Zhang Xiu quickly withdrew the army, but did not go far, but led his cavalry, galloped on the frozen moat, around the city wall to the south gate, and the cavalry led by him also galloped wildly, while shooting arrows at the city wall, shooting the defenders standing on the city wall.

After a while, the cavalry troops came to the south gate with a roar, Zhang Xiu let the cavalry continue to shoot arrows at the city wall, suppressing the defenders on the south gate, and let the cavalry carry the bumping wood, directly to the city gate, and hit the city gate violently with the bumping wood.

Due to the cold and freezing, the moat was covered with a thick layer of ice, Zhang Xiu's cavalry troops had no obstacles, and the cavalry came to the city gate in one go, densely packed, lined up in several rows, and kept shooting arrows at the city tower.

"Boom! Rumble! Rumble! ”

A muffled sound, in the ears of the Yang Zhai defenders, kept ringing, like a boulder, directly hitting his heart, although anxious, but there was nothing to be done, because above their heads, there were constantly sharp arrows whistling past, and the defenders were tightly clinging to the city wall, not daring to show their heads.

"Whoosh Whoosh ......"

The arrows are endless, and they have completely suppressed the defenders on the city tower, and after Zhang Xiu under the city saw it, his heart was inexplicably excited, and there was a muffled sound of hitting the city gate in his ears.

Inside the city gate, the defenders rushed to support, blocking the city gate with huge wooden bolts, and the people also pushed the city gate vigorously to prevent the enemy from breaking through the city gate.

The defenders all evolved from the militia, and although they also trained regularly, they never went to battle. This battle. It was the first time they had fought to the death with the enemy. The first battle. Faced with the fierce attack of the enemy, many people were a little afraid and did not dare to fight back.

"Raising troops for a thousand days, using soldiers for a while, now is the time of life and death, if we keep being so timid, Yangzhai City will inevitably be broken by the enemy. On the day the city is broken, we may not be able to survive. Since both horizontal and vertical are a death, it is better for everyone to muster up the courage and fight with the enemy, and maybe there is still a glimmer of life. Suddenly, a man dressed in ordinary soldier's clothes said with a grim face.

As soon as the words fell, the man picked up a boulder at his feet, risked being shot by the arrows at any time, and smashed the stone into the enemy camp below the city, only to hear a scream from under the tower, and a cavalryman was directly hit in the head. Fell off the horse's back.

After the man smashed the boulder, he quickly hid. Countless arrows flew overhead, and it was really dangerous. At this time, this person's heart was beating very hard, and even he was surprised by his actions just now.

The people around him have seen this person's bravery, they all know this person, this person has always been the least courageous soldier in the army, and he is often ridiculed and teased by the big guys, but at the critical moment, I don't know where he got the courage to make such a move.

The rest of the people were ashamed and encouraged, and one after another the soldiers began to risk their lives and began to fight back against the enemy forces below the city.

One passed ten, ten passed hundred, and soon, the soldiers defending the city were united in one heart, risking being killed by arrows, and began to fight back desperately.

"Whoosh ......"

Arrows flew around the city walls, and many of the defenders on the city walls were shot dead, but they didn't know where the courage came from, even if they knew that they might lose their lives, they had to fight back. Moreover, these actions quickly infected everyone in the city, and if one person fell on the wall, another person would soon be replaced, and there was a special person who was responsible for carrying the dead away, and the wounded were carried to the city for treatment.

Not long after, Yang Xiu quickly rushed over with the army, and he personally climbed the city tower, risked the arrows and stones, and commanded the battle. Yang Xiu saw that the enemy army at the city gate was violently slamming into the city gate, and it was about to be broken, so Yang Xiu commanded all the soldiers to concentrate on attacking the city gate.

Zhang Xiu's subordinates suffered a fierce attack, the siege troops at the gate of the city suffered heavy losses, and the stubborn counterattack of the defenders also made his cavalry lose a lot of people, boulders, arrows fell from the city tower, the corpses near the city wall were piled up, blood flowed like a river, blood stained this snow-covered place into a blood-colored quagmire, arrows, stones were everywhere.

Zhang Xiu frowned, looking at the rising number of casualties and the stubborn resistance of the defenders, and in desperation, he had to order another change in the direction of the attack.

As soon as the order was issued, thousands of cavalry, under the leadership of Zhang Xiu, turned to the West Gate, wanting to break through from the West Gate.

However, as soon as Zhang Xiu arrived at the West Gate, Yang Xiu led people to the West Gate to defend, still resisting to the death, and the people could still be seen on the city tower.

It was only at this time that Zhang Xiu finally understood that the city he was attacking, the army and the people were united and resisted, no matter how he attacked, the defenders in the city always made up for the vacancy. In contrast, Zhang Xiu only brought thousands of soldiers and horses, and if he wanted to capture this city, he was afraid that it would be very difficult. The most important thing is that Zhang Xiu brought all the cavalry, and did not carry any siege equipment, so he could not carry a fatal blow to the soldiers and civilians in the city.

"Pass the order, the whole army retreats!" The fierce battle was going on, but Zhang Xiu kept a cool head, made a decision in an instant, and asked the herald beside him to pass on the order.

The attack came to an abrupt end, and Zhang Xiu retreated with the cavalry, no longer attacking Yangzhai City, but retreating to Juntai in the south of Yangzhai City, and sent people to urge the army behind him to speed up the march.

The battle was won by the heroic battle of the defenders, but the casualties in the city were also very heavy, the enemy only suffered more than 1,000 casualties, but the city was already as high as 2,000 people, and it was still on the defensive.

But no matter what, Yang Xiu and the others held the first wave of the enemy's attack, and those soldiers who had never participated in the battle also had a combat experience, and they would definitely be more active in the next battle.

The enemy retreated, but Yang Xiu was not happy, because he knew that the enemy army was only a temporary retreat, once the enemy's army arrived in Yangzhai, then Yangzhai City would face the most fierce attack, and at that time, it was still unknown whether it could hold the city.

Moreover, the cold weather also gave convenience to the enemy army, and the water of the moat was frozen, and the enemy army could freely pass over the glacier and reach the bottom of Yangzhai City.

For this reason, Yang Xiu's inspiration moved, and he let people go out of the city, chiseled the ice above the moat, and then used a bucket to pick out all the water in the moat and pour it on the edge of the city wall. In addition, there are special people to block the source of the Yingshui River into the moat, and after cutting off the source, the rest depends on manpower.

There were people in Yangzhai City, and tens of thousands of people spontaneously joined in the activity of carrying water, they scooped buckets of water out of the moat, and then poured it near the city wall, due to the extremely low temperature, the water poured on the road quickly became frozen.

In addition, Yang Xiu also had people water water on the city wall, so that the entire city wall became a frozen wall.

After everyone's unremitting efforts, only half a day's effort, the water in the moat was all empty, and Yang Xiu asked people to chisel all the ice, making the moat a wide deep pit, if the drawbridge was not lowered, the enemy could not jump over this trench at all.

After entering the city, he personally visited the families of those who died in the battle, and paid pensions, as well as visited the wounded soldiers and civilians.

Yang Xiu's series of behaviors were all seen and remembered by the soldiers and civilians, and they were also very moved, and they expressed their willingness to go to the soup for Yang Xiu, a good wife, even if they gave their lives.

Next, Yang Xiu once again asked people to repair the ice wall located on the north pier, and soon plugged the gap, everything was ready, just waiting for the enemy to attack.

Zhang Xiu's army, because of the heavy snow, the march was slightly slow, and the person in charge of leading this army was Zhang Xiu's favorite general Hu Che'er.

Hu Che'er is tall and burly, with a very strong physique, not only can he fight in battle, but he is also an out-and-out strong man. It is said that Hu Che'er carried a weight of 500 catties and traveled 700 miles a day. Of course, such a statement is a bit too exaggerated, but it is enough to prove Hu Che'er's ability.

However, although Hu Che'er is brave and good at fighting and has infinite strength, because his face is very similar to that of Hu Ren, he is an outlier in the eyes of the Central Plains people.

Hu Che'er's mother is a Han Chinese, and as for who his father is, he doesn't know what to say, after his mother gave birth to him, he died, he has been raised by his grandfather, and then Liangzhou was in turmoil, the army was in chaos, Hu Che'er followed his grandfather on the way to flee, his grandfather was killed by Hu Ren, when Hu Ren raised a butcher's knife to kill Hu Che'er, but was saved by Zhang Xiu's father. Since then, Hu Che'er grew up with Zhang Xiu in Zhang's mansion, and Zhang Xiu's father gave Hu Che'er this name, and when teaching Zhang Xiu's martial arts, he did not shy away from Hu Che'er, but let Hu Che'er also learn with him.

Later, Zhang Xiu's father was seriously injured in a battle and was about to die, before he died, he called Hu Che'er to his side and told Hu Che'er to protect Zhang Xiu from now on, in order to repay him for saving Hu Che'er.

Hu Che'er is a person who values love and righteousness, and was raised by Zhang Xiu's father, and is very grateful to Zhang, so he regards Zhang Xiu as his master and protects Zhang Xiu all the time.

Hu Che'er was on the way to march when he suddenly saw a scout coming from front and conveyed Zhang Xiu's order to him, telling him to speed up the march and arrive at Yangzhai City before dark tomorrow.

After Hu Che'er received the order, he immediately ordered the army to speed up the march and go to Yangzhai City. (To be continued......)