The thieves approached, and slowly stopped two arrows from the city.

Huang Xiancheng, Xu Liang and others hid in the city tower, and he said with a blank face: "My lord, the number of thieves is a bit large. There are only more than 3,000 of us, and we are still recruits, so the situation is not good. ”

In front of him, the men and horses spread out at the gate of the south city of Zhenyuan, overwhelmingly surrounding the entire city wall in the south.

The number of enemies was also unexpected by Xu Liang, but his own side had rules for defending the territory, and before the battle started, Huang Xiancheng said frustrated words. Xu Liang said dissatisfiedly: "The thieves are under the city, we are in the city, and the siege battle has been difficult to fight since ancient times, isn't Lord Huang scared by a few thieves?" ”

"Not really." Huang Xiancheng's chest straightened, and he said sonorously: "The lower official swears to live and die with Zhenyuan." ”

At this time, a team of fast horses ran out of the ranks of thieves and ran far around the walls of Zhenyuan, and several archers at the head of the city fired several arrows, but they did not hit, but they were also frightened that the fast horses did not dare to get too close to the city wall.

"Don't panic, everyone, wait until you get close before releasing the arrows." The inspection department at the head of the city shouted at the general Wanwen Mountain.

"What are they going to do?" Xu Liang asked.

"My lord, the thieves are inspecting the walls with their horses." Wan Wenshan said.

After a while, the fast horses returned to the bandwagon. One of them jumped off his horse and ran to the position of the commander among the thieves, and reported the situation to the leader of the thieves on the brown horse.

When Xu Liang and the others were observing the thieves, the leader of the thieves, Yizhangqing, was also looking up to observe Xu Liang on the city tower. Yizhang Qing couldn't help frowning when he heard the report of the fast horse captain, and said to a person who looked like a leader on the side: "I didn't expect that this town was not like a straw bag, but he actually knew how to dig ditches and repair walls. ”

The bearded strong man said nonchalantly: "General, there are only a few small ditches, I'm afraid that it will do too much, the general and I have 3,000 men and horses, and I will wait for my Wang Hu to level this small county town." ”

Yizhang Qing shook his head and said, "I think the high walls of the original city of this town are thick, and it is too much of a loss to attack hard." After that, he crossed the horse and crossed the crowd, raised his head and shouted at Xu Liang at the head of the city: "This general is a zhang green in the northwest, dare to ask which adult is on the city tower?" ”

Xu Liang listened, and said loudly: "Xu Liang, the former magistrate of this official town, has also heard of Your Excellency for a long time, but you are a rebellious minister and thief who commits rebellion, and you dare to speak out and call yourself a general!" Haha, it really makes people laugh out of their big teeth. ”

"Hey, that bullshit county at the head of the city, our general is a hero among the people, a well-known hero on the ground in the northwest." Wang Hu, the strong man beside Yizhangqing, held a long knife and scolded in a loud voice: "I advise you to surrender the city as soon as possible, lest Lao Tzu break into the city and kill you without a corpse!" ”

"Hahaha." Xu Liang laughed.

"Lord Xu," Yizhang Qing stopped Wang Hu, and said: "Today, General Ben has 20,000 troops, and the soldiers are coming to the city, how many people are there in your city, and you can't hold it by holding it, so it's better to know each other, and simply surrender General Ben, and General Ben also makes you a deputy general, how about doing it?" ”

"Joke!" Xu Liang laughed and said: "This official is the magistrate of the court, and the official of the seventh grade, how can there be a reason to surrender to a grass coward who is fleeing everywhere." If you want to attack, you will attack, if you want to go, you can go quickly, and there will be less waste of words. ”

Yizhang Qing was annoyed, and after a while, he said without giving up: "Lord Xu, even if you want to be loyal to the court, but you also have to think about the many people in the city, sacrifice the city, and the general will ensure that the autumn will not be committed, otherwise, when the city is broken, there will be no chickens and dogs left in the city!" ”

Xu Liang poked his head out and pointed at the Yizhangqing jumping to his feet and scolded: "Yizhangqing, you are blind, Lao Tzu dug such a deep ditch and built such a high city wall, is it just to surrender to you?" Don't fucking bother, if you want to fight, hurry up, if you don't fight, get out of the way! Grinding and chirping, crooked, Lao Tzu has no time to talk to you here! ”

Yizhang Qing suddenly trembled with anger, since the beginning of the army, there are no less than ten cities conquered, and the prefect of the county is also full of benevolence and righteousness, humble gentlemen, and even the city is full of begging for mercy.

Yizhang Qing turned around and returned to the ranks of thieves and shouted, "Wang Hu, take your people to General Ben and level Zhenyuan City!" ”

Wang Hu Monster screamed, pointed with a long knife, and the rogue monster behind him screamed like the rising tide of the sea, rushing towards the city all over the sky. The first to rush out was a wave of shield-bearers with wooden planks and straw baskets, followed by pikemen and broadswordmen, and several long ladders were carried by a dozen soldiers and rushed forward in the middle of the many infantry, and in an instant, the first wave of shield-bearers rushed to the moat.

"Shoot the arrows!" Ten thousand sentinels shouted, the Ming army at the head of the city shot a burst of arrows, with a few screams under the city wall, Xu Liang looked at it in surprise, only to see the soldiers holding bows and arrows in addition to the dozens of veterans brought out from the Jianchang patrol camp who shot out first, the newly trained archers opened their bows, nervously staring at the flow of people under the city, but they did not release arrows for a long time.

The sentry officer ran forward and scolded in the ear of an archer, "You fucking let out arrows!" ”

"My lord, they are running too fast for me to ......," said the archer, trembling.

The sentry almost fainted, kicked the archer to the ground, drew his sword and shouted at the other recruits who were still aiming hard: "Give me all arrows and shoot them into the pile!" Who will target Lao Tzu and split him again! ”

The archers were frightened, let go, and a rain of arrows shot down the city, knocking dozens of thieves who had rushed to the front to the ground, screaming. Immediately, other Ming troops on the city began to lift the stones and bricks on the city to fight back.

Xu Liang smiled bitterly. The newly recruited more than 1,000 recruits of the Inspection Division were sent to demolish the Han Wang's Annex, and later they were digging ditches and repairing city walls, and there was not much time for real training. This is the first time to go to the battlefield, anything can happen, and now I can only hope that the more than 100 veterans brought by the Jianchang patrol battalion can lead those new recruits.

"Aim and hit." The shouts of the ten thousand sentinels roamed all over the city. "Don't panic, thieves can't come up."

Perhaps inspired by the ten thousand sentinels, the Ming army on the head of the city came down steadily, and began to boldly lift the stones and bricks under their feet and smash them into the crowd under the city.

Xu Liang stared at the long ladders of the thieves under the city, as long as the long ladders could not reach the top of the city, no matter how fierce the thieves below were, it would be useless. I saw that a long staircase rushing to the front was carried to the bottom of the castle and began to be erected. Xu Liang's heart suddenly hung in the air, and he stared at it, eager to move a big stone and smash it to pieces.

Suddenly, the sound of the wind whizzing in his ears, an arrow whistled past Xu Liang's ear and was nailed to the battlements.

"Be careful!" Dai Yingying exclaimed, pressed Xu Liang to the battlements, and shouted, "You don't want to die?" Squat down. ”

Xu Liang heard the sound of whizzing arrows around him, and then a series of screams sounded, and more than a dozen soldiers were injured by arrows in an instant, and one soldier was hit by an arrow in the chest, and fell to Xu Liang not five steps away, bleeding from the corner of his mouth, and struggled to say: "My lord, save my ......"

The thieves began to shoot arrows.

Xu Liangmao was under the battlements and shouted around: "He Cheng, He Cheng!" ”

"My lord, I'm here." He Cheng's tall figure squatted and leaned over.

"You go to the city and organize people to rescue the wounded." Xu Liang shouted.

"Yes." Master He responded, and then retreated from the city tower.

Xu Liang and Dai Yingying retreated to the city tower and said to Huang Daozhou and Mao Yujie who were hiding in the city tower: "Here the official is watching, Lord Huang will go back to the county office, organize people, and prepare medicine and food. Director Mao, you go to the North City Gate and cooperate with Huang's inspection to avoid mistakes. ”

"Yes. Take care, adults. The two of them left in a hurry.

The thieves were still densely throwing arrows at the head of the city, suppressing the Ming army in the city with all their might, the Ming army was suppressed so that they couldn't raise their heads, and occasionally they had the courage to get up and shoot back at the city, most of them were also injured by the arrows, and the casualties of the Ming army in the city continued to increase. The ten thousand sentinels ran to Xu Liang and hissed: "My lord, the thieves' arrows are too fierce, the brothers dare not raise their heads, and the casualties are very large, so it is not a way to go on like this." ”

Xu Liang said fiercely: "How can there be immortals in war." Pass the order down, pay attention to concealment, look at the gap to return fire, and don't let the thief's long ladder stand firm. ”

"Yes." The ten thousand sentinels responded, and hurriedly ran out to command the Ming army to counterattack.

Suddenly, a junior colonel of the inspection department shouted angrily: "What are you doing? Hold it! ”

Xu Liang looked back, only to see a soldier holding another soldier who was hit by an arrow in his shoulder, followed by seven or eight soldiers, walking under the city tower with a cat's waist, but was seen by the junior colonel of the inspection department and drank.

Xu Liang stepped forward and asked, "What's the matter?" ”

The soldier who was hit by the arrow looked at Xu Liang and said with a crying voice: "My lord, I, I was hit by an arrow, and I lost a lot of blood and was about to die, so I have to go down to bandage it." ”

Xu Liang saw that he did have an arrow hanging on his shoulder, and half of his arm was stained red with blood, so he waved them over, looked at the seven soldiers who followed, and asked, "How many of you are not injured, where are you going?" What about your captain? ”

The seven soldiers looked at each other, and one of them cringed and said, "We don't want to fight, we're going home......"

Another trembled with tears: "Even the captain has been shot to death, and we stay in the city, maybe we will also die." ”

"Your Excellency, just let us go......"

Xu Liang suddenly understood that these seven people must have seen someone sacrificed and someone was hit by an arrow, and they were scared and wanted to be deserters. Immediately lowered his face and said, "Nonsense! At present, the enemy is attacking the city at a critical juncture, and you dare to flee from the battle! Go back quickly, this official Nian'er and other first-time offenders, let you go! ”

One of them cried out and cried out, "I don't want to die...... I don't want to fight......"

Xu Liang pulled the man over, pointed to the city and shouted: "Look at the city, there are our fathers, old folks, brothers and sisters!" If we don't guard the city, once the city is broken, our villagers will be killed, and our sisters will become the slaves of the thieves and suffer humiliation! ”

Xu Liang shook the man's shoulder and shouted, "Is it a man?" If so, I'll go back to defend the city! ”

The man whimpered, "But I don't want to die......"

Xu Liang was so angry that he took out his saber from the waist of the guard next to him, stabbed it into the man's lower abdomen, and then flew up to interrupt the man's cry of pain and kicked him to the ground.

The man covered his lower abdomen with his hands, and rolled in pain on the head of the city, blood flowed in his abdomen, and after rolling for a while, the whole person convulsed a few times, and died of exhaustion, and his two frightened eyes bulged in his sockets.

The remaining six people were frightened and looked at Xu Liang in horror.

Xu Liang had a large blood stain in front of his official robe, and the tip of the long knife in his hand was still dripping with blood beads, he raised the knife and drew a straight line at the place where he went down the steps at the head of the city, and shouted angrily with red eyes: "Those who escape from this line will be killed!" ”