Under the city of Youzhou,

In a night where it is difficult to distinguish between distance and proximity, and only a dark outline remains,

The palm of the hand holding the rope was already faintly sweating, and the top of the towering city wall was also approaching him little by little. Everything was so quiet, only his heavy and rapid breathing, and the clothes on his body rubbed against the uneven wall with his movements, accompanied by the subtle rustle of clods and gravel falling,

After what felt like a long wait and suffering, the rope it pulled seemed to have finally come to an end, and a dim glow of fire was thrown through the gap at the top of the wall, rather than a flickering sword or a glittering spearhead.

"Why is it so slow?"

Then I saw several sergeants dressed in Pinglu uniforms, who looked nervous and cramped, and said in a suppressed tone.

"The staff at Kaiping Gate has been replaced again."

"So that's all we can do to help."

"Please move a little faster."

Although they looked a little nervous and cramped, the smell of fresh blood on their bodies was a sign of the fate of their other companions.

And as if in response to his words, a number of climbing figures sprung up from all over the nearby city walls, all of whom were the pioneers of his group, dressed in light silk armor lined with iron plates, carrying wheels and trumpets, and several pear-shaped grenades hanging from their waists.

After they had gathered in sufficient numbers, and had formed a semi-ring array with their backs to the battlements, they re-secured the rope ladders, which were easier to climb, to bring up more companions.

The city was still dark, and there was a faint stream of firelight everywhere on the city in the distance, but there was no major movement, and there was no finding of what was happening in the darkness here; After all, this Youzhou City is so big that the big defenders can't take care of every section of the city wall, but can only take a chance look at these sections of the city far away from the battlefield by regular patrols.

In other words, the high level of mental tension under the long night is always easy to make people slack off and neglect something, especially under the strategy of someone with a good heart. Soon nearly half a regiment of the vanguard had gathered on this section of the wall, and in some slight movement of silence, guided by the torch-holding bearer, he quickly marched in the direction of the far gate.

In fact, as one of the ten gates of Youzhou, the Kaiping Gate Gatehouse is actually a vast space composed of two large small urn cities inside and outside, at least in terms of specific length and width, it is quite close to a large fortress that can easily garrison thousands of soldiers.

Therefore, with the huge space and scope, it seems that it is a drop in the bucket for these hundreds of warriors who climbed the wall overnight to break in.

But what is surprising is that the corresponding huge gatehouse is also very empty and sparse now, except for the forest of flags that make the sound of hunting in the night wind, even the speckled firelight is extremely dim; Obviously, the defenders were not facing the Huai army's attack in this direction, and the garrison force invested was quite limited and almost only maintained a basic level of vigilance.

Therefore, before arriving at the city tower, Suo Chao and his party did not encounter any defenders and sentry posts where they passed, or only the internal response of this small team on the city wall, responsible for such a short distance of night patrol tasks.

It was not until they re-emerged on a large terrace by the spiral steps within the wall that they first encountered a manned sentry post, two guards who were napping in shelter at the corner of the battlement and the wall; Then, in the sleepy eyes that were awakened, the top soldiers who had received special sentinel training and actual combat wiped their necks and stabbed their hearts and lungs in the back of their mouths, and they died without even making a sound.

Then, judging from their equipment, they were much more rudimentary than the defenders who were facing the Huai offensive in other places, with only half of the old and blackened nail leather armor, and a wooden spear with a polished pointed tip, a pair of wooden cards and short knives with patent leather faded;

The equipment for defending the city was not a common military crossbow or crossbow machine, but several sets of horned bows and wooden arrows, which were untied in the open air and placed on the edge of the wall not far away, looking lax and defenseless.

Then, without the use of firearms, he cleared seven or eight sentry posts, at least twenty or thirty sentry posts and guards, with the spurs and daggers he carried with him; Among them, only the last sentry post on the west side of the gatehouse almost went wrong and the situation was almost a little flawed.

A sentry who happened to get out of the toilet became a fish that slipped through the net in the backstab and throat slashing operation, and when he tried to shout in horror to report to the city, he ran the wrong staircase in a panic, and was shot in the thigh by Suo Chao with a light and silent crossbow, and fell from the castle tower without a sound.

Then, in the following time, in the middle of the castle tower of the outer urn, Suo Chao finally found the daily life and living and gathering place of most of the defenders, a large room that was quite spacious and had many weapon racks and tables;

However, at this moment, the other party is still unaware of what is happening in the outside world, and is still resting indoors, or chatting, or drinking around the fireplace, or doing the corner play bare-chested, which is full of a certain absurd and idle meaning.

And at this moment, Suo Chao was not in a hurry and rushed in, but let people surround the doors and windows, and then took the lead to take off the pear-shaped grenade hanging on his waist with his own hands, inserted the torch with the wooden core, and then gave the order in a low voice that more than a dozen pieces were thrown into it from everywhere and drippingly.

I only heard the fierce ping-pong explosion and the waves of air rushing out, and the exclamations and panic and hurried running sounds inside were all drowned out in an instant, and most of the noises disappeared in a short time;

This is the latest special shock bomb produced by Huaidi, which is specially used to deal with the enemy in a small room, and cancels the damage of fragments and pyrotechnic burns in the preparation, and strengthens the shock and impact of air waves and sounds, so as to destroy and paralyze the five senses and reaction ability of the enemy in the room.

In the ensuing buzzing and remnant hollow sound, Suo Chao immediately pulled out a larger spherical grenade, but in the dull sound of the fluffy, it turned into a dense and pungent gray smoke, as well as a more intense and heart-rending coughing sound and a struggling and rolling movement.

This is another special smoke bomb, which is specially formulated with wolf smoke balls and thistle terrestris, and is specially used to smoke and trap enemies who refuse to stay indoors. At this time, it is used interchangeably with the stun bomb, but it complements each other and multiplies the power.

Then, a number of figures rushed out of the exit of the doors and windows in a panic, and then they were bombarded into a sieve in the face by a stern shot from close range, or stabbed to death outside the narrow window door.

A short time later, relying on their skillful tactical tacit understanding and the proper use of new firearms, the hundreds of defenders hiding in the room were killed and wounded in the blink of an eye.

At the same time, another group of people who had divided their troops and left also passed through the wall on the inside of the gatehouse and went straight down to the tall wooden winch and thick chain edge that were used to draw the inner urn gate, only to find that the position originally used for animal power was already empty.

However, what made them more fortunate was that there was a faint life and restlessness in the barn not far from the city. Then, in the process of entering the barn to search and pull, the pioneer who was responsible for the reconnaissance inside the door made a new discovery.

For example, the defenders' battle on the other side was that behind the double thick city gates that could pass through the soldiers and the confinement under the city, they had long been crudely stuffed with all kinds of wood, stone and earth bags. Therefore, even if the city wall is forcibly breached, it can easily hold out for a while by relying on these buffers.

However, these messy piles of things cannot constitute an obstacle or obstruction in the real sense of the Huai army with firearms;

Half an hour later, at the end of the doorway, close to the gate of the city, a few flickering sparks finally disappeared between the stacked pairs of special medicine packets, and turned into a complete fire and explosion that shook the sky;

Under the effect of the narrow cavity formed by the doorway, like the mouth of a giant beast spitting fire dragons, the various obstacles and debris stacked behind the city gate were torn and overturned, and then gushed out with billowing smoke and air waves.

All of a sudden, a passage full of debris and debris had been cleared out of the half-blocked doorway. However, the loud sound, like some kind of opening starting gun and signal, shocked most of Youzhou City suddenly became full of people.

And the originally dim and bright firelight above and below the city wall also seemed to have received some kind of combustion momentum, and suddenly in a certain linkage reaction, that is, two or three dense clusters were illuminated, and with the fierce movement of a large number of gallops in the aisles under the city, they quickly approached and outflanked the direction where the Kaiping Gate was located.

Judging from the fierce shaking and flickering firelight, the nearest standby defender was not even far away, but two or three city squares away.

This is obviously both the last darkness before dawn and the most dangerous and intense hour; Suo Chao, who had already cleared the last bit of remnants in the outer gatehouse, nicknamed "Urgent Vanguard", had once again clenched the Lianzhu Fire Gun in his hand and aimed at the city from the city with great efforts.

It was they who persevered, opened the city gates first, and received support from inside and outside, and gained a firm foothold at this breach; Or after the desperate bloody battle of the defenders waiting in the city, defeat and annihilate this infiltrating stubborn enemy, and retake this key gate;

It depends on their lightly armed pioneers, and the next performance and correspondence.

(End of chapter)