Chapter 244 The first battle of defending the city
At noon, dust was flying in the distance, and the heavy sound of horse hooves was like rolling thunder, making the earth tremble.
Twenty thousand Xue Yantuo's army stretched out a long black line and stopped their horses three miles away. Their flags were fluttering and their murderous intent was overwhelming.
There are a forest of spears on the top of the city, and the flags are flying. The soldiers are in high spirits and have high morale. They all hold their sword handles and spear shafts tightly and are ready for battle.
Guo Song stood on a high place and stared at the enemy troops in the distance. He turned around and said to the generals around him: "It seems that you haven't seen any siege weapons?"
Li Ji next to him said: "The scouts didn't notice their logistics team, let alone siege weapons, they didn't even carry tents."
Lu Mingbo, the general of the surrendered town, sneered and said: "I guess their information was obtained two months ago. They thought that there were only 500 defenders in the city and they could win with one blow, so there was no need to carry baggage."
Guo Song loudly said to everyone: "Everyone, if you don't carry baggage, it means that their food can only last a few days. This is good news for us, but it also means that the siege will be very tragic. As long as we survive
In three days, victory will definitely belong to us!"
After speaking, Guo Song raised his arms and shouted: "Kill the enemy!"
All the soldiers on the top of the city raised their arms and shouted, "Kill the enemy!"
The shouts went straight to the sky, and the soldiers' morale was high. They were gearing up and looking forward to a decisive battle with the enemy.
The Xueyantuo people did not launch an offensive. They had no siege weapons. Lieutenant General Yantuo Manshan led five thousand soldiers to cut wood in the nearby pine forest. They specially selected long and straight wood, cut off the branches and vines, and dragged the trunks back to the camp.
Hundreds of soldiers were responsible for making the crudest siege weapons. They could not make ladders with a mortise and tenon structure, and they had no nails. They could only use cowhide straps to tie sections of wooden strips to two straight tree trunks.
The tree trunks were cut into three-foot lengths, and dozens of wooden bars were tied together to create the crudest siege ladders, which were so crude that even the bark of the trees was not peeled off.
At night, the lights in Xue Yantuo's camp were brightly lit. There was no tent in the camp, not even a fence or a spear formation. Twenty thousand soldiers were wrapped in blankets and sleeping on the ground. Everyone complained. They originally thought that they could rush to Jiuyuan County by fighting.
They entered the county town to steal property and women, but they didn't expect that they would attack the city.
They didn't have much food. Each of them only brought a bag of flour bread and dried meat, so they could only last for more than ten days. Excluding the time spent on the road, they could only stay here for three or four days at most.
Xue Chake inspected the ladder-building site with a stern look, and from time to time stretched out his hand to pull the stalls of the siege ladder. His principle is that it can be rough, but it must be strong, so that soldiers cannot step on the stalls and fall.
At this time, he came to a huge battering ram. This was a large pine tree that had grown for at least three hundred years. It took two people to hug it. The Xueyantuo people sawed it off and made a five-foot-long pine tree.
The long pointed battering ram weighed several thousand kilograms and was studded with iron grippers. It required at least a hundred soldiers to carry it and hit the city gate.
Lieutenant General Yantuo Manshan walked to Xue Chake and said worriedly: "I just checked the dry rations in the hands of the soldiers. I'm afraid we don't have much time to attack the city. We will have to evacuate in three days at most."
Xue Chake looked at the city wall three miles away. The shadow of the city wall was clearly visible in the night. He said slowly for a long time: "I plan to use the most violent offensive to capture Jiuyuan City in two days."
"I'm afraid our casualties will be heavy." Yantuo Manshan said worriedly.
"This is not a matter of casualties!"
Xue Chake glared at the deputy general beside him and said: "This is our dignity. If we can't win Fengzhou, how can we explain to the chief when we go back? We will make other tribes in the grassland laugh at us!"
Yantuo Manshan sighed in his heart. He knew Xue Chake so well, he had a violent personality and he accepted death. It was almost impossible to persuade him to give up the siege.
Before dawn the next day, drums were beating loudly at the place where Xue Yantuo's army was stationed. The soldiers stood up and lined up, and soon they formed a team. They were divided into teams of one thousand people, and there were twenty teams of one thousand people in total.
Dozens of cavalrymen raised wolf-head flags and shouted while running: "Inform the general, the 1,000 to 5,000 men will attack the west city, and the 6,000 to 10,000 men will attack the north city. The attack will begin after dawn."
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On the first day of the siege, the Xueyantuo people dispatched 10,000 troops, but the other troops were not idle either and continued to cut down trees to build siege ladders.
In one night, Xue Yantuo people built two hundred siege ladders, mainly focusing on attacking the West City and the North City. Xue Chake also discovered that the head of the West City was five feet higher than the North City. The Tang army seemed to have used sandbags to heighten the city wall.
Even the height of five feet greatly increases the difficulty for Xue Yantuo's army to attack the city, but the west side is the most advantageous to attack the city. The ground is flat and there are very few weeds. Unlike the other three sides where the ground is bumpy and uneven, either wheat fields or weeds.
land.
Therefore, Xue Chake chose to attack the west city and also the north city to disperse the Tang army's forces on the city head.
As the morning dawned, the war drums of the attack began to sound, ‘Boom! Boom! Boom!’ The fierce war drums shook the heaven and the earth.
Ten thousand Xue Yantuo soldiers shouted, and carrying the siege ladder, they rushed towards Jiuyuan City from the west and north directions like a raging sea tide.
On the top of the city, Guo Song calmly watched the enemy's charge. As the commander-in-chief, he did not participate in commanding the defense of a certain location. He needed to coordinate the overall situation and lead 300 elite soldiers to be ready to support critical areas at any time.
He held a bow and arrow in his hand, and two soldiers carried a halberd for him. A soldier next to him stared nervously at the enemy soldiers rushing forward and said: "Your Majesty, they are about to enter the death line!"
The death line that soldiers call is the distance of 300 steps from the city wall. The Tang army laid out a large number of poisonous thorns and pits between 300 and 150 steps, with the most on the north and south sides, and many on the east and west sides.
Guo Song nodded. He did not have heavy weapons to defend the city, so he could only take a sideways approach with his sword.
The soldiers from the north took the lead and rushed into the 300-step line. This was a safe distance beyond the reach of the Tang army's bows and arrows. Xue Yantuo's soldiers had no worries.
Suddenly, nearly a hundred soldiers at the front fell down one after another, holding their feet and wailing. Most of them stepped on poisonous thorns, and a dozen of them stepped on pits. When they stepped down, the sharp wooden thorns below
The instep was instantly pierced, and the injury was even more serious than stepping on a thorn. If the thorn was not pulled out in time, one foot would be disabled.
After running for dozens of steps, more and more soldiers were stung by poisonous thorns and stepped into pits. The attacking soldiers fell one by one, more than 500 people in an instant. The Xueyantuo people were frightened, and the soldiers in front turned around and faced
They retreated, but the soldiers behind them didn't know it and still rushed forward. The two sides collided with each other, and the battlefield suddenly became chaotic.
The commander in charge of commanding operations on the northern battlefield was shocked and ordered urgently: "Take your troops and retreat!"
‘Dang! Dang! Dang!’ The bell rang to withdraw troops, and the siege soldiers from the north retreated like a tide. Hundreds of injured soldiers also limped back to the rear with the support of their companions.
At the same time, abnormalities also occurred on the siege battlefield to the west. Many soldiers stepped on thorns and pits, causing nearly a hundred people to be injured. However, the number of thorns scattered in the west was much smaller than outside the city in the north, which was very harmful to the soldiers.
The attack had little impact and did not stop Xue Yantuo's army from attacking. However, it still affected the soldiers' fighting will to some extent. Many soldiers were worried about their feet, fearing that they would miss the mark and be stabbed in the instep.
At this time, Xue Chake suddenly heard the bell ringing in the direction of Beicheng to withdraw troops. He was furious, "Who is giving the order to withdraw troops!"
Not long after, the captain in charge of commanding the North City came to report: "To inform the general, there are too many thorns outside the North City, and the thorns are poisonous. More than a thousand soldiers have been injured and have lost their combat effectiveness. I have to withdraw the attacking army."
There are actually more than a thousand people. Such a large number is worthy of discussion. Xue Chake nodded, "Since the attack on the North City is unfavorable, let's concentrate our forces to attack the West City!"
"I humbly obey orders!"
The commander immediately rushed to mobilize his troops. At this time, Xue Yantuo's army in the west had already reached the Baibu Line. The general in charge of commanding the battle in Xicheng was Li Ji. He had 2,000 men under his command, and there were also 500 cold gunners.
The cold gunman is an innovative invention of soldiers. He hides under the mud bag and specializes in attacking the enemy's lower three routes through the holes in the bricks.
Li Ji shouted, "Fire the arrow!"
Two thousand soldiers first served as archers. Each of them held a walking bow and strung the arrows. The shooting of the walking bows was all projectiles, and they used large arrows. The arrows were thicker and heavier than ordinary arrows. They shot from a height of tens of meters.
When it fell, its own gravity coupled with the sharp arrows, the destructive force was very powerful. Ordinary leather armor could not withstand it at all, and the small wooden shield of the Xue Yantuo people was equally difficult to withstand it.
Two thousand sharp arrows fell like raindrops and shot into the dense group of soldiers. Suddenly there was a scream, and nearly three hundred people fell to the ground after being hit by arrows.
The arrows at the top of the city could not stop the attack momentum of Xue Yantuo's army. They continued to run, and some people kept falling down while running. They stepped on thorns and pits. In the second round, two thousand arrows were shot out, and hundreds of soldiers fell.
But Xue Yantuo's army has already attacked the city.
Siege ladders were put up on top of the city, and thousands of Xueyantuo soldiers climbed up frantically.
Li Ji shouted: "Change the spears, all soldiers are in position!"
Two thousand soldiers put down their bows and arrows, rushed to the top of the mud bag, lifted up rolling stones and threw them at the bottom of the city.