An hour later, the camp of the Shatuo army has not yet been settled, the war drums are beating fiercely, an army of 3,000 people under the leadership of the general Zhu Xie Kangda rushed to the Tang army wall, this army is the servant army of the Shatuo people, there are Xue Yantuo people, there are Qiang people, there are Gaochang people, etc., there are no Shatuo people, they are actually cannon fodder, as the vanguard of the tentative attack, understand the details of the Tang army.

These 3,000 men did not have horseback and no large siege weapons, but only carried dozens of siege ladders.

On the city wall, Liang Wu looked at the enemy army attacking like a tide, and said to Guo Song: "Dudu, this Zhu Xie Jinhai doesn't really believe that our strength is weak, and he still wants to carry out a tentative attack!" ”

Yao Jin next to him shook his head and said: "It's not necessarily that I don't believe it, this must be their established plan, it's just acting according to the established plan!" ”

Guo Song said lightly: "Since they are tempting, we will also deal with it the same, pass on my order, trebuchets are not allowed to be fired, and the heavy crossbow army and heavy armored infantry will not participate in the battle for the time being, and this battle will be met by the first and second battalions!" ”

The Tang army quickly made adjustments, a large number of troops withdrew from the city, leaving only Liang Wu and Yao Jin on the north city wall to lead 4,000 troops, the other party wanted to test the reality of the Tang army, Guo Song decided to hide his strength, which is also his consistent strategy.

After he captured the Shatuo spies in Zhangye City, he sent an untrue information to the other party, the number of troops was small, and more importantly, the morale was low, and the generals were infighting, once Zhu Xie Jinhai confirmed the authenticity of the information from the tentative attack, he would inevitably make a risky decision in order to take Zhangye City as soon as possible.

'Boom! Boom! Boom! The drums of war were thrilling.

Three thousand soldiers came like a tide, and the main general Zhu Xie Kangda waved his sword and shouted: "The first one to rush to the head of the city will be rewarded with 5,000 sheep!" ”

Zhu Xie Jinhai watched every move in the city, he was a suspicious person, he didn't believe in the information from the city, and more importantly, the other party was Guo Song, Guo Song's cunning left a deep impression on him, he still didn't figure out how Guo Song returned to Ganzhou through the Hexi Corridor, he laid a net in Suzhou and Guazhou, and he didn't even see the shadow of the other party.

"Marshal, there doesn't seem to be a trebuchet on the city?" General Shalekhan said in a low voice.

Zhu Xie Jinhai shook his head, "Trebuchets can't be installed on the city wall of Zhangye, never have been, trebuchets and stone cannons don't have to worry, it seems that the bed crossbow is not installed, but I am more concerned about their combat effectiveness." ”

Arrows were fired at the head of the city, and two thousand archers fired from the east and west sides at the same time, and the two thousand arrows were very sparse for the nearly ten miles long north city wall, and the four thousand soldiers were even weaker.

The 3,000 soldiers suffered very few casualties, and soon approached the city wall, they used long planks to put up the moat, the army ran across the moat, dozens of siege ladders were erected on the city head, the large iron hook at the front directly hooked the city wall, and the Shatuo soldiers climbed the ladder frantically.

The Tang soldiers at the head of the city also quickly gathered around each siege ladder, arrows rained down, rolling wood and stones fell overhead, and the Shatuo soldiers were constantly smashed, screaming, and the casualties gradually increased.

Although the Tang soldiers condescended to occupy the advantage, the Shatuo soldiers also attacked very tenaciously, constantly being smashed over, and continued to have soldiers climbing, gradually approaching the city, both sides stabbed with spears, and fought fiercely for the city.

This fierce battle lasted for nearly an hour, the two sides were evenly matched, although the Shatuo army did not capture the city, but the Tang army was very difficult to defend, with the advantage of the city, but could not gain the upper hand.

Zhu Xie Jinhai finally understood that the Tang army's will to fight was not strong, and it seemed that the intelligence was correct, and the Tang army's morale was indeed low.

He immediately gave the order to withdraw the troops, "Pass my order, the siege army retreats!" ”

'When! While! While! ’

The bell for the withdrawal rang, and the Shatuo army, which was fighting hard, dropped more than a thousand corpses and retreated like a receding tide.

..........

That night, the Shatuo army set up a large camp in three miles outside the north city, thousands of big tents stretched for more than ten miles, the camp was brightly lit, hundreds of Hui craftsmen were assembling trebuchets, nest cars and other large siege weapons, if the Hui had support for the Shatuo people, then these Hui craftsmen were, the Shatuo people lacked skilled craftsmen, although the soldiers were brave, but the weapons were generally relatively crude, and there was no ability to make large-scale siege weapons.

The reason why the Hui people urged the Shatuo people to take the Hexi Corridor as soon as possible was not only out of revenge for the expulsion of the Tang Dynasty, but also because they were more worried that the Tubo people would capture the Hexi Corridor.

This time, Hui sent 500 craftsmen to the Shatuo people, and created hundreds of siege weapons in one winter, ranging from ordinary siege ladders to large siege nest vehicles, so that the Shatuo army had the ability to siege the city for the first time.

Zhu Xie Jinhai rode a horse to inspect the camp, and there was a shout in front of him, only to see a huge trebuchet standing up, wrapped in cowhide, like a huge monster in gold armor under the light of the fire, and it had been installed.

Zhu Xie Jinhai immediately stepped forward and asked, "Is this the trebuchet known as the King Kong Behemoth?" ”

The craftsman bowed down and said: "Hui Dashuai, this is the King Kong Giant Beast, from Samarkand, known as the largest trebuchet in the world, which can throw a hundred-pound boulder five hundred steps away. ”

"What is its weakness?" Zhu Xie Jinhai asked again.

"The first weakness is that it is bulky and requires hundreds of people to manipulate it, and the second is that it is not accurate."

Zhu Xie Jinhai nodded, it doesn't matter if the accuracy is not good, as long as it has a deterrent effect, he is full of expectations for this beast-like trebuchet in his heart.

........

The next morning, the drums of war sounded in the camp of the Shatuo army, and the troops were rapidly assembled, and the huge siege weapons began to move slowly.

Hurried alarm bells also sounded at the head of the city, and the soldiers of the Tang Army rushed out of the camp one after another and assembled at the head of the city.

In the big tent, Guo Song said to dozens of generals: "Today must be the Shatuo army to press the whole line, we must also go all out and do our best to kill and wound the enemy, this battle will be the beginning of our counteroffensive, now let's go!" ”

Dozens of generals saluted together, turned and walked out.

The Tang army also kicked off the prelude to the official counteroffensive, with heavy trebuchets rattling and pulling 13,000 soldiers running up to the northern city, with a clear division of labor, including ordinary crossbowmen, heavy crossbowmen, grenadiers, spearmen, fork soldiers and heavy infantry.

Guo Song also went to the northern city, standing at the head of the city and watching the enemy camp three miles away.

The army of Shatuo has been out of the camp, like a black ground spread on the flat ground, marching towards Zhangye City in a uniform manner, between the carpets is a huge siege weapon, there are trebuchets, there are nest cars, and a large number of siege ladders, one of which is an extremely large trebuchet is pulled by dozens of camels, at the end of the team slowly walked, its height even exceeded the city, like a huge giant beast lying on the ground crawling, daunting.

Liang Wu was surprised: "Dudu, do the Shatuo people actually have such a huge trebuchet?" ”

"It should be brought back from the river by the Uighurs."

Guo Song said lightly: "This giant trebuchet was invented by the big cannibal, called Saleh, and it was used in the war against Samarkand, and the Hui people got this trebuchet, they called it the King Kong Giant Beast, but King Kong may not be, the giant beast is real, and this giant beast can be shot with a heavy crossbow!" ”

The Shatuo army stopped advancing at a mile away from the city wall, lined up neatly, a trebuchet pushed forward, fifty speculative stones lined up in a row, the Shatuo army trebuchet is generally taller, except for the most powerful King Kong monster, the other trebuchets are also heavy trebuchets, and the range is also up to three hundred steps, but the structure is simple, the use of manpower is more, and the technical content is far inferior to the winch trebuchet of the Tang army.

However, due to the fact that the trebuchets of the Tang army were located in the city, which affected the firing range, they could not hit the enemy trebuchets, and could only rely on the heavy crossbows of the Tang army to deal with it.

Guo Song ordered: "Heavy crossbow concentrate on the target and shoot the enemy's largest trebuchet!" ”

A thousand heavy crossbows were aimed at the enemy's King Kong Behemoth, which was also within the range of the heavy crossbows.

At this time, the fifty trebuchets of the Shatuo Army were launched together, and dozens of boulders rose into the air, slashed through the sky, and shot intensively towards the head of Zhangye City.