Chapter 200: Sacrifice

In the field outside Chengdu, more than a dozen destroyed towers were abandoned crookedly, some of them had their tops removed, some had been blown down to the ground, and some had fallen to the ground, many of which were bubbling into the sky with thick smoke and tongues of fire licking wildly.

More than a dozen towers were leaning against the wall, which was already a scuffle, full of shouting and fighting warbands. The iron spears of the bed crossbow had long since been fired, and four of them had been dragged away to prevent the attack from falling down the wall, and only two of them were still surrounded by soldiers and people—they were frantically firing bucket arrows at the Miao soldiers who were swarming outside the wall, relieving some pressure on the brothers on the wall. There were not many soldiers left to protect them, and most of them had been drawn by their commanders to support the nearby battles, but everyone was in a state of extreme excitement to the point of madness, repeating their movements mechanically, deaf to the tragic situation that was close at hand. The other bed crossbowmen, who had no arrows to shoot, grabbed any weapon at their side and joined the battle under the leadership of their commander.

The soldiers of the Changjie battalion have already abandoned their bows, and now they are the backbone of this white-knuckle battle, and the task of long-range strikes completely falls on the shoulders of the more than 200 crossbowmen of the Chengdu Central Guard. Although each crossbowman would have one or two spearmen or sword and shield soldiers by his side to provide protection, Sun Jie took a cursory look and saw that the battle was getting more and more intense, there were still many dead and wounded, and now there were only one hundred and thirty or forty people left who could maintain normal shooting. Fortunately, the bed crossbows that had shot all the arrows each released sixty or seventy people, and they either joined the catapult on the side of the outer wall under the orders of the chief of the Changjie camp and the generals, or shuttled constantly to fetch fire pots and fried cans from the back wall, and ran to the outer wall and threw them downward......

The two tiger cannons directly above the city gate are still roaring one after another - the great role of the gate fortress is now fully revealed: although the front of the defense is not large, as long as there are defenders, the enemy in this area cannot get close! If you can't get close, you can't get into the city, and the long-range fire at the head of the city can pour fire on the enemy's rear without any interference, providing timely and effective tactical support for the brothers who are stationed in the fortifications below! Sun Jie had not used the Tiger Squat Cannon much before, but in this actual battle to defend the city, he discovered an effective three-dimensional strike mode, which will play a huge role in the future.

Many people have the impression that the defending side in a siege often blocks several gates with large stones, and then wholeheartedly relies on the city walls to resist. It seems that the effect is not bad, such as Yuan Chonghuan guarding Ningyuan a few years later. But Sun Jie knew that this was a very stupid way: Mo said that he completely gave up the opportunity to counterattack, even if there were reinforcements coming over, the city could not make any response, and could only watch the enemy outside the city change formation to block the friendly army without any worries under his nose. To put it bluntly, I am first in a turtle-like "invincible" position - the city wall is a turtle shell, whatever you want to gnaw, the initiative on the battlefield is completely handed over to the opponent, I accept my fate when I gnaw the city wall, and I wash and sleep if I can't gnaw away if you go, it is impossible to carry out any pursuit, and I am in a state of blindly being beaten, and I am fighting to carry out the kung fu.

Of course, blocking a gate also has the advantage of blocking a gate - in any era, the combination of inside and outside is a very effective way to siege a city. That is, before the war, a large number of internal should be mixed with the refugees and swarmed into the city, and when the war was together, one or two hundred people took advantage of the chaos to grab the gate, and as soon as the city gate was opened, a large number of attackers rushed in, and the city was broken. In this era, 99 percent of the villagers who deserted from the suburbs were illiterate without ID cards, and the range of activities from life to death in this life was most likely to be within a radius of more than ten miles, and people in neighboring villages might not know a few, so it was often very effective.

Blocking the door can completely eliminate this hidden danger.

However, Zhu Xieyuan is much more capable than Yuan Chonghuan, and he made proper arrangements as early as when a large number of refugees fled in: gather them in a few places, first pull out those who look like Miao people with Miao characteristics, and then start screening the rest one by one according to the bottom files of the household registration books of the surrounding prefectures and counties in Chengdu Prefecture. The suspicious elements that were picked out after two sieves were finally circled in one place, and according to their respective territories, they were called to recognize the chiefs and armor, and those who took the initiative to confess and identify others were spared death! In one go, I found out more than 200 internal responses sent by Yu Chongming, and I killed them all, and hung my head on the wall for Gao Chongming to see! Of course, there are some of them who died in vain, and it is difficult to keep a few of them slipping through the net, but ...... There is no way, in war, human life is not as good as mustard.

Without internal worries, Sun Jie set up a barricade outside the door with confidence. This kind of city defense method is not used too much in the middle and late Ming Dynasty, the reason is that the Ming Dynasty uses the civil and military forces, and the defenders of the city have the final say in the civil officials. When the war came, I took it for granted that the defenders of the fortress must be enough, and how I looked at it and felt that there were too few soldiers in my hands, so I sent my brain to the wall and poked my heart to be more sure. In fact, they don't know that there are more or fewer troops in front of the gate, and in any case it is stronger than blocking the door - there are more defenders, such as a thousand people, the defensive circle is wider, the depth is large, and a few more fortifications can be set up to resist the enemy, giving the enemy the maximum amount of damage and the number of people is small, such as one or two hundred, the front of the defense is small, and the defensive range of each person is still the same, and there is no difference in the intensity of the battle. Moreover, there is a city behind it, there are friendly troops covering and shooting above, the door hole can rest in shifts, and the wounded can retreat at any time...... With a reliance in my heart, the will to fight has not improved by a star and a half! For the attacking enemy generals, the defenders dare to arrange it like this, not only can they show confidence in their own combat strength, but also must always mention the counterattack of the defending army, and never dare to scatter all their forces and attack unscrupulously!

Behind the last line of defense three feet away from the door, Shi Meng's arm was almost unable to lift. The thieves retreated for the time being, but they did not go far, some hid behind the overturned towers, some raised their shields to cover their heads and shrank beside the wreckage of the cart, and they were also resting, waiting for reinforcements from behind. Lao Shi roughly estimated that more than two hundred Miao Yi had fallen in the first two fortifications, maybe about three hundred, and Lao Shi secretly thought in his heart, more injured. Turning his head and looking back, more than a dozen of his hundreds of subordinates died, thirty or forty were injured, and the rest were exhausted. The casualty rate of nearly 200 friendly troops sent to Lao Shi's Chengdu Zhongwei was even greater - at the beginning, these people were obviously cowardly, and the guns stabbed out were weak, but after fighting with the Changjie battalion for more than an hour, most of them had confidence and blood, and they could barely understand the order, and they could be half of their subordinates. However, after all, there is a lack of training and battlefield experience, so the price paid is also much greater.

Even blood and sweat, the iron helmet buckled on his head became more and more uncomfortable, and the liner was already soaked, Shi Meng took advantage of the break in the battle to take off the iron helmet. The wind blew through the wet and sticky hair, and there was a chill on the scalp, and the feeling was almost refreshing! Not on the wall, without a perspective overlooking the battlefield, Lao Shi didn't know how many Miao thieves there were to fight, but he knew that this battle would be very, very, very difficult: there were too many Miao thieves, and in the huge Chengdu, seventy or eighty percent of the resistance was carried by a Changjie battalion of several hundred people, which must be difficult. Lao Shi didn't know if he would survive after this battle - the brothers were all out of strength, and they were all relying on one breath to hold on. There are so many towers on the left and right sides of the wall, and there are too many Miao thieves to spit out from the stomach like monsters, and the big marshal can't send reinforcements to himself. But one thing is certain: the final victory must belong to the commander!

When the old marshal led the troops, Lao Shi was one of the guards, and the marriage was still given by the old marshal. Later, he always followed the old marshal to see that others had no chance to kill the thief, and the young man couldn't bear it and told the old marshal, and it happened that after a hard battle, the casualties of the grassroots officers were relatively large, and the old marshal called Shi Meng to the battalion to be the general - but soon the old marshal was hit by the thief's cold arrow! For this old history has been blaming himself, fortunately, although his son Er Lei was only a teenager, he grew tall, so Lao Shi found a friend Sheng Degong and asked Er Lei to be the handsome's personal soldier, and he explained to his son with a strong face, he could not leave the big man under any circumstances, and he must not repeat his own mistakes. The marshal received two thunders, and promoted himself to the rank of a registered thousand presidents - we are martial artists, and this kindness must be repaid with blood! The most important thing is that he has never been defeated in the past ten years with the commander to conquer the south and the north, so like everyone else under Sun Jie, Shi Meng is full of confidence in victory.

The battle on the wall intensified. Seeing that there were fierce fighting warbands everywhere on the long line, Yu Chongming called the herald to blow the horns again: a full six or seven thousand troops were sent to the battlefield.

Hearing the sound of the horn, Sun Jie's heart sank: It's not good, there are seven or eight towers of luxury thieves who are only a hundred feet away from the city wall! Although they advanced very slowly in order to avoid the corpses and the wreckage of the chariot towers, the reserves were already on top, and if they couldn't quickly solve the walls in front of them, when those towers came over, Chengdu Mansion would be in danger! Sun Jie slowly pulled out his waist knife, and behind him was the sound of the knife being drawn out of its sheath - the thirty guards all knew that the battle had reached the most critical juncture.

Sun Jie confessed to Sheng Degong: "Protect your lord!" He nodded to Zhu Xieyuan, didn't say anything more, turned around and threw himself into the closest battle group. The Changjie battalion can fight, the commander's personal guard, the combat power is far beyond the ordinary battalion soldiers, these dozens of people are divided into five or six groups, less than a cup of tea, the battle situation on the wall has changed! Starting from the bottom of the city gate tower, the battlefield advantage was quickly reversed, the Yi soldiers who climbed the city fell one after another, and each stubborn battle group quickly dispersed with the addition of these guards, the armor soldiers rushed into the tower with the pedals, followed by the auxiliary soldiers Ding Zhuang who held the oil tank in their arms, and one tower after another began to emit smoke and fire......

Sun Jie, whose face was covered with blood, had just slashed over the Yi soldiers in front of him, and suddenly saw a large divine artillery group more than ten zhang away, where the only few guards were struggling to support, and there were more than a dozen tattooed guys around, and enemy reinforcements were still jumping out in a tower not far away! Sun Jie let out a low roar and took the lead in swinging his knife and rushing there...... However, it was still a moment late.

The igniter of the artillery crew raised his torch and was about to press it towards the fire door, when a spear broke through the shield of the guards and pierced it, right in the center! Sun Jie watched in horror as the torch that had escaped drew an arc in the air and landed on the pile of gunpowder packs next to him...... This moment seems so long......

There was a huge bang, the entire section of the city wall was covered by a huge smoke and dust, and the flesh and blood of the two sides of the attack and defense flew sideways, and the huge shock wave overturned the tower outside the wall, and Sun Jie and the guards behind him were also shocked to fly, and then, as soon as it was dark in front of him, he didn't know anything......

Shi Meng, who was in front of the gate, was startled by the explosion, and just raised his eyes to look at the city, he heard the brothers next to him shouting that the thieves were coming up again, so he buckled his iron helmet to his head and prepared to continue fighting. At a distance of less than half a foot from the top of his head, a Miao arrow shot out, piercing from above Lao Shi's right ear, and penetrating into the skull almost half a foot deep!