Chapter 291 The Road to the South (VI)

On the wall of the Matou Fort, Zhou army soldiers kept falling from the wall like a broken string. In front of the Matou Fort, Zhou army crossbow archers who were guarding the chariots, held the crossbow bows in their hands tightly, but had no use, because the figure of the Northern Han army could not be seen on the wall of the village.

Generally speaking, the soldiers guarding the city will appear by the city wall and use weapons to attack them to prevent the enemy from climbing up the city wall. The soldiers guarding the city will be in a high position and have an advantage in position, but a part of their body will inevitably be exposed, which gives the enemy archers under the city the opportunity to shoot.

The Khitan army and the Central Plains army fought for hundreds of years. They repeatedly defeated the Central Plains army in the field, but suffered losses in repeated siege battles. They also used blood lessons to gain a lot of siege experience. One of the tactics is to arrange a large number of archers with superb archery skills under the city, and specifically cast cold arrows to shoot and kill those enemy soldiers who were exposed.

The vanguard battalion led by Liu Jicheng was stationed on the northern border for a long time. Fighting with the Khitan army was as ordinary as eating and drinking water. When they first fought, they were shot and killed by the Khitan army archers. Liu Jicheng learned from his mistakes, liberated his mind, kept pace with the times, and changed his tactics.

The classic tactics are as follows: when the vanguard camp defends the city, as long as the Khitan army launches the final attack, the soldiers will leave the city wall about three steps away, and then arrange the gun array in groups of three people and quickly assassinate the enemy on the wall.

This tactic has two advantages: one is to avoid the precise archers of the Khitan army; the other is that every time the Khitans attack, the number of long ladders of the Khitans is always limited, and a gun array of three people can form a situation of more and less in the local area; the third is that the vanguard battalion has worked hard to practice the Liu family's marksmanship taught by General Liu Jiye. The marksmanship is really outstanding. The Khitans fight one-on-one and cannot gain any advantage.

Since the use of new tactics, the Forward Battalion repeatedly killed the Khitan army in the battle to defend the city, and was frightened. In this battle to guard the Horsehead Castle, Liu Jicheng's gun formation also showed strong vitality. He used more than 100 remaining soldiers to assassinate the Zhou army that was the first to climb the wall of the village.

Blood dyed the earth-gray village wall one after another.

The battlefield of killing is like a sophisticated inspection, which effortlessly reveals the hidden nature of the usual mind. This is like a bar and a gambling field, which always inadvertently reveals the most hidden part of human nature.

The soldiers of the Great Zhou Dynasty thought they could get off the horsehead fort in one battle, but they did not expect that the Northern Han army would be so difficult to fight and all of them changed color.

The smell of blood followed the mountain breeze across the ditch, making Hou Dayong's vision sharper. He was like a Northeast tiger standing at the top of the food chain, staring majestic at the battlefield in the distance, as if he had never seen the Zhou army's first attack be set. The command of the front line was Wang Tengxiang. Hou Dayong fully believed in his ability. The ancients said: A general's success was broken. Although it was a criticism and reflection on the war, it objectively revealed the unique laws of war.

After the retreating commander Wang Tengming fell from the wall of the village, he hit a dead soldier without being injured. A blood hole was pierced on his shoulder by the gun, and blood was like a spring. He was rushing out of the water. He grinned in pain and said, "There are only more than a hundred people on the wall of the village, and the spear is really harmful."

"Only one hundred people?"

"I just climbed up to the village wall and got shot on the shoulder, but I didn't see it very clearly, but there were definitely not many enemies."

Wang Tengxiang summoned several people to inquire, and he had a clear understanding of the situation inside the Horse Head Castle. He sneered several times and said, "It's really a mantis blocking the chariot, and he's overestimating his abilities."

Wang Xiangxiang did not adopt the tactic of adding fuel to the fire and decisively issued the general attack order.

Countless clay pots and pebbles filled with turbulent oil poured into the Horsehead Castle, and the fort soon became a raging fire.

The oar repair truck kept moving forward. After entering the arrow range, two hundred Zhou army long archers replaced the crossbowmen. They raised their arrows to the sky. Rows of bows and arrows drew beautiful parabolas. After flying into the sky, due to the effect of gravity, they rushed from the sky to the wall of the village. This rain of arrows was extremely penetrating, and many Northern Han soldiers who were busy extinguishing the fire on the wall were shot into hedgehogs in a blink of an eye.

The Northern Han soldiers in a mess could only lean closely behind the village wall and use the village wall to avoid the iron arrows falling from the sky.

The rain of arrows finally stopped, and the Zhou army's war drums sounded loudly.

Hundreds of wooden ladders set up on the village wall. At this time, only dozens of soldiers in the Northern Han Dynasty were left. In the face of a huge gap, the resistance of the Northern Han army had no practical significance. By the time Hou Dayong entered the Horsehead Fort, the Zhou army had completely occupied the Horsehead Fort.

In the courtyard in the middle of the fort, hundreds of soldiers surrounded the group of more than ten Northern Han soldiers with large infantry shields. The soldiers of the Great Zhou were full of murderous aura. Just after Wang Tengxiang gave the order, they cut the surrounded Northern Han army into meat sauce.

Liu Jicheng was covered in blood, an iron arrow was inserted into his thigh, and he was stabbed in the back. Facing a desperate situation, he calmed down instead and formed a small circular formation with his personal guards. He lifted his spear in a diagonal manner, like a porcupine fighting to the death.

A soldier came to Wang Tengxiang's horse and said, "Report to the general, it has been counted. There are 132 corpses of Northern Han soldiers in the fort, and 52 wounded soldiers from Northern Han." Wang Tengxiang's eyebrows twitched several times, and he secretly admired him, saying, "These Northern Han soldiers are really brave. They dare to use 200 soldiers to block the 30,000 Great Zhou army. No wonder the Northern Han can repeatedly threaten the Great Zhou with a small area."

Wang Tengxiang immediately stepped forward and said, "Who is the commander? Come out and speak."

Liu Jicheng limped out, pestle the ground with a gun, and said proudly: "If you want to kill, come here, how can you get so much nonsense?"

Zhou Jun suddenly flashed a passage, and Hou Dayong appeared in front of Liu Jicheng. He pointed at Liu Jicheng with a horse whip and said, "There was a flag with the word Liu in the Horse Head Castle. Are you Liu Jiye's men?"

Seeing that Hou was extremely brave and knew that he must be a great figure in the Zhou army, Liu Jicheng said, "Death in the battlefield is also considered a way for a real man to die. I will not surrender to you, come on."

Hou Dayong lowered his face and scolded, "You are also bloody men. Why don't you attack the Khitans, but instead join the Khitans like tigers and wolves, kill my people and take my property. Will you be able to open a saint to see the ancestors?"

Although the Northern Han Dynasty was dependent on the Khitan, among the people of the Northern Han Dynasty, they hated the Khitans who often came to rob and kill people. When Liu Jiye heard Hou Dayong's sudden accusations, his momentum became a little weak.

"I think you are a hero, so I will give you a way out of life. Go and kill a few more Khitan dogs, and then bring a message to Liu Jiye. - If you don't have a race, your heart will be different. If you tell Liu Jiye these eight words, it will be said that Hou Dayong said it."

Liu Jicheng's eyes widened and he said in surprise: "Is General Hou Dayong?"

“That’s right.”

Liu Jicheng said respectfully: "Liu Jicheng is the commander of General Liu Jiye. I am convinced that he can be defeated by the general." When Hou Dayong was in Lingzhou, he led his army to defeat the main force of the Khitan in the south of Hetao, and recovered the Eighteen Prefectures of Youyun. The Northern Han army was well aware of the Khitans' history, so he defeated the Khitan army repeatedly and Hou Dayong was famous in the Northern Han Dynasty, even surpassing the Great Zhou Dynasty.

When Liu Jicheng and others left, Wang Tengxiang asked in confusion: "Let these people go away will expose our military strength."

Hou Dayong smiled slightly and said, "The Northern Han army and the rebels have more than 60,000 people, and they are strong, but they went deep into Cizhou, with a long transportation line, and food and supplies will inevitably be difficult. We just need to stick to it, and the enemy will retreat when we face the difficulties. At that time, we can easily win."

Wang Tengxiang looked worried, "I am worried that Cizhou will not be able to withstand the pressure, and Luzhou is Li Yun's old nest. There are always food accumulation in the city, so the rebels' food, grass and supplies will not be short of."

"If Liu Jiye and Li Yun knew that I was leading the troops, they would definitely divide the troops to fight. The pressure in Cizhou could be greatly reduced. Cizhou has a granary, so there is no need to worry about food issues. Besides, General Zhang Yongde has always been good at guarding, and I think there will be no problem in Cizhou."

After capturing the Horsehead Fort, the rear army of the Great Zhou army marched towards Cizhou slowly, and set up camp at the Zhangshui on the south side of Cizhou, posing as a stance of being strictly guarded.

The reinforcements that Zhang Yongde, the governor of Cizhou, were finally here, but inexplicably stopped on the south bank of Zhangshui River and did not send a soldier to the north bank. This practice of watching tiger fights across the river made the military and civilians in Cizhou furious.

Zhang Yongde had 40,000 troops under his command. When they were about to divide their troops to go south, the news came that Fan Zhi and Zhao Kuangyin were killed. Zhang Yongde's army was forced to return to Cizhou. Unexpectedly, Li Yun, the governor of Zhaoyi, who was stationed in Luzhou, suddenly colluded with the Northern Han army to go south, causing more than half of the unexpected Zhang Yongde's army to lose. Now there are only more than 20,000 Zhang Yongde's army in Cizhou City.

At first, Li Yun's army and the Northern Han army were less than 60,000 people. Li Yun managed Luzhou for many years and trained many united soldiers. As the united soldiers were urgently mobilized, more and more people were besieged under the city of Cizhou. By the time Hou Dayong led his army to aid, there were nearly 100,000 enemy troops under the city of Cizhou.

On the evening of the fourth day of arriving at the Zhangshui River, Hou Dayong, Wang Tengxiang, Shi Shouxin and others leisurely walked around the river. Suddenly, they saw some commotion in the Northern Han military camp on the other side of the Zhangshui River, and then shouted loudly.

After a while, a war horse rushed out of the Northern Han army camp, and countless Northern Han troops followed closely behind. The war horses rushed straight to the Zhang River. The cavalry kept turning back and shooting arrows. Every time the arrow was shot, a cavalry fell off. In a blink of an eye, the cavalry had reached the bank of the river. Without any hesitation, he jumped directly into the Zhang River.
Chapter completed!