Shields up!
Seeing arrows being fired from the city wall, Lin Hefade took his shield from his back, held it over his head, and advanced towards the city wall without slowing his pace.
Yuchi Baolin held the crossbow given to him by Fang Er, searching for deserving officers among the Turkic soldiers through the four-times scope. He only had ten bolts for the crossbow, so he couldn't waste them.
Figures flashed through the four-times scope. Three or two soldiers advanced towards the city wall, holding a shield in front of them. From his angle, the shields were joined together, leaving almost no angle for shooting.
However, they were all insignificant foot soldiers.
Suddenly, a man clad in fine steel armor, carrying a shield alone and wielding a mace, appeared in his scope.
This guy was clearly a brave general. The mace alone weighed at least a hundred catties, and it wasn't something an ordinary person could wield.
Closer, and closer.
As the soldiers advanced, a slight gap appeared between the shields.
Yuchi Baolin decisively pulled the trigger.
The three-edged crossbow bolt whistled out from the crossbow.
Lin Hefade, who was holding up his shield at the foot of the city wall, tripped on a stone. His body swayed, and the shield on his head also wobbled.
At that moment, the three-edged bolt shot from the city wall.
Before Lin Hefade could regain his balance, the bolt pierced directly through his neck and embedded itself fiercely into the chest of the person behind him.
Ugh!
Lin Hefade let go of the shield in his hand and clutched the hole in his neck with both hands, hoping to slow the bleeding.
But it was useless. Hot blood gushed from his neck, and in a moment, Lin Hefade fell heavily to the ground, his eyes wide open. He didn't even know where the bolt had come from until the moment he died.
General! The general is dead! This is bad, retreat quickly, the general is dead!
A small soldier beside him, seeing his general shot dead by a cold arrow, shouted in terror.
At his cry, the attacking Turkic soldiers all stopped in their tracks and looked towards them.
Lin Hefade lay on the ground, blood still gushing from his neck.
The soldiers panicked and turned back, fleeing towards where Jieli was.
What's going on!
Jieli was expecting one of the four simultaneous attacks to take Jingyang in one go.
The retreating soldiers made him furious, and he asked those around him.
Your subject does not know. Your subject will go and ask.
A general beside him grabbed a soldier and asked for an explanation.
Great Khan, Lin Hemengde was killed by a crossbow bolt. The soldiers, without a leader, panicked and retreated.
Jieli found this hard to believe.
However, it wasn't entirely unacceptable. In war, people inevitably die. He could only blame him for bad luck.
Zhishikuaisi, go and rally the soldiers, and attack again immediately!
Jieli said to the general.
Zhishi replied and received the order. He rode his horse out from Jieli's side and shouted to the soldiers who were still retreating: The Tang army only has three thousand men! Follow me to attack the city! Those who retreat will be killed! Reach the city wall first, and be rewarded with ten Han women and a hundred taels of gold!
Zhishikuaisi rallied the soldiers and once again advanced towards Jingyang City.
Baolin, where did you get that crossbow?
Before Yuchi Jingde could act, he saw his son holding a small, exquisite crossbow he had never seen before, and at a distance of seventy to eighty paces, he had shot down an enemy general. He asked curiously.
Father, Fang Gege gave this to me. It's really useful. The leader I shot just now was probably a leader, right?
Yuchi Baolin was clearly seeking praise from his father.
He was a leader. Don't be careless. They are attacking again, be careful.
As a blacksmith, he was very interested in the small crossbow. However, seeing the enemy attacking again, he had to suppress his curiosity.
The Turkic soldiers once again reached within a hundred paces, and Yuchi Jingde ordered the archers to fire again.
The Turkic soldiers also raised their shields.
But still, a few unlucky ones were shot and fell.
Yuchi Baolin continued to look for valuable targets among the enemy.
This time he focused on Zhishikuaisi, who was more conspicuously dressed, but he missed even after shooting three arrows.
Zhishikuaisi guessed that there was a sharpshooter on the Tang army's side, so he kept changing his position as he approached the city wall.
Fire!
When they reached about sixty paces from the city wall, Zhishi Kuaisi gave the order.
They were attacking the city and had to shoot upwards. At a greater distance, the arrows wouldn't reach the city wall. Only within sixty paces could they wound the soldiers on the city wall.
The shields parted, and the Turkic archers quickly drew their bows, nocked their arrows, and released the bowstrings.
An absolute volley of arrows, tens of thousands of them, black and dense, shot towards the city wall.
Yuchi Jingde shouted: "Crouch! Watch out for the arrows!"
The soldiers on the city wall, seeing the incoming arrows, quickly crouched behind the battlements.
The Turkic soldiers, taking advantage of this volley of arrows, quickly approached the city wall.
Between ten meters and thirty meters outside the city wall was a twenty-meter-wide moat, but due to the drought, there was not much water.
Upon reaching the moat, the Turkic soldiers threw bags of sand and soil into the moat. Once the water was covered, they jumped in and climbed to the foot of the opposite city wall, stepping on the sandbags.
As Yuchi Jingde poked his head out from behind the battlements, he saw a ladder placed on the battlement in front of him.
He directly picked up his horse spear and pushed it back.
The ladder was tipped over by the horse spear, and the Turkic soldiers who were still climbing were heavily crushed underneath.
But more and more ladders were being placed.
Explosive packets! Blow these wolves to death for me!
Yuchi Jingde took an explosive packet from behind, lit it with a torch, and casually threw it outside the city.
The soldiers followed suit, lighting fires and throwing explosive packets.
For a time, there were continuous explosions outside the city, and even the city wall trembled slightly.
Yuchi Jingde was so focused on throwing explosive packets that he didn't tell the soldiers to take it easy.
In just a moment, over a thousand explosive packets were thrown down.
The ceramic shards inside the explosive packets flew everywhere. The ordinary soldiers wearing leather armor couldn't defend against this. Those at close range were fine, directly blown to death.
Those who were slightly farther away were miserable. They were hit by the shards and turned into bloody messes. They wouldn't die immediately, and they all fell to the ground, groaning.
The results were significant.
The Turkic soldiers crowded at the foot of the city wall maximized the killing power of the explosive packets.
Over ten thousand men died or were maimed!
The Turkic soldiers who were swarming the city wall were stunned by this sudden change.
They were all frozen in fear.
In their understanding, there had never been such a weapon.
In an instant, over ten thousand men were gone!
Jieli in the rear was also stunned. At that moment, he truly felt the earth shaking!