On May 19 of the sixth year of Zhongping, on the sixth day after the news of Guo Daxian's death came out, tens of thousands of people gathered outside the gate of Zhongbao in Baibo Valley. These horses are under different banners, clearly from four different forces. Needless to say, this army is the combined army of Han Xian, Yang Feng, Hu Cai, and Li Le.

Speaking of which, the movements of these four are really fast. Within five days, tens of thousands of soldiers and horses could be organized and dispatched urgently. In contrast, the Taiping Road side of the state was chaotic for a while due to the suddenness of the incident and the lack of a leader.

Although the total number of people that can be mobilized on the Taiping Road side is not below the other side. However, due to internal disputes, the forces of Taiping Dao in Bingzhou were greatly dispersed, and Ding Zhuang, who was currently stationed in Zhongbao, had less than 1,000 people.

Of course, with the help of the dangerous terrain of Zhongbao, the enemy was helpless for a while. But in the face of tens of thousands of troops, it is still extremely difficult to hold the middle fort with so many men.

Fortunately, Guo Jing, who was in charge of the defense of the fort, although he was young, did not show any melancholy on his face, and he looked like he was in his chest, which also inspired the confidence of the guards in the fort.

The middle fort was originally built on the terrain, with a circumference of about 500 zhang, and was surrounded by valleys eroded by flowing water. Between the bottom of the valley and the wall of the rampart, there is a cliff with a height of 50 to 60 zhang. The entry and exit of the people in the fort only rely on an earthen bridge more than five zhang wide in the west.

With such a structure, even if there are 100,000 troops besieging it outside, it will not be able to be used at all. If you want to attack hard, you can only launch it from the five-zhang wide earthen bridge at the entrance.

Fortunately, the Quartet forces involved in the siege had long been prepared for such a situation.

Since the attack surface that could be attacked was too narrow, the first round of attacks on the coalition side was to widen both sides of the earthen bridge in order to increase the contact surface for the attack. The coalition is just a rabble. After all, there are many people. In just a few hours, several wagons were converted for siege purposes.

The so-called siege vehicle is a siege operation vehicle with strong protection. To put it bluntly, it is actually to build an arrow-proof roof with wooden planks on a four-wheeled vehicle to cover the siege of the personnel in the vehicle.

High-end bulky items like ballistas, wells, etc. The coalition forces will not be able to produce it for a while and a half. However, Yang Feng and others can still produce a few siege equipment with low technical requirements, such as ladders and chariots.

On the other hand, in order to put pressure on the defenders of Taiping Road in the dock fort, those elite soldiers were not idle when they assigned Minfu to carry out siege operations - filling ditches. A number of wrestlers with large shoulders and round waists were singled out to raise their heavy oars and shields to cover the archers with bows and crossbows approaching the Dock Fort and firing at the defenders of the Dock Fort.

This kind of siege is undoubtedly very inefficient and ineffective. But. With the non-professional siege technology level of the coalition army, it can only do this.

On the first day of the siege, more than 140 people were killed and wounded, and more than 50 crossbowmen were lost, and it is estimated that 30 to 40 casualties were inflicted on the defenders of the fort. It is estimated that it will take more than 20 days for the coalition forces to fight for the defending forces in the fort in the light of the dock after 20 or 3,000 casualties.

But. Are the coalition forces willing to bear such time consumption and casualties?

Or rather. Can the coalition afford it?

Although the coalition forces have four forces, only Han Xian and Yang Feng are the only ones who stay under Zhongbao City. This is also an agreement reached by the four parties according to the secret meeting before the war.

According to the division of labor in the agreement, Hu Cai and Li Le each supported the coalition army with 1,000 Ding Zhuang for the attack on the most important "Five Forts of Baibo Valley". But. Hu Cai and Li Le will not appear under the middle fort, but the two of them will join forces to attack and defend the empty north fort.

The subordinates brought by Han Siam this time were all cavalry, which was not suitable for siege battles. Therefore, he was spared from participating in the siege. However, the price of this is that Han Xian can only get a symbolic tenth of what he gets after the city is broken.

In other words, the main force in this attack on Zhongbao is actually Yang Feng's family. However, Hu Cai and Li Le, afraid that Yang Feng would use the two thousand Ding Zhuang he sent out as cannon fodder, insisted that Han Xian be the nominal leader. As a result, it became a little difficult for Yang Feng to send friendly troops who did not belong to his subordinates to the cannon fodder battlefield.

Since the coalition army can be said to be a real rabble, according to the estimation of Han Xianam, who was elected as the temporary leader, as long as the casualties of the coalition army on his side reach 10%, that is, 1,000 people, it will be difficult to continue this kind of offensive battle against the fortified city. Even if the leaders insist on launching an attack, the morale of the coalition army will drop by more than half.

However, fortunately for the coalition forces, among the defenders in the dock fort, there are not so many qualified crossbowmen. Moreover, as the siege time continues, the siege equipment of the coalition army will gradually improve, and the threat to the city wall will continue to increase. Therefore, everyone is still very confident in storming this dock fort.

What the leaders of the coalition were really worried about was not the defenders in the middle fort, but the arrogance of the north. As we all know, Zhang Qi and Mrs. Guo are both remnants of Taiping Dao, and their relationship has always been extremely close. If he learns of Mrs. Guo's death, Zhang Qiang, who has just left Baibo Valley, will definitely go south again quickly.

The Taiping Dao forces in Baibo Valley, if they have the backbone of arrogance, their combat effectiveness will increase by at least fifty percent. Not to mention the Taixing army under the command of Zhang Qiang, which successively defeated the Southern Xiongnu and the northern overlord Xianbei people, who had attacked and killed the history of the Bingzhou Assassin, and was famous in the north. Although the coalition army was numerous, it did not have the slightest confidence that it would be able to defeat the Taixing army in a frontal battle.

Therefore, in order to break through the middle fort as soon as possible, the coalition forces had already laid an ambush in the middle fort in advance a few days ago.

Considering the original close relationship between the coalition forces and Taiping Dao, as well as the morale of the army that had been greatly shaken by Guo Tai's death, it was not too difficult to win over the guards of Zhongbao who knew each other. As long as the right opportunity arises, Neiying will find a way to open the city gates and welcome the coalition forces into the city.

In order to ensure the success of the siege of the city, the coalition army outside the dock fort also specially organized an elite light army of 500 people. As soon as the guards in the middle fort were launched, this well-armed light infantry would immediately attack.

Even if the action of opening the door is not successful, the light soldiers who are prepared with light elevated stairs and flying grabs and other climbing equipment should be able to take advantage of the chaos in the fort and the opportunity of the loopholes in the defense to break through the wall as high as six or seven zhang, and directly launch a strong attack on the city.

Therefore, the top brass of the coalition forces behaved unhurriedly during the attack in the first three days. The deaths and injuries of ordinary people do not affect their decision-making. It was not until the end of the third day of the offensive, taking advantage of the darkness, that the top of the coalition forces gathered again.

Han Xian and Yang Feng sat on the hill bag, looking at each other speechlessly.

The time is almost around the third watch, and if the inner response that has been mixed into the middle castle goes well, a pile of firewood with special meaning will soon be lit.

"Fire! It's on fire! ”

The appointed time has come. The two didn't wait long, and a raging fire soon ignited in the city. Yang Feng carefully distinguished the flag next to the fire, and found that it was the same as agreed, it was a red flag and a yellow flag. He glanced at Han Xian beside him, and without asking for the other party's opinion, he ordered:

"Raise the flag! Let the Einsatzgruppen attack! ”

The five hundred elite soldiers of the Einsatzgruppen are all Yang Feng's subordinates. Therefore, Yang Feng didn't need to care about Han Xian's reaction, and directly gave the order to attack.

As soon as the banner moved, the Einsatzgruppen, which had been ambushed only a hundred steps away from the head of Zhongbao City, immediately began to advance in small steps according to the prior arrangement. Since each soldier had a title in his mouth, for a while, the sound of light footsteps became the accompaniment to the advance of this special team.

Today is the last quarter of the moon, and at the time of the third watch, only half of the moon has just risen, giving a glimmer of light to the night that has been dark for half the night. By the light of the fire at the head of the city and the faint moonlight, the Einsatzgruppen managed to approach under the walls of the Dock Fort. At the same time, the "squeaky" hole in the gate of the middle fort opened, revealing an empty passage to the city gate.

"The door is open!"

The deputy general of the Einsatzgruppen who walked at the forefront whispered happily. He was a bold man, and when he saw that there was a road ahead, he didn't care about thirty-seven twenty-one, so he rushed inward with his subordinates. Wang Yi, the leader of the team who was mixed in the middle of the team, had not had time to stop his deputy in a hurry, and hundreds of soldiers of the special team had already rushed into the city gate hole.

- Didn't this brute notice that something was wrong?

Wang Yi is a veteran and one of the Han soldiers who once participated in the expedition to Xianbei. Years of battlefield experience made him feel like he was in the middle of a plan when he saw the empty city gate for the first time.

- There is no one at the gate of the city, and are all the people who answer them dead? Such an obvious flaw, I can't see it!

Wang Yi was just about to open his mouth to stop the team from advancing, but when he heard a gong, his heart suddenly sank.

The deputy team leader who rushed to the front had just led people through the dark city gate hole, and he hadn't had time to take a second look at him. But when he heard the twitching sound of a bowstring, he was greeted by dozens of strong crossbows shot from a distance of twenty paces!

This deputy team rate climbed up by virtue of his own military exploits. Although his brain is not very bright, his body's natural reflexes are extremely agile.

The first time he noticed that something was wrong, the body of the deputy team leader automatically curled up in a ball and squatted behind the light shield he was carrying. Because of this, two of the six arrows aimed at him at the first time were avoided by him, one missed, and the remaining three were blocked by the shield in his hand.

However, at a distance of twenty paces, how powerful were the arrows fired from the five-stone crossbow? The shield in the hand of the deputy team was able to block two bows and arrows, but it could not block this crossbow arrow. The crossbow arrow pierced the shield, and Yu Wei was still heavily pierced into the leather armor on the chest of the deputy leader, piercing it and entering the flesh an inch and a half.

However, the deputy team with minor injuries is already the luckiest one in the first row of special teams. The remaining six soldiers of the Einsatzgruppen who rushed to the first row faced the baptism of more than 30 bows and arrows of various colors, and none of them survived! (To be continued......)