In Heyang Guancheng, Xue Guyan had a cold look on his face, pointed at several soldiers who were tied to the torture rack and shouted angrily, "Beat, beat me hard!" Sixty scepters per man, not a single blow shall be missed!"

As the soldiers swung their canes in front of them, several tortured people immediately couldn't bear the pain and screamed for mercy, but Xue Guyan turned a deaf ear to this, looked around at the soldiers around him and continued to say in a deep voice: "The thief army is close at hand, and a fierce battle can happen at any time. If anyone in the city refrains from drinking again, the first offender shall be punished, and the second offender shall be killed."

He himself was suffering from a great defeat on the south bank because of his drinking, and he lost his troops and lost his land and fell into the city, and now he hated this vice, and it was strictly forbidden for the soldiers guarding the pass to make this mistake and be taken advantage of by the enemy.

Seeing the awe-inspiring expressions of the soldiers around him, Xue Guyan still felt a little unfinished, and then continued to shout: "Although the thief army is not strong, it is good at conspiracy and trickery, especially attacking at night, and it is impossible to prevent it! Therefore, you should be more careful and cautious in defending at night than during the day, and do not let thieves take advantage of it!"

The soldiers agreed loudly, Xue Guyan nodded with satisfaction, and patrolled around the wall for another week, and then returned to the inner city to rest.

But after dinner, he always felt uncomfortable, especially between his throat and esophagus, as if there were thousands of insects and ants crawling, which made him feel itchy and unbearable, and he couldn't wait to wash it down with the strongest wine and drown these disturbing cravings.

But he issued a new ban on alcohol in the city, and he always turned around and broke his word and gained weight, and the stuffiness of beating his chest in the room still did not dissipate for a while, so he took a few sips of vinegar and tried in vain to suppress the stuffiness between his chest and abdomen with that sour feeling, but when this sourness faded, the alcohol addiction doubled up.

"Come, come, come......"

Just as the rational defense line was about to collapse and Xue Guyan couldn't help but call people to drink, a commander outside the door hurriedly rushed in and shouted loudly to Xue Guyan: "General Yu, the thief army in the south of the bridge is approaching the front of the pass, as if they are about to launch a night attack!"

"Well done! Quickly put on my armor!"

Xue Guyan was fighting with the drunken demons at this time, and he urgently needed to distract himself, and his eyes lit up sharply after hearing the news, and he secretly said that the enemy's female plan was indeed as he expected, and he expected that the enemy had a sense of satisfaction in defeating himself, and he had already consciously won most of the battle before he could start the war.

By this time, the sky had completely darkened, but there was moonlight shining on the sparkling river, and although the vision was blocked, it was not so dark that I could not see my fingers.

Xue Guyan climbed to the top of the wall, stared to the south, and saw that the bridge deck of the river bridge was fluctuating up and down rhythmically, and the amplitude of the fluctuation was getting bigger and bigger, and at the source of the fluctuation of the bridge deck, there were black and heavy figures, walking towards the wall, although the pace was very slow, but it revealed a sense of slaughter.

"The dog thief is exhausted, and he does not dare to attack in the daytime, but only in the night. Open the gates of the city and attack in array, so that these thieves will not return!"

Xue Guyan sneered in his mouth, turned back to look at the soldiers in the pass, personally selected the warriors and soldiers, and soon formed a team of five hundred people, and then under the personal leadership of Xue Guyan, he walked out of the gate and met the enemy in front of the pass.

At this time, the newly erected bed crossbows on the upper floor of the pass had also been wound with a noose, and the crossbow arrows were aimed at the river bridge in front of the pass, waiting for the enemy to enter the best range before giving a cruel blow.

When it comes to city defense skills, the soldiers of the Eastern Dynasty with the soldiers of the Six Towns as the main body are naturally not more proficient than the Kansai people, but the craftsmanship level of the Eastern Dynasty far exceeds that of the Western Dynasty.

This kind of large bed crossbow placed on the upper floor of the gate, it must be pulled by several oxen to successfully wind, and an arrow can be pierced through more than 100 zhang of external equipment equipped with heavy armor, although it also has the disadvantage of being inconvenient to move, but it is a very terrible defensive weapon. Especially in a place like a river bridge, where the advance and retreat have to follow a fixed channel range, it is enough to make the invading enemy hate on the spot!

Originally, when the three cities of Heyang were all defended, Zhongyun City did not need to place this heavy weapon, but now that Nancheng has been lost, of course, there is no reason to show mercy to the enemy's subordinates.

When the enemy army arranged defenses along the river embankment, bed crossbows were also erected on the city of Heyang Pass, and a full ten bed crossbows were arranged on the south wall of the Guanlou

Head, the crossbow blades all went straight to the line of the river bridge, but the range varied due to the difference in angle, ensuring that the enemy would be hit by the crossbow in different positions within a mile before entering the pass.

The enemy approached, and soon came within range of the bed crossbow, and a pawn at the head of the city asked whether to fire a crossbow.

Xue Guyan knew that the power of the bed crossbow was fast, but because it was too heavy and the frequency of shooting was low, the interval between each arrow was almost more than a quarter of an hour, if the enemy army shot within the firing range, although it could be frightened, but it was difficult to cause considerable damage, so he waved his hand and signaled to wait for a while, and waited until the enemy entered the range deeper, and then fired several crossbows together, so that the enemy's formation was chaotic.

Therefore, the soldiers up and down the city waited patiently for the enemy to continue to advance, until the distance between them was shortened to within a few dozen zhang, and even the specific arrangement of the enemy's front could be seen by the moonlight.

But it's good not to see it, when he saw the familiar box car in front of the enemy, Xue Guyan suddenly buzzed in his head, and a fresh and strong sense of humiliation suddenly surged into his heart, and the long lance in his hand pointed to the river bridge to the south, and at the same time shouted angrily in his mouth: "Shoot! Shoot these thieves!"

Airplanes! Airplanes! Airplanes......

With a strong roar, several of the city's spears, which were no less thick than short spears, burst out of the air and went straight to the river bridge shrouded in night. Then there was a dull sound on the river bridge, accompanied by a few short screams, and the crossbow bolts hit the target on the bridge deck one after another.

"Kill the thief with me!"

Taking advantage of the tragic blow inflicted by the crossbow on the enemy's military formation, Xue Guyan took the lead and rushed straight to the south, and the five hundred strong soldiers in the rear array for a long time also rushed to follow, and the momentum was like an invincible torrent rushing straight down the river bridge.

However, as the distance between the two sides narrowed, Xue Guyan suddenly realized that the situation seemed to be contrary to his imagination, there was no scene on the bridge in front of him where the enemy troops were in chaos because of the crossbow piercing, and there were no enemy soldiers who screamed and broke away, the scene was cold and weird.

But now that he had charged, he didn't have time to think about it, so he continued to rush south, and was a little dumbfounded when he approached the enemy's closest target to Sekijo.

I saw that it was a carriage that had been abandoned in place, and the horse pulling the cart in front had already fallen to the ground with an arrow, and the tall trunk behind it also showed a fist-sized gap to the north, and the powerful crossbow arrows went straight into it, and something was flowing out of this gap. Xue Guyan stepped forward and touched it, and even touched the river sand in his hand.

"......"

After perceiving this, Xue Guyan suddenly secretly said something bad in his heart, and even realized the enemy's way of dodging the Guancheng crossbow.

The bed crossbow is admittedly powerful, but the shooting path is relatively fixed, and it always does not leave the bridge deck of the river bridge. But the river bridge is not wide, and the two cars drive side by side to take up most of the width space.

The box cars driving in front were not loaded with silk and silk goods that Xue Guyan saw when he was on the bank of the Gushui River, but full of river sand.

Although these river sand are soft and soft to step on, when they are packed in the cage, they are so powerful that they can penetrate the heavily armored people and horses, and it is even more difficult to shoot through the powerful crossbows, and the Western Wei soldiers who accompanied them behind the car are even more difficult to hurt.

Of course, it is not completely unharmable, there is always a gap between the sand carts, and it is impossible to predict the landing point of the crossbow shooting path on the head of the wall. Some of the arrows missed directly into the cages filled with sand, while others chiseled into the side or simply skimmed the obstacles and hit the sergeants.

But in any case, due to the obstruction of the sand cart, the powerful crossbows that were shot together at the head of the city before did not achieve the killing effect expected by Xue Guyan at all, and as for the chaos in the formation, there was no need to think about it.

Except for a few sand carts that were frightened away by the livestock pulling the carts, and even the cars rushed out of the bridge deck and submerged into the rolling river, the soldiers behind the train were not greatly affected. When Xue Guyan was still looking at the sand cart in a daze, several long-bladed spears had already stabbed straight from the side of the box cart.

"Stand back, stand back for now!"

Seeing that the long-awaited killing move that had been brewing for a long time was actually dissolved by the enemy so simply, Xue Guyan's bad mood could be imagined, and his enthusiasm turned into bitterness in an instant, becoming more and more serious

Frightened by the enemy's cunning, he no longer stayed in this battle, and with a turn of his lance stabbed to death the horse pulling the cart in front of another cart, and withdrew and retreated to the rear.

Seeing that the Lord was like this, the other soldiers who followed here naturally did not dare to charge south stupidly, so they all led back.

After retreating to the front of the wall, Xue Guyan turned around and looked at the south of the bridge, seeing that the enemy army did not take advantage of the situation to attack here, he couldn't help but secretly rejoice in his heart. It seems that although the parallel sandcarts successfully blocked the strength of these thieves, it also limited their forward advance.

"The thieves are cunning, I don't know what other conspiracy is hidden, quickly inform the Great Sima of the enemy situation here!"

If it was a battle with a clear sword and a clear gun, and a dignified array, Xue Guyan would be fearless, and he would dare to rush forward in any difficult battle.

However, this road of thieves is too cunning, and many methods are not conventional, and they are often unsolvable by martial arts alone, which inevitably makes Xue Guyan feel at a loss.

Therefore, although common sense seems to be, he can't think of any other way for the enemy to threaten Guancheng, but he doesn't dare to be too big, and when even the staff reports the enemy situation to Beicheng, so as not to encounter any sudden situation, it is difficult to deal with it on his own.

To the south of the river bridge, Li Tai came out of the rear army formation, and when he went to the front, he saw two armor soldiers pierced through his body by a strong crossbow, and another person's knees were broken by the loss of the edge, and he fell to the ground and fainted, and his eyebrows and eyes were also sad and unconsciousnessed, and he said in a deep voice: "The casualties and pawns will be transported to the rear first, ready to attack!"

He had previously captured a hundred and ten bed crossbows from Nancheng, and when he thought of continuing the attack, he naturally would not ignore this big killing weapon, but he could only minimize the harm of bed crossbows, but he could not completely eliminate them.

It's so cruel on the battlefield, life and death are often just a thin line, and it's all about luck.

In addition to Han Xiong and his subordinates, the rest of the soldiers here are all family soldiers who have followed him for a long time, even the Longyou athletes who have followed him for the shortest time have the battle of Jinyang to cultivate tacit understanding, and they have long been accustomed to absolute obedience to Li Tai's orders.

Even in the face of this kind of situation where the enemy is strong and we are weak, easy to defend and difficult to attack, when Li Tai decided to attack the north side of the river bridge, these people did not question this at all, and they did not need Xiao Yiyi's righteousness to be fanned by blood at all.

The more this is the case, the more responsibility Li Tai has to lead the soldiers to create greater brilliant achievements and ensure their lives as much as possible. Of course, sacrifices are inevitable in this process, so let every sacrifice have greater meaning and value!

The sand cart in front of it was rested on the bridge deck because the livestock pulling the cart had fallen to death, and the soldiers did not come forward to clear it and continue to move forward, but stopped at the position of this section of the river bridge, and assembled the timber transported from the rear on the bridge deck, constantly adjusting, and the sound of knocking and beating came far away in the night.

In front of Heyang Pass, Xue Guyan saw that the enemy army did not attack forward again, but the sound of knocking and beating was constantly heard on the bridge deck, and his heart was also full of suspicion, and even secretly guessed that the enemy army was planning to build a temporary camp fortress on the river bridge near Heyang Pass, so as to continue to attack Heyang Pass?

Although this conjecture is a bit absurd, it is not impossible to think that the thief has all kinds of tricks in place. In the process of waiting, Xue Guyan ordered the crossbow at the head of the city to shoot a few rounds at the thief army, but the effect was not as good as the first time.

After the bed crossbow is set on the head of the city, it is very cumbersome to move it, and the shooting path must be corrected by sight and markers, and now that the night is thick, although there is a thin moonlight, it is difficult to meet the requirements of the bed crossbow correction, so this killing weapon is temporarily useless.

After learning of the enemy's situation, Hu Lujin on the north bank did not come to Heyang Guancheng to supervise the battle, but stayed in Beizhong City to be on guard, but also sent a general to lead 2,000 men to reinforce the south.

For a time, there were nearly 10,000 people inside and outside the city, including the people's servitude. This city is located on the sandbar in the middle of the river, the smallest in the scale of the three cities of Heyang, so many people and horses are stationed, and the empty space in the inner and outer cities is suddenly filled with houses and tents.

Seeing the soldiers waiting for battle up and down Guancheng and on the side of the river, Xue Guyan's originally anxious mood regained his composure. No matter what intrigues the enemy still has, it is the absolute that can really determine the victory

Strength.

The garrison of Zhongyun City alone has already outnumbered the enemy's army, not to mention the tens of thousands of horses commanded by Hu Lujin on the north bank! When it comes to the intrigues and tricks in the battle, Xue Guyan thinks that he is not as good as a thief general, but he has already made up his mind to respond to all changes, just to lead the crowd to stick to the city, and wait until tomorrow when the sky is blue and sunny to make a counterattack.

Suddenly, there were several strange noises in the night to the south, and even a relatively clear pop of a heavy object entering the water sounded, and an inconspicuous splash of water flashed away on the water surface more than ten zhang away from Guancheng.

Xue Guyan keenly captured this scene, and a few thoughts flashed through his mind, and he immediately came to his senses: "The thief army is planning to attack the city with artillery vehicles!"

It's okay not to say this, but as soon as he said it, the soldiers around him laughed. Infected by this atmosphere, Xue Guyan couldn't help laughing, originally he was worried about what kind of vicious and tricky attack method the enemy was brewing, but he didn't expect it to be just an old routine like a trebuchet.

It's not that he looks down on the power of the catapult, but the distance between the two sides is here, and coupled with the limitation of the river bridge deck, it is difficult for the enemy to use the powerful catapult, otherwise the soldiers who pull the cannon rod alone will not be able to line up.

Just looking at the stone cannon landing point just now, we knew that the range of the artillery truck that the enemy had been brewing for a long time was not enough to threaten the city. However, if you zoom in closer, there are still three bed crossbows at the head of the city that have not yet been fired, which means three dead holes, and the enemy will have to test with human lives, and also have to deal with the defenders who attack and kill in front of you.

The previous apprehension was because of the unknown danger, but when he knew the enemy's attack method, Xue Guyan suddenly put his mind at ease, and he didn't even bother to personally prepare for the battle in front of the city, but returned to the city to rest, and only ordered the governor here to retreat if he saw the enemy approaching before entering the city.

But when Xue Guyan just turned around and entered the wall, he heard the exclamations of the soldiers on the wall, and before he could ask what was going on, he heard a muffled sound from the inner city on the side, and then there was a wailing and screaming, and the sound of people and horses being frightened away.

"What happened?"

Xue Guyan hurriedly rushed to the head of the city, pointed to a soldier commander who was staring at the night with his head held high, and asked in a hurry.

"Yes, it's a cannon, a big piece of cannonstone, and it fell in the inner city......

The soldier's tone trembled a little, and he said with a look of surprise.

"Nonsense! How can it be a cannon......

Xue Guyan glared and scolded angrily, his eyes were not blind, just now he clearly saw the enemy's artillery stone falling on the river surface more than ten zhang away from Zhongyun City, how could he cross the gate city and hit the inner city again!

However, as soon as his words fell, there was a sharp buzzing sound in the sky, and he looked up according to the sound, only to see a black shadow quickly crossing his sight, and then he heard a roar from the Guan Tower, the black shadow directly hit the eaves of the Guan Tower, and the entire Guan Lou was visibly shaken by the naked eye, and then a large piece of the building was smashed down and collapsed by great force.

"This, this...... Impossible, impossible! How could it be ......?"

When Xue Guyan saw this scene, he only felt that a bone-chilling cold air fell directly from the Heavenly Spirit Cover above his head, and then it flowed all over his limbs, and his stiff body shivered uncontrollably.

Such a scene that defied common sense even Xue Guyan, the experienced and knowledgeable general who dared to fight against the heavenly thunder, was shocked, and the other soldiers who had witnessed it were even more panicked, and even many people immediately thought that it was the power of supernatural gods and Buddhas? There was no shortage of people shouting the Buddha's Dharma name, begging for shelter while retreating to the rear.

"Don't go, don't go! The thief army must have used a cunning trick to quickly follow me out of the city to exterminate the demons!"

Xue Guyan deserved to be a thunderous and immortal man, when he saw the chaos of the subordinates, he felt bad in his heart, and he roared and rushed out of the city, shouting at the soldiers in front of the gate to kill on the south bridge.

At this time, on the south side of the river bridge, the frame on the bridge that was originally shelved is still there, but the river sand in the trunk is gone. Xue Guyan roared, and with a shake of the long lance in his hand, he smashed the car to pieces, and even saw the enemy battle in the rear.

These enemy soldiers wore heavy armor, and in their hands they held long-bladed broadswords that looked like slashing swords, and the battle seemed to make people feel inexplicable. Behind these enemy soldiers the bridge deck

Above, there are two tall trebuchets towering, from which the mighty cannonstones must have been issued.

But Xue Guyan didn't have time to take a closer look, the enemy had already killed head-on, the long war knife slashed down, he was busy here to block the spear, and then he felt that his shoulders suddenly sank, and the tiger's mouth was painful, and the lance was cracked out of his hand and smashed on the bridge deck.

"General, be careful!"

The soldiers on the left were quick and hurried, and they hurriedly dragged Xue Guyan, who had taken off his blade, back into the military formation, but one of the soldiers was cut open by the enemy because he rushed too close, and the bloody internal organs flowed out, and he fell to the ground.

There are also soldiers wielding the knives and guns in their hands and stabbing straight at the enemy soldiers, but the blades of the spears cannot break through the heavy armor, even if the enemy soldiers are forced to fall back into the formation by the combined blow, but there are soon people inside to fill the gap, and the copper-headed iron arm continues to line up the wall to advance, ruthlessly slashing!

Seeing that the enemy army was so fierce, Xue Guyan was also shocked, and he almost wanted to rush into the formation with a war knife in his hand to break through the enemy's formation, but all of them tried to no avail.

If it was just an ordinary few heavy-armored foot soldiers fighting, it would not make him restrain his hands, but the enemy army was in a strict array and cooperated tacitly, and the jumping and rushing cooperation between him and his subordinates became weak and weak under this offensive, seeing that dozens of soldiers had died under the long knife, Xue Guyan could only grit his teeth and lead the crowd to retreat temporarily.

However, just as they were retreating, two loud bangs sounded in the rear enemy formation, and the huge cannon stone landing point was still the same as before, and the soldiers in the inner city camp had been alertly avoided, except for the larger pit in the ground, but there were no new casualties.

But there is no way to dodge the Guanlou but also a solid blow again, the entire Guanlou is banging, the structure is shaking severely, the eaves of the entire floor have all collapsed, as if it has been bombarded by thunder.

Although the soldiers of Jinyang were brave, not all of them were as brave as Xue Guyan to dare to fight with the thunder, and the two successive bombardments shocked their hearts greatly, lest the next thunder fall on their heads, so they all rushed out of the river and fled north along the river bridge, and people were constantly squeezed down from the bridge, and even if they were swept into it by the raging river.

When Xue Guyan led the crowd back to Guancheng, most of the defenders on the wall had already fled, seeing this scene, even if he still had the heart to hold on, it was difficult to hold on, so he could only rush into the gate and follow the soldiers to retreat north.