The gloomy sky is like Li Sunju's mood.

The western thieves surrounded outside the city of Yanzhou were like mountains and seas, and all four directions set up camp and blocked every road.

The hustle and bustle of the siege never stopped, day and night.

Dangdang's crisp sound was that the plate armor blocked the arrows. The clanging strings are shooting with the bow of the divine arm. There was a loud roar, and the stone projectile thrown by the thunderbolt cannon hit the target.

Plate armor, divine arm bow, thunderbolt cannon, these are all sharp weapons that make the Song people proud. But these sounds, coming from the city walls, are only stone bullets that hit the wall.

All the equipment came from the official army of the Great Song Dynasty, and countless trophies made the party members also armed to the teeth. Put on the plate armor, equip the steel sword, pick up the divine arm bow, and shoot the three-inch wooden feather short arrow to the head of the city.

And the crossbow bolts are accompanied by stones of greater or lesser size.

After capturing a number of Song craftsmen who specialized in making siege equipment, the party members spent six days to build eight thunderbolt cannons, and sent bags of stones or stone bullets the size of a human head to the city. Although the timber and time were not as good as in the past, the thunderbolt cannon that was built in a hurry only had a range of sixty or seventy paces.

The arrows shot from the bow of the god arm on the head of the city can easily hit the artillery men under the city. But after paying a few lives, the party members soon erected a heavy wooden shield in front of the thunderbolt gun, so that the gunners could fire stone bullets without fear.

For planks more than an inch thick, the Divine Arm Bow is useless, and throwing long arrows and even rockets with a war bow can bring a little interference to the gunners, but only a little.

In other words, a few days ago, for the siege equipment under the city, it was completely possible to order soldiers and horses to kill directly from the city. Even though these thunderbolts were far away from the city gates, it was not difficult to rush up and destroy them. But a fiasco the day before yesterday made the defenders in the city lose the strength to go out of the city to counterattack.

Li Shunju definitely didn't expect that it would become so tricky because a few craftsmen had joined the party.

A moment ago, in front of Li Shunju, a soldier couldn't avoid it. He was hit in the head by a stone projectile flying from under the city. The helmet of fine iron suddenly turned into a piece of paper, and from the gap in the iron sheet, dark red blood slowly flowed out.

The fallen soldiers were hastily dragged away, but the remnants of the city remained. Looking at the pool of blood in front of him, Li Shunju's heart was in chaos.

In order to fight against the thunderbolt artillery under the city, the city even moved a bed crossbow to shoot at it, but winding the bed crossbow on the narrow city head is far more difficult and slower than the thunderbolt cannon under the city. The eight-bull crossbow is known as the power of the eight bulls, and the difficulty of winding can be imagined. Nine bed crossbows were not as good as six thunderbolts, and after being smashed by a scattered stone, the winding became even slower. After an exchange between the two sides, the city suffered even more.

Where is the hope for this battle? Li Shunju was already desperate for victory, and he raised his eyes to look at the enemy tower not far away, where Gao Yongneng was defending the west wall of the city wall. I wonder if he and Qu Zhen have the ability to turn the tide of the battle?

Gao Yongneng stood silently on the city tower, and after the offensive and defensive arrangements of the city defense were arranged, his own subordinate general went to preside, and he didn't need to ask about everything. When Li Shunju looked at him, he was thinking about Xu Xi, who was sleeping under the city tower.

Xu Xi has been fighting in the city for the past few days. Every day, he patrols the city with two baked cakes, and when he is tired, he uses the thighs of his own soldiers as pillows to pretend to sleep. When the western thieves came to attack, they personally shot the thieves with arrows and stones.

In the eyes of the soldiers, this commander is indeed a fool, but looking at Xu Xi and the soldiers sharing weal and worn, the soldiers feel that he is still a very good person. The originally high-ranking generals, under his leadership, also ate in a pot with the soldiers and slept in a room.

If only Xu Xi knew a little bit of the art of war, such thoughts would only spin in his mind when he rested.

Six days ago, when Du Jing and Zhu Peishuai camped out of the city to fight. At the beginning, the performance was quite good, and the fierce battle with the Iron Harrier never took a step back, and when the battle was entangled until the afternoon, it even pressed the battle line two miles away, approaching the former army camp of the Western Thieves, which seemed to be very smooth.

But at this time, the movement in the camp of the West Thieves made Gao Yongneng and Qu Zhen finally see the plans of the West Thieves, and the performance of retreating step by step was clearly a plan to lure the enemy.

When an iron harrier of up to 3,000 people came out of the camp and inserted it behind Du Jing, the tide of the battle was reversed, and it only took half an hour for the battle formation to collapse. Wang Han and Fu Mingju, who were in the formation on the north and south sides, immediately raised troops to rescue, but they were trapped again, and then collapsed. Several generals could only lead their troops to break through to Yanzhou City.

Before the rout, the losses on both sides were about the same. It was only two miles from the battlefield to the edge of the city, but it became a one-sided slaughter. As many as 8,000 soldiers were killed or wounded. The rest were rescued by Gao Yongneng and Qu Zhen who jointly led the army out of the city to rescue.

When the soldiers fled back, the Iron Harrier chased after them, trying to take advantage of the situation to attack the city, but Xu Xi insisted on waiting for all the soldiers who could enter the city to enter the city before closing the city gates.

When the Iron Harrier took the opportunity to rush into the city, Gao Yongneng, who was still fighting on the other side of the battlefield, really thought that Yanzhou City could not be saved, but fortunately, the remaining generals in the city fought hard and finally saved the city gate and besieged more than 200 elite Iron Harriers in the city.

Xu Xi was caught off guard and was defeated. But his last resort to open the gates of the city to rescue the army made him win the hearts of the army, at least after the defeat, and did not become unobeyed.

If Xu Xi has military talent above the Chinese, Gao Yongneng can admit that he is a qualified coach. It's a pity that Xu Xi's military talent is below the average level. It's just a big plan who reads military books and has a neat mouth, but he is not a candidate for strategizing and making decisions on the spot.

At present, we can only wait for the army to come to the aid of Chong Ge or Gao Zunyu, but it has been six days since the defeat, and the Yan Yan army and the Huanqing army have still not appeared.

Outside the city, the shouts of killing were endless. Every few moments, a group of party soldiers came straight to the city wall in pairs, carrying a long ladder. The arrows on the city were immediately densely packed, but with the help of plate armor, there were still seven or eight ladders up the city wall.

The party soldiers cheered, flocked under the ladder, and climbed the fastest to reach the top of the city in a blink of an eye, but he was immediately besieged, and in the blink of an eye he was pierced by seven or eight spears, and the most reluctant. On the top of the ladder, spoonfuls of hot oil were splashed down, causing the party warriors who were climbing on the ladder to roll to the ground with their heads and faces covered, and then a burning torch lit the long ladder stained with oil.

Every attack consumes the manpower and materials on the city. The city was defended for six days, and as many as 2,000 soldiers were killed or seriously wounded.

It's not all bad to die too much, at least the food in the city will last a few more days. But Gao Yongneng only dared to think about it, but he never dared to say it.

There was another bang, and the walls trembled as they sounded. It was a stone projectile thrown by a thunderbolt that crashed into the city wall again. Immediately afterwards, the sound of sparse crumbling made Gao Yongneng's eyes full of anxiety.

The western thieves concentrated the thunderbolt cannons on the southwest side of the city wall, and over half a day, they fired hundreds of times. The rammed-earth walls had just been completed and had not yet been completely dried, and the walls were particularly fragile at this time. The damage itself and the attack of the bed crossbow on the city, the six catapults dragged up by the western thieves today are now only half left, but the condition of the garrison on the city is just as bad.

There was a sound of heavy footsteps on the stairs, and Qu Zhen came up from downstairs, looking at the vast army outside the city side by side with Gao Yongneng, and only after a moment did he say, "The Eight Bull Crossbow at the South Gate has broken again. ”

“…… Now there are only twelve left. Gao Yongneng replied in a low voice.

"Eleven." Qu Zhen corrected, "Half an hour ago, the south gate was already broken, and a pawn with twisted strings was injured. ”

Gao Yongneng scolded in a low voice, but no one could hear it.

Before the start of the war, a total of 21 bed crossbows of various colors were transported to Yanzhou, of which six were the strongest in strength and range. After six days, the bed crossbow was fired non-stop, which brought heavy casualties to the party members, and the damage to itself became more and more frequent.

Although most of the thunderbolt cannons of the party members were destroyed, they could always find suitable wood outside the city, and even if they were far away, it was only a matter of effort. But the bed crossbow can't be built in the city. In two more days, the thunderbolt cannon will be able to directly press the defenders at the head of the city, without worrying about the counterattack of the bed crossbow.

It would be nice if there were thunderbolt cannons in the city, but because they were defending the city, they didn't think of leaving a craftsman who could make thunderbolt cannons.

The spaceship was monitoring the enemy from afar, but the news from above only said that there were more and more thieves outside.

Footsteps sounded in the stairwell again, and Li Shunju also came up.

Seeing Qu Zhen and Gao Yongneng, Li Shunju said in a low voice: "Yanzhou is in danger, and it is difficult for reinforcements from Xiazhou and Huanzhou to rush to the rescue. ”

"I can't withdraw at this time." Qu Zhen said immediately. Li Shunju had what he had in mind, and he could see it at a glance.

"I can't withdraw the ...... that I can't go," Gao Yongneng also gave the same negative answer, "At this time." He added in his mind.

Yanzhou is not a horizontal mountain with thousands of mountains, it is surrounded by flat land, which is the most convenient for cavalry to pursue and encircle. If you want to get out of the city, you only have a chance when there is chaos inside and outside. But that kind of opportunity, presumably Li Shunju doesn't want to see.

Li Shunju's eyes dimmed. If the situation in front of him is really as Qu Zhen and Gao Yongneng said, then even if he takes out the secret decree, he can't adapt the overall situation, and Xu Xi's hard work in the city these days can be said to maintain his low morale. If he is taken from military power, I am afraid that there will be many more soldiers who refuse to obey or even disobey his orders than expected.

"How many days can Yanzhou City support?" He asked in a trembling voice.

"If you can hold it for a few days, you can win when reinforcements come." Gao Yongneng did not have a definite answer.