Mei Jiu and Qin Xinming stood side by side on top of the city tower and looked into the distance. Unlike Qin Xinming's calm and calm, Mei Jiu was still a little uneasy.

Yesterday, news came that the Baoying side had engaged in battle, and in the direction of Yizheng, the enemy's brigade had also arrived. What worried Mei Jiu even more was that the Huainan Water Division led by Gong Bin was directly inserted into Yangzhou along the Water River. In the past few months, the Yangzijin shipyard has been working day and night, and only one has been manufactured, and the other has only one empty shell, which can barely float on the water.

The Huainan Naval Division, on the other hand, has hundreds of warships.

Yangzhou now, the entire city defenders, aside from the 1,000 naval army led by Li Ze himself, there are only 5,000 garrisons left, of which half of them are newly recruited young and strong, but the officers are all veterans.

"Don't worry." Qin Xinming patted a strong crossbow beside him and said with a smile: "Crossbow machines like this are the latest things that Datang will be superintendents, except for the left and right Qianniuwei, the other troops have not had time to equip it." You see, wheeled winding, one blow is six shots, the interval between the second shots, just a few breaths of effort, compared to the Huainan Army's previous strong crossbow? ”

"Nature is far inferior." Mei Jiu smiled reluctantly.

"Look at our trebuchets again!" Turning his head and pointing to the city, there, every hundred steps, there is a large trebuchet, huge body, huge throwing arm, which is daunting. "These things are enough to destroy any of the enemy's siege equipment."

"The canal is narrow, why don't you think of blocking Gong Bin's sailors on both sides of the canal?" Mei Jiu was a little puzzled: "A trebuchet like this, with just one shot, can completely destroy a small warship, right?" ”

"We want to, too, but we can't!" Qin Xinming smiled: "Gong Bin is not a fool. In addition to the sailors, on both sides of the canal, he was accompanied by three thousand land divisions. And our main forces are all deployed in Baoying and Yizheng to block Zheng Guoqiang and Jiang Qiaoan. The rest are mainly young and strong, and take them to fight against Huainan's elite foot soldiers, do you think there is any hope of winning? If they don't annihilate their land division on the shore, how can they stop his water division? We don't have a lot of manpower, so we can't afford to waste it in such a field battle. It is better to stay in the city, wait for work, and when the time comes, let them taste the power of our treasures. ”

"Even if there is a city to rely on, I am worried!" Mei Jiu sighed: "A few months ago, these people were still farmers, buddies, juniors, and even splashes. ”

"Their land division is only 3,000 people." Qin Xinming said with a smile: "So they can only choose one side to attack, and Yangzhou City faces water on three sides, and the confluence of the Grand Canal and the Yangtze River just envelops us in it, and what the enemy's land division can choose is just our current side." What are you afraid of what he will do? ”

"Sailor, the point is on Sailor!" Mei Jiu shook his head and said: "We only have six warships, but the enemy has more than 100 warships, this, how do you look at it, you have to fight?" ”

"There is also a difference between a warship and a warship." Qin Xinming soothed: "Zhizhou will listen to the good news even if the mansion is lying down when the time comes." ”

After leaving the Beicheng Tower, Mei Jiu was finally relieved, and went straight to the water village in the direction of Dongcheng and found Li Hao.

Three days ago, in order to prepare for this big war, Li Hao actually sent away almost all the merchant ships docked on the Yangzhou wharf, his reason was that they were here, and they couldn't help much, but they just increased casualties, and these merchant ships, sailors, are all wealth, sinking one, dying one, are all losses of Datang. On the current Yangzhou wharf, in addition to the six warships docked, there is not a single other ship to be seen.

Seeing this kind of scene, Mei Jiu's heart was even heavier, and he couldn't understand where Li Hao's confidence came from. This time Gong Bin came to attack, it was obvious that he was coming to the water village, if the water village was not defended, the layout of the north city tower was in vain, and the enemy rushed to the city.

Let the enemy rush into the city, and everything will be over. Didn't Qin Xinming also say that the soldiers in the city are now unable to engage in face-to-face hand-to-hand combat with the enemy?

"Zhizhou can rest assured." Like Qin Xinming, Li Hao's chest beat loudly, "Now there are a total of 3,000 sailors, of which 1,000 are coming with me, and the other 2,000 are newly recruited young people, after the war, I will leave five hundred elites to assist Qingzhuang in defending the water village." Our water village is not impregnable, but it is not easy to break. Take a look. ”

Li Hao, who was smiling and groaning, pulled Mei Jiu onto the wall of the water wall, which was no different from the defense of the northern city, with rows of trebuchets lined up, the trebuchets here were not produced by the Tang Dynasty, but Li Hao concentrated all the original trebuchets in Yangzhou City here.

"If the enemy wants to break through the water village, they must first break through these ranged attacks. These trebuchets covered the distance in front of the water gate, which was about 500 paces long and more than 1,000 paces wide. ”

"Look at the crossbows again."

"Look at the underwater trap we've set up again. A few of you, pull the chain up. ”

With Li Hao's roar, the soldiers on both sides of the water gate turned one winch after another, and thick iron chains floated out of the water.

Looking at these, Mei Jiu felt a little relieved, and said to Li Hao: "General Li, you left five hundred elite guards in the water village, and there are fewer people on the warships there." ”

"Quite a few, not a lot, I have selected hundreds of people from the young and strong to board the ship and fill these elite vacancies. They don't need to fight the enemy, when the time comes, they just need to follow orders to drive the ships, and for two months, they have been trained almost. Li Hao smiled: "They are just the next strength, as long as the boat is not conscious, they will be fine." Of course, when the ship sinks, everyone has braids. ”

Regarding Li Hao's sense of humor at this time, Mei Jiu couldn't empathize at all.

"There are too few ships!"

Li Hao smiled, but didn't say much, there are some things, there is no need to say it now.

"It would be nice if we could stop them in the canal." Mei Jiu's old saying is repeated.

"My good Zhizhou!" Li Hao smiled and pointed to the warships on the dock, "Look at our warships, it is difficult to turn around in the canal, where do you really want to go to fight the enemy, that is to find death, and only at the intersection of the Grand Canal and the Yangtze River, the water surface is wide, so that we can play to our heart's content." When the time comes, you will lie down in the middle of the house and listen to the good news. ”

Lying high in the house again, I am a ghost lying high, can I sleep?

"If you really don't feel at ease, come to my water village to see how I destroy the enemy!" Li Hao looked at Mei Jiu's expression and said: "But Zhizhou, when you come, you have to put on armor and let the guards protect you, when the time comes, it is estimated that arrows will be like locusts and stones will rain down." ”

"I'll be here then." Mei Jiu nodded vigorously: "Although I can't do it, there are dozens of generals in my house, but they are also brave warriors, and they will definitely be able to help the generals." Now I'm going to go first, to prepare a meal for the soldiers, a hot soup. ”

"That's a good idea!" Li Hao laughed and turned around, but shouted at the soldiers up and down the water village: "Zhizhou said, after this battle, everyone will be rewarded with money!" ”

The soldiers on the water village shouted happily one by one. Even those Yixing members from the north are very happy, who is too little for money!

Mei Jiu was dumbfounded, Li Hao said a word, and he was not at home again for tens of thousands of times. But as long as this battle is won, what is tens of thousands of yuan, just a Yangzhou wharf, how much tax can be collected in a day?

Mei Jiu returned to the city government with both apprehension and excitement, excited that the soldiers were high-spirited, the generals were full of confidence, and the worry was that on paper, the comparison of the strength of the two sides was really a bit different.

Fortunately, Baoying, there has been no news from Yizheng so far, and for him, no news is actually good news. He even began to fantasize that the armies of Baoying and Yizheng could quickly defeat their opponents, and then in turn rescue Yangzhou, and those guys who invaded Yangzhou in the future would close the door and beat the dogs.

Just when the two waterways led by Gong Bin were approaching Yangzhou step by step, Baoying had actually taken the lead.

On the Huainan side, the veteran Zheng Guoqiang was responsible for attacking Bao'an. This time Huainan marched, but there was no carelessness, not only step by step, but also carried a large number of siege equipment, trebuchets, siege ladders, cloud towers, dense, innumerable.

Hundreds of trebuchets were shouted by the soldiers to brave the attacks of the city's trebuchets, and every now and then one of them was unlucky enough to be hit by a stone bullet and then shattered to the ground with a thud. Seeing that the corners of Zheng Guoqiang's eyes jumped, there was no way, the trebuchets in the city had a longer range, and they occupied a favorable location, so they could only take a huge risk forward. Fortunately, the accuracy of the stone bullets smashed by the trebuchet is worrying, and whether it can be hit or not depends on luck.

When about half of the hundreds of trebuchets began to roar, Zheng Guoqiang finally let out a long breath and survived the first hurdle, no longer completely prepared to be beaten.

More ladders were pushed out, and the soldiers, shields raised, slowly approached the city. On the top of the cloud ladder, a crossbow machine flashed with a faint light, and from time to time a strong crossbow flew from the top of the cloud ladder to the city with a roaring sound.

The trebuchet in the city split in half, replacing a single stone bullet with a fist-sized stone wrapped in a net, and after it was fired, the stone broke free from the net bag and flew like a rain of rain towards the soldiers pushing the ladders, flying towards the soldiers holding shields, and the crossbows with a sharp whistling sound, and shot out in dense circles.