At night, the suburbs of the city were noisy with gongs and drums, and the trumpets were repeated, and the defenders of Fangcheng were like facing a great enemy, and the soldiers sleeping in the hiding caves climbed the city tower in turn according to the prior arrangement, preparing for a possible night battle.

Fangcheng has been besieged for more than a month, both offensive and defensive sides are good at using counterweight trebuchets and thunderbolts, and the army of the Jingzhou Governor's Mansion defending the city has become accustomed to the other party's tricks.

The Yuzhou army besieging the city may be a night attack this time, but I don't know whether it's true or not, the defenders can't be guarded, but it's not okay for all the people to be dispatched, if the other party uses a tired tactic and tosses for more than ten days, the defenders will not be able to withstand it.

Therefore, the countermeasure is to toss outside at night, the city is sent in batches, the soldiers on night guard at the head of the city are the first group, half of the people in the hidden soldier cave at the foot of the city wall are the second group, and the rest of the people are the third group.

Three groups of people are enough to deal with the night attack after the first holiday, if the other party is just bluffing, then the rest of the people in the city will continue to sleep, as for whether they can sleep or not, then they will do it themselves.

There was a big movement outside the city, the soldiers on duty at the head of the city at night sounded the gong to warn, the second group of soldiers in the hidden soldier cave rushed to the head of the city, everyone prepared bows and arrows, and looked at the black earth outside the city with a breath, only to see a little fire in the enemy camp in the distance, but did not see any figures approaching the city wall.

In the past month, the enemy army has indeed had a precedent of night attack, and the trebuchet that withdrew during the day moved forward secretly after nightfall, and threw thunder into the city.

As a means of defense, there are soldiers at the head of the city to erect a large curtain, which can be soaked in water to prevent fire to a certain extent, and the bottom of the curtain extends to the outside of the battlements, which is to let the thunder thrown by the enemy hit the curtain and slide down the city.

Of course, if the thunderbolt explodes during this period, there is no way.

The use of thunderbolts on the battlefield became more and more frequent, and the fear of ordinary soldiers gradually decreased, and as the first army to use counterweight trebuchets and thunderbolts, the Shannan Zhou army would not be frightened by these two things.

The defenders of Fangcheng are accustomed to night attacks by the enemy, so the preparations for the enemy in various positions are carried out in an orderly manner, anyway, they have to do these things during the day, and they have done it in advance, so they can sleep for a while.

"This black light is blinding, and they are beating gongs and drums, are they digging tunnels? Listen, there's no one dozing off there, right? ”

"How can that! Those brothers are eating, drinking, and Lazar are all next to the vat, and they all want to sleep in it, and they are stuffy in the tunnel! ”

Some people called Qu Lai, since there was a thunderstorm, there is a tactic is to dig a tunnel to reach the foot of the city wall during the siege, and then come to a 'coffin to make a fortune' to knock down the city wall, so the defenders must set up a place to listen to the enemy digging tunnels.

"Stuffy in the tunnels? If you don't change it, I'll go underground and stuffy, and they will go to the city. ”

"Ouch, that's what you're saying! Now that the weather is unusually hot, you can squat in the tunnel all day and try it! ”

A group of people chattered and talked about it, which was considered to be a bitter pleasure, but everyone hid behind the battlements, and did not take the lead easily, so as not to be killed by an arrow from the enemy soldiers who stole the city outside.

Fighting a war is not a joke, there are all kinds of ways to die on the battlefield, but more than half of the people die under the arrows, because there are stray arrows everywhere, and if you are not careful, you will lose your life, as for being killed by thunder, that is you will not hide.

It's not a big array of people with nowhere to hide, there are more places to hide in the city, and the smallest has a thunderstorm the size of a wine jar flying over, unless you are blind, you must be able to see it, you can't hide from the stray arrows and have something to say, what else can you say if you can't hide from the thunder?

Everyone talked like this, patting the dirt bag under them from time to time to see if the old was not solid, the city wall they were on was different from other places, in fact, it had been blown down by a thunderstorm a few days ago, but then the earth bag was used to fill it, and the breach was quickly filled.

The soil bag, as the name suggests, is a cloth bag containing soil, and countless soil bags can be built up to form the same earth wall as the brick city wall, and the soil bag can not only plug the hole, but also has the advantage of being able to prevent thunder.

The advantage of the brick-clad city wall is that it is not afraid of being blistered and collapsed after long-term rain, but the disadvantage is that after being blown up by thunder, the splashed brick debris hurts people, and after the brick-clad bricks of the outer wall are blown open, the small break that appears is like a step, which can allow the enemy to 'climb the stairs'.

The latter problem cannot be avoided, and the former problem is easy to solve, that is, using earthen bags to build one earthen fortress after another at the head of the city, and there is a thunderstorm falling on the city, and the soldiers can hide in the earthen fortress to escape.

The dirt bag can absorb the momentum of the explosion of the thunder, even if the thunder explodes next to the earthen barrier and causes the dirt bag to break, the soldiers hiding behind are only covered in dirt, and they will be as if nothing is wrong when they get up and shoot it.

With the help of this method and other measures, the defenders of Fangcheng were able to hold the city for more than a month and survive tenaciously under the continuous thunderous attacks of the other side.

Sitting on the earthen wall made of earthen bags, a soldier sighed: "How much cloth will have to be used for this... Don't spoil it..."

"It's okay, after the war, this cloth bag will be washed and disassembled, and it will be able to make clothes to wear, Shangguan said, at least two per person at that time, if you don't use clothes, it's good to use it to hold rice."

"There's blood on it, where can it be washed off."

"Yo! Disgusted? If you don't want to, just give it to me! ”

A group of people laughed and scolded again, but the voice was very low, and the governor didn't plan to stop it when he saw it, and when he saw it, he might die at some point, and everyone was depressed and uncomfortable, and it was good to have a chance to release it.

Cloth, like grain, can be used as hard currency, and even cloth can be used to barter when doing business, so the defenders of Fangcheng used earthen bags on a large scale to plug the mouth, which is actually no different from smashing people with a large amount of copper coins.

But in order to defend the square city, there is no way to spend money, take this section of the city wall as an example, if it is not for the countless earthen bags prepared in advance to plug the mouth, just around the white-knuckle battle for the breach, you have to fill in I don't know how many lives.

Not to mention that now that there is high-quality and inexpensive Huangzhou cloth, the defenders of Fangcheng can prepare sufficient cloth bags, even if they plug a few more breaches, it will be no problem.

Fangcheng is the northeast gateway of Jingzhou, the war has been continuous in the past nine years, the city has been lost many times, and the Jingzhou army that recovered Fangcheng then strengthened its city defense, and specifically strengthened the defense of trebuchets and thunderbolts, so the defenders of the city were full of confidence.

The movement in the enemy camp outside the city has not stopped, and the defenders at the head of the city do not dare to take it lightly, lest the fake night attack become a real night attack, and the two sides will be consumed like this until the east is exposed.

It was not until dawn that the defenders realized that something seemed to be wrong with the enemy camp outside the city, such as the trebuchet of the forest was still standing, and the flags in the camp were waving in the wind, but no smoke was raised.

The vast majority of people in these years only eat two meals a day, and basically have no habit of eating breakfast, but marching and fighting are different, and the soldiers are not allowed to eat early in the morning, where do you have the strength to kill the enemy?

However, the defenders did not dare to be careless, and after taking turns to eat breakfast, they found that the enemy camp outside the city was still not moving, and no one was fiddling with trebuchets, and then they felt really suspicious.

The defenders sent the dead soldiers to venture out of the city and approach the enemy camp to find out the truth, and the news brought back by the dead soldiers was jaw-dropping: the enemy troops withdrew overnight, and last night's movements were supposed to be covered.

"Withdrawn? Why did they withdraw? Isn't it a fraud? ”

The defender could not believe that such a good thing could happen, and sent his rangers out of the city to venture eastward, and after sentry for several miles, and after making sure that there were no enemy ambushes, everyone really believed that the enemy army besieging the city had retreated.

"Quick, send someone to Shangwan to report the news! Hurry up the autumn harvest! ”

"General! The wheat and rice fields outside the city have been cut down, and there is still a harvest. ”

"Stupid! It is to send someone to Shangwan to report the news, so that other states and counties can seize the autumn harvest, the time is just right! ”

The cavalry rushed to Shangwan in the west with good news, and the defenders of the city looked to the east with cheers and couldn't help but talk about it.

Why did the Yuzhou army suddenly withdraw its troops? Could it be that there is a mess in Yuzhou?