Seeing that the army suffered more and more casualties under the city, and was afraid that they would all be stoned to death by stone bullets if they dragged it on, Qian Yu gritted his teeth and ordered to stop firing crossbow arrows, grabbed the drum and beat the war drum in person, and the Wu Yue soldiers who were lying on the cloud ladder jumped on the city wall one after another, and the soldiers below also ignored the stone bullets in the sky, and forcibly climbed up with horizontal knives.

As soon as the Song army's crossbow arrows stopped, the crossbowmen of the Shenwei Army rushed out of the road, and the crossbow arrows were continuously fired at all the battlements with ladders in groups of three, and the Wu Yue soldiers who rushed to the city were shot to the ground almost before they could see the faces of the other party. Taking this opportunity, the soldiers defending the city joined forces to carry the ladders down the city with thick hooks.

After a day's fighting, the Wu Yue army that attacked from all sides was killed and wounded, and thousands of corpses were left under the city of Changzhou. was still killed by the defenders, and Ding Deyu was shot with an arrow in the arm.

Volume 36 is like a dream, and the bird cries in the air, Chapter 49, attacking and defending

Although the attack was frustrated during the day, that night, the combined forces of the Great Song Dynasty and Wu Yue lit countless bonfires outside the city, bed crossbows and catapults continued to throw huge crossbow arrows and stones into the city, and the Wu Yue army at the city gates on all sides was constantly trying to grab the city wall.

"I've been competing with these Hang Tietou for so many years, and it's the first time I've met someone who works so hard in a war. Zheng Jian rubbed his red eyes. At midnight, the shouts of the Song-Wu coalition army did not weaken at all, but the Tang soldiers on the head of the city were exhausted, and from a distance, the torches of the Song army under the city seemed to be full of stars.

This is the way the enemy is tired. Passing my command, the soldiers were divided into three teams and took turns to rest. Each city gate must arrange 500 elites to stand by in the Yongdao and arrow towers, and kill the Song army who have ascended the city at any time. Xiao Jiu patted the battlements of the city wall, frowned and raised his palm, and found that there were a lot of black blood clots, and he looked down to see that there were also a lot of thick pools of blood on the ground.

"During the day, a group of Song troops landed here, and the ladder was broken by a trebuchet and could not retreat, so they relied on the battlements to resist stubbornly, and finally were all shot to death here by our crossbowmen. Zheng Jian hurriedly explained.

"The battlefield needs to be cleaned up in time, and it must not affect the activities of our soldiers in the city. Xiao Jiu nodded approvingly, and said again. He had already completed a circle along the four walls, and the enemy's offensive was not violent, and it seemed that he only hoped to maintain a certain siege pressure at night, so that the defenders would not get the necessary rest.

In the city, the strong men who did not take turns to rest were collecting stones that the Song army had thrown into the city during the day, and these things were selected and thrown back the next day. A few houses that had been set on fire during the day could no longer be extinguished, so the strong men had to tear down several surrounding houses together, and wait for everything that could be burned in the middle to be burned before cleaning up the fire.

"Oh, isn't this my father's tombstone?" a young man shouted with a crying voice, and the companion next to him leaned over to look, only to see that a piece and a half of the stone tablet still had a few Yin characters written "First Test Cai Rolling", but the lower half was not known where it was thrown. Although the upper half of the tombstone is covered with moss, the fracture is still new.

"Daddy, the child is powerless to protect the ancestral tomb, because it is unfilial!" The young man cried, and the partner next to him kept persuading. Xiao Jiu, who was passing by with a team of soldiers, heard his cry, frowned, and said sharply: "A good man should be happy and revenge, if you cry so much, will the enemies outside the city be missing a single hair?"

The young man saw that this officer was surrounded by dozens of guards, domineering, and he was a little frightened for a while, and he was speechless, Xiao Jiu saw that he looked angry, and asked loudly: "What is your name?"

The young man stopped his sorrowful voice and replied with sobs: "The villain's surname is Cai, and his single name is a simplified character, and the word Guodong." In a private school, I also learned archery with my husband, and I can shoot a stone and a half a bow. ”

"If you can draw a bow and shoot arrows, then you will go to the city tomorrow, you look for the right army of Shenwei, and say that Xiao Jiu will let you serve in front of the army. Xiao Jiu said loudly, with a kind of awe-inspiring obedience between his words, and after speaking, he walked forward with his soldiers.

The young man named Cai Jian was stunned in the local area, and the companion next to him said softly: "Xiao Cai, these things are okay, you have been arrested." ”

This time Cai Jian came back to his senses, gritted his teeth and said: "Destroy the tomb of my ancestors, how can I endure this hatred, the military man is right, instead of crying here, it is better to go to the city and kill a few dog mongrels." After speaking, he didn't care about the labor he was doing, solemnly took his father's tombstone home and put it away, and went to the Shenwei military camp under the south gate.

On the second day, the Wu Yue soldiers, who had harassed the defenders in turn, returned to the camp to rest, and the Song army and Wu Yue army, who had slept all night last night, redoubled their siege of the city. Almost half of the stone bullets originally prepared were used up, and the stone steps, grinding plates, stone piles, tombstones and other objects thrown into the city also increased.

Changzhou is a place where soldiers must fight since ancient times, the folk customs are fierce, in addition to the state city, there are Lu Fort, Wu Fort in the east, there are Dagu Fort and Xiaogu Fort in the west, there are Square Fort and Round Fort in the south, there are more than a dozen fortresses such as Han Fort and Youshou Fort in the north, all of which are the places where the local gentry and villagers take refuge. After the Song army marched to the southeast and attacked the border of Changzhou, people from all directions poured into these forts to take refuge. These people did not have any ill feelings towards the Song army, but they hated Wu Yue's army deeply, because Wu Yue and the Tang State were at war all the year round, and from time to time they would send troops into the Changzhou territory to burn and loot everywhere.

The Song-Wu coalition army attacked Changzhou hard, and the Wu and Yue armies, who had retreated to rest, started the idea of surrounding dock forts. How the volunteers and villagers were the opponents of the officers and soldiers with all kinds of siege equipment. After several closed dock forts were broken, not only did they rob things, but they also burned the whole village. Immediately, the other dock forts were frightened like frightened birds.

"Dad, do you really want to let those animals in?" A young man in a white robe and a golden knife at his waist knelt on the ground, his eyes red.

"Tan'er, if it's not that my father is cowardly, haven't you seen the fate of the big aunt fort and the little aunt fort closed the door and not accepted the army? is a well-known wealthy businessman in Changzhou, he is almost seventy years old this year, and the most reassuring thing is his only son Gu Tan, who is old and strong, and he really doesn't want the conflict with the Song army to bury the deep-rooted Gu family.

"Father!" Gu Tan was still arguing, but Gu Shou had already closed his eyes and waved his hand: "You go down, tell Zhuang Ding, open the door to welcome Wang Shi." Every family is honest at home, and whatever they want, they let it go. ”

The heavy gate of Gujiawu creaked open, and Wu Yuejun, who had been waiting impatiently outside, rushed in......

The offensive and defensive battle at the head of the city continued, the city of Changzhou was not large, the circumference was only twenty miles, but the city wall was high and thick, there was a water source in the city, there was a deep moat, and the surrounding area was flat. In military science, such a city is called Xiongcheng, which is the easiest to defend and difficult to attack. In view of the fact that there was no shortage of food in the city, when Xiao Jiu shrank all the defenders in the small cities in all directions into Changzhou, there were tens of thousands of Southern Tang soldiers in the small Changzhou city. When the Song army was determined to take Changzhou within ten days, the battlements of Changzhou became a veritable meat grinder.

The five-day siege battle day and night made both sides inside and outside Changzhou suffer heavy casualties, Xiao Jiu is not a person who pays attention to benevolence, righteousness and morality, the Song soldiers accumulated corpses under the city, but as long as he saw a team to collect corpses, he not only did not let them go according to the convention, but concentrated crossbow arrows to shoot, and the Song army suffered several losses, so he had to give up collecting corpses. Outside the city, the corpses are all over the field, although it is the early spring weather, the dead bodies of more than a day have begun to emit a foul smell, after the siege battle enters the fifth day, the Song soldiers who carry the ladder and push the crashed car must all use soaked cloth strips to strangle their mouths and noses before they can march.

The situation in the city was similar, with more than 1,000 casualties every day, and the number of people who died from Song army's stone bullets and crossbow arrows on the city walls was much higher than those who died in hand-to-hand combat during hand-to-hand combat. Now the Tang army defending the city has learned the flag language of watching the Song army to command the arrows, as long as the flag changes, the soldiers immediately run from the battlements back to the corridor to hide. Rao is like this, and there is also a situation where Yongdao happened to be hit by a boulder, and the hiding soldiers were crushed to death at once. Sometimes the Song army forcibly landed on the city regardless of the stone bullets and giant crossbows they launched in the sky, and Xiao Jiu, Zheng Jian and other generals had to urge the soldiers to brave the stone bullets and arrows to go to the city wall to defend, and at this time, the hundred-man team that went up often had less than half of them left.

Xiao Jiu no longer has the demeanor of the commander of the right army of the Divine Guard, and now he has demoted himself to the captain of the firefight, leading the right army to select five hundred elites, where the city wall is tight, where to rescue. The commanders of several other Divine Guards have all filled in the walls as the backbone. The other city defense troops could not withstand the brutal battle for five days and five nights in a row, and once a lieutenant wanted to open the city gate with his surviving 300 men to surrender to the Song army, but he was killed by the red-eyed Xiongjie army as the Tang army who counterattacked the city and shot him into a hedgehog. Xiao Jiu beheaded all the more than 100 people who ran back in the center of the city to set an example. Rao was like this, he was still not at ease, and all the nine city gates were guarded by people from the right army.