One hundred and sixty-five chapters

On the same day that Bao returned to Xi'an, Zhang Hu had already arrived in Qinzhou.

Zhang Hu didn't want to fight Gongchang, of course, there was much more food, wealth, and population in Fucheng than in other places, looking at the high walls of Gongchang Mansion, Zhang Hu couldn't help but recall the good time spent in Baoning Mansion. Looking at the so many cannon fodder around, with a wave of his hand, the soldiers of each battalion drove the people of the old battalion to attack the city.

More than 100,000 troops were stationed under the city of Gongchang, and it was boundless at a glance. Although there are no siege equipment, many long ladders were built temporarily, and everyone carried them and rushed down to the city. Zhang Hu pondered, it's a big deal to die 10,000 people, and when the defenders are almost consumed, several war battalions will also go up with corpses...... But the cruel reality soon shattered the illusion: in the fire pouring down from the wall, the cloth-clothed people fell to the ground in patches like wheat under the sickle, and before they could touch the root of the wall, there were already about 2,000 corpses on the spot - the crowd was so dense that the archers on the wall hardly had to aim, and only a rough shot often achieved good results, and what was worse was that these people had neither a shield nor armor, and even the clothes they wore were in tatters, and the defenders only needed half a bow to shoot to knock them down, Extremely limited physical exertion. Zhang Hu carefully observed several defender archers behind the formation: after twenty or thirty rounds, the rhythm of shooting did not show the slightest sign of slowing down!

No, the defenders of the city can attack with impunity without being suppressed! So Zhang Hu gathered the archers of the whole army and stepped forward to do cover shooting. As soon as two rounds of arrows were fired, wails rang out one after another from the ranks of archers - it turned out that the defenders had only then engaged in crossbowmen, and one by one they hid among the battlements, ignoring the people who were rushing in, and calmly aimed at their archers!

Bows and crossbows are both long-range strike weapons, each with its own advantages and disadvantages. The advantage of the bow and arrow is that it is fast, but the disadvantage is that it requires long-term and arduous training - without more than a year of rigorous training, it is difficult to shoot arrows accurately, so the archers in the army are often concentrated for covering rough shooting. The disadvantage of the crossbow is its slow rate of fire, and a skilled archer can easily complete five draw-in shots in one wound aimed shot. But at the same time, its advantages are also huge: first of all, the armor-piercing ability, it is difficult for ordinary bows and arrows to penetrate iron armor, and even steel plate armor is vulnerable in front of crossbow arrows! The second is accuracy, which is not comparable to that of a bow and arrow that relies entirely on the experience and skill of an archer. The third is stability, the bow must be shot as soon as possible, few people can keep the bow full for a long time, and the crossbowman can calmly aim and wait for the best time with the crossbow machine. Most importantly, the cost of training will be greatly reduced: with the help of Lookout, any ordinary person can achieve good results with a little training (so for a time the use of crossbow arrows was banned in Europe on the grounds that "the most humble serf could easily kill a noble knight after years of hard training" - of course, it is for this reason that crossbow arrows became more popular).

Zhang Hu's archers were covered by large shields, but when shooting, they had to jump out from behind the shields to spread their bows and aim, which gave the defenders a perfect opportunity to work at ease. In order to facilitate the drawing of bows, the archers wore only half of leather armor - even iron armor was vulnerable to crossbow arrows, let alone leather armor! An archer who is shot at the vital point will certainly die on the spot, even if it is only an arrow in the limbs, and the person will be useless for the rest of his life. After dozens of archers were shot down, Zhang Hu reluctantly withdrew from the archers.

Even more powerful than killing and killing is a blow to morale. The people who were lucky enough not to be shot braved the rain of arrows to erect the long ladder on the moat and ran over crying and shouting, and from time to time someone stepped on the air in a panic and stamped themselves in the air, and then stumbled over the people who desperately escaped from the city head and the arrows could not stop, and you pulled me and dragged them all into the trench......

Zhang Hu went out of the military horse team around him, and he was good at riding horses to hedge and slash people with knives, and until this time he still didn't have much experience in attacking Jiancheng - several cities in Sichuan were taken down by means such as surprise attacks and internal responses, so he kept watching silently. More than an hour passed, and a thousand people slowly gathered under the wall, as well as more than a dozen ladders, and finally understood in my heart: In this way, Gongchang Mansion is afraid that it will not be able to be defeated, and the defenders who do not have any threat can attack unscrupulously, how can this battle be fought? As if to confirm his thoughts, a long line of white water suddenly steamed from the front line of the city, followed by two or two defenders carrying cauldrons and pouring water down the city—they didn't even bother to throw stones, and boiled water directly on the wall and poured it down! From time to time, the defenders on the wall came out to look down, holding the wall battlement with one hand and waving it desperately with the other, directing the guys who brought the boiling pot to pour it into the crowded place......

Beneath the wall was a wolf howling.

The battalions supervising the battle were wielding clubs, knives and guns from the safety of the city, and they were still driving the people to the city. The terrified people cowered and ducked, and finally had to run to the city in a rain of arrows, like sheep surrounded and driven by wolves. The corpses along the way, the comrades struggling and wailing in pools of blood all brought them a great shock. The most terrifying thing is the guys who fled from under the wall head-on, some of them had lost most of their hair and blisters, some of them had a large piece of scalded skin, and the tender red flesh was exposed, and a layer of yellow and clear liquid was revealed, and some ran and ran and fell down, and every time they struggled and rolled on the ground, they would leave a piece of skin and flesh, and the people in the screams were unaware......

Eventually, fear slowly began to overwhelm the spirits, the crowd became hysterical, and more and more people stopped running in the direction of the city walls, but spread aimlessly towards the wings. On either flank were several battalions of Fango, who were responsible for supervising the interception. Zhang Hu immediately looked over the mound that had been temporarily piled up to serve as a platform, and quickly came to the conclusion that if no measures were taken, the large number of people would sooner or later break through Fang Ge's position—and then it would be too late! It seems that the siege of the city is not as simple as using 10,000 dead bodies to build on the city wall. Finally, King Zhang sighed gloomily: Collect the troops.

The crisp sound of gold sounded, and a clear and audible cheer erupted from the city, occasionally mixed with all kinds of invective.

The rain of arrows from the wall slowly thinned out, and then it simply stopped. The injured people were lying all over the ground, and they knew in their hearts that even if they struggled back, King Zhang would not be able to support themselves, so they would lie down and resign themselves to fate. There are many uninjured people who are also mixed in with a fluke mentality, and they don't want to go back - living examples are around, just go back to make cattle and horses, and eat wild vegetables, but in the next battle, they are likely to be buried under the city like the guys around them! Some of the soldiers who supervised the battle were eager to make meritorious contributions, and they ran forward with knives to identify in the crowd, and when they saw that there was nothing serious, they poked them fiercely......

"Ahh With a scream, a guy who had just stabbed him was knocked down by a strong force, and after a few struggles, he fell silent, with half a crossbow arrow stuck in his chest - the defenders on the wall were reluctant to waste their precious crossbow arrows on the old and weak people, and the thieves were of course excellent targets. More than a dozen guys who ran to the crowd of people to mend their knives were shot down one after another, so the others fled in a hurry, and there were bursts of shouts and praises among the people who were lucky enough to pick up a life, and all those who could still speak were shouting to the city with all their might, telling their misery and misfortune, and expressing their endless gratitude to the officers and soldiers for saving themselves from the tiger's mouth.

Zhang Hu's team had disappeared from the end of sight, dozens of thick ropes were thrown from the wall, and one or two hundred officers and soldiers descended the city one after another to the people. Under their command, the people who had escaped with their lives gathered the dead and wounded side by side, and then they were also gathered together from exhaustion. The people who sat down on the spot had just let out a long sigh of relief, and before they could express their feelings of finally picking up their lives, they were horrified to see that the officers and troops had surrounded all sides, and then with a terrible whistle, the snow bright sword light flashed in the crowd again!

Cries, begs for mercy, cursing...... Finally fell silent, and the officers and soldiers chatted and laughed and cursed as they trudged through the pile of corpses, carefully examining each corpse. If you find a suitable one, you will call your companions to cut off the head together, and occasionally look at the body shape and age of the appropriate head but the head is so sparse that it is impossible to identify, and everyone will sigh with regret in their mouths.

In this battle, Zhang Hu threw down more than 5,000 burdens, of course, he was disgraced. However, for a long time later, Zhang Hu discovered a very interesting phenomenon: as long as he didn't touch those fortified cities, Ningyuan, Tongwei, Qin'an and other counties were simply fat sheep without the ability to resist.

At this moment, Zhang Hu was hesitating outside Qinzhou City, should he try again?

Zhang Hu was wandering, and several scouts sent back the news one after another: Erli Pass on the side of Fengxiang Mansion was heavily armed, and the military camp that stretched for more than ten miles was directly connected to Dasan Pass, and the forced march would definitely encounter a series of bloody battles. On the contrary, the Tianwei Maling Pass at the junction of Hanzhong Mansion and Gongchang Mansion was empty, and several scouts even ran all the way to Fengxian County without encountering any interception - depending on the situation, Fengcheng is also an empty city!

Zhang Hu was illiterate, so he asked the master to use a red pen to mark these places on the map searched by the Qin'an County Ya and looked at it for a long time, and gradually, as if he had realized something, so he grabbed the pen and scratched it on the map with his fist: this ...... It's clearly leaving a way for this king!

However, will these dog officials dig a big hole for themselves in front? Zhang Hu fell into deep thought. Niu Youtian's mind was more confused than Zhang Hu's, but Fang Ge woke up the dreamer with a word: "Big brother, don't you remember how you got to our Sichuan Province!" ”

That's right! There were few people when the army was raised earlier, and the counties along the way were eager to go to Linxian as soon as possible, and now that they are stronger, the opponent has been replaced by a provincial government-level dog officer, and they are also looking forward to leaving as soon as possible! Whatever, go, go from Liangdang to Hanzhong via Maling Pass! Then whether to go to Huguang or where, and then make plans then!

Due to Zhang Hu's obstruction on the road, the newspapers and heads of Gongchang Mansion's great victory were not sent to the provincial capital Xi'an until Zhang Hu entered the Hanzhong Mansion. Don't look at Zhang Hu's loss of more than 5,000 people, and the number of heads handed over is only more than 500. The vast majority of the deceased were old and weak, and if they were handed over to the military department like this, not only could not be counted, but would also greatly affect the significance of this good news. The Shaanxi Metropolitan Government took out half of it, and only sent to the Beijing Division more than two hundred and twenty ranks—except for twenty or thirty archers who were killed by crossbow arrows, the others were of course all coerced civilians.

As Zhang Hu Fangge expected, it was easy for the army to enter the two empty cities of Fengxian and Liuba in Hanzhong Mansion, but when they were testing in the direction of Fengxiang Mansion, they touched a nose of dust in Dasanguan. Immediately along the way to the city of Hanzhong along the Baoshui, in the Hutou Pass and the Jitou Pass, once again saw the magnificent scene of the flag like a forest, the sword and the gun reflecting the sun. It's no wonder that there are heavy troops in the north and south, but the officers and soldiers will never go out of the customs and attack one step, and they just watch themselves captive in the suburbs! After several intentional temptations, Zhang Hu completely understood: the dog officials just want to send themselves away quickly!