Wait, please don't call me Emperor Zhaolie

Chapter 280 He is truly General Dashu!
Just when Liu Bei thought that Zhang Liao would not let him down, the sound of drums rang out again under the city of Ge County.

Zhang He was unwilling to give up and led his troops to attack the city again with ladders and bows and crossbows. He also specially selected tall soldiers, built a watchtower, set up large crossbows, and aimed directly at the top of the city.

“Swoosh!” “Swoosh!!”

The city wall on the north side of Ge County was suddenly filled with arrows like a torrential rain. The sharp arrowheads pierced the city wall and the raised shields, and for a moment, there were bursts of low puffing sounds.

“Puff!” “Puff!!”

Especially the arrows shot from the big yellow crossbow could even penetrate the large shield and injure the soldiers holding the shield behind. Seeing this, Zhang Liao quickly asked people to use bamboo poles to lift up the wet cloth curtain and block it several feet in front of the shield and the city wall, quickly reducing the impact force carried by the opponent's powerful crossbow arrowheads.

Then, Zhang Liao arranged for another hundred soldiers to hide behind the parapets, shouting and cursing: "Zhang He is a coward, with a mean heart and a weak courage!"

"You led 200 cavalrymen to charge the battle line, and you were frightened into retreating a hundred steps. How could a general be so cowardly?"

"Come on, come on!"

Zhang He, who was standing on the slope, was so angry that his neck turned red when he heard the constant mocking and cursing from the Qingzhou army from afar. Zhang He thought that Zhang Wenyuan was going too far. He took advantage of the fact that Zhang He had just arrived in Ge County and the army had not yet established a firm foothold to lead the cavalry out of the county town to break through the enemy's formation.

He led the central army to retreat in order to avoid being defeated by the enemy, so how could people become as cowardly as mice and even make up songs to mock him?

Zhang He could not help but gnashed his teeth and said, "Zhang Liao is really a coward, a rat, who does not know the Confucian etiquette. He is indeed a crude warrior from the border county."

"Order all the powerful crossbows to be mobilized and fire at the northern city wall. The nobles' troops should immediately attack the city walls. We have been under siege for a long time. Today, I must capture Ge County in one fell swoop and kill Zhang Wenyuan to relieve my hatred."

These days he received letters from Gao Lan and Dong Zhao, all of which reported that the attacks on the counties in Pingyuan County were unsuccessful. Even though they dug tunnels and burned down the city walls, they could not use their military advantage because of the small gaps in the walls, and each time they attacked they were killed and forced out.

The enemy was extremely capable in field combat, skilled in military formations, and quick and clean in their attacks. If they could kill with one strike, they would never use a second strike and would only chop vertically at the parts of the body without armor.

Gao Lan and Dong Zhao were both worried about this. Lord Yuan had previously ordered that the cities in Pingyuan should be quickly captured, and then the army should be led across the river to sweep across Qingzhou and make Liu Xuande's rear unstable.

The military inspector Ju Su never expected that their 30,000-strong army would be stuck in Pingyuan County, without any gains for dozens of days. They did not dare to bypass the county ahead and lead their troops directly across the river.

Seeing that the tone of Yuan Gong's letters was becoming more and more severe, especially after learning that Xu You, Gao Gan and other generals had been wiped out, a military order was sent to let Ju Su supervise the military affairs of Bohai County and the generals to capture the four cities of Ban County, Xipingchang, Ande and Ge County as soon as possible.

Then he quickly led his troops across the river, cut off the food, fodder and military equipment sent to the plains by Qingzhou and Xuzhou, and burned the enemy's farmland and wheat, leaving them with no harvest next year.

When Zhang He, Gao Lan and Dong Zhao saw the military order, they couldn't help but groan in their hearts. They didn't know who was giving advice to Lord Yuan and why he didn't actually come to Pingyuan County to see how difficult it was to defeat the Qingzhou defenders. The morale of defending the land and fighting the enemy not only did not decline due to the large number of Hebei troops, but became even more powerful.

Even the common people dare to fight to the death with sticks, the soldiers can endure casualties and even sleep on the city walls, and they are not frightened by fear when there are corpses everywhere during the siege. This is a strong army.

Damn it! Who said that the defenders of Pingyuan were all auxiliary soldiers? Which vassal's auxiliary soldiers could bear such huge casualties and still defend the gap in the city wall and pile up earth without retreating? !
Even the assistant soldiers who were responsible for doing odd jobs and cooking were so brave, so the ferocity of the soldiers would be beyond measure. Even Ju Su could not help but frown when he saw this scene, thinking to himself: "What kind of means did Liu Xuande use to make the people work so hard for him?"

He had this question in mind for a long time, until Zhang He's soldiers captured the civilians who were transporting food and fodder, tied them up with ropes and took them to the camp. Although the dark-skinned civilian's knees could not help shaking, he still kept shouting and cursing.

Ju Su was furious when he saw this, and he shouted, "Why are the servants so bold? Aren't they afraid of death?"

The common people saw Ju Su wearing a tall hat and were overwhelmed by his imposing manner. They stammered for a long time before they could speak out: "Man, how can a man not fear death? Lord Xuande distributed land to my family. If I don't repay him, how can I be different from an animal? A man dies when he dies, but he must not lose his integrity."

"I have no intention of living after being caught by you. If you want to kill me, just kill me. Why ask any more questions?"

Upon hearing this, Ju Su stroked his beard and said in amazement, "You want to be a real man, but I won't give you this opportunity."

"Come here, beat this man out with clubs. If you see him again, kill him immediately."

Seeing the soldiers beating the captured civilians out, Zhang He asked in confusion: "The military supervisor is just a commoner. It doesn't matter if he is killed. Why did you let him live?"

Ju Su smiled and explained: "It is useless to capture this soldier and kill him. It is better to release him back to the camp and spread the news to undermine the morale of the enemy army."

As a result, even Ju Su did not expect that the next day, soldiers from Qingzhou would shout on the city wall in Ge County: The military inspector Ju Gong has long intended to betray Yuan and join Liu, and wants to bury more than 10,000 Yuan troops under the city. You are all Han troops, why don’t you surrender as soon as possible?
As soon as these words were spoken, Ju Shou's face turned pale and he had a gloomy face in the military camp for several days in a row.

Every time he thought of this, Ju Su could not help but grit his teeth and secretly curse Zhang Liao for making up stories and being cunning and treacherous, and for following the traitors Dong Zhuo and Lu Bu one after another.

Hearing Zhang He's words about breaking through the city wall and beheading Zhang Wenyuan, Ju Shou couldn't help but applaud and said, "Great, that's how we should act. Yesterday, many powerful crossbows were shipped from Bohai to the army. If the whole army has such fighting spirit, we will surely be able to break through Ge County."

While the two were talking, Yuan's army had not stopped attacking the city, and the sound of weapons clashing could be heard incessantly on the battlefield.

The war drums behind were getting louder and louder, the shouts of killing were deafening, and the two armies were fighting more fiercely for the city wall.

Zhang Liao led his personal guards and wielded long swords, wandering around the city walls. Whenever there was a sign of the enemy not being able to hold out, he would immediately lead dozens of people to charge and fight at the risk of their lives. Even if some Yuan soldiers climbed up, they would be quickly killed on the spot.

Over the past few dozen days, in addition to the dead lying side by side under the city and the foul smell emitting from the corpses, the corridors along the city walls had also become a battlefield that was repeatedly fought over by both sides.

Although the city of Ge County is small, it still has walls on four sides. In order to prevent the enemy from harassing them day and night, the 3,000 defenders had no rest and had to take turns to be stationed on the top of the city. Apart from the laborers who carried rolling logs and stones, there were only more than 300 soldiers left to defend the city walls.

As the main general, Zhang Liao had to fight in armor for more than three hours. When the battle situation was urgent, he had to fight to repel the enemy. Only he knew how his physical condition was when he took off his armor every night.

But he still inspected the city walls as usual every day, which greatly boosted the morale of the soldiers. The soldiers all praised him privately: "General Zhang has been fighting for days, but he still stands straight and has a strong will. He is really a great general!"

(End of this chapter)