Chapter 674: Siege (2)

This kind of siege battle went back and forth for ten days, and the Xianbei army kept fighting to harass the siege troops of the Pingzhou army. Although there were few victories during the period, the efficiency of the siege was also reduced in disguise.

However, during this period, Xianbei soldiers lost more than 100,000 people who were killed by bed crossbow stones, and those who went out of the city in a surprise attack, and most of the troops who went out of the city to make a surprise attack were elite soldiers, so the casualties were not negligible big.

There were not many casualties in the Pingzhou Army, but the loss of siege equipment was not small. Most of the time when the Xianbei went out to battle, they returned without success, but once or twice they were lucky enough to destroy some of the equipment.

In the past ten days, the Pingzhou army was counted as accidental damage, overused and directly scrapped, and was destroyed by the enemy's counterattack, etc., and the siege equipment was damaged by about 20%.

The cost was high, but the results were significant.

The attacking area of ​​the Pingzhou army was the weakest link in Manchester City's defense. Coupled with Shang Ji's crazy attack regardless of cost, the city wall had already become riddled with holes, and it seemed that it might collapse at any time.

The twenty-foot-high city wall was cut down by one foot, and the defensive facilities such as turrets, parapets, and arrow towers were completely destroyed. Now only a few large ballistas and some archery troops can effectively counterattack.

After wiping out all the relatively threatening catapults, Shang Ji decisively changed his siege strategy.

The explosive torchstone chariots and torchstone chariots continued to throw torchstones at Toman City, the catapults and heavy siege crossbows moved forward, and more archers were sent to the front to shoot at the enemy!

In order to gain an advantage in the archer duel, the Pingzhou Army dispatched the Xingyao Strong Bow and the Sun Shooting Army, and two prefecture-level special troops were dispatched, which crushed the Xianbei people to death.

The giant shield soldiers provided cover, and the Xingyao strong bow and the sun-shooting soldiers shot at the city wall behind the giant shield. Even though the Xianbei people had the advantage of the city wall, they were still defeated in the face of the two strongest long-range bow and arrow troops in China.

In killing conventional arms, the efficiency of archer troops far exceeds that of heavy bed crossbows and other large equipment.

In just one day, no less than 30,000 defenders on the walls of the Xianbei Army died in battle!

In the previous battles, the Pingzhou Army attacked non-stop during the day, but had to suspend the offensive at night to allow the Xianbei Army to breathe.

It's not that Shang Ji doesn't want to continue to attack, but that the hit rate of night siege equipment plummets. In addition, the reliability of this large-scale equipment is actually not very strong. After multiple launches, it needs to carry out necessary maintenance, otherwise it is easy to "crash". Many Explosive Jushi vehicles have suffered major mechanical failures due to overuse and temporarily lost their offensive capabilities.

Therefore, at night, Shang Ji ordered to suspend the attack. On the one hand, he asked the soldiers to rest, and on the other hand, he maintained and overhauled the large siege equipment, and repaired some minor problems in time.

But in this way, the Xianbei army will have a breathing space, and Touman City has abundant human resources. Every night when the truce came, personnel would be sent to repair the city wall, and most of the efforts of the Pingzhou Army during the day were wasted.

But starting today, Xianbei people should stop thinking about such beautiful things!

Although they are both prefecture-level special units, there is still a big gap between Xingyao Qiangbow and Sun Shooting Pawn. During the day, the Sun-shooting soldiers completely suppressed Xingyao Qiangbow, and about two-thirds of the 30,000 victories were caused by the Sun-shooting soldiers.

But at night, it is the time for Xingyao Qiangbow to perform.

Five thousand elite Xingyao strong bows spread out, and under the cover of night, they approached the city wall secretly, and then waited for an opportunity to hunt and kill. Throughout the night, the screams on the city wall did not stop, and every scream meant that a Xianbei soldier lost his life.

Calculating seriously, the results of Xingyao Qiangbow's battle overnight are not particularly high, and there are only about 10,000 people in the sky. But the blow to the Xianbei people was devastating.

Not to mention that the Xianbei people lost the opportunity to repair the city wall, the elusive Xingyao Qiangbow dealt a huge blow to the morale of the Xianbei people. It also seriously interfered with the Xianbei Army's night rest, and it was impossible for anyone to fall asleep amidst the screams of their colleagues one after another.

After three consecutive days like this, the morale of the Xianbei army dropped to freezing point, and Ke Bineng had to adjust the deployment of the army on a large scale, swapping the defensive troops in other areas with the key areas.

The command chaos caused by large-scale defense changes is a trivial matter, but this kind of defense change is only a temporary solution, not the root cause. The new troops often lose their morale after a day or two.

After two or three defense changes like this, other troops were even more afraid of defending this area, and even caused a certain degree of panic in the army.

"My lord, it's not an option to go on like this!"

Suo Nu, who had just completed another defense switch, entered the big tent and whispered in front of Ke Bineng.

Thinking about the troops selected to take over the defense, Suo Nu felt a burst of fire in his heart. The dignified Xianbei turned pale with fright from a mere task of defending the city. If it weren't for the influence of scruples, Suo Nu really wanted to slash that Wanqi commander Wanqi!

Ke Bineng frowned, and asked after a while, "Suo Nu, what do you think we need to do?"

"grown ups!"

Suo Nu raised his head, looked at Ke Bineng's expression quietly, and said in a low voice: "The Han people have a saying that a lonely city cannot be defended. This slave thinks this sentence is quite reasonable. We Da Xianbei are not good at defending the city at all. Although Manchester City is a king-level fortified city, there will be problems sooner or later under the onslaught of the enemy army day after day. The subordinates think that they need to go out of the city to fight the enemy army!"

In fact, there is still one thing that Suo Nu dare not say - just stick to it like this, Manchester City will collapse within a month!

Among other things, food alone can drive Xianbei people crazy. The Xianbei people are a fishing and hunting people. Although they also engage in a small amount of farming activities, they are far from comparable to the Han. Although Manchester City has a lot of supplies in reserve, its daily consumption is more.

In the previous battle between Ke Bineng and Budugen, Ke Bineng never thought that there would be a day when he would retreat to Manchester City, so he didn't make much preparations. The material reserves in Manchester City were not sufficient.

In terms of strategy, the Xianbei army and the Han army fought a city defense battle, which has already lost in terms of grand strategy. With Ke Bineng's shrewdness, it is impossible not to see this. It's just that Ke Bi Neng almost insisted on forcing the army to retreat to Manchester City.

Ke Bineng's actions had a great negative impact within Xianbei—don't say that he couldn't beat it. Ke Bineng's elite troops surpassed the Pingzhou Army in number, and there were more than three million miscellaneous troops to help in the battle.

Among the elite troops are six Xiongnu Wanqi, two remnant wolf soldiers Wanqi (the advanced version of wolf cavalry, between wolf cavalry and Sirius cavalry), and four wolf cavalry Wanqi. The high-level troops in the middle will not be defeated head-on.

Even if the whole army is in a decisive battle in the field, the outcome of the two sides will be between five and five. If it weren't for the great increase in prestige after Kebi was able to obtain the inheritance, this method of forcing the army to retreat to the city might directly cause the army to mutiny.

After being silent for a while, Ke Bineng asked suddenly: "Suo Nu, how long has it been since Dragon City was destroyed today?"

Suo Nu was stunned for a moment, and then said: "My lord, the catastrophe of the holy city happened thirty-eight days ago."

"Has it been thirty-eight days?" Kebi Neng lowered his head and pondered for a moment, then slowly got up and said, "The order will be passed on, and tomorrow the Japanese will personally lead the army to fight the Han thieves to boost the morale of the army!"