【2nd Update】

The stone bullets were concentrated near the city gates, and in two quarters of an hour, nearly two hundred stone bullets had hit the city walls. The walls are covered with craters, like a turned over pomegranate skin.

Pieces of broken earth and stones, falling along with the stone bullets, the cracks in the city wall became deeper and deeper. Another stone projectile whizzed, cut through a perfect parabola, and slammed into it. The walls immediately trembled, as if they could not bear the pain of the heavy blow.

In the roar, the loess wall weighing tens of thousands of catties slowly collapsed. On the crumbling earth and rocks, a puff of gray-yellow smoke rose to a height of ten feet. About three feet long, the wall collapsed by half of the outer side. From the top of the wall to the middle of the waist, the reddish inner core of the wall is exposed.

A deafening cheer immediately sounded in the Song army outside the city, the cheers were like thunder, and the crowd was like a sea. Gao Zunyu stroked the long sword and smiled. When the wall of the city wall is damaged for another section, and the determination of the western thieves to hold on to the city is completely defeated, the city can be officially attacked.

He doesn't have time to grind under the city with grain and grass, Gao Zunyu wants to break the city in one fell swoop!

"It doesn't look like there's any need for tunnels." One person shouted excitedly in Yao Lin's ear.

"No, it's still needed." Yao Lin raised his eyes and looked at the thunderbolt cannon that kept throwing stone projectiles.

In the past few days, the Divine Arm Bow in the army has been largely damaged, and the shoddy Thunderbolt Cannon has been damaged even faster. In desperation, the siege equipment that was put together could not be supported for too long like standard parts, and nearly forty percent of them had been destroyed at present.

"Only by adding tunnels is the safest, if the siege is not successful today, there will be no morale if you want to attack again. The city must be broken in one fell swoop. ”

In the advance camp of the Huanqing Army, slightly to the northwest, there is a big tent of the same level as Gao Zunyu and Miao Zhiju when they were meeting. However, the sound of Suo Suo coming from inside, as well as the gray-faced soldiers coming in and out of it, will not make people misunderstand that this is the curtain of the generals discussing military and strategic strategies.

The smell of fresh earth wafted from the tents of the advance camp a mile from the city. The exit to the tunnel was in the tent, and the earth dug up every day was brought out of it at night and piled up in the corner of the camp.

The moat of Lingzhou is three zhang wide, and the depth is unknown, but from the average depth of the channels around Lingzhou, it will not be shallower than five feet. To cross the Hao River and not be affected by water seepage, the tunnel must be dug at least two zhang deep.

Horse chopping knives can now be used to clamp steel. Although the tools used in the defense of the forts such as shovels and pickaxes are reluctant to use steel, iron is sufficient, unlike in the past, there is even wood.

With better tools, the tunnel goes deep into the ground, and even at night, Gao Zunyu is constantly using drums and galloping horses to cover the sound of the underground, and it is not surprising that the tunnel is successfully excavated in a short period of time.

For the excavation of the tunnel, Gao Zunyu is very attentive. Specially selected cronies to supervise, the tunnel had passed through the moat two days ago, and now it has dug through the city wall, and it is only one step away from penetrating the tunnel. Wait until there is another entrance on the outside of the city wall, and the officials and soldiers who kill the city can directly drill through the city wall.

When the time comes, there are elites sent up by ladders on the city wall, and there are also brave people who are good at fighting under the city wall, how can Lingzhou City not break?

……………………

The sound of fighting more than ten miles away was faintly discernible, Miao Zhi was in charge of the outer defense, and with the cheers in the distance, his brows became more and more wrinkled, "It's so smooth!" ”

The generals around Miao Zhu all looked at the direction of the battlefield with envy and jealousy, and when they heard Miao Zhu's words, they were a few pro-soldiers.

"What does the chief command?" A soldier approached and asked.

"I mean, it went so well." Miao Zhu had a cloud of doubts in his heart, and he just wanted to say the doubts in his heart, "Once Lingzhou is lost, Xingqing Mansion will not be able to hold it, how can the West Thief not come to save him desperately?" There should also be soldiers in the city to fight back, how can there be such a reason to hold your head and let people let go of the beating. ”

"With the governor in charge, the western thief should be afraid of the prestige of the governor."

The sycophants of the pro-soldiers, Miao Zhu ignored them and turned a deaf ear.

The dog jumps over the wall in a hurry, the rabbit can still kick the eagle when he is in a hurry, when life and death are at stake, how can the party members not have the courage to fight hard? For example, civil and military ministers like Ren Duo Lingding and Liang Yibury came out at this time, and let Wei Ming Ah Wu stand up in Lingzhou City, which is not at all reasonable.

The sense of crisis became stronger and stronger, and bursts of palpitations made Miao Zhi restless. He led the army to block the road to Xingqing Mansion to prevent the western thieves from attacking; Several of the major canals in the vicinity were heavily armed to prevent someone from breaching the banks.

There are only a few ways for the thief to fight back, no matter what tricks he has, don't try to hide from him, why hasn't he reacted so far?

Something is wrong, it's really wrong. The instincts accumulated over the years of going into battle constantly warn Miao Zhi.

But Miao Zhu still can't figure out which link will go wrong.

A cavalryman galloped from afar, and was stopped by his own soldiers before Miao Zhi approached, and was immediately let go. He knelt down in front of Miao Zhi and hurriedly said, "Chief, the river water of the seventh-level canal has risen, more than five feet higher than yesterday. The little general ordered the villain to report quickly, and asked the manager to make arrangements as soon as possible. ”

"Five feet?!" Miao Zhu almost fell off his horse, "Are you all blind!?" He roared, "It's not five inches, it's five feet!" I'm blind!? ”

The little school's face turned pale, and he tried his best to calm down and defend himself: "I didn't pay attention at first, the river didn't rise quickly earlier, I just thought that it would be raining upstream." Who knew that Lu Dao had risen by more than two feet in just one hour. He raised his head and said in a panicked voice: "Chief, please make a quick decision, after a while, you may have to overflow the embankment!" ”

The downstream of the seventh-level canal is in the direction of Xingqing Mansion, where the western thieves block the river, and their main force must also be there, maybe twenty miles away, maybe thirty miles away, anyway, it must be a place where the scouts can't ride.

Miao Xiang Hengmu tried the soldiers under his command, and the cavalry was transferred to Gao Zunyu, and the rest were basically infantry. It took almost half a day to run over, but the opponent was still waiting for work, and there was no way to fight at all. And during this time, the river will inevitably overflow the embankment and rush towards Lingzhou City.

Miao Zhu sighed secretly and recruited a personal soldier: "Inform General Gao of this matter, we must withdraw the army." ”

……………………

It's no longer a matter of overflowing the dike.

The embankment of the seventh-level canal has now broken a gap more than six feet long. The embankment is nearly 100 miles long, and six zhang is just an insignificant number, but the lack of six zhang makes the 100-mile embankment completely useless.

Rushing over from another section of the embankment, looking at the gap in front of him that could not be filled at all, Miao Xu's hands and feet were cold, and his brain was dizzy.

The thieves were indeed too well prepared. This section of the embankment must have been loosened for a long time, but it is not visible from the outside. But as long as the water level rises, it will collapse in one rush.

The turbid yellow water rushed out from the gap, and the torrent was covered with white foam, heading straight for Lingzhou City. The waves rushed, the waves, and the water even splashed on Miao Xu's face.

The cold touch made Miao Lu come back to his senses, and now is not the time to be in a daze, he immediately grabbed a personal soldier, "Hurry up and let go of the wolf smoke, Lingzhou City can't be attacked, we have to retreat immediately." ”

……………………

"The seventh-level canal has burst? Is it conclusive? ”

Finally waiting for the long-awaited news, Renduo Ding Huo suddenly rose up to further confirm the authenticity of the news.

"Returning to the old lady's words, the villain saw with his own eyes that there was a hole in the embankment. The water washed so that the stones in the embankment could not stand, rolling in the water, and the men and horses of the Song army could only stand on the embankment and watch, and there was no way at all. ”

The report was his own cronies, and Ren Duo had no suspicions. He first let out a long sigh of relaxation, then turned back to Ye Xiaoma and smiled, "Fortunately, the seventh-level canal broke the embankment in time, so we don't have to work hard to dig the soil." ”

Ye Xiaoma nodded, the wrinkles between his eyebrows relaxed, and his eyes were full of relaxed smiles, "Presumably the Song people didn't expect the seventh-level canal to break the embankment." ”

"Since the strategy of releasing water has been set, it is natural that preparations have been made for a long time, and it would be too underestimated to break the embankment temporarily."

"The Song people know too little about the geography of Xingling, and they just want to prevent us from breaking the embankment and releasing water, and they don't want to think about how convenient it is to directly block the canal from the downstream?"

"There are more than a dozen channels, although the amount of water is not as good as that of the seventh-level canal, and the total is not much worse. Xingling ditch is 1,800, how can the Song people keep it? ”

"It's time to go to Lingzhou."

"Well, it's time to go to Lingzhou!"

The pride in their hearts had to be told in words, Ren Duo Ling Ding and Ye Xiaoma laughed loudly, and then got on their horses together, leading the army under their command to gallop in the direction of Lingzhou City.

……………………

There was a loud bang, the ladder slammed into the city wall, and the anti-arrow baffle erected at the top fell, and the Song soldiers holding swords and shields behind the baffle immediately jumped on the head of Lingzhou City, raised their shields to block the oncoming spears, and then split the defenders who tried to block them with a knife. Following them closely, a group of elite Xuanfeng also rushed up along the ladder, and the bloody and bloody battle unfolded on the head of the city.

The officers and soldiers finally rushed to the city, and another burst of cheers sounded under the city, thinking of the upcoming feast, and even more so the Song soldiers under the city

"Let's get ready under the tunnel." Gao Zunyu clenched the hilt of the sword in his hand, and victory was in sight, making his breathing much heavier.

"Captain, water! Water! At this time, one person suddenly pulled Gao Zunyu's sleeve frantically.

Gao Zunyu glared at him angrily, then looked in the direction of his finger, and his eyes immediately widened.

The cavalry defending to the west had become disorganized, and were retreating towards the Chinese army, and when they looked closely, there was a dark trail behind them, that the river was flooding the land.

The flood that broke the embankment was far faster than the footsteps of the war horses, and it only took half an hour for it to rush to the foot of Lingzhou City.

The water flowing under Lingzhou City has become no longer turbulent, not like a landslide at the gap, but gradually overflowing, raising the water level little by little, from submerging the soles of shoes, to not reaching the ankles, and then rising to the knees.

The shooting that suppressed the defenders at the head of the city stopped abruptly, and there was a shout at the head of the city, and the morale-boosting defenders counterattacked, not only forcing the commanders who attacked the head of the city to fall off the city wall, but also using oil cans to set fire to the ladder cars one by one. And authentic...... It has been flooded, and most of the elite inside have not been able to escape.

It is no longer possible to storm the city.

"It's just one step away!" Gao Zunyu was heartbroken.

A vulture hovers high in the sky, and its experience of more than half a month tells it that there will still be a hearty dinner today. Sharp eagle eyes swept across the land, chasing food that was still alive.

Above the earth, there were tens of thousands of soldiers who were already in chaos, and the sudden defeat made them also unacceptable, and it was difficult for them to believe the reality in front of them. But the cold water reminds them that it's not a dream.

The turbid river water made the Song officers and soldiers panic. How far will the water go? There is the Yellow River on the side, is the Yellow River breaking its embankment? Hearing too many rumors of the flooding of the Yellow River, everyone was terrified.

People's hearts are in turmoil, and they all know in their hearts that this battle is irreparable.