The sun was shining on the mountain bag in the west, and Song Jiangong had been standing on the rock at the top of the mountain for a long time. Looking ahead, the Nanzhao barbarians had no intention of attacking, and looking back, most of the thick hemp ropes that had been pulled across the river at noon had been fixed.

Although there are no figures of the hundreds of Tang soldiers responsible for fixing the ropes above the cliff wall below the mountain bag, the creaking of the wooden winch, the sound of the horn when working together to exert force, and the tensioned ropes one after another all indicate that everything is going smoothly. Between the two cliffs of Lushui in the rear, hundreds of ropes lay across the boiling river, swaying slightly with the wind, making a low humming sound.

"The river is the harp, the rope is the string, and the triumphant song is played."

Song Jiangong blurted out such a sentence, and the generals around him praised with their tall fingers: "General Song's poetry is prospering, these few sentences are magnificent, even the celebrities of the Tang Dynasty can't make such imposing verses." ”

Song Jiangong was in a good mood, and laughed: "Don't pat me on the back, I can't help but see that the strategy is about to succeed." At this pace, the plank road can be laid at night, and perhaps the trestle bridge will be passable early tomorrow morning. At that time, we don't have to shrink on this mountain, but cover up and kill in a big way, and hide the fart and urine of the Nanzhao barbarian soldiers into the forest and tremble. ”

The generals nodded in agreement. Everyone was talking and laughing, and they were in a relaxed mood, but after a while, the sound of the horn from the foot of the mountain made everyone stop talking and laughing. Song Jiangong jumped on the boulder, put his hand on the pergola and looked down the mountain, and his face changed: "The barbarians want to attack, each of them will return to their respective positions, and prepare to meet the enemy." ”

The generals immediately became nervous and rushed back to their positions, waking up the soldiers who were sleeping in the sun, and preparing their bows and crossbows for the attack of the brutes.

At the foot of the mountain, the brute soldiers did pour out their nests to prepare for the attack, and more than a hundred huge double-layered rattan shields were once again erected and lined up under the slope in front of them, and hundreds of huge wooden shields that had just been built dragged out of the mountain forest were also erected. More than 300 huge shields formed a huge wall on three sides of the hillside, and thousands of strong barbarian soldiers were responsible for carrying these large shields, protecting the nearly 10,000 barbarians hiding behind and slowly climbing up from the three sides of the hillside like turtles.

Half an hour later, the barbarians reached the mountainside, and the arm-stretched crossbows on the top of the mountain were within range, and thousands of crossbow arrows began to fire in all directions. Sharp and swift crossbow bolts struck the turf of the hillside with condescending ferocity, sending debris from the massive log shield and opening a huge gap.

But even so, these shields will not fall apart, because the Nanzhao barbarians are made of thick logs one by one, and these large shields are tied with rattan mortise and tenon joints to fit very strongly. While the power of the bolts can be pierced, they cannot render them useless. Moreover, after the crossbow arrow is pierced, it also becomes the end of the strong crossbow, and it cannot cause great damage. Unless dozens of crossbow arrows hit a wooden shield at the same time, this can burst the entire wooden shield.

Therefore, under the attack of dense thick crossbow arrows, the number of dead and wounded of the barbarians was greatly reduced by the use of these rudimentary wooden shields as a barrier. When they rushed to within one hundred and fifty paces below the top of the mountain, they only killed or wounded five or six hundred people, and destroyed dozens of wooden and rattan shields.

Song Jiangong was a little annoyed, but he wasn't worried that the other party would attack the top of the mountain in this way, because Song Jiangong hadn't used a rocket to attack yet. As soon as he sensed that the other party intended to attack the top of the mountain in this way, Song Jiangong would immediately order to shoot the shield with a precious rocket. But in the case of unclear intentions, Song Jiangong will not use those rockets. Although fire oil is not a very rare thing, Song Jiangong didn't bring much with him, and Song Jiangong didn't want to ignite the long grass on the hillside, although he wouldn't be burned to death, but the smoky environment would give the opponent an opportunity.

The opponent's giant shield array was still approaching upward, and the closer it got to the top of the mountain, the more powerful the iron-tipped crossbow arrows with open arms became. Many of the barbarians' wooden shields have been scarred by stumbling and arrow attacks along the way, and are often completely crumbled and destroyed after being shot by a deadly crossbow, causing a large wave of casualties. Song Jiangong felt that if the other party did not retreat, it was entirely possible for these wooden shields to explode them with crossbow arrows, or even use rockets.

But the brute stopped a hundred paces away from the top of the mountain, and all the huge wooden shields and rattan shields were erected, forming several huge wooden walls, and at the same time, from behind the big shields, the arrows of black pressure were thrown to the top of the mountain, and landed in the Tang army formation on the top of the mountain with a screaming sound. Most of these arrows are bamboo arrows, and although they rarely penetrate the chain mail when they hit the chain mail, once they pierce the gap in the armor or hit the part that is not protected by the armor, the Tang soldiers almost immediately fall to the ground unconscious. This round of sudden attacks caused more than 100 soldiers of the Tang Army to die.

Song Jiangong loudly ordered the soldiers to hide under the simple fortifications, and on the other hand, he took those arrows to check, and saw that the tips of the arrows were blue and black, obviously soaked in deadly drugs, and not only scolded loudly.

Fortunately, the opponent could only throw them upwards at a high angle from behind the wooden shield, and most of the arrows could not reach the top of the mountain, and many of them landed on the slope in front of the fortifications. Only a small part of them can shoot into the Tang army's formation, and the damage caused is very small.

Song Jiangong scolded angrily several times, and ordered the crossbowman with open arms to shoot at the enemy's wooden shield that was already scattered, and the crossbow arrows rained down, nailing the wooden shield with turf, and shooting dozens of wooden shields into powder, and hundreds of barbarian soldiers hiding behind were shot into a hornet's nest by the dense feather arrows before they could react. Song Jiangong laughed, but at the same time he got bad news. The lieutenant who was in charge of carrying the iron-headed crossbow arrows reported that only the last ten bundles of iron crossbow arrows remained, one hundred thousand. That is to say, the 5,000-armed crossbow can only be fired twice before the bolts are exhausted. Song Jiangong immediately realized the seriousness of the problem.

Song Jiangong was in shock, as he was alerted by the news that his crossbow arrows were running out, and he ordered a check of the number of all remaining arrows, including those equipped with the Zhemu bow except for the crossbow arrows. This check shocked him.

The plan to build a rope bridge with long-range arrows for protection had already been determined, so the Zhemu bow was equipped with a double number of arrows per bow, and was the highest number of large quivers. That's a huge number of 200 arrows, which is four times the number of arrows that a single soldier can carry in a normal battle. A small quiver carrying only fifty arrows is enough for a general battle. And now, in just one day, these quivers are half empty. In other words, there are less than a hundred ordinary arrows left per person, and the iron-tipped arrows of crossbow arrows are about to run out.

The brutes on the hillside were still shooting arrows to the top of the hill in waves, and they had no intention of rushing up. After the wooden shield shatters, they will quickly hide behind the other wooden shield and continue to shoot poisoned arrows to harass them. At the foot of the hill below, thousands of barbarians climbed up the hillside with more than a hundred wooden shields to replace the damaged wooden shields. If the Tang army did not suppress it with arrows, they would have the courage to lean out and shoot directly at the top of the mountain, which would pose a greater threat to the Tang army.

"The order goes down, no more arrows are wasted, if there are no arrows, there will be no way to stop the brutes from attacking the mountain, and then they can only fight hand-to-hand, which is very disadvantageous to the war." Song Jiangong ordered in a deep voice.

"But general, how can you suppress them without arrows?"

"With rockets, I don't want to do that, but I don't want to waste precious arrows. As long as I can force them to retreat down the mountain until tomorrow morning, there will be no need to worry about anything. ”

"Obey the orders of General Song."

The rockets dipped in fire oil lit up, and a round of rockets was fired, and the wooden shield on the hillside was suddenly nailed with black smoke rockets. A moment later, the shield burst into flames, igniting the long grass on the slope, and smoke filled the area. There was nothing to be seen on the hillside below the smoke, only the loud shouts of the brutes could be heard, as if charging upwards. The soldiers had to shoot arrows at the smoke-filled hillside to stop them from rushing up. After firing a few rounds of arrows, Song Jiangong felt that something was wrong and ordered to stop shooting. After waiting for a long time and not seeing any signs of attacking, Song Jiangong stomped his feet and scolded: "The intention of these southern barbarians is to waste our arrows, and the arrows are hateful. ”

The long grass on the hillside was quickly burned, and when the smoke cleared a little, I saw that the hillside was full of burning wooden rafts. The barbarians stood in a queue at the foot of the mountain, and Song Jiangong was shocked to find that another large wave of log shields was erected in front of them. The trees in the mountains and forests were inexhaustible, and the brutes could make large wooden shields against the arrows in a matter of minutes, and they were determined to continue harassing.

Song Jiangong frowned, but he was helpless in the face of this rogue-like tactic, but he was actually not too panicked in his heart, because no matter how the other party tossed, as long as he could hold it until tomorrow, the rope bridge could be built, then it didn't matter.

However, what Song Jiangong didn't know was that just as he was engrossed in dealing with the barbarian attack, a huge disaster was descending on the cliff wall below the mountain bag. Hundreds of selected brute soldiers climbed down from the cliffs on the left and right, moving sideways along the vines and small ledges between the cliffs.

Under the shadow of the setting sun, the small black dots on the mountain wall that moved slowly did not attract the attention of others, and when Wang Yuan and others, who were watching the battle on the cliff on the north bank, found that someone was approaching the bottom of the mountain from both sides of the cliff, it was too late.