Chapter 65: Fierce Battle

  Six rounds of bed crossbow shooting, countless rebels fell on the steps leading to the east gate, either dead or injured, but more rebel soldiers trampled their companions' bodies and their blood, charging forward recklessly.

  The killing power of the bed crossbow is terrifying, but it's impossible to achieve dense shooting.

  Each time a bed crossbow is fired, it can only hold about ten arrows. Even if twenty bed crossbows are fired at the same time, the maximum number of arrows that can be shot out is only around two hundred. Even if one arrow can kill two people, the damage caused by a round of arrows is only enough to kill four hundred people. Moreover, the preparation time for another wave of shooting is also very long, and it takes much longer than ordinary bows and crossbows. It is impossible to fire densely. If only bed crossbow shooting is used, it is impossible to completely destroy the rebel army that is attacking the city.

  The crossbow arrows shot out are not dense, the number of rebel soldiers rushing forward is increasing, and the rebels who dodged the crossbow shots and rushed towards the city gate are also increasing, almost blocking the road. The terrifying blow of the crossbow did not make them retreat. The rebels are getting closer and closer to the city gate, approaching the range of arrow shooting. Li Chengguang and Gao Shi, who were commanding the battle on the city wall, had already ordered their soldiers to prepare for shooting.

  The current distribution of troops on the Tongguan city wall is as follows: There are more than 6,000 people in the south gate direction, about 3,600 people in the east gate direction, and only about 1,000 people in the north gate direction where the rebels are unlikely to launch a large-scale attack. The west gate direction has around 400 people. Of course, this troop distribution does not include the private soldiers of each general, such as Yang Hui's 300 personal guards, and the personal soldiers under the command of Li Chengguang, Wang Silie, Tian Quliang and other generals are also numerous. These people are extra combat forces, but at the beginning of the war, these private soldiers of various generals will not be sent to the front line immediately.

  More than 2,000 men under Pang Zhong and Li Fude had yet to join the battle, they were reorganizing.

  More than 3,000 troops were stationed at the east gate of the city, which was more abundant compared to the Battle of Tongguan. Li Chenggui, who commanded the defense of the east gate, arranged one thousand men as a team and divided them into three waves for continuous shooting, while the other six hundred men served as reserve troops.

  Just as the rebels began to rush towards the east gate, approaching the range of archery, the first wave of 1,000 troops had already lined up in two rows on the city wall, with their bows fully drawn and arrows pointing diagonally into the air.

  At Li Chengguang's angry shout of "Release!", a thousand arrows whizzed out in a fan-shaped formation, flying a distance into the air before leveling off and then descending at an angle towards the swarming rebel army.

  Innumerable shields were raised in the rebel ranks, ready to block the arrows that would soon be falling.

  Many arrows fell on the raised shields, making a clanging sound before falling to the ground, but many arrows also shot through the gaps between the shields and hit the densely charging rebel soldiers. In the continuous wailing, many soldiers fell one after another, either killed or injured, and the raised shields immediately became uneven, while at this time the second wave of arrows on the city wall had already fallen quickly.

  The second wave of arrows had a much more devastating effect than the first, with many more rebel soldiers falling to the ground, and fewer shields being raised. The third wave of Tang army arrows came again, and more and more rebel soldiers fell in the midst of mournful cries. However, the subsequent rebels seemed to ignore all this, continuing to charge forward with their shields held high, even trampling over the bodies or injured comrades without hesitation.

  The rebel soldiers who narrowly escaped the arrow strike, using alternating cover or terrain blocking, took bows and arrows, and began to shoot at the city head.

  Three or two arrows flew to the top of the city, but there were too few arrows shot at the top of the city, and some of them were not strong enough, and they didn't even hit the top of the city, causing almost no harm to the Tang army officers on the city. The battle was still one-sided, with casualties mainly occurring in the rebel ranks.

  Faced with such heavy casualties, Commander Cui Gan-yu didn't bat an eyelid and continued to order his generals, deputy commanders, and other senior officers to speed up the attack, taking advantage of their numerical superiority to quickly wear down the defending Tang army and strive to reach the city walls as soon as possible.

  Under the East Gate tower, the corpses of the rebels were slowly piling up, but there was no sign of any slowdown in their attack.

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  The battle at the east gate was extremely fierce, and the rebel army in the south gate direction was also continuously attacking, with a degree of ferocity that was not inferior to that of the east gate. Geshu Han, sitting in his wheelchair, personally sat on the city gate tower to direct, while his generals Wang Silie, Tian Liangqiu and other important generals directed from the top of the city wall. When the rebel army's vanguard rushed down into the moat like a swarm of bees, Wang Silie, who was in charge of the main command on the city wall, had already ordered the twelve rows of soldiers on the city wall to shoot at the rebels in the moat first.

  The twelve connected cities were built right next to the Forbidden Trench, with several beacon towers even protruding into the trench. When rebel troops rushed to the east side of the trench, soldiers on top could strike them with arrows.

  There were not many soldiers on each beacon tower, only about 120, but the arrows shot by these 120 soldiers had great lethality. The rebels who wanted to climb up the west bank of the Forbidden Ditch could not hold up their shields for cover, as they did not have enough hands to do so. Shields were not what they needed most at this moment, and it can be said that the dense crowd of rebels rushing down the Forbidden Ditch was at the mercy of the Tang army soldiers on the twelve beacon towers.

  Unfortunately, the twelve beacon towers of the Twelve Linked Cities were built at a certain distance according to the terrain, roughly protecting the Sui Tongguan City from the east gate south section, the entire south gate, and the west gate east section for several miles. The rebel army attacking the south gate now only launched large-scale charges on the front and two sides of the south gate, about two or three miles long, where there were piles of corpses, avoiding those dangerous sections as much as possible. This distance had only five external beacon towers, which means that only the soldiers on these five beacon towers of the Twelve Linked Cities could strike at the rebel army, while the other beacon towers temporarily failed to play a role.

  The beacon towers of the Twelve Linked Cities were built very high and large, higher than Tongguan City. The shooting and killing power from above was extremely great, while the rebel crossbows on the east side of the Forbidden Trench could hardly reach these beacon towers. Even if the rebels reached the bottom of the trench and shot at the beacon towers from below, their arrows couldn't fly that high. It can be said that the soldiers on the Twelve Linked Cities, unless they were exhausted, could continue to shoot at the rebels before they climbed up the west bank of the Forbidden Trench, without worrying about being shot by the rebel arrows.

  The rebels didn't have time to deal with the soldiers on the beacon towers of Shi'erlian City after they arrived at Xigou, because they had to face the denser arrow attacks from the city head, and counterattack the defenders on the city head, rather than the hundred or so soldiers on the beacon towers of Shi'erlian City.

  As the rebels rushed to the bottom of the moat, preparing to climb up the west wall with ropes and ladders or by hand, Wang Silie and Tian Liangqiu on the city wall also ordered their soldiers to counterattack the rebels with bows and arrows.