The head of the city of Shizhou Mansion.

Under the protection of a group of guards, Liu Quan, the city guard, went to the city to inspect the defense arrangement, and by the way, checked the movements of the Songjiang army outside the city. In the past half a month, since the Songjiang army has not launched an attack on the city, the soldiers defending the city seem quite relaxed. But as the lord of a city, Liu Quan was not so relaxed, and he looked a lot haggard than half a month ago.

For no other reason, Liu Quan felt a deep pressure.

When the black-clothed guards formulated a battle plan with him before, it was based on the premise that after the Songjiang army was provoked, they would attack the city on a large scale without decent siege weapons. If the Songjiang army underestimated the enemy, they could also wait for the opportunity to attack the camp at night, and even burn the grain and grass of the Songjiang army with a small group of elite cavalry.

However, the calmness and prudence of the commander of the Songjiang Army made this plan fail.

In addition, the Blackguards had promised to wreak havoc in other parts of Tiannan County. As long as it is delayed for a little longer, the forces of Changlu and Nanfeng will spontaneously organize troops to resist the Songjiang army. But the fact is that although there was indeed a slight disturbance in the locality, it all dissipated under the strong pressure of the Matsue army. Aside from making the form a little nervous, it did not have any effect on the rule of the Matsue army.

This made Liu Quan very uneasy.

He knew very well that with the strength of Shizhou Mansion and a city, it was categorically impossible to fight against the behemoth of the Songjiang Army. And there are also clouds in the art of war, and if you hold it for a long time, you will lose. For this reason, Liu Quan did not urge the black-clothed guards to take action, but the other party said that only if the Shizhou Mansion started a war, and showed that it could drag down the Songjiang army and even make the Songjiang army suffer a small setback, the black-clothed guards would be able to launch it in other places.

It doesn't sound unreasonable, but Liu Quan always has some doubts and uneasiness in his heart.

Is the Black Guard's words really credible?

Looking at the large number of city guards that arrived outside the city yesterday, Liu Quan stood at the head of the city for a moment of silence, and let out a sigh after half a sound.

"Look, my lord, the Songjiang Army is moving!"

Before the sigh fell, the sharp-eyed guards beside him noticed the abnormality. While looking in the direction of the military camp of the Songjiang Army, he shouted. Liu Quan was clever, and quickly leaned on the city wall to look over. Sure enough, after the Songjiang army obtained a large number of siege equipment yesterday, it finally lost its patience and came out of the camp and pressed towards the city of Shizhoufu.

Counting the 2,000 troops escorting siege equipment, the number of Songjiang troops under Shizhou Mansion once again exceeded 10,000!

The banners were unfurled, the war drums were rumbling, the neat footsteps of tens of thousands of Songjiang troops, the bright sword light, and the momentum exuded by the military formation made the defenders of Shizhou Mansion who had been comfortable for half a month quickly panic.

"Don't squat, get up for Lao Tzu! The Matsue Army is here! ”

The captain of the Shizhou Prefecture City Defense Battalion picked up the scabbard and slapped the lazy soldiers squatting on the top of the city one by one, and his eyebrows were a little panicked.

"Alert! Guard! ”

The Shizhou Mansion group training, which was coaxed by Shizhou Mansion and spontaneously responded to the call, was also loudly greeting his subordinates.

After panicking for a while, order was basically restored at the head of Shizhou Mansion City, and the soldiers of all departments were in place. I have to say that a group of capable personnel sent by the black guards helped a lot in this. If it weren't for them, with the level of Shizhou Mansion's own troops, I am afraid it would take even longer.

Fortunately, preparing for a siege is much more complicated than defending a city. It was not until a quarter of an hour after the defenders of Shizhou Mansion were in position that the Songjiang army finally advanced to 300 paces away from the city.

As the flag waved, the drumming stopped for a moment, and the army quickly stopped.

The siege equipment that was delivered yesterday was pushed to the front of the battle by the engineers. Subsequently, a large number of soldiers pushed the special carts of the Songjiang Army, loaded the soil bags filled with soil, and began the preliminary river filling operation.

The defenders at the head of the city, of course, knew the importance of the moat and began to fight back in a hurry.

The crossbow bolts were the first to fire, but unfortunately they didn't work well. The Songjiang Army has experienced many sieges of the city, and with Chen Wu here, it has long summarized and promoted a set of experience. The soldiers' stations are scattered, and there are carts that have not been used by other armies, and the speed is much faster than the anti-soil bag. A round of crossbow arrows killed and wounded only four or five soldiers.

As the distance closes, the Treult joins the fray to a slightly better effect.

Dense stone bullets are a great threat to soldiers. However, the defenders of the city head only attacked for one round before they saw the Songjiang army continue to retreat a hundred steps back and start attacking the city head to cover the river filling operation of their own soldiers.

Chen Wu's torsion stone throwing machine, design drawings and structure are from the game. After several improvements, the accuracy is somewhat higher than the Empire's existing stone throwers. Coupled with the simple ranging method provided by Chen Wu, the threat to the defenders is still very great. After only two rounds of throwing, a large torsion stone thrower threw a hundred-pound stone block, destroying one of the defenders' stone throwers. A soldier who was standing too close next to him and didn't have time to dodge was immediately smashed by the bouncing stones, and his flesh and blood were blurred, and he was instantly exhausted!

Of course, there was a bit of luck in this, but it dealt a big blow to the morale of the defenders of Shizhou Mansion.

Even more terrifying for the defenders was still to come.

With the filling of the moat and the blow of the stone thrower and bed crossbow to the head of the city, the reinforcement of 500 foot archers also joined the battle.

As Gao Yueli's command was given, the infantry archers launched the first round of throwing.

A standard bow and arrow of one stone, even across the moat, still has considerable lethality against the defenders at the head of the city.

Under the horrified gaze of the defenders, 500 arrows fell on the city like a torrential rain. Although most of them were shot in the air, and many even fell into the city, no less than 20 soldiers were still wounded and killed within the range of the rain of arrows. For a while, the screams were repeated!

"What about our archers? Fight back! ”

Liu Quan, who was surrounded and protected by his guards, couldn't help but be shocked when he saw this scene, and urged his subordinates again and again.

Whether it was his original impression or the rhetoric that the black-clothed guards kept instilling in him, Liu Quan had an impression: that is, the Songjiang Army was a group of rebels, not much stronger than the rabble. Most of the previous victories were a matter of luck and cunning, and the real strength was not stronger than theirs. But after seeing the current attack of the Matsue army with his own eyes, he vaguely realized that he was probably wrong.

He overestimated the strength of his own side, and also underestimated the strength of the Matsue army!

However, now that the war has come, it is too late to say anything.

The defenders of Shizhou Mansion, including a group of men that the black-clothed guards managed to help, did have some archers. In the regimental training of the conscription to defend the city, there were also a small number of local hunters. But on the whole, both in terms of numbers and archery, they were far from being able to compare with the 500-foot archers of the Songjiang army, even if they had the advantage of defending the city, and they were condescending and protected by the city walls.

After the infantry archers of the Songjiang Army fired several rounds in a row, the archers of Shizhou Prefecture launched a weak counterattack.

Compared with the rain of arrows of the Songjiang army, the attacks from the city were sparse and extremely weak. You must know that in the Songjiang Army's drills, in the battle of the infantry archers, all of them are protected by the infantry with shields. The attack of the archers of Shizhou Mansion not only did not have any effect, but instead brought disaster to themselves!

In just half a day, Shizhou Mansion's counterattack force was suppressed by the Songjiang Army and fell into an absolute disadvantage.

Seeing this scene, Mo Guohao, who was watching the battle, couldn't help nodding secretly.

Unlike the subordinates of Yuan Liang, the second division of the Songjiang Army, who was responsible for filling the river, his command was adapted from the original Dengzhou official army. After the baptism of the battle with Tiannan, personnel transfers, and recent intensive training, his strength has improved a lot compared to before. It may still be inferior to the main battle force of the Empire, but it is definitely the best among the second-rate local troops. At this moment, the miscellaneous defenders of Shizhou Mansion were obviously not opponents, and they were almost no longer able to resist by the Songjiang Army, which was a whole grade higher.

The entire river reclamation operation was completed in less than a day and a half.

After calculation, the Songjiang army suffered less than 200 casualties. The defending side, which was supposed to make a lot of money, was suppressed by a large number of infantry archers of the Songjiang army, but it paid more casualties than the besieging side, and it was much more!

The astonishing losses made the Songjiang army fall into a huge panic before the Songjiang army really attacked the city.

At the request of the black-clothed guards, Liu Quan, the city guard of Shizhou Mansion, set up two supervision teams, and took turns to urge the soldiers.

But everyone knows that the defense of Shizhou Mansion will not last long.

Frightened, Liu Quan personally found Connande and his black-clothed friend. got the other party's assurance, "The sea ships in Quanzhou Port are ready, and once the city is broken, they will take Liu Quan to leave safely", Liu Quan was finally a little more steady. While continuing to urge the soldiers to defend the city, he secretly accelerated the packing of his belongings and prepared to evacuate at any time.

The Songjiang Army obviously didn't give Liu Quan much time to pack up his things, and the patience of the previous half a month had already made the soldiers' fighting spirit burst. After the completion of the river reclamation, after only half a day's rest, the Songjiang army launched a fierce attack early the next morning.

As many as forty ladders are lined up, from west to east, like a long winding dragon!

There was no temptation, and the main force was exhausted from the beginning!

The defenders of Shizhou Mansion obviously did not expect the Songjiang Army's offensive to be so fierce, and it was more or less unexpected. So much so that when the unprecedented offensive began, the defenders were stunned for a few minutes before they began to adjust. The staggering casualties of the previous two days, coupled with the time delayed, made the offensive of the Matsue army unusually smooth.

At a small price, they jumped onto the city wall with their swords against the logs and stones that had been thrown down from the city's heads, and fought with the defenders.

"It's easier than you think."

Shi Yuanliang's expression was quite relaxed, and while looking up at the city, he casually made a bet with Mo Guohao, who was presiding over the siege: Within a week, Shizhou Mansion will be broken!

However, in response to him, it was Mo Guohao's snort: "According to this situation, why take a week." ”

He is sure that he will take Shizhou in five days!