Chapter 73: Night Run

The sky began to darken, the noisy battlefield quieted down, and the fierce fighting gradually subsided.

The first to stop were the city's crossbowmen, their arms so sore that it was hard to reload their bowstrings. The city was also dark, and the bunkers such as the big shield and the shield cart were only a blurry, irregular shadow, and it was difficult to discern the ghostly figures of the thieves and archers next to them. After several archers who tried to shoot in the gap were shot down by cold arrows flying from below, the defenders gave up their futile attempts.

For the castle, this brief moment was very advantageous: the dark walls were very clearly outlined against the light gray sky, and the figures of the defenders who attacked and observed were as abrupt as silhouettes.

After being shot down a few people, the defenders stopped coming forward. After fighting all day, although there were several rotations, everyone was exhausted, and no one wanted to give up their lives at this time.

There was a sound of gold in the distance, and the people under the wall began to retreat in an orderly manner. It was dark, and under the protection of their own archers, the men no longer moved to the sides, but boldly left straight in the direction of the camp to the south, and the defenders of the city only symbolically threw some bricks and stones through the battlements, causing little real damage.

While retreating from the attacking troops, Gao Tengdou transferred the Flying Tiger Battalion and the Flying Bear Battalion, which had been well fed and rested, to the front line, and camped and rested on the spot about 200 steps away from the city wall. According to the plan that the generals had just reformulated, in addition to using wheel tactics to consume the will and physical strength of the defenders, the thousands of fresh troops transferred in the afternoon were also to make greater movement when retreating, covering the two infantry battalions to drive up in the dark, and launching a general attack on the whole front early the next morning!

The gates of the city were blocked by boulders, and it was difficult to break through in a short time. At this time, although gunpowder has been widely used in the military field, because it does not understand the explosion principle of closed space, and according to the five elements of yin and yang, it is doped with too many impurities, and the combustion speed can not go up, and it can only be used for fire & ejaculation, at most, it is a fire, and no one in the entire Ming Dynasty knows how to use blasting at this time. Therefore, the only way to deal with the boulder is to use animal power to drag it - this operation is impossible without 100% suppressing the firepower of the defenders at the head of the city. Therefore, Guan Shengyun and others focused all their hopes of attack on the four towers.

The generals agreed to launch a decisive attack on Shaanzhou City when the sky was still faintly discernible the next day, and to break the city with one blow!

According to the plan, the auxiliaries and civilians were to charge at the same time, risking their lives to push the four towers under the city, and each of the four infantry teams of the Flying Tiger Battalion would fight with one and the other. The first time the tower was used, it was inexperienced, it was full of people, it was very slow, and it lost dozens of soldiers in vain - the so-called "common sense" of many later generations was often bought by countless predecessors with their blood and lives. Empty towers will advance much faster, and it doesn't hurt to lose two, or even three, in the process of taking the city. While the tower is against the wall, the team climbs immediately, and only needs to firmly occupy a small section of the wall, and the other infantry teams that have lost the tower pass through the one or two surviving upper walls at this time in the order of A, B, C and D, and expand and stabilize the battle line.

The auxiliaries under the wall set up ladders in the area marked by the banner of the city, and the Flying Bear Battalion went up the wall through the ladders.

After the Flying Bear Battalion went up to the wall, the two teams A and B went west, and the two teams of C and Ding went east, impacted along the city wall, dispersed the defenders of each wall, and defended on the spot after occupying the east and west gate towers, and received the friendly troops outside the city to go up the wall.

Here at the south gate, the two infantry teams of the Flying Leopard Battalion and Gu Baihua ascended the city in the third batch. The order given to the Flying Leopard battalion was to ignore the battle on the wall and directly attack and occupy the state government along the main road in the city, while Gu Baihua's task was to plant the black flag of the army on the top of the tower of the Baolun Temple, the commanding height of the city, and completely destroy the will of the recalcitrant defenders everywhere.

The Sky Breaker Battalion, as the general reserve, was the last to go up to the wall and maneuver where it was needed.

Gu Baisong's horse team stayed outside the city for the time being to intercept the fleeing defenders of the city, and the flying bear battalions such as Zhang Ding outside the east gate and You Futian outside the west gate controlled the two sections of the city wall, and then marched ants to attack the city.

According to the earliest plan, the capture of Shaanzhou Mansion would take about ten days and half a month anyway. All the generals are also mentally prepared to retreat if they can't beat it. The reason for the temporary change of plan and the launch of the general attack the next day was based on two judgments: the defenders did not contain the people, and the city gates were blocked with stones. Obviously, not only the defenders were completely unconfident, but also the officers defending the city were completely inexperienced and daring! Luo Yonghao pointed out that if such an important town is broken in two days, its significance cannot be overstated - in the face of such a strong combat power of our army, any officer and army general who is ordered to stop it in the future must weigh it carefully in his heart: whether he is willing to be smashed by us!

The road ahead will obviously be much easier.

It's nightfall.

In the dappled light and shadow of the torch throwing, the soldiers and people on the wall lay down in their clothes. The soldiers on duty at night were strolling, occasionally casting a wary glance at the darkness outside the city.

In the south gate, two old cows were brought to their mouths, and dozens of people each bit a chopstick in their mouths - this is called a title, a very simple and effective way to keep the group quiet. Under the command of several officials, the crowd began to silently tie the large stone bars to ropes and then to the ox yoke......

Ma Wensheng looked at it with great ambition, and next to him was Liu Shiting, who looked full of confidence. Obviously, Liu Shenxian has successfully persuaded Master Ma: The thief is a great achievement, and it is within reach.

At first, Ma Wensheng was really scared, and directly rejected the request for a counterattack. But Liu Shiting had already eaten through this thought, and the sentence "If you don't take it, you will be blamed", easily penetrated his psychological defense, and then skillfully swore that he depicted a beautiful blueprint for the praise of the Holy Son of Heaven Longyan Dayue Chrysostom, plus the "auspicious signs" such as the thief's tower and the crash, Ma Wensheng not only agreed, but also ran to "command" in person.

Of course, although it is far away, the supreme commander must be considered to be personally commanding when he arrives at the scene. It's no wonder that Master Ma is far away - Pan Ding, who is covered in blood, is leading the people to drag the stones, the smell is bearable, Jing Xiangshan is directing the people to lightly load bricks and stones into the wooden cage, the stench of gold juice in this guy makes Master Ma can't help but cover his nose and hide aside.

What reassured Ma Wensheng the most was Liu Shiting's assurance: his Liujia divine soldiers would go out of the city at night, set up a formation outside the gate to cast spells and invite immortals, and when they arrived at dawn the next day, they would be the first to attack the thieves! The immortals help each other, the wind and thunder strike, and destroy the withering and decaying!

Although Liu Shiting patted his chest and assured that this counterattack with the help of the gods would be a great victory, and the defenders could kill the thieves if they came out, Pan Ding, Wang Jian and others still made another preparation.

The wooden cage is the station cage at the entrance of the yamen, and Li Li of the hundred households is standing alive in this kind of thing. Half of the city gate has been burned down, in case the battle situation is unfavorable tomorrow, after the assault team withdraws, they must first use several knife carts to push the door to stop the thieves' pursuers, and then these wooden cages will be pushed into the door hole behind the car, in order to block the gap with a boulder again and seal the door hole again for a longer time.

Fearing that the light of the fire would leak out, there was no torch near the city gate, and everyone was quietly busy in the faint light that could barely see. When only a few large stones remained in the outermost part, the two soldiers each grabbed the two ends of a black cloth and climbed up, and gently fixed the black cloth with a wooden hammer half knocked and half pressed, so that the anomaly at the city gate could not be detected at all dozens of paces away in the dark night.

Wang Jian's counterattack plan was launched at dawn. According to his judgment, the thieves who came up the next day would still be the same as the day before, mainly unarmored auxiliaries. Giving a head-on blow at this time will greatly damage the morale of the thief. If you grasp the timing of the counterattack and kill and injure as many thieves as possible and destroy their equipment, you can at least buy more than ten days of rest and recuperation for the defenders - it will take a day or two for the thieves to gather the rout, it will take even longer to rebuild the morale, and it will take eight or nine days to rebuild the siege equipment.

By the time the last stone was dragged away by the old cow, it was already past the fourth watch (after three o'clock in the morning), Wang Jian, whose eyes were red, waved his hand, and the three knife carts were pushed to the left. The wooden cage also has a small half of the stones - it will be difficult to push when it is fully filled, and the rest must be quickly reloaded in a relay after resisting the knife cart.

For professional reasons, Liu Shiting is not short of wine and meat, so he has a pair of night eyes. Let more than 400 people line up, put their hands on the shoulders of the predecessors, lead them back and forth, lead the people out of the city one after another, and stand in turn when they reach a place twenty or thirty steps outside the door...... Fei took a lot of trouble to lead them out, but in fact, he was providing cover for his own infiltration of the opposite side.

Led the last guy out, Liu Shiting bowed his hand to Ma Wensheng and the others: "The grass people will choose a good place to cast a spell, please wait for the good news."

Wang Jian hurriedly cupped his fists in return, Ma Wensheng glared at Pan and Jing who had no stubble, and said with a smile: "The old gentleman (the Ming Dynasty said that he always showed respect, but in fact, Liu Shiting was only in his forties) please." When the work is done, the official will play the Ming Sheng, and the old gentleman should be the first to take the lead"!

Liu Shiting returned the salute and left with dignity. Out of the city, he pretended to dance in front of several groups of people, whispered a few words, and gradually danced away, and disappeared in the perceptual world of this group of half-blind people in a moment.

Liu Shiting did not go directly to the south, but to the west, walked quickly to the vicinity of the refugee camp by the river, and then turned south. After walking for about half a moment, he began to call softly after being completely out of the hearing range of everyone on the wall: "King, the grass people are here to run." King, the grass people have something important to tell you......"

Soon, I heard a few soft shouts: "Stop! Who? Then there was a flint crash, and a bright light suddenly appeared ten steps away in front of him: Liu Shiting finally hit Guan Shengyun's hidden pile on the periphery.

The sudden burst of bright light pierced Liu Shiting and couldn't see anything for a moment, and he hurriedly raised his sleeves to block his eyes and said, "King, please shut up." The grass people came to defect alone. Don't surprise the dog officer. The grass people have something important to tell you......"

Ma Wensheng went home and slept peacefully, and Pan Dingjing, Xiangshan, Wang Jian and others at the head of the city also found a relatively safe place to take a nap to recover their strength. The soldiers on duty at night did see the cluster of torches that had been ignited by the explosion outside Rich, and when they stared at it and saw that the light did not move towards them, but disappeared into the village occupied by the thieves, they ignored it and continued to patrol.

The lights were lit in the restaurant where Guan Shengyun was used as the temporary headquarters, and the generals surrounded Liu Shiting in it, and you and I interrogated me word by word. Liu Shiting knew that in order to gain the trust of these demons, telling the truth was the best way, so 1510 told everything and everything. At first, I wanted to hide the part of burying the silver, but in the end, I felt that I couldn't get past it anyway, why did I come to defect, this group of demons is really terrible, so I simply told it all in one go. Alas, if you can escape with your life, you can't care about anything else. Of course, it is impossible to get rid of this verse while there is chaos.

Referring to the confirmation of the battle during the day, it is not difficult for the generals to judge that what Liu Shiting said is the truth. When he was brought down, everyone looked at each other and smiled: Shaanzhou City is within reach!