This is a life-and-death war, for the Tang army, they have no way to retreat, once the city is breached, it is a dead end, they are fighting against the water.

As for the soldiers of Xue Yantuo, they longed for wealth and women in the city, and the death of people for wealth was vividly reflected in them.

At this time, nearly 4,000 Xue Yantuo's troops who originally attacked Beicheng were also engaged in the battle of attacking Xicheng, and Guo Song also immediately ordered that only 500 people should be left in Beicheng, and the remaining 1,500 people would come to support Xicheng.

More than 100 siege ladders were lined up, arrows rained overhead, large stones and giant trees fell like hailstones, and the soldiers of Xue Yantuo on the ladder were smashed to the point that their bones were broken and their tendons were broken, and they suffered heavy casualties.

'Boom! Boom! Boom! ’

The drums of the war were like thunder, and the main general Xue Chake issued a heavy reward order, the first to kill the soldiers in the city, 10,000 sheep, ten slaves, even if he himself died in battle, the reward will be given to his family.

Inspired by the heavy reward, the soldiers besieging the city rushed forward wave after wave, and there were constantly soldiers stepping on thistles and traps and falling, but in the tide of nearly 10,000 people's offensive, this can only belong to hitting a small reef, and cannot change the momentum of the attack.

Xue Yantuo's soldiers were smashed down the ladder, and there were soldiers behind him who rushed up and struggled to climb up.

The battlefield on both sides is also constantly moving and changing, first the thistle thorn of the 300-step line, then the bow and arrow of the 100-step line, and then it becomes the chaos of stones under the city, after paying heavy casualties, Xue Yantuo's soldiers attacked the edge of the city wall, and the situation became serious.

The two sides fought on the edge of the city wall, and the Tang soldiers stood on the mud bags, condescending, occupying the advantage, but at the same time exposing their bodies, and the Tang soldiers were constantly shot by cold arrows under the city, screaming and falling down the city.

The cold spear stabbing of the Tang army also played a great role, it would always pierce the enemy's lower body from below when the enemy army and the Tang soldiers at the head of the city were fighting, so that Xue Yantuo's soldiers could not be guarded, and it greatly weakened the momentum of Xue Yantuo's army's attack.

At this time, there was a crisis in a defense not far from the city gate, several Tang soldiers were shot by cold arrows in a row, and there was a gap in the defense, two strong Xue Yantuo soldiers jumped on the city, and several Tang soldiers were shocked, and stabbed with spears from all directions,

Two Xue Yantuo soldiers used their shields to block, while looking for an opportunity to jump, at this time, two arrows shot one after the other, the arrow power was strong, as fast as lightning, the two soldiers could not dodge, one was shot through the forehead by the arrow, the other was shot in the throat, and rolled down the city one after another.

Only then did everyone find that the main general Guo Song in the distance was holding a bow and arrow, looking coldly at this side, and the morale of the troops was greatly boosted, killing three enemy soldiers in a row, and re-holding the gap.

There was also a crisis in the direction of the northwest corner at the same time, a defensive point was lost, dozens of enemy troops were killed at the head of the city, the captain of the defense urgently sent someone to ask Li Ji for help, but Li Ji was commanding the operation in the southwest corner at this time, and the soldiers who asked for help saw Guo Song and rushed forward to report: "Qi Yu envoy, there is a crisis in the two defense points in the northwest corner, the enemy has attacked the city, Captain Han asks for support!" ”

Guo Song shouted to the three hundred soldiers around him: "Follow me!"

He took the halberd and ran towards the northwest corner with three hundred soldiers......

Seventy or eighty Xue Yantuo soldiers have rushed to the city, more than 100 Tang soldiers desperately resisted, the two sides fought with all their might, the ground was full of corpses of soldiers on both sides, and the battle scene was extremely tragic.

With the cooperation of the soldiers of Xue Yantuo at the head of the city, seeing that the third defense point was about to be broken through again, the captain of the Tang military academy shouted with all his might: "Resist, we can't let them kill them!" ”

The situation had reached a very critical level, and at this moment, Guo Song led three hundred reinforcements to kill.

Guo Song roared and jumped into the crowd of enemy troops, the halberd swept across, and more than a dozen soldiers couldn't dodge. Knocked down by the split, killed and wounded, Guo Song's halberd flew over, ruthlessly stabbed and slashed, and pieces of enemy troops were killed so that people turned on their backs, and their formation collapsed instantly.

The bravery of the main general drove the other Tang soldiers, and the morale of the Tang soldiers was greatly boosted, and the enemy army was defeated and retreated, constantly forcing Xue Yantuo's soldiers to the wall, piercing the fallen city with a spear,

In less than a tea time, hundreds of Tang troops recaptured two more defensive points and slaughtered more than 70 enemy troops who attacked the city.

At this time, Guo Song withstood a siege ladder with a long halberd, and struggled to push it outward, the siege ladder was crudely made, there was no iron hook to hook the city head, but it was directly placed on the city head, the long ladder gradually left the city head, pushed outward, dozens of Xue Yantuo soldiers on the ladder let out a desperate scream, the ladder finally collapsed outward, and the soldiers above jumped down and fled for their lives.

Guo Song overthrew the three ladders in one go, and the soldiers of the Tang Army got a revelation, but the soldiers did not have an iron fork in their hands, and suddenly a soldier wittily shouted: "You can use an iron fork to fork wheat straw!" ”

After a while, hundreds of long iron forks were sent from the city, the front was an iron fork, and the back was a long wooden handle, three soldiers used an iron fork, and the two iron forks were forked at both ends of the ladder, and the six Tang soldiers worked together, and the ladder began to leave the city wall and tilt outward, and in a shout, one after another siege ladders fell to the ground.

At this time, Xue Chake, the chief general of Xue Yantuo, saw that the situation was very unfavorable, so he issued an order to withdraw the army.

'When! While! While! ’

The bell of the withdrawal rang, the siege army withdrew like a tide, the battle was fought from early morning to noon, two and a half hours of fierce fighting, Xue Yantuo killed and wounded nearly 4,000 people, the Tang army also suffered more than 500 casualties, and both sides paid a heavy price.

Xue Yantuo's army withdrew to the large camp three miles away, the soldiers were demoralized, sitting on the ground silently drinking water and eating dry food, many soldiers who stepped on the tribulus terrestris thorn and were pierced by the wooden thorn on the instep of the foot screamed to the heavens and the earth, the toxic attack and severe pain made them unbearable, several grassland doctors were busy sweating profusely, boiling the detoxification herbal soup, the toxicity may be relieved, but the instep pierced by the wooden thorn will almost certainly leave a disability, or even amputation.

In the only big tent in the barracks, Xue Chake paced back and forth anxiously, and when he returned to the big tent, he realized that there were more than 3,800 casualties, and this casualty was so heavy that he could not even explain it to the big chief.

His 20,000 troops were cobbled together from more than a dozen tribes in Xue Yantuo, and everyone was willing to send troops, of course, to get a piece of the looted soup, and in the end, he didn't even grab a single wheat, but he suffered so many casualties, would these tribal elders spare him?

At this time, the adjutant general Yantuo Manshan walked in, and when he saw that the main general was worried, he persuaded: "General, while the losses are not very big now, let's withdraw the troops in time!" ”

Xue Chake slammed his fist on the table, "I am unwilling to withdraw the army for nothing!" ”

"But..... If the losses increase, we still can't capture the city, and we can't explain to the big chief when we go back!" ”

Xue Chake was silent for a long time and said: "Now that we can't explain to the old things of the Council of Elders when we go back, we can only capture the county seat, and maybe we can offset the merits!" ”

He turned back to Yantuo Manshan and said: "I have made up my mind, don't persuade me anymore, you just go all out to build a siege ladder, if you can't capture the city, I will bear all the consequences!" ”

The words have come to this point, and Yantuo Manshan can't persuade anymore, so he has to bow down and salute, "The lowly will go all out!" ”

.........

The enemy retreated, and the city was also busy, the militia soldiers cleaned up the corpses, the wounded soldiers went down to bandage and recuperate, and Xue Changshou personally treated the soldiers, he was the chief military doctor in the former 100,000 Shence Army, and the soldiers basically knew him and knew that his medical skills were excellent.

Under his guidance, several other military doctors quickly took arrows, disinfected, bandaged the soldiers, and lunch was also delivered, more than 100 strong women pushed the rice cart, carried the soup bucket, and sent food and soup to the soldiers, the food was good, the baked small flour cake was accompanied by fried mutton, two servings per person, and the soup was winter melon stewed egg soup, which was boiled very thickly.

Although the soldiers were tired, they could not resist the temptation of food, and they all beat up their spirits to eat, and then they had a good sleep to regain their strength.

Guo Song was studying the iron fork with several generals, and everyone found that the big killer weapon to deal with the enemy's siege ladder was actually the iron fork used by the peasants to fork the wheat straw, which was of course related to the opponent's siege ladder was too rough, and the biggest weakness of the siege ladder was that it was easy to be overturned.

And this time, the Xue Yantuo people did not bring craftsmen to build siege weapons, they could only make the simplest and most crude ladders, which naturally exposed the biggest weakness of the original siege ladders.

Liang Wu suggested: "In fact, there is another way, use the rope to pull to the left and right sides, and you can also pull the ladder down." ”

"Not right!"

Li Ji shook his head and said, "Unless you pull outside, the ladder is blocked by the battlements, and it will be difficult to pull it down from the inside, so it's better to push it out with an iron fork." However, this kind of iron fork is still a little smaller, and if you use a large iron fork, the effect will be better. ”

Guo Song immediately decided: "Then suspend the creation of thistle thorns, and now start building big iron forks overnight, and strive to build five hundred in one night." ”

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