On the banks of the Lightning River, Guyuan City.

Huge boulders streaked across the sky and smashed hard against the newly built walls of the loess rammed city. Dust and stone chips were scattered, arrows rained down, and the sound of blood and shouts of killing resounded constantly throughout the city.

Yelu Lihu was a little anxious, the hundreds of thousands of Khitan troops under his command were blocked for more than ten days under Guyuan City, Guyuan City and Wild Horse City, and after waiting for a large number of siege equipment to arrive and installed, he immediately launched a fierce attack.

"Boom! Knock knock ......"

The drums and trumpets of the Khitan attack echoed in the snow-capped valley of the Lightning River, Guyuan City was an earthen castle with a circumference of no more than a few miles, close to the Lightning River to the east, and a pontoon bridge connected with the Lightning River Tunbao at the foot of the Dama Mountains on the other side of the river. In the face of the fierce offensive of the Khitan army, there were 2,000 people who held on to Hetunbao and only held out for five days before it was breached, and now only Guyuan City is still stuck on the road of the Khitan army.

Yelu Li Hu rode on a tall white warhorse, squinting at the Tang Fort City that was being attacked more than two miles in front of him, and not far from him was a Song Army Fort Tower that had been damaged and used for guard. What surprised him a little was that the Tang army guarding the forts around Guyuan City resisted very stubbornly.

Half of these Tang Guotun troops were from the Khitan, Xibu and Divination, but they regarded the Khitan army of their own clan as invaders, shouting and scolding in Khitan dialect or Divination dialect, fighting desperately, so that the momentum of the siege army was obviously shaken. Just by breaking through this small fortress, the Khitan army suffered more than 5,000 casualties and heavy losses.

After the tyrannical Yelu Lihu broke the city, he ordered the city to be slaughtered, and none of the Tang prisoners of war he captured were left behind......

Suffering such a loss under just one fortress not only did not make Yelu Lihu calm down, but made him even more crazy.

In this battle, at the request of the Empress Dowager Shulu, Yelu Deguang reluctantly gave Li Hu 60,000 Khitan soldiers and horses, and then gave him the right to mobilize part of the Xi Department and the Obstruction Department to accompany the expedition. In addition to the 200,000 troops brought to Youzhou by the imperial brother, the boundless army of more than 100,000 beside Yelu Lihu is all the troops that the Khitan can draw out at present.

Yelu Lihu wanted to regain the grassland of Bashang in one fell swoop, invade Yunzhou and Shanbei, and use the blood of the enemy to wash away the humiliation he suffered due to the defeat two years earlier.

"King Qiyu, the Tang army is gathering in the new city east of Yuanyangbo and Baishuiluo, and Song Tinghao, the envoy of Tang Guoyunnei, has led 20,000 cavalry troops to arrive in the Shang capital city and join Li Sifeng's troops. General Jerucherry sent back the news that the enemy's defensive line was very tight, and I was afraid that the plan of a surprise attack on the rear of the Tang army would be difficult to achieve. The speaker is Wang Gui, he is the son of Wang Chuzhi, the envoy of the original Dingzhou Festival, and also Li Qi's uncle. Unexpectedly, the Jin king Li Cunqiao defeated Abaoji, and Abaoji became angry with Wang Gui after the defeat, and directly took Wang Gui's family back to Khitan when he retreated.

After the death of Abaoji, Wang Gui was very valued by the Empress Dowager Shulu, because she was more familiar with Yunzhou and Shanbei, and this time it was the Empress Dowager's designation to join the army as Yelu Li Hu, and went out with the army to give advice to Li Hu.

"Aren't they going to take care of the few cities in the area of the Lightning River?" The Khitan general Jelu Saba, who was on Li Hu's side, said a word.

"King Qiyu, according to the detailed report, the Emperor of the Tang State has ordered Wu Luan to defend the Lightning River Valley, I am afraid that he is preparing to let them die here in battle to consume our troops and morale." Wang Gui continued to look at Li Hu and said.

These newly built military cities in the Tang Kingdom are much stronger than originally imagined, especially the gray watchtowers, which are actually stronger than the bluestone ones, and they have not collapsed under the fierce attack of the trebuchet.

Jeruzaba glanced at the city that was still in the fierce battle, and couldn't help frowning and said: "Attacking such a city, it is impossible to defeat it without 20,000 casualties, but unfortunately I don't know how many men will be buried in the wilderness." It should still be the same as in the past, besiege but not attack, and divide the troops to break into the enemy's hinterland to plunder. ”

Xiao Wei shook his head and said, "It's a pity that the Tang people have been prepared for a long time, and the population, livestock, grain and grass have either been transferred to the fortified city or moved to the west of the swallow city in advance. Even if our army bypassed these four border cities and drove straight in, it could not achieve the results of the plunder. Although it is not a good strategy to fight the enemy to the death for the sake of the gains and losses of one city and one place, because of their existence, our army does not dare to go too deep and cannot show the effect of cavalry raids. ”

In fact, they had already sent cavalry to search and plunder nearby, but unfortunately, the Tang army carried out a strong wall and cleared the wilderness, and when they retreated, even the abandoned forts were burned, not to mention leaving any grain and grass.

Yelu Li Hu said with a cold face: "It seems that the Tang people are going to defend the Lightning River, this grassland is ours, no matter what the price is, we must also take these military cities, otherwise the Tang people's castle will take root in the grassland like a big tree, and the more it grows." We have no choice, only to break through the military cities of the Lightning River, and then rely on them to compete with the Tang people! ”

After Xiao Hu listened to Li Hu's words, the muscles on his face trembled, but he didn't say anything more. Anyway, the main force of the siege is the diviner, and no matter how many people die, what does it have to do with his Xi Department.

Li Hu waved his hand, the order flag behind him was raised again, and the mournful horn sounded, and countless fireballs were drawn from the trebuchet, slashed through the air, and rushed towards the walls of Guyuan City. These balls of grease-laden grass instantly burned up and down the city walls, and black smoke hung over the city.

The Tang military captain in charge of the command at the head of the city shouted hoarsely, and ordered his soldiers to use shovels to raise yellow sand mixed with snow to extinguish the flames.

The low sound of the horn sounded again, and the heavily armored Khitan infantry drove a large number of obstruction soldiers wearing only leather armor to push the tall siege engines, slowly surging towards the tall fortress wall rammed by loess like a tide. Wu Luan, who was covered in armor, stood at the head of the city, his eyes were solemn, staring at the Khitan army array moving forward, and there was no expression on his resolute face.

As a defender, he is very familiar with the Khitan combat methods, siege is definitely their weakness, the opponent over the years, the siege technology has not made much progress, nothing more than throwing stone bullets, fireballs, followed by beds, crossbows, in the case of bows and shots to suppress, and finally the infantry began to climb the siege. Looking at the dense enemy troops who began to charge, the Tang army defending the city was not panicked at this time, in the concrete poured watchtower, more than a dozen Yulin guns have been pushed to the firing port, as long as Wu Luan gives an order, then the steel ball shotgun shot out like a torrential rain is the first meal prepared by the Tang army for the enemy.

The cavalry dismounted and attacked the city was an intolerable method, and the cruel look of Yelu Lihu and the leaders who wanted to raise objections obediently kept their mouths shut.

The enemy is already within range of these elm cannons......

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