readx; Even though the thieves numbered in the hundreds of thousands, they were so shocked that they had to suspend the siege and find new ways to attack, giving the defenders valuable time to recuperate. Pen%Fun%Pavilion www.biquge.info(.. ）

Although they won a big victory, both Shi Kefa and Cao Wenzhao knew that due to the small number of troops, the officers and troops were still at an absolute disadvantage. In addition to less than 1,000 Guanning Iron Cavalry, Yangzhou City only has 3,000 militia regiments that have just been established. Yesterday, more than 200 people were killed in one day, and in such a short period of time, there was no time to replenish the troops, and for every casualty, the strength of the defenders of the city was weakened by one point.

Although the Guanning Iron Cavalry was extremely strong in cavalry, it had to draw at least half of its troops to act as archers at the head of the city, which also greatly weakened its field combat capabilities. In addition, since they did not carry heavy armor, the main means of killing the enemy was now with bows and arrows. But in the past two days, there have been two fierce battles in a row, and more than half of the arrows have been consumed. Although there are some arrows in Yangzhou City, the production technology is inferior and not suitable. If you can't use the range advantage to suppress the thieves' archers, then it will be very dangerous for Guan Ning Tie to ride out of the city to fight.

Sun Qiu is far away, and Sun Qiu is a lonely ghost

Therefore, after discussing with Cao Wenzhao, Shi Kefa believed that the existing forces alone were not enough to hold Yangzhou, and they must request support from Nanjing. Fortunately, Yangzhou is not far from Nanjing, and it only takes more than two hours for the carrier pigeon to go back and forth.

However, until the afternoon, there was no reply from Nanjing. Shi Kefa and Cao Wenzhao were anxiously waiting, and the thieves began a new round of attack. This time, they probably learned their lesson, and did not dare to rush up in a swarm again, but sent a large number of shieldmen, and without shields, they raised a plank to cover the archers to rub forward little by little. If the officers and soldiers still attack with a rain of arrows, the effect will be greatly reduced, and a lot of arrows will be wasted.

Cao Wenzhao wanted to lead the cavalry out of the city and break the formation of the thieves, but Shi Kefa said: "General Cao, the thieves used their shields, but the people who carried the ladders to climb the city did not come up, so they could not break through the city wall." Perhaps this was a ploy by them to lure the general into battle, costing the cavalry and our arrows. ”

"The prefect has a point!" Cao Wen Zhao woke up and said, "The last general is really a little reckless, and the soldiers want to fight, and the saint has specially warned the last general for this." The soldiers fought continuously, and they were indeed very tired, and they had finally rested for more than an hour just now, so let them rest a little longer, and how to attack the city. ”

The officers and soldiers neither let go of the city nor went out of the city, and the thieves successfully attacked thirty paces outside the city this time, and formed a large array with shields, and the archers hid in the shield array and fired their bows and arrows at the head of the city.

However, after shooting like this for a while, Lao Hui Hui and others, who were watching the battle in the back, found a problem. This time, the officers and soldiers were unusual, and did not fire arrows to counterattack, but shrank at the head of the city and were shot. However, there is no need to show your head if you don't fight back, there is a chest-high female wall on the Yangzhou city wall, the defenders hide under the female wall, due to the angle, the arrow shot upward can not hurt anyone at all, either it is shot on the wall, or it is flying over the city wall, and it falls far into the city. It took a long time to co-author the thieves, except for giving tens of thousands of iron arrows to the officers and soldiers for nothing, but they were entertaining themselves, and the defenders didn't even bother to take care of it.

"I'm a thief, the officials and soldiers are too deceitful!" He Yilong, who had just suffered a big loss, couldn't hold back again, and sent more than 1,000 people carrying ladders to attack the city. At the same time, some of the thieves' archers had finished shooting their arrows and began to return to the main camp, which also sent people to deliver the arrows.

At this juncture, the gate of Yangzhou suddenly opened, and the Guanning Iron Cavalry rushed out of the city again like a divine soldier. This indecent thief is miserable, these people on the battlefield are not even a melee weapon except for archers and shield bearers, how can they resist the trampling of iron horses? And they were too close to the city wall, there was no time to escape, and the Guanning Iron Cavalry was like a black iron spear, which was fiercely inserted into the shield of the thieves, and the thieves were thrown into chaos at once.

The thieves carrying ladders in the back had melee weapons, but they had been frightened by the cavalry, and when they saw the officers and soldiers rushing out again, they threw down the ladder and ran, but begged their archers to block a few more swords for themselves in front.

"Get on the horse, get on the horse! Rush me! He Yilong shouted angrily. In fact, this round of attack, according to Lao Huihui's arrangement, was indeed to use the archers in front to lure the official cavalry out of the city. This time, the leaders of the various families gathered all the few heavy armored cavalry among the thieves and hid them in the large camp. As soon as the official cavalry came out, these heavy armored cavalry rushed up to fight, because wearing heavy armor, the defense against bows and arrows was much higher than that of ordinary cavalry, so that they could approach the officers and soldiers and form a melee. Even if these cavalry are exhausted, as long as they can consume the strength of the officers and soldiers, it will be a sure victory.

Sun Buke hated the only ball Mo and made a fuss

Unexpectedly, the officials and soldiers did not go out of the city at the beginning, and this "killer feature" was naturally not easy to expose. The thieves' archers shot arrows for half an hour, but the officers and soldiers still did not move, and these heavy cavalrymen were a little lax, and many of them dismounted and took off their heavy armor to rest.

When these heavily armored cavalry hurriedly put on their armor and mounted their horses and rushed out, the thieves in front of them had already been defeated, and they had abandoned a large number of shields, bows, arrows, ladders and other materials. However, the officers and soldiers did not love war, and when they saw that the thieves were defeated and retreated, they did not even bother to chase and kill, and immediately retreated into the city. By the time a large number of heavily armored cavalry arrived, the city gates had already been closed. Moreover, the defenders at the head of the city knew that the heavy armored cavalry could not release arrows, so they showed their heads one after another, beckoned and laughed at the bottom, and these people were so angry that they couldn't help it.

"It's hard to gnaw on this bone." After the second wave of attacks failed, Lao Huihui's face darkened for a long time, and finally gritted his teeth and said, "But I like to gnaw hard bones when I always return to Hui, don't the officials and soldiers want to spend it with us?" We're going to have to use a stupid solution! ”

After a while, Shi Kefa and Cao Wenzhao, who were watching the enemy at the head of Yangzhou City, poured out thousands of people from the enemy camp at the same time, but this time they did not charge, but each of them held shovels and pickaxes and other objects, and began to dig outside the camp.

"Not good!" Cao Wenzhao shouted, "The thief wants to dig up the earth and attack the city..."

"How to dig earth and attack the city?" Pan Yingzi said in surprise, "Do you want to dig a tunnel and drill into the city?" ”

"There's no need to be so troublesome," Cao Bianjiao also frowned, "There are many thieves, you can pile up soil into a mountain in front of the formation, pile it up as high as the city wall, and then shoot at us." Zhang Xianzhong used this hand when he attacked Luoyang a few years ago, and fortunately there were reinforcements from outside that time, otherwise Luoyang might not be able to hold it. ”

"What then?" Shi Kefa asked anxiously, but Cao Wenzhao and Cao Bianjiao had no good way. The strength of the officers and soldiers is too small!

When everyone was anxious, Pan Yingzi's eyes were sharp, and she raised her hand and pointed to the sky and said, "The pigeon has flown back!" ”