"Knock, knock, knock......" The war drum made an earth-shattering sound. Eight [〈(?一中{〈文网 })?. 〕８?１}Ｚ］>．? Ｃ)Ｏ?Ｍ]

In this deafening sound of war drums, the Song army lined up in a neat formation, ten tall tower cars lined up in the front row of the queue, one every ten steps, each tower car was full of soldiers ready to wait, slowly approaching the city wall of Huazhou. Between the tower cart and the tower cart, there is a Song army holding a shield and carrying a ladder to advance, followed by a bucket car, a crash car, a spearman, a school knife hand, an archer and so on.

The Song army's advance was not very fast, but it was like an overwhelming tide, constantly approaching the walls of Huazhou City, and the momentum was very terrifying. The neat footsteps stepped on the ground, raising clouds of dust and mist, and even the city towers seemed to tremble. The defenders on the walls of Huazhou City faced the strong sense of oppression brought by the Song army, panicked one by one, their faces were like earth, and they shot sparse arrows, which could not stop the Song army's advance in the slightest.

Cao Xun stood in the bucket cart, and after pushing closer to a distance of about one hundred and fifty steps from the wall of Huazhou City, he could even see every frightened face of the defenders of Huazhou, and he was very proud in his heart, and said to Gao Zhen, who was standing side by side: "Xiao Gao, it seems that you can capture Huazhou City in one fell swoop today." ”

Gao Zhen was holding on to the edge of the bucket, looking towards the city, listening to Cao Xun's words, he glanced at him, and said: "The arrogant army will be defeated, Xiao Cao, don't underestimate the enemy, it's too early to say this, let's talk about it when Huazhou is captured." This is something that the eldest brother gave us, don't take it lightly. ”

Cao Xun rolled his eyes, patted Gao Zhen's shoulder, and said, "Xiao Gao, you are sometimes too dead-eyed, and now that the situation is clear, I don't believe that the Manichaean army can afford to make big waves at this time." Unless it's the big brother standing opposite, that's a different story. Otherwise, in the future, I will write the word 'Cao Xun' upside down. ”

In fact, although Gao Zhen said this, he also knew in his heart that with the current momentum, it would be impossible for the Manichaean army and the Song army to block the attack on the Song army, and the capture of Huazhou City was only a matter of time. It's just that he is more stable than Cao Xun, so he is not as happy as Cao Xun at this time. After looking at it for a while, he said: "You are here to command the siege of the city, and I will go down to arrange the things after entering the city, and maybe there will be street battles." As he spoke, he went down the rope ladder and went down the bucket and arranged to go.

Cao Xun watched Gao Zhen get off the bucket, and couldn't help muttering: "I haven't attacked the city wall yet, so I am in a hurry to prepare to enter the city to fight street battles, whether I am inferior to the enemy or he is inferior to the enemy." ”

Ten days ago, Chen Liang came to Jingjiang Mansion and conveyed Yang Yan's general order. Zhang Shiyan immediately led the men and horses of the Ma Junsi Zhongjun Army, and went to Dali together with Dali Zheng Ganhua, while Cao Xun and Gao Zhen also gathered other horses and launched a new offensive against Leizhou, Huazhou, and Gaozhou occupied in the Manichaean year.

Although the Song army in Guangnan is currently short of firearms, in the past two months, the Song army has produced many siege equipment, arrows, crossbow guns, etc., and the preparations are very sufficient. Moreover, after more than two months of repair, the Song army has completely recovered the fatigue of the previous continuous battle, coupled with the successive victories in the previous battle, and now it is to clean up the remnants of the Manichaean army, so the morale of the Song army is very high.

In contrast, the Manichaean army was demoralized and unstable. In the past, the Manichaean army was able to sweep through the entire Quang Nam West Road in less than a year, and the biggest factor was that for more than 30 years, Manichaeism had been secretly preaching in the south, recruiting a large number of believers, and forming a wide range of religious beliefs. The success of a series of subsequent sieges and land seizures also strengthened the faith of believers, and even though there were occasional defeats, it did not affect people's belief in Manichaeism, and more and more people believed that it was the God of Light who protected them.

But as the Song army, under the command of Yang Yan, launched an attack on Manichaeism, it lost one after another, especially the Battle of Xunjiang, which was defeated by the Song army with less, and the more than 60,000 elite and most firmly believed Manichaean army was almost completely annihilated. Faith in the God of Light was also shattered with the captives released by Yang Yan.

The Manichaean army, having lost its fanatical faith, is no different from ordinary mobs and rogues, just a rabble. Therefore, this time the Song army attacked again, the Manichaean army had almost no power to resist, and the Song army encountered almost no decent resistance, and it took only three days for the Song army to recover the entire territory of Gaozhou. Cao Xun and Gao Zhen took advantage of the situation to continue to march into Huazhou, and now it seems that the destruction of Huazhou City is just around the corner.

At this time, on the battlefield, the Song army approached the city wall with the scriptures, and as soon as the flap was lowered, the Song army on the tower cart immediately rushed out, holding high the sharp swords and guns that had been sharpened long ago, and killed the Manichaean army guarding the city. The other Song troops either set up a ladder and climbed to the city; Or push the crash car to the city gate and bang the city gate.

The defenders of the Manichaean army did not have the slightest fighting spirit and had no resistance at all, and at the slightest contact, they were immediately defeated and retreated, surrendering the city wall to the Song army. The Song army followed the tower cart and the ladder to the wall of Huazhou City and killed the city. At this time, the crash also knocked open the gate of Huazhou, and the Song troops outside the city poured in and killed them all into the city.

Cao Xun, who was watching the battle on the bucket, was dumbfounded, although he expected to capture Huazhou today, but he never expected it to be so smooth, almost without bloodshed, it seemed that there would be no too fierce street fighting. Now Cao Xun also has to revise his thoughts just now: at this time, even if there is a big brother on that side, there is no way.

Sure enough, as Cao Xun expected, Gao Zhen led the Song army into the city, and did not encounter any resistance. Since the Song army had two precedents of releasing prisoners, the Song army advanced while shouting: surrender or die. The Manichaean army either fled or laid down their arms and surrendered.

The Song army attacked until the state government of Huazhou City, and only then did it encounter a relatively tenacious resistance.

In the state government is the Manichaean thick soil banner envoy Chen Dong, he and the giant wooden flag make Li Jin is the guard of Huazhou, just now the two of them separately on the city wall defense, after the city wall was lost, Li Jin took advantage of the chaos to kill out of Huazhou City, but Chen Dong was surrounded by the Song army in the state government, and he couldn't rush out with Ben, so he had to take more than 200 Manichaean children of the thick soil banner around him, guarding the corner of the state government and resisting stubbornly. These people were Manichaean disciples for many years, very loyal and reliable, at this time there was no way to retreat, but no one surrendered, everyone was determined to be martyred, fought desperately, and repelled three attacks of the Song army in a row.

At this time, Gao Zhen came to the state office, and Ling Xiang and Huang Mingxia were leading people to retreat. Gao Zhen asked Ling Xiang, "Brother Ling, is there only the state government left in Huazhou City now?" ”

Ling Xiang nodded and said, "Yes, General Gao, the rest of Huazhou City is already under our control, only this state government has not been taken down, and these boys inside have not surrendered at this time, and they are standing up inside." ”

Gao Zhen snorted and said, "I'll see how long they can survive." He turned his head and shouted, "The archer is ready to go to the room." ”

In fact, the Song army failed to capture the state government just now, a big reason was that the attack was too smooth all the way, and they didn't take the state government to heart, and they underestimated the enemy. Although Ling Xiang's martial arts are high, his ability to command the army to fight is average, and he doesn't talk about any formation and cooperation, so he just rushed up, but was desperately resisted by the Manichaean army, and failed to capture it three times in a row.

But Gao Zhen immediately adjusted the team, lined up the formation, and let the archers go up to the surrounding roofs, and first shot at the state yazhong, shooting dozens of people in a row, completely suppressing the resistance of the Manichaean army, and then the other Song troops climbed over the wall and smashed the door and rushed into the state yazhong.

Although the Manichaean disciples were still fighting under the command of Chen Tong, after all, now that the general trend had gone, where could more than 100 people stop the attack of the Song army, Chen Dong desperately killed several Song soldiers, but still died under the chaotic blade, and the others all died in battle. The city of Huazhou was finally captured by the Song army.

After capturing Huazhou City, Cao Xun and Gao Zhen received a notice from Xin Qiji, who stayed in Jingjiang Mansion, and Yang Yan's party entered the Guangxi region and was about to arrive in Jingjiang Mansion in the near future. So the two sent troops to recover the surrounding counties and towns of Huazhou, and on the other hand, they sent people to send the news of the victory back to Jingjiang Mansion, and waited for Yang Yan to issue a future mission plan.

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Yang Yan's entourage arrived in Jingjiang Mansion on the ninth day of December, and Xin Qiji, who stayed in Jingjiang Mansion, and Chen Liang, who arrived earlier, went out of the city together to welcome Yang Yan and Zhao Qianru's entourage into the city.

When they arrived at the Yamen of the Establishment Envoy, Zhou Xin, Dong Yuan and other subordinate officials also came to see Yang Yan, they all knew that Yang Yan and Zhao Qianru were married, and now they are not only the envoys of the Zhennan Army, but also the envoys of Guangnan Road, and they are also the official captains of the horses, so they inevitably congratulated the two again, and naturally asked about the changes on the wedding night. Yang Yan also recounted the experience of that night, although everyone had heard Chen Liang say it before, they couldn't help but sigh again.