly half of the generals who hold it, or the broken long bamboo pole called the wolf's tooth grief, only less than a quarter of the soldiers wear armor, and they are all captured leather armor, before the start of this war, the daily food of the generals is only half of the normal,

Therefore, in the battle of Shangjiabao, their defeat on the flank, Zhao Zhen was very unconvinced, holding his breath, thinking that one day he would find his way back, and the opportunity in front of him had come, not to mention that they still had an advantage in troops.

Even though he led his troops from Liyang to Nantangzhai and the generals were somewhat depleted in terms of physical strength, Zhao Zhen still firmly believed that victory was in his hands.

However, the battle broke out from the beginning of the Shen Shi until the twilight of the four sides, and the two sides fought fiercely for more than two hours on the south bank of the shallow creek and in a shallow valley more than three or four miles wide to the west of Nantang Village, and Zhao Zhen's confidence was shaken for the first time.

The generals of the Chishan Army were weak, and the hundred-man teams that were put into the battlefield on both sides collided together, and more than seventy percent of the hundred-man teams of the Chishan Army were scattered and defeated.

If this was on other battlefields, the Chuzhou army should have locked in the victory before nightfall, but the Chishan army fought too tenaciously.

Every 100-man team of the Chishan Army was scattered and defeated, but the 100-man team in the rear or flank was rarely disturbed, making it difficult for the Chuzhou Army to take the opportunity to expand the results of the battle, and even to guard against the frantic pounce of the Chishan Army on the flank.

The generals of the Chishan Army who were scattered and defeated were even able to reorganize and assemble in a very short period of time and re-block the gap, making it difficult for the Chuzhou Army to move forward.

This not only means that the Chishan Army's ability to bear casualties is higher than that of the Chuzhou Army, but also that the grassroots military attachés at the two levels of the team leader are also higher in terms of organizational ability and combat resilience than the Chuzhou Army.

This also made it so that in just two hours of fierce fighting, the casualty rate of the Chishan Army on the front line of Nantangzhai exceeded 30%, and the combat effectiveness still showed no signs of collapse and collapse.

Although it was only a thin and cloudy weather after nightfall, and the faint starlight flickered from the thin clouds, which could make people vaguely see the outline of the distant mountains, but after nightfall, the Chuzhou army must also withdraw from the bloody battlefield and retreat to a shallow stream that temporarily flows out of the western foot of Jieling Mountain to rest.

At this time, Zhao Zhen even had to rejoice that the generals of the Chishan Army were too weak, and that the Chishan Army in front of him had not received sufficient food supplies in the past two months, so that the fierce fighting for so long had led to serious physical exhaustion, and the ability to sustain combat was also seriously weakened.

Otherwise, the Chishan army on the opposite side will not break away from the Chuzhou army after nightfall, and will continue to entangle, and even intersperse with the depths of his own formation, Zhao Zhen will have to worry that the Chuzhou army, which has a slightly worse combat resilience of the grassroots military attachés below the rank of the team, is more likely to induce irreversible chaos.

Wang Wenqian felt that when he hurried to Liyang to meet Zhao Zhen in the afternoon, the carriage overturned and injured his ribs, and he climbed the low ridge by the shallow stream with Zhao Zhen and Yin Peng at this time, and still felt a faint pain in his chest and ribs, but now is not the time to care about this, they looked south at this time, and could see a team of men and horses, under the reflection of hundreds of torches, into the camp of the Chishan Army in the south.

Although the more than 1,000 men and horses of the Chuzhou army in Jintan rushed over at night, the Chishan army was also constantly increasing its troops on the south bank, did they tear apart the interception of the Chishan army before Han Qian captured Langxi City?

Wang Wenqian's confidence couldn't help but waver, and he couldn't help but ask himself this question secretly.

He also knew that once Han Qian captured Langxi City in advance, they would have to withdraw their troops, otherwise, it would be self-evident how dangerous it would be for the Chishan Army to withdraw to Nantang Village and Langxi City to rest and respite, and the exhausted and heavy casualties of the Chuzhou Army would continue to be exposed.

What kind of level of army management is it that a hastily advanced army with no better material conditions than the displaced people's army can be built to such a level in less than two or three months?

Wang Wenqian deeply regretted that he did not insist on his own views at the beginning, and did not stick to the strategy against the Chishan Army, and even if they could mobilize about 20,000 elite troops on the southern front to put them on the battlefield at this time, they would not have such worries.

"I still have to work hard tomorrow, the first elite of the Chishan Army is so daring to fight, and even if the third capital is extremely poorly armed, it can't be underestimated, according to this situation, the defenders of Langxi City may not be able to support it for a few days!" Zhao Zhen's thin old face was furrowed

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It seems that he regrets that he did not support Wang Wenqian's strategy of blockading the eastern front of the Chishan Army at the beginning, but he didn't expect that after letting the Chishan Army get a two-month respite, it would turn into such a big trouble, and in the final analysis, he still didn't pay enough attention to Han Qian.

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When Xiao Dahu and Guo Nuer led more than 1,000 reinforcements to Honglinbu, it was already dark, but they were catching up with a Xuanzhou army of seven or eight hundred people to cross Magu Mountain from the trail and go around to the west side of Honglinbu, thinking of launching an attack on Zhao Wuji's troops who were holding the southern pass of Honglinbu from the flank at night.

Zhao Wuji led more than 300 cavalry and more than 1,000 foot soldiers to severely damage the township soldiers and repel the first wave of cavalry attacking by the Xuanzhou soldiers, and held on to the narrow pass of less than 300 paces for half a day, repelling the seven attacks of the Xuanzhou soldiers, with nearly 500 casualties, and less than 900 people are still left to fight with blades, and the physical consumption is extremely great.

Zhao Wuji's right arm was drenched in blood, and he didn't know how many times he opened his bow that day, and he couldn't pick up an arrow at this time.

Even if he had already detected that there was a Xuanzhou soldier interspersed from the mountain road on the flank, he was unable to divide his troops to intercept it, so he could only lead the remnants of the army to passively hold the narrow pass, blocking more Xuanzhou soldiers in the south, so as not to make it go north and disrupt the rhythm of the third capital's attack on Langxi City.

"The prince has no seed, and he will not die, five years ago, my Guo Nuer and Xiao Commander were still trampled on the soles of the family by the family gatekeeper, and the situation is worse than all of you, I can get today's encounter, but I don't hesitate to die." Guo Nuer reined in his horse, and Xiao Dahu raised their arms to boost their morale in front of the generals who had arrived at Honglinbu for a long time.

The Xuanzhou soldiers who crossed Magu Mountain had the intention of shrinking to the flank, but they could not defeat this Xuanzhou army at night, and left it until tomorrow when more Xuanzhou crossed Magu Mountain to attack their flank, and the trouble would be even greater.

Guo Nuer and Xiao Dahu discussed, Zhao Wuji's troops were exhausted and suffered heavy casualties, and they led reinforcements to raise fire and fight at night.

After a simple mobilization, more than 1,000 reinforcements brazenly swept towards the west flank, and the Xuanzhou soldiers who came from the west of Honglinbu after a little hesitation seemed to have two torrents violently colliding together in the dark night, and both sides completely ignored the chaos that the night battle would cause to be difficult to contain.

After crossing Magu Mountain through the trail for most of the day, the Xuanzhou soldiers who dared to enter the night battle after a simple diet and rest were naturally the elite of the tooth army carefully raised by Gu Zhilong.

Even if they collided with Xiao Dahu's troops who came from reinforcements and were at a disadvantage in terms of troops, Gu Zhilong's elite of the tooth army absolutely believed that the victory belonged to them.

There is no possibility of fighting in a row in a night battle, and the communication method of the main general to transmit military orders is completely ineffective, not to mention that the two armies collide together, and in the faint starlight, it is certainly impossible for the main general standing in the distance to distinguish between friend and foe.

On the lead-colored night sky, the starlight is faint, and the generals on both sides can only rely on passwords and armor to distinguish between friend and foe at a close distance, Xiao Dahu and Guo Nuer sink directly into the sentry team, and each of the guards and a sentry will be mixed and rushed to the front, while the other sentry teams can only rely on the command and control of the commanders and other grass-roots military attachés such as team leaders and commanders.

Feeling that the enemy's offensive was completely loosened, Xiao Dahu's thigh was pierced by a spear, and under the protection of the three guards, he leaned against a stone wall to rest, and at this time, he could vaguely see the large and small groups of enemy troops fleeing into the Magu Mountain in the southwest, so he changed the password to shrink and retreat, and asked the Hu Cong around him to pass it out one by one.

There is still a vicious battle to be fought tomorrow, and under such harsh conditions, he cannot disperse his forces into the depths of Magu Mountain, where the terrain is complicated, to pursue and kill the enemy.

Xiao Dahu waited for a long time, but he didn't see Guo Nu'er come back, the black light was blinding, he was making sure that the defeated enemy completely retreated, and he didn't dare to assemble from the flank to organize an offensive, so he first took the gathered soldiers and horses to the pass to meet Zhao Wuji.

Xiao Dahu didn't think that Guo Nuer had already arrived at the pass one step ahead of him, but Guo Nuer was hit by an arrow in the face, and the iron cluster arrow penetrated out from the back of his head, and he was already dead of anger when he was held in his arms by Lin Zongjing, who was full of tears......

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When a small piece of fish belly white was revealed in the sky, the darkness that enveloped the sky and the earth seemed to fade in an instant, and a faint blue shadow was again cast, and the scenery near and far also suddenly became clear, and the torches and bonfires burning on the city wall seemed to become dim at this moment.

Zhou Yuanhe, the magistrate of Langxi County, who was sleeping against the battlement wall and clothes, heard the sound of crackling, suddenly woke up, knelt up and looked outside the battlement, the black and oppressive Chishan Army had already been dispatched, like a black tide surging towards the city.

Zhou Yuanhe stood up in fright.

If it weren't for the fact that the reinforcements led by Lord Assassin Shi had been killed to the south side of Honglinbu more than 30 miles away, if he didn't know that Lord Assassin Shi had invited tens of thousands of elite troops from Chuzhou to help, and could defeat the interception of the defenders of Nantangzhai 40 miles away at any time, if it weren't for the fact that more than 200 military attachés in the city were all in Xuancheng, Zhou Yuanhe suspected that they might not be able to survive half a day yesterday.

The soldiers of the Chishan Army, who are poorly armoured, are not afraid of death

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Rushing up against falling rocks, fire oil, and arrows, the corpses fell to the city like dumplings, but they could not be made to hesitate in the slightest when climbing the walls of the attached city.

These damn cheap slaves, do they all eat the bear's heart and leopard's gall?

Fortunately, the defenders at the head of the city had grown a little after yesterday's fierce fighting, and at this time they picked up their swords, bows and spears and stood behind the battlement wall, and seemed to be less flustered than yesterday.

As long as it is a human being, it will grow, and as long as it has experienced bloody and cruel battles, quite a few people will become numb when they pick up swords and spears - after all, they have been training for two or three months before, and they defend the city and fight condescendingly, and the requirements for the cooperation between the array and the generals are not so strict.

The piles of rolling stones and wood, bundles of arrows, more than 20 bed crossbows, more than 30 newly made stone-throwing crossbows behind the city wall, and buckets of tung oil poured down with the help of these repelled wave after wave of impact of the Chishan army yesterday, so that the Chishan army left thousands of corpses under the city in just half a day yesterday, which can also more or less boost the morale and confidence of the defenders.

However, Zhou Yuanhe also noticed that at this time, the Chishan Army was in the starting position directly approaching the East City Gate, and there were more than a dozen more catapults supported by four or five zhang high.

"Whoosh", a stone bullet with a sharp howl of breaking the air, thrown through the air, grazing the city gate tower and smashing into the inner streets.

What a long range!

Zhou Yuanhe turned his head to look at the wooden building behind him that had been smashed through the roof, and roughly estimated that the stone projectile the size of an adult's head was thrown six hundred paces away.

In comparison, the stone throwers built in the city could only throw a round stone projectile of considerable weight at 400 paces.

Is this Han Qian's original whirlwind cannon in the army?

After the Jingxiang War, the manufacture of whirlwind cannons was no longer a secret in the Chu army, but that was relative to the forbidden army and the guards directly under the north and south of the imperial court, and the Xuanzhou soldiers, as a local state battalion, did not know the secret of the manufacture of the whirlwind cannon - Gu Zhilong personally sat in Langxi City in these days, actively strengthened the defense level of Langxi, and also organized craftsmen to build a batch of stone throwers, bed crossbows, but did not build whirlwind cannons.

Han Qian did not put the whirlwind cannon into battle yesterday, mainly because in order to paralyze Gu Zhilong in the early stage, he did not make any preparations for attacking the city on the front line of Tingzi Mountain, and all the weapons and even round stone bullets had to be transported from Guangde Village in battle.

Even if the whirlwind cannon has been easily disassembled and assembled, after the heavy rain, there are only a few roads for the army to pass through in a hurry, and after walking through it, it will be muddy, and it will take time for large formations and stone shells to be transported from the rear and fired mud pellets from local materials.

In addition, due to the shortage of materials, the number of whirlwind cannons that the Chishan Army can assemble in front of Langxi City is very limited, only twelve, and once the defenders adapt to the attack rhythm and damage pattern of the whirlwind cannons, it will not be possible to smash the strong city wall into a large gap.

At this time, the whirlwind cannon was put into the battlefield, and the main thing was to deter the defenders from psychology and concentrate on suppressing the defenders on the east city gate, but in the end, it was necessary to rely on human lives to fill it in, and rely on flesh-and-blood combat to take Langxi City.

On the whirlwind cannon position outside the eastern city, the Xianden Sharp Soldiers, who were drawn from various departments in the size of 400 people, had been formed.

Han Qian stood in front of the Xiandeng Rui in armor, his eyes slowly swept over everyone's faces, and he saw a familiar face of a general on the left, and called him out of the ranks: "Han Bao, your brother is the first to ascend in the cavalry camp, and brothers, fathers and sons are in the camp, and you can't serve as the first to be a pawn at the same time, you give me out!" ”

"My lord, Lei Peng was killed in battle yesterday, Gu Xiong blocked a knife for me, his whole face was split by the enemy, I don't know if I can live, if I am afraid of death today and don't go to the city, I, I can't stand Lei Peng and Gu Xiong!" Han Bao stubbornly stood in the queue and didn't come out, and said, "If my brother can survive, the adult will tell my brother that I have not disgraced him - if my brother and I are unfortunately killed in battle, please help my sister to make a family and give my mother a pension!" ”

"I've trained this kid, and I'm disobedient!" Kong Xirong said, "When the time comes, if I take him by my side, it may not be so easy to die." ”

Han Qian looked at Han Bao for a while, and finally did not ask him to leave the first team, but asked Xi Ying to help take off the armor on his body, and said to Han Bao: "Put on this armor, climb to the top of the city, fight bravely to kill the enemy, and pay attention to protecting yourself." ”

"My lord, on the battlefield, how can you not wear battle armor?" Han Bao choked up and said.

"With you fighting bravely in front, am I still afraid that the enemy army will be able to kill me? If many sons and daughters die heroically, will I be able to return to heaven with only these two fists? After all, you have created the real history! Han Qian smiled, stepped forward to personally help Han Bao put on the scale armor he had taken off, and then watched Kong Xirong personally climb the four hundred first soldiers to the east gate of Langxi.

When the whirlwind cannon forces out all the defenders in the city gate tower, it will be the time for Kong Xirong and them to attack the city......

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