Chapter Five Hundred and Ninety Nine: Stars Lighting
For a time, Duan Gongming suspected that the other party was deceiving.
But thinking about the promise made by the King of Shu of the Tang Dynasty to him, Duan Gongming still chose to believe that this must mean that the King of Shu of the Tang Dynasty had occupied the other side's capital.
This opportunity is really great.
They are absolutely not allowed to hesitate. They must seize the beach and land as quickly as possible, and then cooperate with the Tang army to defeat them.
Next, Duan Gongming quickly issued an order.
Order them all to divide into three groups and start to land on the beach.
In the upstream, midstream and downstream, the three roads go hand in hand.
Now only Meng Shezhao's 10,000 soldiers and horses are left, and they have no way to defend the river beach of more than ten miles.
That side is an area they cannot defend, and they will land quickly from there.
As long as there is success along the way, they can stand firm.
The actual situation was exactly the same as Duan Gongming imagined.
Mengshe ordered the soldiers to focus on one thing and not on the other.
It was easy for Duan Gongming's bottom lane army to find an opportunity.
They quickly began to land downstream.
The soldiers who crossed the river first quickly gathered in a defensive posture to protect the soldiers who crossed the river behind.
Once the number of people crossing the river exceeds 3,000, they will become the vanguard and kill in the direction of Meng Shezhao's army.
At this time, Meng Shezhao's army did not dare to stay for a long time and retreated in a hurry.
The other side has an army of 30,000, and they only have 10,000.
If they stay, they will surely suffer heavy casualties, or even be wiped out.
And they were actually just reinforcements for the Zhaozhao.
Although the two countries are closely related to each other, they have a close relationship.
But this is not protecting their own country after all, and they will never fight the enemy to the death here again.
Anyway, they have been delaying for half an hour.
It would take at least an hour for Duan Gongming's army to cross the river.
They've delayed it long enough.
After Meng Shezhao's 10,000 troops retreated, Duan Gongming led three armies and quickly approached the river bank.
The soldiers who crossed the river first gathered quickly and then helped the soldiers who came after them.
However, 30,000 people cannot cross the river as fast as they want.
First of all, some ships must make room. We can't just say that if people cross the river, there will be no need for ships.
Then, there is the issue of density and crowding.
Anyway, by the time they were all assembled, an hour and a half had passed.
…
Veda, leading an army of 20,000, quickly arrived outside the north gate and began his fierce attack.
Time is very tight now, and there is not much time left for him.
He only has one hour at most.
Therefore, there is no time at all for detection and troop formation.
He is betting now that there are not many Tang troops in the city and he can capture the city within an hour.
Although Veda himself doesn't quite believe this.
But there is no way, the capital city means a lot to him.
Losing the capital and his country would basically mean destruction.
Even if there is only a 1% chance, he must give 100% effort!
Next, Veda began to launch a rapid attack on the north gate.
His soldiers had no siege equipment at all.
They are fighting a defensive war and will certainly not prepare siege equipment.
Although the city wall was not too high, they could only temporarily find some trees or rocks to use as cushions underneath for climbing.
Even Veda himself felt that it was really impossible to attack it.
But what shocked Veda next was that the reality was completely different from what he imagined.
The counterattack on the city wall was actually not fierce!
This, what is going on?
Are there not many Tang troops in the city?
If not, how could the fighting on the city wall be so weak?
Let me think about it!
There is a river, and it is not that easy for the Tang army to sneak over.
At most three thousand Tang troops would be enough to cross the river!
These 3,000 Tang troops would be damaged if they were to deal with the 1,000 defenders in the city.
If we kill a thousand soldiers this morning, we will still suffer some damage.
In other words, there are at most more than a thousand Tang troops in the city now!
It is entirely possible for him to capture the city within an hour.
Thinking of this, Veda couldn't help but be overjoyed.
"Go! Give them all to me! Capture the city quickly!"
Veda's soldiers seemed to have seen hope and could not help but speed up the siege.
In fact, many of their families live in the city.
They themselves also wanted to capture the city.
The defense on the city wall was not strong and resolute.
There doesn't seem to be any good way to face their attack.
Wait for them to be passive aggressive.
As a result, these soldiers attacked the city with even greater vigor.
At this time, half of the Tang army in the city was still sleeping and resting.
The other half of the Tang army was divided into five squads.
A group of one thousand people went up to the city wall to defend.
Defend for a quarter of an hour, then switch to another team.
The rest of the people are resting.
There are 30,000 people outside attacking the city, but they only have 1,000 people defending it.
If the defensive strength can still keep up, then what the hell.
And Li Min's intention is very obvious, which is to let them see hope.
Then hold them here.
As long as they wait until Duan Gongming's army crosses the river, it won't be easy for them to escape. At least they have to leave something behind to escape.
And it is obvious that Veda was fooled.
Well, it’s hard not to be fooled when you meet such an insidious person!
Time passed little by little, Veda's team attacked the city and made extremely obvious progress.
At the cost of nearly a thousand casualties, some of their soldiers finally succeeded in scaling the city wall.
Whether soldiers can scale the city wall is an important indicator of whether the city can be captured.
As long as there is the first person to climb the city wall, there will be the second person, the third person, the hundredth person...
It's time for hand-to-hand combat.
The Tang army defending the city seemed to be anxious.
Their defense also became tenacious.
Although some of Veda's soldiers continued to climb the city walls, they would be killed quickly and it would be difficult to achieve any effect.
Seeing the time passing by little by little, Veda felt anxious.
"The first person to climb the city wall and secure his position will be rewarded with a hundred thousand yuan!"
As the saying goes, under heavy rewards, there must be brave men.
With Veda's heavy reward, his soldiers' small universe suddenly exploded.
After a while, hundreds of people climbed up the city wall.
Seeing this scene, Li Min waved his hand decisively.
Then all five thousand defensive soldiers took action.
Whoosh!
Swish! Swish!
The Vedic soldiers who had just climbed onto the city wall were cut down with a sword.
Seeing the sudden appearance of these soldiers, Veda was almost so angry that he vomited blood.
Damn it, your seventh uncle and grandma!
These Tang soldiers are so grandsons!
You're too despicable, dirty, insidious and cunning, aren't you?
They kept pretending that no one was there, but when they saw that the city was about to be destroyed, thousands of people immediately appeared!
Do you want to die or not?
I've been missing virtue for eight lifetimes!
Veda finally discovered that at the beginning, the Tang army was completely showing weakness to the enemy.
And its purpose is to delay time.
Now, Veda can no longer wait any longer.
Now, almost an hour has passed.
If they don't leave, they will be in danger.
Veda raised his hand and was about to shout the order to retreat.
Boom!
There was a loud noise and a section of the city wall collapsed!
Seeing this scene, Veda was overjoyed!
Great! Great!
God is really helping me!
So what if your Tang army has four or five thousand men?
The city wall has collapsed and you have no chance to defend it!
It only takes half an hour for me to kill them all!
At this time, Veda no longer hesitated, waved his hand and said: "Kill!"
The Vedic soldiers also became passionate and quickly rushed in from the gap.
However, what awaits them is a ruthless crossbow design.
What makes them especially angry is...
The opponent's crossbow arrows seemed to be burst fire.
I simply don't want to waste any more crossbow arrows.
It seems that they have divided their duties well.
The gap in the city wall is not large, and no more than ten soldiers can pass through it at one time.
The soldiers in the past could not reach the Tang army for a hundred years and were directly killed.
They also tried to fight back with bows and arrows.
But the Tang Dynasty's crossbows had a much farther range than their bows and arrows.
At the same distance, their bows and arrows couldn't hit anyone at all.
There is no other way but to hold the shield and rely on human lives.
Time passed little by little.
According to Veda, more than a thousand people have filled in, but no progress has been made.
Moreover, the gap in the city wall has been blocked by dead bodies, and they still need to clean up the dead bodies first.
At this time, Veda finally realized something was wrong.
Whether it was the initial show of weakness or the collapse of the city wall.
It seems like it’s all a conspiracy to hang them up!
Now, the time is approaching an hour and a half.
Duan Gongming's army will attack at any time.
Even if we could rush into the city now, I'm afraid it would be too late.
Can the Tang army be completely annihilated in less than half an hour?
Veda estimated that they might not be able to enter the city in half an hour.
And from the beginning of their attack to now, they have killed at least 3,000 soldiers!
And according to his observation, no one on the Tang army was killed!
No! No!
There is definitely a problem!
"Retreat! Retreat!"
Under Veda's order, the army quickly gathered and began to retreat!
Then, they just started.
Boom!
Suddenly, a large section of the city wall collapsed again.
This time, it was over a hundred meters long.
This time, it was enough for all of them to rush in.
In an instant, Veda felt the urge to kill him.
Even his soldiers were ready to turn around and kill him.
But in the crucial matter, Veda finally resisted the temptation.
"Retreat! No one is allowed to fight!"
Finally, Veda led the army and retreated reluctantly.
Behind him, Li Min sneered.
He was able to resist the temptation and chose to retreat.
You still have some brains!
Otherwise, another five thousand soldiers would have rushed over to change the defense.
These ten thousand soldiers fired their crossbows and arrows in unison.
Under such terrain, Li Min was not afraid of the more than 20,000 people at all.
What's more, the army led by Duan Gongming outside can rush over at any time.
If Veda had not left just now, his army of 26,000 to 7,000 people would hardly be able to escape.
Sure enough, just a quarter of an hour after Veda led the army to leave.
Duan Gongming led his army to pursue them quickly.
When Duan Gongming saw more than 100 meters of collapsed city wall.
When he saw the corpses of Yongzhao soldiers scattered all over the ground, Duan Gongming couldn't help but be stunned.
What shocked him even more was that there were no casualties in the Tang army!
This is really terrible!
Li Min couldn't help but said to Duan Gongming: "Your Majesty, the Yongzhao army has just withdrawn for a quarter of an hour. If we pursue it now, we can still catch up!"
Hearing Li Min's words, Duan Gongming was overjoyed and quickly led an army of 30,000 to pursue him from behind.
He likes the one who beats up the lost dog the most!
Li Min, on the other hand, left a thousand soldiers to repair the city wall, a thousand soldiers to defend, and the others went directly to rest.
Now, Yongzhao is running for his life, and he must be running faster than a rabbit.
Everyone was running on two legs, and Li Min felt that even if he could catch up, he wouldn't achieve much success.
If this is the case, let Duan Gongming lead the people to chase him.
It was not until night that Duan Gongming happily led the army back.
This time, he really caught up with him, but he only killed two or three thousand of Zhenzhao's army.
The harvest was almost the same as that of the Tang army defending the city.
After this battle, Shaoyuzhao lost a total of more than 6,000 soldiers, and the loss reached almost one-third.
This was also a fatal blow to Xiongzhao.
However, the capital city of Xuezhao had been taken, and he had lost the chance to take it back.
The Zhejiang imperial edict has already meant the country was subjugated.
Of course, Veda, who has nowhere to go, may have no choice but to take his remaining soldiers and horses to Mengshe Zhao.
Now, the imperial edict has been taken.
Of course, there was Meng Shezhao in the south, who was eyeing them.
The subjugated Veda stared at them like a poisonous snake, ready to bite them at any time.
Now, the two sides are in a fight to the death.
Their next target is naturally to point their swords at Meng Shezhao.
The next journey to Mengshezhao is as smooth as a mile.
However, combined with the more than 13,000 soldiers from Veda, the total military strength of Mengshe Zhao was more than 33,000.
The total military strength of Duan Gongming and Datang together was 40,000.
Although they surpassed Meng Shezhao in total numbers, they were now the attacking party.
But Meng Shezhao was sitting on the city, so he could defend with his back to the city.
Moreover, Duan Gongming also wanted to eliminate all their more than 30,000 troops as much as possible.
Otherwise, even if the city is breached, they can hide and harass them secretly.
Duan Gongming couldn't help but find Li Min, and then asked: "My lord, do you have any strategies to attack Meng Shezhao's city?"
Li Min smiled slightly and said, "Of course I'll attack with fire!"
After hearing Li Min's words, Duan Gongming said with a sad face: "But in Meng Shezhao's country, there are no rivers flowing through their capital!"
Li Min suddenly asked speechlessly: "Who told you that you need river water to set a fire? Doesn't it mean that you can't set a fire without a river? What kind of logic do you have?"
When Li Min asked Duan Gongming, he felt very strange.
Yes, can't we set fire if there is no river water?
There should be nothing to do with whether there is a river or not, and releasing water, right?
Of course, this was all led astray by the King of Shu setting fire through the river.
However, in a capital city as big as Mengshezhao, if there is not a river running through the entire city, it is really not easy to set fire to it!
Duan Gongming couldn't help but ask: "Your Majesty, how should we set this fire?"
Li Min couldn't help but smile and said: "Light up the stars!"
Stars light up?
Is this a magical thing?
Duan Gongming couldn't understand what the prince said at all, but since the prince said he could set fire, he must be able to do it, right?
Soon, Duan Gongming and Li Min led the army and marched towards Meng Shezhao.
Not long after, they changed their troops and came to the city, surrounding Meng Shezhao.
In fact, their coalition army only has 40,000 people.
The total military strength of Mengshe Zhao and Veda was more than 30,000.
Such a comparison of numbers is simply not enough if you want to attack the city.
Seeing Duan Gongming's army, Veda's enemies were extremely jealous.
It was him who colluded with the Tang army, occupied his capital, and destroyed his country!
So Veda asked for orders to go out of the city to attack Duan Gongming.
Then the king who was ordered by Meng Shezhao tactfully dissuaded him.
Now that they have an absolute advantage, as long as they defend tightly, they can put the coalition forces of Duan Gongming and the Tang Army in a situation where they cannot advance or retreat.
If that's the case, then why do they have to fight to the death?
When they are unable to take the city, the coalition forces will inevitably retreat.
When will it be their time to attack!
Now, Meng Shezhao was determined to adopt defensive counterattack tactics.
…
After being surrounded by Meng Shezhao, Li Min began to order the soldiers to start making Kongming lanterns.
Of course, these Kongming lanterns must be different from ordinary Kongming lanterns.
What Duan Gongming didn't know was that there was actually a scientific research team among the Tang army.
This scientific research team is hidden among the guards and is only responsible to the King of Shu, Li Min.
At this time, Li Min ordered them to calculate some data.
They need to calculate the length of candles placed inside the Kongming Lantern to allow it to drift at a fixed wind speed.
What Li Min envisioned was to use Kongming lanterns to set fires.
Therefore, the Kongming Lantern must be specially made.
The candle inside will be very short and will burn the paper next to it after burning for a while. Tung oil will also be placed inside the Kongming Lantern.
In this way, after the sky lantern floats for a period of time, it will burn on its own.
If you add tung oil, it will be a fireball.
But if you want to achieve the purpose of setting fire, the Kongming Lantern cannot float too high.
If it is too high, it will burn in the air and will not be able to set fire at all.
This involves extremely complex operations.
Fortunately, this scientific research team is composed of talents in applied mathematics.
I usually come into contact with this aspect when building digital analogues.
They have been calculating these data for several days.
Five days later, they gave Li Min a set of data.
After getting the data, Li Min did some experiments and found that the data was reliable.
Next, you need to wait patiently for the wind speed.
Because under different wind speeds, the effects are different.
The wind speed provided by Li Min to this scientific research team is the wind speed that occurs most frequently on local windy days.
Only when we wait for this kind of weather can this set of data be useful.
Duan Gongming didn't understand what the Tang Shu King was waiting for, so he was very anxious.
What kind of fire is this? It’s been so long and you’re not ready yet?
How many more days do we need to wait?
The amount of food consumed every day is terrifying!
Not to mention them, even the people of Meng Shezhao and the army led by Veda in the city were extremely puzzled.
Originally, they were terrified inside when they were surrounded by the coalition forces.
After all, two countries have been wiped out by them in a row.
This proves that the combined forces of Duan Gongming and the Tang Army are very powerful in combat.
Next, I'm afraid there will be a tough battle.
But what they didn't expect was that the other party just besieged them but did not attack them. For nearly ten days, they had no intention of attacking them.
Are they planning to surround them to death?
But, how is this possible?
The food in their city can last at least a year.
And could the coalition forces besiege them for a year?
Furthermore, you only have a total of 40,000 troops, while we have more than 30,000 troops in the city.
If we want to break through, we can break out at any time as long as we head in one direction.
For a while, it was difficult for them to figure out what Tang Jun wanted to do.
At this time, Duan Gongming couldn't help it anymore and couldn't help but come to the Tang army's military tent to ask for an audience with Li Min, the king of Shu.
When he heard that Duan Gongming was coming, Li Min certainly knew his purpose.
Li Min smiled slightly, and then ordered people to be invited in.
After entering the commander's tent, Duan Gongming couldn't help but ask: "My lord, I wonder when we can set fire to it?"
Li Min laughed and said, "Is your Majesty more anxious than waiting?"
"Originally, I wanted to send someone to invite the king, but I didn't expect that the king came uninvited!"
"The king has decided to burn the city of Mengshe tonight! I hope that the king will be ready when he returns!"
"Okay!, I will go back and prepare now!"
After hearing Li Min's words, Duan Gongming was naturally overjoyed.
After waiting for ten days, I finally got the definite news.
During these ten days, Duan Gongming was actually not idle.
Various deployments have been made.
The first is the deployment if the opponent leaves the city, and the second is naturally the deployment to siege the city.
Duan Gong is ready tomorrow!
When he returned this time, Duan Gongming quickly made various arrangements.
…
That night, it was three o'clock at ten o'clock.
Duan Gongming led his soldiers and quickly made various arrangements.
Li Min also led an army of 10,000 people and quietly lit the Kongming Lantern outside the city wall.
Soon, the sky lanterns took off one after another.
I don’t know if these Kongming lanterns are made very crudely or if they are heavy inside.
In short, the lift-off speed is very slow and the altitude is also very low.
And blown by the strong wind, these Kongming lanterns began to float over the city of Mengshezhao.
There were 10,000 Tang troops outside, and more than 10,000 Kongming lanterns were launched into the sky at one time.
And behind them, they are still being lit.
The sky lanterns, dotted like stars, soon occupied almost the entire sky above the city of Monche.
At this time, Meng Shezhao's defensive soldiers were in a daze when they saw this strange scene.
I don’t know if I should report it or not.
Because they really didn't know what the Tang army's purpose was for setting off the Kongming lanterns.
Are these Kongming lanterns useless? Do they deliberately put them up just to look good?
Are they so boring?
However, at this moment, a sudden change occurred!
