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"Rush! This is the last danger of the Tang army in the land of Bashu! ”

"As long as we take the White Emperor City, we will be able to capture Bashu in one fell swoop! Everyone can go home and reunite! ”

Song Jingang's lieutenant waved the big sword in his hand, shouted in his mouth, and then led his soldiers to charge forward, trying to set up a ladder under the wall of the White Emperor City and climb the city wall. However, under the dense rain of arrows and the blows of rolling stones and wood of the Tang army, there was no chance at all, and they were quickly defeated.

After lunch, Song Jingang asked his lieutenant general to come down to rest, and he personally led the army to attack. But after an afternoon of siege battles, Song Jingang suffered more than 2,000 casualties, but there was still no progress, so he had to withdraw his troops.

After attacking the sky in this way, when Song Jingang was a little helpless, he got a scout report, saying that Li Jing and Wei Chi Jingde had arrived from Wushan with the main force of the Zhou army

Song Jingang hurriedly went out of the tent to greet him, he welcomed Li Jing and Wei Chi Jingde into the big tent with a guilty face, and then said in frustration: "Marshal, the last general is really incompetent, he attacked the sky, not only failed to conquer the White Emperor City, but lost countless soldiers and generals, and asked the general to punish him." ”

"Oh? The Tang army has changed several battles in a row, and there is no water division, our soldiers are strong and strong, and the morale is high, and we can't capture such a small White Emperor City? Wei Chi Jingde asked with a slight surprise.

At this time, Zhou Tao on the side sighed and said, "General Wei Chi, don't underestimate this White Emperor City. It is the lonely place of Liu Bei in the period of the country, and its city wall is as strong as the Tiger Prison Pass, Juyong Pass, Tongguan and some other Xiongguan in the world. Moreover, there is also a mezzanine passage within the city walls, which contains hidden holes, which can pierce spears and spew out fire oil, which poses a great threat to our soldiers who climb the ladder......"

At this point, he paused for a moment, then continued, "That's not all! Li Xiaogong even set up iron chains on the Yangtze River and arranged a large number of arson boats at the wharf. These arsonboats are small and fast, making them ideal for navigating narrow waterways such as the Sichuan River. Our warships were sailing against the current, and they were so large that they were difficult to dodge, so they were burned down a lot, and the losses were heavy, and we could not use warships to transport troops to the enemy's rear and land ...... as we had done in the previous attacks on Padang, Wushan, Fengjie, and other counties."

Zhou Tao let out a long sigh, and Fang told the story of the siege of the city that day.

After Li Jing and Wei Chi Jingde listened to them talk about the process of attacking White Emperor City that day, although their brows were slightly furrowed, they were not too surprised.

Although Li Xiaogong has been defeated in successive battles, and the Tang army is also demoralized, the dog has to jump over the wall when he is in a hurry, let alone a person? The land of Bashu is the granary that Li Tang painstakingly operated. The Tang Army will never give up easily. Now the Tang army in the entire land of Bashu is gathering towards the White Emperor City, and nearly 100,000 troops have been gathered. It can be seen that this brother of Li Yuan has no way to retreat, and intends to fight to the death with the Zhou army here.

"Well, it's getting late today, so it's not good to check the terrain. Early tomorrow morning, don't attack first, General Song, you and General Zhou, accompany us to the city to see the situation first, and then think about countermeasures! Li Jing thought for a moment and then said.

Song Jingang and Zhou Tao naturally had no opinion, and both of them nodded yes.

……

The next day, Li Jing led a group of generals to the outside of the White Emperor City, and at a glance, he saw that this city was really precipitous, with the turbulent Yangtze River on one side and the unclimbable cliffs on the other. The middle road was only twenty zhang wide. Make the area that the defender needs to defend small, so that the attacker's strength advantage cannot be played at all.

Moreover, the walls of the city are not only very hard and thick, but also have a bunker built on the mountain wall, which is very strong. Even if you use a catapult to launch a boulder bombardment, it will be difficult to destroy it. The Tang army hid in the passages inside the bunkers and city walls, and was unscathed when the Zhou army fired stone bullets.

And when the trebuchet attack of the Zhou army ended and began to let the infantry charge the siege, they came out from behind the bunkers and city walls, and launched the giant crossbows, catapults, rolling stones and wood and other sharp weapons to defend the city, causing heavy casualties to the besieging Zhou army.

Although the Zhou army also had bows and arrows, they always had poor strength when they shot from the city to the city, and even if they could shoot at the city, they could not compete with those giant crossbows. Therefore, the damage to the enemy army on the city is very limited. Moreover, after their own soldiers set up a ladder to attack the city, the archers under the city did not dare to shoot indiscriminately, for fear of accidentally injuring their own people. In this way, the firepower advantage of the Zhou army was gone.

After understanding the defense of the walls and bunkers of the White Emperor City, Li Jing also felt that it was a little difficult. He looked at the walls, touched his beard, and pondered the plan to break the city.

On the side, Wei Chi Jingde, Zhou Tao, Song Jingang and others were also standing aside, also racking their brains, thinking about how to gnaw the hard bone of White Emperor City.

However, they thought about it for a long time, but they couldn't come up with any effective solutions.

Song Jingang couldn't help but be a little frustrated, and hit a big tree next to him with a punch, and sighed: "This White Emperor City is really difficult to fight!" It would be great if it could be burned clean with a fire, just like His Majesty did when he attacked Xia County! ”

"Xia County? You mean the time when the city was burned? Although Zhou Tao knew that when Yuming attacked Hedong for the first time, he fought a cruel war with Li Shimin in Xia County, burned a county town with crude oil, and forced Li Tang to sign a two-year armistice agreement, but he didn't know the details.

As soon as Song Jingang heard that someone wanted to hear him tell a story, he suddenly became energetic, and immediately spat and told how Yuming burned Xia County and turned tens of thousands of Tang troops in the city into ashes.

After Zhou Tao listened carefully, he immediately rejoiced: "I have a way!" ”

"Oh? What's the solution? When everyone heard this, they were both surprised and delighted.

Zhou Tao hurriedly said: "When Your Majesty attacked Xia County, didn't you use a projectile to throw a leather bag filled with fire oil on the city of Xia County, and then use a rocket to ignite it, so that the enemy army could not gain a foothold, and finally ignited the coal in the city and turned the entire county into a hell of fire?" We can do the same! Burn the walls of the White Emperor City with fire oil......"

"General Zhou, I have also thought of this method of yours, but it won't work at all!" Wei Chi Jingde immediately poured a basin of cold water on him: "Xia County is flat land, we can push the trebuchet to the city, and then calmly throw the skin bag with fire oil." But here is not only the mountain narrow and rugged, but also uphill in front of the city gate, and the trebuchet can't push it up at all, how can you throw fire oil? ”

After Wei Chi Jingde analyzed it like this, everyone thought that it was the same reason, and they became depressed again.

But at this moment, Li Jing patted his head and suddenly realized: "General Zhou is right, it is true that you can use a trebuchet to throw the skin bag filled with fire oil onto the enemy's city, burn its city gate by burning Xia County, and break through the wall of the White Emperor City. ”

After everyone heard this, they were all stunned, and Wei Chi Jingde asked in surprise: "...... Marshal, this method is good, but how to push the trebuchet under the city? This is all uphill sections, and the trebuchet can't push it up with manpower? ”

The generals on the side also looked at Li Jing in surprise, and they all secretly wondered in their hearts, could it be that General Li could still send such a bulky trebuchet to the White Emperor City with the Five Ghost Handling Technique?

Li Jing smiled slightly, pointed to the Yangtze River and said, "We can't transport it from land, but we can transport it from water!" We can carry the trebuchet onto the warship at the gentle place of the river bank downstream, and then transport it from the water to the river bank outside the White Emperor City, and finally hoist it on the ground outside the city with iron chains, wouldn't we be able to make the trebuchet effective? ”

After everyone heard this, they were all stunned, they were shocked by Li Jing's whimsical method, but after thinking about it carefully, they felt that it seemed a little inappropriate.

Zhou Tao and Song Jingang glanced at each other, and both of them saw doubts in each other's eyes. Song Jingang glanced at him and motioned for him to tell Li Jing.

Zhou Tao had no choice but to take a step forward and arch his hand and said: "Marshal, your method is good, but you didn't consider that the enemy army may be destroyed!" If they send a large number of arsonist ships down the river, as they did on the previous trip, I am afraid that our warships will be burned before they get here! ”

"Hehe, General Zhou, since this marshal dares to mention this plan, of course he will consider the possible reaction of the enemy!" Li Jing said with a smile: "The way to deal with the enemy's arson ship is actually very simple, but you didn't think of it for a while. All we need to do is load a large iron baffle on the battleship and stick it out one step further with an iron frame to stop the arsonist ship of Li Xiaogong's army from going down the river......"

After a pause, he continued: "At the same time, in order to prevent rain from leaking through the net, a large number of soldiers and water dragons armed with harpoons should be placed on both sides of the battleship. The role of the water dragon team is to extinguish the fire, and secondly, to use the water column to hit the enemy's arson ship and slow down its speed close to our ship. The role of the harpooner is to prop up the bow of the enemy with an iron fork so that it cannot be attached to the side of our ship...... In order to prevent the dead soldiers of the Tang army on the arson ship from breaking the baffle, we can also arrange crossbowmen and sharpshooters on the bow of the ship, and shoot the dead soldiers of the enemy when they are outcropping. ”

Li Jing's words surprised everyone! However, after thinking about it carefully, although Li Jing's methods are simple, they are indeed effective.

After hearing this, Zhou Tao patted his head and said ashamedly: "Why didn't I think of this trick?" How come I didn't come up with such a simple and practical method? ”

However, at this time, Song Jingang raised another question. He was a little puzzled and said, "My lord, even if we transport the catapult to the bank of the river in a warship, how can we transport it?" The banks here are not as gentle as those downstream, and are full of cliffs. And the road outside the White Emperor City is forty or fifty zhang high from the river, and it may be difficult to pull it up with manpower alone! ”

When Li Jing heard this, he was angry and funny: "Who told you to pull it with your hands?" Don't you know how to drag them up with a winch? The winch can't be dragged up, can't it be disassembled and reassembled? I don't believe that this is not possible to place a large catapult outside the White Emperor City? ”

The generals are not stupid, they understand it quickly. They were also impressed by Li Jing's ability to lift such a cumbersome catapult with the help of the tools available.

Now that the method has been decided, everyone immediately began to prepare, and they all geared up to be ashamed!

...