The warmth of spring and the blooming of flowers are originally a pleasant and anticipated season, but spring in Shazhou is full of clouds of war.
A Shatuo army of 20,000 men entered Shazhou on a sunny morning.
This army is still commanded by Zhu Xie Jinhai. Although Zhu Xie Jinhai was defeated at Zhangye City, he still has a high prestige in Zhu Xie's tribe. This time the 20,000-strong army went out, and more than half of the army came from Zhu Xie's tribe.
, naturally he will be the head coach.
Zhu Xiejinhai also swore in front of the Council of Elders and the Khan that he had learned his lesson and would never let the scene in Zhangye happen again.
He himself also wanted to wash away the shame of defeat. In the past two years, the shame of Zhangye's defeat had weighed on him like a mountain, making him extremely aggrieved.
The first goal of Shatuo's army is Shazhou. Of course, they also want to capture Suzhou, Ganzhou, and even Liangzhou, but right now Shazhou is the target they want to capture most. Shazhou is close to their home base, and the Tang army is in
The presence of Shazhou deeply disturbed them.
Only by capturing Shazhou and stabilizing the rear defense can Shatuo's army continue to move south and target Ganzhou.
Twenty thousand troops marched towards Dunhuang City in a mighty manner. They carried a large number of siege weapons, mainly siege ladders, but also included trebuchets, battering rams and a small number of nest cars.
Zhu Xie Jinhai's face was gloomy. Frankly speaking, he didn't like siege battles. The tragic defeat of Zhangye siege battle left a deep shadow on him. He just hoped that everyone could stand on the vast plains and fight happily.
However, the Tang army preferred to defend the city, which made him extremely unhappy.
"Ye Hu, why hasn't the information about Dunhuang City come out these days?" asked a captain.
Zhu Xie Jinhai snorted, "If we can rely on those wine sacks and rice sacks in the war, then what do we have to do?"
Having said that, Zhu Xie Jinhai was also a little worried. Will the spies he sent to lurk into Dunhuang City last autumn be destroyed by the Tang army?
"Speed up and try to reach Dunhuang City tomorrow!"
Zhu Xie Jinhai gave an order, and the 20,000-strong army sped up and charged towards Dunhuang City in a mighty manner.
.........
Dunhuang City's 12,000-strong army is ready to fight. At the same time, 8,000 cavalry have also set off from Ganzhou and entered Suzhou, ready to assist Dunhuang City at any time.
As early as mid-January, Sogdian merchants in Zhangye, including historians, reminded Guo Song many times that Shatuo's senior officials had viewed the split of the Tang Dynasty as an opportunity and were likely to launch a massive attack on the Hexi Corridor.
To this end, the Hexi Army is also actively responding. In addition to transporting a large amount of food, kerosene, city defense trebuchets and other military camp materials to Shazhou, it also dispatched three special troops to support Shazhou, one is a firearms battalion, and the other is a heavy-duty army.
There is also a crossbow army, which is the inner guard battalion.
The strength of the internal guard battalion has increased to 1,000 people to fully prevent the intrusion of intelligence from external forces into Hexi. Wang Yue personally led 300 elite internal guards to arrive in Dunhuang City half a month ago and began to clear out the troops deployed by Shatuo in Dunhuang City.
spies.
At the fifth watch, three hundred internal guard soldiers and a thousand Tang troops surrounded the Yizhou Inn located in the south of Dunhuang City. They obtained information from the Sogdians that this inn was run by the Shatuo people.
The inn covers an area of at least five acres, with a large area and many buildings. However, it was closed ten days ago, but the internal guards found that they were still purchasing large quantities of ingredients, which made people suspect that Shatuo was hidden in the inn.
spies.
The Shatuo army probably also wanted to seize Dunhuang City by cooperating inside and outside. After all, this was the least costly way to siege the city.
The Tang army did not take immediate action. The soldiers of the Internal Guard were still exploring the possibility of a tunnel. At this time, a soldier ran forward and said to Wang Yue: "General, there is indeed a tunnel. We have found the tunnel exit."
The tunnel exit was located in the woodshed in the backyard of the tavern next door, and was covered by a wooden board. This meant that the tavern next door was also owned by the Shatuo people. They almost missed it, and five hundred people immediately surrounded the tavern.
When everything was ready, Wang Yue made an attack gesture, and dozens of internal guards jumped onto the wall.
At this moment, dozens of arrows were suddenly shot from a room. Several soldiers were unable to dodge and were hit by the arrows.
The king became more and more angry and ordered: "Throw the fire oil jar!"
The soldiers threw thin-skinned clay pots of kerosene into the room one after another. The pots shattered when they hit the ground. For a moment, kerosene overflowed inside and outside the house. At this time, a soldier threw a lit gunpowder stick in.
This is a gunpowder stick invented by the firearms battalion when developing fuses. Gunpowder particles are bonded to a short wooden stick with rosin resin. It basically has no explosive power, but its burning effect is excellent, stronger than kerosene arrows.
It has a large amount of fire and can burn quickly and for a long time. It was taken over by the Internal Guard Battalion and became the arson weapon of the Internal Guard Battalion. In fact, not only the Internal Guard Battalion was interested in it, but the Ordnance Department was also interested in it and produced a large amount of gunpowder.
Arrows have replaced rockets.
The gunpowder stick suddenly ignited the kerosene, and the room burned rapidly. Dozens of Shatuo spies hiding in the room were so frightened that they fled one after another. The inner guard soldiers who were ambushing on the wall fired a volley of arrows, and the Shatuo spies screamed and fell to the ground.
.
At this time, the inner guard soldiers broke open the door and entered.
Not long after, the soldiers pulled out the innkeeper. He was the secret stakeholder left behind in Dunhuang when the Shatuo people were defeated and withdrew by Tibet, and he was also the intelligence chief of Shazhou.
His face was covered with blood, and one of his ears was cut off. The shopkeeper was so frightened that he kowtowed repeatedly, "I said...I said, I just want to spare my life."
"Tell me! Apart from your inn, where else can I find Shatuo Neiying?"
"Kandal's house in the east of the city also has twenty Shatuo soldiers hidden in his house."
"anything else?"
"No, I have forty people here, and the Condal family has twenty people, a total of sixty people."
"There should be a hundred people in total!" Wang Yue said coldly.
"No! No! There are only sixty people in total. Originally there were only forty people, and twenty more people came before the snow started, following Condal's caravan."
Wang Yue threw him aside and asked: "How is the situation?"
"It's over. More than 30 people were shot and killed. Several others were hiding in the tunnel and were burned to death by us."
"How many people are there in total?" Wang Yue asked again.
"A total of forty internal agents and five associates, who were also their people, were killed."
Wang Yue waved his hand, "The first battalion will stay to put out the fire and clean up the items. The rest of the brothers will follow me!"
He immediately led 250 internal guard soldiers and 500 Tang army soldiers to rush to the east of the city, and soon surrounded the residence of Sogdian merchant Kondar.
The internal guards didn't have too many worries, they just broke open the door and went in...
At dawn, the fire in the inn had been extinguished, and General Yao Jin came to the scene to learn about the situation last night.
"There are a total of sixty Shatuo spies, actually sixty elite soldiers. Their task is to open the city gate at night and let the Shatuo army enter the city."
Yao Jin felt annoyed. This was their best attack method, but the other party had learned it and sent people to place it in the city in advance. If they were not discovered, the consequences would be disastrous.
At this time, Zheng Enping, a general who participated in the encirclement and suppression of the inn, whispered to Yao Jin: "I used a gunpowder stick for the first time last night. It is very easy to use and has a strong burning ability, which far exceeds that of a rocket!"
Yao Jin nodded. He had looked down upon gunpowder weapons before, but now he realized that he should get to know gunpowder weapons again.
The Firearms Camp is located in the northwest corner of Dunhuang City. This place was originally the City God's Temple. After the Town God's Temple was abandoned, it became overgrown with weeds and overgrown with rats and snakes. However, the land was very large, covering an area of fifty acres, and it was used by the Firearms Camp as a
Test site and development site.
Surrounded by high walls, Yang Jun accompanied Yao Jin, Wang Yue and more than a dozen generals to the testing site. Last night's gunpowder stick combat made many generals in the army interested in gunpowder weapons.
On the testing ground, there is a nest car that has doubled in size. Except for its slightly smaller size, it is no different from the official nest car. Several donkeys are pulling the nest car and it is moving slowly, gradually approaching a city wall.
When there were still more than ten steps away from the city wall, a tall and strong soldier on the city wall accurately threw a porcelain fire mine weighing about 20 kilograms into the nest car. The nest car exploded, and the top was blown to pieces.
, a dozen straw men were blown out, and iron nails shot out from the porcelain bottle.
The generals understood immediately and applauded together. Yang Jun said to everyone: "The key to this tactic is to seize the opportunity. When the nest chariot has not approached the city wall, throw the fire thunder into it. Since it cannot kill the opponent, the burst out
The poison nails are enough to kill the soldiers inside, and the top of the nest cart is surrounded by baffles, so the poison nails cannot harm the defenders on the city head."
Yao Jin asked: "Can kerosene also work? When we attacked Xue Yantuo in Fengzhou, we used kerosene to deal with Chaoche, and the effect was good."
Yang Jun smiled slightly and said: "The disadvantage of kerosene is that it easily falls into the bottom of the nest car, and our porcelain fire mine is basically guaranteed to explode on the top of the nest car. Of course, there is a difficulty here, which is the timing of throwing.
, if the throw is too late, the porcelain bottle will explode in advance, which will damage the city wall, so it must be operated by soldiers from the firearms battalion. They have undergone strict training and can basically do it without fail!"