Defending the City (3)

  For the next two days, the rebels did not launch an attack, but from a few miles away in the mountain valley, you could still hear the sound of people and horses neighing in the rebel camp.

  The defense of Chen Cang City has been extremely strict for the past two days, with six shifts changing daily. Gao Fei would often climb up to the city wall to observe the enemy situation.

  "Your Lordship, you've come here for the tenth time today, but there's still no movement from the rebels. It's cold here, please take a rest at the county government office. If there's any enemy activity, I'll immediately send someone to inform Your Lordship." Zhou Cang, who was in charge of defending the city, said with a sympathetic tone as he saw Gao Fei walking up onto the city wall again through the wind and snow.

  "No big deal, I'm also bored at the county government office, might as well come up to the city wall and chat with you guys." Gao Fei was telling the truth, in this era, having nothing to do was really suffering. Moreover, over the years of running around in the business world, he had already developed a work attitude that couldn't bear to be idle.

  Zhou Cang said: "Lord Hou, these two days don't know what's going on, the rebel army neither advances nor retreats, what are they doing?"

  "No matter what kind of evil the rebels are up to, our Han army is like Zhong Kui, always able to catch the little devils."

  "Who is Zhong Kui?" asked Zhou Cang.

  Gao Fei laughed and said: "It's the ghost catcher."

  Then Gao Feng saw that everyone was standing guard and it was hard enough, so he told Zhou Cang and others about the story of Zhong Kui catching ghosts. Unexpectedly, as soon as he finished speaking, Zhou Cang and others were fascinated by it. These people always liked to listen to those ghostly legends. Gao Feng continued to speak until Guan Yu brought people to change shifts, but Zhou Cang and others were reluctant to leave. Anyway, they were bored, the rebels didn't attack, so Gao Feng simply told another story, even Guan Yu and others listened with fascination.

  Later, Gao Fei's mouth was dry and his tongue was parched, and since it was already late, he stopped talking and said they would continue next time.

  The heavy snow fell for three days and three nights, and on the fourth morning, with a mournful horn sound, the brief peace was broken. Ten thousand rebel infantrymen led by Han Sui quickly filled the mountain roads outside Chencang City.

  There were 5,000 soldiers in Chen Cang City, arrayed and waiting. On the mountain path outside the east gate, there were 15,000 troops stationed, all ready to defend Chen Cang at any moment.

  Gao Fei led Zhao Yun and Xiahou Lan onto the city wall, while Zhou Cang's archers also drew their bows. With the experience of defending the city three days ago, Zhou Cang, Guan Yu, Liao Hua, and Lu Xiang each led a thousand bowmen with different ranges, quietly waiting inside Chen Cang City.

  Han Shui led 10,000 infantrymen straight to the city of Chen Cang. After three days of preparation, today he could finally let Gao Fei experience his prowess, and in his heart, he was still a bit pleased. The rebel army remained stationed 500 meters away, but this time they were no longer cavalry, but infantry, carrying square wooden shields, and the soldiers behind them carried many cloud ladders.

  Seeing everything under the city, Gao Fei seemed to have understood something. These days, he kept hearing the sound of trees being cut down in the mountains. It seems that Han Shui used the felled trees to make these wooden shields and cloud ladders. His eyebrows slightly furrowed, and he shouted to the archers beside him: "It's still the same old trick, ten people aiming at one, this time they have wooden shields, aim carefully before shooting."

  "Wooo..."

  With a wave of Han's hand, the advance bugle sounded and ten men in a row holding wooden shields rushed forward one step at a time. The entire team formed a consistent unity, even with such thick snow, it was still possible to hear the uniform footsteps of the rebel army lined up in fifty rows far away.

  "Boom! Boom! Boom!"

  This time, the advancing rebel army was very disciplined, unlike last time when the cavalry rushed up all at once. The rebel wooden shield soldiers only walked forward for a hundred meters before stopping temporarily. The soldiers in the back used their wooden shields to support those in the front row, with two shields stacked together, about 1.8 meters high, completely blocking the view of the rebel soldiers. All that could be seen was twenty-five walls of wood moving forward in uniform pace, each step accompanied by a unified footstep sound.

  "Lord Hou, what are these rebels trying to do?" Zhao Yun asked, looking at the scene in confusion.

  Gao Fei was also unclear, the rebels were not in a hurry to attack the city, but first used these 500 infantrymen as a wooden wall to push forward, he did not respond, but continued to observe the movement on the battlefield.

  "Lord Hou, three hundred paces!" Zhou Cang and his men were drawing their bows, seeing the rebels almost within range of their arrows, he reminded him.

  "Nobody shoots without my order!" The arrows shot by the invisible man could only be nailed to the wooden shield, and had no effect on this group of people. Gao Fei saw this scene and shouted to the people around him, "Prepare the rolling logs and stones!"

  Xiahou Lan and Zhao Yun hastily led three hundred soldiers to transport the rolling logs and boulders to the top of the city tower, where they were ready to be thrown down on the rebel infantry approaching the city wall at any moment.

  The rebel infantry stopped completely when they were a hundred paces away, and then large numbers of infantry carrying cloud ladders surged forward from five hundred meters away. This time all the infantry rushed up together, shouting exciting slogans and taking agile steps.

  "Archers ready, shoot at those infantry carrying cloud ladders! Release the arrows!" Gao Fei hastily shouted.

  At the sound of the order, arrows shot out like breaking through the air, densely packed arrows fell into the rebel army array that carried cloud ladders and held curved knives. Immediately, some rebel soldiers fell down. Those in front fell down, and those behind hurriedly filled up, showing a fearless spirit of sacrifice, just to get close to the city wall, then set up the cloud ladder and climb over the city wall of Chen Cang.

  Zhou Cang, Liao Hua, Guan Yu and Lu Xiang's four crossbow teams began to change, with tens of thousands of arrows falling from the sky, shooting the rebels in the narrow mountain path to death.

  Just as the Han army was busy dealing with the rebels in the distance, the rebel wooden shield unit that had run to a hundred paces outside the city gate formed a wall and began to move forward. The wooden shields suddenly opened up a gap, revealing a group of crossbowmen who raised their bows and shot a barrage at the defenders on the city tower. After one wave of arrows was fired, the wooden shields closed again, repeating this process in close-range shooting.

  The guards on the city wall were caught off guard, and over a hundred people were immediately hit by crossbow arrows. Some fell from the city wall, while others were shot through the heart, and gaps appeared in the defensive formation on the city wall.

  Gaofei was caught off guard and didn't expect the rebels to have this trick up their sleeve. He loudly shouted: "The wounded, get down! The rear troops, fill in! The left half of the city wall's crossbowmen, target the wooden walls below! The right half, fiercely shoot at the rebel soldiers carrying the cloud ladders!"

  The wounded soldier ran down from the city tower, entered the inner city from the urn city, and the military doctor who had been waiting there took rescue measures, pulled out the crossbow arrow, bandaged the wound, and everything was done with preparation.

  The group of strong crossbowmen behind the wooden wall fired very irregularly. Every time a portcullis was exposed, there would be crossbow arrows shooting up to the city tower, but when the crossbowmen on the city tower shot out their crossbow arrows, those wooden walls closed again, and the crossbow arrows could only be nailed onto those wooden shields, always one step slower than the group of rebel crossbowmen behind the wooden wall.

  Moreover, the infantry carrying cloud ladders were getting closer and closer, and soon they came to the back of the wooden wall. Suddenly, the wooden wall changed into two walls, opening a gap in the middle. Four rebel soldiers holding wooden shields protected an infantryman carrying a cloud ladder, rushing quickly to the city wall. The rebels behind followed suit, and for a time, the rebels truly besieged the city.

  Lu Xun commanded the other half of the crossbowmen to continue shooting, but the effect was much less than before. Only the archers led by Zhou Cang, Guan Yu and Liao Hua behind could shoot arrows over the city wall without being attacked.

  "Smash! Smash with all your might! Smash these sons of bitches to death!" Gao Fei had already handed over the long-range troops on the city wall to Lu Heng and Xia Houlan, while he and Zhao Yun commanded other soldiers on both sides of the city wall, throwing down rolling logs and stones at those below. Every time a cloud ladder approached, they would push it back down.

  Only a moment's work, the rebel army swarmed up from behind like ants, and the group of skilled archers who came up also started shooting at the city tower, constantly exchanging fire with the Han army defending the city. With the help of the crossbowmen behind the wooden wall nearby, they quickly suppressed the Han army on the city wall. Gao Fei, Zhao Yun, Lu Heng and Xia Houlan had to hide behind the city wall, and could only hope for the three thousand archers near the jar city, who were responsible for not letting the rebels set up ladders nearby.

  Gao Fei poked his head out of the city wall and saw that the rebel army below the city gate had already gathered in a dense crowd, and there were still many people marching on foot from several miles away. The dark mass was all people, and the dead bodies of the rebels had long been trampled by the living into a bloody mess. It really had a flavor of dark clouds pressing down on the city, as if it was about to be destroyed.

  "Whoosh!" An arrow flew over his head from high altitude, damn it was close.

  "General Hou, this won't do. The number of rebels is too great, but the walls of Chen Cang are narrow and can't hold that many people. This is equivalent to using over a thousand men against the rebels' tens of thousands." Zhao Yun said as he threw stones down from the city wall, shouting at Gao Fei.

  "What you said is right, it seems that we can only use the catapult now." Gaofei picked up a stone and threw it down at the city wall below. He looked back at the rolling logs and stones on the city wall, which were almost used up. He called over a soldier and told him, "You go down and let Pang De, Pei Yuanshao, and Bian Xi start firing with the catapult!"

  Chen Cang City was like a convex surname city wall, the front point is the city wall spanning between two mountains, and the back is the repaired urn city. Further behind is the artificially excavated inner city, which is eight miles wide. Although the Han army also had nearly 20,000 people, they were all unable to exert their strength, and the concept of attacking the city with the rebel army was completely different.

  The rebels under the city wall were trying to climb up the city wall, and they were waving their sharp blades at the city wall. Those who were a little further away were shooting arrows at the city tower with their bows and arrows non-stop. The soldiers standing on the city wall would be pierced by arrows if they were slightly careless.

  Five hundred meters away from Chen Cang, Han Sui rode a fine horse, watching the soldiers rushing past him, and seeing the Han army on the city tower of Chen Cang being suppressed, he showed a satisfied smile, muttering to himself: "I don't believe it, my 100,000-strong army can't take down a small Chen Cang! Look at this, today Chen Cang will be taken! Gao Fei, if I catch you, I'll chop you into pieces, haha, haha!"