This is the fourth day that the Turkic army attacked Yanmen Pass. The battle was extremely fierce.
Tuli Khan looked from a distance and felt that there was a thick blood mist shrouding Yanmen Pass, and countless corpses were piled up, which made people feel frightened. In fact, the grassland tribes knew very well that they were not good at attacking cities and villages, and Li Shan
After spending so much effort on Yanmen Pass, we had all the food, grass, troops, and ordnance available. We also set up camps for wounded soldiers and even came up with some gadgets that transcended the times. It was actually not that difficult to defend the city.
Li Shan knew very well that Yanmen Pass was the bottom line and Shuozhou was a bonus.
To put it mildly, if Ma Yi fell and Zhang Shigui was killed, Li Shan would not be blamed. However, once Yanmen Pass is breached, the efforts of the previous six months will be in vain and will become a thing of the past.
To put it more directly, Shuozhou is related to whether Li Shan can continue to gain Li Yuan's trust, or even reach a higher level, while Yanmen Pass is related to whether Li Shan will lose power... Once he loses power, will Pei Shiju let this opportunity pass?
In the first two days of the siege, the outside of Yanmen Pass turned into a meat grinding ground. Su Dingfang flexibly chose the opportunity to send powerful cavalry out of the city, or sent out flexible infantry and soldiers to defeat the Turks' sieges time and time again.
The fresh flesh and blood allowed the vultures to hover in the air for a long time regardless of the threat of the archers. The Tang army could still be more humane and send them back to the city to the wounded barracks when they had the chance, while the Turks could only watch their colleagues dying.
He struggled until he gradually died.
Therefore, starting from the third day, no matter how hard Jieli Khan tried, his subordinates were unwilling to use any more force to kill him. This was obviously to commit suicide.
In desperation, Jieli Khan could only mix the king's troops to attack the city together to ensure the strength of the siege.
Tuli Khan stood at a high place and whispered: "Are you making fun of people again?"
"It's the same Ruodun who built a lot more carriages." The association members around him were a little nervous. They had been attacking the city for three days, and even the king's soldiers had gone into battle. Naturally, there was no way for them to resist, so they also sent 500 elite troops this time.
Dismount and fight on foot.
Well, the grassland soldiers are only strong in cavalry combat, infantry combat, and siege. This is why the Central Plains set up checkpoints here thousands of years ago.
Yang Guang of the former Sui Dynasty was besieged by 150,000 Turkic soldiers in Yanmen, but he was finally able to rescue the siege. Isn't the key to the difficulty of breaking the city?
Watching more than a hundred carriages slowly heading towards Yanmen Pass, Tuli Khan was also a little nervous, because not a single arrow was fired or a stone was dropped on the city wall.
In the past two days, the Xi people have spent a lot of effort on building a new wooden cart. It can not only block the stone arrows, but also accommodate more soldiers. There is also a huge log placed on the front of the cart to hit the door. The most important thing is that the body is covered with cowhide.
Watering it thoroughly with water can withstand the flames for a short period of time.
Tuli Khan didn't know what Jieli Khan wanted to do, but one thing was certain. If Yanmen Pass was breached, he would not be able to compete with the opponent in a short time, or perhaps forever.
Su Dingfang, Ma Sanbao and others at the top of the city looked coldly at the wooden carts that had gathered. The guards around them were either holding jars, or throwing away their horses and pulling out long knives.
Ruoden, who was hiding in the wooden cart, was a little proud. His design was to avoid fire. It seemed that the Tang army had nothing to do. The city gate of Yanmen Pass was not too strong. It was estimated that it would take a quarter of an hour to break it open.
Su Dingfang turned around and glanced down, and Li Kai below made a ready gesture.
With an order, hundreds of jars were thrown down, hitting more than a hundred large and small wooden carts, and countless semi-solids were sprayed out.
Ruodun smelled the pungent smell, and just like the first day, a large number of torches were dropped on the city.
Almost the same situation occurred again. The Turkic elites more than a hundred steps away watched helplessly as the raging fire burned and a large amount of pungent black smoke rose.
Some people refused to believe this scene, because they were the ones who poured the buckets of water on the wooden cart with their own hands.
Several Turks took a few dozen steps forward suspiciously, and the Tang army on the city wall did not fire arrows. Although the flames were not as big as the first day, the high temperature, pungent smell and violent black smoke easily drove them away.
The Tuli Khan and the association could not see clearly from a distance, but the Turkic elites nearby could vaguely see, in the black smoke, soldiers of the Tang Dynasty beating down the city walls with ropes.
The billowing black smoke had a hint of the smell of blood, violent coughing, and the rapid screams before death could not be heard.
Unable to hold on any longer, hundreds of soldiers, mixed with ridicules, fled out of the black smoke one after another. Although they didn't have much fire on their bodies, some fell down before taking a few steps, and some were so dazed that they even headed toward the city wall. Go.
At this time, the Tang army on the city wall stopped watching. They were beating rocks and rolling wood, and arrows fell on the heads of these unlucky men one after another. The Turkic elites who stepped forward to respond were also careful not to step into the shooting range, and only used their spirit to encourage their companions to escape.
On the top of the city, Ma Sanbao covered his mouth and nose with a wet cloth, "What on earth is this?"
Su Dingfang hesitated, "Huairen has many methods and is unpredictable..."
Li Kai nodded in agreement, looked at the Turks who were escaping, and said casually: "You didn't learn it from Lingnan again, did you?"
Nowadays, there is a legend in Chang'an that the previous king was ignorant and immoral, and a large number of talented and learned people were exiled to Lingnan... However, Gao Shilian, who had such experience, had some objections.
Several people were talking above, and Tuli Khan in the distance cursed his mother angrily. Basically all the three hundred elites he sent in were filled in, and less than 10% came back alive.
Surprisingly, Jieli Khan was very quiet. Not only did he not punish Ruodun, the leader of the Xi people, but he nodded with satisfaction.
The association members couldn't help but murmur, are they satisfied with the sacrifice of the warriors by Tuli Khan?
At this time, the sun was already setting in the west, and the afterglow of the setting sun shone outside Yanmen Pass, reflecting a bloody light.
Jieli Khan thought in his mind that although the three-day fierce attack had little effect, the city gate has not been breached so far. He only managed to climb the city wall twice and was quickly driven down.
However, in three days, the Turks lost more than 3,000 troops, and the defenders of Yanmen Pass also suffered hundreds of casualties. After all, the Turks fired arrows frantically to cover the siege, and there could be no casualties, let alone the two khans who lost their lives today. The soldiers were dispatched, and among them there were many sharpshooters.
Thinking of this, Jieli Khan turned his head and looked towards the south, with some desire and greed in his eyes...
Yu Gushe was just an excuse, and the good-for-nothing son finally provided an opportunity... Jieli Khan thought in his heart that if his son hadn't committed suicide, it would actually be difficult for him to coerce Tuli Khan, and then it would be difficult to do the next thing. .
However, Jieli Khan judged that there was probably some kind of connection or agreement between Tuli Khan and Li Shan.
Therefore, Jieli Khan is not going to let his nephew participate in the next action... To be precise, the next step is to pick the fruits of victory.