At that moment, Li Bei arranged those people in various places at the city gate, some of them assisted in defending the city on the city tower, and some were responsible for moving stones and handing wood.

After a short time, the enemy army was ready and began to attack the city. For a moment, feather arrows rained down on the tower. The defenders hurriedly raised their shields to block it. After the rain of arrows, hundreds of enemy troops rushed to the city gate, set up a ladder on the tower, and climbed up. The officers and soldiers defending the city opened their bows and shot arrows, shot for a while, and then threw stones and rolling logs under the city.

Everyone knew that once the city was broken, the people in the city would be devastated, so everyone fought to the death. Even the old and weak women and children in the city spontaneously joined the battle to defend the city, constantly transporting bows and arrows, stones, rolling logs and other items up the tower. For a time, the sound of killing inside and outside the city shook the sky, and arrows flew like locusts.

Seeing that the enemy troops outside the city fell one by one, more people rushed up, one by one, without fear of death. The battle lasted for more than an hour before the enemy troops under the city temporarily retreated. At this time, the corpses of the enemy soldiers under the city had piled up, and more than 200 people were killed and wounded, to say the least. The defenders at the head of the city also lost more than 30 dead and more than 50 wounded.

Taking advantage of this gap, Zhou Rouqiang hurriedly asked people to carry those soldiers who died in battle down the city, and then let those wounded soldiers go down to treat their injuries.

Half an hour later, the enemy began to attack the city again, this time with even more intensity. The defenders at the head of the city have lost half of their losses after the last battle, and although there are many young and strong people who have come up, they are all untrained, how can they fight against the enemy army who have been in a hundred battles?

Seeing that dozens of enemy troops had climbed to the top of the city, Ding Cheng hurriedly rushed over with a treasure knife in his hand, and cut down the two enemy soldiers from the city. Then there was a burst of killing, killing all the dozens of enemy troops who rushed up, barely holding the gap.

Li Bei hurriedly ordered people to throw the prepared haystacks and rotten wood into the city. Then dozens of rockets fired in a salvo, igniting the grass and trees. Suddenly a fire broke out from the bottom of the castle, forcing the enemy army back.

However, this was not a long-term solution, and when the vegetation burned out and the fire subsided, the enemy army began to attack the city. At this time, the defenders of the city suffered heavy casualties, and they were no longer able to resist, and they saw that the enemy army was about to break through the city. Zhou Rouqiang was in a hurry, holding a big knife in his hand, he jumped on the battlements of the city wall at once, slashed left and right, cut down three enemy soldiers who climbed up, and cut two ladders.

The defenders of the city were quite encouraged to see Zhou Rouqiang so brave, and they all cheered up and resisted desperately. The enemy was beaten down again.

Feng Shuangli saw that the group of soldiers who rushed up had killed and wounded dozens more, so he ordered the troops to release arrows at the head of the city.

The enemy army had strong bows and many soldiers and horses, and when the arrows were released, the arrows rained down on the head of the city, and several soldiers defending the city fell to the ground in an instant. Zhou Rouqiang danced a big knife and knocked the feather arrows to the ground. Feng Shuangli recognized him as the lord of a county, so he commanded dozens of archers and fired arrows at him at the same time.

Zhou Rouqiang stood at the head of the city without shelter, facing dozens of long arrows, how could he resist them? Ding Cheng was quick to see Zhou Rouqiang and pulled Zhou Rouqiang off the city and called a military doctor to treat his injuries.

Zhou Rouqiang pulled out the long arrow on his body, which was divided into two sections, and the blood from the wound kept gushing out. The military doctor hurriedly applied medicine to him, and then wrapped the wound with a white cloth.

Zhou Rouqiang looked at the dense enemy troops under the city, and felt sad in his heart. I thought to myself: "I have heard that Zhang Xianzhong's department is cruel and unkind, and he is eager to kill, and every time he breaks a city, he will massacre it. I can't imagine that when the army breaks through the city, the people in the city don't know how many people will be slaughtered. By that time there will be rivers of blood and mountains of bones, and I will be guilty!"

Thinking of this, Zhou Rouqiang burst out laughing, the laughter was extremely desolate, and suddenly the big knife was horizontal, erasing it from the neck.

Ding Cheng was taken aback, and quickly grabbed Zhou Rouqiang's wrist, and used all his strength to stabilize the big knife. But the blade of the big knife had already cut through the flesh in Zhou Rouqiang's neck, leaving a shallow scar.

Ding Cheng said: "Big brother, why are you doing this?"

Zhou Rouqiang said miserably: "I'm incompetent, I can't keep the city gate, I'm sorry for the people in the city, I can only commit suicide to atone for my sins, hoping to exchange for the safety of the people in the city." ”

Li Bei said: "My lord, stay in the green mountains and don't be afraid of no firewood." I have an idea, I wonder if it's possible?"

Zhou Rouqiang asked, "What's the idea?"

Li Bei said: "The county seat can't hold it, we can go to Gushan." The lonely mountain is surrounded by water on all sides, easy to defend and difficult to attack, and it should not be a problem to persist for three or five days. At the same time, I will send someone to ask for help from the Mu Wangfu, and at the latest, the army of the Mu Wangfu will arrive, and then we will be able to defeat the enemy in one fell swoop. ”

Zhou Rouqiang's heart moved, he had heard that Mu Tianbo of Mu Wangfu was righteous, upright, and held military power. If you ask him for help, there may be a real glimmer of life.

At this time, the enemy army had rushed to the head of the city, and the defenders of the city could not resist the enemy, and they were defeated and retreated. Ding Cheng, Zhou Rouqiang and others rushed forward to kill for a while, temporarily killing the enemy army, and then hurriedly retreated to the city.

Some of the people of the city had already withdrawn from the city before the enemy besieged it, and there were still four or five thousand soldiers and civilians in the city. While leading the defenders and a part of the sturdy young men to resist the enemy, Zhou Rouqiang ordered people to organize the people in the city to withdraw from the east gate to the outside of the city. and ordered Zhou Kang to lead half of the sailors to open the road first, and after rushing out, they would first go to the lake to prepare for the boat to land on the island.

After the order was given, everyone went their separate ways. When Ding Cheng was rushing to kill, he suddenly saw Yun Ying escorting Mrs. Zhou and a group of old and weak women and children to the east of the city, but was blocked by a group of enemy troops. Yun Ying fought with the enemy with a short sword, but he could take care of the head and not the tail, and several women and children had already died under the enemy's sabers.

Ding Cheng immediately rushed over with a knife, raised his knife and dropped it, killing two enemy soldiers. Tongyunying escorted Mrs. Zhou and the others to the east gate.

There were originally 200 enemy troops guarding the east gate, but they were attacked by Zhou Kang and others, and there was chaos. Cong Fei took the opportunity to organize the people to go out of the east gate and withdraw in the direction of Fuxian Lake.

Suddenly, more than a thousand rebel troops rushed from both sides, and Zhou Kang and the officers and men of the naval army led by him engaged the enemy army. At this time, Li Bei also led people to rush out of the city, and when he saw that Zhou Kang was entangled by the enemy, he immediately led people to rush up and replace Zhou Kang. Zhou Kang escaped, but Li Bei and dozens of soldiers he brought with him were surrounded in the middle. Many civilians were also killed and wounded and fell to the ground under this rush.

Ding Cheng and Zhou Rouqiang were withdrawing from the east gate with the broken rear team, and seeing this, they immediately rushed into the enemy formation and separated the enemy army from the people.

Because there were too many enemy troops, Ding Cheng and Zhou Rouqiang were divided as soon as they rushed in. Ding Cheng held the Minghong knife in his hand, rushed left and right, and everywhere he went, the enemy soldiers fell to the ground one after another, and twenty or thirty people had been slashed and killed in an instant.

(End of chapter)