Xue Yantuo's army arrived at Jiuyuan City at night, the gates of Jiuyuan City were closed, and the soldiers guarding the city wall heard the movement outside the city all night, felt that there were enemies walking everywhere, heard their roars and curses, they burned the houses built by the people outside the city, filled in the ditches, and cut down trees.

This time Guo Song did not spread tribulus thorns outside the city, and the last time Xue Yantuo's army suffered a big loss, this time the effect of repeating the old technique will not be too good, and the sequelae are very large, which will pose a huge threat to the production and life of the people of Fengzhou.

In the darkness, I don't know how many Xue Yantuo's troops came to the city, but in the morning, when the hazy morning light quietly descended on the fields of Fengzhou, the answer was revealed, a few miles west of the city, densely packed with white or black tents, like a swarm of mushrooms that grew overnight.

More than a dozen trenches dug by the Tang army outside the city were filled, and the entire Xicheng outside the city was flattened and cleaned up unusually smooth, which was very suitable for the advance of large wheeled siege weapons.

This is not a sound to attack the west, but a tactic on the table, Xue Yantuo's army wants to attack from the west, the Tang army has also made corresponding deployments, 6,000 combat soldiers are deployed on the city, rolling wood and stones are piled up on the city, and the twenty large trebuchets on the platform in the west city have been debugged and controlled by a thousand militia soldiers.

Five thousand crossbowmen were also deployed between the inner and outer cities, and their crossbows and arrows would deal a blow to the enemy within 50 paces of the city.

On the city tower, Guo Song looked at Xue Yantuo's army in the distance, and he said to several generals next to him: "Xue Yantuo's siege technique was learned from the Qarlu people, and the siege technique of the Qarluq people was learned from the arrogant cannibalism, so we must not underestimate the enemy." ”

Several generals bowed and saluted, "Please rest assured, you will never dare to underestimate the enemy!" ”

At this time, there was a rumbling war drum in the distance, everyone quickly walked down the city, went up to the outer city wall, only to see the Xue Yantuo army began to assemble a few miles away in the distance, Guo Song ordered: "Order the whole army to go to the city and prepare for battle!" ”

Hurried war drums rang out over the city, 'Boom! Boom! Boom! The Tang soldiers rushed to the outer city wall from all directions, and the crossbowmen and trebuchets quickly took their positions.

Banners were unfurled at the top of the city, six thousand soldiers lined up, spears glinting in the sun, and behind them were a thousand steel forkers and a thousand trebuchets to manipulate the soldiers.

The Tang army defended the city in a more disciplined manner, generally with a team of fifty people, fifty people, twenty spearmen, twenty archers and ten slingers, and then a team commander, they have undergone countless training, and the cooperation is very tacit.

'Uh-' A low trumpet sounded in the field, and an army of the Xue Yantuo people appeared, slowly rushing forward like a tide.

In fact, the strength of the Xue Yantuo people is not much, only 18,000 people, and the number of Tang troops in the city is similar, but they have to fight this battle, the grassland has always respected the weak and the strong, the strong are always strong, they had a fiasco in the autumn of the previous year, which seriously weakened Xue Yantuo's position on the grassland, and many small tribes that were originally attached to them began to lead the rats at both ends, and gradually moved closer to the gradually stronger Sijie Department.

Xue Yantuo Khan Xue Mantou was anxious to start a war to prove his strength, and between Lingzhou, Fengzhou and Sijie, he finally chose the weaker Fengzhou, where he fell, he got up from where he fell, this is the best way to prove himself.

However, Xue Manzi also made a mistake in this war that had not yet begun, he should not divide his troops, it was originally 22,000 people, of which 4,000 were divided, and as a result, 3,600 people were annihilated by the Tang army's concentrated forces.

Xue Man had a headache and did not dare to divide his troops again, nor did he try to attack, but concentrated 18,000 troops to attack Xicheng with all his might.

"Siege preparation!"

The team dodged away, and from behind appeared six large wooden rollers, like large barrels with wheels on both sides, one zhang high and two feet five feet wide, called rollers, which were used to defend against arrows and trebuchets on the head of the city.

Three thousand archers stood under the wooden wheels, behind them were the eight thousand main forces carrying siege ladders, and behind them, there were faintly seen more than a dozen siege nest carts and battering rams as high as three zhang.

Xue Man's head sword waved, and he shouted loudly: "Attack!" ”

'Knock-knock-knock-'

The very rhythmic war drums sounded, and the six large wooden wheels were slowly pushed by the soldiers, and more than 10,000 Xue Yantuo soldiers rushed towards the city wall with murderous spirit.......

"Trebuchet ready!"

Liang Ju'er shouted, a thousand soldiers struggled to pull, the throwing rod containing the boulder was lowered little by little, and the iron box containing thousands of catties of boulder in the front section gradually rose.

This is the simplest self-weight trebuchet, just like a seesaw, the short end is thousands of pounds of boulders, the long end is the throwing rod, the top of the throwing rod is the throwing bag, which is loaded with a fifty pound of stone, the two ends are extremely unbalanced, but it all depends on dozens of soldiers to pull, so that the throwing rod gradually sinks, as long as the soldier lets go, the front section sinks, and the throwing rod throws the boulder out heavily.

The wooden wheel rolled, gradually approaching the city, the wooden wheel entered the three-hundred-step line, the red command flag waved, and Liang Ju'er shouted: "Launch!" ”

Twenty large trebuchets were fired at the same time, and twenty boulders were suddenly launched, 'Bang! Boom! Bang', twenty boulders flew out, cutting across the sky in curves, shooting straight at the dense crowd.

Xue Yantuo's soldiers scattered and fled in all directions, avoiding the stone empowerment, but there were still soldiers who could not escape, and were smashed by the boulder and broke their bones and tendons, and their brains burst out, and they died tragically on the spot.

'Boom! A large wooden wheel was struck, and the piece of wood shattered, smashing through a large hole.

But the boulder hit the wooden wheel did not stop it from advancing, nor did it hurt the archers hiding behind the wooden wheel, the boulder fell one after another, the casualties of Xue Yantuo's soldiers gradually increased, the Tang army polished the boulder to be relatively smooth, and after the boulder landed, it would rush forward by inertia for more than 20 steps before stopping, and most of the casualties were knocked down by the boulder.

At this time, the big wooden roller advanced to about one hundred and fifty steps away from the city wall, and the arrows on the city were raining down, and the three thousand Xue Yantuo archers hid behind the big wooden wheel, dodging the rain of arrows on the city, but there were still soldiers who were shot and fell to the ground screaming.

Soon, the rain of arrows on the head of the city became more intensive, and the crossbow arrows shot from the city converged into it, and at the same time, the big wooden wheel also entered the range of the bows and arrows of the Xue Yantuo people, and the three thousand Xue Yantuo archers took the big wooden wheel as a cover and released arrows to the city together, and the arrow rain on both sides formed a large dark cloud.

The arrows on the head of the city gradually decreased, and the main besiegers behind rushed up with shouts, holding spears in their hands, carrying siege ladders, and running all the way to withstand the dense rain of arrows, and people were constantly shot down, with heavy casualties.

But the besieging soldiers still rushed to the bottom of the city, set up ladders, and groups of Xue Yantuo soldiers struggled to climb up, and the rolling logs and stones above their heads fell like raindrops........

........

In the Chang'an Political Affairs Hall, the five prime ministers were sitting in danger, and the right minister Chang Gon passed a few copies of the impeachment book of the imperial history to everyone, "Everyone, please take a look!" This is the report of the overseer Chen Lun on the impeachment of Guo Song, the envoy of the Three Towns. ”

Yan Zhenqing opened the report and read it carefully, he sighed slightly in his heart, among the five major crimes of Guo Song, the second was to embezzle the special funds of the imperial court for the construction of the city wall, and he had long known that someone would use this matter to make a fuss.

On the impeachment letter are Guo Song's five major crimes:

First, without the permission of the imperial court, he privately reached an alliance agreement with the Sijie Ministry, which seriously exceeded his authority;

second, misappropriation of special funds of the imperial court for the construction of city walls;

thirdly, without the approval of the Ministry of Works, the city wall was increased without authorization, and the inner city wall was built at the same time;

Fourth, without the permission of the imperial court, the land was allocated without authorization, and the distribution standard was also self-made, which seriously exceeded the laws and regulations of the Tang Dynasty;

Fifth, without the approval of the Ministry of Households, they signed an immigration agreement with the victims of the disaster, turning them into immigrants, resulting in a large number of empty households in Shengzhou and Xiazhou.

Each one is highly targeted, each one is a blockbuster, if it is true, then no one can save Guo Song.

"Yan Xiangguo, you have been to Fengzhou to inspect, you should be familiar with these five impeachments!" Chang Gon's voice was full of provocation and looked at Yan Zhenqing and said.

Yan Zhenqing said calmly: "The second and third articles do have this matter, and I don't know about the other three." ”

Chang Gon sneered and said, "Do you know the other three or not, and don't dig into them, but since you know that he has committed the second and third crimes, why don't you explain it to the imperial court and remain silent to shield him?" ”

Yan Zhenqing said unhurriedly: "First of all, I don't think this is any kind of guilt, and of course I can't talk about covering it up, but I do admit that what he did was inappropriate, so I asked him to go through the formalities with the imperial court after the beginning of spring." ”

"This is obviously a serious violation of the rules, why does Yan Xiangguo still want to protect him, I don't understand, please explain!" Chang Gon's saliva almost sprayed on Yan Zhenqing's face.