The dense arrows covered the city like locusts, and the tail feathers were shaking in the air with strange and clear sounds. The howlings, shouts, and the sounds of swords, shields, guns and halberds that both sides could not cover them up.

The competition for Lantian City Wall lasted for more than ten days and had entered a white-hot process at this time.

The northern city wall was full of gaps that were bombarded by Western stone cannons, but the defenders were still insisting on it. The armor was stained with blood. They still stubbornly raised their sharp long swords and chopped them down from the enemy's head, raised their spears and slammed them into the enemy's chest and abdomen, and used their flesh and blood to block the gap.

The sunset wiped the last trace of gorgeous afterglow on the clear evening sky and sank into the west mountain, adding a dark atmosphere between the sky and the earth.

Seeing that several gaps were unable to successfully break into the city, and the casualties were heavy. At this moment, the enemy issued an order to withdraw the troops. Dozens of letters rode on the outside of the city wall and shouted orders. The enemy who rushed towards the gap in the city wall was desperately rushing toward the gap in the city wall, like a dark tide, quickly retreating northward.????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????

The defenders stood exhausted on the broken city wall, watching the enemy retreat, and some people couldn't wait to sit against the wall, without much intention to go out of the city to counterattack, and were more lucky to repel the enemy again.

The enemy showed no sign of a strong attack at night, but in the whirlwind cannon position three or four hundred steps away, the enemy became busy again.

At this time, the defenders also gradually retreated from the city wall and hid in the battle shed made of double-layer pine logs after entering the city wall. Only a small number of generals and soldiers were left at the top of the city to monitor the enemy's movements. The civilians who were originally on standby under the city carried baskets, stumbled a load of lime, and filled the gap with grass-cut earth and stones, and used stone mills to compact them.

The whirlwind cannon, the Western Regions stone cannon, was activated, and the stone cannon roared in the air. The first shot fell accurately on the city wall. I felt the earth trembling slightly, and bricks and stones on the city wall splashed, and cracks were so shocking.

The firing frequency of more than 20 cyclone cannons outside the city is not too high. It takes about one to two incense sticks to fire one round, but each stone bullet weighs more than 100 kilograms. The already scarred city wall is becoming increasingly incomplete. The civilians who risked their lives to climb up to the city wall to fill the gap were also seriously injured. The stone bullet hit the city and the house collapsed and the wall fell, causing a large number of casualties.

A lieutenant climbed the city wall and walked into a broken war shed.

At this time, the sky was already dark, and the trajectory of the rock bomb flying in the air could not be distinguished; the city wall should also keep as few torches as possible, so that the enemy would not be able to observe the trajectory of the rock bomb, which could reduce the accuracy of the cyclone cannon.

"The women and children all retreated to the Xiling Mountains and blocked..."

A stone bullet fell nearby and felt the trembling of the soles of his feet. The captain was somewhat scared and reported to Gu Cong.

"How many days have my third uncle arrived in Biyang? I haven't sent a reply yet?" Gu Cong withdrew his gaze from the enemy camp in the distance and turned to ask the captain.

The enemy's offensive was too fierce, and Gu Cong had to rest almost for a moment these days. He felt that time was difficult and very long every day, but he also felt that it was a long time since his third uncle Gu Ji'an set out from Lantian to Biyang.

The Gu family did not realize the importance of Lantian and other city gates to the enemy in Shaanxi, but in the past few years they occupied Lantian Zhuchengzhai north of the Qinling Mountains and successfully repelled the enemy's attacks many times.

On the one hand, the surrendered troops in Shaanxi and other places were not strong in combat, and the siege equipment was simple, and the siege capabilities of Chihu's troops were also quite weak. They threw tens of thousands of corpses in front of Zhuchengzhai, Lantian, and did not make any progress.

On the one hand, the Gu family has been operating the city blocks on the northern foot of the Qinling Mountains for several years, with tighter and more solid defenses. The Gu family also hopes to defend the Lantian line to ensure that the troops pierce out from the depths of the Qinling Mountains and maintain a deterrence to the enemy troops occupying Shaanxi. One day, they even counterattacked Shaanxi and pushed the troops north of the Wei River.

Therefore, Gu's family was once very confident in defending the Lantian front line, and also transferred a large number of elite troops to Ziwuyu, Lantian and other important areas, and vowed to stop the enemy's edge outside the Qinling Mountains.

However, after the enemy captured Qingyangyu, Gu Cong and other Gu's direct generals led elite troops to several counterattacks but failed to retake Qingyangyu. There were more and more enemy troops gathered from north of the Wei River, and their equipment and combat will were stronger than expected. When Gu realized for the first time that Lantian might be lost.

Shangzhou ????????????????????? Gu Ji'an, the governor of Shangzhou, rushed to Biyang for help on the fourth day after the enemy officially launched a strong attack on Lantian City.

Gu Cong is currently evacuated to Shangzhou by women and children in Lantian, but in the end, Lantian has to wait for a response from Biyang.

Anyway, if there is a slight possibility, who would easily give up the only bridgehead north of the Qinling Mountains and leave the position?

…………

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After hearing that Gu Ji'an came to meet, Xu Huai hurried back to Biyang from Xiangcheng.

There was just a snowfall in Nanyang, but it was not heavy, with only some snow on the eaves, courtyard walls, and treetops.

The weather was cold, and Xu Huai had just replaced his armor when he returned to the house, but he didn't say a few words to Liu Qiong'er. Shi Zhen rushed over to meet him first.

"It has been two days since Gu Ji'an arrived in Biyang. Dongchuan still wants to defend Lantian and Ziwuyu at the northern foot of the Qinling Mountains at the same time. At least I hope to persist until the opening of the plank road of the Gu Ling is opened. It is roughly estimated that it will take about a year. In fact, we have sent people to Jinzhou to the prefect of Gu Jiqian. It was Gu's avoidance and refused to respond. Neither of the two families had the opportunity to sit down and discuss the defense issues of Shangzhou seriously. What else can Gu Ji'an do when he dragged him over at this time? I have already told Gu Zhizhou about the difficulties of Jingxiang. If you are inappropriate, you can find an excuse to not see him." Shi Zhen talked about the details of his approach to Gu Ji'an in the past two days, and was not sure whether Xu Huaiyuan would like to see Gu Ji'an.

"People still need to meet," Xu Huai stretched out his hand and asked Wang Xuan to help him tie the belt, saying, "If you are all stingy at first sight, the little affection will disappear in the end..."

During the second northern expedition to defeat Yan, Xu Huai and Chushan were defeated, and they were defending the Xishan, Guancen Mountain and other places to a certain extent, relying on the support of the prefectures and prefectures. Although the Gu family did not send troops directly from the prefectures and prefectures, they also provided great support in other aspects.

With these origins, even though Jingxiang and Dongchuan have great differences in their choices over Lantian and Shangzhou, Xu Huai has not avoided Gu Ji'an.

Xu Huai changed his robe and walked to Shi Zhen's study. Soon Gu Ji'an came from the inn to meet him.

Gu Ji'an is the second-ranked figure of Gu's family after Gu Jiqian. He met in the prefectures in his early years. Gu Ji'an was just over 50 years old and served as the Chief of Military Affairs of the Prefectures and Prefectures. However, over the years, especially after fighting hard with the Chihu people for many years, Gu Ji'an has gray hair and has become a little old.

"After leaving for several years, Mr. Xu is more energetic than before!" After seeing the ceremony, Gu Ji'an sat down behind the long desk opposite Shi Zhen, opened up the conversation and told the hardship and tragic situation of the Dongchuan soldiers defending Zhuchengzhaizhai on the northern foot of the Qinling Mountains these days.

Xu Huai listened quietly and learned that even two or three years after the whirlwind cannon was put on the battlefield, Dongchuan still held the old concept of "fighting well and attacking the city with a clumsy", and did not let go of the old concept of "fighting well and attacking the city with a clumsy time". This time he suffered a lot.

In fact, before the Chihu people completely conquered the Khitan in the fifth year of Tianxuan, when they integrated the forces in the south and north of Mo, they built cities where their king's tents were located, recruiting merchants and craftsmen from the Western Regions and the big food merchants and craftsmen to mine minerals, build armor and war equipment for them. In order to conquer the Khitan, Chihu people also formed large-scale siege infantry on the basis of the general Mobei's encampment.

The Chihu people invaded the south during the first three or four years, the reason why they still gave people the impression that they were not siegeing the city was mainly because their cavalry troops advanced from Hedong and Hebei to the Central Plains too fast, and their siege troops went south far behind those of the cavalry troops.

Later, the Chihu people collected a large number of surrendered troops in Hedong, Hebei, Shaanxi, Hehuai, and the main force of the siege infantry organized by them did not continue to move south, but mainly moved westward to the southern foot of Yinshan Mountain to prepare for the final conquest of the entire Dangxiang territory.

In the past two years, not only did Chihu surrendered troops and horses in Shaanxi, Heluo, Jingxi and Xusu, which had been reorganized and reorganized military households, captured and collected 200,000 to 300,000 craftsmen in the Central Plains, established large-scale military armor and combat equipment manufacturing bases in Taiyuan, Fanyang, Wanqiu, Luoyang, Xuzhou, Chang'an and other places. After conquering Dangxiang, the main force of siege infantry formed by the early surrendered tribes was able to move south.

At this time, the military strength of the Chihu people can be said to have reached its peak, and there are no longer any flaws in siegeing cities and villages. How can their military strength be easily resisted?

In fact, Xu Huai mentioned many of these incidents many times when he wrote to Gu Jiqian, but Gu Jiqian did not respond.

This is not because Gu's deep prejudice against Chushan. It is because Gu's family, as a Dangxiang lineage, had been attacking Dayue for more than 100 former generations. In order to avoid suspicion from the court, they developed a tradition and family tradition of deliberately avoiding interactions with border generals.

When Emperor Jianji was alive, Gu did not have much rituals and letters with Chushan. After Emperor Jianji's death, Gu tried his best to avoid having direct contact with him.

Even though Jingxiang and Dongchuan had some overlap in defense, Gu's family requested the center in advance and the Privy Council made arrangements.

The Gu family's cautious tradition of avoiding taboos was of great pleasure to the court, but it made Dongchuan and Jingxiang extremely delayed in communication and coordination between defense and no more effective cooperation.
Chapter completed!