Hou Xing reported to Zan Wanshou that the battle situation in Fushun City was acceptable, but in fact, Hou Xing and his Thunderbolt soldiers were actually very tormented. Although the battle was fierce, the Perak army also repelled dozens of attacks by the Mongol army with their camps, leaving the enemy with nearly a thousand corpses. But it was these corpses that caused Hou Xing to suffer mentally.

As a leading general, Hou Xing is also accustomed to seeing life and death, and he has long been indifferent to the cruelty of the battlefield. It's just that the corpses that died in front of the Perak military barracks were not only some of the new annexes, but also a considerable part of the corpses of ordinary people. This is also the viciousness of the Mongolian army, which not only used the new annex army as cannon fodder, but also drove a large number of innocent civilians and even women, children, old and young as shields, in order to consume the ammunition of the Perak army and the physical strength of the soldiers.

Niu ordered thousands of civilians to be captured and prepared to be driven to the Perak military camp in batches. It was the usual means of the Mongol army to drive the civilians and the new annexed army to charge ahead, and the Mongol cavalry to supervise the battle in the rear and enjoy the results. This vicious tactic that has been unpleasant many times, but this time it is not so smart. In previous battles, the Mongol cavalry used bows and arrows to force the people to charge at the defenders. If the people did not go forward, they would be killed with bows and arrows, so they had to rush forward. The long-range weapons commonly used by the defenders were also mainly bows and arrows, and they could not help the Mongolian troops in the rear at all, so they had to kill the charging civilians. As for the trebuchet's short range, the ballista has a long range but is a point kill weapon, making it difficult to hit a moving cavalry.

The advent of the Thunderbolt artillery changed the rules of the battlefield. Hou Xing ignored the civilians rushing towards the camp, but ordered them to bombard the Mongol cavalry who were far behind with shotguns. Under the dense rain of bullets, although these cavalry were not hit much, they were also frightened and fled in all directions. As soon as the Mongol cavalry fled, the civilians who rushed to the front were also put into the camp by the Thunderbolts.

If one plan failed, Niu Ling ordered the soldiers of the new annex army to mix among the people to supervise the battle, and waited for an opportunity to attack the camp, which made Hou Xing difficult. Let's open fire, the shell is not long-eyed, and it will inevitably be injured by mistake; Don't open fire, seeing the crowd approaching step by step, the new annex army mixed with the people poses a great threat to the camp. In desperation, he ordered the Perak soldiers to cry out to the people to the ground. The people fell to their stomachs when they heard the shouts, but the soldiers of the new annex also fell to the ground, which made it difficult for the Thunderbolt soldiers to open fire.

The soldiers of the new annex also saw the dilemma of the Thunderbolts, and became more fearless, and they shouted to the civilians to stand up and continue to advance, and those who were the slightest sluggish moved moved with swords and axes. On the one hand, there was a threat that was getting closer and closer, and on the other hand, the safety of thousands of brothers under him, Hou Xing, who was struggling in his heart, finally closed his eyes and gritted his teeth and gave the order to open fire. The gunners of the Thunderbolts were also in resentment and pain, and pulled the rope with tears in their eyes.

As soon as the cannon rang out, the crowd receded like a tide. It's just that it didn't take long for him to rush up again under the coercion of the Mongol cavalry. After several days of repeating this, a large number of civilians and the corpses of the newly annexed troops were left in front of the Perak military camp, while more wounded soldiers of the newly annexed army were lying in the Mongolian camp. Wounded civilians, as for them, were gathered on the edge of the battlefield to wail in pain and left to fend for themselves.

He didn't care about the injured people, and the consumables in his eyes were useless. The main reason for dragging them back is to prevent them from blocking the offensive lane. Most of the wounded civilians, who had no food, water or medical care, suffered from mosquito and fly bites, and most of them died in the following days, mostly due to sepsis caused by infection of the wounds, in addition to death from thirst and starvation.

A few days after the attack, nearly half of the captured civilians were killed or wounded, and the number of casualties of the newly annexed army was nearly 1,000. Although the Mongol offensive did not make some progress, it did achieve the intended purpose of the Bolts to deplete the Thunderbolts' ammunition and exhausted the Thunderbolt soldiers. It's just that this senseless attrition gradually made the soldiers of the new annex dissatisfied, and even began to resist passively. Although they were still able to send heads one after another under the sword and axe of the warlords, their morale was also low, and there were even several small-scale mutinies.

In the face of the continuous admonition of the leading generals of the new annexed army, Niu Ling had to stop this behavior of giving away people's heads and agreed to attack by digging trenches. Although the civilians and the new annex are both cannon fodder, no matter how many civilians die, there will be no mercy for the new. The new annexed army is different, its number is more than half of the total number of Mongolian troops, and although its combat power is low, it is the main force in guarding public order, reclaiming land and requisitioning grain, and logistical baggage.

When Zan Wanshou set sail with his army from Shenjian City, it was also the time when Niu Ling ordered the new annex army to dig trenches to attack. The speed of the trench attack is much slower than that of the direct attack, and the battle will definitely drag on for a long time, which will buy time for the arrival of reinforcements, which makes Hou Xing breathe a great sigh of relief. It's just that when his subordinates pointed out to him the power of this tactic, he was shocked into a cold sweat.

Although the main body of the Third Division was the Jiading Army, the officers and combat backbone were all transferred from the original field division, so they naturally knew the weaknesses of the artillery. The Mongol army adopted the tactic of civil fortifications, which was effective in reducing the power of artillery, and it was this tactic that they used in the Battle of Shenjian Castle, and almost broke through the Banshu military barracks. Even if the naval warships used heavy artillery fire to cover the fire, the Banshu army lost more than 1,000 people. It was only later that the Thunderbolt Army captured the Divine Arm City from the Dark Passage and attracted the attention of the Mongol army, which relieved the Banzhou army. The subordinates' words made Hou Xing wake up, at the moment ammunition, food and grass are not sufficient, once the Mongolian army dug a trench and approached, it would be hand-to-hand combat, even if it could withstand the attack, the side would suffer heavy losses.

When the Mongol army began to dig a trench leading to the Perak military camp, Hou Xing did not order an artillery bombardment or send people to stop the destruction. The artillery was extremely lethal to the enemy hiding in the trenches, and the shells brought by Hou Xing were now left and could not afford to waste them. This time, the Mongol army dug dozens of trenches at the same time, and there were cavalry eyeing them from a distance, so the risk of rashly leaving the camp was too great, and it was difficult to destroy the trenches. After all, digging a trench is not a technical job, it is just filling it up and digging it again.

The Mongol army is in full swing, and the Thunderbolt army will not sit still. Hou Xing ordered to continue to strengthen the earthen wall of the barracks, and ordered people to dig several ring-shaped trenches in the barracks and build several low earth walls. He decided that once the outer wall of the camp was breached, he would use these fortifications to fight the Mongol army to the death.

In addition to continuing to strengthen the defense, Hou Xing also assigned the basic militia accompanying him to two infantry brigades. Although these basic militias are mainly armed with broadswords and spears, because they are trained every month, their comprehensive combat strength is no worse than that of the new annexed army. Due to their nutritional conditions, these basic militias were even more powerful, and their shortcomings were the same as those of the regular army, lacking crossbows and armor.

On the side of the hill three miles away from the main camp, there was also a small camp in the Thunderbolt Army, where the cavalry brigade of the 3rd Division and the Duzhang Barbarian cavalry were stationed. Due to the gap in combat strength between the Thunderbolt cavalry and the Mongol cavalry, Hou Xing did not let the cavalry take the initiative to attack during this time, but responded to the reconnaissance, harassment and communication with the Mongol cavalry.

Since the departure from Xuzhou, although it has been a small-scale combat mission, due to the interception of the Mongolian cavalry, the cavalry brigade of the third division has suffered considerable losses, with a total loss of nearly 100 cavalry, and Duzhangman has also lost more than 20 cavalry. Good steel should be used on the blade, and Hou Xing did not let the precious cavalry throw himself into the camp tug-of-war of attrition, but prepared to use it at the most critical time of the war.