After the horse came to the east of the city, Zhang Ji did not rush to inspect the city wall, but overlooked the trend and topography of this area from a high place on the horse, and observed the flow of the water that introduced the moat, and then he was sure that the captive said that the city wall built in this section was indeed lower than the west and south sides in terms of terrain.

Zhang Ji looked at the terrain, looked at the sparse flags on the city, thought about it, and decided to get closer to the city wall outside the range of the bow and arrow at the city head, and carefully observe the fortifications of this city wall.

As a result, many cavalry rode their horses to escort Zhang Ji to the direction of the city wall and walked slowly, vigilant of the movements of the guards on the city wall.

From the rammed earth wall, you can indeed see two different traces of the old and the new. It can be confirmed that those repaired places should have been breached and destroyed during the last time the city was breached.

The battlements and holes opened by the female wall on the wall are not as dense as those on the west and south sides, which also means that the guards can shoot arrows when defending are not as dense as the west and south sides.

On the whole, the eastern part of the city wall is indeed relatively weak in terms of prisoners.

Zhang Ji took the captive with him, observed the fortifications in this section of the city according to the captive's description, and asked questions from time to time.

"Since this city wall has not been built as an urn city, can there be a stone throwing machine and other equipment to defend the city?"

"Nope."

After listening to the captive's reply, Zhang Ji nodded slightly, and continued to observe along the moat, and when he saw that this city wall still had piers protruding from the wall, his brows couldn't help frowning, and he asked again:

"Since there is a Taicheng here, is there really no stone throwing machine or crossbow to defend the city?"

In the fierce offensive and defensive battle that day, the guards at the head of the city operated the stone throwing machine and the city crossbow to destroy the siege equipment of Guo Yan's army, which left a deep impact on Zhang Ji, and he still remembered that those big crossbow arrows were fired from these inconspicuous piers.

"The villain will never dare to say anything, when the villain climbed the wall in the city before, there is no stone thrower and crossbow in this section of the city wall, and there has always been no worry about the east side of the river, there is only one floor of the gate tower of this city wall, and only two corner towers have been repaired, it can be seen that what the villain said is true, and this is definitely not the important thing to guard in the city."

Looking at the low gatehouse at the head of the city, as well as the two corner towers that were far away from each other and were alone, Zhang Ji nodded suspiciously, and was noncommittal verbally, but he still did not relax in his heart.

The cavalry moved from south to north, along the eastern wall, keeping a safe distance from the range of the wall's bows, and continued forward.

Seeing that he was about to finish seeing a large section of the city wall, Zhang Ji was relaxed, and suddenly glanced at one of the corner towers with a flag waving, his heart was inexplicably tight, and he looked back at the section of the city wall he had just seen, and the flag on one of the piers also flashed, as if he had just inadvertently completed some kind of signal to respond to the flag.

A strong sense of uneasiness, in an instant, also hit Zhang Ji's heart.

But when I looked at it, the few guards on the city did not move, nor did they make the sound of golden drums, and it did not look like there was any movement in the city that was about to go out of the city to attack his own rangers.

Presumably at this time, even if he gave Anyi ten more dares, he would not dare to go out of the city to attack him.

Zhang Ji thought of the reality of Anyi, and couldn't help but laugh at himself in his heart.

What's wrong with me today, there is a rare opportunity to break the city, and I have become cringe again.

After Zhang Ji laughed at himself, he turned his gaze to his side again.

Although this Hedong prisoner is just a pawn, the inside information of this city defense can be provided is indeed very important, and whether he can break the city next depends on the truth of this information.

Thinking of this, Zhang Ji smiled slightly, and wanted to comfort the captive who brought him information with a few words, but when the words came to his mouth, he suddenly thought of something, and instantly changed color, stared at the captive and asked:

"Do you know how many steps the crossbow wielded by the guards in this city can shoot?"

···

At some point in the afternoon, Zhang Xiu, who was in the camp tent, felt a throbbing in his heart inexplicably.

This was a symptom without warning, and all of a sudden, Zhang Xiu seemed to feel a tingling in his scalp, and his breathing had to stop.

But after that moment, Zhang Xiu recovered again, except for his mind being a little heavy, even his heartbeat that was about to stop became normal again.

Zhang Xiu, who reacted, was very surprised, he shook his head vigorously, trying to confirm what had just happened, but the facts told him that nothing had happened just now.

Zhang Xiu took a breath, and quickly put this strange situation behind him, he has been practicing martial arts for many years, and he is in the prime of life, his body is strong, and it is impossible for him to get any strange disease among the brave champions.

Most of them are troubled by the predicament of being unable to attack for a long time and the city of Dun soldiers.

If it had been according to its own style of play, the whole army would have driven directly to Anyi, and it would have taken time to attack Xie County and Yi without a detour, and Anyi would have been taken long ago.

The soldiers are very fast, and on the day when their own soldiers are under the city, where will there be time to lay out many weapons such as flying stones, crossbows, moats, and fire walls in Anyi City, and where will there be the current situation that Anyi City cannot be captured in a hurry.

It's a pity that these words, Zhang Xiu under the fence can only rot in his heart.

Zhang Xiu let out a breath of turbidity, then got up and stepped forward, lifted the curtain, and walked out of the tent.

Looking up, the camp has changed a lot compared to the beginning when the soldiers came to the city. Because of the repeated failures in attacking Anyi in the past few days, the initial sharpness of the sergeants has gradually turned into anger.

In the barracks, the violent mood of the soldiers is slowly spreading, and the filthy excrement, filthy swearing, the stench of the soldiers, and the lice in the armor have become more and more common, and Zhang Xiu knows that these things are inevitably disintegrating the morale of the army.

Either retreat or fight a big victory, there is no better solution.

Zhang Xiu looked at the situation in the barracks, and said silently in his heart, if he could, he would prefer the latter, so that he could meet the wishes of himself and his uncle, but soon, Zhang Xiu did not have the heart to think about this matter.

Zhang Ji's personal guards came to tell Zhang Xiu with a pale face that his uncle was hit by the crossbow in the city wall pier when he was checking and watching the city defense of Anyi.

Zhang Xiu's first reaction was that this personal soldier was talking nonsense, he had never seen the guards at the head of the city for so many days, using the crossbow to defend the city, and bombarding soldiers or equipment at a distance. The guards at the head of the city waited until the siege equipment such as ladder carts and wells crossed the river and approached, and then they would activate the giant arrows and destroy the towers.

Even if you really use a big crossbow to shoot people and horses, how can the rare things affected by many factors such as orientation, angle, distance, and accuracy happen to your own uncle.

Zhang Xiu doesn't believe it!

But when he walked into Zhang Ji's tent quickly and saw his uncle who was blood-stained and had lost his breath, he had to believe it.

Zhang Xiu couldn't accept it, his eyes were split, he forcibly held back his emotions and asked the soldiers around Zhang Ji sharply, and listened to the soldiers who rescued Zhang Ji tell the whole story in a trembling voice:

Zhang Ji, who was eager to break the city, wanted to peek into the loopholes in the city defense of Anyi and went to inspect the city wall in person. During the inspection, the guards in the abutments of the city wall suddenly attacked with crossbows and fired huge arrows.

Although he didn't hit the target, Zhang Ji on horseback was unfortunately scratched by the iron feather of the giant arrow that passed by, and the wound was as hideous as being cut by a sharp sword, and the blood flowed endlessly.

Zhang Ji's personal soldiers also brought back five giant arrows that they had picked up, two of which were bloodstained, and it was obvious that one of the murder weapons that hit Zhang Ji hard.

In addition, the corpses of the soldiers who were hit by the giant arrow, and the bodies of the captives who were also cut by the giant arrow Tie Ling, were all brought back by Zhang Ji's own soldiers.

They could only believe that the guards at the head of the city had test-fired the crossbow and adjusted the angle when they were building the pier platform and erecting the big crossbow, and Zhang Ji was unfortunate that he was just in the area covered by the giant arrows fired by the two piers, and the giant arrow, which was just right, passed close to Zhang Ji's body.

Although this statement does not save the lives of their own soldiers.

According to military law, the Lord's body was to be put to death, and the guards who were ineffective in guarding them were to be executed.

It's just that Zhang Xiu didn't have the time or time to execute it himself at this time.

The news that Zhang Ji was killed by a giant arrow at the head of the city inevitably reached the ears of Guo Yan, the chief general of the army, Gao Shuo in the army, Wu Xizhu, and Li Ru, the military counselor.

Guo Yan rushed over in person, and after witnessing Zhang Ji's corpse, his face was difficult to look at, and Gao Shuo, Wu Xi, Li Ru and others also had different expressions.

Many of them have also been close to the city wall and commanded battles, but the city has never used a crossbow to shoot a single man and horse, and now it seems that in addition to being able to conclude that Zhang Ji is really unlucky, it is also necessary to re-evaluate the city-defending crossbow operated by the defenders in the pier.

And with this lesson from the past, the generals felt in their hearts that they really had to be careful, those giant arrows at the head of the city that were difficult to predict and accurate at a long distance, but their lethality was still terrifying.

After Guo Yan comforted Zhang Xiu with a few words, he left with everyone, he privately warned his generals to be on guard, and at the same time ordered the whole army to stop all kinds of siege matters such as making equipment and repairing armor.

When the battle came to this point, Guo Yan, who was not a loss, really wanted to leave.

Now that Zhang Ji was killed by an arrow, Guo Yan didn't think about using this to inspire his soldiers to hate the enemy, and then continue to attack the city and avenge Zhang Ji, but thought about how to embellish this matter as a reasonable reason for his promise and the retreat of the army.

As for after this battle, Zhang Ji is dead, Li Dao is defeated, and Guo Yan has nothing to do with himself, and he is happy to see it.

Li Ru, who was in the army, observed his words and looks, and he quickly noticed from Guo Yan's orders that Guo Yan had been hiding this thought.

Therefore, he remained silent, went and returned, and quietly came to Zhang Ji's tent again, and found Zhang Xiu, who was tearful and grief-stricken.