Three Kingdoms: Jiangdong is no longer a rat

Chapter 49: Bridge
Sun Ju was an ordinary farmer from Qixingli, Quanqingbei Township. Two years ago, a major epidemic broke out, and half of the more than 100 households in Qixingli died. Most of the remaining people left their hometown. Some were displaced, some moved to other counties, and more took refuge in the mountains.

Sun Ju was one of those who went into the mountains to avoid disaster. After his food ran out, he followed a fellow villager in the mountains to seek refuge with Qian Tong.

Unlike the people looted by the Qian Tong Army, Sun Ju had no resentment towards the Qian Tong Army, and even felt a little grateful. At least in the Qian Tong Army, he still had food to eat.

Therefore, Sun Ju worked very hard while patrolling the city. Although he was gradually assimilated into the surrounding environment, the remaining sense of duty in his heart still made him the first to discover the Qian Gonglei defenders of Xu Sheng and Chen Gan's troops tonight.

The captain was sleeping soundly at the time. He had a bad temper and often beat and scolded his soldiers. Sun Ju didn't dare to disturb him, so he had to wake up a team leader who usually treated him well.

Team leader Du Jing was having a sweet dream when he was suddenly awakened. Just as he was about to explode, he heard what Sun Ju reported and his anger was immediately suppressed by surprise. It was raining so heavily at the time of Yin, who would have nothing to do after eating and come to wander around the city?
It was not until several other soldiers who had stuck their heads out of the arrow window cried out in surprise that he realized something was wrong. He suddenly threw off the thin mattress covering his body, stood up, walked to the arrow window and looked out.

This sight almost made his heart jump out of his chest, and all his sleepiness disappeared in an instant.

I saw two wooden ladders that had been erected on the moat a hundred meters to the right of the suspension bridge. Soldiers wearing leather armor and holding swords and shields were like ghosts, stepping quickly on the ladders to cross the river. Dozens of people had already crossed.

Du Jing was an old soldier and could tell at a glance that these soldiers crossing the river were extraordinary. Although they were far away, the bravery they showed seemed to be blowing towards him, making his scalp numb.

Looking at the entire Qian Tong army, there are no more than five hundred such brave soldiers.

Du Jing was stunned for a moment, then suddenly shouted frantically, "Hit the gong!"

The gong is an ancient musical instrument that is shaped like a bell but long and narrow. It is made of copper and makes a clear and penetrating sound when struck. It is often used by city gate guards to sound alarms.

In addition to the gong, the gong is also a common tool for transmitting alarms. The "gold" in "sounding the gong to withdraw the troops" refers to the gong.

As Du Jing shouted, the clear sound of gongs soon rang out and quickly spread around the city gate, causing a commotion.

Dozens of soldiers in the gate tower were awakened by the sound of the gongs one after another. They got up from the ground with nervous expressions. Several soldiers who were still asleep were immediately kicked awake.

Soon after, candles were lit up in the building in front of the gate tower, followed by the two arrow towers.
Du Jing breathed a sigh of relief. Although the South Gate had always been the weakest of the four gates in Qian Gong Lei, the garrisons in the gate tower and the arrow tower totaled 150 men. Although the enemy troops under the city were brave, they only had more than a hundred men. Even if they were more ferocious, they could hardly pose a threat to the city gate.

Poor Du Jing, it seemed that he had slept too long and his mind was still not clear. He did not realize what the army under the city was here for.

At this time, Xu Sheng had already rushed to the bottom of the bridge tower and looked up.

The bridge tower is about six meters high and made of tough elm wood. On the hanger in the center of the tower, two ropes as thick as a child's arm pass through the pulley, one end is fixed on the bridge deck, and the other end extends straight into the gatehouse.

Xu Sheng knew that these two extremely thick ropes were the lifting ropes of the drawbridge. The defenders in the gate tower could raise or lower the drawbridge by pulling the lifting ropes.

Just cut these two ropes and the suspension bridge will drop!

However, since the suspension bridge has been raised, the two lifting ropes are far from the ground, almost level with the top of the bridge tower, a full six meters high.

Xu Sheng was thinking about how to cut the two lifting ropes when several soldiers in disheveled clothes suddenly rushed out from two rows of houses not far from the suspension bridge.

These are the guards responsible for guarding the suspension bridge. They usually live in the houses next to the suspension bridge. In their spare time, they maintain order for pedestrians passing through the suspension bridge. When the enemy attacks, they take on the responsibility of protecting the suspension bridge.

As the candles in the houses lit up one by one, more and more defenders rushed out. Xu Sheng took off his longbow, swung it, and shot one of them. He said to Chen Gan, who had rushed to his side, "Mr. Chen, you deal with these defenders, and I'll build the bridge!"

Chen Gan nodded and grinned.

He loves chopping people the most, but if he is asked to do delicate work like lowering a suspension bridge, he would be a little uncomfortable with it.

"Brothers, military merit is right before our eyes, follow me!"

Chen Gan drew his sword, shouted loudly, and led dozens of soldiers to rush towards the defenders.

In just one encounter, he chopped down two defenders.

The soldiers behind him quickly caught up and killed the defenders who were fighting hastily, forcing them to retreat step by step.

Xu Sheng took a quick look, feeling relieved, and shouted to the soldiers following him, "Who's climbing well? Go cut the ropes!"

"I come!"

A lean soldier growled, sheathed his sword, held the tower pillar firmly with both hands, and climbed up nimbly, climbing two or three meters in the blink of an eye.

In a few breaths, he had climbed to the top of the pillar, clasped his legs around the pillar, then drew his knife, leaned forward, got his upper body as close to the rope as possible, and swung the knife at the rope.

Perhaps because of the unstable center of gravity, the knife did not exert any force. The blade hit the rope, causing it to shake slightly, but only left a shallow mark on the rope.

The soldier adjusted his posture and was about to swing his sword again when suddenly an arrow shot out from the night sky and flew past him, startling him so much that he quickly retracted his upper body.

Immediately afterwards, there were whizzing sounds in the air, and more than ten arrows flew in from the direction of the gate tower. Although most of them lacked accuracy, two still hit the soldier's body. He let out a muffled groan, his body shook a few times, and he fell from the top of the pillar.

Several soldiers below hurriedly caught him, carried him aside and checked his injuries.

Xu Sheng shouted, "Raise your shields!"

The surrounding soldiers raised their wooden shields wrapped in cowhide and quickly gathered together to form a shield formation.

There were only continuous bangs and arrows piercing the wooden shields from time to time.

Fortunately, it was dark at this time and there was a curtain of rain. The defenders on the gate tower had their vision blocked, and the arrows were very inaccurate and did not pose much threat.

However, it is extremely difficult to climb up to the bridge tower and cut the rope.

Xu Sheng was anxious. He wiped the water droplets off his face with his hand and glanced around. Suddenly, an idea came to his mind and he shouted to several soldiers, "Go and get the ladder!"

Several soldiers quickly gathered together, stood in a row, used wooden shields to cover their bodies, bent over and ran towards the wooden ladder, and soon lifted the ladder over.

(End of this chapter)