Chapter 255 Ghost Tower

After Sun Jie received the news from An Yunao that Maude, the head of the Jigong Village, was going to lead the crowd to surrender, although he felt that it was indeed reasonable, he would not fully believe it. The war has developed to the current situation, and everyone knows that it is only a matter of time before the destruction of the Luan Coalition is probable. However, born in a family of Jiangmen, although he was only rough in writing and ink, Sun Jie was deliberately taught by all kinds of people since he was a child, and he was familiar with the famous battles in history. When he learned that Maude had asked to surrender, the first thing he thought of was not what he had done in one battle, but the fire bull formation that Tiandan had turned the tide in the battle of Jimo. Whether it is a field battle or a defensive battle, Sun Jie has full confidence in his subordinates, but the so-called half-ninety who travel a hundred miles, fighting in unfamiliar mountain areas, the risk of falling short must not be taken, so he did not rush to express his position - until he met Maude and his son who came to worship at night.

Maude's heart is actually the first rat at both ends. On the one hand, he certainly wants to protect the clansmen and Lao Zhai, but he has followed the Shuixi family for generations, and it is not as easy as he said in his mouth, so he also has his own small abacus in his heart: if the general trend is really gone, of course Ji Gong will not be able to bury Elder An, and there is still a branch of An, why take the lives of all the clansmen in vain? But in case the two kings can survive in a desperate situation under the protection of the gods, they can also turn their faces on the spot and fight the Ming army - is it obviously an excellent plan to deceive and surrender, from Guansuoling to Panjianghe The large area is really tempting.

However, the kind words and soft words gave money and silver to send away Ah Cang, only to see An Yunao was overjoyed, but he didn't wait for the Ming army to send back the exact news, and spent a few days anxiously, and the head man Maude finally understood: That Sun Jie really deserves his reputation is really not easy to fool, and it is clear that he is waiting for his name. Maude sighed: That's it, play with your heart, our seedlings are definitely not the opponents of the Han people, accept your fate. I had to take my two sons with me, and secretly ran to the Ming army at night to show my heart - leaving both sons in the Ming army camp, and on the way back to Exiangling alone, Maude knew that there was no turning back on this road.

The Great War has finally begun.

The first to attack was An Yunao, who was eager to make meritorious contributions. In his opinion, the two thieves of Lu'an are already the turtles in the urn, and with Maude sending his son as a hostage, it is obvious that the army's spirit has been dispersed, but the marshal is still unhurriedly arranging the auxiliary troops to widen the mountain road and transfer equipment forward. The mountains are densely forested, and how easy is it to widen the winding path to the point where you can barely pass through a large car. Thousands of auxiliary soldiers, axes, chopping knives, shovels and pickaxes, and they can't repair three or two miles a day. An Yunao waited really anxiously, and thought about it: the generals under the command of the marshal, Lao Shun and the marshal are old friends, guarding Chengdu, aiding Guiyang, guarding Yachi, and now going to guard Yongning, and have made many special contributions; Liu Chao had the great merit of supporting the crisis situation in Guizhou Province alone, and resolutely obeyed the arrangement of the marshal, and went out to drag An Bangyan with military rations as bait, and then later broke the enemy side by side with the marshal's personal guard battalion. And what about yourself? The Zhenxiong Mansion fell from the sky and picked up a ready-made big bargain with his white hands, but since the troops were dispatched, they have almost all done auxiliary work for the marshal, and there are only two real battles, one is to pretend to be a weaving gold soldier to attack Rouyuan, and the other is to take down the Chishui Empty City with few old and weak soldiers - this kind of record is really a bit unattainable! There must be a real merit that no one can say anything, so that the big handsome and Lord Zhu can remember it at the critical moment, so that they can firmly gain a foothold in Zhenxiong Mansion in the future. Therefore, An Yunao decided to carry out an offensive independently. Anyway, his troops are on the front guard, even if he can't capture the two chiefs alone, and take seven or eight stockades in one go, he can still hold his head up and speak in front of the marshal, right?

The periphery of Wufeng Mountain broke through with ease, and many of the villages were almost empty, but in Qingyan Village, which was close to its core area, An Yunao encountered an unprecedented major setback - in addition to the courage of the trapped beasts of the Lu'an Coalition Army, there is also a unique military facility in the Miao Village here: watchtowers.

The earliest record of the watchtower appears in the "Later Han Shu Southwest Yi Biography": "Stay in the mountains, the stone is the house, the high one is more than ten zhang", it is a unique defense facility in the southwest region. The watchtower is often built by the large households in the village: four households are built together, the appearance is quadrangular, and the six households will be built into a hexagonal shape, if it is built with the strength of the whole village, it will be built into a circle. The construction of the watchtower is quite elegant, first the sorcerer is asked to choose the construction site according to the terrain through divination and jumping, and then the construction is carried out under the command of the "wallsmith". The foundation should be dug to the hard rock as the bedrock, the wall is all made of rubble, the large head of the stone is outward when masonry, the junction adopts the most stable "product" structure, the wall is done with the "receiving" treatment, the lower half is more than the upper half, in order to reduce the center of gravity, forming a solid structure similar to the pyramid. The whole construction process does not draw, does not hang lines, and does not erect frame support, all depends on the vision and manual skills of the wallsmith...... However, what made An Yunao pay a heavy price was far more than these seemingly well-known difficulties.

A stone building stands impressively on the high slope, like a majestic beast, guarding the path leading to Qingyan Village under its feet. This is a medium-sized quadrangular watchtower, about five or six zhang high, and about five zhang wide on each side. The building is made of hard bluestone, and there are seven or eight shooting holes on each wall, so that all sides are within the fire of the defenders, and there are almost no shooting dead ends. Although it was the first time he saw this thing, he vaguely knew in his heart that it would definitely not be too easy to deal with, An Yunao still decisively gave the order to attack - even if it was a small city, more than 4,000 people could fight a dozen, let alone a small building?

The Zhenxiong soldiers also thought so, but when the first wave of more than 200 people rushed forward with shouts, everyone found out that something was wrong. There were only a few small windows on the wall, there were not many bamboo arrows shot, and only a dozen brothers were knocked down on the road, but everyone ran under the wall and were all stunned - they circled around the building, and there were impregnable stone walls on all sides in front of them, and there was no door in this ghost building!

Just when they were looking at each other helplessly, there was a loud bang overhead, and several boulders fell from the sky, smashing several people who couldn't dodge into meatloaf on the spot! The bewildered crowd shouted, grabbed their heads and ran back—and then several more were knocked down by bows and arrows.

Listening to the soldiers who fled back talking about the fact that there was no door in this ghost building, An Yunao was also puzzled, and personally ran to the front to take a closer look for a while, and finally discovered the mystery for him: this building is not without a door, but the door is opened on a stone wall five or six feet high! Moreover, it is more appropriate to say that it is not so much a door as a hole - the thick door that covers the hole is only about four feet high, and adults can only enter it with their bodies bent!

This is fatal: as long as the guards remove the wooden ladder, no matter how many people outside surround them, they will face a stone wall several feet thick!

After scratching his head for a long time, Leader An, who couldn't think of any good ideas, decided to ignore it for now, anyway, there were a lot of people, and he spent some lives on the way out to force it through below, and then went back to Qingyan Village to find a way to pull out this nail.

Rocks fell on the roof. After paying nearly 10% of the casualties, the 2,000 town soldiers finally completed the assembly outside Qingyan Village. The fire burned down the gate of the village, and the red-eyed soldiers rushed into the village with shouts...... Then he got into a street ambush circle with almost three times his own ambush soldiers.

The routs who escaped back were killed by the rolling wood and masonry smashed from the watchtowers on the way - this is because it was too late, and the people of Qingyan Village did not dare to pursue too far! An Yunao calculated the losses: his subordinates had almost lost 20% of their troops even in dead and wounded, and the result in exchange was only the two wooden doors of Qingyan Village!

No way!

I still have to take down this damn ghost building in front of me first!

The native soldiers of Zhenxiong Mansion carried the hastily built ladder and launched another attack on the watchtower. Fortunately, there are significantly fewer bricks and stones thrown from the roof this time, and they are almost running out. An Yunao thought through gritted teeth while watching the battle. is such a ghost building, let yourself pay such a heavy price - if you fight like this, even if you fight with 4,000 soldiers, how many can you take? Regardless of it, no matter what, we have to take down this damn ghost building in front of you first! Otherwise, don't talk about what kind of merit you make, and don't say how much face you can save in front of the handsome...... When I return to Zhenxiong Mansion, which village can convince myself!

The native soldiers on the ladder first attacked the four-foot-high gate, but the swords and axes were still in vain after a long time. Stepping on the ladder is not strong, judging from the sound, the door is afraid that it must not be a foot thick, and there will be stones blocked in the back. There was no place to pile firewood in the air, and it was not feasible to storm the door of the building.

So the focus of the attack turned to those small windows. The people on the ladder on both sides stabbed the spears in their hands indiscriminately through the small window, and there were also shiny spear tips piercing out from time to time, and some of the people who were poked in the arms screamed and fell down, and some barely supported them with one hand, until someone remembered that they could stuff the long-handled torch through the window......

A small stone building can't be attacked for a long time, it is a matter of whether he can stand in Zhenxiong in the future, An Yunao gave a death order: Team A killed Team B, and those who escaped back were all considered deserters, and they were beheaded before the army!

After the 400-strong A team paid half of the casualties, Leader An finally saw someone climb in through the small window. An Yunao sighed secretly in his heart: The few people who climbed in must have known that most of the results would be hacked to death by the defenders inside when they went in first, but ...... Retreating is also a death, and it will cause disaster to the whole family, and die in it, how much can the family get some compensation, in exchange for you, what can you do? The so-called mercy is not in charge of the soldiers, these people who live at the bottom, their lives are used to consume!

After another moment, more and more people climbed in, thinking that the defenders inside were finally defeated by the absolute superiority of their own numbers, and they were either killed or suppressed in a corner, and it was only a matter of time before they were dismembered by the blades. After a while, someone shouted something inside, and the soldiers outside began to carry firewood through the long ladder and the small window: well—they had captured the ground floor, and it was time to set fire to the inside.

At the same time as the fire was lit, An Yunao had arrived not far in front of the building. However, in the blink of an eye, smoke billowed from the small window on the ground floor. Panicked figures appeared in those window holes: the soldiers who were choked with tears were fleeing for the road, and some of them might even have lost their eyes because they couldn't touch the ladder and fell straight down from it!

Why is this happening? An Yunao couldn't figure it out, until the officers of Team A, whose wounds on most of his body were oozing blood, were carried to the front: the floor slab at the entrance of the upper floor had been blocked, several narrow window holes were high inside and low outside, and the fire from the firewood pile couldn't be burned, just a vigorous smoke - the smoke was all held at the bottom floor, and there was really no one inside! Although he did not understand the modern knowledge of enclosed spaces and the need for a lot of oxygen to burn, of course Leader An knew that there is no fire without wind, and he could only watch with hatred.

After most of the day, the smoke turned into a faint green mist, and it was Team B's turn to climb the ladder and drill through the small window. Fierce fighting resumes - the defenders on the upper floors of the building have once again occupied the lost ground floor, and Team B is immediately locked into the same bitter battle as Team A. Fortunately, when Team A attacked, Team B watched the whole battle, and the progress of this battle was finally faster, and after more than half an hour, Team B won the bottom. With the experience of exchanging blood and human life, this time they did not rush to set it on fire, and the door of the building was opened from the inside.

The firewood was piled up again, the whistling mountain wind continuously delivered fresh air to the inside along the open door of the building, the second-floor slab was finally burned through, and hearing the shrill hissing of water poured on the fire and the sudden white mist, An Yunao let out a sigh: this damn ghost building has finally been taken down. The door of the building is broken, and the mountains are full of firewood, how much water can you store in a building of this size?

The soldiers of the town continued to transport firewood to the inside along the long ladder, a long night passed, white smoke gradually came out of the window holes on the upper floors in the morning light, the figures on the roof of the building were crowded, and the defenders who knew that they had no way out jumped down in despair, An Yunao looked coldly: It's cheap for you! After killing so many warriors and falling into my hands, I must not die so happily!

On the roof of the building, there were Zhenxiong soldiers shouting, and this bitter battle was finally declared victorious. Thinking of this, An Yunao's face changed suddenly.

- Counting the corpses of the defenders, there are only thirty-five in all!

Just one watchtower and more than 30 people have caused nearly 20 times the casualties to themselves!

Not to mention that there are still thousands of defenders in Qingyan Village, how many more are there in front of such a ghost building? If this is the price to be paid for each one...... An Yunao couldn't help but shudder, he didn't dare to continue thinking about it.

"Report! The handsome man is here. ”

The herald's shout made An Yunao wake up from his trance, nodded, and turned to meet Sun Jie's direction.