Chapter 209 Crouching Dragon and Phoenix Chick
Outside Li County, three hundred guns and cannons were arranged in a V-shape. Under the command of Taoist Tianmen, one cannonball after another flew over the two-meter-high city wall and landed inside the county town.

Ou Zanghua sat on horseback, looking at the bombed county town with a calm expression.

He looked at the tightly closed city gate and said to Taoist Wang Chengwu standing beside him, "Blow up the city gate!"

Anyone who has read "The Romance of Sui and Tang Dynasties" knows the story of Xiong Kuohai raising the thousand-jin gate in anger. That was the situation during the attack and defense of a big city.

During the war, the city gate was not two doors on the left and right, but a large gate that fell from top to bottom, which was theoretically impossible to break open.

The ancients put a lot of effort into defending the city. In order to prevent the enemy from crashing into the city gates, they specially set up grooves on the city walls, placed sturdy gates, and used winches to control the rise and fall.

When there is an enemy situation, once the gate is opened, thousands of troops cannot enter or leave. For example, the Zhengyang Gate in the imperial capital and the Zhonghua Gate in Nanjing all have typical jack gate structures.

In order to prevent the enemy from breaking through the city gate, the ancients simply set up another wall inside the city gate, which is the so-called 瓮城.

When you open one door, you are greeted by another door.

Moreover, the space inside the city wall is limited, and the room for maneuver is extremely narrow. The archers defending the city have already been ready on the surrounding walls. Facing the 360-degree rain of arrows from all directions, all they can say is good luck to everyone.

But these facilities are only available in big cities, at least not in an unknown county like Lixian.

This is why Ou Zanghua ordered the use of artillery to bombard the city gate. If there was a gate, the enemy army would not be able to enter the city so easily.

"Yes!" Taoist Wang Chengwu responded and quickly walked to Taoist Tianmen. The two of them erected a long pole as a reference and calculated the distance between the artillery camp and the city gate using the Pythagorean theorem.

After obtaining the accurate values, Taoist Tianmen immediately notified his disciples to adjust the angles of the sixty cannons and the required amount of gunpowder. He and Taoist Wang Chengwu were each responsible for a camp.

Then, according to the three-stage shooting rule, the front cannon fires, then the middle cannon fires, and then the rear cannon fires, and then the other camp continues this operation to maintain uninterrupted firepower.

Liu Qi also took advantage of this gap and climbed onto the city wall. He saw the artillery camp at a distance of two miles, as well as two huge flags: Tianjin Youwei and Ouyang
"Europe?"

Liu Qi asked in bewilderment, "Is there a general with the surname Ou in the imperial court?"

Niu Zhong stared at Kazilan with his big eyes and asked, "Second brother, are you asking me?"

".Of course not!"

Liu Qi turned his head to look at the other side and found that everyone had a dazed look on their faces. Obviously, no one knew who led this army.

At this moment, the opposite side's cannon fired again, this time ten shots in a row, five of which hit the ground, four hit the city wall, and one hit the city gate.

"Hey, this cannon really doesn't have much accuracy."

Niu Zhong saw this scene and said happily: "Ten shells were fired, but not even one hit us. Second brother, why don't we rush out together and chop them up!"

Liu Qi also breathed a sigh of relief. It seemed that the few shells that hit the city just now were just luck.

The distance was two miles, and if riding a horse it would only take half an incense stick of time to reach the front, and then a one-sided massacre would follow.

"Humph, I wonder where the court found this fool to actually place the artillery array in such a spacious place outside the city." Liu Qi narrowed his eyes and ordered, "Let the brothers in the cavalry battalion get ready. We..."

Before he could finish his words, the cannon fire from the opposite side started again.

"boom!"

"boom!"

"boom!"

Just like last time, ten shots were fired in succession. This time, two of them landed on the city gate, making it creak.

The remaining eight shots all hit the city wall, causing everyone standing on the wall to feel a shake.

Liu Qi couldn't believe it. Could it be that the man on the other side was planning to use a cannon to blast open the city gate? !
"That's impossible!" Liu Qi shook his head and immediately rejected the idea. If the guns and cannons had this accuracy, they would have hit nothing and run away!

"Oops, it's still a little off!"

Taoist Tianmen looked at the deflected cannonball, patted his thigh helplessly, and said to Taoist Wang Chengwu beside him: "I must research a new barrel formula, otherwise it is really tormenting that the cannonball is so erratic even if the calculation is correct every time."

"Daoyou, the wind is blowing again!"

Taoist Wang Chengwu looked at the sail beside him and said, "Northeast wind, force four."

"Adjust the angle!" Taoist Tianmen looked up at Fengfan and immediately shouted an order to adjust the muzzle.

Then, escorted by the northeast wind, ten shells flew out again:
"boom!"

"boom!"

"boom!"

This time, three shells hit the city gate, and it looked like it was about to collapse. Liu Qi, who was hiding on the city wall, saw this and shouted, "We can't just passively take the beating. Where are our cannons? Fight back! Hit them twice."

"Second brother, we don't have any shells!"

Niu Zhong stared with innocent eyes and said, "Didn't we use up all the shells in the city when we attacked it?"

"hiss!"

Liu Qi took a deep breath and roared, "Why didn't anyone tell me about such an important matter?"

"Didn't Second Brother say this himself?" Niu Zhong imitated Liu Qi's tone and said, "Hahaha, their artillery shells have all been fired. Brothers, charge! After entering the city, don't stop fighting for two days!"

"ah!."

Liu Qi couldn't help but slam his head. Why did he choose Niu Zhong as his deputy general?
After obtaining the first round of values, Taoist Tianmen and Taoist Wang Chengwu took turns commanding sixty artillery pieces and bombarded continuously for several rounds, forcing everyone in the city to hide and cover their heads.

"With such intensive bombardment, the city gates will become targets of the opposing artillery as soon as they are opened. What should we do, Second Leader?" An infantry leader asked loudly, holding his head in the corner.

"What should I do? Of course I have to kill him. When have I ever been beaten by someone? The dead will fly up to the sky!" Liu Qi turned and walked down the wall, shouting, "Pass the order, open the city gate, and the cavalry will follow me."

Before he could finish his words, Liu Qi was stopped by Niu Zhong. He pointed to the other side of the city and said, "Second brother, this is the South Gate, and there is the North Gate over there."

Liu Qi was startled, and when he turned around, he saw an infantry leader turning away. He immediately shouted sharply: "If the city gate is not opened, follow me out of the north gate!"

The infantry leader paused, then turned around and ran over.

Liu Qi led the cavalry to the south gate. The hangover still made him dizzy and slow to react, but at this point, he couldn't care about anything else.

The guard at the south gate ran down and said, "Second Commander, there is a cavalry outside, but they are a bit far away and we can't see how many there are. We estimate there are about one or two thousand."

"cavalry?"

Liu Qi sneered, waved his halberd in a circle, and sneered: "In this Hebei area, is there any cavalry stronger than me? Open the door, kill this cavalry first, and then kill that guy surnamed Ou."

"Yes!" the guard responded and waved to the bandits at the city gate. The four bandits immediately lifted the bolt and then pushed the door open with all their might.

"Brothers, follow me!" Liu Qi raised his halberd, roared, and drove the horse under him to rush out.

Behind him were the bandits he had gathered from all over the country over the years. Every one of them was good at riding horses and had the ability to shoot a bow while riding a horse.

The cavalry led by Zuo Lengchan, Jia Sifang, and Peng Lin were four miles away from the north gate. When they saw the north gate open, they knew that a tough battle was about to begin.
(End of this chapter)