GBP Chapter 394: North Gate Lost
Chapter 394: North Gate Lost
After an entire afternoon of confrontation, Liu Xiang was unable to figure out the other side's tricks. It was not until the evening that the Xianbei soldiers slowly withdrew from their positions.
The news of the East Gate being bombarded last night spread quickly among the Yan army. Liu Xiang did not dare to slack off in the slightest, so he reduced the number of people on duty on the city wall, but doubled the number of rotations.
At the same time, they deliberately lowered the muzzles of their guns and controlled the range of their firepower to between seven hundred and eight hundred steps, so that they could counterattack as soon as they discovered an enemy attack.
However, at night, the soldiers on the city wall clearly felt that there were shadows moving below the city, but no one approached.
In this way, everyone spent the night in a daze, and nothing unusual happened until dawn.
"You mean to say that you felt someone outside the city walls all night, but always at a distance?"
Liu Xiang was somewhat confused by the report and muttered doubtfully, "What on earth is going on?"
"Report! The Xianbei army is approaching the city again."
At this time, another soldier came hurriedly to report.
"What? Again?"
Liu Xiang's heart tightened, and he hurriedly packed up and put on armor and other protective gear. He hurried to the city wall with a group of generals, raised the telescope, and carefully observed the enemy army opposite.
The number of enemy troops today seemed to be larger than yesterday. They stood in an orderly manner two thousand steps away, holding flags in their hands, but no general appeared in front of the position.
"What the hell is going on?" Liu Xiang muttered softly.
He continued to observe through the telescope, and suddenly, he found that some of the bomb craters on the ground had been filled with new soil.
"Not good, they might start attacking the city today."
Seeing this scene, Liu Xiang blurted out, his expression instantly became solemn.
"Really? We've been waiting for this day. We've always thought that these cannons can fire so far and will definitely scare them."
The officers around Liu Xiang laughed at the Xianbei soldiers in front of them.
"They'll fill the craters, so they'll definitely use cavalry to charge. But what good can cavalry do in a siege? They'll just be faster."
Hearing the ridicule from other soldiers, Liu Xiang also felt that the Xianbei people would not be so stupid, and thought to himself: Am I too suspicious?
But what about that new soil?
Liu Xiang always felt that something was wrong, but he couldn't figure it out for a while.
"Could it be?" Liu Xiang suddenly remembered something and hurriedly looked across the telescope again.
Apart from some new soil on the ground, there seemed to be nothing else unusual.
He carefully examined it inch by inch through the lens and found that there was a lot of new soil in two places, as if there were traces of many people stepping on it.
"Go down, twenty steps to the left and twenty steps to the right of the city gate. Find a water jar and listen inside to see if there's any noise."
Liu Xiang realized that the other side might be digging a hole towards their city wall.
"Dig a hole in the ground?" Liu Xiang sneered.
After hearing the order, the generals around him immediately arranged for people to carry water tanks and quickly placed them at the foot of the city. Then someone even stuck his head in and listened carefully to whether there was any sound.
However, no sound of digging was heard.
"General, I didn't hear any sound. If we were to dig a hole deep enough for people to get through, it would take at least two days. There wouldn't be any sound at all."
"No!" Liu Xiang interrupted their speculation and said firmly, "They didn't rest last night and kept digging. They might have dug through the tunnel. Send someone to check it out."
"Yes, General. We will send people to check every house right away."
In the past, it was common to dig tunnels into the city during wars, and they would usually end up in someone else's yard, so it was enough to search the yards of people living near the edge of the city.
Someone went to search, but Liu Xiang was still staring at the other party closely on the city wall.
At this moment, it seemed that everyone was waiting for something.
Maybe, it is the truth.
A truth about how the enemy attacked the city.
Murong Mang divided a cart of gunpowder into two parts and buried them fully under the city wall.
After the gunpowder was loaded, the fuse was covered with a bamboo tube and some soil was backfilled to form a sealed area where the gunpowder was buried.
After everything was ready, the Xianbei troops began to relax slightly. A large number of cavalry appeared from behind the two gaps, and from a distance, there were at least ten thousand of them.
"Rumble..."
A huge noise came from underground, shaking Liu Xiang's feet.
Immediately afterwards, he discovered that the city walls on both sides began to crack, followed by landslides, and even bricks and stones were thrown away by the powerful impact force.
The sudden collapse of the city wall revealed two huge gaps, and cannons and soldiers rolled down.
The sound of the explosion was the order for the opposing cavalry to charge. The war horses charged out like arrows in an instant, and the infantry followed closely behind and moved forward.
Liu Xiang ignored the shocking situation that had just happened and shouted at the top of his lungs to order an immediate counterattack.
"General, that noise just now was an explosion. It destroyed all the steps on both sides of our hanging building!"
At this time, a man who looked like an officer shouted at Liu Xiang.
Maybe the noise just now was too loud and his eardrum was damaged, so the sound of his shouting seemed particularly loud.
After he shouted this, the already tense morale of the army began to waver instantly.
Everyone was in a panic, not knowing what had happened. Many people even forgot what Liu Xiang's order was.
Perhaps, the explosion just now also damaged the eardrums of others, and they did not hear Liu Xiang's order at all.
In short, everyone was in a state of confusion.
The warhorse was extremely fast, and in about ten breaths of time, it had basically reached the city wall.
There were not many soldiers with guns on the city wall, and some had already started shooting.
Those who knew how to operate cannons also raised torches and fired at the enemy.
Unfortunately, this shooting effect is not ideal for a warhorse running at high speed.
On the contrary, it is extremely lethal to slow-moving infantry.
The enemy troops were like a huge sea of people, constantly surging and running recklessly.
When they were seven hundred steps away, the Xianbei soldiers set up mortars and began bombarding the city walls with shells.
Some of the enemy troops on the left and right sides were still able to climb the city wall, but by the time they got around, the cavalry had already crossed the collapsed part of the wall and rushed into the city.
The supporting mortars also dealt a heavy blow to the defenders on both sides of the city walls.
Liu Xiang was unfortunately injured in the bombardment and was quickly lowered out of the city in a hanging basket.
The north gate was accidentally lost and the city gate was opened. After the Xianbei soldiers entered the city, they quickly launched fierce street fighting.
In comparison, the fighting at the East Gate was more intense.
Zhang Xiangyang took advantage of the city walls and the long-range strikes of large-caliber artillery to suppress Yu Wenhua's troops outside the city, preventing them from advancing.