national surname chiming

Chapter 68
The whole day was spent in the tension of everyone's nerves. The soldiers were on guard carefully, but they didn't wait for anything—at least until the first hour of the afternoon, they didn't find any abnormalities.

It wasn't until halfway through Shen's time that Shen Lian, who was in charge of defending the west gate of Qizhou, observed the enemy's army outside the city, and for the first time appeared in the sight of the watchman on the tower.

The enemy was huge in size, at least tens of thousands, but they marched steadily, dragging the convoy of supplies, and stopped when they were less than ten miles away from the city, as if preparing to set up camp.

The camp was not completely set up, and many soldiers lined up again, carrying a few simple equipment that looked like flying ladders, and rushed towards the city. I don't know if they wanted to stop the tentative attack.

At the same time, the east and north and south sides of the city were very quiet.

The east side is the hinterland of the government-controlled area, and Liu Xiyao's bandit army is supposed to not be so easy to get around.The north and south sides are also not suitable for siege.

The south side is close to the Qishui River, blocked by the river, and the distance from the city wall to the river bank is only half an arrow. If you want to enter this area to form an array, you will definitely be suppressed by the firepower of the city along the way.

The north side is facing the hillside, the terrain is rugged, and it is also impossible to deploy an army.Qishui is originally a river formed by two mountain ridges in the Dabie Mountains. The width of the river valley and plain is not large, and the next county town is already very crowded.

At this moment, Shen Shuren was on the tower of the east gate, hiding alone in the guard's room, anxiously waiting for the announcement of the final result.

Although the double-faced spy Liu San has surrendered, whether the enemy will really cheat from the east of the city, until the moment it is finally revealed, cannot be taken lightly.

Maybe the dog-headed military division inside the thief also has two brushes?Maybe these meticulous works are the dead time that I don't know the truth?
The news of the enemy army first appeared on Ximen's side, and with Zhang Huangyan's report, it also reached Shen Shuren's ears.

After Zhang Huangyan finished speaking, he said worriedly: "Will there be fraud? Why haven't the people from the east side of the city who were driven into the city yet appeared? But the army from the west side appeared first?"

Shen Shuren gripped the armrest of the chair tightly: "Not necessarily, just wait and see what happens, maybe it's just Liu Xiyao wanting to act more realistically. Let all the departments do their part."

Zhang Huangyan didn't question him anymore, but he knew his cousin too well. He took a casual glance and noticed that Shen Shuren's mood was relatively low. It seemed that his eyes were still a little moist just now. He couldn't help but care and said:

"What's the matter? I didn't see you so worried when I set up an ambush to annihilate Liu Xiong before. Do you have other worries?"

Shen Shuren sighed: "It's nothing. When you get out of this room, don't talk too much, so as not to shake the morale of the army. When I made the plan in the morning, because I was too busy, I didn't have time to think about it. Now that I have been alone for so long, I suddenly feel a little guilty.

Conscience of heaven and earth, I had a premonition before that the thieves would choose to attack the city by cheating, but I still didn't expect Liu Xiyao to be so mad and massacre innocent people.

If I knew, I would definitely advocate for more people to take refuge in the city in advance and further strengthen the walls and clear the country.These thieves, in the past, claimed to kill the rich to share the surplus food, and some poor people were bewitched by them. I always feel that Zhang Xianzhong's subordinates will not randomly attack the poor. "

What Shen Shuren said was the truth, and human wisdom has its limit. He only thought of this level because he had read in the history books that Zhang Xianzhong's thieves used subtle tricks to deceive people.

But how Liu Xiyao would cheat, how he would kill civilians indiscriminately to create chaos and fish in troubled waters, he really couldn't predict.

Zhang Huangyan was slightly taken aback. The cousins ​​he saw recently were all cold-blooded, precise, and gifted in thinking. He never expected that Shen Shuren also had a sexy side.

It seems that this kind of introspection is only when he is afraid of shaking the morale of the army and waiting for the result alone.

He also quickly comforted: "Who would have thought of this kind of thing? It's not your fault. It can only be said that the murder of his son made Liu Xiyao even more frenzied. By doing this, he also cut himself off from the common people. In the past, we were worried that the poor would be punished." He is bewitched and short-sighted for a while.

Now that he is killing so much, the news spreads through the people who hid in the city in the morning. Now everyone in the city is afraid, saying that he is going to massacre the city. With the help of stones in the battle, why worry that the city cannot be defended! "

While the two were chatting, an abnormality finally appeared on the horizon outside the East City Gate.Hundreds of ordinary people and villagers suddenly appeared, screaming and running away, and they came to the front in a short while.

Many people shouted chaotically, saying that a small group of thieves collecting food and grass crossed the mountain and crossed Qizhou County, and went to several villages along the river to the east to burn, kill and loot food.These people all fled in distress and wanted to escape into the city.

Inside the east gate, after a day of rush repairs, a semicircular trench has been dug, and the earth wall behind the trench has been dug, forming a simple "inner urn city".

With all the preparations, and most of the secret work in the city has been caught in advance, Zuo Zixiong certainly dared to let the gatekeepers open the gate as planned.

Hundreds of thousands of refugees gradually poured in, and were soon blocked in the "inner urn city" inside the city gate. The officers and soldiers only left one or two small openings, allowing these people to leave their belongings and enter after a simple inspection. city.Some of the "people" saw this battle, and their faces changed slightly.

At this moment, at about one or two blocks inside the East City Gate, several flames burst out suddenly. It seemed that several houses had been burned, and the smoke column quickly rose into the sky, which could be clearly seen several miles away.

"Close the city gate quickly! All the people entering the city are not allowed to move around!" Zuo Zixiong immediately shouted orders, and the soldiers behind the earthen wall of the inner urn city were also waiting in full force.

At the same time, on the slopes of Dabie Mountain not far from the east gate, hundreds of bandit soldiers suddenly rushed down, and quickly merged into a torrent, rushing towards the city gate.

The people trapped in the inner urn panicked for a while, many of them took out their knives and rushed towards the officers and soldiers, and some of them rushed towards the city gate, trying to cut off the noose and kill those who were trying to kill them. The officers and soldiers who closed the door.

"People who fail the inspection get down immediately! Those who don't get down will be punished by seizing the gate! Don't get close to the city gate, we're going to open fire!" Zuo Zixiong yelled loudly. Use this trick to roughly filter first.

Just finished speaking, the officers and soldiers opened fire on those who tried to rush to the city gate from the crowd, using shotgun shells, condescending at close range, and immediately turned the inner side of the city gate into a Shura slaughterhouse. Dozens of people who tried to rush over were beaten to death on the spot.

Those people inside the earthen wall of the inner urn city, if they did not lie down, or tried to attack the wall, they would also be shot.But as long as you lie down obediently, nothing will happen.

Some of them were so scared that they didn’t get down, but as long as they stayed still and stayed away from the gates and gaps in the wall, no one would shoot at them, but whether they would be hit by stray bullets depended on luck.War is so cruel, we can only try to avoid innocent casualties, but it is impossible to do it completely.

There are also some smart people, in order to win the trust of the officers and soldiers, they took off all their clothes in a panic, and did not take anything to show that they were not entrained at all, and then rushed through the gap in the encirclement.The officers and soldiers were not in any trouble, and hundreds of people were quickly evacuated successfully.

The fuss made by the thief seems to have had some effect. The noose of the city gate seems to have been cut off, and there are not enough people to rush under the gate and put it on top.It took only half a cup of tea, and the thieves outside the door had already rushed forward.

……

Niu Ziquan, Liu Xiyao's dog-headed military adviser, personally led this branch of thieves.This time Liu Xiyao sent a total of 5000 troops to crusade against Shen Shuren. The first [-] troops have already been destroyed. They are all cavalry and mounted infantry, and there are [-] follow-up main forces.

In this thousand and three miles, 1 people were left by Liu Xiyao in the west of the city, preparing to feint and act to attract the attention of the officers and soldiers. The 3000-person partial teacher was led by Niu Ziquan to the east of the city, trying to take advantage of the fraudulent door to swarm in.

It is very difficult for a large army to cross the remaining range of the Dabie Mountains around Qizhou and go around to the east of the city at night without making a fuss, so they can't bring too many people, 3000 people is the limit.

Even with the current scale, Niuzi killed dozens of soldiers in vain last night in order to climb the mountain in the middle of the night, in order to ensure the concealment of the operation in the dark, and to prevent the officers and soldiers from knowing that there are thieves appearing in the east of the city. So that the management of the East Gate by the officers and soldiers will not be too strict.

In addition, after all, Niu Ziquan is only a military adviser, not a strong general, and he is still not very good at directly leading troops in tactical command, so he also recruited the thief general Yidougu who fled back to take charge of the specific command——

Yidou Valley also went back to find Niu Ziquan in the middle of the night last night.Because he was defeated and failed to protect the young master, he was afraid that the king would be angry and want to kill him to question him, so he didn't dare to gather the remnant soldiers to go back to apologize at first, but first secretly interceded with Niu Ziquan.

Yidougu honored Niu Ziquan with all the valuables he had snatched by the troops this time, and then asked Niu Ziquan to help him make peace, saying that now that the war is approaching and people are being employed, he hopes that Liu Xiyao will give Yidougu a chance to make contributions.

After confirming that Liu Xiyao held back the murderous rage for the time being, Yidougu dared to formally show up and report back, and was then assigned to this relatively dangerous task by Liu Xiyao.

At this moment, seeing that the city gate was finally opened in the chaos and couldn't be closed for a while, Yidougu took the lead bravely, rode his horse and rushed in among the first group of people, and charged in extremely fiercely.

He knew that only when he captured the city gate, entered the street fighting, and made the first contribution to today's destruction of the city, would the king completely forgive him for his ineffective protection of his son.

"Dog Killer! Slaughter the city and divide the money and food!" The raging bandit army rushed into the city gate smoothly.

But in the next second, when Yidougu saw the simple inner urn city composed of shallow moats and low walls, he immediately felt cold hands and feet, and a fear rose involuntarily.

"Bang, bang, bang!" There was another burst of gunfire, and the thieves blocking the door were flying with flesh and blood, howling in pain.

Today's gang of bandits is not as elite as yesterday's cavalry - yesterday's cavalry can at least make up more than [-]% of the armored rate, and today's ten soldiers may not be able to wear iron-coated cotton armor that is resistant to shotgun bullets.

However, the formation at the gate of the city was still dense, and there was nowhere to hide after being sprayed repeatedly by the trolls, and they didn't even need to aim.

With each round of gunfire, hundreds of lives were harvested intensively.Yidougu didn't make it to the third round of firing, and was shot dead on the spot.

Niu Ziquan behind him had his eyes wide open and did not follow the former army into the city.

Hearing the gunfire inside the door, and a group of people blocking the door, he also secretly thought that something was wrong, and prepared to turn his horse back.

It's a pity that at this moment, he has also entered the coverage of the muskets and bows at the top of the city. A part of the musketeers were assigned to shoot the enemies outside the city wall.

Niu Ziquan was one of the few siege infantry who rode a horse. Of course, he received intensive care. He turned around and did not escape a few steps before being shot dead.

(End of this chapter)