The people and soldiers at the head of the city listened to Zeng Xiancheng's words, some of them agreed excitedly, some of them were happy, and they grabbed the money and stuffed it into their arms, and more people were joyless and sad, looking at the thieves brigade that was slowly advancing under the city.

At present, there are only more than 1,000 people guarding the city at the head of the city, and most of them are still temporarily on the battlefield.

Most of the people were holding on to the knives, guns, swords, halberds and other blades they had temporarily received in their hands, and they looked at the thieves under the city with sweaty palms.

Zeng Xiancheng saw that the thieves were approaching the moat, so he said to Yang Inspector: "Yang Inspector, we don't know much about wars and other things, you have more or less arrested thieves, and you have fought Jiangyang thieves, you are considered a martial artist, and we will entrust you with this matter of defending the city." ”

Inspector Yang listened to Zeng Xiancheng's words, smiled indifferently, and replied: "I'll do my best." ”

"The thief has set up a ladder, push it down."

I don't know who made this shout, which immediately attracted the attention of Zeng Xiancheng and Yang Inspector to the battle.

However, it is said that most of the defenders who guarded the stability were improvised patchwork, and that the 30 soldiers were just miscellaneous soldiers guarding the city gates, not soldiers, and that except for a few hunters, no one could shoot the enemy with a bow and arrows.

Anding County is not large, and there are only more than 6,000 residents in the city, which is not a key place, and there is not a single cannon on the head of the city, which makes the Anding defenders have no long-range strike capability.

Therefore, the siege of the thieves could approach the city wall, and when they were about to put a wooden ladder up to the top of the city, the defenders of the city saw that the thieves were close and immediately began to counterattack.

The defenders at the head of the city all held a large stone, aimed at the heads of the thieves who were building ladders, and condescendedly, and threw a stone down, hitting the thieves' heads, and the thieves' skulls were broken, and the gray-white brains that were still steaming flew everywhere.

When the thieves under the city, who had been a common man for a few days, or even an hour ago, saw this scene, they all screamed in horror and cried out, "Dead, run away, everyone." ”

Then they threw the ladder to the side, spread their legs and ran back.

Seeing this scene, Man Tianxing, who had been watching the battle, chuckled and looked around and said, "I think that when the king took us to attack Fugu, we were like those newcomers, we were beaten by the officials and soldiers under the city, and then we ran back like this. Then, the Overseers came to kill them. ”

After recalling the past, Man Tianxing solemnly said to his cronies: "Why don't you hurry up and suppress these newcomers, kill a few more, deter them, and let them attack the city." ”

"Yes, Captain."

When the cronies received the order, they carried steel knives and led their men like tigers into a flock of sheep, rushing into the ranks of thieves who retreated like a tide and slashed and slaughtered.

While slashing and killing, they threatened in a vicious voice: "Go back to the city and attack the city, otherwise we will kill you all." ”

The new thieves were so frightened by the ferocity of the overseer that they had to turn around quickly and run towards the city wall in a swarm.

When they rushed to the bottom of the wall, they took up the ladder that had fallen to the ground and leaned against the city, and the defenders of the city would not let the enemy succeed easily, so they took up the stone and threw it at it, or pushed the ladder to it.

In this way, the thieves under the city tried their best to put the ladder on the top of the city, the defenders of the city did not let them, and the two sides fought back and forth for a long time, because the thieves under the city head lacked effective countermeasures, the defenders under the city could strike the enemy very calmly, so the thieves under the city were at a disadvantage.

In this way, for two quarters of an hour, the bodies of the thieves lay on the ground under the city, and the defenders at the head of the city, except for a few tired ones, did not suffer any casualties.

Zeng Xiancheng was originally worried that the thieves were strong, and the defenders were only afraid that they would not last for an hour, but who knew that the combat effectiveness of the thieves was outrageously poor, and he couldn't hurt one of his own people until now, so he shouted with confidence: "Folks, the thieves are just like this, just fight like this, hold on for a few days, and the reinforcements from the imperial court will arrive." ”

"Okay."

Seeing that the thieves' martial arts were so sparse, these defenders at the head of the city who were originally not confident all soared in confidence, and some of them were full of courage, and even shouted the slogan of 'fight out, capture the leader of the thieves alive'.

The morale of the defenders at the head of the city was naturally seen by the thieves and leaders who watched the battle.

One of the small leaders saw the momentum of the defenders rising, so he suggested: "Captain, our people don't have the help of archers, and they are fighting very hard, see if we let the archers go up to help, suppress the momentum of the defenders, and boost the morale of our side." ”

"Don't be busy first, these ordinary people we are holding are now a group of two-legged sheep, and they have no anger at all. Let them fight for a while, and then help them when their relatives and friends are more dead and have a grudge against the people in the city. Only in this way, when they enter the city, will they go on a killing spree, and when they have killed people, seen blood, and have human lives in their hands, then this can be used by us, do you understand? Mantianxing smiled and replied.

"What the captain said is, then let's wait." The little leader saw that Mantianxing was telling a string of truths, so he quickly replied with a smile.

"Well, let's keep looking." The stars answered and continued to watch the siege.

At this time, the army of thieves under the city was repeatedly attacked by the defenders of the city, and suffered heavy casualties.

"Daddy, what's wrong with you, you can't die." A woman cried out in her arms as she held a man with a broken head in her arms.

"Big brother, big brother, wake up, wake up."

"My son, you can't die, if you die, our old Zhou family will be doomed."

On the battlefield, such heart-wrenching cries for the death of loved ones came and went.

When one's loved one dies a lot, kindness, fear, unwillingness, cowardice, all these emotions are replaced by anger.

Many of the thieves who besieged the city had red eyes, their minds were dominated by demonic barriers, and there was only one voice left in their minds: "Hit the city, kill all these defenders, and take revenge." ”

The siege battle has been fought for three quarters of an hour now, and the thieves who are besieging the city have already paid hundreds of casualties, but the boundless killing intent has also quietly spread among these people because of hatred.

Mantianxing is an old thief who has followed Wang Jiayin to kill and plunder everywhere since the first year of Chongzhen, and as soon as the atmosphere of the battlefield changed, he sensed it.

So he immediately shouted to the archers behind him: "Go, suppress the defenders at the head of the city, and let our men enter the city." ”

"Yes, Captain."

More than 50 archers received the order, so they carried their bows, ran close to the city wall 20 paces, stretched their bows and aimed at the defenders at the head of the city, and shot out with a rain of arrows, and suddenly more than a dozen defenders were hit by arrows.

Some of the defenders were shot and fell from the top of the city to the bottom of the city, and the thieves, who were already surging with infinite murderous intent, saw the enemy army appear in front of them, and immediately rushed forward, and with all the weapons available to them, smashed the defenders who were not yet dead into a puddle of flesh.

After the thieves' archers appeared, the defenders at the head of the city were immediately shot and wounded countless times, and they immediately cried and cried for their fathers and mothers, and the miserable howls rang out, and correspondingly, their morale also dropped.

The thief archers under the city shot for a while, and shot all the defenders who dared to show their heads on the spot, and now no defender dared to show their heads.

The thieves who were besieging the city saw that the defenders' defenses were weakened, so they hurried the wooden ladder against the wall, and then they took hoes, sickles, kitchen knives, sticks, and stones, and climbed all the way down the ladder to the top of the city.

Zeng Xiancheng saw that his defenders were completely suppressed, so he was naturally in a hurry, but he had no choice, he could only wait quietly for the thieves to attack the city.

Fear was written in everyone's eyes, and most of them were trembling with their hands holding weapons, and some of them were even thinking about running away.

The defenders, who had previously relied on the city walls, were untrained and outnumbered, and were able to deal with the thieves, but now that the thieves were about to ascend to the top of the city, they had no chance of winning.

When the thieves finally reached the top of the city, I don't know who shouted: "The thieves are coming, the city is broken, run." ”

As soon as this shout fell, most of the defenders who had no intention of fighting immediately threw away their weapons and ran towards the city in a swarm. Zhao Siwei, who was guarding the door, also took his soldiers and fled without a trace.

After all, the imperial court has been in arrears for 30 months, and it is impossible to work hard for such a court.

After most of the defenders fled, only Zeng Xiancheng, Yang Inspector, and more than a dozen officials were left in the city.

The thieves who climbed up to the city, that is, the people not long ago, just saw Zeng Xiancheng and Yang Inspector wearing official uniforms, and they were slightly stunned, after all, when the people have been in office for a long time, when they saw the officials, they instinctively were a little afraid, but they immediately remembered their identity as thieves and their relatives who died tragically, so they inspired the killing intent again, shouted, and went straight to Zeng Xiancheng and Yang Inspector to kill the past.

When the dozen or so officials saw this, they stepped forward, drew their swords, and killed the thieves.

To say that these dozen or so officials are practicing family members in the end, and their martial arts are stronger than the thieves who were still ordinary people not long ago, it is because the hundreds of thieves who climbed to the top of the city were actually blocked by more than a dozen officials, and the two sides killed together, and the killing was inextricable.

But after all, there are many thieves, kill one, then two, kill two, and then a group. The ants bit the elephant to death, the servants fought continuously, and their physical strength gradually became exhausted, and most of them were covered with more than ten wounds, and they couldn't support it.

Zeng Xiancheng saw this situation and knew that stability could no longer be held, so he smiled bitterly and said to Yang Xun: "Let's go, you have done your best, I will receive the grace of the country in my life, and I will die here." ”

Inspector Yang listened to Zeng Xiancheng's words, smiled, shook his head and replied: "How many years have we worked together, the county doesn't know how many have changed, we have always been colleagues, you went to the prefecture to be a county official, there must be an inspection, I will follow you." ”

"Old man, I knew you would say that. It's a pity, we died when we died, but we just suffered the people of this city! Zeng Xiancheng looked at the city and sighed.

"It's all helpless, don't think about it so much. It's all providence! Inspector Yang smiled and replied softly.

At this time, the dozen or so officials had been besieged and killed by the thieves, and those thieves covered in blood and blood-red eyes carried various weapons, and approached Zeng Xiancheng and Yang to inspect step by step.

Man Tianxing looked at the situation at this time, and said with a smile: "The defenders have been defeated, the city is broken, let's enter the city later, so we can enjoy it." ”

"Okay, captain, according to the old rules, the young ladies of the big families in the city and the small ones are kept for you." A cronie flattered.

"Okay, yes, you have filial piety." Man Tianxing replied with a smile at first, and then he said to his cronies, "Send a few more of our men to the city and open the city gates." When we enter the city, we will wash the city in pieces. ”

"Yes, Captain." When the cronies of the starry sky were about to send someone to open the gates of the city, they suddenly felt the ground tremble.

This wave of people in the sky are all old rivers and lakes who have fought many battles, and they naturally know that this kind of shock is caused by the cavalry, so the sky stars immediately looked at the northwest direction with a nervous face, and in that direction, a group of white knights rode horses, lined up in a neat array, like a wall.

"The officers and soldiers are coming, run." Seeing the neat outfits of these officers and soldiers, and feeling the murderous aura exuded by these officers and soldiers, he knew that this team of officers and soldiers was very powerful and definitely not easy to mess with, so after he finished shouting, he immediately clamped the horse's belly and ran desperately towards the direction of Qingjian along the official road.

Seeing this, the other real thieves also hurriedly followed their leaders and fled.

Those new thieves who had no horses were attacking the city with great enthusiasm, and they did not watch out for a sudden change in the situation, and their own leaders ran away, and the officers and soldiers killed them.

So these frightened new thieves first shouted: "Woe, the reinforcements of the official army are coming, the captain has run away, let's run too." ”

As soon as the shouting stopped, the new thieves scattered and ran in all directions.

Those thieves who climbed to the top of the city, who had already cleaned up the difficult officials, were about to kill the big officials who defended the city, Zeng Xiancheng and Yang Inspector, and when they got some credit, they didn't watch out for their own men and horses under the city and shouted that the reinforcements of the official army were coming.

So they looked at each other at first, and then as if they had just woken up from a big dream, they left Zeng Xiancheng and Yang Inspector, who were bent on death, and hurriedly went to fight for the ladder.

However, at this time, there were many people and few ladders, so these new thieves who were still fighting side by side killed each other again, competing for the opportunity to escape.