"If you lose your land, you will lose both your land and your land. If you lose land, you will gain both land and ...... This party member is very good at fighting, and he also knows the truth of concentrating superior forces. ”

Li Qi entered Suizhou City, sat down in the state office, listened to the military information reported from everywhere, and couldn't help but admire.

"When they retreated to Yokoyama, their mobility increased greatly, and they didn't know where they would choose to fight us in a decisive battle." Yuan Xingqin looked at the map in front of him and said with a frown.

"Maybe under the city of Xiazhou, so our logistical supply lines will be very vulnerable." Li Qi smiled, "It's a pity that I didn't plan to pacify them, and we stopped taking control of Mingtang River this time." ”

Yuan Xingqin stretched out his hand and gestured on the map: "This is very good, the pressure on the supply line of the army is not too great." The other party has lost one-third of its territory, but it will not jump over the wall in a hurry, and if they fight a big battle in Yinzhou, they will almost choose to give in if they have suffered a loss. ”

"If you can't fight, you will surrender, and if you have the opportunity to stand on your own again, when you rebel and surrender, you always need to think of a good way to completely eliminate this scourge. The army of the Tang Dynasty will be private for the guards, and it has been a disaster for hundreds of years......" Li Qi couldn't help sighing. This was solved in the Song Dynasty, but it was overkill, and the martial artists were suppressed to death, which caused the problem of a weak army.

The trade-off between these is a difficult scale to grasp.

The Jinyang army rested in Suizhou for two days, and then went straight to Yinzhou along the Wuding River.

This Yinzhou city is at the northern foot of Hengshan, located at the confluence of the two river valleys of Wuding River and Mingtang River (Yuxi River), leaning on the mountain and facing the water, condescendingly, guarding the exit of the northeast direction of the Hengshan Mountain Range. Due to the difficult terrain, it is indeed easy to defend and difficult to attack.

The Dingyan army deployed 6,000 defenders in Yinzhou City, intending to use the fortified city to first consume the strength of the Jinyang army, and then carry out a counterattack. This fortified city became the biggest obstacle encountered by the Tang army in its conquest of the difficult army.

Five miles south of Yinzhou City, the Jinyang army built a large camp at the mouth of the Yuhe Valley, the mouth of this valley is about five miles wide, the terrain is flat, the Jinyang army camps on both sides of the Wuding River by the mountains, first guarantees the stability of the rear, and then prepares to attack the city calmly. When the Tang army arrived outside the city, they did not rush to attack the city, but first pressed their troops and repaired the camp and made siege equipment, but they were very patient.

On the contrary, the Dingyan army carried out two night attacks, but in the face of the tight defense of the Jinyang army, they all returned in vain and returned with a feather.

Dang Xiang Qiang from the Tao River valley in the middle and Tang Dynasty moved to the north of Hengshan herding has been more than 150 years, this place of Fan and Han mixed dwelling, has long followed the Han people to learn the cultivation and various ways to build and defend the city, at this time the city head is set up with trebuchets, bed crossbows and other kinds of city defense machinery, look at the scalp numb.

The two sides have been facing each other for more than ten days, and the Tang army launched its first siege, led by Jiang Heng, the deputy general of the Yulin East Battalion, to carry out a tentative attack. Yinzhou City is built on a mountain, the front is only more than a mile wide, and there are not many troops at all, even so, the Tang army still invested more than 50 siege equipment that has just been manufactured.

Li Qi is not ready to spend too much time under this earthen city, if there is a long-term confrontation, it is inevitable that Li Siyuan will start the idea of three military towns in Hebei after getting the news.

Boom! Knock knock!

Boom......

With the beating of war drums, the 3,000-foot army besieging the city formed five squares, each phalanx was about thirty paces apart, and began to move slowly towards the city wall.

Jiang Heng was dressed in heavy scale armor, wearing an iron helmet, standing in front of the formation, holding a war knife and pointing at the head of the city: "The whole army is attacking!" ”

As the horn sounded, the foot soldiers began to push the ladder and charge towards the city walls.

At the same time, the trebuchets and ballistae that had been set up began to throw stones frantically at the head of the southern city of Yinzhou, and more than a dozen bed crossbows also stopped when they reached three hundred paces, and began to fire giant crossbow arrows like javelins towards the city. For a time, the head of Yinzhou City was dusty, and the earth and stones were shattered.

From time to time, the solid wooden breastwall that was protected against arrows was smashed and collapsed......

Up and down the city, arrows rained down.

The attacking Tang army rushed to the city under the rain of arrows with a large shield, and from time to time someone fell to the ground with arrows, and in a short distance of more than 300 steps, there were one-tenth casualties.

Yinzhou City is built on the mountain, three miles long from east to west, about two miles wide from north to south, it is a small city with a circumference of more than ten miles. Due to the close proximity to the Wuding River to the east, when the Dangxiang people rebuilt the city, they used the water of the Wuding River to dig a simple moat in the south and north of the city, which was as wide as three zhang.

The crossbowmen of the Tang army gathered behind the besieging troops, and the array continued to fire arrows at the head of the city, and the dense arrows were sprinkled on the head of the city like a shower, suppressing the counterattack of the defenders. The crossbowmen of the Qiang army defending the city still braved the rain of arrows to throw arrows at the city, and the arrows on both sides were like flying locusts, and soldiers were constantly being shot by flying arrows and falling down screaming.

A battalion of soldiers braved the rain of arrows to throw their bales into the moat, and then waved their shovels and began to fill in the trenches, which had already been crossed by more than a dozen siege ladders, and then set up on the walls. Heavily armored daredevils begin to venture up the siege ladder.

The Qiang army defending at the head of the city smashed down the rolling stones like hailstones, and the Tang army that climbed was hit by a huge log and fell off the city screaming......

A siege vehicle made of thick logs, covered with several layers of cowhide and covered with a layer of wet mud, was pushed out from behind the trebuchet array and slowly approached the city gates. The undercarriage of this siege vehicle contained hundreds of catties of gunpowder, which was a gift prepared by Li Qi for the party members.

As long as this siege vehicle filled with gunpowder can be pushed to the bottom of the city gate, Li Qi estimates that it should not be much of a problem to directly blow open the city gate more than 20 centimeters thick.

The Qiang army defending at the head of the city saw the siege vehicle slowly approaching, and covered it with arrows like crazy, and these arrows could not stop the advance of the siege vehicle at all. Eventually, the siege wagon, loaded with trains, crossed the trench that had just been filled, was pushed into the gate hole, and crashed into the gate with a thud.

"Stay away, it's going to explode!" Shi Dang emerged from under the cowhide puff and shouted loudly at the siege guards near the city.

Dozens of soldiers with carts got out from under the carts, turned around and ran back.

The two soldiers also withdrew, each pulling a fire stick.

"Lord, it's done!"

"Okay, let's do it!" Shi Dang shouted, and the two soldiers took out the smoking wormwood roll from their bodies, blew a few mouthfuls, and then aimed the fire at the fire.

After seeing that the fire was lit, Shi Dang also took the lead in turning around, turned around and ran, and then jumped directly into the moat with two of his subordinates.

About ten seconds later, I saw a large dazzling fire erupting from the city gate hole, followed by an earth-shattering explosion, like a thunderbolt in the sky, the earth began to tremble, and the city head was filled with green smoke, completely shrouded in smoke and dust. When the smoke slowly cleared, I saw that half of the city tower had been blown down, and the city wall on one side had also collapsed and opened a large hole several feet wide.

"Rush!"

Jiang Heng, who was shocked, immediately reacted when he saw this, raised his waist knife and roared hoarsely, and took the lead and began to charge......