Chapter 71: The Situation Takes a Dire Turn

  The first day of the Lunar New Year has arrived, and Tang Yuan is here to wish all book friends a happy new year! Wishing all book friends a happy new year, may everything go smoothly!

  Inside the Forbidden Moat, several sections have become "thoroughfares", which are bridges formed by piles of corpses. The rebels laid down sacks or bamboo and wooden boards on these "corpse bridges", allowing soldiers to trample directly over the bodies and charge across the moat without much effort, reaching the west bank of the Forbidden Moat. A large number of rebel troops were carrying ladders through these "bridges" and rushing towards the west bank of the Forbidden Moat.

  After a while of heavy rain, the bodies that had accumulated in some narrower places were washed down by the water flow and piled up at slower sections with trees or rocks protruding into the stream. The bodies piled higher and higher at these places, and when the water flow increased further, they diverted a large amount of creek water.

  Although some water can flow out through the gaps in the corpses, a large amount of water is still blocked, forming small or large dams. The water overflowing the height of the corpse piles flows down through the lower gaps, and the corpses floating on the water flow downstream, further accumulating on these slowly formed wide "corpse bridges". The bodies of soldiers who were shot also accumulate further. As the passage gradually appears, more rebel soldiers rush to the other side through these slowly rising "bridges", and the fallen soldiers increase further, and the bridge body continues to rise and widen.

  Standing on the city wall, all that can be seen is that Jin Gou has become a river blocked by many dams and bridges, cut into sections of "reservoirs". Because the corpses are piled up wide enough and densely packed, the water flow in Jin Gou is slowly increasing, but the impact force is not strong, making it difficult to wash away these piles of "bridge bodies". In some places, the corpses have been piled up to almost the same height as the east side of Jin Gou.

  The western bank of the Forbidden Ditch is about one to two meters higher than the eastern side, and the truncated water flow cannot flow out from the gap between the corpses in time, accumulating more and more, eventually overflowing the eastern side of the Forbidden Ditch, and flowing slowly towards the gentle slope on the eastern side where the rebels gathered. The speed of the overflowing water is not urgent, and it does not cause much trouble for the rebels on the eastern bank of the Forbidden Ditch, but only slows down their charging speed to the western bank.

  The ever-growing "corpse bridge" turned many sections of the moat into a thoroughfare, and more and more rebel soldiers were able to climb up the west bank of the moat with little effort, gathering under the city wall, and starting to ascend via the cloud ladders.

  The cloud ladders were set up and pushed down by the Tang army on the city wall, and arrows and rolling stones flew more densely to the bottom of the city. Countless rebel soldiers who rushed over the moat and reached the foot of Tongguan City Wall lost their lives under these flying weapons. However, more than half of the soldiers were lucky enough to avoid death, and many people did not even get injured. New cloud ladders were set up again, and the fallen cloud ladders were re-erected and put on the city wall.

  As more and more cloud ladders were set up, countless rebel soldiers climbed up quickly through the cloud ladders with their hands and feet. Pang Zhong was anxious and kept ordering his soldiers to fight desperately against the enemy.

  "Kill! Kill all the rebels, never let them climb up to the city head!" After beheading a rebel soldier who had just appeared on the city head, Pang Zhong saw another rebel soldier appearing elsewhere and immediately shouted loudly to order his soldiers to bravely kill the enemy.

  Under the demonstration of Pang Zhong's physical strength, those Tang army soldiers who had abandoned their bows and arrows were all waving their battle knives to bravely kill the enemy. In coordination with the archers, they quickly cut down the rebels who were climbing up the city wall in this direction.

  But the east wall of the South Gate, commanded by Tian Liangqiu, began to show signs of crisis. A larger number of rebel soldiers emerged in this direction, and some soldiers even jumped onto the city wall, fighting with the Tang army. The soldiers under Tian Liangqiu's command were all remnants who had escaped from Lingbao and had not participated in yesterday's ambush or the bloody battle at Hantong Pass. These defeated soldiers, when things were going smoothly, maintained a decent morale, without panic, just like earlier using rotating arrows to shoot, organized and orderly, causing great casualties to the rebels.

  But the Lingbao defeat was only a few days ago, and the shadow cannot be eliminated immediately. When facing the rebels rushing to the city head, the fear that was suppressed in their hearts immediately arose. As more and more rebels emerged, some soldiers who were born with fear hesitated and dared not to fight, and a few timid ones even threw down their swords and fled into the city with their heads in their hands.

  Timidity is contagious, those defeated soldiers who have not eliminated the shadow of defeat see their companions fleeing, and then see more and more rebels climbing up from under the city, many people start to shrink back, the sound of "clanging" weapons being thrown away can be heard one after another.

  "Ahh!" A shrill and mournful cry came from the direction of the stairs leading down to the lower city.

  The first soldier who fled was killed by Tien Lieu-ku, who stood on the city wall directing the battle.

  Tian Liangqiu, who had just beheaded the fleeing soldier, held up the bloody head in his hand and roared at the soldiers on the city wall: "If there are any cowards who retreat without a fight or flee in battle, they will be killed without pardon!"

  The soldiers who fled first were beheaded in public, and those who hesitated were intimidated. Seeing the soldiers beside Tian Liangqiu who were ready to enforce battlefield discipline, those who wanted to escape stopped in their tracks. Several people who had thrown down their weapons and tried to slip away quietly picked up their weapons again and rejoined the ranks under the commander's orders.

  A similar situation occurred in the formation of Wang Silie's troops, where some timid soldiers saw more and more rebels under the city, and they were afraid. Although there were orders from their superiors to stop them, they were so frightened that they threw down their weapons and wanted to escape. After several soldiers who ran away first were beheaded, the unstable morale of the army temporarily stabilized.

  Geshu Han, who was directing the overall situation of the war from the top of the city gate tower in the direction of the south gate, also saw all this and was anxious.

  He had a reserve of five hundred men around him, but he knew it was not yet time to throw these five hundred brave and skilled soldiers into the emergency.

  Keshan anxiously lifted his head to look at the sky, hoping that this thunderstorm would stop soon.

  The wind has stopped and the rain has ceased. The twelve rows of city soldiers on the city wall can now use their bows and arrows to their maximum effect, and the situation will improve.

  But the rain seemed to have no signs of stopping, and after a short while, it started pouring again, even heavier than before. The fog dispersed by the strong wind spread further, and soon the situation in the valley became invisible again. However, the rebel army's offensive grew more intense.

  "Report the situation at the south gate to General Yang and investigate the situation at the east gate!" Geshu Han sighed in his heart.

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  Yang Kai was shocked after receiving Geshu Han's report and immediately made a new decision.

  The east gate direction is less affected by the wind and rain, with a smaller attack surface and mountains on both sides blocking the way. The killing power of the arrows has not decreased much, and the rebels who have been blocked by corpses and wounded people on the road do not have many opportunities to strengthen their offensive. Yang Hui is not worried about the east gate direction appearing in crisis, but he did not expect the south gate direction to appear so quickly in a critical situation.

  Yang Kai knew he had to reinforce the South Gate immediately, and he also immediately summoned Li Chengguang and Gao Shi to his side.

  "Generals Li and Gao, the defense of the east gate is entrusted to you two. The south gate is in a precarious situation, I will lead a contingent of troops to reinforce it!" Yang Gui patted Li Chengguang and Gao Shi's shoulders, saying with emotion: "The natural barrier of Jingou has already been lost, the south gate is extremely easy to be occupied by the rebel army, I can only personally lead the household troops and reserve team to reinforce it!"

  "Yes, Marshal! As long as I, Li Shou, am here, the rebel army will not set foot on the city wall for half a step!" Li Chengguang and Gao Shi almost responded in unison.