"No, it won't!" Liu Wuzhou listened to Song Jingang's analysis and was also stunned. He hurriedly said: "On the front line of the Long'men Pass, our army has stationed 30,000 troops, and strictly guards the Yanjin Ferry, as soon as the Tang army's small boat goes down the river, it will be smashed and sunk with trebuchets, and the Tang army will never be able to force the crossing." Moreover, the ships on the Yellow River had already been collected by us and burned on the east bank, could the Tang Army still have wings and fly over? ”

"It's true that the Tang army can't fly over, but they don't necessarily have to cross the river from the Yanjin Ferry, they can detour downstream!" Song Jingang sighed.

"Circumambulating the river? It can't be! Liu Wuzhou shook his head again and again after hearing this: "There is not a single ferry within two hundred miles upstream and downstream of Yanjin Ferry, and there are ravines on both sides of the riverbank, and the terrain is dangerous. It would have been possible if a small force had swam across the river. In the absence of ferries, it is impossible for a large army to swim across the Yellow River! ”

"The Tang army does not necessarily have to use boats to cross the river." Song Jingang tightened his armor, then looked at the snow falling from the world, and sighed: "This year's winter seems to be particularly cold, this heavy snow has fallen, I am afraid that the Yellow River has been frozen......"

Liu Wuzhou suddenly realized at this time. If the Yellow River has frozen, then the Tang army can indeed calmly cross the river and send a partial division to attack Xia County and cut off its own back road.

"Your Majesty, for now, we must recapture Xia County as soon as possible, otherwise the situation will be critical!" Song Jingang said with a worried face.

Liu Wuzhou naturally understood this truth, so he said: "Now I don't know who the general of the Tang Army who occupied Xia County is. But it is expected that it will not be a mediocre general, I am afraid that our army will be divided into two ways. ”

Of course, Song Jingang also knew that his army would attack Xia County, how could the Tang army in Baibi sit idly by. With Li Shimin's strength, he will definitely pursue at the tail end, and then his own army will not be able to take care of both the end and the end. So now he and Liu Wuzhou can only stay in Baibi and continue to fight against Li Shimin, and the other can lead part of the army back to attack Xia County in order to turn the situation around.

"Your Majesty, you are the commander of the first army, and you can't evacuate, otherwise you will shake the morale of the army." Song Jingangzheng said: "It's better for the last general to lead the army to attack Xia County!" ”

Liu Wuzhou naturally understood this truth, and after thinking for a while, he said, "Okay!" Then I will give you 100,000 troops to attack Xia County in the north, and I must conquer Xia County in the shortest possible time. Otherwise, our army will collapse due to lack of food! ”

"Your Majesty, rest assured! The last general will definitely do his best! Song Jingang bowed down and took the order.

That night, Song Jingang gathered an army of 100,000 and quietly developed northward. He didn't dare to 'get' a lot of fanfare, so as not to be known by Li Shimin.

It's just that Li Shimin has already gotten the news of Xia County's change of ownership. How could he pass up this rare opportunity? Soon after Song Jingang left, Li Shimin launched a counteroffensive.

The Tang army changed the posture of holding firm a few days ago and took the initiative to attack, which made Liu Wuzhou dizzy. If Song Jingang didn't leave with 100,000 troops, he could still rely on the advantage of troops to stabilize his position, but now because his troops were reduced by one-third, he could only support it and barely maintain an undefeated situation.

Only then did Liu Wuzhou realize that the combat effectiveness of the Tang Army was far stronger than he imagined. In the past, he was able to win easily, all because the opponent he faced was the stupid Li Yuanji, but now that Li Shimin is the coach, he can maintain the current situation and turf even if it is thankful.

"King Kong, my brother-in-law, you have to take Xia County down quickly! Otherwise, our army will be in danger! Liu Wuzhou prayed secretly in his heart.

At this time, Song Jin had just driven to the city of Xia County, and he didn't care about resting, so he immediately launched an attack.

"Boom, boom, boom!"

Liu Jun's trebuchet threw boulders and smashed them into the city walls of Xia County.

Although Xia County is nominally a county seat, in fact, due to its important strategic location, it is the only way from Taiyuan to Guanzhong and Luoyang. The walls were built very strongly, even more than the average county town. So these boulders only caused some small casualties to the Tang army defending the city. But the walls remained intact.

After about half an hour of bombardment, the smoke and dust had not yet cleared. Song Jingang led the soldiers to carry the ladder to the city wall. But this area is mountainous, and the outside of the county is full of mountain roads, and the road is steep, and Liu Jun's soldiers carry heavy ladders and walk very slowly.

But before he had to go under the city wall, a group of soldiers at the front screamed miserably and fell into a trap, Song Jingang took a closer look, only to see that the trap was about two feet deep, and there were iron nails at the bottom of the well, and the soldiers who fell were already angry.

This time he did not dare to rush forward any further, so he could only order the sappers to beat on the road with a large hammer to find out where the trap was. The soldiers who carried the ladder had no choice but to lower the ladder first, and then move forward after the trap was cleared.

And Li Xiaogong, the general of the Tang Army on the upper floor of Xiacheng City, saw that the soldiers of the Liu Army had entered the range of the giant crossbow, and the corners of his mouth 'revealed' a cruel smile. He waved his big hand and said, "Brother Tang Jun, it's time to start 'shooting'!" For our Datang! For the sake of victory in this battle, the enemy army must not be allowed to recapture Xia County! ”

This time, according to Li Shimin's plan, he led 100,000 Tang troops to quietly cross the river from the downstream of Yanjin Ferry, taking advantage of the freezing of the Yellow River, and bypassed the Long'men' Pass, and took Xia County in one fell swoop. cut off the retreat of Liu Wuzhou's main force.

Originally, Li Shimin's plan was for him to defend Xia County, and then join the Tang army of Baibi with Baibi's Tang army to encircle and annihilate Liu Wuzhou's main force.

But Li Xiaogong felt that by doing so, most of the credit was taken away by Li Shimin, making his nominal uncle lose face. And after he found out that Liu Wuzhou's army that came to seize Xia County was only 100,000 people, he changed the battle plan without authorization. He divided half of his men, led by his deputy general Hou Junji, and went north to capture Taiyuan.

According to Li Yuan's request, the goal of this battle against Liu Wuzhou is to recapture Taiyuan, where he started. If Taiyuan was captured by Li Xiaogong, then his merit would undoubtedly overwhelm Li Shimin and become the first merit of this battle.

Although in this way, Xia County's defense was weakened. But Li Xiaogong is very confident. Because the besieging side generally needs three to five times the strength of the defending side to be sure of conquering the city. If Song Jingang only had 100,000 soldiers and horses, it would never be possible to capture Xia County, which was guarded by his 50,000 Tang troops.

At this time, after Li Xiaogong's counterattack order was issued, the Tang soldiers agreed in unison, and then pushed out the ballistas from the city tower and erected them at the mouth of the 'hole' in the battlement of the city wall. They began to pull down the bracket, pulled the string apart, loaded it with a huge bolt about a step long, and aimed the arrow at the outside of the hole......

"Aim at the enemy's sappers 'shoot' at it!" Li Xiaogong ordered. He knew that as long as the enemy did not completely clear the trap in front of the city wall, they would not dare to let go of the attack. And as long as all the enemy's path-finding sappers are 'shot' down, the enemy can no longer pull out the trap.

The ballista crossbowmen immediately began to adjust the inclination of the shot, aiming at the Liu military sappers who were wielding a sledgehammer in their hands......

"Shoot the arrows!" With Li Xiaogong's order. The soldiers of the Don Army sent out their powerful counterattack!

"Buzz!"

Only to hear the sound of the crossbow strings loosening, dozens of ballistas fired crossbow arrows at the same time.

In the sky, huge black 'colored' crossbow arrows flew out with a piercing scream.

The crossbow arrows of these ballistae are about three feet long, and the arrows are very sharp, like a spear, and their 'shooting' range can reach more than 70 zhang. In the whistling sound, with death and destruction, it broke through the sky......

The metal crossbow arrows 'shot' cold light in the sunlight, and they streaked across the sky and flew straight into Liu Jun's crowd like countless meteors......

With the cheers of the Tang soldiers on the city wall, I saw that the soldiers of the Liu Army, who were more than 100 steps away and crowded on this narrow road, were harvested by bunches of life like wheat being cut, and let out one after another screams.

Because the crossbow arrows of the ballista are very long and the power of the 'shot' is very large, the huge impact of this crossbow arrow can often 'shoot' through two or three Liu soldiers with one arrow. that they may fall down one by one like a gourd of sugar that has been strung up.

Liu Jun's sappers, who were at the forefront, suffered heavy casualties because they were the focus of the enemy's 'shooting' attacks, and more than 100 sappers in front were killed or wounded in just a cup of tea, and the blood of Liu Jun's soldiers stained the official roads outside Xia County red.

"The archers should pay attention to covering the enemy troops on the city walls, so that they cannot calmly 'shoot' our troops. The shield soldiers rushed forward to cover our sappers to clear the pit! Seeing this, Song Jingang immediately made a decision.

The archers standing behind the sappers hurriedly bent their bows and arrows and aimed at the crossbowmen who were 'firing' crossbow arrows on the city wall, ready to start a counterattack.

"Whoosh! Sou! Sou! "Hundreds of sharp arrows rose into the air like dark clouds, and 'shot' towards the walls of the city.

But what everyone didn't expect was that because of the distance, these arrows failed to 'shoot' into the battlements of the city wall, and fell from mid-air.

Seeing this, Song Jingang couldn't help but sigh, although the 'shooting' range of the longbow was farther than that of ordinary bows and arrows, it was only about fifty zhang, while the ballista could 'shoot' to seventy zhang. Therefore, the enemy's ballistae can 'shoot' your own soldiers, but your own archers can't 'shoot' the opponent's crossbow men.

"Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh!"

The arrows of the ballistas kept flying out of the 'holes' in the fortress, taking away the lives of one Liu soldier after another. Although the shield soldiers finally managed to protect most of the sappers after they stepped forward, they also paid a heavy price. When it got dark, Song Jingang finally commanded the soldiers to fill in the pit and clear the obstacles to advance.

However, after Mingjin withdrew his troops, Song Jingang counted the casualties and found that he had lost more than 3,000 people. In particular, the sappers who filled the pit and the archers who rushed in front suffered particularly heavy losses. However, the Tang army in Xia County did not lose a single loss. Such a casualty ratio is something that Liu Wuzhou has never had since he started his army.

Li Shimin's terrible thing finally made Song Jingang realize.