On the head of Huaiyang City, even if he is dressed in a military uniform, it is difficult to hide the description of Qingjun, and a beautiful beard, the style of the people of the time is rated as "erudite, famous, good at arching horses." The "bearded general" Chen Zhou assassinated the history and defense envoy Zhao Li. Just led his subordinates to visit Zhang (patrol) Zhongcheng's god lord.

It's just that after saying the routine morale-boosting words, he looked at most of the defenders gathered around him who could not hide their yellow muscles, and then looked at the city that had been lined up, and lined up all kinds of siege equipment, and his heart couldn't help but feel sad and lamented that "it is difficult to escape".

As the imperial court in Henan and even the Central Plains, the most capable branch of the loyal army; The children of Chenzhou were also in the midst of years of war and mourning, and they were exhausted by the casualties. Even if the thief army besieging the city was repeatedly defeated, it could not change the reality that the soldiers and civilians of Chenzhou could rely on less and less food, grass, equipment and materials.

Although he always looks confident, he is also full of confidence when he opens his mouth and closes his mouth. But as the so-called lonely city does not defend the truth, looking at the huge land of Henan and even the land of Kanto, there are thieves everywhere and who can be his foreign aid and echo.

His ancestors were originally from Tianshui, and after pacifying the Central Plains with King Qin's soldiers and horses, he stayed in Chenzhou and became a hereditary general. Therefore, when Caizhou, one of the three states of Zhongwu, Qin Zongquan stood on his own and turned to the thieves, it was natural that Xuzhou was broken by the thieves and slaughtered;

He resolutely scattered his family property in the township to recruit Ding Zhuangying, decisively defeated and slaughtered many local bandits who responded to the rebellion, and even took advantage of the situation to collect the remnants and dependents of the fleeing loyal army, claiming to be a defense envoy and assassin.

After entering Chenzhou, he renovated the city wall on the spot, dredged ditches, stockpiled grain and firewood, and at the same time strengthened army training, recruited brave men from all directions, repaired soldiers, and prepared for long-term defense; And under the fall of the surrounding area, it has persevered until now.

But this insistence also seems to have reached a certain limit. Because, although the anti-thieves led by Wang Huang started in Caozhou under the rule of the Tianping Army, the blood feud of the Yu Zhongwu Army was also the deepest among the officials and armies who suppressed the thieves.

The reason is also very simple, because Xue Chong, the first two Tianping military envoys, is a debt marshal who relies on nepotism and bribes to buy important ministers, and in addition to his family's prominent origins, he is a useless waste snack at all.

Therefore, in the face of the momentum of thieves swarming everywhere, his first thought was not how to take the initiative to attack and quell the rebellion, but to sit in the city and let the thieves rampant everywhere to grow, and then desperately ask the court for help.

When the imperial court sent a successor, he was already frightened by the thieves' tactics to attack the west, and finally became the first imperial court feudal town member who was not among the thieves since Zhenyuan; He is also the only one among the sixty-four town guards who died at the hands of the mob, not a momentary joke and shame of the tooth soldiers or Junzhi.

It was because the imperial court did not dare to trust and borrow the strength of the Tianping Army for a while, and sent troops to attack it from the loyal army under the leadership of Cui Anqian in neighboring Xuzhou and the Pinglu army under Song Wei in Qingzhou. As a result, the loyal army that took the lead in entering the "thief township" in Caozhou slaughtered on the grounds of cutting grass and eradicating the roots.

Especially in the local area of Huang Wei's hometown (now Mudan District, Heze City, Shandong), the heads of the people who were killed were rolling and men, women and children were inevitable; Therefore, in the place where the officers and soldiers have passed, the old and weak children are stacked horizontally in the ravines and fields, and the women are drowned naked in the lotus ponds.

Later, the loyal army defeated the two thieves of the Yellow King countless times among the thieves in Henan; But it has never been eradicated. Even if there are more and more beheadings of the loyal army, the distance and scope of the chase are getting farther and farther, and the thieves are getting bigger and bigger.

Now, it is the bitter fruit that they can finally eat back under the inexhaustible suppression of thieves and the inability to restrain military discipline.

I heard that after the city of Xuzhou was broken, the soldiers and civilians in the city were not exempt. When the thieves slaughtered behind closed doors for three days, the blood that flowed out of the ditches directly stained the Cao River for more than ten miles. And the corpses that were cleared out and landfilled were full of new pits, so that there was nowhere to put their feet in the countryside.

It was also because of this rumor that the panic and fear of the people of Chenzhou, who had not yet fallen, that Zhao Li was able to take advantage of the situation and clean up and integrate most of the forces in Chenzhou Prefecture, and has persisted until the current situation.

But no matter how many times he repelled and thwarted the attacks of the thief army, he could not change one fact; His command is actually the main force and elite men and horses of the loyal army, and after successively being transferred out to fight thieves and go out to fight against the king of Qin, the remaining old and weak soldiers are composed.

Therefore, it is not without the gentry and big families in the city who are more subtle to persuade him to "deal with the thief for a while", "but if he can maintain the current situation, why should he care about the temporary fame and reputation." ”

However, it is reported that the thief chief Huang Shun has already said: "Everyone in the world can be forgiven, and loyal and military will never be spared." And all the captured military officials and family members related to the loyal army, more than 2,000 people were taken to the eastern capital to be beheaded and dissected, in order to pay tribute to the thieves who died over the years; That's what most of them missed.

Despite this, the only thing that can be relied on now is his two younger brothers, Chen Xu, the commander of the defense and containment capital, and Chen Xu, the commander of the Duzhi soldiers, and the two sons Zhao Quan and Zhao Yi, who are the leaders of the left and right generals, as well as the Zhao clan people who follow them.

However, this time was different from the previous majority of the thieves who only knew how to make simple wooden ladders and baffles, and would only rely on a large number of people to attack the city; The bandit looked more measured and well-armed, and even had a decent-looking large siege engine.

He was thinking about the usual look of the soldiers who were weary and fearful at the head of the city; Call out their names and origins one by one, talk about the origin of their fathers and brothers, or recall the allusions and characters who bravely killed the enemy to serve the country in the Anshi Rebellion, and sealed their wives and cute sons or the vast lintel.

Even if it is a new pawn who has nothing to say, he will give him a look like a spring breeze, or give encouragement with a gentle elder's smile. Suddenly, the columns of the thieves outside the city suddenly moved.

Amid the rumbling of drums, first the whirlwind cannons that began to shake on the ground, the hairpoles that resembled large pen holders were taut, then the bullock carts pulled over with their hubs and frames, and finally the stone cannons that were several feet high were erected.

And the defenders at the head of the city also seemed to have been awakened, and suddenly swept away the faint malaise and sluggishness; Driven by the innumerable habits of this practice and battle, they would grab the bows and arrows, the spears, the forks, and the hooks from the positions where they were placed, and then lean down to the battlements of the city walls, and the edges of the enemy platforms and horses.

Then, in the waving of the small flags at the head of the city and the rapid shouting, the people who were waiting on the inner side of the city wall also began to hoard all kinds of bricks, stones, and sassalwoods around them like flowing water; The raw ash of the altar into an urn and the sand into a basket are especially boiled in barrels of "golden juice", which are sent to the shoulders like flowing water.

The charcoal stove and brazier, which had been left at the head of the city with only ember fires, were re-added with more firewood fuel as short horns sounded one after another, and gradually became more vigorous in the green smoke.

When the horn sounded three times in a row, the armoured soldiers lined up on the inner side of the city wall were ready to meet the enemy; There were also unarmored soldiers who put a rack of arrows in their waists, and gave them behind these armored soldiers who were catching spears with bows and spears.

Some of them were plucked out whole, soaked in a mixture of collected horse urine and other liquids, and the arrowheads, which had become dirty and dull, were put back into the quiver; Other arrows were neatly tied with strips of fine cloth soaked in oil.

At this time, the thief army under the city slowly drove out in a formation, struggling to push the large platoon with wheels obliquely covering the roof as a line of front, and followed by several rows of crossbowmen, along the way to the trenches that had been filled in the re-attack.

However, compared to the crossbowmen of the thief army who were gradually approaching the range of the city, the first to arrive was the clanging and whistling of the tall stone cannons in the rear.

The guards of Chenzhou, who were holding their bows and strings and raising oil-soaked arrows to be shot, involuntarily let out an uproar and commotion; In the exclamation of more than a dozen trails that dragged out the smoke with the naked eye, a small half of them slammed into the city wall.

Among them, there were three coarsely polished stone bullets scattered high and low, which hit the battlements where the defenders were and the enemy platform; Suddenly, I saw that a rammed earth wall in the middle was torn apart and burst open, and together with the defenders who were squatting behind, they overturned and knocked over one piece.

Another stone projectile struck the wall and the slapper pole on the edge of the enemy's platform, which was suspended by iron chains, and in an instant broke the thick equipment and flew up, smashing into the defenders who were waiting to shoot with bows raised in the rear, arousing many exclamations and screams.

The third stone projectile swept low over the restless defenders' helmets on the battlements, and obliquely knocked half of a newly clustered watchtower; In a moment, the wooden watchtower, which had lost enough support, and several dancing and struggling archers on it, fell to the heads of the defenders who were shouting and retreating with a bang, but they were in a mass and could not dodge.

In the blink of an eye, the smoke and debris that spewed up, accompanied by the splatters of blood and screams, drowned out all the figures that could stand in this small section of the city wall.

At the same time, the rest of the stone bullets also slammed into the rammed earth wall one after another; And then in the obvious tremor of the defenders' feet, they cracked and peeled off one after another, large and small fragments. Almost every tremor sounded like a knock and chisel on the morale and fighting spirit of the defenders at the head of the city.

But there were many more projectiles, which flew high over the city and fell into the square behind the wall, and smashed one after another with screams and howls. Then there were several traces of smoke that had been lit by the buildings, and began to rise one after another in the noisy city.

And Zhao Li's face slowly became solemn and even faintly difficult to see; At this time, a sergeant with arms wrapped in his arms rushed in, but brought him bad news.

"Oh no, (second brother) Zhao Duzhi was injured by the shattering of the cannon stone,"

At the same time, there was a lot of jubilation and excitement in the array of the rebels under the city, even the sound of drums and drums became much louder, and the large rows of vehicles pushing forward seemed to accelerate more briskly.

"It's really a good skill, and it's the first two or three, and it's worthy of being the most like the Taiping soldiers in my righteous army."

And Zhu Zhen, the general in charge of the front prison in the city, also praised loudly and unabashedly.

"I heard that when Mr. Shang was in charge of them fighting Xuzhou, he used hundreds of weapons to attack at the same time, and he didn't hit a few times when he fired ten times in battle."

"Pass the order, let them continue to fight well, fight seriously, and the more I win, the more I will reward afterwards."

Hearing this, Zhu Laosan, who was smiling all over his face, also decided loudly.

"Let those sons and daughters who help them learn from others, and the first to learn will guarantee him a captain's future and triple the reward, plus the benefits of canned meat every day."

Then, with a slight hesitation, he said to the generals on the left:

"After this battle, I deliberately selected some brave men to go to the south to practice firearms and siege weapons. I don't know what you guys think. ”

"It's a great thing."

Zhu Zhen was the first to speak.

"What Du Yuhou said is very true."

"Naturally, I listened to the three generals."

"Whatever the leader says, let's do it."

The others also hurriedly chimed in; The few lieutenant generals Li Bintang and others who did not open their mouths couldn't help but have a gloomy and lost expression.

At this time, a small school Pegasus suddenly reported:

"Bingdu Yu waits, there is an enemy in the city who rushed to the east side gate to attack, and the two formations of troops who have already killed and blocked are coming here."

"It's just in time, where are Zhang Cunjing and Xu Huaiyu from the left and right sides of the horse team, and I will have a good understanding of these Chenzhou official dogs."

Zhu Laosan was not surprised when he heard this, but turned around and waved his big way.

Before he could finish his words, he saw smoke and dust billowing along a corner of the city wall; At the same time, the city gate on the opposite side also opened violently, and a men's horse came with a fierce force, directly crashing into those advancing siege sequences.

And in the corner of the camp that had just taken shape in the rear, he also suddenly galloped out of several horses, and galloped away in the direction where Tongguan was located in the northwest.

(End of chapter)