Arrows rained down on the city, rolling wood and stones fell like hailstones, and the Hu soldiers held shields to resist, but they were still smashed and tumbled and fell.

The screams continued to come up and down the city, and the blood arrows that shot one after another stained everyone's eyes, completely stimulating the attack in the hearts of all the soldiers.

The Hu soldiers concentrated their combat strength, and attacked on the city wall with siege equipment such as ladders and siege vehicles, and more than 1,000 soldiers under the city raised their crossbows to shoot arrows at the head of the city.

The fighting between the two sides gradually entered the white heat.

The city wall was in flames, seven or eight ladders were ignited by rockets one after another, the fire was burning, under the city wall, outside the city gate, there were scattered corpses everywhere, and the defenders at the head of the city also killed and injured hundreds of people.

The Hu soldiers have always been brave, under the rockets of the defenders of the cloud city, there are still several cloud ladders set up at the head of the city, dozens of Hu soldiers along the cloud ladder to attack the city, at this time, Xu Ying roared, raised the double halberd, and rushed towards the dozens of Hu soldiers who rushed to the head of the city.

Xu Ying was more than eight feet tall, with big shoulders and a round waist, just like a humanoid tank, rampage, and immediately tore these Hu soldiers to pieces, and shouted in vain, raised his double halberd, and struck violently, cutting off the cloud ladder that was set up at the head of the city.

Those Hu soldiers who took the opportunity to climb the ladder and did not have time to reach the top of the city suddenly screamed and fell from the broken ladder and smashed into meat cakes.

Seeing that their generals were so heroic, the soldiers of Yunzhong City were also greatly motivated, and they fought bravely to kill the enemy, and suppressed these Hu soldiers who wanted to storm the city, but there were many Hu people, although the city was full of dead corpses, but there were still a large number of Hu soldiers who continued to attack Yunzhong City.

The corpses under the city were piled up about a meter thick, and these Hu soldiers stepped on the corpses of their companions, pushing the ladder towards the city wall, and the siege vehicles had also come to the gate of the city in the clouds.

Relying on the raw cowhide covered by the siege trucks, these Hu soldiers braved the rain of arrows on the city in the clouds, came to the city gate, and then used the battering rams to violently hit the city gate of the city in the clouds.

The deafening shouts of killing and the sound of bows and arrows flying echoed in a radius of dozens of miles in Cloud City, affecting the hearts of all the soldiers and civilians in Cloud City, Zhao Fan had already retreated from the city at this time, commanding the soldiers in the city to resist the Hu army.

"Xu Jia, instruct the craftsman to bring over the city-guarding equipment that I ordered to make two days ago." Zhao Fan's face was cold, and he said to Xu Jia on the side.

Hearing this, Xu Jia also nodded, he was also very interested in the things designed by Zhao Fan, and it didn't take long for a large number of craftsmen to make equipment to defend the city, led by a group of soldiers, to the head of the city.

Zhao Fan's eyes shrank slightly, looking at the dozens of giant instruments carried by the soldiers, there was also a hint of joy on his face that could not be concealed, he didn't expect that these craftsmen would make these things so quickly.

Although there are not many of them, there are always good and none, and with this experience, Zhao Fan believes that these craftsmen will be much more handy and faster in making these instruments in the future.

After all, this battle with the Hu people is a protracted war, and it will definitely take a long time, so there is no rush for the time being.

"This is a flying hook, this is a yaksha ......" Zhao Fan observed some of the city-guarding equipment made while explaining the usage and function of these instruments to the surrounding soldiers.

The flying hook is also called "iron owl foot", its shape is like an anchor, there are four sharp claw hooks, tied with iron chains, and then connected to the rope. When the enemy soldiers and ants are attached to the foot of the city and are ready to climb the ladder to climb the city, they will be taken by surprise and thrown into the enemy group, and two to three people can be killed at a time.

The yaksha is also known as "staying in a guest's house". This kind of weapon is made of a foot in diameter, more than a zhang long wet elm as a roller, around the dense nail "reverse nail", the nail head exposes the wood surface five inches, the two ends of the rolling wood are installed with a diameter of two feet of wheels, tied to an iron cable, connected to the winch, when the enemy soldiers gather at the foot of the city, put into the enemy group, twisting the winch can crush the enemy to death.

The wolf's tooth pat, made of elm wood into a dustpan shape, five feet long, four feet five inches wide, three thousand two hundred wolf tooth iron nails are nailed on it, the nail is five inches long, six taels in weight, and the nail tip is three inches out of the wood surface. A knife with a sharp blade is embedded on all four sides of the shot, and the knife is an inch and a half into the wood. There are two iron rings in front and back of the wooden racket, tied with ropes, hanging on the pulley at the head of the city, when the enemy attacks the city, first hang the wolf's tooth racket high, and then fall heavily to slap the enemy, the four sides of the shoot are sharp, so that the enemy soldiers can not fight back.

Listening to Zhao Fan's explanation, Xu Jia and those craftsmen were also surprised, it was the first time they had heard of this kind of city-guarding equipment, and the power was so huge, it immediately made them unbelievable at the same time, and their faces showed a touch of ecstasy.

With these city-guarding equipment, the chances of winning against the Hu people are much greater.

Better tools make good work. It is said that if a craftsman wants to do his job well, he must first make the tool sharp. To do one thing well, preparation is very important. Words out of Confucius. The Analects. Wei Linggong": "Zigong asks for benevolence. Zi said: "If you want to do a good job, you must first sharpen your tools." Ju is a state, a sage who is a doctor, and a benevolent person who is a friend. ”

"Okay, you carry these city-guarding equipment to the city, hand them over to Li Feng's county guard, and let him arrange when you will use them, as for the craftsmen, you immediately return to the city and continue to make these equipment." Zhao Fan commanded in an orderly manner.

Li Feng was now commanding the battle above the city, and he would be very surprised that these city defense weapons were so powerful, as long as he could arrange the soldiers to use them at a reasonable time, they would definitely have a huge effect.

As for those craftsmen, they were already excited after learning that these city-guarding equipment had such a powerful effect, and for them, they were naturally extremely happy to make these novelties, and they immediately returned to the city one after another to continue to work.

In Sun Tzu's Art of War "Xiongcheng City", cities are divided into two categories: castles that live on high places or backed by mountains and have good water sources are called "Xiongcheng", which are very difficult to conquer; Those who live in low places, or between two mountains, or have their backs to the valleys, and the water and grass are not abundant, are called "Qicheng", as long as they have enough strength, they will be broken in one attack.

Yunzhong City is a typical Xiongcheng, King Zhao Wuling set up Yunzhong County here, built Yunzhong City as the capital, naturally it is impossible to build an ordinary city casually, here is the border with the Hu people, the city is built extremely strong.

Hu Ren knew this very well, so he didn't think about breaking the city with one blow, this first attack was just a temptation, as the capital of Yunzhong County, how could it be so easy to break, Zhang Wu was deeply aware of this.

During the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, the city defense technology was also advancing by leaps and bounds, and the city wall defense had new fortifications such as female walls, corner towers, hanging gates, urn cities, and single-story city towers. The female wall can conceal the actions of the defenders and block the bows and arrows of the approaching car. The corner tower mitigates the disaster of the city corner, which is used to defend against possible attacks from both sides.

The hanging door is hung in the middle of the city gate hole, after the enemy breaks the door and the emergency downstairs, it can be divided into two, each breaks, the urn city is the half-sitting small city outside the main city gate, the city is the same height as the main city, the urn city gate is biased, so that the defenders of the main city can shoot the enemy army attacking the door, and once the enemy army enters the urn city, it will fall into the condescending attack on all sides.

Under the command of Li Feng, all the fortifications and city defense equipment are constantly playing their role, and for a while, although the Hu soldiers are pouring in like a tide, they can't break through the defense line of Cloud City.

The battle for the city wall has been fought for more than half an hour, and the corpses and bones above and below the city are full of blood.

The walls were dyed crimson, and seven of the ten siege ladders had been destroyed, but new ones were being brought into battle.

Tens of thousands of Hu soldiers have been killed and wounded, and the defenders at the head of the city have also suffered hundreds of casualties, most of them are civilians who assist in the defense, they have no leather armor to defend, and they often bleed to death after being shot by arrows.

At this time, the defenders began to use the iron fork to defend the city, which was three zhang long and weighed more than 100 catties, and was specially used to deal with the siege ladder.

The iron fork forked a ladder, more than a dozen people struggled to push outward, the bamboo raft swayed, creaked, began to leave the city wall, upright outward, with a shout of the defenders, the ladder finally turned outward, dozens of Hu soldiers on the ladder let out a miserable scream.

Yan Zha, who was watching the battle not far away, could no longer suppress the anxiety in his heart, the attack on the city gate had no achievements, and the attack on the city wall had heavy casualties, and if he continued to fight like this, even if there were tens of thousands of Hu soldiers, he would not be able to withstand this kind of attrition.

Yan Zha raised his gun and shouted: "Attack the city with me!" ”

With a swing of his spear, he rushed towards the city, and the thousands of soldiers behind saw that the main general was personally in battle, and their morale was immediately high, and they followed Yan Zha to fight bravely.

Seeing that Yan Zha personally led the troops to attack, Zhang Wu also sneered, and did not dissuade him.

Yan Zha rushed up a ladder and climbed seven or eight steps in one breath, and more than a dozen rolling logs and stones at the head of the city fell head-on to him, Yan Zha raised a shield in his left hand, and waved a spear in his right hand, and lifted a piece of boulder rolling wood from the top of his head.

Yan Zha is strong in martial arts, infinite strength, and enjoys a good reputation in Lin Hu, although he seems to be a reckless man, but his chest is very strategic, not only strong in martial arts, but also proficient in strategy, is Lin Hu's famous civil and military general, and won the respect of the family elders.

He knew very well that morale could not be boosted, and in the case of repeated unfavorable attacks by the Hu army, he would definitely be able to boost morale by taking the lead.

Yan Zha, in the blink of an eye, approached the head of the city, when seven or eight spears stabbed at him at once, and he raised his shield to resist, and the spears in his hands stabbed in the cracks, and in a moment five or six defenders were stabbed by him and fell to the ground.

More than a dozen paces away, a brigade commander saw that Yan Zha was extremely brave and unusually brave, and when he saw that he was about to climb the city, he was furious in his heart, shouted loudly, and swung his knife at him.

"Good time!"

Yan Zha shouted, threw away the shield, and waved his gun with both arms to parry, only to hear a loud bang, the sword and gun were in harmony, and the huge force shook the brigade commander's arms numb, and the big knife almost flew out.

The brigade commander was horrified in his heart, and turned around to flee, but unexpectedly, Yan Zha's spear was fast, and his hand flipped over, and the spear 'poof!' The ground pierced the brigade commander's neck and slammed it outward.

The brigade commander let out a muffled scream and flew out of the city, Yan Zha jumped on the city, his spear flew and stabbed, and in an instant, three or four soldiers were stabbed by him, and the soldiers were so frightened that they retreated.

At this time, Xu Ying, Xu Xiong and other fierce generals were fighting in several other directions, and they didn't see the situation here, and immediately, Li Mu also shouted and slashed at Yan Zha.

……

Zhao Fan was arranging for his soldiers to deploy rockets in Wengcheng, which was undoubtedly a sharp weapon against the Hu soldiers who set up ladders.

At this moment, a soldier rushed forward and shouted in horror: "Master Fan, the commander of our brigade has been killed, and the enemy army has attacked the city!" ”

Zhao Fan's face changed greatly, if the Hu soldiers occupied the city, it would mean that Yunzhong City was lost, he roared, turned around and ordered: "Leave five hundred people, and the rest follow me!" ”

He led 500 soldiers to the head of the city, and met another 500 soldiers led by Wang Zhi at the road, and the two armies merged into a thousand, shouting and killing the city.

At the head of the city, the Hu soldiers have rushed up to hundreds of people, and the defenders of the city are fighting fiercely, Zhao Fan stepped on the meteor, galloped over, and saw Li Muzheng and a Hu general fighting fiercely at a glance.

Although Li Mu has practiced martial arts since he was a child, he is still young, how can he be the opponent of Yan Zha, a general who has been famous for a long time, and immediately killed Li Mu and retreated, and was forced to retreat to the city wall, Li Mu was in danger.

It was too late to rush to the rescue, in a hurry, Zhao Fan opened his bow and set up an arrow, and shot an arrow at the enemy general, although Zhao Fan's archery skills are rarely used, but it does not mean that his archery skills are not good, when he was still a hunter, Zhao Fan mainly practiced archery.

Yan Zha was caught off guard by this arrow, an arrow hit Yan Zha's left arm, Yan Zha roared angrily, covered his arm and retreated a few steps, although Yan Zha had been hit by the arrow, but the fierce spirit was not reduced at all, and his face did not change.

Li Mu was saved in the crisis, rolled over, dodged Yan Zha's gun circle, and at this moment, Zhao Fan and his thousands of men shouted and killed into the enemy group.

Zhao Fan's 1,000 subordinates were all elite soldiers trained by Lian Po in the right army of Yunzhong City, all of whom were strong in martial arts and experienced in a hundred battles.

The Hu soldiers were killed and retreated, and they left the city one after another, and went down the city along the ladder, Yan Zha saw that he had fallen short, and he was extremely unwilling in his heart, and roared loudly, wanting to fight with Zhao Fan, but several of his own soldiers forcibly dragged him off the city.

Zhang Wu, who was in the distance, watched Yan Zha come down from the cloud ladder, and a wolf's tooth arrow was pierced into his arm, and immediately snorted coldly: "Waste one!" ”

However, Yan Zha is an important figure in Lin Hu after all, his failure made the Hu army's attack frustrated, morale was low, at this time, Zhang Wu also knew that it was impossible to attack now, and immediately, it was also an order, Hu Da's army finally retreated like a tide, and temporarily gave up the siege.

This siege battle, which lasted nearly an hour, finally ended with the victory of the defenders of Cloudsdale, with thousands of casualties on both sides, including hundreds of dead and countless wounded on the side of Cloudsdale.

As the besieging side of the city, the Hu soldiers were naturally more injured than those in Yunzhong City, and the number of dead was at least thousands, and the wounded were countless.

"The city-guarding equipment made by Gongzi is really powerful, and in today's war, nearly half of the Hu soldiers were killed by the wolf's tooth slap, flying hook and other city-guarding equipment." Between battles, the soldiers rested against the wall, and Xu Jia, Li Mu and others also looked at Zhao Fan, with a look of surprise in their eyes that could not be concealed.

For them, these instruments had indeed never been seen before, and they didn't know how Zhao Fan knew how to make these things.

Hearing this, Zhao Fan also smiled slightly and did not answer.

These city-guarding equipment were slowly invented after the Warring States period, Zhao Fan couldn't say that he had crossed over, so he was silent immediately, seeing this, Xu Jia and the others didn't study it in detail, and it was no surprise that Zhao Fan often came up with these whimsical ideas.

"Xu Jia, can you guess why these Hu people invaded Yunzhong County on such a large scale this time?" Zhao Fan leaned against the city wall and suddenly asked.

Xu Jia stood by the city wall and smiled, and said: "Actually, the reason is very simple, not to mention the Linhu tribe, even if Donghu and Xiongnu don't have a grudge against our Great Zhao, it's just that our Great Zhao is strong and strong, and they dare not speak out." This time they poured out their nests and attacked Yunzhong City, they must have something to rely on, so they sent troops to attack Zhao, I think they have a lot of ambitions, and even if they want to destroy our Great Zhao, they may not have this possibility, after all, the Hu people have always been regarded as barbarians by the countries of the Central Plains, and they must also want to occupy the Central Plains and occupy orthodoxy. ”

Xu Jia's analysis is good, Lin Hu and other ethnic minorities have been peeking at the Central Plains for a long time, but they are forced by the strong force of Dazhao and do not dare to attack.

For this, in fact, Zhao Fan had already thought of it in his heart, but he had always been suspicious and unsure.

"So what do you think Lin Hu is relying on?" Zhao Fan expressed the doubts in his heart.

Xu Jia put his hand on his cheeks and said in a deep voice: "I don't know much about this issue for the time being, after all, we haven't got any reliable information, and everything we say now is just speculation." However, I feel that maybe it is the Linhu, Donghu and Xiongnu tribes that have joined forces to deal with our Great Zhao, or not. ”

Linhu and Donghu, Xiongnu and other tribes, has always intersected, and there are a lot of wars, although on the surface it seems not very harmonious, however, in the Warring States Period, diplomatic relations were complicated, between two countries and tribes, sometimes wars, sometimes joint attacks on other forces, it is also a common thing, so it is not surprising.

Zhao Fan immediately nodded, this possibility does have a surname, because it is impossible to eat Zhao with Lin Hu alone, such a big vassal state, let alone Lin Hu, even if Qin wants to eat it, it is extremely difficult.

This can only be achieved if many forces join forces.

Although this matter is important, it is not very urgent, and now in the absence of any news, it is indeed just a simple speculation, and immediately Zhao Fan also put aside this matter for the time being, and put his main mind on how to defend the city. (To be continued.) )