"Woo~~Woo~~" "Knock ~~~~~"

"Kill! ~~~~”

Outside the north gate of Qingzhou City, countless Qi soldiers trampled on the ground in the deep trombone sound and fierce and high drum cheering, trampling on the ground and the corpses of the robes killed in the previous charge, and every ten or so people carried a long ladder for a team to launch another charge to the Qingzhou city wall standing in front of them.

There was originally a moat drawn from Yangshui outside Qingzhou City, and it flowed into Yangshui after a large circle around Qingzhou, because the moat water is very difficult to fill in because it is living water, but the Qi army used a huge amount of manpower and cut off the moat and Yangshui after paying a great price, and then used a large amount of firewood and sandbags to fill out a passage that was more than 100 zhang long.

These Qi soldiers who launched the charge rushed towards the city wall behind this section of the passage, and under the cover of the Qi army's arrow array behind them, they quickly rushed to the city wall, braving the rain of stones and arrows on the city head, leaning the ladder against the city wall, and the iron hook at the top of the ladder could firmly hook the battlements at the top of the city wall, and then these Qi troops crawled up quickly along the ladder in front of them under the leadership of the sword and shield soldiers at the beginning.

Obviously, the city has been prepared for a long time, spoonfuls of scorching gold juice continue to fall down the ladder from above, although the sword and shield soldiers in the front line can block some with shields, but there is still some gold juice sprinkled on the bodies of many Qi soldiers, and many soldiers fell down from the ladder with a wail.

However, there were still some Qi soldiers who relied on superb martial arts and good luck to climb the city wall from the ladder, and suddenly a large number of Qi troops climbed the city wall along this ladder, constantly expanding the occupation range for the Qi army on the city wall.

However, these Qi troops often attract a burst of concentrated fire from the crossbow battalion in the city, of course, it is more likely to attract some soldiers equipped with grenades to take care of them, often one or two grenades can make the Qi army rushing up to waste, but the Qi army under the city is still unremittingly climbing and charging towards the city.

Obviously, this time the Qi army's charge still could not capture the city wall, but with the defeat of the Qi army again, the commander of the Qi army outside the city, Hu Luxie, also began to find that the defenders in the city used fewer and fewer gunpowder weapons, and it seemed that there were not many such weapons in the hands of the defenders.

Therefore, under the order of the Hu Lawyers Association, thousands of Qi troops launched hundreds of Qi troops from the rear of the Qi army, and worked day and night on the newly made big killing weapon - a large trebuchet.

These trebuchets are all seven or eight meters high, and the tallest one is even nearly ten meters high, far more than any trebuchet used in any war between the North and the South in the past, and each trebuchet requires hundreds of manpower.

Because Qingzhou City is near the continuous mountains, there is no shortage of stones that can be used by trebuchets, as long as you send someone to mine the stones, of course, even if there are no stones, the Qi army can also demolish the people's houses as attack weapons.

Huge stones were laboriously carried into the sturdy skin of the trebuchet by the Qi soldiers, and then hundreds of strong men behind the trebuchet shouted trumpets and pulled up the thick hemp rope in their hands.

In just the blink of an eye, with the bounce of the trebuchet, the huge stones in the leather bag were launched by the trebuchet several zhang high, and flew towards the Qingzhou city wall nearly a hundred zhang away.

The trebuchet is so far away from the city wall mainly to prevent the use of gunpowder weapons in the city, especially Zheng's rockets to attack trebuchets, although the attack distance of Zheng's rockets is far more than 100 zhang, but when it reaches this distance and then attack the target of trebuchet, it is very inaccurate.

At this time, if Wang Yong still wants to destroy the trebuchet of the Hu Lawyers Association, it will take at least dozens of Zheng rockets on average to destroy one trebuchet, which is very unfavorable for Wang Yong's defending side, not to mention that there are not many rockets or other gunpowder weapons in Qingzhou City after days of fighting.

Most of the stones used by the Qi army are irregular shapes that have not been processed after mining, although they are not as lethal as the circular stone projectiles of Western trebuchets, but this kind of stone is cheaper and more lethal to the enemy.

Dozens of pounds of stones continued to smash on the city wall or the nearby ground, with a loud noise the ground trembled, a large amount of dust flew up in the sky, and for a time it became a smoke screen to cover the attack of the Qi army's infantry army.

It's just that sometimes a few boulders will fall in the charging Qi army formation, smashing one of the unlucky short-lived ghosts in the Qi army formation below, and creating a pile of bloody flesh and mud.

And some of them smashed on the rammed earth city wall, large pieces of soil continued to peel off from the city wall, and even some large stones smashed the originally tough wall buttresses on the city wall, and the flying blue brick fragments were as lethal to the defenders as the arrows of the Qi army.

Wang Yong stood next to the city gate tower that had been destroyed by trebuchets in full armor to observe the dynamics of the Qi army, and the number of Qi troops in his eyes was even larger, which actually gave Wang Yong a feeling of boundlessness, as if the Qi army still had many unused troops after many days of continuous attacks.

Today is the fourteenth day of the first lunar month, and tomorrow is a grand festival in the Haotian God Sect - the Lantern Festival, of course, this is also set up by Wang Ze after drawing on some festivals in the present and future generations, which is different from the Lantern Festival of the Han Dynasty in the past is to worship the Taiyi God, and now the Haotian God Sect classifies the Lantern Festival into the festival of sacrificing Haotian God.

From the end of the month of the previous year to now, the Qi army has been attacking for half a month, and Wang Yong has also held on to Qingzhou City for more than ten days, and I don't know how many soldiers have fallen on this land that once belonged to Boyi in the past.

If it weren't for the fact that Qingzhou City relied on the nearby mountains to add a lot of convenience to the defense of Qingzhou City, the Qi army could only attack on two sides, otherwise the situation in front of them would have been even more serious.

"General!"

At this moment, Wang Yong heard someone shouting to himself, and when he looked back, he saw that it was Han Biao, "General, something is wrong, the Yidu City next to it has been captured by the Qi army!" ”

Wang Yong immediately asked, "How many of our people in Yidu City have been evacuated?" "Yidu is close to Qingzhou City, if Yidu is captured by the Qi army, then Qingzhou City will not be able to hold it for long.

Speaking of Wang Yong, Wang Yong was a little sad, a few days ago, the Yidu Arsenal that had been held for nearly ten days was also conquered by the Qi army, although the craftsmen and the old and weak women and children inside were all evacuated by Wang Yong in advance, but there were still nearly 10,000 defenders killed before, and none of the defenders surrendered to the Qi army.

Han Biao didn't know what Wang Yong was feeling at this time, he said in a low voice: "General, our soldiers in Yidu City have only withdrawn more than 5,000 people, and there are still more than 3,000 people in the city who have not had time to withdraw!" I'm afraid this will be more auspicious! ”

Wang Yong sighed, since the Yidu Arsenal and Yidu City have been lost, then Qingzhou City can no longer be defended, fortunately, Wang Yong has sent away a lot of people and some valuable materials through the mountains adjacent to Qingzhou City.

Up to now, all the people and materials that could be evacuated in Qingzhou City have been withdrawn, and Wang Yong is also thinking in his heart at this time that it is almost time for Kai to retreat from Qingzhou City.

At the beginning, Wang Yong's preparation for strictly guarding the Qingzhou defense line was based on the assumption that the defenders of Jeju and Jibei County could smoothly withdraw to Qingzhou to deploy again, but now that a month has passed, and the more than 100,000 troops who have entered the mountains have not yet had a shadow, and it seems that there is a lot of bad luck.

At this time, another lieutenant ran over and said, "General, our brothers on the northern city wall have found that the Qi army has at least more than 100,000 troops preparing to march towards Gaomi County!" ”

Wang Yong waved his hand and said: "But there is no need to worry about this, now Da Lang has been stationed there in Gaomi County, and I want to come to Gaomi County along the Wei River has been blocked by his operation, and more than 100,000 Qi troops will not be able to attack the defense line of the Wei River for the time being!" ”

It turned out that after Ji Xiang, Ge Wei, Yang Wu and others came back, Wang Yong took advantage of the gap before the war to order Wang Ze and Cheng Hu to return to Gaomi County first to quickly build a second line of defense.

At the same time, Ji Xiang, Yang Wu, Fa Yan, Shi Haiguang and others were also ordered to lead a total of more than 10,000 cavalry under their respective commands to escort tens of thousands of craftsmen and their families in the Yidu Military Workshop, as well as many people around Qingzhou from Yidu, Qingzhou and other places to Gaomi County.

At the beginning, the Qi army, which was not far from Qingzhou City, discovered the retreating people, and also sent a lot of cavalry to harass them, trying to attack the retreating craftsmen and civilians in order to blackmail Wang Yong and others; But what Pi Jinghe didn't expect was that these cavalry were all Pi Jinghe's subordinates, and they were frightened by the power of Zheng's Rocket and Chen Kun's invention of yellow gunpowder by Chen Kun of the Yidu Arsenal under Gaomi City respectively.

Therefore, these Qi cavalry did not seriously carry out the order to intercept the retreating people after all, except for a few groups of cavalry who got slightly closer and were pursued by Shi Haiguang and others, the vast majority of the Qi cavalry even only followed a few miles away from the evacuated people and withdrew, but the retreat of the people and craftsmen everywhere did not delay much.

Benefiting from the impact of the retreat of the craftsmen of the capital military workshop and the people from all over Qingzhou, many people in Qingzhou City and west of the Weihe River heard about the retreat of the people in Qingzhou, and they all followed this tide of people to the east. 20

The last time Pi Jinghe led his army to attack all parts of Qidong, the strategy of slaughtering many villages by fighting to feed the war was implemented and made many people who knew afterwards frightened.

In addition, after the propaganda of many storytellers under Wang Yong, most of the people in Sanqi heard that when the Qi army came to attack the general this time, although it seemed that the Qi army had won a lot of victories, the casualties of the Qi army itself were greater than the losses of the general Wang Yong's side.

In this way, how can these Qi troops be willing to give up, if they want to obtain military merits and rewards, they must kill the good and take the merits and take the heads of the people in exchange for the rewards of the imperial court.

Now as soon as these people heard that hundreds of thousands of Qi troops were marching east from Qingzhou, the people of the entire Sanqi land panicked, especially the people between Qingzhou and Gaomi County, because they happened to be on the offensive route of the Qi army, so they were even more alarmed.

The Qi army has a total strength of four or five hundred thousand, if these officers and soldiers want to obtain combat merits, how can those Qi troops be divided by the number of troops on Wang Yong's side, and if every Qi army soldier can have combat merits, then they can only take the heads of ordinary people to make up the number.

But everyone must know that the remaining people in the prefectures and counties east of Qingzhou, which have not yet been occupied by the Northern Qi Dynasty, are only about 2 million people, and if the Qi army really kills good and risky merits, it will kill a small number of half of the people, which makes the people west of the Weihe River not panic.

As for why the people evacuated to the east of the Wei River with the Wei River as the boundary, it was because Wang Ze had established a defensive line along the Wei River, and even the ice on the Wei River was cut through by soldiers every day, so as to prevent the Qi army from attacking the ice again.

At this time, there were 20,000 reinforcements led by Jiang Chuan from the East China Sea on the Weihe defense line, nearly 30,000 reinforcements from Dongnae County and Changguang County in Gwangju, plus 20,000 troops under Zhao Kun's command who defended Gaomi County in the past, plus many villages and fortresses on the east bank downstream along the Wei River, Wang Ze already had a defense line with nearly 100,000 people.

Along the Wei River downstream, many new forts were built, and more forts continued to be intensified, once these forts were built, they would form a well-protected defensive line, even if they could not stop the attack of the Qi army, but also make the Qi army pay a great price.

Wang Yong used to study with Lu Wen and once heard Lu Wen say: There are three kinds of words in the world that are the most unbelievable, the first is the ancients, the second is the common saying, and the third is the common saying! The most important thing is that people are also in the clouds.

And soldiers lead soldiers to fight, the most taboo is to copy as it is, one plan is indispensable, sometimes you can't fight if you see too much of the art of war!

Therefore, although Wang Yong has also read books, his own way of leading troops to fight is almost entirely based on his past experience, and he never copies and copies things in the art of war.

In this way, although Wang Yong's fighting was mostly a move from a wild road, it made Hu Lawyer's Association and Murong Qi, a famous general from an aristocratic family, a little confused.

Although the Hu Lawyers Association has ordered Murong Yi to lead more than 100,000 Qi troops to attack the second line of defense defended by Wang Ze first, this does not mean that the Hu Lawyers Association does not pay attention to Wang Yong, and there are still more than 200,000 Qi troops outside Qingzhou City today.

The Hu Lawyers Association preferred to capture Wang Yong, the leader of the rebels who had disturbed the Three Qis, with his own hands, but to his disappointment, some soldiers reported that the city was reacting normally that night, but because the Hu Lawyers Association was worried about being deceived, they did not attack at night.

Who knew that when the Qi army launched a surprise attack in the early morning of the next day, they found that Qingzhou City, which had been attacked by them for more than half a month and had paid great losses, had turned into an empty city, and there was nothing left in it except for a very small number of people who were unwilling to leave.

When the Hu Lawyers Association was so angry in Qingzhou City, in the mountains south of Qingzhou, Wang Yong had caught up with Liu Xin, a civil official who took the lead in leading the team away, and after marching in the middle of the night, Wang Yong was already nearly a hundred miles away from Qingzhou City.

Wang Yong is still very familiar with the road in front of him, he has been here a few times when he came to invite Liu Xin out of the mountain this spring, although the scenery in winter and spring is very different, but he will not get lost.

"Mr. Xin Shan, why don't you organize the evacuation of the people in your cottage, otherwise I'm afraid that the Qi army will chase us along the way we came, and they will retaliate against the cottage when the time comes!" At this time, Wang Yong and Liu Xin were not far from the cottage left by Liu Xin's old father.

Liu Xin looked at the continuous peaks in the distance, and could vaguely see a towering watchtower, and seemed to be a little moved at first, but finally shook his head and said: "Forget the prince, the cottage left by my father is also considered to be a dangerous terrain, and the Qi army may not be easy to capture, and now that the snow is closing the mountain, they may not be willing to follow us!" ”

Wang Yong also knew that even if Liu Xin, his father, and grandfather were the leaders of the cottage, but now in the face of his downcast, those people in the cottage would not just leave everything and leave with him.

At this time, a loud voice on the side of the road in front of him shouted: "Brothers, cheer up, dozens of miles further is Yishan, we will be safe after crossing Yishan!" ”

"General, let's cross Yishan and it will be Nanqingzhou, isn't there still Dugu Yongye's army stationed there? Wouldn't it be terrible if we were to be stopped from advancing in Nanqingzhou? ”

Wang Yong looked at the advancing team in front of him, and smiled at Liu Xin: "Dugu Yongye has fled back to Northern Xuzhou after we beat almost all the troops last time, as for Southern Qingzhou, there are not many troops stationed at all, although it will be difficult to capture Southern Qingzhou, but these defenders will not dare to go out of the city to pursue!" ”

Wang Yong's plan is very clear, from Qingzhou City along the Mi River in front of him to the south is the continuous mountain range, up the river, at the junction of Yishan and Lushan is the watershed between the Mi River and Yishui, Wang Yong can follow the Yishui at this time to bypass the South Qingzhou through the Guanshuai Guancheng into Jiaozhou, so that the Qi army can no longer stop the retreat of Wang Yong's army.

It didn't take long for the army to begin to pass under Liu Xin's cottage mountain, and Wang Yong said to Liu Xin, who was staring at the cottage: "Mr. Xinshan, did you really decide not to go and see it?" ”

Liu Xin shook his head and said: "It's better not to go, there will be some incidents when the time comes, I'm afraid that once I return to the cottage, I won't be willing to leave!" Let's wait for the next time we call them back to Qingzhou! ”

After saying that, Liu Xin left with the head of the army without looking back, and after the people on the cottage and the leader of the village learned the news and went down the mountain, Liu Xin had already left the road for one or twenty miles; Although many people caught up with the army and begged Liu Xin to stay, in the end Liu Xin decided to follow Wang Yong.

Wang Yong looked at the dozen or so young men who followed Liu Xin, and at first glance they were good men who practiced martial arts all year round.

"Mr. Xin Shan, it's different with you here, we haven't even encountered a single roadblock robbery!" As the mountain road becomes steeper and more difficult to walk, the highest point of Yishan Mountain is already in sight, and it seems that it is not far from the watershed.

Although Liu Xin is a scribe, he is also a martial artist, and his body is not comparable to the weak scholars of the Ming and Qing dynasties, so at this time Liu Xin was only slightly panting, and when he heard Wang Yong's words of chasing himself, he just smiled and said: "The prince has a good reputation, although the cottage has some friendship with many mountains here, but these people are afraid that the most important thing is to fear the monarch and the tiger!" ”

Although Liu Xin said so, Wang Yong still knew in his heart that although Liu Xin's father and ancestors had some friendship with the nearby bandits for three generations, the most important thing was Liu Xin's friendship with these mountain forces, and even the Qi army led by Dugu Yongye had bandits to grab grain, not to mention his own army.

It is precisely because the bandits in the vicinity of hundreds of miles will give Liu Xin face, so this time Wang Yong's army will march so easily, but Wang Yong also encountered many people who fell behind during the retreat in the previous batches along the way, which added a lot of burdens to the advance of the army.

When crossing the watershed at the highest point of Yishan Mountain, Wang Yong's army still had a lot of effort, because a few days ago there was another snow in the mountain, and the watershed was covered with a layer of snow that was not too thin, and the danger increased a lot, and the army marched carefully.

In the end, Wang Yong came up with an idea to connect the ropes carried by all the sergeants of each army, and then each soldier tied a safety rope to his body, so that the army finally crossed Yishan with the rope.

At this time, Wang Yong couldn't help but be glad that he had evacuated the people in Qingzhou City in advance, otherwise the road would be even more impassable after the snow, but this time the cavalry who set off with the team lost a lot of war horses.

Because the army led by Wang Yong crossed the mountain in the middle, when he crossed the Yishan Mountain, which was very high in the entire Sanqi, suddenly Fa Yan came and said: "General, there is news from the scouts in front that there is an army attacking Nanqingzhou City, which is only defended by thousands of people, and it looks like it is our people!" ”

"What? Our people? Wang Yong was taken aback.