An hour later, before the Shatuo Army's camp was set up, the war drums sounded fiercely. An army of 3,000 people, led by General Zhu Xiekangda, rushed towards the Tang Army's city wall. This army
It is the servant army of the Shatuo people. There are Xueyantuo people, Qiang people, Gaochang people, etc. in the army, but there are no Shatuo people. They are actually cannon fodder. They serve as the vanguard to carry out exploratory attacks and understand the details of the Tang army.
These three thousand people did not have horses or large siege weapons, and only carried dozens of siege ladders.
On the city wall, Liang Wu looked at the enemy troops attacking like a tide, and said to Guo Song: "Captain, this Zhu Xie Jinhai doesn't quite believe that our strength is weak, so we still want to conduct a tentative attack!"
Next to him, Yao Jin shook his head and said: "It's not necessarily because I don't believe it. This must be their planned plan, and they are just acting according to the planned plan!"
Guo Song said calmly: "Since they are testing, we will respond in the same way. Pass my order. The trebuchets are not allowed to be launched. The heavy crossbow troops and heavy armored infantry will not participate in the battle for the time being. This battle will be fought by the first and second battalions!"
"
The Tang army quickly made adjustments, and a large number of troops withdrew from the city. Only Liang Wu and Yao Jin were left on the north wall leading four thousand troops. The other party wanted to test the strength of the Tang army, so Guo Song decided to hide his strength. This was also his consistent strategy.
After he captured the Shatuo spies in Zhangye City, he sent an untrue intelligence to the other party. The number of troops was small, and more importantly, morale was low. The generals were fighting among themselves. Once Zhu Xie Jinhai confirmed the intelligence from the test attack
In order to capture Zhangye City as soon as possible, he must make a risky decision.
‘Boom! Boom! Boom!’ The sound of the war drums was thrilling.
Three thousand soldiers came like a tide, and the general Zhu Xiekangda waved his sword and shouted: "The first one to rush to the city will be rewarded with 5,000 sheep!"
Zhu Xie Jinhai watched every move on the city. He was a suspicious person and did not believe the intelligence coming from the city. More importantly, the other party was Guo Song. Guo Song's cunningness left a deep impression on him.
He still has not figured out how Guo Song returned to Ganzhou through the Hexi Corridor. He laid a dragnet in Suzhou and Guazhou, but he didn't even see the other party's shadow.
"Commander, there seems to be no trebuchet on the city?" General Saliehan said in a low voice.
Zhu Xie Jinhai shook his head, "Trebuchets cannot be installed on the walls of Zhangye City. There have never been any. Don't worry about trebuchets and stone cannons. It seems that bed crossbows have not been installed, but I am more concerned about their combat effectiveness."
Arrows were fired from the top of the city, and two thousand archers fired simultaneously from the east and west sides. The two thousand arrows seemed very sparse against the nearly ten miles long north wall, and the four thousand soldiers seemed even more weak.
The three thousand soldiers suffered very few casualties and soon approached the city wall. They used long wooden boards to set up on the moat. The army ran across the moat. Dozens of siege ladders were set up on the top of the city. The big iron hooks at the front hooked directly onto the city wall.
The Shatuo soldiers climbed up the ladder frantically.
The soldiers of the Tang Army on the top of the city also quickly gathered around each siege ladder. Arrows shot down like rain, and rolling logs and stones fell from above their heads. Shatuo soldiers were continuously hit and screamed, and the casualties gradually increased.
.
Although the soldiers of the Tang Army were condescending and had the advantage, the soldiers of Shatuo also attacked tenaciously and were constantly knocked over. Soldiers continued to climb up and gradually approached the top of the city. Both sides stabbed with spears and fought fiercely for the top of the city.
battle.
This fierce battle lasted for nearly an hour, and both sides were evenly matched. Although Shatuo's army failed to capture the city, Tang's army had a very difficult time defending it. They had the advantage of the city, but they were unable to gain the upper hand.
Zhu Xiejinhai finally understood that the Tang army's will to fight was not strong. It seemed that the information was correct and the morale of the Tang army was indeed low.
He immediately issued a withdrawal order, "Send my order and the siege troops retreat!"
'Dang! Dang! Dang!'
The bell rang for withdrawal, and the Shatuo army, which was fighting hard, left more than a thousand corpses and retreated like an ebbing tide.
...........
That night, Shatuo's army set up a camp three miles outside the North City. Thousands of tents stretched for more than ten miles. The camp was brightly lit, and hundreds of Uighur craftsmen were assembling trebuchets, nest carts and other large siege weapons.
, if the Uighurs have support for the Shatuo people, then it is these Uighur craftsmen. The Shatuo people lack skilled craftsmen. Although their soldiers are brave, their weapons are generally crudely made, and they do not have the ability to make large-scale siege weapons.
The reason why the Uighurs urged the Shatuo people to take over the Hexi Corridor as soon as possible was not just out of revenge for the Tang Dynasty's expulsion of the mission, but also because they were worried that the Tubo people would capture the Hexi Corridor.
This time Uighur sent 500 craftsmen to the Shatuo people, who built hundreds of siege weapons in one winter, from ordinary siege ladders to large siege nest vehicles, giving the Shatuo army the first time to have siege weapons.
ability.
Zhu Xie Jinhai inspected the camp on horseback. He heard a shout from the front and saw a huge trebuchet standing upright, wrapped in cowhide, and under the firelight it looked like a huge monster covered in golden armor. It had been installed.
Zhu Xie Jinhai urged his horse forward and asked, "Is this the trebuchet known as the King Kong Behemoth?"
The first Huihe craftsman bowed and said: "Commander, this is the giant diamond beast. It comes from Samarkand. It is known as the largest trebuchet in the world. It can throw a boulder weighing one hundred kilograms five hundred steps away."
"What is its weakness?" Zhu Xie Jinhai asked again.
"The first weakness is that it is bulky and requires hundreds of people to operate it. The second is that it has poor accuracy."
Zhu Xie Jinhai nodded. It didn't matter if his accuracy was poor, as long as it had a deterrent effect. He was full of expectations for this monster-like trebuchet.
........
The next morning, the dull sound of war drums rang out in the Shatuo Army camp. Troops were rapidly gathering, and huge siege weapons began to move slowly.
Urgent alarm bells also sounded on the top of the city, and soldiers of the Tang Army rushed out of the camp and gathered on the top of the city.
In the big tent, Guo Song said to dozens of generals: "Today, the Shatuo Army will definitely attack the entire front. We must also go all out and do our best to kill the enemy. This battle will be the beginning of our counterattack.
Let’s go now!”
Dozens of generals saluted together, turned around and walked out.
The Tang Army also kicked off a formal counterattack. Heavy trebuchets were pulled loudly, and 13,000 soldiers ran up to the North City. Their division of labor was clear. Among them were ordinary crossbowmen, heavy crossbowmen, and hurlers.
Spearmen, spearmen and heavy infantry.
Guo Song also went to the north city and stood at the top of the city watching the enemy camp three miles away.
Shatuo's army has already left the camp, and is marching towards Zhangye City in an orderly manner like black strips of land spread out on the flat ground. Between the carpets are huge siege weapons, including trebuchets and trebuchets.
Nest vehicles, and a large number of siege ladders. One of the extremely huge trebuchets was pulled by dozens of camels. It walked slowly at the end of the team. Its height even exceeded the city, like a huge beast.
Crawling on the ground is intimidating.
Liang Wu was surprised and said: "Captain, do the Shatuo people actually have such a huge trebuchet?"
"It should have been brought back from the river by the Uighurs."
Guo Song said lightly: "This giant trebuchet was invented by the Great Man-Eater, called Saleh. It was used in the war against Samarkand. The Uighurs got this trebuchet. They called it the King Kong Giant Beast. However,
King Kong may not be the same, but the giant beast is real. You can use a heavy crossbow to kill this giant beast!"
Shatuo's army stopped advancing one mile away from the city wall and lined up neatly. One after another trebuchets were pushed forward, and fifty trebuchets were lined up. The trebuchets of Shatuo's army were generally taller, except for the most powerful King Kong Giant.
In addition to beasts, other trebuchets are also heavy trebuchets with a range of up to 300 steps. However, their structures are simple, they require more manpower, and their technical content is far inferior to the Tang Army's winch-type trebuchets.
However, because the Tang Army's trebuchets were located in the city, the range was affected and they could not hit the enemy's trebuchets. They had to rely on the Tang Army's heavy crossbows to deal with it.
Guo Song ordered: "Concentrate the heavy crossbows on the target and shoot the enemy's largest trebuchet!"
A thousand heavy crossbows were aimed at the enemy's King Kong Behemoth, which happened to be within the range of the heavy crossbows.
At this time, the fifty trebuchets of the Shatuo Army were launched together, and dozens of boulders rose into the air, streaked across the sky, and were fired intensively towards the head of Zhangye City.