Chapter 534: Trapping the City
It was almost dark, but the siege of Zhuyang Pass had fallen into the most cruel stage, with arrows above and below the city like a torrential rain, and a series of siege ladders were set up on the city wall in turn.
The ladder is the main equipment of the Sui army to attack the city, but its composition is quite simple, that is, the thick fir wood is chiseled through, so that several trees are firmly nailed together to form a wide and bulky whole, each piece is about one zhang wide, first put it on the well car, and then push it to the city, the rope is put down, and the car belt plate is inclined to the top of the city together.
The front row is erected to the top of the city, forming a slope that is difficult for humans to climb, but after a row is pressed on the top of the row, it will form a gentle overpass, of course, the Tang army will not watch the Sui army build, they use the shooting holes on the battlements to shoot arrows from both sides, and some soldiers put down the rolling logs, and when the first row of ladders is set up, some people try to push it away, but the ladders are bulky, and they are so heavy that they fall on the top of the city, it is really not a few people's strength to push away, not to mention that the Sui army has built several earth mountains outside the city long before the siege, the bed crossbow on top was aimed at the head of the city where the ladder was located, and it was so suppressed that the Tang army couldn't raise its head.
Although the Tang army has sufficient troops, it can't put many troops at the head of the city with limited space, and there are few people who can't push down the ladders.
It's okay to fall on the shield, at least it can reduce the power to a certain extent, but if it falls into the crowd, it can pierce people in an instant, and the most terrifying cross arrow as thick as a spear can cut off several people with a strong force.
But the Tang army was extremely brave, under strong pressure, with a city crossbow and a small catapult to fight back, although the crossbow formation could not be shot, but also caused great losses to the slave soldiers who built the ladder, a piece of boulder roared down from the sky, rolled in the crowd, flesh and blood flying, the screams resounded throughout the field, a well-erected ladder was hit by a boulder, the huge impact force made the 'car ladder' fall backwards, the ladder fell down heavily, the slave soldiers hiding behind the ladder smashed the flesh and blood, and the screams resounded throughout the field.
One after another boulders smashed into the crowd, the screams continued, and the huge fear also lowered the morale of the slave soldiers, and many people turned around to run, but Xue Wanjun had already prepared, and the three thousand Sui soldiers were holding Mo knives in the back to press the formation, and nearly a hundred slave soldiers who escaped from the big array were cut into pieces.
The slave soldiers were frightened by the terror of the Mo knife hand, and in desperation, they had to push the well cart forward, as the well cart moved forward, the bow and arrow battle between the two sides broke out, 10,000 Tang troops put arrows down on both sides of the city wall battlements, the Zhuyangguan city wall has an archery mouth, the soldiers took the battlements as a cover, and the crossbowmen shot arrows in the back, the slave army was dominated by the number of dense, the arrows on both sides were like dense rain, weaving a black arrow net in the sky, the slave soldiers suffered heavy casualties, and the Tang army in the Sui army's crossbow array suppressed the loss is also a lot, and people continue to be killed by arrows.
In the dense rain of arrows, the Turkic army began to cross the moat and approach the city wall, very much to the surprise of the Turks, the moat turned out to be without water, just a large trench two zhang deep and two zhang five wide, but there was no water in the moat, it was no longer meaningful to the Turkic army, they put up a wooden plank up to three zhang, so that the moat lost its defensive role.
At this time, dozens of subsequent shaft trucks carried a row of ladders, rumbled along the wooden paved road, and when they arrived at the position, they fell one after another on the front of the ladder. As each time it was farther away from the range of the Tang army, the casualties gradually decreased.
The overpass was built, and the slave soldiers climbed up like crazy, they held a shield in one hand, and fought fiercely with the Tang army with spears and knives in the other, and a log above their heads smashed down, and there were always countless soldiers screaming and falling down the ladder, but immediately people swarmed up.
The Tang soldiers used the shooting holes on the battlements to shoot arrows from both sides, the crossbow arrows were sharp, straight through the leather armor, and a string of slave soldiers on the siege vehicle were shot and fell, but soon, the slave soldiers did not pay attention to the Tang army above their heads, they protected the sides with shields, and the slave soldiers who were hit by the arrows gradually decreased.
At the head of the city, there were dozens of Tang troops and enemy troops fighting fiercely in front of each row of ladders, but although the slave soldiers besieging the city suffered heavy casualties, they were fierce and never flinched.
The battle became bloody and fierce.
Xue Wanjun stood on the high observation tower, watching the offensive and defensive battles, he saw the battle in front of him very thoroughly, although the slave soldiers suffered heavy casualties, but he knew very well in his heart that the situation was developing step by step in the direction he expected, it was normal for a large number of casualties on the besieging side, there was no war of the undead, not to mention that the dead were all aliens, he was not distressed at all.
In fact, in addition to the slave soldiers, Yang Tong also used his nationality to tempt the Turks and the young men of the Western Regions to come to fight spontaneously, and this is not the first time that this kind of thing has happened, Xue Wanjun knows very well what Yang Dong thinks, not only to save the pension, but also to use the war to consume the war potential of the alien race, how many young people are there in various ethnic groups outside the territory, Xue Wanjun is not clear, and he is too lazy to pay attention, but he knows that after the civil war, the young men of the alien race who are lucky to survive are all elite divisions, according to Yang Dong's conduct, these people will eventually join the Sui nationality, Becoming a member of the Great Sui no longer has the slightest relationship with other races.
At this time, Shi Jin rushed to the bottom of the tower and quickly climbed up, "General, the slave soldiers have suffered heavy casualties, and since the construction of the ladder, nearly 5,000 people have been killed and wounded. ”
Xue Wanjun asked coldly: "So what?" ”
"Ugh!" Shi Jin was stunned for a moment, and said, "The last general wants to ask, when will the trapping camp be up?" ”
"When it's dark! Good student preparation. ”
"Yes!"
Shi Jin responded excitedly and ran down quickly.
Xue Wanjun's gaze cast towards the dark distant mountains on the left and right sides of Zhuyang Pass, he knew that Gao Yan and Yu Zhan were also in his beacon fire.
He wanted to strike the final blow tomorrow morning, but the unusual movement of the Tang army forced him to move in advance. After such a long confrontation, the Sui army had already infiltrated Zhuyang Pass, and the Tang army was so powerful that it was impossible to evacuate without knowing it. At that moment, Xue Wanjun knew that the news of the destruction of the Nanxiang warehouse had reached Zhuyang Pass, and Li Shimin was afraid that the back road would be cut off, so he tried to escape by taking advantage of the night.
However, in his opinion, this is better than the original plan, because the Tang army retreats south, and there will be chaos in Guancheng, and Gao Yan and Yu Zhan can take this opportunity to stir up Guancheng into a pool of muddy water, providing a chance for the army to win on the frontal battlefield.
In fact, Xue Wanjun has already joined forces with Luo Shixin to fight and let him advance from behind, but Xue Wanjun does not want Luo Shixin to arrive too early in his heart, this is not a struggle for merit, but it is related to Xue Wanjun's dignity. Who is qualified to wear this divine gift of the 'Heavenly Killing Sword'? He had to break through Zhuyang Pass before Luo Shixin arrived.
At this point, Xue Wanjun pulled out Leng Sensen's Heavenly Killing Knife, the smooth knife body was covered with layers of pine grain patterns, delicate and beautiful, the blade reflected the distant firelight, if there was blood flowing, suddenly, with a wave of the sword, he ordered: "Pass my order, the army will attack again." ”
When the herald heard this, he immediately beat his drums vigorously.
The fierce war drums sounded again, and there were 5,000 slave soldiers along the overpass to enter the city, the fighting between the two sides was extremely bloody, the corpses piled up on the city head and the overpass, and the blood flowed like a river, not only the slave soldiers suffered heavy casualties, but the Tang army defending the city also suffered huge casualties.
There were constantly slave soldiers attacking the city, and Zhuyang Pass was in danger, but it was killed again and again by the Tang army, who was also red-eyed.
The battle fell into a stalemate above the city, and seeing that the sky was completely dark, Xue Wanjun finally gave the order to trap the city camp and replace the slave soldiers.
The Tang army, who was desperately resisting, suddenly felt the pressure relaxed, and saw that the slave soldiers who did not want to die jumped off the overpass and ran back, and they were immediately overjoyed and cheered loudly.
However, they didn't know that the slave soldiers were just Xue Wanjun's appetizer, and when the slave soldiers were empty, a rain of arrows poured from the top of the mountain.
"Puff puff!"
The cheers of the Tang army did not last long, the nightmarish rain of arrows had already shrouded in, those five-foot-long cross arrows with violent power slammed into the dancing hands, among the Tang army crowd celebrating the victory, hundreds of Tang soldiers did not even react, their bodies were torn apart, some were quite complete, but more people were torn apart by the huge force, in the blood mist in the sky, one after another screams could be heard, but this time, not to mention six or seven hundred Tang soldiers were swallowed by the giant crossbow.
The Tang army, who was lucky enough to escape, remembered that the Sui army still had this big killing weapon, and squatted down one after another to avoid this killing weapon, but after six rounds, the thrilling sound stopped, and the bold Tang army stretched out his head a little to watch, and suddenly, his eyes widened, and he shouted in unison, "Enemy attack." ”
At this time, the Tang army finally realized that the main purpose of the six rounds of giant arrows was to cover the Sui army that was attacking the city along the overpass.
Tang Jun knew that when the two armies were intertwined, the powerful bed crossbow would stop firing, and then there would be a battle of strength between the soldiers, and the chance of victory was great, so they stood up one by one to meet the enemy.
In front of Tang Jun's eyes, a heavily armored soldier covered in armor, the heavy armor wrapped the whole body tightly, only a pair of eyes were exposed, and they held a long knife with a blade on both sides of the five feet long, this heavy armored soldier was extremely heavy with every step, as if the earth was shaking.
"Shoot the arrows!"
And when the Tang army released arrows one after another, this heavy armored soldier suddenly accelerated up, they dragged the heavy war knife in one hand, and the other hand was horizontal in front of them, blocking their eyes, and the arrows fell on them, only making a 'dangdang' sound, which was not bounced away by the solid battle armor. When the first row of Sui troops rushed to the front of the city, they heard them shouting, and then the rows of swords in the Sui army flew up, and the long knives were erected like a forest, and the sword light was like a wall.
"Hah!"
An earth-shattering roar sounded in an instant, countless long knives were swung out towards the Tang Army, and nearly a thousand people moved in unison, and the snow bright sword light was like a round of sun flying on the ground, dazzling and murderous.
Nearly a thousand Tang troops were cut in two by them,
After this heavy armored soldier stabbed it, he attacked the city with firm steps, and every time the long knife in his hand was swung, the Tang army screamed and tore apart, and he died on the spot.
The Sui army looked at the Tang army in front of them as if it were nothing, and they entered like a wall, and those who touched it died.
This army is the Modao Army, which has been silent for several years!
The cost of a Mo swordsman is too high, even with the wealth of the Great Sui, it is only equipped with 40,000 people, they are distributed among the ten major army corps, and the amount is distributed according to the severity of the task in the theater, as one of the main forces of the civil war, the Sixth Army, Xue Wanjun obtained 6,000 Mo swordsmen, combined into the 'trapping camp' of the Sixth Army, while the Fourth Army of Liaodong and the Eighth Army of the Western Regions are only divided into two thousand people, and they also have their own nicknames.
Before the Great Sui military reform, there were more than 800,000 elite military forces, and the Mo knife hand was screened out at that time, and it was naturally the best of the best, carefully selected, and every Mo knife hand was a tiger's back and bear's waist, with hundreds of catties of strength on both arms, and good conduct and tenacity. Therefore, Mo Swordsman is worthy of being the elite of the Sui Army and the ace of the trump card! The status of this army in the Great Sui Army can even be compared with Yang Dong's Xuanjia Army.
Tall and mighty, with the power to move mountains and mountains, coupled with indestructible heavy armor and an incomparably sharp sword, he has reached one of the pinnacle of the era, and he does not need tactics at all when facing the enemy.
It's just a repetition of simple movements such as horizontal slashing, vertical slashing, and diagonal slashing.
Like a wall advancing, people are shattered!
This Mo sword array stood on top of the city, and with the footsteps slowly moving forward, countless Tang troops rushed forward and charged one after another, but it was like a torrent of embankment hitting the mainstay fiercely, and ended up with stumps flying sideways and blood gushing out.
The Mo Dao Army is famous outside the territory, rampant and unscrupulous, I don't know how many Hu people are broken in front of the Mo Dao Array, disemboweled, and countless corpses and blood have created the prestige of the Mo Dao Army, and they are miraculous and dormant in front of them!
However, it was unknown within the Great Sui, and today it was still the Mo Sword Formation on the battlefield of the Central Plains, revealing its hideous fangs for the first time. Every time you take a step forward, you can strangle hundreds of Tang troops under the knife.
Responsible for this round of defense is Li Shimin's general Wang Jun, he is Wang Junkuo's brother, brave and not weak brother, looking at the heavy armor soldiers advancing step by step, Wang Jun's heart is getting colder and colder, he understands, this is the Sui army heavy infantry, the weapon used is evolved from the horse chopping knife, not a new weapon, called the blade in the Central Plains, this kind of knife casting process is complex, the cost is extremely high, if it is not a top craftsman, it is still defective, and this knife is extremely heavy, so there are few people who use it, but today's Sui army will beat the blade, The combination of heavy infantry and heavy armor formed a powerful weapon, the heavy armor and the sword formation, which was simply a nightmare for the enemy.
Soon, the 'trapped city camp' had gained a firm foothold on the city, and the corpses had piled up half a man's height under his feet, with stumps and broken arms, and flesh and blood were blurred. The Mo swordsmen were divided into two and advanced to both sides, and the pikemen and crossbowmen attacked the city one after another, followed closely by the Mo swordsmen, and quickly formed a complete Mo swordsman formation, assisting the Mo swordsmen to expand the results of the battle.
"No retreat, another 5,000 people!" Wang Jun shouted hysterically. Constantly mobilize troops to replenish the critical place, but in the face of the complete Mo knife array, on the top of the narrow city, the Tang army could not stab the Mo knife hand no matter what method it used, but was killed by the other party step by step, and no matter how many troops were sent to death in vain.
At this time, a soldier suddenly shouted: "General, the Sui army has been killed from the mountain!" ”
Wang Jun looked up in amazement, and suddenly felt a chill, only to see that there were countless torches on the mountains on both sides of the city, like two long dragons killing the city below the mountain.
This was a scene that the Tang army did not expect in any case, but the crisis had already appeared, but the two mountains on the left and right of Zhuyang Pass were themselves part of the pass, separated by three city platforms, and Wang Jun was stunned at this time There were only dozens of soldiers on both sides of the mountain.
Wang Jun was stunned and anxious, and Li Shimin, the king of Jin, handed him 15,000 elites, and asked him to guard until the turn of Zichou, so as to buy time for the army to withdraw calmly, but now, the sky was just dark, but he lost the Guancheng, and what was even more fatal was that there were still an untold number of Sui troops from the slopes on the left and right sides of the Guancheng to kill the main force of the wounded soldiers in the city, and the whole city army was in the most chaotic time, how to resist the enemy who came from three sides?
All his current soldiers are thrown into the pass, and the Sui army that attacked the head of the city to fight, there is no way to draw soldiers to defend the city on both sides, seeing that the thousands of torches in the east are less than half a mile away from the city, the situation is already extremely critical, he had to shout to the deputy general Tian Liuan: "General Tian is in charge of the city!" ”
Before Tian Liu'an could respond, Wang Jun was stunned and personally led more than 100 guards to the east of the city.
When he ran to the city, the strange soldiers led by Gao Yan were close to him.
"Shoot the arrows!"
The condescending Gao Yan had already seen someone running over, and unceremoniously gave the order to release the arrow.
"Hum~"
The heavens and the earth were filled with a buzz for a moment, and the Tang army led by the stunned king poured down one after another with cold arrows, only to hear a series of muffled sounds mixed with screams, and the Tang army that rushed wildly crashed headlong into the rain of arrows like a jungle of death.
'When! While! When ......' Wang Jun stunned waved his knife to hit the arrows, and the shots flew one by one, but compared to the body as high as 1.8 meters, the horizontal knife was still too short, and he could protect the upper body, but the lower body could not take care of it, more than ten arrows all hit Wang Jun's legs, Wang Jun screamed, knelt on the ground, this gap, and more than a dozen arrows shot between his chest and abdomen, he used his strength to shout to the soldiers behind him: "Escape, go to ......"
Life slowly faded, Wang Jun fell to the ground in astonishment and died, without his blockade, the Sui army swarmed down the city, and finally a dozen soldiers turned around and fled, Wang Jun was stunned to let the personal guards who had been with him for many years go their own way, but the personal guards obviously misunderstood, they cried and shouted to the deputy general Tian Liuan: "General Wang is dead, let General Tian lead the troops to flee!" ”
This news hit Tian Liu'an's head like five thunderbolts, and at this time, the Tang soldiers couldn't stop the Sui soldiers from killing from three sides, and they retreated one after another.
"The city can't be guarded!" Tian Liu'an saw that the general trend had gone, so he had to sigh and order: "The whole army retreats!" Join forces with His Highness. ”
In the distance, Xue Wanjun saw countless Tang troops rushing down to the city under the firelight, and finally smiled reassuringly, he knew that his preset two-way surprise soldiers had succeeded, and with the strength of the city pass, he would not be able to do a three-line battle at all, and Zhuyang Pass was in hand.
Xue Wanjun coldly shouted: "Beat the drum!" ”
'Knock-knock-knock-'
The huge drum resounded through the heavens and the earth, like rolling muffled thunder across the sky, this is the order to fight to the death, and today can not take the city and will not stop the army.
————————————————————————
Yesterday, a book friend talked about the question of "population", which is actually quite easy to answer, the 50 million population at the peak of the Sui Dynasty is only the population counted by the imperial court, and it does not include the family members, slaves, and servants of the world's families, this kind of people are the property of the head of the family, which is equivalent to livestock. It is not on the household registration of the imperial court, they do not need to pay taxes, military service, and conscription to the imperial court, and the income from labor belongs to the head of the family, which is also one of the means of the rise of the family.
It is not all about buying and selling, but some people feel that under the big tree of the family, they seem to have no respect for everything, no different from livestock, but they can avoid the heavy burdens of taxes, conscription, military service, etc., and they can solve the problem of food and clothing as long as they work day after day. In the year of the great calamity, the slave had the help of the head of the household, and it was easier for the slave to survive than the commoner. In the war years, the family was the first target of all forces, their good land and beautiful houses were generally not greatly damaged, and most of the slaves who sheltered in the name of the family were spared the suffering of war, which was another reason why the people voluntarily became slaves. During the period of the Two Jin Dynasties and the Northern Dynasties, why did the family become more and more prosperous? It was they who had reaped the innumerable number of people and made the war money from wars that had lasted for hundreds of years, and the number of these slaves was staggering from generation to generation.
In the early Qianlong period, the population was about 130 million, and by the middle and late periods, the population was as high as a staggering 300 million. In terms of medical conditions at that time, life expectancy was generally not high, and newborn deaths abounded, but why did the population skyrocket in a short period of time? Many scholars believe that it was caused by the 'apportionment of the land system', the spread of this system, so that the object of the imperial court's taxation changed from population to land, and the family squeezed only labor from the slaves, and if it came to the disaster year, the huge population base became a heavy burden on them, so most of the slaves were released, and the relationship between them gradually changed from the master-servant system to the employment system.
According to historical records, before the Qing Dynasty, there were about 70 million people in the largest period, but this was still the population recorded in the household registration of the imperial court, and the servants of the family were not counted. So much so that many scholars believe that as early as the Han and Tang dynasties, the population far exceeded 100 million. So about the source of the 'Li Tang' troops, it's really not nonsense. In fact, there are many such papers and materials, and interested friends can check them out.
There are still many people who say that not to engage in muskets and gunpowder is sick and pitted, so I'm sorry, there are some principles that I will stick to, and my books will never appear in this thing; If you don't like it, there are a lot of masterpieces on the platform that satisfy your hobby, so please move to another country as soon as possible.
In the past few days, people have been talking about my hydrology, but I don't think so, it's just that the level is limited, and I can't write wonderful stories, which really disappoints everyone. But it's all said to be hydrological, how can you do it if you don't have water? Just use this large section of black and black friends 5, 4, 3 points of coins, otherwise how can you be worthy of the word 'hydrology'? Right!
In fact, before the book was established, it was preset at about 180W words, and a few days ago I looked at the contract and found that it said 200W, if you can't write 200W words, it is a violation of the contract, and you really have to investigate it, and you can't afford to pay for the bankruptcy, although for me, the author of the servant street, this possibility is infinitely close to zero, but people are middle-aged, and they are really afraid of this; So, 200W words must be there, but if you ask me to write 300-400W, I can't write it.
vertex