Dawn of the Empire

Chapter 5'96

A round of golden hooks hangs in the sky, the stars are few and far between, and the night is getting darker, but outside the city of Ezhou, there are loud killing sounds.

Countless bonfires were lit in the wilderness outside the Qingyuan Gate, and the vicinity of the city wall was as bright as day.Ezhou was surrounded by water on three sides. Under the threat of the Han army's gunboats, the Xiangyang army could not use it. There was only a wilderness in the east of the city, which was suitable for the army to attack the city. Therefore, Cao Di chose this as the focus of attacking Ezhou.Relying on the large number of soldiers and generals, without talking about falsehoods, they directly lined up all the iron barrel guns and catapults brought in, and tens of thousands of soldiers pushed various siege equipment to storm the east city.The stone bullets were thrown and smashed the city walls, and once the battlements and battle sheds were shot, they were smashed to pieces.

Several times the soldiers attacked the city, only to be driven down by the city's elite forces.Once the battle shed at the head of the city was smashed, the defenders reinforced it with door planks and wood.From time to time, boiling oil and golden juice were poured from the top of the city, scalding the soldiers who were attacking the city until their flesh was torn.Although the artillery of the defenders was not accurate, they kept firing cannonballs, and there was a rain of bullets scattered under the city.

"After this night, reinforcements are coming!" Fan Changheng shouted, holding an iron knife in one hand and waving a fist with the other, as if he had great confidence in the battle situation.In the evening, Lord Minister of the Ministry of War personally gave Fan Changheng the reward and the confession from the eighth rank.Fan Changheng distributed the money to his subordinates on the spot, but folded the most important and important things of the confession and hid them next to his body.Now, his throat is completely hoarse, and his eyes are red, reflecting not exhaustion, but almost morbid excitement.

The top of the city is actually a mess, the ground is sticky, and what is flowing is not sure whether it is water, oil or blood.There were people who were shot by arrows and wailed, some people were 'inserted' in the chest by wooden sticks that collapsed, and some people were even smashed into meat paste by stone bullets.There were screams, cries, shouts, the sound of arrows piercing through the air, stone bullets hitting the city wall "bang bang", the roar of our own artillery, the flickering of fire, heavy smoke, and the ground was constantly trembling.At this moment, being by the side of this awe-inspiring centurion makes people feel somewhat dependent.

"Reinforcements, reinforcements are coming!" Fan Changheng's eyes were bloodshot, his voice was hoarse, and he shouted again and again, "General Zhao, General Yue, and General Han are leading an army of [-] starry nights to help, and it will arrive tomorrow! It's almost here!" The village soldiers looked at the new centurion in awe, with a shield on his head, he kept moving stones and rolling logs on the city wall, and then smashed them down on the Song army below the city.At the head of the city of Ezhou, countless officers and soldiers, for their different beliefs and hopes, gritted their teeth and tried their best to make up the gap with the siege army with blood and flesh.The inexperienced officers and soldiers suffered heavy casualties, but those who survived were more or less skilled and able to face the cruel battlefield of life and death.

Cao Liangshi is in full military uniform, sitting upright in the archery tower of Qingyuan Gate.The few crossbowmen in Ezhou City were concentrated in the area of ​​the east city wall, and soldiers with full armor and armor were running back and forth in the archery tower.This archery tower is located in the middle of the east city wall, condescending, the most important point, the offensive and defensive strength of the enemy and ourselves are clear at a glance, so Cao Liangshi personally sits here, he does not interfere with the defense of the tower, and there are several flag officers standing beside him. , So he dispatched soldiers and horses with lanterns and small flags to help.

Dust kept falling from the roof of the building, and the sound of killing inside and outside the tower shook the sky, but Cao Liangshi had an air of solemnity all his life. All the soldiers, banner officers, and even the commanders of the troops were anxious when they stepped into the watchtower. expression, but when he walked up to Cao Liangshi, he held his breath and held his breath, respectfully.

"The enemy army is powerful," the city gatekeeper Chen Que persuaded, "Master Cao, please retreat to the sub-city of Huanghu Mountain."

"I swear to live and die with this city tower," Cao Liangshi said in a deep voice, his eyes slightly trembling, "the city is full of old and weak people. If the city gate falls, Cao will die with the city, so as not to cause unnecessary entanglements and make the city full of people. The old and the young will suffer a catastrophe." If the city wall is lost, the general situation is gone. With the morale of the town soldiers, once the gun is broken, the whole line will collapse. It is absolutely impossible to support the retreat steadily, and it is impossible to retreat to the sub-city.He had a sword on his lap.This sword was not used to kill the enemy, but once the Xiangyang army broke through the city wall, he would kill himself in the city.

The city of Ezhou is high in the west and low in the east.On the Huanghu Mountain in the west, most of the government offices are located, while most of the common people live in the east city wall.The city is surrounded by water on three sides, and only the east side is land. Therefore, many people live in huts outside the east city wall.Usually, when you look from the tower of Qingyuan City, the grass market outside the city and inside the city is extremely prosperous, bustling with traffic.Since the army of Xiangyang came to the city, many people outside the city had fled to the city, and the east city was overcrowded. Both sides of the street were also full of refugee sheds, living on porridge sheds every day.Once the city gate is lost, if the two armies continue to fight along the streets and alleys of Dongcheng, it will be a miserable situation.Therefore, Cao Liangshi would rather let go of the chance and die in the city than let these people suffer from military disasters.After all, it was not the Khitans who attacked the city, but another army from the Great Song Dynasty.

Chen Cui said in a loud voice: "My lord is the parents of the people, and I will swear to guard this gate to the death. The traitor wants to harm my lord, so I stepped on Chen's corpse." He bowed deeply to Cao Liangshi, holding his saber stride out.He already had death intentions in his heart, according to this fierce attack method, the city wall would be in danger at any time, if there were no reinforcements, the city would be destroyed in just a few days.Although Chen Cui is only a general, he has heard and seen these days, and he is extremely convinced by the administration of the Ezhou Prime Minister's Mansion. After Cao Liangshi served as Minister of the Ministry of War, he was promoted to the most important city gate general. Quen has decided to repay him with death.

The Ezhou army built several artillery forts outside the city wall. Because of the hasty construction, the artillery fortresses were much lower than the original city. When the Xiangyang army began to attack the city, the Ezhou army took the initiative to drag the artillery into the city and gave up the artillery fortifications.Teams of soldiers threw soil bags and firewood piles under the city like ants, and used the artillery fortresses originally built under the city as foundations to pile up earth hills for attacking the city.The arrows at the top of the city were weak, and the stones thrown down became the materials for building the mountain. The earth mountain increased in height at a speed that could be detected by the human eye. top.The defenders at the top of the city screamed loudly, and the boiling oil and rocks kept hitting the soldiers under the city wall on the heads.

"It's so slow, when will we be able to capture this city!" Cao Dihan was very angry, and he turned his head and said, "Our army has been fighting against the rebels in Ezhou for more than ten days, with heavy casualties. Can Liu Xianggong send his subordinates to help out? !” In the evening of yesterday, Liu Yanqing, the deputy envoy of the Privy Council and Minister of the Ministry of War, led his troops back to Ezhou, which brought heavy pressure on the army’s food and grass, and also made Cao Di feel the pressure of the Liao army following closely behind.

Liu Yanqing sighed, and explained in a low voice: "Cao Xianggong, our army has been fighting and retreating all the way. The soldiers are exhausted and exhausted. If we force the soldiers to fight, I'm afraid it will backfire and even lead to mutiny."

Liu Yanqing originally left General Li Qiong to stay in Xiangyang with tens of thousands of troops. Unexpectedly, as soon as he left, Li Qiong surrendered to the Liao army. Abandoning the old, the weak, and the luggage, he retreated to Ezhou safely and joined Cao Di's army.Liu Yanqing originally thought that Ezhou was just an empty city, and Cao Di's army had already occupied it.Then the two armies joined forces, taking advantage of Ezhou's food and wages and the dangers of the river, they could still stabilize their positions, but who would have thought that the Ezhou army would resist stubbornly, and Cao Di's tens of thousands of elite soldiers could not enter the city after a delay of more than ten days.

Listening to Liu Yanqing's prevarication, Cao Di's face became more gloomy. He suppressed the urge to turn his back on him, and stopped persuading him. He only turned his head away and urged his subordinates to attack the city.Group after group of elite soldiers from the Xijing camp charged forward, only to be pushed back by the artillery and stones from the top of the city. On the high slope, it seems that the city wall is not broken, so he has been supervising the battle here.The night wind was slightly cold, Liu Yanqing looked embarrassed and stood beside Cao Di, he retreated all the way from Xiangyang, he was really tired, so he excused himself to check his subordinates, and went back to the camp of the Chinese army to rest.

Cao Di's face was as heavy as water, and when Liu Yanqing was far away, he turned his head to look at the Liu family's military camp on the opposite river bank, and with a faint "hum" from his nose, he turned his gaze back to the east city of Ezhou.In any case, Liu Yanqing still has more than [-] elite soldiers in the southeast battalion. Even if he is dissatisfied now, there is nothing he can do about him. After taking Ezhou to stabilize the situation, it will not be too late to slowly process this old "mediocre general".

For those fighting inside and outside the city walls of Ezhou, it was an infinitely long night, and countless people lost their lives.

On the other side of the river, surrounded by trees, a pair of cold eyes watched all this.

"Longshengtian bless you, the harder you fight, the better. Anyway, the blood of Song people will be shed." Yeluqi secretly said, he turned and smiled at his subordinates, "No matter which one wins, just wait for His Majesty's army to arrive. They must all submit to the horseshoes of the Khitan people."

In the dark, hundreds of cavalry rushed to the outside of Hongshan Temple in Dongshan, Ezhou.The sound of cannons was vaguely heard, and the cavalry couldn't help but show a look of excitement.The three students from Jiangxia County who were boarding in Hongshan Temple heard the movement outside and came out to check. Seeing that Zhao Xingde led the troops back to help, they were all pleasantly surprised. After a while.

"Finally we've arrived." Yang Zaixing smiled, not at all worried about being on the side of tens of thousands of enemy troops.

"Rest for an hour." Zhao Xingde nodded and said, "At dawn, let's rush into the city!"

"Yes!" The generals agreed in a low voice.Galloping for [-] miles, although Zhao Xingde deliberately conserved horsepower, only more than [-] riders reached the finish line.The cavalry took off the excess load on the horses. While resting their horses, they neatly put on the heavy armor they had charged into battle, sat cross-legged on the ground and closed their eyes, waiting for the moment to go into battle.

The east gradually 'revealed' a fish-belly white, and the first ray of sunlight appeared on the top of Dongshan Mountain.