Chapter 286 A Hard Fight
Zheng Ke's face was ashen, he gritted his teeth, and stood firmly at the forefront of the battle, holding a sword, and behind him stood a general with the sword unsheathed, drawing a long line behind the general.
The Hongnong Yang family had increased their troops again as agreed, but not only was he unable to defend Hangu Pass, he was actually defeated by a mere one hundred soldiers who attacked the camp at night and were defeated!
This time, if the reinforcements fail again, he will no longer have any face to meet people.
Not to mention whether the Hongnong Yang family can forgive him, even the Xingyang Zheng family cannot afford to shame this person!
"I can die, but I can't let my family be humiliated!"
Zheng Kuai then personally supervised the formation and threatened not to retreat even a step. No one was allowed to retreat beyond the long line behind them. If the soldiers retreated, they would be beheaded. If the soldiers retreated even further, they would be beheaded. If the leaders retreated, they would be beheaded. If the soldiers retreated, they would be beheaded. Military Marquis...
If someone above the rank of military commander retreats, he, Zheng Kuai, will personally kill him. If Zheng Kuei retreats by himself, then the unsheathed sword of the general behind him is for him.
As the saying goes, dogs will jump over the wall when they are anxious, not to mention Zheng Ke who has almost been forced to a dead end.
Zhang Liao attacked the camp last night. Not many people died in the chaos, only about two hundred people. Most of the others were because they couldn't find their belongings or could not issue orders, which led to the inaction of the entire team and ultimately the destruction of the siege equipment. and baggage were burned.
But after the Hongnong Yang family learned that Hangu Pass was lost, they quickly gathered the second batch of private soldiers and handed them over to Zheng Kui. With the second batch of reinforcements, Zheng Kuai's troops suddenly swelled to nearly 5,000 men, immediately forming an absolute numerical advantage over Fei Qian and Zhang Liao.
With the numerical advantage, Zheng Ke rebuilt the siege equipment much faster than yesterday, and it was completed in less than half a day. Then there was a meal of wine and meat, and they immediately attacked the city!
Zheng Ke's eyes were bloodshot, and his whole eyes were blood red. It was very scary. The baggage was burned last night, and the baggage brought in today was not very much. If Hangu Pass could not be captured in a short time, it would not be able to provide much time, so Zheng Ke He used almost all the food, grass and other materials so that the soldiers who retreated in each round could eat and rest...
Zheng Kuo divided the number of people into three rounds and attacked frantically. Although the number of people in each shift was only about twice that of Fei Qian and Zhang Liao, Fei Qian and Zhang Liao had to defend the entire west side with a thousand men. The longer Hanguguan city wall is somewhat stretched.
What's more important is the lack of long-range suppression, so Zheng Ke led the army to get close to hand-to-hand combat easily. If Fei Qian hadn't taken advantage of the blank period this morning to organize some people to move some rolling stones from the east city wall, he said Maybe the first wave of car crashes will be able to attack the city gate!
The whole battle entered a fever pitch from the beginning.
Although the siege party Zheng Ke lost many soldiers, the soldiers under Fei Qian and Zhang Liao who defended the city were also constantly attrition. The soldiers on both sides fought frantically, and their lives were passing quickly. The dark red bloodstains on the city wall were like giant earthworms, winding down, which looked shocking. Many soldiers stepped on the blood and screamed at each other.
If Zhang Liao and Huang Cheng were not highly skilled in martial arts and led a group of elite soldiers around the city, knocking down Zheng Ke's soldiers who climbed up the city wall many times, the city wall would have fallen into Zheng Ke's hands long ago.
Fei Qian didn't dare to compliment Fei Qian's martial arts, so he no longer obstructed the city wall. Instead, he organized some auxiliary soldiers to help transport bricks and stones. They even moved some usable bricks and stones from the burned Guan Ling Mansion in the inner city. .
Now people also cooked some millet rice, wrapped it in bacon, tied each one with cloth strips, and then boiled a large pot of water and sent it up together during the break in the siege.
Fei Qian personally handed several millet rice balls to Zhang Liao. Zhang Liao took them silently, then looked around to see that all his soldiers had received them, and then he opened them and ate them hungrily.
There used to be nearly a thousand soldiers on the city wall, but now only a little more than half are left. The manpower is getting increasingly scarce. Even if Zheng Ke withdraws his troops at night, he may not be able to hold it tomorrow...
At this time, Zhang Liao no longer had his original gentle demeanor. His face and body were covered with all kinds of old and new blood, forming blood scabs. He lost his helmet and his hair was mixed with blood and dust. On the forehead and neck.
Fei Qian stood on the sticky wall and looked down. The wave of attacks had just retreated. Some of Zheng Ke's soldiers were reorganizing their troops and some were eating. Judging from the previous situation, the next wave would The next time is coming soon...
"Wenyuan, things are not going to be good if this continues..."
Zhang Liao was also silent. From the beginning of Zheng Ke's attack in the afternoon to the approaching dusk, there has been almost no pause. No matter how strong your martial arts is, your human body will be exhausted, and it is indeed close to its limit now.
And now the flaw of the gap in numbers is becoming more and more obvious.
Looking at Zheng Ke outside the city, he has no intention of setting up camp. It is clear that he will attack the city overnight. When it gets dark and there are few manpower, there will inevitably be times when he is unprepared. Once a large number of Zheng Ke's soldiers board the The city wall will inevitably end in the annihilation of the entire army.
Zhang Liao swallowed heavily and leaned against the female wall without speaking. Doesn't he know that defeat is inevitable if this continues, but if he retreats like this, then the glory of last night will be in vain. Others will not remember the achievement of the one hundred cavalry raiding the camp, but will only remember the disastrous defeat of being driven out of Hangu Pass. .
But now I feel helpless. After all, Hangu Pass has been run by Zheng Ke for many years and has a deep foundation. It is impossible to encourage civilians to defend the city. If the recruitment is uncertain, they will immediately switch sides...
So we can only rely on the people on hand, but seeing that there are fewer and fewer soldiers, there is no way to defend such a long section of the city wall. How can we defend it for much longer?
Not willing to give in, Zhang Liao was really not willing to give in.
Fei Qian naturally understands Zhang Liao's thoughts. This matter has nothing to do with Dong Zhuo or the Shandong nobles. Fei Qian does not want to conclude at this point in time whether one side is a good guy or a bad guy. After all, only the winner can write history. The vast majority of losers will be portrayed as extremely ugly, which has been a practice since ancient times.
Moreover, even now the troops led by Zheng Ke still have their heads wrapped in yellow scarves and do not dare to blatantly display the banner of the Hongnong gentry. This in itself illustrates some problems.
Therefore, at this stage, if the city is broken, Fei Qian, Zhang Liao, etc. will undoubtedly be silenced.
But what to do now?
Fei Qian looked at the three or four crashed cars that were smashed under the city gate. His heart moved and he said to Zhang Liao...
Defeat, defeat, and rout are different, and the number of deaths is also different whether there is a pursuit. The requirements for complete annihilation are relatively high. Most of the cases will only occur when being surrounded from the front and rear, and because there is no way to retreat, it is necessary to fight to the death. If you are on the back, there will also be greater losses for the victor...
In the Three Kingdoms, many of the casualties in field battles were due to being killed after the war. After Yuan Shao was defeated in the Battle of Guandu, 70,000 soldiers were killed, including supplies, auxiliary troops, etc...
Historically, Zhang Liao led 800 soldiers to attack Sun Shiwan, but they only attacked Sun Quan's own formation, leading to overall turmoil and defeat. The casualties were not caused by Zhang Liao's 800 soldiers.