This is one-tenth of the strength of all the invasion troops, and the commander of this siege force is Liu Fangliang, a general under Li Zicheng.

Liu Fangliang is the most trusted and important person by Li Zicheng, and he is also the person with the highest prestige and highest status in this army besides Li Zicheng. And his troops are also quite elite in this army, and Li Zicheng can send his troops to attack the city, which shows that he also attaches great importance to this siege.

As soon as Liu Fangliang gave the order, he took more than 2,000 troops with his subordinates, and the tide rushed forward. The more than 2,000 troops were very scattered, not in that dense formation. Although there were only 2,000 people, the cross-section of the entire formation was more than 100 zhang wide and 10 zhang thick. These 2,000 or so people are standing in such a large range, and everyone is quite far away from each other.

Needless to say, this was done in order to guard against the attack of trebuchets and other equipment on the head of the city.

These are also some of the experiences that the Chuang Army has summed up after fighting with officers and men for many years.

At the beginning of the invasion of the city where the officers and soldiers were stationed, they often advanced in a very dense formation, and in that case, the officers and soldiers at the head of the city, whether using trebuchets or other long-range equipment, shot a large area, and the invading army suffered heavy casualties and heavy losses. Therefore, later, when the army attacked the city, it basically used a very loose formation.

More than 2,000 people advanced in a loose formation, and the speed at which they advanced was not fast. The distance between the camp and the north city wall of Sanshui County was about two miles, and the distance between their starting point and the city wall was about three hundred zhang. At their current speed, they would have to walk for a quarter of an hour to reach the city walls.

In the array of the invading army, except for the dozen or so ladders that had only taken more than two hours to build, there were no other siege equipment.

There are more than 3,000 people, but in such a loose array, there are only a dozen cloud ladders, and it is very pitiful to look at the lonely.

Such a number of people, but only a dozen ladders, can be said to be very cold, just this scene, the weakness of the army will be exposed.

The army is not good at siege, one of which is that it has little experience in siege. The rebel army has been famous for many years, and everywhere they go, the defenders of many cities do not resist at all, do not defend the palace, and flee directly from the wind. The city was not beaten down at all, just swaggered in. And the real defenders of the city, they can rarely be defeated, when they encounter this kind of city, the army generally does not fight hard, and directly bypasses.

The second is that there are few craftsmen, and the ability to build siege equipment is very weak. For example, if Fang Cai were to replace the Chuang army with a well-trained officer army, with the number of about 20,000 soldiers, in the two and a half hours of Fang Cai, he would definitely not have built only such a little equipment. Some other siege equipment, such as some kind of chariot, building car, etc., can be crafted.

Let's take Dong Ce as an example, when he attacked Hutou Cottage and a small cottage, he could create more than one siege machine in a short period of time.

With such a comparison, you can see it very clearly.

Dong Ce stood at the head of the city, and when he saw the scene in front of him, he suddenly felt very familiar. A few months ago, outside Chengcheng County, when Guo Rupan's army attacked the city, wasn't it such a scene?

There are a lot of people, there are few siege equipment, and the only siege tactic is to lean the ladder up, and then the ants attach themselves to the city, and fight with the defenders on the city wall, in order to be able to take down the city wall. Other than that, other tactics are not to say lackluster, they are simply none. It's like digging tunnels, fire attacks, explosives exploding, piling up mountains of dirt outside the city, using buildings and trucks to carry soldiers to hide behind thick cowhide barriers and shoot at the city, none of this.

Dong Ce touched his nose, the corners of his mouth hooked slightly, and he secretly said in his heart: "It seems that Chongzhen's army at this time in the eighth year, whether it is elite or not, is almost the same when attacking the city." ”

He didn't speak, but Cao Wen Zhaozhong next to him laughed wildly, pointed to the ladders in the army formation, and scolded with disdain: "You dog thieves, are you using this little thing to attack the city, is it for the sake of the old man?" Are these guys here to tickle Lao Tzu? ”

The contempt was overflowing, and many people next to him also laughed.

Dong Ce shook his head slightly, his own brother Cao is really interesting. However, his method is indeed quite effective, and he can motivate the soldiers.

The army gradually advanced, and soon, the distance between it and the city wall was reduced to within sixty zhang.

This is a very delicate distance, and once the enemy has entered this distance, the defenders at the head of the city can prepare.

As a very experienced general, Cao Wenzhao naturally knew very well what he should do at this time, and he shouted loudly: "Sons, raise your bow and prepare to shoot!" Listen to me! ”

"Yes!"

More than 1,000 soldiers were distributed behind the battlements of the city wall near the north city gate, and when they heard Cao Wenzhao's order, they suddenly agreed, and raised their bows and arrows in their hands, stretched their bows and arrows, and prepared to shoot.

The army approached, and soon reached a distance of only forty zhang from the city wall.

This is already the effective range of the rifle.

The soldiers under Cao Wenzhao all carried two bows, one for foot and one for horsemanship. Use a riding bow immediately, and if you dismount in a hurry and fight on foot, and you don't have time to change it, you can also use a riding bow. However, if there is infantry combat and there is plenty of time to prepare, as in the current case, use a foot bow.

After all, the bow has a longer range.

"It's finally forty feet."

Cao Wenzhao seemed to whisper softly, and suddenly, a sharp cold light flashed in his eyes, raised his right hand high, and then fell down heavily, and shouted in his mouth: "Release the arrow!" Don't talk nonsense about archery, shoot it again when you see it right! ”

In Fangcai, the more than 1,000 elite officers and soldiers under Cao Wenzhao at the head of the city have already drawn their bows and arrows and are ready. At this time, as soon as the word "arrow" came out of Cao Wenzhao's mouth, they immediately let go of their hands, and thousands of feather arrows were shot towards the breaking army below!

They didn't rain arrows, but they aimed at their targets one by one before they shot them.

Because the offensive formation of the invading army is very scattered, if it rains arrows downwards on a large scale, it will cause damage to the invading army, which is certain, but the number of casualties will definitely not be too large. In the face of such a loose formation, most of the feathered arrows will fall in the air.

Cao Wenzhao has fought for so many years, so he naturally will not make such a mistake. So he gave the order to aim at his own target and shoot again, so that he could ensure that all the feathered arrows were aimed at people and would not fall into the air. Even if several people aim at a target at the same time, it's okay, because it's impossible for every feather arrow to hit the target, and the army is also advancing, moving, and it's not just standing there and shooting casually, it's normal to miss, and if several people aim at a target at the same time to shoot arrows, then the chance of hitting him is greatly increased.

This is also much more devastating to the enemy than an aimless rain of arrows.

Sure enough, Cao Wenzhao's move was very effective, and after this round of shooting, at least seventy or eighty intruders were shot to the ground. Clusters of sharp arrows tore through the skin muscles, and a terrible scream rang out, blood gushing out of the body, staining the ground red, and there was a small commotion among the intruders.

Cao Wenzhao is a general, but Liu Fangliang is also a battle-hardened battle, and at this time, he made the most accurate judgment.

Liu Fangliang shouted: "Run, run forward with all your might, and rush to the bottom of the city wall!" ”

The army that had been breaking slowly before, at this time, spread their legs one by one, and ran forward with all their might.

They were only more than 30 zhang away from the city wall at this time, that is, about 100 meters, and if an adult man ran 100 meters with all his might, it would take more than ten seconds. And these intruders are all the elite of the entire Gao Yingxiang army, and their physical fitness is not bad, that is, it took more than ten seconds to rush to the bottom of the city wall.

But in these ten seconds, Cao Wenzhao's headquarters on the city has already released three more rounds of arrows, counting the first round, it is four rounds, and these four rounds of feather arrows have been shot, causing about 300 casualties to the intruding army.

That's a lot of that.

However, despite so many casualties, the invasion army finally achieved its goal. They had managed to rush to the bottom of the walls, the ladders were heavily placed on the walls, and the intruders began to ascend the city.

The county seat of Sanshui County is not large, and the city wall is not very high, which is also normal, after all, Sanshui County is not a major town. The walls are only about two feet high, and these hastily built ladders are not tall, but they are already a cut higher than the city walls.

Soon, the ladder of the siege was full of soldiers, and in the face of this situation, even a young general like Dong Ce, who had just led the troops for a short time, knew how to deal with it, let alone Cao Wenzhao. As soon as he gave the order, the soldiers picked up the fork pole and pushed the ladder outward, and soon, more than a dozen ladders were overturned to the ground.

Some ladders were broken directly, after all, these ladders were made improvised and not so strong, while some ladders could not be said to be intact, but at least they could be reused. So, the soldiers once again lifted the ladder up and began to climb upward.

However, the number of ladders was so small that the defenders at the head of the city could deal with it calmly. The few surviving ladders were quickly overturned, and none of the intruders managed to climb the walls.

Li Zicheng, who was supervising the battle from afar, saw this scene, his face turned a little blue, but by the way, the corner of his mouth showed a smile, and he said in a low voice: "It's a good thing to be defeated in this way, at least let me know where we are wrong." ”

Xu had calmed down this morning, and he was much calmer than he had been in the morning. He knew very well at this time that this tentative attack was a failure, and even if he continued to order these soldiers to attack the city, there would not be much progress. After all, there are only a dozen ladders, and after the first round of being knocked down, three or four have been damaged and can no longer be used, and the rest can't bear a few falls. If there is no ladder, how can the soldiers climb the city wall? Is it possible to climb up with both hands and feet?