"Old Nine is right. The city wall can't hold out any longer. If I were to take a look, based on their current offensive, they'd only have three days left. Maybe they wouldn't even last three days. The disparity between the two sides was huge from the beginning. The fact that the King of Nanzhao has been able to hold out until now has already exceeded many people's expectations. Look at these people around here, they're like ants, transporting all kinds of things into the barracks, slowly increasing the King of Zhennan's strength. How can anyone in the city have such a capability?"
Hu San pointed at the people at the foot of the hill and said that these people were ordinary people that King Zhennan had gathered from the surrounding areas. King Nanzhao knew to gather the young and middle-aged people in the city. King Zhennan also knew this, but the people living in the city were a minority after all. The surrounding villages had the largest population and more resources. Therefore, if a war of attrition was fought, King Nanzhao would have no chance of winning.
"Look, look, the huge trees have been lifted up. It looks like this afternoon will be different from the previous ones."
Qian Ping had been looking in one direction with a telescope. No one knew what he was looking at just now, but now everyone understood that a large piece of wood about 40 meters long and more than half a meter in diameter had been carried out. During the siege a few days ago, the King of Zhennan also had a similar large piece of wood, but unfortunately it was on fire at that time, so it could not hit the city gate.
Now they finally got another one from somewhere else, and put a lot of shields in front of it to prevent people on the city wall from pouring lamp oil up. This kind of wood is extremely scarce not only in Nanzhao, but even in the entire Tang Dynasty.
The three of them still remembered what happened that day. If they had continued to hit the city gate, it would have been very likely to break it open. As a result, several barrels of lamp oil fell from the city wall, and one of them fell on the wood. The archers on it shot down the flaming arrows, and the wood caught fire. That's why they couldn't break the city gate open. It seems that the same trick will be used again today.
After the three people finished speaking, the drums sounded from the side of the King of Zhennan. In the past few days, there have been sporadic attacks on the city, and there have been no major scenes. But even so, the city walls have already revealed cracks as big as bowls, and many places are already crumbling. The gap in strength between the two sides is huge. No matter what method the King of Nanzhao uses, there is no way to repair the city walls at this time.
The horn sounded, and the catapults' attack became much more intensive than before. Although the attack of the catapults never stopped, sometimes only a part of them was working and the rest were resting. Now, hundreds of catapults were working together.
The sound of horns also sounded on the city wall. Since there were more attacking troops below, more people had to be responsible for defense on the city wall. Many soldiers pulled and dragged some young and middle-aged men under the city wall up. Now these young and middle-aged men also understood that the chances of surviving after going up were very small.
When we first arrived, there must have been at least 20,000 to 30,000 people here, but how many are there now? Not even half of the number at its strongest point. At the beginning, those under the city wall were all young and strong men, but now there are even old men in their 50s and children of 15 or 16. These people must also wait under the city wall. After those young and strong men are dead, you people will have to go up and help defend the city.
According to what His Majesty the King said, if the city is breached, the Prince of Zhennan will vent his anger on all the civilians in the city and will definitely kill them all. So at this time, we must do our best to stop the rebels outside the city.
Moreover, His Majesty the King also said that he has requested the Tang army to help quell the rebellion. Now the Tang army is on the way and will arrive in a few days. As long as we can hold on to the last moment, the army outside the city will definitely be annihilated by the Tang army. At that time, His Majesty the King is willing to divide all the gold, silver and treasures in the palace equally and let the people under his command live a prosperous life.
At the beginning, many people believed this lie. After all, many people wanted to seek wealth and honor through risk. According to what His Majesty the King said, as long as we can survive, each family will give us thirty strings of cash.
This is already a lot of money for ordinary people, but there are some people who are extremely smart. They don’t believe that they can get the money alive. Just look at the people who died in the past few days. If four out of ten people can come back, it is considered a lot. That is when the attack intensity is not very strong. If a full-scale fight breaks out, it is estimated that these four people will not come back.
Moreover, some people with sharp eyes also observed that the guards on the city wall had been changing over the past few days. It seemed that today's army had been transferred to the palace by His Majesty the King. Some of the people who went up again, including some yamen runners from various government offices, did not have much combat effectiveness at all.
Therefore, the people below also understood that His Majesty the King was actually looking for a way out. If the city wall could not be defended, His Majesty the King would definitely return to the palace immediately. There were also various defensive walls around Wang Gong. His Majesty the King could immediately hold on for a while, but how could the people in the city hold on?
According to what His Majesty the King just said, once the city is breached, the Prince of Zhennan will definitely kill all of them. If you run to the palace alone to continue waiting for the Tang army, can we follow you in?
So in this situation, many people on the city wall began to passively avoid fighting. Often when the enemy attacked, they would find a place to hide themselves. If the army of King Zhennan came up with ladders, these people would just smear some blood on their bodies and then find a place to pretend to be dead. As long as you hide far away, the war will have little to do with you.
There were similar incidents a few days ago, but they were very rare. There have been too many similar incidents in recent days, so the last time I climbed up the city wall, I was almost captured by the people of the King of Zhennan. If it weren't for His Majesty the King personally leading people to take up the charge, I'm afraid the people on the city wall would have been replaced by now.
It was at that time that His Majesty the King also realized that the people on the city wall could no longer hold on. No matter how many people were sent up, the damage to the city wall was inevitable. This time, he had to consume as many people as possible, and after they were exhausted, he would retreat to the palace.
