Sixty or seventy thunderbolt vehicles bombarded Zhen'an City one after another, knocking down the defenders' towers, chipping away the battlements and parapets at the top of the city, and even knocking down many disc towers, suppressing the bows at the top of the city. All the crossbowmen were cowering and hiding! But the bed crossbows, big yellow crossbows, and crossbowmen hidden in the dish building were also responding non-stop, not to mention the Tang Army's Thunderbolt Chariot Formation in the inner city. , and never stopped fighting back for a moment.

The opponent's stone bullets were very accurate, and the fire bombs and incendiary bombs in the city seemed to have opened their eyes. They landed wherever they were concentrated! The gunners were unprotected and could not be moved. They had to stand where they were. , just wait for one hit before pulling the weight box, filling it with stone bullets, and pulling down the grapple.

So speaking of it, the defenders took advantage.

A loud noise! ​​It attracted the attention of Colonel Jishe of the Jin Army. A flash of anger flashed across his face, and his eyes almost burst into flames. Another Thunderbolt Chariot was scrapped, and this was already the seventh one!

"Bomb! Blow down the city wall! Blow down Zhen'an!" The roar resounded throughout the countryside!

The soldiers faithfully carried out the commander's orders, showing a high level of fighting spirit and fearless courage at this moment. A fire bomb hit a Jin Army thunderbolt car, and the flying wood chips killed many soldiers like broken arrows. The gunners and another group of Jin army gunners on the side did not care about the corpses of their companions and continued to attack the city head inconspicuously.

The bombardment lasted for a whole morning, and there was almost no intact tower in Annan City. The battlements and parapets were also damaged in hundreds of places, and the damage to the buildings in the city was incalculable!

It was not until all the Jin army's Pili chariots were destroyed that the artillery battle came to an end.

After half a day, the Jin army suffered more than 400 gunner casualties. Except for three of the Pili chariots of the defenders in the city, no one was lost. The gunner casualties were not even a fraction of the Jin army's!

The offensive and defensive battle on the Sheep and Horse Wall ended after the last hour. The Jin army suffered too many casualties. They rushed up the flying bridge like ants, one after another, jumping onto the Sheep and Horse Wall. However, they were defended again. The soldier crushed him to death like an ant.

When the Jin army captain fell into the battle line and was shot to death by two groups of crossbowmen from the defenders, the Jin army, roaring like a frenzy, lost its violence and had to retreat.

As for the Jin army's siege after the artillery battle stopped, the airtight arrow formation at the top of the city, and the unpredictable stone bullets, brought a complete nightmare to the second wave of attacking Jin troops!

Zheng Guoxiong stood in the main tent of the Chinese army with his back to the entrance. The generals who came in one after another could not see his face. It was impossible to guess his mood at this moment. Is there any need to guess? In this battle, there were so many casualties. , one can imagine how Zheng Guoxiong felt as soon as the victory was over.

A miscellaneous general rushed into the tent covered in blood, and the first words he said when he came in were: "Captain, our army is wounded..." The words stopped abruptly, and he could already feel the strange atmosphere in the tent.

Zheng Guoxiong turned around under the gaze of a group of generals and walked slowly towards the handsome case. After arriving at the case, he did not sit down. Instead, his sharp eyes swept across the audience and finally fell on the face of the general. He asked in a deep voice: "How many casualties have our troops suffered?"

"Commander, in just this half day, our army lost more than 4,000 people, not counting the wounded, and the equipment was seriously damaged," General Zahao replied.

The air pressure in the big tent was even lower. More than 4,000 people were killed in one morning, and this was even when the Jin army's infantry did not attack with full force. The corners of Zheng Guoxiong's mouth trembled unnaturally!

If you lose more than 4,000 people, how many people will your opponent lose? One thousand, eight hundred, or lower?

If the fight continues like this, I am afraid that I will not be able to attack the hinterland of Central and South China, and I will only be able to install a county in this town. I will retreat and go home.

Zheng Guoxiong closed his eyes, but the anger in his heart was like a raging fire, burning his heart and lungs. Damn Zhu Biao! Zhu thief! I don't believe that my army of more than 300,000 people will fall into the hands of a few of your troops.

The general and 60,000 infantry soldiers are in my hands! I swear to break the peace!

"Then what do you think of today's battle?" After a long time, Zheng Guoxiong opened his eyes and asked.

"Captain, the Tang army has a tenacious defense. If our army wants to conquer such a fortified city, it will only require a lot of thunderbolt chariots. Sixty or seventy chariots are nothing to be afraid of, but six or seven hundred chariots or a thousand chariots will directly annihilate Zhen'an City," Ning Daosi said.

Express your inner thoughts.

In a word, it is a pile of 'cannon fodder'.

However, this sentence truly expresses the sentiments of most of the generals in the tent. The city of Zhen'an should be this big, instead of sending soldiers up.

We have lost so much this morning. If we attack with all our strength and fight bloody battles in one day, we may lose 10,000 to 20,000 people. The total army is only around 300,000 people.

Zheng Guoxiong accepted the suggestion.

…

Strengthen the county town.

Groups of security army infantrymen surged past like a tidal wave, and an endless sea of ​​red flags fluttered in the breeze. Among them, a huge flaming red battle flag was particularly attractive.

Fifty thousand security troops gathered here and thirty thousand were gathered here. The armor was in a flash, and the purple tabards were dyed crimson. In response to the sunlight and the armor, they were dazzling and made the lineup look neat and majestic.

Each weapon emits a dazzling cold light under the sunlight. The swords and armor are bright and the morale is full. People say that with more than 10,000 soldiers, it is boundless, and the 30,000-strong army stretches for ten miles on the official road.

"It looks very good, but I wonder if it's a silver wax gun tip!" A middle-aged man in the crowd watched for a long time and sighed.

"Sir, the Jin army's soldiers and horses are not inferior." One person said.

"Can it be compared? A few days ago, the army was demoted."

"That's all. Why do you care about this? Just send the news back." The middle-aged man sighed.

His identity is very limited.

April and May were good times, with no cold and not too hot. The march of the 30,000 infantrymen was not slow. Within a few days, near dusk, the army had already arrived outside the city.

The person in charge of Qiangxing City now is Wang Xiguang, the same general who led 20,000 troops into the city. He is a general above the prefect.

As early as three days ago, large numbers of Han and Tang cavalry began to appear outside the city. What is even more unscrupulous is that the masters of the other army took advantage of the rainy days in the past few days to enter the city at night, secretly broke open the granary and the roof of the granary, and guarded the grain.

It took two days for the treasurer to discover the sergeant, but it was too late. By now, a warehouse of wheat had become moldy and rotten.

Do you think it is immoral to do this? There is only a few days of food left in the city.

Wang Xiguang ordered to save food and grass, but it did not cure the root cause nor the root cause, so it was of little use. All he could do was to use every means to ask for help from outside.

Now, when he heard that a large number of infantry were arriving from outside the city, Wang Xiguang, who was in a panic, rushed to the top of the city to watch without any urging from the city's prefect.

When they saw the infantry outside the city, an order was passed down. All units responded to the order and immediately divided their respective areas and dug trenches. These trenches were the natural dividing lines for the camps.

Trenches were drawn, and the soldiers took out tents and spread them out. They also dug drainage ditches and public toilets.

Then they cut down the surrounding trees and built wooden walls. They had been trained many times and were methodical. With 30,000 people working together, it was actually very fast. Before the sun completely set, each building was small in scale, but very complete.

The camp appeared in front of everyone.

Once night falls, no one is allowed to visit the military camps. Anyone who disobeys the order will be executed. Only the patrolling camp or the war leader can pass freely.

The person in charge of strengthening the city was Zhou Zi'ang, with Zhu Hong as his deputy. Every night, one of the two led three thousand cavalry to inspect each camp.

The ministries set up camp carefully, and the morale of the soldiers was good. Darkness fell, and smoke curled up from the cooking pots. Pots and stoves were dug up one by one, and there were some for roasting dry food, and some for stewing dried meat soup. The food was quite good.

Zhou Ziang then inspected some of the supply camps that came with the army. Many of the equipment that had been disassembled into parts were intact. He felt reassured. As long as these equipment were assembled overnight, he could attack the city tomorrow.

However, the Han and Tang cavalry could rest, but Wang Xiguang in the city was furious.

In Qiangxing County, in the main hall of a house, there was a "pop" sound, and everyone looked inside, and then looked at each other, all with gray faces.

What's the use of being angry again? Can you kill the infantry outside the city with anger?

Wang Xiguang looked around at the crowd and spat out a few words through his teeth: "The whole city is under martial law. Starting tonight, anyone who talks in private will be killed, anyone who dares to act without permission, anyone who dares to shake the morale of the military, and anyone who dares to disobey orders will be killed."

Anyone who dares to delay the opportunity to fight will be killed!"

"No!" Everyone was stunned and then responded.

In a moment, messengers rushed out of the mansion, conveying Wang Xiguang's orders.

"Collect food and grass from the whole city and distribute it according to needs. Whether it is rich and powerful households or poor people, the surplus food must be returned to the warehouse without mistake. Anyone who dares to stop it will be killed without mercy!"

The two pieces of information were transmitted to Wen Yian, the governor of Qiangxing, one after another.

The governor, who was over fifty years old, had his hands trembling after receiving the information. As a civil servant, how could he not know how much damage the military would do to the people's livelihood in Qiangxing City?

If the siege continues, without the need for external troops to attack the city, the entire Qiangxing will turn into a hell of swords and fire within ten days.

"No, no. It must be stopped, it must be stopped!"

Wen Yi'an was trembling as if he were in a daze.

A gust of wind came, and the copper bells under the eaves of the government office hit each other, making a crisp sound, which made Wen Yi'an shiver instantly. Looking around, it was already dark.

Wen Yi'an did not act immediately, but sighed, handed the document to the staff around him, and asked: "What should we do now?"

The staff looked at it, and all of them looked pale. After a while, one of the staff said: "Sir, General Wang is not an ignorant person. He made such a decision, and it seems that he is going to defend Qiangxing."

After hearing this, another staff member couldn't help but interjected: "Sir, please ask for help quickly, or..."

Having said this, he kept silent and carefully observed Wen Yi'an's expression.

Wen Yi'an didn't know what it meant. The only way was to surrender. He felt in a daze for a while, and then he calmed down and said: "Yes, we have to ask for help from the Jin soldiers. Let's see what they say...

"

But in these days, many people were sent out, but not a single reply was received from the Jin army. Wen Yi'an still clearly remembered that two days ago, he was looking out at the top of the city and saw a pair of pigeons flying from the east sky.

, but inexplicably when he came to the rebel camp, he suddenly lowered his height and was pierced by a crossbow arrow and died.

This tone immediately made the staff look happy. No normal person would be able to watch a city with a population of three to four hundred thousand people turn into a dead place.

Qiangxing City originally had 100,000 residents, but after the war started, a large number of people from surrounding areas poured in, causing the number of people in the city to more than quadruple. The food reserves originally only had less than two months, and now the granary has been destroyed.

Even if the city is full of people's surplus food, it will be difficult to have enough food for ten days.

If we continue to hold on with the rebels outside the city, once reinforcements from outside are not available, the whole Qiangxing will be in misery.

"Sir, carrier pigeon, carrier pigeon!" At this moment, a servant suddenly came in from outside, shouting loudly.

Wen Yi'an wanted to get angry, but after hearing the words from the servant's mouth, he was stunned. "The sky has eyes, the sky has eyes!"

What does timely rain mean? What does all your wishes come true? This is it!

Startled, he quickly said: "Come in quickly!"

There was no need for him to invite him, and no one dared to stop the servant who was holding the carrier pigeon and shouting.

People who work in the magistrate's mansion. Who doesn't know that the servant in front of them is the confidant of the magistrate? Who doesn't know the meaning of carrier pigeons?

"...Stick...Stick...Stick...Still stick..."

The note brought by the carrier pigeon contained two to three hundred words, but in actual terms, Wen Yi'an only saw the word "persistence".

The corners of his eyes twitched. If it weren't for his good self-control, Wen Yian would have cursed.
To be continued...