Chapter 321: The Elite Go Out of Weizhou City (2 in 1)
Weizhou Town General Wang Shouye looked at Wu Guoer in confusion for a long time, still unable to believe what Wu Guoer said. "According to you, this Sikong is really one of the six counties in Hexi Province in the past.
Descendants of Zhang Taibao?"
"It should be true. I saw in those armies that the soldiers and generals, except for Yuanzhou Dangxiang, all wore their hair tied in right knots. Their daily speech and military orders were also pronounced in Tang pronunciation.
Although Zhang Sikong is young, he is quite knowledgeable. He is also familiar with history books. He talks about the previous emperors of the Tang Dynasty, especially Emperor Taizong Wen and the Great Sage Queen. He is very knowledgeable. If it were not for Tang Er, he would not know this.'
Wu Guoer thought for a moment and said, fortunately, he had read a few books. If he was an illiterate person, he would definitely not be able to observe so carefully.
Wang Shouye nodded. If it was true as Wu Guoer said, then the Guiyi Army who was trapped in Hexi in the past must be outside the city. But if that was the case, he was even more confused.
"If it is as you said, since this Sikong is very young and can lead a large army, it is about 800 miles from Lanzhou in Hexi Province. On the way, Shatuo and Dangxiang of various tribes are not easy to deal with, and even Yuanzhou Dangxiang surrendered.
Served in the Hexi Army.
Judging from this, he must be a capable master! If he is so easy to deceive, how can he lead an army here?"
Uh. Wu Guoer was stunned. He scratched the bun on his head, thought for a moment, and suddenly slapped his thigh.
"I know. This guy must be trying to coax us to open the city gate. He has thousands of soldiers. If we enter the city, we will be like fish on the wall.
When the time comes, not to mention congratulating soldiers and horses on their property, even our own gold and silver will not be able to keep it.
After Wang Shouye listened, he was silent for a moment. He nodded lightly first, and then slowly shook his head.
"What you said is not unreasonable. Coming from afar and obeying the imperial court's orders as a foreign vassal, if you have nothing to ask for, it would be suspicious to think about it.
The land of Lanzhou and Liangzhou in Hexi Province was enslaved by Tubo in the past, but now it is full of miscellaneous barbarians and far away from China. It must be quite bitter and cold. I think the order to quell the chaos is a lie, but the plundering of property, gold and silk and children is the real thing.
However, we have thousands of young men at our disposal, and we are all relatives inside and outside the city, so we may not be without the strength to fight.
I'm sorry that this Sikong won't have to resort to swordsmanship even though he has already spoken out to persuade someone to surrender, but I'm afraid that all the goods brought back by the congratulatory troops and envoys will belong to him.
Wu Guo'er nodded, feeling that Wang Shouye's analysis was more accurate, "If we only want money and the looted goods from He Bingma, I might as well give them to them."
"Give it to them, to put it lightly. If he doesn't enter the city, it's okay to give him half, but what will happen once he enters the city? Anyway, my grandson would not dare to bet his own life on others observing the rules.'
Sun Shijiang on the side snorted, of course Wang Shouye and Wu Guoer were willing, and He Chuan and the others did not have their share of the looted goods, so it was completely generosity to others.
But Sun Shijiang and Sundu are different. At least thousands of the wealth here belong to their Sun family.
Wang Shouye was a little irritated by what Sun Shijiang said, and he took two steps back and forth.
"Then what do we do, what should we do? There are thousands of soldiers in Hexi outside. If we don't attack the city now, we think we really have thousands of soldiers.
If we make them angry and attack with all their strength, how long can those united soldiers hold out? If they show their cowardice, they will be killed and they will come in. They will talk about property and their families will not be able to save it!'
Sun Shijiang had obviously thought about it before. He pulled Wang Shouye to sit down and said calmly.
"Since this Sikong wants to trick us into opening the city, we might as well pretend to be fooled. Didn't he give us a ten-day deadline? Let's take this opportunity to send more horses out of the city to congratulate them.'
"What if after ten days, there is still no news from He Bingmao and them?" Wu Guo'er asked.
"There is no need to wait for ten days. On the ninth day there is no news from the congratulatory envoys. We will send people out of the city to bargain, saying that we can give goods but not open the city gate.
It doesn't matter if you plead or cry. If you wait for another three to five days and there is still no news, then open the city gate. In this way, we can be considered worthy of the people. If the congratulatory soldiers and envoys come back victorious, they can't blame us!'
Wang Shouye stood up and continued pacing, thinking back and forth for a moment. Although General Sun's original intention was to preserve his property, it was undoubtedly correct.
"Okay! Just as you said, we will hold on to the city for ten days first."
On the top of Weizhou City, the plans of the officers in the city will certainly not be known to the small soldiers like them.
They only knew that Erlang of the Wu family who had been captured was released, and that those outside the city were not Yumo or Dangxiang people, but Tang'er from the Guiyi Army from Hexi. They also sent envoys into the city to meet with General Wang Zhen.
At the same time, the Hexi people outside also stopped filling in the trenches. Even if they were only two trenches short of filling them all, they did not continue.
The war atmosphere immediately calmed down. Even earlier today, the Hexi people withdrew the more than 2,000 people guarding the south gate for half a mile.
"Ouch! What does this smell like? It smells so good! It smells so good!'
At the west gate of Weizhou, among the dozen soldiers on duty, a tall and thin man suddenly twitched his nose rapidly and stood on tiptoes to look around.
The fire chief on the side grinned, "You sufferer, you are stunned... Eh! It smells so good. Who is stewing meat? Or beef stew!" The fire chief wanted to make fun of him, but suddenly, he also smelled it.
A smell of meat.
"Yes! Yes! It's beef stew, oh! This is terrible! It must have enough salt, bay leaves, nutmeg, and pepper to make it so fragrant.
I worked as a servant at Sun Shijiang's house last month. The mutton stewed at his house tasted like this after adding spices.
Another stronger soldier spoke up. He stood up and half-closed his eyes, twitching his nose and shaking his head, trying to determine where the scent was coming from.
"Could it be that the king of the city has a kind heart and wants to reward us and treat everyone to beef stew?"
A soldier with green fluff on the corner of his mouth giggled a few times. He looked at Huo Chang, his eyes full of the desire to eat meat. Huo Chang was a little embarrassed by his gaze, so he raised his hand and gave him a slap on the head.
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"It's your mother's spring and autumn dream. If you have time to think about this, why not think about how to get you to marry a mother-in-law!"
Normally, seeing this silly little soldier being slapped by Huo Chang, all the soldiers would definitely make fun of him, but this time, everyone was aroused by the smell of meat, and no one had the intention to make fun of him.
"What a bastard! It's those Hexi people who are eating stew!
Everyone searched anxiously for a moment, and finally found out that it was a few hundred steps away from the city, where those Hexi people were eating stew.
All the soldiers quickly threw away their swords and guns and stretched their heads out of the crenels. Sure enough, they saw the Hexi people's military camp outside the city bustling with people. Hot steam was rising from the big iron pots. Hexi people sitting around them
Soldiers, one by one eating and dancing,
Because they were close to them, and they were on the city wall, from a high position, they could see clearly, and they could smell it very clearly.
"Damn it, are the officers of the Hexi Army losing their minds and going crazy? It's only past noon. What kind of stew are you eating? If you eat delicious food so early, you farm slaves will starve to death later in the evening!"
Seeing that this stew was indeed not related to him, Huo Chang couldn't suppress his inner anger. He was afraid that the people in Hexi would hear it, so he retracted his head from the crenel and started to curse.
All the soldiers nodded in agreement, retracted their heads, and cursed along with the fire chief, as if this would make them feel better.
Amidst the curses and curses, the soldiers endured the heat of hunger, and those holding knives and guns had no energy. They just hoped that the Hexi people below would eat quickly to avoid being roasted by the heat of hunger.
In this way, under the torment of hunger and fire, the soldiers finally ushered in their time to eat.
At this time, people usually eat two meals. The meal at the beginning of the day (9 o'clock) is called the morning meal, and the meal at the end of the day (after 4 p.m.) is called the feast. Of course, there are also people who eat three or even four meals, but compared with ordinary people,
Basically no luck.
On Zhang Zhao's side, he has no intention of changing this habit due to productivity constraints.
But there is one exception, that is, although the army also eats two meals when marching, during war, it usually eats three meals.
The fire chief poked his head out of the crenel and took a look. Sure enough, the Hexi people outside the city were not eating.
A sense of intellectual superiority arose spontaneously, and Huo Chang spat out of the city, as if he wanted to spit out the entire afternoon's depression.
"How can you eat like this at noon? You will be so hungry that you will feel dizzy at night!"
The fire chief laughed a few times, but the dough mixed with a lot of wild vegetables in his hand was a bit dry and difficult to swallow!
At the end of Youshi (around 6:30 p.m.), Huo Chang, who had eaten enough and had some strength, cheered up and started to keep watch. They needed to stay on duty until the sun rose tomorrow, and then someone would replace them.
Out of curiosity, and probably wanting to see how the people in Hexi starved, Huo Chang stuck his head out to take a look.
The dots of fire in the distance aroused his curiosity. After a closer look, he found that the fire was coming from the set-up stove.
He even saw with his own eyes a long-haired cow being stabbed to death by a butcher. There were people on the left and right, catching blood, losing hair, and dividing the meat.
"Damn it? You still eat beef! Aren't you afraid of dying?'
The fire chief suddenly felt the urge to jump down, become a Hexi native, and eat some beef stew.
The tall and thin man next to him who first smelled the aroma of meat sucked his saliva and said with a face full of fascination as he looked outside the city.
"If I could give someone a bowl of beef stew and two kilograms of soup cakes, the taste would be awesome! I haven't tasted it in years. "How can I live tonight?" The strong man with the sharpest nose sat down.
Lamenting on the ground.
Just two wild vegetable pancakes per person just now, he was not full at all, and now they are eating beef stew down there. They have to patrol until dawn, smelling the smell of meat and not being able to eat it, the hunger is almost burning him, this time
How to spend the evening?
The morning sun was rising, and the soldiers who had been on duty all night were wrapped in blankets and slept on the cold city wall.
The fire chief woke up suddenly. He got up in fear. When he saw that the stupid young man was still on duty, he immediately put his heart back in his stomach.
At this time, the comrades who changed the defense also came. A scar-faced fire chief came over with a dozen soldiers. The two groups started talking on the city wall.
Of course Huo Chang and the others will not leave now. They are still waiting for the late morning meal. If they can eat a meal in the army, they can save a meal for their family.
"Li Dalang, how were you last night?" Scar-faced Huo Chang came over with a smile. It turned out that the fire chief on duty last night was named Li.
Li Huochang suddenly remembered yesterday's beef stew, couldn't help but swallowed, and felt a little dissatisfied.
"Nothing happened, everything is safe! The town general and the ten generals are sleeping with my aunt in the house, but they insist that we patrol carefully. Those Hexi people have retreated far away, and they are enjoying eating meat.
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"Chief Huo, someone from Hexi is coming." The two were chatting when suddenly the tall and thin man pointed outside the city and shouted loudly, and the two chiefs of fire quickly ran over.
But then they both breathed a sigh of relief. The Hexi people on the opposite side did not come to attack the city. Instead, they used long bamboo poles to pick up a few bags and finally placed them under the city wall.
The two dozen soldiers on the city wall looked at each other, all confused. They didn't know what the Hexi people were throwing at them. They didn't know what they wanted to do.
"Chief Huo, let me go down and have a look. These Hexi people don't seem to be trying to cause any harm!'
The tall and thin man offered to go down and have a look. The two fire chiefs looked at each other and each took out a piece of rope. They then asked the soldiers to take off their belts and other items to make a long rope, and then they released the tall and thin man.
Go down.
After a while, the tall and thin man brought up two baskets. There was also a note and a few words on the baskets.
It's a pity that none of the soldiers knew the words "please eat bread". They just picked it up and said a few words about how knowledgeable Hexi people are, and then they couldn't wait to open the basket.
In the basket, after a layer of white cotton cloth was peeled off, the round cakes were exposed one by one.
The so-called steamed buns are actually steamed buns. The Tang Dynasty was different from other dynasties. All pasta was called cakes by them. Although steamed buns were also called steamed buns, they were mostly called steamed buns.
Li Huochang swallowed hard. He wanted to eat it, but he thought how could Hexi people be so kind and give them snow-white cage cakes to eat? It couldn't be poisoned, right?
Thinking of this, Li Huochang took out a still warm cage cake and handed it directly to Silly Young Man.
Silly young man was stunned and was not as smooth as the soldiers around him. He thought it was the fire chief who was treating him well, so he immediately took it and took a fist-sized cage cake, which Silly young man ate in three bites.
"How does it taste? Is it delicious? Er, is it delicious?" Li Huochang held back his saliva and carefully observed every move and every detail of the silly young man. All the soldiers also looked at him in unison and kept swallowing their saliva.
The silly young man suddenly frowned. He covered his stomach with force, his cheeks suddenly twisted, and he grimaced as if he was in pain.
It is indeed poisonous!
Li Huo stood up immediately, his head covered with cold sweat. If he had not been able to resist eating just now, he might have died.
The people around him were also shocked and started to curse.
At this moment, Silly Young Man suddenly swooped down and took away several cage cakes from the bamboo basket at lightning speed, and then ran towards the corner at an even faster speed.
"You are a thief! What a coward!" Li Huochang cursed, completely unaware that he had been deceived by a stupid boy.
The surrounding soldiers were stunned for a moment, then suddenly realized that they had been deceived, and swarmed into the bamboo basket to grab him.
Li Huochang wanted to run over and give Silly Young a good beating, but when he turned around, he realized that if he went over and beat Silly Young, he would definitely not be able to eat the steamed buns in the end.
Thinking of this, Li Huochang didn't care about Huochang's face, howled and rushed over to grab it.
Woohoo! This is so delicious! The moment the cage cake entered his mouth, Li Huochang suddenly wanted to cry.
The cake is soft and fragrant, and the filling inside is syrup. The kind of honey-like sweetness that Li Huochang had only tasted when he was a child.
At that time, my grandfather got some wild bee nests and planned to sell them to buy medicine for treating diseases, but he ate most of them.
Apart from the sweetness, he only remembered the scene of his mother beating him crazily, but he just grabbed half of the honeycomb and didn't let go. He finally tasted that painful sweetness again.
"Even if I die in battle today, it's worth it. How can there be such delicious cage cakes in the world?"
This can't be made with sugar from Jiangnan Road or Lingnan Road. It must be the Hexi white sugar that those merchants say!
These Hexi people are so lucky! The officials feel sorry for them, and they can actually eat such cage cakes in the morning meal!"
Scarface Huo Chang had some experience. After eating three steamed buns, he leaned on the battlement and sighed with emptiness in his eyes.
However, he is the leader of fire. He just grabbed three, and now he can certainly feel full and sigh. But among these soldiers, the worst one only managed to grab half, because he was so full of anger that he had nowhere to vent his anger.
Excited by the delicious steamed buns, no one cared about military discipline. The soldiers were looking for the stupid young man who had taken several of them and ran away.
It seems that this stupid boy will definitely get a beating.
Chao Chao outside Weizhou City. Chao Chai is a kind of observation tower specially used to observe the enemy's situation. There are four wheels below that can be pushed around. There is a board house covered with cowhide on the top that looks like a bird's nest.
The wooden house has four sides, and each side has three gaze holes, which can be used to peek at the layout of the city, and can also use simple semaphores to inform the enemy of the direction of attack.
The highest chariot can be ten feet, which is more than thirty meters high. Of course, Zhang Zhao does not need to be that high. Only five feet is enough. Zhang Zhao and Fanquan raised the chariot to the highest point and kept recording the inside of the city.
Condition of buildings and main roads.
When they returned to the ground, Wu Yuan'er, who went to the city as a messenger to interview General Wang Zhen and others, also came back.
General Wang Zhen and others thought that by placing Wu Yuan'er in a closed carriage, Wu Yuan'er would not know the situation in the city.
But they would not have thought that Wu Yuan'er had already gone through thousands of trainings for this situation.
With the support of Zhang Zhao and others combined with the observation of Chao Che, Wu Yuan'er quickly restored the general roads of the entire Weizhou City.
Including the most important Weizhou Town Military Government Office and Pingliang County Government Office, as well as the specific locations of arsenals and military camps.
The elites who participated in the raid were also selected and led by Zhang Zhao himself.
Man Xiong, Dunzhu, Wang Tongtong, Li Ruotai, Hu Guang, Fan Quan Fanshun, Shan Zhuer, Lu Sanlang, Xue Shouli, Pei Tongyuan, Zhao Cunyi, Guo Guangcheng, Murong Nobunaga, Li Cunhui, Zhang Liecheng, Cui Huxin, Du Lunchixin, Zhe Bu
Jia Shi, Wen Chongle, Yue Saonu.
All the capable generals that the Guiyi Army could count were recruited, except for Yan Jin and Bai Congxin, who wanted to control the infantry and the other the cavalry.
The only ones absent were Ma Shacai, who was guarding Lanzhou, Song Zhongyi, who was staying in Ningyuan to retire, and Liu Zaisheng, who was guarding Yuanzhou.
Everyone wears two layers of cotton armor and a composite helmet made of fine iron on their heads. Strong ones like the wild bears also wear a layer of chain mail.
They did not bring long weapons such as rifles or spears. They mainly used wrought copper maces, iron whips and long horizontal knives. The main throwing weapons were hand crossbows and throwing spears. Only about a hundred sharpshooters brought bows and arrows.
Zhang Zhao chose the time of attack at Mao hour. With such powerful weapons and so many warriors, there was no need to launch a surprise attack in the middle of the night. The dark night would limit their performance.
They wanted to take advantage of dawn to blow open the west gate, and then the large force went to control the three places of the government office, the military camp and the arsenal. After the small force took control of the city gate, they then enlarged the army and entered the city.
At the top of Weizhou City, the soldiers guarding the city on the first day watched the Guiyi Army under the city eating beef stew, feeling peaceful and peaceful.
On the second day, they ate the cage cakes sent by Gui Yijun. They spent the rest of the time looking forward to whether there would be delicious food served during feeding, and therefore they were even more envious of Gui Yijun's three meals a day.
, live in peace and harmony.
On the third day, the Guiyi army released the pigeons of the Weizhou soldiers on the city wall, which made the soldiers on the city wall very depressed and peaceful.
On the fourth day, the Guiyi Army sent them beef jerky and sesame cakes, but what they ate was beef stew and roasted lamb chops, which made the soldiers at the city head envious. They lived in peace and quiet.
On the fifth day, the courageous Slender Man and Scar-faced Man couldn't stand the temptation of food. At the invitation of the Guiyi Army soldiers, the two of them went down to the Guiyi Army barracks, ate and drank a lot.
Drink and live in peace
On the sixth day, more than half of the soldiers on patrol ran down to the Guiyi Army camp to eat and drink at the end of Youshi. There were even enough ropes to lower the city, and they were all in peace.
On the seventh day, General Sun Shi, who knew the situation, led his men on the city wall and beat up some soldiers who came down from the city wall.
The dissatisfied soldiers on duty day and night almost started a mutiny. In the end, General Sun Shi killed two people before suppressing it. However, the soldiers and junior officers on duty in Xicheng were extremely dissatisfied, but they still lived in peace.
On the eighth day, Zhang Zhao knew that the opportunity had come. Not only the soldiers in the west of the city, but also General Sun Shi, who came to suppress the killings, did not think that the Guiyi army would suddenly launch a surprise attack.
He just thought that the Guiyi Army wanted to use this method to win over people's hearts, and the entire leadership had basically lost their vigilance.
Cao Shishi is now much more mature and has a better grasp of the ratio of gunpowder. He has even begun to do some research on sugar gunpowder and granular gunpowder with egg white added. The wooden tube fire thunder equipped with it is also more powerful.
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Shi Chongmin's Jindu also conducted better research on digging tunnels and laying fire and mines.
After Zhang Zhao and several volunteer youths who were very talented in mathematics joined, they even began to calculate the power of explosions, and were able to use simple geometry to model and calculate the location and amount of explosives.
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Various methods of detonation were also invented, including one-time violent explosions, which were only used to blow open city walls.
There are two-stage explosions, which are mainly used to kill soldiers who come to block the gap, and there are also small-charge serial mines used for warning.
So everyone has put on their armor and is waiting for the beginning of the Mao period.