Chapter 290: The Road to the South (Five)

The two armies have been confronting each other for ten days. Liu Jicheng, the commander of the Northern Han Forefront Battalion, stood on the wall of the Matou Castle every day, waiting for the attack that would arrive at any time. The expected bloody battle did not begin for a long time. The calmness of the Great Zhou army made Liu Jicheng feel surprised. From his experience, the stronger the storm, there will always be an unusual tranquility before it comes.

On the fifteenth day of the Great Zhou army's besieging city, catapult cars appeared one after another in front of the Matou Fort position. Liu Jicheng and Wu Zheng looked at each other when they saw these giants.

Wu Zheng looked back at the camp that was not wide in the fort, and was already depressed. "No wonder the Zhou army did not launch an attack. It must be waiting for these catapults. These dozens of catapults smashed the stones that were covered with the sky. The terrain in the fort was narrow, and there was nowhere to hide in the vanguard camp. What should we do?"

Liu Jicheng stared at his eyes and wanted to scold Wu Zheng, but Wu Zheng was telling the truth and could not say anything. He suddenly rushed down the wall of the village, found a shovel, and dug it hard in the fort. The soil layer on the ground in the fort was extremely thin, and the shovel had not been dug for long before it encountered a hard rock.

Liu Jicheng had a gloomy face and came to Houbao in Matou Castle with a shovel. There was a spring in the back fort, and a stream of water flowed out of the cracks of the stones. This stream of water was the only source of water in the fort. He walked around the fort several times. Finally, he threw the shovel aside in disappointment, "Wu Lang, you immediately took 800 people out of Houbao and waited for us to Tianzhu Mountain ten miles away."

Wu Zheng shook his head and said, "No, how can two hundred people defend the Horsehead Castle? It is obviously a death sentence."

Liu Jicheng glared at his eyes and said, "Stop talking. You can hide at most two or three hundred people behind the wall in the fort. One thousand people can be placed in the fort, just like fish on the chopping board, which is useless for defense. It is purely waiting for death." He patted Wu Zheng's shoulder vigorously and said, "You must bring me 800 people. If one person is missing, I want to settle the score with you."

The Great Zhou army outside the Horsehead Fort was patiently accumulating strength. Castellations stood under the slope in front of the fort. Each catapult prepared a large number of stones and some thick clay pots. The clay pots were filled with turbulent oil, which was a kind of siege weapon that Hou Dayong loved very much.

On the morning of the seventeenth day, the catapult cart was ready.

Shortly after lunch, the face was like heavy dates, and the long beards fluttered, the king Tengxiong rode a high-headed horse to the catapult formation.

Opposite the Horsehead Castle, the Northern Han soldiers waved their swords and guns to provoke the Great Zhou army.

Wang Tengxiang looked at these brave Northern Han soldiers with some pity. He used his hands to sort out his long, thick beards and ordered: "The first group of fire." The messenger behind him immediately waved the red flag. He could only hear a loud "buzz, buzz". Ten round stones as big as millstones flew into the fort. The first launch was not accurate, and four round stones hit outside the fort.

As the red flag waved, three groups of catapults smashed hard towards the Horsehead Castle almost uninterrupted. After the first round of test shots, the catapult corrected the angle and greatly improved the shooting accuracy. At this time, the Horsehead Castle was like a pool. The stones were like frogs. Groups of frogs jumped into the pool. Every time they jumped, they could hear the constant "bang, chuck" sound.

The Zhou soldiers in front of the horse head castle stretched their necks, just like an idiot watching the fireworks, holding their arms, drooling and watching the catapult performing. The killing aura on the battlefield was somewhat dim by the one-sided attack.

Wang Tengxiang narrowed his eyes and observed the movements in the castle. He had excellent eyesight. He could even see the dust rising from the horsehead castle. However, Wang Tengxiang always felt a little strange: Why did the catapult attack so violently, and there were only sporadic screams in the castle?

Hou Dayong also realized the same problem. After the first wave of attacks, he came to Wang Tengxiang with his horse and said, "General Wang, is there something wrong with it?"

"There is only such a large area in the fort. Under such an attack, there must be a large casualty, strange. I didn't hear the screams in the fort."

At this time, another northern Han army stood up in the fort. They yelled at the Great Zhou army, venting their depression of being beaten but unable to fight back.

Hou Dayong's heart moved and asked with some doubt: "How many people are there in the Northern Han army in the fort?"

Following Hou Dayong, Dishi Shouxin said: "According to a horse-headed fort defender who escaped, the number of Northern Han soldiers attacked was more than a thousand."

Wang Tengxiang and Hou Dayong looked at each other, and the two had some feelings. Wang Tengxiang said, "Can most of the Northern Han army have fled, and these people are just suspicious?"

"I think the time has come for a strong attack?"

Hou Dayong waved his hand and said, "You are the front-line commander and have the right to make decisions on the spot."

The catapult car stopped temporarily, and the soldiers used clay pots instead of the boulders, adjusted the angle, and prepared to burn the Horsehead Fort.

Several rows of crossbow archers came to the front of the formation. The crossbow archers were located in front of the crossbow archers. The repair archers were similar to Angry. The top was covered with raw cowhide and the bottom was supported by thick logs. The main purpose was to send the sergeant to a place close to the city wall.

The Five Hundred Infantry raised the wooden ladder like a wall and prepared to charge towards the Horsehead.

After the preparations were ready, Wang Tengxiang ordered majesticly: "Catting cart launches." The pottery jar and fireball flew into the horsehead castle like meteorites, and the flames and thick smoke rushed into the air.

Liu Jicheng and 200 Northern Han soldiers all leaned against the base of the village wall and used the village wall to resist the attack of the catapult. Most of the Zhou army's round stones flew into the fort from the sky above the village wall, and only a small part hit the wall. The village wall of the Matou Fort was firmly tamped with clay. Each layer of compaction was poured with thick rice soup. When the work was completed, the supervisor would pierce the wall with sharp iron cones. Any iron cones that could pierce into the wall must be rebuilt.

The Matoubao Village Wall withstood the huge impact of the rocks. Although the walls were smashed into small holes, they still effectively protected the sergeants behind the walls. Only a few sergeants were injured by the rocks.

When the Zhou army's catapult attack ended temporarily, Liu Jizhen sent soldiers to the fort to collect round stones. These round stones could roll down the slanting city, which was a very powerful defensive weapon.

After the Zhou army had dispatched troops, the catapult car began to prepare for the attack again. The Northern Han army used the same trick again and hid behind the village wall. This time, many pots thrown by the Zhou army's catapult car fell near the village wall, and fierce turbulence splashed around the fort wall.

Liu Jicheng was not panicked. He had already expected that the pots piled up next to the catapult cart were filled with turbulent oil. Some soil was piled up every ten steps behind the wall to extinguish the turbulent oil and cause a fire. Even though Liu Jicheng was well prepared and the turbulent oil burned violently on the narrow wall of the village, it still caused serious losses to the Northern Han soldiers. More than a dozen Northern Han soldiers were burned to death and dozens were seriously injured.

Liu Jicheng kept running around the village wall, commanding the Northern Han army to use soil to extinguish the fire. There was no fire-induced object on the village wall. When the Zhou army drums sounded, although smoke was everywhere on the village wall, the fire was basically extinguished.

Liu Jicheng's face was covered in dust, gray and black, shouting: "The Zhou army is going to attack, prepare the round stones and the wood."

Outside the village wall, there was a loud shout. Zhou's slug repair truck approached the village wall along the slope, rolling down from a high place, round stones and wood kept hitting the slug repair truck, making a huge noise. The slug repair truck was specially designed for siege, and it was extremely strong, slowly and firmly approaching the slug wall. Ten slug repair trucks stopped within the range of crossbow arrows, and dozens of crossbow archers aimed at the slug repair trucks.

The crossbow arrows of the Great Zhou imperial guards are different from those of the Black Eagle Army. The Black Eagle Army is mainly Huang Hua's hand crossbow, but the Imperial Guards mainly use foot-pedal crossbow. In terms of lethality, foot-pedal crossbow is stronger than Huang Hua's hand crossbow. In terms of mobility and firing speed, the Huang Hua's hand crossbow is obviously better than the foot-pedal crossbow.

The crossbow arrows with sharp whistles suppressed all the Northern Han troops on the village wall.

The war drums of the Great Zhou army sounded again, and the Great Zhou soldiers holding ladders rushed towards the village wall frantically. The Northern Han soldiers did not dare to expose their bodies under the threat of crossbow arrows. They could only throw the round stones and squats out of the village wall under the command of a few observation sentries. As several observation sentries had carved feather arrows inserted into the faces, the Northern Han soldiers lost their guidance and could only blindly smash the round stones and squats outwards.

The front of the Matoubao village wall was not wide, and these blind round stones and wood also posed a threat to the Zhou army. There were endless screams outside the village wall. Although the Zhou army suffered heavy casualties, the offensive was extremely firm. Soon, dozens of wooden ladders of the Zhou army had already been laid on the village wall.

When Liu Jicheng saw that the enemy was about to go up to the wall, he held a rosewood spear in his hand. He shouted, "Gun formation." There were only more than 100 soldiers in the Northern Han Dynasty. They were in groups of three, holding all the spears, aiming the tip of the spear at the long ladder.

When the Zhou army soldiers emerged from the wooden ladder, countless spears like poisonous snakes stabbed towards them fiercely.

Liu Jicheng assassinated three Zhou soldiers in succession, and the fourth Zhou army climbed up from the wooden ladder. He was extremely skilled. He used a small infantry shield to block Liu Jicheng's sprint, turned over and jumped into the village wall. Liu Jizhen took a step back and after accumulating his momentum, his spear was as fast as thunder and stabbed the abdomen of the Zhou army soldiers.

The Zhou army soldiers dodged to the left and dodged Liu Jicheng's fatal blow.

The soldiers around Liu Jicheng were also masters of gun use. He took advantage of the fact that the Zhou army soldiers dodged and did not stand firm. The spear suddenly penetrated his lower abdomen and tweaked it hard. The Zhou army soldiers were in severe pain and opened their doors. The spear in Liu Jicheng's hand penetrated his chest hard. Liu Jicheng was extremely powerful and pulled the spear up with both hands. The Zhou army soldiers were actually picked up and smashed against a Zhou army soldier who had just exposed his body.
Chapter completed!