At the same time, 20,000 Tibetan troops arrived at Qiuci City and began to launch an attack on Qiuci City.

Qiuzi City was rebuilt by the Tang army in the third year of Tianbao, all of them were repaired after cutting with Tianshan boulders, the city was tall and strong, although there was no moat, but it was strong and the city wall and city gate also made it very difficult for the enemy to attack.

What's more, for more than 20 years, the Anxi Tang army has defeated countless attacks by the Tubo army, accumulated rich experience, and has enough confidence, strong fighting spirit, high morale, and a large amount of booty supplies brought by Guo Song have also greatly improved the soldiers' food and physical strength.

'Boom! Boom! Boom! ’

As soon as the morning dawned, the 5,000 Tuyuhun army launched its first attack, the dust was flying, the drums were rumbling, and the 5,000 soldiers carried more than 20 siege ladders to the south like a tide.

At the head of the city, thousands of Tang troops were waiting for them, and Guo Xin shouted sharply, "Crossbowmen are ready!" ”

Three thousand crossbowmen were half-kneeling on the ground, and the crossbows were raised high, pointing at the sky at an angle of forty-five degrees, and at this time, the five thousand enemy troops were getting closer and closer, and they had already entered the range of 100 paces.

"Launch!"

Guo Xin gave an order, and three thousand crossbow arrows rose into the air like a dark cloud, moving instantly, shooting towards the dense crowd under the city, and the Tuyuhun soldiers fell to the ground one after another, and hundreds of people were killed and injured in one round of crossbow arrows.

But the bow and crossbow could not stop the enemy's offensive rhythm, the surging enemy army killed under the city wall, a siege ladder hooked the city head, thousands of Tuyuhun soldiers climbed to the city head like ants, the Tang army firmly controlled the city head, and the two armies launched a fierce battle on the city head.

Arrows rained down the city, the Tang army shot the enemy on the ladder from the side, and the Tuyuhun soldiers shot at the city head from below, and the Tuyuhun soldiers were constantly hit by arrows, screaming and rolling down from the siege ladder, and the Tang soldiers were constantly shot by arrows, and the fierce battle between the two sides gradually became white-hot.

"Boom! Boom! Boom! ”

The drums of the Tubo coalition army sounded again, and the Tubo commander invested another 5,000 Tuyuhun troops to attack the city from the east city wall, led by Murong Bianlin, the commander of Tuyuhun himself.

The 1,500 reserve Tang troops in the city quickly entered the battle of the eastern city wall, and Guo Xin transferred another 1,000 men from the southern city to support the eastern city wall.

If at this time, the commander of Tubo invested another 5,000 troops to attack the west city wall, the Tang army would be in danger, but Xianglungui did not give the order to attack the west city wall, not that he could not think of it, but they were limited by siege weapons, and half of the hundred siege ladders they carried had been invested, and he could not bet all his capital on today's tentative attack.

The offensive and defensive battles on the east city wall also quickly became fierce, there was no moat to block it, and more importantly, the Tang army did not have heavy defensive weapons, so that the enemy army directly killed under the city and began a crazy attack.

The siege lasted for two hours, the casualties of the Tuyuhun army gradually became heavy, and the Tang army also paid a lot of casualties, but the city was never captured, and the Tuyuhun soldiers killed the city several times, but they were all wiped out by the Tang army.

Murong Bianlin, the main general of Tuyuhun, finally discovered that this was a trap, and the Tang army deliberately let dozens of people kill the head of the city, and then cut off their retreat, and the soldiers who were lying in ambush quickly surrounded dozens of soldiers who attacked the head of the city, annihilating them all.

This trap has happened dozens of times, killing thousands of people, in the final analysis, it is because they have invested too little in the siege ladder, giving the Tang army the opportunity to take advantage of this shortcoming.

At that moment, the bell for the withdrawal rang, 'Dang! While! While! ’

The Tuyuhun soldiers retreated like a tidal wave, and they retreated with only ten siege ladders, and the loss of siege ladders amounted to forty.

On the first day of the tentative assault, the Tuyuhun army suffered heavy losses of nearly 4,000 men, while the Tang army also suffered nearly 500 casualties.

At the head of the city, several logistics teams composed of women were busy bandaging the wounded, bringing tea and water to the soldiers, and bringing hot meals and dishes, while some soldiers were burying the corpses and sorting out weapons and supplies.

Guo Xin inspected the city, and a general whispered to him: "It seems that the other party is not fully prepared, and there are not many siege ladders." ”

Guo Xin also discovered this problem, he nodded and said: "All kinds of resources in Tubo have been sent to the west of the Green Ridge, and the craftsmen have almost sent them away, and these siege ladders have been desperately produced in the past two months, so they did not attack the city on a large scale today, but they were subject to the lack of siege ladders." ”

At this time, the chirping of the eagle came from the sky, Guo Xin looked up, it turned out to be Guo Song's fierce son, the fierce son folded his wings and landed in front of Guo Xin, standing on a battlement with a reluctant face, looking at Guo Xin coldly, it was obvious that he was deeply dissatisfied with the fact that he was temporarily arrested.

Guo Xin saw that there was a thin tube tied to the eagle's legs, and hurriedly stepped forward to remove the tube, and as soon as he took off the tube, the fierce son spread his wings and flew away, no longer paying attention to Guo Xin, Guo Xin wanted to ask it to reply again, it was unlikely.

Guo Xin slowly unfolded the eagle letter, which was written by Guo Song, in which he proposed a plan to destroy the enemy's grain and grass logistics, and at the same time, Guo Song had led his army to expel the Tuyuhun herdsmen in Puchanghai and the Mohe River.

Guo Xin was silent for a while, he was very clear about Guo Song's intentions, but Guo Song obviously didn't know much about the situation in Anxi, the Tubo army attacked Qiuci City, and never withdrew because of lack of food, Tubo occupied a large number of pastures in Anxi, and these pastures must unconditionally supply sheep to the army, including Qiuci's pastures.

Guo Song may have thought that the Tibetan herdsmen would secretly hide their sheep, but in fact, there were Tibetan officials stationed in each pasture, and how many cattle and sheep were recorded, and anyone who dared to hide them would be executed.

The reason why the Tubo people carried a small amount of grain to attack Qiuzi was that because they had enough cattle and sheep to use as military food, they were really short of military food, and they could send an army to loot Yanji City, which was 300 miles away, so food was never a problem, on the contrary, the real weakness of the Tubo people was the lack of siege weapons.

However, it was a wise decision to drive out the Tuyuhun herdsmen of Puchanghai and the Mohe River, which could shake the military morale of the Tuyuhun soldiers, and if the Tubo commander did not handle this matter well, it would seriously affect the combat effectiveness of the Tuyuhun soldiers.

Guo Xin has dealt with the Tubo people and the Tuyuhun people for many years, and he is very aware of the subtle contradictions between the Tubo people and the Tuyuhun people, the Tubo army regards the Tuyuhun people as slaves, never considers their life or death, occupies so many pastures in Anxi, and only symbolically gives the Tuyuhun people a little bit of land, and the Tuyuhun people have been dissatisfied with the Tubo for a long time.

"Dashuai, the eagle flew away just now, and we haven't passed the news to Guo Changshi yet!"

"Don't tell him, he knows what to do!"

Guo Song did not attack the Tubo army easily, and with this alone, Guo Xin was enough to rest assured of Guo Song's actions on the periphery.

........

Guo Song led the army to return to Qiuci after expelling the Tuyuhun herdsmen, and the army stopped in a small military fort fifty miles away, which was a peripheral military fort built by the Anxi army, mainly to prevent the harassment of a small Tubo army, but when the Tubo army attacked, the garrison in the military fort would also withdraw to Qiuci City.

At night, Li Ji left the fort with a team of soldiers and went to Qiuzi City and Tubo Ranch to inquire about the news.

More than a dozen cavalrymen rode on two horses and galloped in the dark night, the night wind whistled in their ears, and the cavalry kept changing horses, and arrived at the Tubo pasture at the foot of the Tianshan Mountains at dawn.

In fact, Guo Song was not sure whether the sheep in the Tubo pasture would be transferred, and his assumption was that the Tubo herdsmen would only leave a small part of the sheep on the basis that this basis was overturned, but his conclusion that the Tubo army was short of food would be meaningless.

At this time, the sky was not yet bright, they were immediately on the undulating foothills and grasslands, and the soldier leading the way was Xie Tianshan, who was temporarily seconded to the Eagle Strike Army by Li Ji because he knew the Tibetan language, Xie Tianshan was very familiar with the surrounding environment, even if he marched at night, he would not lose his way.

"In front is the pasture of the Tubo people, and that path is the road from the pasture to Qiuzi City!"

As soon as Xie Tianshan's words fell, a rush of horses' hooves faintly came, breaking the early morning tranquility, and I saw a man wearing a Tibetan costume riding a horse hundreds of steps away.

Li Ji immediately made a decision and said to several soldiers: "Arrest this person!" ”

Several Tang soldiers galloped away, and they quickly found a bush and pulled up two tripwires.

The man didn't find the Tang army, he urged the horse to gallop, the war horse was caught in the rope, let out a long neigh, and fell to the ground, and the man immediately fell two feet away, he was just about to get up, but was firmly pressed to the ground by two Tang soldiers.