At the time of the two watches, the 20,000 Shatuo army waited quietly in Dunhuang City several miles away, this is the time when the Shatuo army and the city should be agreed, and the two watches were marked by ignition, and the soldiers would open the city gate.

The hour has come, the city suddenly ignited a fire, the city gate opened, revealing the dark city hole, someone waved desperately at the city gate, Zhu Xie Jinhai was overjoyed, and shouted: "Kill into the city!" ”

Two thousand vanguard cavalry suddenly launched and rushed towards the city gate, seeing that they rushed to the city, but the city gate was suddenly closed, and the cavalry reined in their horses, and at this moment, the city suddenly burst into flames, and a bang sounded, and ten thousand arrows were fired at the city, and the arrows shot at the cavalry below like a storm.

Two thousand cavalry could not dodge, instantly shot down by the arrow, the rear cavalry was so shocked that they turned around, followed by the second round of arrows, the casualties of the Shatuo soldiers were extremely heavy, the lucky escapees beat the horses and galloped, at this time, the city gate opened, from the city to kill countless soldiers, the wounded and not dead Shatuo people were all killed, hundreds of horses were brought back.

In the distance, the main army that had just been launched was stunned, and they stopped one after another, seeing that only more than 400 people had fled back, and the losses were more than 1,500 people.

Zhu Xie Jinhai hated it so much, he thought he was clever and wanted to cooperate with the outside, but he was seen through by the Tang army, and he suffered heavy casualties.

But now it was the middle of the night, and he had no choice but to order with hatred: "Retreat to the camp!" ”

.........

Shatuo army finally killed under Dunhuang City, Shatuo camp deployed in the south of Dunhuang City three miles away, a big tent appeared overnight, the war drums rumbled, the horn echoed on the earth, but Shatuo army did not attack, after a day's rest, the lights in the Shatuo camp at night were like day, craftsmen and soldiers installed nest carts and trebuchets overnight.

In the early morning of the third day, with the sound of a low trumpet, the army of 10,000 Shatuo began to line up in the field.

The infantry was densely packed, carrying long siege ladders and eagerly attempting to make a move, while the cavalry was murderous, and above their heads, banners flew and spears were like a forest.

This time, the Shatuo army learned the big loss of not having a shield when attacking Zhangye, and they also improved, but it was limited to national strength, and each Shatuo soldier held a leather shield, although it could not be compared with the shield of the Tang army, but it could also resist the damage of arrows to a certain extent.

Zhu Xie Jinhai looked at Dunhuang City coldly, Shatuo had occupied Dunhuang City, he was very aware of the weakness of Dunhuang City, that is, there was no moat, which brought great convenience to Shatuo's army to attack the city.

They even brought a battering ram for this, capable of directly breaking down the walls.

"Qi Yu Ye Hu, everything is ready!"

Zhu Xie waved his sword, pointed at the city wall and shouted: "Attack!" ”

'Woo-woo-'

The trumpet of the attack sounded, and the eight thousand Shatuo infantry marched in two phalanxes toward the wall, with twenty trebuchets at the front, which creaked and came to a halt when they had reached two hundred and fifty paces.

This time, the Shatuo army attacked Shazhou without the support of the Hui people, Shatuo people could not make a giant trebuchet, they only had ten large trebuchets in their warehouse, the range of this trebuchet was slightly shorter, although it could shoot fifty catties of stones to three hundred steps away, but fifty catties of stones did not mean much, they replaced them with seventy or eighty catties of stones, and the range was shortened to two hundred and fifty steps.

The 10,000 troops behind also stopped moving forward, twenty trebuchets were suddenly launched, and twenty large stones flew away, shooting towards the city, the soldiers on the city head had already been prepared, and they had their backs to the city wall, and important materials were also close to the city wall, such as gunpowder porcelain bottles, oil clay pots, etc., this time the Tang army bet on gunpowder and oil, which was destined to be a war of blood and fire.

When a boulder strike was over, a thousand heavy crossbow soldiers immediately raised their heavy crossbows to fight back, this time using gunpowder arrows, and the paper powder cartridges tied to the front of the shafts were not cannons, but strong incendiary agents, which were effective in causing damage to the enemy's trebuchets.

The soldier lit the arcore with a fire breaker, and when the arverbus burned to a red dot, the heavy crossbow was fired, and a thousand heavy crossbow arrows smoked and shot at the enemy trebuchet.

The trebuchets were hit by arrows, 'Boom! The rocket burst into flames, and the soldier operating the trebuchet had never seen it, so he turned around and ran away, and the three trebuchets began to smoke and catch fire, and the other trebuchets did not catch fire, but the belts that tied them burned off, causing the trebuchet to fall apart.

A few years ago, in Zhangye City, a thousand heavy crossbow arrows destroyed three giant trebuchets, and this time with the blessing of gunpowder, a thousand gunpowder arrows actually damaged eight trebuchets at one time.

Zhu Xie Jinhai, who was watching the battle from a distance, was also startled, what kind of weapon did the Tang army use?

At this time, a soldier picked up a powder arrow that did not burn, and when it hit the speculation stone, it shook violently, and the fire rope fell off, and the rocket did not ignite.

Zhu Xie Jinhai took the gunpowder arrow, raised it and looked at it carefully, a lot of small black particles flowed out of the arquebus hole, like the size of a sesame seed, and the generals looked at each other, no one knew what it was?

At this time, the second round of gunpowder arrows came again, and seven more trebuchets collapsed, and Zhu Xie Jinhai slammed the gunpowder arrows to the ground and cursed, "Useless!" ”

He roared, "Infantry attack!" ”

He no longer cared about the gunpowder arrows, and they could burn, but the power was no more, and he ordered the army to press on them and attack the city directly.

Eight thousand Shatuo soldiers rushed to the city wall like a tidal........

Three nest carts marched at the front of the attacking team, followed by a large group of Shatuo soldiers behind the nest body, and dozens of healthy cattle dragged them in front.

The nest car is the most powerful siege weapon of the nomads, especially the absence of a moat in Dunhuang, which is more conducive to the play of the nest car.

With a high-pitched shout, the nest car got closer and closer to the city wall.

At this time, the city also began to deploy for the nest car, and the three most experienced firearms battalion soldiers were ready, they were specially trained throwers, one in a thousand, tall and burly, with thick arms, strong and powerful, able to throw a twenty-pound porcelain fire mine several feet away, and very accurate.

At the same time, there were thirty trebuchets on the head of the city, this kind of trebuchet is not big, the throwing rod is only one zhang and five feet, and there are wooden wheels below, which can be used to move, and can only be regarded as small trebuchets, they throw not stones, but fifty pounds of porcelain fire mines, which can throw porcelain fire mines to a hundred paces away, and the range is not as good as a bow and arrow.

But this is the first time that the porcelain fire mine has been put into the battlefield, the danger is quite large, if you are not careful, if the porcelain fire mine explodes at the head of the city, the surrounding Tang army soldiers will not be spared, so the soldiers who ignite and give the order are from the firearms battalion, let the soldiers who have not undergone strict training to ignite the fire, it is very likely that it will explode at one point.

It is precisely because of the special nature of the porcelain fire thunder that there is no order for unified launching, and everything is ordered by the ignition soldiers.

The Shatuo army entered the one hundred and fifty paces, the drums on the city were loud, the Tang soldiers shot arrows at the same time, 10,000 arrows shot to the city, the Shatuo soldiers running on the city raised their shields to greet each other, the 10,000 arrows were like locusts shooting overwhelmingly, the arrows sank with great force, the leather shield could not be stopped at all, and the soldiers fell down screaming.

But Zhu Xie Jinhai did not frown at all, these casualties were completely in his expectations, and they were also in his plan, and more importantly, these 10,000 soldiers were not from the Zhu Xie Division, but from other tribes, and the 1,500 cavalry lost the night before yesterday was the elite of the Zhu Xie Division, which made Zhu Xie Jinhai thunder.

"Keep urging the attack!" Zhu Xie Jinhai ordered.

'Woo-' The low sound of horns echoed over the heads of the Shatuo soldiers outside the city, and the horn of the attack sounded again.

Pushed by hundreds of soldiers, three nest carts were the first to reach the city walls.