Xiangyang City is three zhang high, with tall and strong walls. The moat is three zhang wide on average, mainly because it is close to the Han River to the north. It leads a tributary from the Han River to enter the city from the north, making the moat in the north particularly wide, reaching four zhang. Moreover, the moats on the other three sides are not very wide. The terrain outside the city is flat and mainly fields. However, Yang Shilin implemented a strategy of strengthening the walls and clearing the fields, moving all the people within 30 miles outside the city into the city, leaving no grain at home, cutting away the wheat in the fields, and picking the melons and beans, leaving Xiangyang empty.

Amid the rumbling sound of offensive drums, 20,000 Zheng troops launched a fierce attack on Xiangyang City from the east and south sides at the same time, but the attacks on the east and west sides suffered unexpected setbacks.

Outside the West City, two thousand crossbowmen were getting closer and closer to the city wall. They had to establish a crossbow attack line about fifty steps away from the city wall to suppress the shooting of the bows and arrows on the head of the city.

But just after two thousand crossbowmen rushed into the two hundred steps, an accident happened. Hundreds of soldiers running in the front fell down and screamed in their arms. They were pierced by the thorny caltrops sprinkled on the ground. This was the thorny caltrops sprinkled by the Sui army last night. They were all hardened with poison, and they threw tens of thousands of them on the east and west sides, so that Zhu Kuan could keep the confidence of the city.

The crossbowmen behind were so scared that they retreated one after another. The Zheng army soldiers who were stabbed by the poisonous needle stood up with difficulty and limped backwards. However, after walking for only a few dozen steps, the poison began to attack. Soldiers fell to the ground and howled, their legs began to turn black and swollen, and they could no longer walk. In just a moment, more than 400 soldiers who were stabbed fell down and desperately called Zhao Heiquan for help.

Thousands of militia soldiers on the city were nervous at first, but then they were deeply surprised. When they saw hundreds of enemy soldiers falling to the ground and shouting, the city was filled with cheers, and Yang Shilin was stunned, not knowing what had happened.

At this time, Sui Army Yingyang Lang and Ma Yuanzhe whispered to him: "At the third update last night, we sprinkled more than 50,000 thorns from Dongcheng and Xicheng each. Unless they find a way to eliminate it, they will not be able to attack the city."

Yang Shilin was overjoyed. It turned out that this was the case. Although the thorns of terrestrialis would cause trouble to the people later, he didn't care about the future and praised him, "It's indeed a good idea!"

Ma Yuanzhe smiled slightly, "The other party will definitely use a raft to pave the road, but we have solutions."

"What is it?" Yang Shilin asked hurriedly.

Ma Yuanzhe smiled and said, "It's a strong bow and hard crossbow!"

He turned around and waved his hand. A thousand Sui soldiers rushed forward with big yellow crossbows. The militia soldiers retreated one after another, leaving them a favorable position on the city. The militia soldiers looked at the large crossbows in the hands of the Sui soldiers in surprise. This was the first time that many people had seen such a large heavy crossbow.

Yang Shilin walked up to touch the heavy crossbow gently. Ma Yuanzhe introduced lightly: "This is a seven-stone yellow crossbow. Two people need to open the strings, with a range of 400 steps, and two hundred and fifty steps can shoot through the enemy's shields and armor. As long as the enemy comes along a fixed line, five hundred yellow crossbows will inevitably cause them to suffer heavy casualties."

"Very good, I'll wait and see!"

Under the city, the defeat of Zheng's first attack made the enemy general Zhao Heiquan furious, but he was experienced and immediately thought of a countermeasure and ordered: "Pave the road with a raft!"

The raft was originally used to pave a moat, but now it is used to pave an attack path. Zheng's soldiers took action together. Two rafts were soon paved in front of the west city. At the beginning of the second attack, thousands of Zheng's soldiers walked carefully along two five-foot-wide raft paths, still holding shields in their hands.

When there were still 150 steps away from the city wall, a clapper sound rang out on the head of the city. Five hundred yellow crossbows were fired in five sections. A dense and powerful hundred arrows were shot at the Zheng army soldiers on the two paths. The powerful arrows shot through the soldiers' shields and leather armor. The soldiers screamed and fell to the ground. Then the second row of hundreds of arrows shot at the Zheng army soldiers on the raft path. Then the third row, the fourth row, and the fifth row, then the third row, the fourth row, and the fifth row.

This is a point shooting tactic of the Sui army, which is an effective means of killing the enemy from a long distance to deal with narrow passages or canyons and other places. In the first round, only 500 yellow crossbow arrows shot and killed nearly 400 Zheng soldiers.

The second round of arrow formation began again, completely blocking two raft paths. After leaving more than 700 corpses, thousands of Zheng soldiers fled back to the formation in a hurry, and cheers sounded again on the top of the city.

More than a thousand soldiers were lost in just half an hour, but the Zheng army in siege could not even enter within a hundred steps. Although Zhao Heiquan was experienced, he also had no experience in this situation. He was extremely angry and threw the battle flag to the ground, saying to a personal soldier with hatred: "Go to report to Your Highness, and you can't continue to attack the siege in the west."

"Abide by the order!"

The personal soldiers turned around and urged the horse to run towards the south city

Zhao Heiquan immediately ordered: "Stop the attack for the time being and wait for the commander's order!"

Not only did Xicheng encounter ambush by the terrestrial terrestrial terrestrial terrestrial terrestrial terrestrial terrestrial terrestrial terrestrial terrestrial terrestrial terrestrial terrestrial terrestrial terrestrial terrestrial terrestrial terrestrial terrestrial terrestrial terrestrial terrestrial terrestrial terrestrial terrestrial terrestrial terrestrial terrestrial terrestrial terrestrial terrestrial terrestrial terrestrial terrestrial terrestrial terrestrial terrestrial terrestrial terrestrial terrestrial terrestrial terrestrial terrestrial terrestrial terrestrial terrestrial terrestrial terrestrial terrestrial terrestrial terrestrial terrestrial terrestrial terrestrial terrestrial terrestrial terrestrial terrestrial terrestrial terrestrial terrestrial terrestrial terrestrial terrestrial terrestrial terrestrial terrestrial terrestrial terrestrial terrestrial terrestrial terrestrial terrestrial terrestrial terrestrial terrestrial terrestrial terrestrial terrestrial terrestrial terrestrial terrestrial terrestrial terrestrial terrestrial terrestrial terrestrial terrestrial terrestrial terrestrial terrestrial terrestrial terrestrial terrestrial terrestrial terrestrial terrestrial terrestrial terrestrial terrestrial

Neither east or west can continue to attack, and the two main players kicked the problem to Wang Renze.

Nancheng's first attack was also defeated because it could not withstand the dense arrows on the city. Wang Renze was so angry that his eyes almost spit out of fire. He had already seen that there were actually not many Sui troops on the city. Most of the others were civilians wearing armor. Many people could not even use bows and arrows, and they shot arrows down randomly.

But that's true, his army still couldn't attack the city within fifty steps. Rather than saying that the Sui army's crossbows were powerful, his soldiers were more willing to cherish their lives. They robbed them and fought for the first place, but when they fought, everyone was jealous of their lives, thinking about the little bit of stolen gold, silver and jewelry.

At this moment, the city walls on both sides of the east and west were sent to report, and the attack was hindered. The Sui army scattered a large number of poisonous needles and thorns under the city wall, and the soldiers were seriously injured.

This news made Wang Renze unable to speak for a long time. Finally, he slowly said: "Since the east and west cannot attack, then concentrate on attacking Nancheng, pass on my orders, and the army gathers again!"

‘Dong-Dong-Dong-Dong!’

The dull sound of assembly drums sounded, and the Zheng army outside the three walls began to quickly assemble to the south city. After losing thousands of soldiers, Wang Renze changed his tactics and no longer carried out three-sided attacks, but concentrated his troops to attack the south city.

Wang Renze stood on the platform and shouted hysterically to the soldiers: "Don't you want money? Don't you want women? I promise you that the first brother to attack the city was named Wanhuhou, and you can choose any ten wealthy families in the city. All the wealth and women of the ten wealthy families belong to him. If you don't have the luck, I will use a ship to transport him back to Luoyang. This is my Wang Renze's promise. I swear to God!"

Zheng's soldiers cheered and their morale was boosted again. Wang Renze pulled out his battle knife, looked at the top of the city and gritted his teeth and said, "Siege the city!"

"Dong!Dong!Dong!"

The sound of war drums sounded rapidly, and 17,000 soldiers launched a powerful offensive to the Nancheng from three directions at the same time. The situation in Xiangyang City began to become critical.

At this time, Lai Huer, who had been paying attention to the Battle of Xiangyang on the Han River, also received a request for a new force from Zhu Kuan to send people to increase his troops. He immediately ordered another 5,000 soldiers to Xiangyang City. This was a record that had been prepared. Five thousand soldiers had already been assembled on ten large ships of 3,000 stone. Once the situation of defending the city needed, the army would immediately enter the city to support it.

The north city gate of Xiangyang slowly opened, and five thousand Sui soldiers entered Xiangyang from the north city and rushed to the south city, increasing the Sui soldiers in Xiangyang City to 10,000.

This is his scheming plan. He did not inject 10,000 troops into Xiangyang City at one time, but went there in batches. On the one hand, it could increase the favorable feelings of the people of Xiangyang towards the Sui army, and on the other hand, it could also confuse the Zheng army of the siege and drag them to the maximum extent under Xiangyang City, and buy time for the reinforcements that were coming from Jiangxia, and completely wipe out Wang Renze's army under Xiangyang City.

At the same time, dozens of 500-stone warships also entered Xiangyang City through the water gate of the North City, sending a large amount of defensive substances, including Gaonu turbulent, to the defenders of Xiangyang City. The offensive and defensive battle in Xiangyang City is escalating step by step.

The Tang army chased from the south was only two hours later than the Zheng army. The 35,000 Tang army crossed the Han River in Shanghong County and continued to chase north along the Han River, but stopped in the small town of Xianshan about 80 miles away from Xiangyang County.

At this time, Wu Shitao and Li Xiaogong had already received news that the Sui army had entered Xiangyang City. The two thousand Tang troops originally stationed in Xiangyang City retreated to Xiyang County. This news made the two of them breathe a sigh of relief, but also felt disappointed. They were worried that the two thousand Tang troops would not be able to resist the 20,000 Zheng troops' attack like a wolf and tiger. Xiangyang City fell and turned into a hell on earth. They could not explain to the emperor. Now Xiangyang City is still standing up, causing the worries in their hearts to disappear.

I feel very disappointed because the change of Yiqi in Xiangyang City means that the Tang army was completely locked outside the gate of Jingzhou, and they could not gain a foothold in Jingzhou, so they could only withdraw from Jingzhou as soon as possible.
Chapter completed!