"How could it be a rumor, and if it was, why would a million reinforcements be sent back to the rescue? Having said that, haven't you noticed that the amount of military rations we eat now is not as sufficient as before? It seemed to be questioned and felt faceless, and the soldier who spoke before retorted vigorously.

"Yes, yes, one of my fellow villagers was in the room, and he said that the military rations brought were not enough. He also said that this is just the beginning, and I am afraid that in the future, our rations will be halved. ”

"What? It will be halved, and it will soon enter winter, if you can't eat enough, how can you defend the city. Upon hearing this, the nearby Rus' soldiers shouted one after another.

Being a soldier eats food, which is an important reason why they join the army.

A person can have ideals and dreams. But the premise of achieving these is to eat well first, otherwise, even the stomach problem will not be solved, and everything is just nonsense.

"Disperse, disperse, there's a patrol coming." The organic Rose soldiers noticed that someone was coming and hurriedly spoke. Immediately, dozens of Rus' soldiers dispersed. But before long, they will be back together, and the number will grow.

Good things don't go out, but bad things spread thousands of miles. Stories like this are never a secret in the army, especially when the soldiers find out that their rations have indeed been reduced, and the rumor spreads more and more.

As soon as I thought that it would be a problem to be a soldier and even fill my stomach, some smart people began to think about the future. After all, when they can't even eat, it is simply unrealistic to point to them to fight with their lives.

And this rumor is the result of Zhang Chao finding the person in charge of Tianyan.

Huang Zhong's actions weakened Rus's city defense by half. It is impossible for Zhang Chao not to seize this opportunity. And in order to have a better chance of victory in the First World War, he still decided to shake the morale of the Rus soldiers first.

A strong army, as long as the morale of the army is unstable, it will not be able to exert their strongest combat power, and the probability of such victory will increase by more than one percent. It's just that even Zhang Chao didn't expect that he just wanted to use rumors to shake the other party's military heart at the earliest, but the two princes did cooperate with them so much that they really reduced the soldiers' rations, which made the rumors become true, and the situation became more and more favorable to him.

To say that Ross is also a big country and a strong country, even if Huang Zhong robbed him of some food, it is not really broken, but the problem is that no one knows when the army of the Celestial Empire will retreat. Then again, even if Zhang Chao retreats, the two princes will still have to face a battle, so food is extremely important.

In order to plan for the long term, the two princes invariably reduced the soldiers' rations, which was just for the sake of fighting a protracted war. But I never thought that Zhang Chao took advantage of the loophole, and the rumors came out, which greatly shook the morale of the Rus soldiers defending the city, which was something that the two princes never expected.

Rumors were now spreading about the Rus' army defending the city because of the food problem, and the matter was soon known to the generals above them. In order to stabilize the morale of the army, the generals have made certain measures, such as finding the soldiers who spread the rumors and giving them heavy punishments, and even killing hundreds of people alone, but this still can't curb the spread of rumors, on the contrary, because so many soldiers died, the rumors are even stronger.

The news came back to Zhang Chao, his eyes were shining, the time was ripe, and it was time to attack.

At the beginning of November, it was still green autumn in the Central Plains, but in the Rus' country, because of the climate, it was extremely cold in the morning and evening, and even some soldiers had to wear heavy clothes to prepare for the cold.

On this morning, on the tower of Pahan City, the Rus soldiers were napping back to back, and they were also warming each other. But I don't know who it is, so I suddenly got up and said, "It's not good, the army of the Celestial Empire is going to attack the city." ”

The soldier stood up suddenly, and was caught off guard, and some of the Rus' soldiers immediately fell to the ground. Originally, everyone was back to back, but now that there is an empty seat in the middle, it is no wonder that there is confusion.

And this confusion was exacerbated by the shouts of the soldiers. Every soldier who heard the news wanted to get up and see what was going on, so you got up and I got up, and for a while, no one could stand up, and the chaos was even greater.

This chaos lasted for a long time, and finally when all the soldiers stood up and stood on the city wall, what they saw was the scene of the Celestial Empire army gathering under the city.

For this attack, Zhang Chao has secretly prepared for a long time, so this formation naturally can't be too weak. Of course, more importantly, when the army came to the city, there were ten more black-clothed cannons in front of the Celestial Empire army.

These cannons were transported from the rear with great effort and effort, and they were also Zhang Chao's killer weapon for this siege.

The Rus' kingdom had a large number of mountains, which made them never skimpy on the use of stones when building their cities, so their cities were stronger than those of the Celestial Empire. In particular, Pahan City, because it is the last line of defense of Prince Ivan, has been strengthened for a period of time after experiencing Huang Zhong's siege, which can be described as a castle with stone walls.

Just ten black-clothed cannons may not be able to control the city, but Zhang Chao still decided to do so, because he needed a momentum, and the effect of black-clothed cannons was exactly what he needed.

In peacetime, there were many Rus' troops in the city, and the morale was high, and even the use of artillery bombardment would have played a very small role. But now it's different, the original General Yesenin in the city withdrew with 500,000 troops, leaving only 500,000 of General Pudding.

The cannons were neatly placed, the infantry army was also carrying ladders to prepare for the siege, the cavalry got on their horses, and as long as they blew up a gap, they would rush in, Zhang Chao knew that everything was ready, and it was time to launch a final onslaught.

The army of the Celestial Empire suddenly appeared outside the city, posing as if they were going to attack the city, and the general Pudding and Lord Terekin in the city also quickly got the news, and immediately led their troops straight to the castle tower.

The last time the Celestial Empire army attacked the city happened more than a month ago, and after such a long time, everyone thought that they were going to give up, after all, the current weather was not suitable for the army to fight, so when they heard that the Celestial Empire army was approaching the city, the two of them kept muttering in their hearts.

But it wasn't until the two of them got up to the city tower under the protection of their own soldiers and saw that the front of the city was full of black and oppressive Celestial Empire troops, they were still shocked.

From a distance above the city tower, the army of the Celestial Empire is simply boundless, and there is no end in sight, which is clearly the army of the Celestial Empire pouring out.

"Quick, blow the assembly trumpet, this is the enemy is about to launch a general attack." At this time, General Pudding also knew the seriousness of the matter, originally he thought that the other party was testing himself, but now it seems that this is not the case at all.

The Celestial Empire army, which had arrived for nearly half an hour, had already made preparations, and at this moment, when they saw that the Rus army on the city tower was moving in a panic, Zhang Chao, who was wearing an imperial robe of the Chinese army, couldn't help but sneer. "It's preparing now, it's too late. Come on, fire artillery, siege the city! ”

As soon as Chrysostom opened, the cannons fired in unison.

The ten black-clothed cannons that had already adjusted their targets fired violently at the south gate of Pahan City, and in cooperation with them, the infantry of the Celestial Empire rushed forward with cloud ladders.

The Celestial Empire army began to attack the city, and the sound of the cannons that shook the sky violently shook the hearts of the people.

It was the first time for the Rus soldiers to see the power of this huge cannon, and they were a little dumbfounded for a while. Originally, the power of explosives had already made them feel scared, but they didn't expect that the Celestial Empire had advanced weapons that were more powerful than explosives, and at this moment, the fighting spirit in the hearts of many soldiers began to waver, and they didn't know if they would be the opponent of this kind of artillery.

The Celestial Empire infantry, risking being shot by bows and arrows, began to siege the city. With the help of the ladder, he began to climb to the top of the castle tower.

In such a siege battle, the besieging side must pay a heavier price, just like now, as the Rus soldiers began to shoot arrows to counterattack, sleepers, boulders were thrown from under the city tower one by one, and countless Celestial Empire infantry were smashed into the air and died.

But for these, there is indeed no soldier of the Celestial Empire retreating, because they know that the emperor is watching him behind him, this is the best performance, after saying that, in this case, there is no military order to retreat, that is a dead end, even if he dies, he does not even have a title.

The attack of the infantry of the Celestial Empire was very fast, and under the attack of one force, finally some soldiers rushed to the city tower and began to engage in hand-to-hand combat with the Rus soldiers, hand-to-hand combat, and for a time blood flew everywhere, and corpses were everywhere.

Zhang Chao now has six road armies in his hands, including two cavalry, totaling nearly one million troops. plus the 200,000 men of the First Army and the 50,000 men of the Zhang family army he brought, a total of 1,250,000 troops. It is twice the strength of the general Pudding on the defending side.

He could afford such a loss as a siege for a while. But it is not a long-term solution, fortunately, the infantry borrowed the ladder to enter the city is just a cover, and the real killer is to break the city gate and lead the cavalry to attack.

Ten black-clad cannons fired shells. For each shot, several soldiers were reloaded, and the process took at least half an hour to complete, which seemed like a cumbersome process, but it was a very advanced technique at the time.