The boulders whizzed towards the city head, and the soldiers lay down to dodge. It was not easy for the boulders to hit the city head just right. Most of them hit the city wall or passed over the city head.
'Boom!' There was a loud noise, and a huge boulder hit the battlement. The rocks flew everywhere. The soldiers dodged one after another. One soldier couldn't dodge and was hit in the face by a flying stone. He was bleeding profusely, but the boulder was high.
It bounced up, crossed the city head, and landed inside the city.
The city was well prepared. Tang soldiers dug a long ditch along the city wall. Most of the boulders that fell over the city fell into the ditch. The mud and rocks dug out in the ditch served as the foundation for the Tang army's trebuchets.
The height of the Tang army's trebuchets basically exceeded the city wall.
The giant diamond beast of Shatuo Army shot out the first boulder, which hit the city tower. Immediately, the tiles shattered, the beams broke, and a big hole was smashed through the city tower. For a while, sawdust flew everywhere, dust flew, and the city tower lost its beams.
The support swayed, and finally collapsed inwards. The soldiers of the Tang Army who were hiding inside shouted and scrambled to escape.
Guo Song's face was ashen and he shouted: "Fire the heavy crossbow!"
The heavy crossbow soldiers had already aimed at the huge trebuchet. The commander gave an order, and a thousand heavy crossbows were launched at the same time. The two-foot-five-inch-long arrows were concentrated on the giant diamond beast. A thousand arrows roared towards the giant beast.
Arrows fell from the sky like raindrops, and they were so fierce that the hundreds of soldiers who were pulling the ropes were caught off guard. They were all shot through their bodies by the big arrows, and they fell down screaming.
The giant King Kong beast was studded with long arrows, and there was a series of crisp snapping sounds, and four of the five belts that bound the throwing pole were shot off in an instant, leaving only a little skin and flesh connected, but it could not support its own weight.
, finally it broke, 'Boom!' With a loud noise, the ten-foot-long throwing pole fell heavily to the ground.
The King Kong Behemoth only fired a single boulder before it collapsed in full view of the public. However, the target of the Tang Army's heavy crossbow soldiers was not just the giant trebuchet. After concentrating firepower to destroy the King Kong Behemoth, they immediately aimed at other trebuchets.
The machine fired a thousand heavy crossbows again. Dozens of trebuchets more than 300 steps away immediately fell into chaos with heavy attacks. Hundreds of soldiers were shot and killed, and several trebuchets collapsed.
When the attack failed, Zhu Xie Jinhai was furious. He waved his sword and ordered: "Attack the army!"
He was impatient and could not wait to slowly destroy the opponent with his trebuchet, so he issued an attack order.
Two black carpet-like Shatuo soldiers suddenly launched, a total of ten thousand people, carrying more than a hundred siege ladders and rushing towards Zhangye City.
Facing the Shatuo army coming like a tide, Guo Song calmly ordered: "The heavy crossbow army continues to fire, and the enemy's trebuchet must be destroyed!"
Arrows were like locusts, and after several rounds of concentrated shooting, twelve trebuchets collapsed one after another, a large number of soldiers were killed, and the trebuchets could not continue to operate. Zhu Xie Jinhai had no choice but to order the trebuchets to withdraw.
The rushing crowd was getting closer and closer, entering the 250-step line. Guo Song immediately ordered: "Trebuchets attack, followed by crossbowmen!"
The forty trebuchets that had been preparing for a long time finally took action. A series of bangs sounded, the long poles were thrown, and huge rocks weighing hundreds of kilograms rose into the air. In an instant, they turned into small black dots and flew over the city head towards the city.
Shatuo soldiers surged in like a sea outside the city and smashed their heads. Big rocks smashed into the dense crowd. Countless soldiers were smashed into pieces. The boulders continued to roll forward and hit. Wherever the boulders passed, people were turned upside down and soldiers were injured or killed.
It was so disastrous that the siege ladder was also broken.
But the forty boulders were still too few compared to the 10,000-strong army, and they were like splashing waves that instantly returned to calm.
At this time, 10,000 soldiers raised their bows and raised their crossbows, and with a crisp banging sound, thousands of arrows were fired. The sky suddenly turned black, and dense arrows were shot toward the city. There was no need to aim at the target. The dense crowd was their target.
The leather armor on the Tuo soldiers could not block the sharp armor-piercing arrows. The soldiers fell one by one, and large vacancies appeared in the originally dense crowd. Compared with trebuchets, crossbows caused much more serious casualties.
At this time, Shatuo soldiers under the city also fired arrows upward, but the effect was not ideal. The Tang army soldiers were not standing near the crenellations of the city wall, but standing inside the city head and firing arrows.
If Shatuo's army shoots in a straight line, the arrows will be blocked by the city wall. If they shoot in a parabola, it is difficult to guarantee that the arrows will land on the top of the city. Even if a few arrows land on the top of the city, they will have almost no impact on the Tang army due to the lack of downward momentum.
No lethality.
However, the Tang army's crossbows and arrows had reduced potential energy and were extremely powerful. The crude armor of the Shatuo soldiers could not withstand it at all. A few soldiers had shields, which was also of no avail. Two rounds of arrows killed more than 3,000 people, plus the weight of the boulder.
Smashing and colliding, Shatuo's army had just attacked the moat and suffered more than 30% casualties. Their morale was no longer as fierce as before. Many people began to hesitate. Many people already wanted to retreat, but they were unable to retreat. They were dragged forward by the army.
Rush away.
Zhu Xie Jinhai's eyes turned red. He saw that the army's attack was starting to slow down and the murderous intent had subsided. He immediately ordered: "The third army will follow the attack!"
The Shatuo Army has a total of six armies, each with 5,000 men, forming a black carpet. Except for the sixth army, which is an auxiliary army and is responsible for controlling the trebuchet, the other five armies are the main force.
The third army of 5,000 men, led by Lieshan Alu, the commander of ten thousand men, marched towards Zhangye City.
Lieshan is a mountain in the north of Yiwu. The Shatuo tribe at the foot of the mountain takes Lieshan as its tribal name. The nobles in the tribe are all named Lieshan. These five thousand people are the army of Lieshan tribe, and Lieshan Alu is the chief.
Brother of Lieshan Qingyuan.
A series of siege ladders were set up on the top of the city. The brave Shatuo soldiers climbed up the ladders. What greeted them were rolling logs and rocks. "Get out of the way!" a captain shouted, and only a dozen Tang Army soldiers were seen carrying them.
Carrying a huge stone weighing three thousand kilograms and resembling a fist, he walked towards the city. The soldiers moved out of the way, and everyone shouted and lifted the huge stone onto the battlements.
There were more than thirty people climbing the siege ladder below. The leader, the captain, was almost approaching the top of the city. He suddenly found a huge boulder appearing above his head. He was frightened out of his wits. He yelled, turned over and jumped into the moat. This was
His reaction was sharp, but the soldiers below were not so lucky. When the boulder hit them head-on, they realized that they all let out desperate screams.
The boulder slid down the siege ladder, and more than thirty Shatuo soldiers were wiped out. The boulder fell to the ground, and rolled from the crowd into the moat. On the spot, more than twenty people were crushed into pulp.
Blood splattered everywhere, and it was so horrific that the soldiers of the Tang Army took advantage of the situation and pulled up the siege ladder and pulled it up to the top of the city.
The same battle situation occurred near each siege ladder. The Tang army's hail-like rolling logs and rocks caused extremely heavy casualties to Shatuo's army, and the flying boulders overhead rolled in the air, and the sharp bows and arrows like dense rain could not be fired.
After stopping, Guo Song transferred another 3,000 crossbowmen to supplement the crossbow soldiers at the top of the city, bringing the number of troops at the top of the north city to 15,000 and 8,000 crossbowmen.
In less than an hour, Shatuo's army suffered more than 6,000 casualties. Still no one could attack the city. The soldiers could no longer withstand it and began to retreat.
Several captains of ten thousand men tried to persuade Zhu Xiejinhai, "Commander, the casualties are too great. If this continues, the entire army will be destroyed. Let the soldiers withdraw!"
Zhu Xie Jinhai was filled with hatred, but had no choice but to give the order: "Send my order and the entire army retreats!"
‘Dang! Dang! Dang!’ The retreat bell rang again.
If the attacking soldiers were granted amnesty, they fled back desperately. For a time, they were defeated like a mountain. The army slowly retreated and returned to the camp. The casualties of the 15,000 soldiers finally reached 7,000, plus more than 1,000 yesterday.
As well as hundreds of casualties from trebuchets, the Shatuo Army's casualties reached 8,500 in two days, which was extremely heavy.
Hundreds of Tang soldiers climbed the rope ladder down to the city. They cleaned the battlefield. Generally, those who were slightly injured fled back to their positions. The soldiers who could not escape were all seriously injured and died not long after the war ended. The Tang soldiers confiscated their military badges.
The corpses were piled up one after another, put on dry firewood, poured with kerosene, burned and then buried. Black smoke suddenly billowed on the battlefield.
The top of the city was also very busy. The militiamen quickly carried the injured soldiers down to the city on stretchers for treatment. The exhausted soldiers sat against the wall. Although the enemy attack was repelled, the soldiers were too tired to celebrate. What's more,
There is a bigger war waiting for them later.
Groups of strong women pushed carts into the city. The carts were filled with baskets of meat pies and vegetable soup, and were distributed to the soldiers for lunch.
Guo Song stood in front of the collapsed tower and watched hundreds of soldiers clearing away the remains of the tower. After a while, the remains of the tower were completely cleared away. It was hard to imagine that this was originally a tower.
At this time, Yao Jin hurriedly came over to report, "Commander, the latest statistics are out. We don't know the injured enemy soldiers, but there are a total of 5,344 corpses of enemy soldiers killed in action. Including the soldiers who escaped with minor injuries,
The total number of casualties reached **thousand people.”
"Where are our casualties?" Guo Song asked again.
"So far, 380 people have been killed and nearly 500 injured. The total number of casualties is about 900."
Guo Song nodded, he was satisfied with the casualties. It was estimated that when the war was over, the casualties would be around 2,000.
"Captain, will the enemy attack again?" Yao Jin asked worriedly.
Guo Song smiled and said: "Zhu Xie Jinhai is our old opponent. He has been working tirelessly to suppress us in Beiting. This person has a rather paranoid personality and will never give up once the decision is not achieved, and he cannot suffer losses, so
I believe he will never give in."
After a pause, Guo Song smiled at Yao Jin again and said, "It can be said that this fish has been hooked!"