August is the hottest season in Jiaozhou. www.biquge.info The sun hanging high in the sky did not hesitate to sprinkle the light and heat of his body on the earth, shining on the countless nervous people inside and outside the city. This is where the county seat of Huai'an County, Yulin County, is located, and the moat formed by the width of ten zhang to lead to the depression tightly surrounds the city with a wall more than five zhang high and one zhang wide, dividing the defenders in the city and the enemies outside the city into two opposing existences. War, the battle of life and death, will soon begin between the two.

There was not a single cloud in the sky, and it was surprisingly blue. When the army of the city came out of the camp three miles away, crossed the rice fields that had already been harvested, and came to the bottom of the city, the people of the city were already in full battle. The white-clothed and white-armored troops lined up in a neat formation, and the two white flags with the words "revenge" and "snow hatred" written on them were set up in the main formation behind them, fluttering in the slightly blowing hot wind, corresponding to the tired drums, as if they were pouring out something to the sky, projecting a taste of pathos.

After the three drums were finished, the ranks under the city were already neatly arranged, and 30,000 soldiers were all armed with swords and guns, standing silently at the head of the city about 120 zhang: they used the big shield as the outer layer, followed by the big shield were the scattered archers, and interspersed between the corridors woven by the archers were a team of foot knife men carrying ladders. Originally, there should be diggers here, iron pickaxes, but because Huai'an City itself leads to the living water of Yushui, it is impossible to be blocked, so naturally there is no need for diggers to fill the river so troublesomely, as for the iron head, it is completely because of lack of time. Today is the first day of the siege, and as the attackers, they have not yet completely built a complete set of siege equipment. Right now, they just want to test the other party first, pull out the formation and see how the other side is defending the city.

Orthodox city defense often starts with unification nonsense, and of course this time is no exception. The enemy formations outside the city silently cracked a road, and in the path walled by shields and spears, a man and a rider walked out with a sad momentum. I saw that he had an old face, a silver helmet on his head, a plain armor, a white collar on his shoulders, and a slender figure. He was followed by a team of personal soldiers, holding a large flag in his hand, with several big characters written on it: "Han Jiaozhi Taishou - Shi", which is the Jiaozhou Shijia family, the father of the deceased Shihui.

"The people in the city listen to hand over the whole family of the murderer of my son, Yang Lei, and surrender the city. If not, then we will wait until we break through the city, and the city will not be left. "Although Shi Xie is a little older, he has always been in good health. At this moment, his heart ached for the death of his eldest son, and he used all his strength to shout out these threatening words loudly, so that the whole city, both friend and foe, could hear it clearly.

"Good for you, old thief. Your family was originally my Jiaozhou clan, and I should only practice diligently and thriftily to benefit Sangzi, but I don't want you to connive at your children and grandchildren, bully the good and dominate the market, and do the act of robbing the people's daughters. Now that your son has sought his own death and has been killed, you have come to avenge yourself with a high face. Well, take revenge, our son's revenge, but who shall we seek revenge for the people who were killed by your son, and for the innocent people whom you killed because of your anger? The lives of you big men are fate, but aren't the lives of us people fate? If you want to fight, then come on. We're all fighting to the last man in the city, and we won't surrender to you thief until we breathe our last breath. A young and powerful voice sounded majestically on the city wall, and he scolded Shi Xie, who thought he had stood up and was fearless, and he scolded him well. It seems to be very pleasant. As soon as the man's words fell, a round of applause burst into applause from the city. Suddenly, the morale of the defending army increased a lot, and the determination to defend the city became even stronger. After all, they are all fighting to protect their homes and protect their loved ones. Shi Xie's policy of massacre where the army passed had completely angered them, because many of the villages that Shi Xie had slaughtered were originally their relatives.

"Damn!" Shi Xie, who was scolded a little unreasonably, turned grim, he spat on the ground with hatred, turned around and left without saying a word, and at the same time gave an order to his army: "Siege the city, siege the city, take down this city for me, and I will allow you to relax for three days on the day the city is broken." He shouted loudly, and a wave of hatred with a murderous aura emanated from his body, quickly filling the entire heaven and earth.

"Oh!" The soldiers standing on the ground shouted and let out an earth-shattering roar. At the same time, the war drums at the rear of the military formation sounded again. Under the shouting of their own mouths and the response of the war drums in the rear, the soldiers of the Shixie Army quickly moved. They lined up in a neat formation, walking in steps opposite to the drums of war, and marched forward with great momentum, approaching the city wall step by step, without a little chaotic appearance.

Watching the enemies below approach him little by little, Yang Lei's heart on the city wall suddenly lifted. Don't look at what he said so cleanly before, in fact, he still has some concerns about whether he can defend this small Huai'an City. After all, the gap between the two sides is too big: the Shixie army under Huai'an City is 30,000 people, while the city wall is only 3,000 people, even if you count the civilian troops who were temporarily recruited. The difference of one to ten is only this small city wall. Yang Lei really thought that he would die here, but he had no way out. Because he clearly knows what an evil existence the current Shixie Army is. Don't say anything about Shi Xie's ambition is only him, if that can be believed, then the cow can definitely fly in the sky. In fact, when the Shixie army captured several villages that served as the barrier of Huai'an County, Shixie also made similar promises, but these promises were all deceitful. When the defenders of the city believed Shixie's words and opened the gate of their fortress and surrendered, Shixie's army would swarm in like locusts, washing a huge area of blood, leaving no chickens and dogs behind. Yang Lei didn't really see these things, but he believed that it was true, after all, there were many people under his command who escaped from the places where Shixie had slaughtered, and these people were talking about the misery they had witnessed.

“…… The blood-drenched hellscape almost made me wonder if I had returned to Xuzhou more than ten years ago. In fact, what Shi Xie is doing in Jiaozhou is almost exactly the same as what Cao Cao did in Xuzhou at the beginning. Alas, two people from all over the world are acting so similarly, and I don't know if it's good or bad......" A middle-aged man who had lost his arms sighed sadly. His left arm had been cut off by Cao's army in Xuzhou the previous year, while his right arm had been cut off by Shi Xie's army this time. I don't know if it's his luck or misfortune, maybe it's both.

"Since surrender is also a dead end, it is better to ......" It is precisely because of the bad record in front of Shixie that Yang Lei and all the people in Huai'an County finally made up their minds to fight hard. Of course, this struggle is not completely impossible to survive, Yang Lei clearly knows that the new Jiaozhou Mu Li Sheng has asked his general Huang Zhong to lead 15,000 people to garrison Changping, which is very close to here. If he heard the news of the attack here and rushed quickly, then maybe he would only need to hold on for two or three days, and reinforcements would arrive to relieve the siege. "Maybe I'll be a hero then." Yang Lei occasionally had this kind of whimsical selfish thoughts in his head, and his face suddenly released an excited look.

After returning from a reverie about survival, his attention was all about the enemies beneath the city. At present, the enemy who was under the city had reached a distance of about thirty feet from the city wall with their shields held high, and continued to march forward in unison. I think I will soon be able to cross the line of 30 zhang and reach within 20 zhang. Yang Lei, who has had many experience in city defense and is not a junior brother, naturally understands what the consequences will be once the other party reaches twenty zhang or something - once it reaches that distance, the opponent's archers can use their bows and arrows to attack the defenders on the city wall. Judging by the fact that the opponent's soldiers and horses are far above him, Yang Lei is almost 100% sure that once the other party starts first, he will definitely fall into an extremely passive situation standing on the city wall. Estimating that thirty zhang is already the distance that the archers on the city wall can exert their power, Yang Lei immediately made a decision, the long sword in his hand was raised high, and then he slashed down forcefully and quickly gave an order: "Archers, throw!"

The archers at the head of the city quickly took two steps forward, and then made their own movements according to the orders of their respective captains: "First ...... Advance...... Put! ","Second Woo ...... Advance...... Put! "The defenders of Huai'an City, including the civilian army, had a total of nearly six hundred archers, and they were divided into three waves at this moment, taking turns to shoot the arrows in their hands into the air. The long arrows flew into the sky under the action of the bowstring, and then crossed a circular arc trajectory, falling from top to bottom in mid-air, and quickly submerged into the formation of the Shixie army. Because there is too much gap between the number of people and the enemy, the people at the head of the city use a trick, that is, to divide the attacking enemy into several areas, not to be able to hit all the enemies at once, but to completely annihilate the bastards in one area with a wave of attacks. In order to achieve this, they even replaced all the arrows in their hands with all poisoned arrows, although they were only simple poisoned arrows made of animal feces, human and animal urine, and snake venom, which could not achieve the so-called blood to seal the throat, but it could also make the enemy suffer more damage, making the middle arrow more troublesome to treat. Don't say anything that is too despicable, because this is a life-and-death struggle, and in order to survive, they must do everything they can to use all means.

The sound of the "poof" arrow was remembered, followed by the wails of the soldiers of the Shixie Army. Although the front team was shielded by shieldmen, they were too few in number, too many places to guard, and the shields were too heavy for them to take care of most of them. As a result, the originally dense formation was a little chaotic. Compared with some armies in the Central Plains that would not have the slightest chaotic formation even if they died, Shi Xie's team, which was known as the strongest army in the Southern Heavens, was really a little inferior. The inability to move forward without regard for life and death is their greatest weakness.

When Yang Lei skillfully used the archers to attack them with a key attack, and then shifted the attack point little by little, a kind of fear grew in their hearts. Compared to the defenders who had no way out, their cruelty may still be the same, but their so-called bravery became embarrassing under the blows of the other side. They couldn't bear the feeling of being able to watch the enemy hit them and not be able to hit the enemy, especially when their comrades around them were falling one by one, and their fears exploded. After a few waves of focused attacks, some of them began to flee backwards, and although the number of them was small, they were really fleeing. This made the formation, which was already a little chaotic, even more chaotic.

"Is this my Shixie's army? It's just a showcase. Seeing all this, Shi Xie shook his head slightly, with obvious disappointment in his eyes, but then became excited again. He saw that the cowardly men had not been able to get far, and were shot by the archers who were standing in front of him. "Nanren is good at shooting! This is true. Shi Xie couldn't help but rejoice when he watched the indifferent and ruthless movements of those law enforcers, and watched the strings of red blood beads flying in the air with a miserable dazzling beauty. The smell of blood wafted into his nose, excites him as he becomes a little crazy. "Shoot, shoot! Shoot me all those who dare to retreat. He shouted, a hideous expression on his face. He always had 120,000 confidence in his own guards, who were originally born in the Orion family.

I don't know if Shi Xie's categorical disposal of the deserters played a role, in short, after a short period of confusion, the fugitives have been killed, and those who still hold on have also pulled their formations to less than twenty feet from the city. Here the Great Shield Soldier thrust his shield into the earth, leaning on it, supporting it diagonally to the ground, while the archers who followed them also stepped forward in quick twos and threes and hid in the shadow of the Great Shieldman's half-human shield, where they completed a series of bows and arrows.

"Put!" Unlike the defenders in Huai'an City, the Shixie Army, as the attacking side, did not have a unified order, and the archers who hid their bodies under the big shields only poked out half of their heads slightly, estimated the angle and their goals with their own eyes, and quickly stood up, shot an arrow quickly, and then retracted their bodies again regardless of whether the arrow could hit or not. These archers are all veterans brought out by Shi Yi, and they have participated in several similar sieges, and in the past few years of military service, they have gradually gained combat experience and inevitably contracted the cautious fault of their own commander Shi Yi. When they don't get a death order from above, they will never risk their lives to fight the enemy. In their opinion, at present, whether it is the combat effectiveness of the army or the number of troops, their side is far higher than the other side. If nothing unexpected happens, it will be normal for your side to win the battle.

"If we will win no matter what, if we can get the post-war reward no matter what, then why should we fight for a sure result. As long as you make a slight effort, you can attack the enemy while trying to protect yourself as much as possible. Anyway, there are so many enemies, even if we change one by one, we can exchange them. Of course, the best thing to do is not me. "The idea of the supremacy of life is very common among these veterans, and when it comes directly to this battlefield, it is their current way of fighting with free attacks to ensure their safety. After all, compared to an unsuspecting salvo, this kind of combat is the one with the fewest deaths. Both against oneself and against one's enemy.

The strength of this free attack is really not high, but it is still somewhat powerful when used in the hands of veterans. In the "collapse...... After the bowstring sounded, the casualties of the defenders on the city began to appear, although the casualties were not very large, but it was not very large, but it was not very large in terms of the number of archers on the side of the Shixie army, as for Yang Lei, who was outnumbered and held on to the small city, the fall of every soldier defending the city made his heart twitch involuntarily.......

"We can't go on like this, even if we fight hard with the enemy in a two-to-one way, we can't stop others. Besides, today's attack was just a temptation, and I can't afford to waste my already scarce archers here. Yang Lei thought about it and quickly made a decision: "All the people are free to suppress as a unit!" ”

The order was delivered, and the soldiers reacted quickly. The dense cloud of arrows that had been coming from the city then dispersed. However, although the strength was dispersed, the hit rate of the attack had been significantly improved, coupled with the dispersion of the archers who were originally standing together at the head of the city, the number of sacrifices on Yang Lei's side had decreased to a certain extent, and it was not as panicked as before.

"The enemy can't kill many of his own people, and he can't kill many of his enemies. This may be a draw. For such a result, it is still acceptable to the archers of the Shixie Army who have in their hearts that "a draw is a victory". They were still the same as before, after drawing their bows and arrows behind the big shield, they quickly stood up straight and even shot the arrows in their hands, and then quickly hid back under the protection of the big shield - not for merit, but for no fault, they all thought so. Although this idea was still some way from their goal of "suppressing the local archers and defending the siege infantry from attacking", they were able to attract a large portion of the enemy archers' firepower anyway, and they were half of the task. As for the rest, it was only done by the infantrymen who were called "daredevils".

Seeing that such an appearance of archers shooting against each other had been formed above and below the city, the leading general waved his hand, and the infantrymen who were originally scattered between the formations and were a little embarrassed by the opponent's arrow feathers suddenly stood up, carrying a long bamboo ladder, carrying the only waist knife in their hands that could be regarded as a weapon, and frantically rushed towards the moat on the opposite side. The moat of Huai'an was so flooded that it was impossible to fill it up in a short period of time, so the infantry of the attacking side planned to cross the moat by erecting pontoon bridges. For this purpose, they prepared no less than a hundred long bamboo ladders and more than ten times the number of planks on this bamboo ladder. The bamboo ladder is used as a bridge trunk, and the bamboo ladder is directly built on both sides of the moat, and then the wooden planks on the tower between the two bamboo ladders naturally form a pontoon bridge as wide as a zhangxu. Although the deck of this pontoon bridge is not very reliable because there is no iron nail and other things to fix, it is strong enough for the Jiaozhou soldiers who grew up between the mountains and rivers of Nantian. They're going to just step on it like this, and they're going to "cluck" when they step on it...... The rattling pontoon bridge crossed the wide moat, and at the foot of the city wall, the iron claw rope ladder and the cloud ladder used to climb the city were solid, and they were erected.

Everything went very smoothly. Although many people fell on the way to the escort, many more rushed forward one after another. Unlike those archers who are really afraid of death to say something unpleasant, these are also veterans who have been through several battles and have not fought much because of the war. And they become timid, on the contrary, because they have seen too much death, they become more indifferent to life and death. The enemy's arrows could not stop their advance, and with an unflinching charge, they rushed to the edge of the moat with a few breaths, quickly laid the planks, and opened the way directly to the walls of Huai'an.

The ascent to the city began. Dozens of ropes tied in large knots and tied to iron were rounded in the hands of the soldiers, and the hula were thrown out, and landed accurately on the top of the city. The soldier holding the tail of the rope pulled the rope so hard that it hooked the wall, and then ran quickly towards the wall. After jumping up with a high key, he quickly stepped on the wall and pulled the rope up. Different from the earthen city walls in the north, the city walls in the south are basically based on stone walls because of the humid climate and more rain, although some large cities consider the problem of city defense, and grind the stones into flat stone bricks one by one to reduce the chance of being climbed, but small cities like Huai'an are still easy to find uneven places on the city walls, so as to borrow their strength.

This is a very peculiar way to siege a city. Among all the princes in the whole world, only the Jiaozhou army was equipped with this hook and rope on a large scale. It is said that this is really a major feature of the Jiaozhou Army. Because of its rapid arrangement and simple manufacturing, it can often make the battle on the head of the city unfold quickly, and let the ladder that is really responsible for the large army to ascend the city reduce the chance of being destroyed.

Of course, because the carrying capacity of such a city is not large, so the Jiaozhou army has also completely abandoned the traditional ladder to climb the city, almost at the same time that the rope is thrown high on the city, more than a dozen long ladders temporarily tied up by bamboo ladders are also on the top of the city wall of Huai'an, and the soldiers standing behind the ladder directly hold the knife in their hands with their own teeth, and quickly hold the bamboo ladder with their own hands and go up.

Rope ladder and bamboo ladder are the magic weapons of the Shixie army to attack the city, and lime, boiling oil, spears, giant trees, and stones are the magic weapons used by Yang Lei to defend the city on the city. As the orders from his mouth were issued one after another, the defenders at the head of the city, except for the archers who still shot at each other's archers, basically took these things and greeted those who climbed the city.

The lime fell from the untied pit in a flutter, blinding the soldiers who were climbing up below, making them numb. The next pot of boiling hot oil fell into the air, and they fell down in agony. The spears stabbed out one by one, and the soldiers who were about to climb the city were easily dressed into gourds. The huge trees and stones that fell with them completely smashed the ladders on the city walls and the pontoon bridges on the moat.

The most tragic battle in the siege battle began here. Whether attacking or defending, they were not as warm as the archers in front of them. The sandalwood of blood, the choking of lime, and the burnt smell of human flesh all filled the nostrils of everyone in the city and under the city in this short half hour, making them really sick to their stomachs.

Both the attack and the defense continued. Although the generals who were supervising the battle in front had already understood that under the condition that Huai'an City was now fully prepared, it would be impossible to capture the 5,000 men in his hands alone, but before the sound of the gold in this formation sounded, he would never be able to return the soldiers who had been spilled. Even if they are sent to death, they must let them go up, although judging from the battle situation so far, the reality of the other party is already clear at a glance.

"Alas, is the enemy prepared, so that it is not clear to see? I guess that's enough. Do you have to watch us all fight and die? The general in front of him was so anxious that he tilted his ears sideways and tilted his head, paying close attention to the situation behind him. When will the long-awaited bell ring? "He's a little hopeful.

The offense and defense have reached this point, and the victory or defeat on the battlefield is no longer something that can be changed by a certain general's strategy. For both the attacking side and the defending side, the contest between the two sides has changed from a contest between the two sides in terms of combat methods and the command ability of the generals of the two sides to a contest between the two sides in terms of troops, morale, and combat readiness.

In such a comparison, although the besieging Shixie side had an absolute advantage in terms of troops, it was basically equal to the other side in morale, and it was far inferior to the other side in terms of final combat preparations. If it is a few days later that he has completed the preparations for the battle, then there may still be a possibility of going down to Huai'an in one go, but just for now, with the five thousand men of the front army wanting to take the city? That's just a joke.

"Big brother, I think it's okay, they should be taken down." Seeing that the five thousand former troops who were originally full in front of the battle had tasted all the hardships under the city of Huai'an, which had already been waiting for the battle, in just one hour, the five thousand men and horses were beaten to the scale of less than three thousand, and the other party did not seem to suffer much loss, Shi Yi, who was watching all this from behind, frowned tightly, and whispered like his brother suggested.

"Hmm, this damn Yang Lei really has some skills. It seems that this Huai'an City is not easy to fight. Listening to Shi Yi's suggestion, looking at the unexpectedly strong defenders on the opposite side, although he was heartbroken by the death of his eldest son and launched this revenge war, Shi Xie, who had never completely lost his mind, nodded with a calm face, turned his head and ordered the drummer behind him: "Mingjin, collect the troops!" ”

"Ding...... Bite...... Ding ...... "After nearly two hours of fighting with each other, when the sun in the middle of the sky was gradually turning west, the long-awaited sound of gold finally sounded in the main formation of the Shixie army. The sound of fighting on the battlefield gradually fell. With the offensive and defensive sides returning to their respective positions, the day's killing under Huai'an City finally came to an end, and the next thing to see was how the Shixie army, who had already understood the reality of the other party, moved. Of course, this is only for Shi Xiejun himself, and for Yang Lei, who is defending the city, everything is the same as today. Anyway, no matter what Shi Xie's plan was in the end, as long as he wanted to attack the city, the people in the city had no choice but to continue to resist.