Chapter 73: The Forbidden Ditch Became a Thoroughfare

  On the eve of the Lunar New Year, Tang Yuan is here to wish all book friends a smooth and auspicious year, spend a happy time with family, and give you New Year's greetings! ... Red envelope, come and get it! ^－^

  The rebels took advantage of the poor visibility and the Tang army's inability to see clearly from the top of the city wall, allowing soldiers to climb up the cloud ladder beforehand and then jump over when it was close to the city wall. This happened frequently in subsequent battles, despite Wang Siyi's warnings, some soldiers were still caught off guard and killed or injured by the rebels who jumped over. However, the number of rebels who managed to jump over was not large, and even if they succeeded in killing a few people, they would immediately be surrounded and killed by other Tang army soldiers, their bodies thrown down from the city wall as weapons.

  But the rebels kept coming with more and more cloud ladders, while the soldiers on the city wall used horizontal wooden beams to push away the approaching cloud ladders, a large number of rolling stones and logs were thrown down from the top of the city by the soldiers, hitting the heads of the rebel soldiers climbing the city.

  The dense arrows still fell on the heads of the rebels with all their might.

  Because the situation in the distance is not clear, and the rebel army's attack method and formation are unknown, the arrows shot by the Tang army on the city wall can only be said to be aimless, just shooting into the rain curtain at a certain distance. The direction of the dense charge must be the rebel army. However, the effect of such an attack is definitely not good, and there are also many rebels arriving under the city wall, preparing to use ladders to climb the city. In this situation, the primary task of the archers is to eliminate the rebels under the city wall first. The soldiers in each team should aim at the rebels gathered under the city wall as their first target.

  When the rebels began to attack the city, almost all soldiers were incorporated into the archer sequence, taking turns shooting at the enemy, but it was raining heavily and the shooting effect was not good. Some soldiers abandoned their bows and arrows and picked up swords and axes for use as halberdiers.

  These soldiers were originally infantry, their strong point was not the bow and arrow, but the sword. However, when the rebels launched a dense charge, the level of archery was no longer important, as long as they could pull out the bow and shoot arrows, they could effectively kill the rebels. But now, the rebels have started to climb the city walls, these soldiers who were good at swords, abandoned their bows and arrows, and used the war knives in their hands to block the rebels' advance.

  The archers were to shoot at the base of the city, and the original infantry also abandoned their bows and arrows, picked up their war knives, and shot at a distance. The dense shooting of arrows decreased significantly, and the rebel army that was densely impacted suffered fewer casualties. More rebel soldiers used various methods to climb up the west bank of the moat, preparing to ascend the city wall, and had the opportunity to shoot out arrows of revenge.

  However, the arrows shot from the bottom of the city to the top of the city wall had little killing power. The hastily shot arrows could not have great force, and the Tongguan City Wall was very high. To overcome the effect of potential energy, it also had to be reduced by the dense rain, and when it fell on the city head, it can be said that they all became the end of a strong crossbow, with little killing power. The number of Tang army soldiers who were hurt by the arrows shot onto the city head by the rebel army was extremely small, and some were just a few unlucky ones.

  At this time, the soldiers on the twelve connected cities played a huge role. The arrows they shot could effectively hit the rebel soldiers climbing in the forbidden ditch and could also transmit the observed attack situation of the rebels back to the city, so that the generals inside the city knew. Geshu Han, Wang Silie, Peng Zhong and other generals made adjustments to the deployment of troops based on the information transmitted by the soldiers stationed on several city walls of the twelve connected cities.

  Pang Zhong and Li Fude joined forces, re-attacking the rebel army at Hantong Pass and successfully delaying their attack on Tongguan until afternoon. After leading his troops back to Tongguan, he felt a sense of accomplishment. The defeat at Lingbao was forgotten, and the shadow of the near-total destruction of his 100,000-strong army had largely disappeared. He no longer looked dejected and resentful, but instead regained his heroic spirit.

  After resting for half a night and one morning, Yang Gui ordered Li Fuguo's unit to support the south gate. He was filled with the desire to kill the enemy, and when he saw the rebels falling in waves on the city wall under the arrows shot by the Tang army, he felt that Tongguan City could be completely defended.

  But unexpectedly, a strong wind suddenly picked up and heavy rain reduced the power of our troops' bows and arrows, giving the rebels an opportunity to rush to the foot of the city wall. This immediately made him worried, knowing that the upcoming battle would be extremely difficult. As long as the rain didn't stop, the advantage would slowly shift to the rebels.

  He was eager for the heavy rain to stop as soon as possible, or at least let up a bit, so that the killing power of the bed crossbows and arrows on the city wall could be restored. At least it wouldn't allow the rebels to rush under the city wall in large numbers, set up a large number of cloud ladders and start climbing the city. Fortunately, the Tongguan City Wall was high enough, and it would take some time for the rebels to climb from setting up the cloud ladder to reaching the top of the city wall. Within this period of time, there was enough time for them to come up with many countermeasures.

  However, as more and more rebels arrived at the foot of the city wall, more ladders were erected. From time to time, several soldiers would climb up the ladder in advance, and when the ladder approached, the rebel soldiers would jump over, making Pang Zhong feel an increasingly urgent pressure.

  A cloud ladder rose under Pang Zhong's eyelids, and a soldier who had climbed to the top of the cloud ladder took advantage of the cloud ladder's approach to pounce on Pang Zhong. Pang Zhong shouted loudly, but instead of swinging his sword, he stretched out his foot and kicked the rebel soldier with great force. The rebel soldier, who had hoped to succeed in one blow, was kicked squarely by Pang Zhong and let out a miserable cry before flying directly out of the city without even landing on the city wall.

  Pang Zhong couldn't see where the rebel soldier who was kicked by him fell, but he could guess that after being kicked with such great force and falling into the deep moat of nearly ten zhang high, even if he didn't die, he must have been seriously injured.

  But as more cloud ladders were set up, more and more rebel soldiers emerged from the rain and fog, appearing in the field of vision of the city's defenders.

  At this time, the Tang army soldiers on the city wall still maintained a good physical strength. The rebel soldiers who emerged were either shot and killed by arrows, or crushed by rolling stones and logs, or beheaded. Not a single rebel soldier was able to fully climb onto the city wall. Those flying rebel soldiers could survive for only a few minutes at most on the city wall before being hacked to death by chaotic knives.

  However, whether it was Pang Zhong, Li Fude, or Wang Silie, they all knew that the rebel army's attacks were getting fiercer and fiercer, the number of cloud ladders erected would increase, the number of soldiers climbing up to the city wall would also increase, and the pressure they faced would become greater and greater.

  The rain suddenly subsided, the sky seemed to clear up a bit, and the fog was blown away by a strong gust of wind. On the city wall, Wang Silie saw that the dense rebel soldiers were climbing over the western bank of the Forbidden Ditch, heading towards the city wall.

  A section of the western ridge of the Forbidden City has been almost filled with corpses, and the accumulated water from the heavy rain has washed over some scattered bodies, increasing the height to the point where the rebels do not need to use ladders, but can climb up to the western ridge of the Forbidden City with their bare hands.

  The blocked ditch has become a thoroughfare!

  Seeing this situation, Wang Silie was greatly shocked. However, at this time, it was raining heavily, and the dry grass and hot oil were of no use, unable to ignite a fire, and there was no way to eliminate this danger. "Immediately report the situation at the south gate to Generals Gesu and Yang!" Wang Silie could only report the situation.

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