Chapter 498: Yanqi Attack and Defense

Zhang Yunwen sat on a Taishi chair, next to Li Yu and three others, surrounded by a circle of people. Among these people, there are important ministers of the current dynasty, and there are also royal relatives of the clan, although Li Shimin is not there, but these people around are enough.

Li Zhi sat opposite Zhang Yunwen, and on his left and right sat Wang and Wu Meiniang respectively. However, among the two, Wang's smile was slightly embarrassed, and he smiled a little reluctantly. And Wu Meiniang's smile is much more real, I saw that she had a bright smile on her face, and it was not an exaggeration to describe it as a country and a city with that gorgeous palace costume.

Between Zhang Yunwen and Li Zhi, there is a table of several cases horizontally, facing the north, on which are placed five grains and three animals, incense burners and candles.

After a gray-haired old man of the clan announced that the time had come, Zhang Yunwen and Wu Meiniang walked out, knelt in front of those cases, presided over by the old man of the clan, and became brothers and sisters under the witness of everyone.

When Wu Meiniang shouted Zhang Yunwen's "big brother" with a smile in the corner of her eyes, Zhang Yunwen caught a glimpse of the Wang family's puffing cheeks, and was extremely unhappy.

Seeing Wang's appearance, Wang Yan couldn't help frowning slightly, stepped forward, and whispered to the Wang, and after a while, the Wang was already smiling. I don't know what Wang Yan told her.

The Liu brothers looked at Wu Meiniang and couldn't help but glance at each other, and Liu Wu said in a low voice: "This mother and our third brother have become brothers and sisters, that is, we have sisters, right?" ”

Liu Yong snorted: "Think beautifully, this lady is the third brother's sister-in-law, but not our sister-in-law, don't be delusional!" ”

Liu Wu shook his head regretfully: "You said that our parents didn't give birth to a girl!" ”

Liu Yong glanced at Liu Wu and ignored this guy.

Although the Liu brothers thought that they couldn't be the brother of Wu Meiniang, Wu Meiniang was a clever figure, and she knew the people around Zhang Yunwen very well, and took the initiative to call the Liu brothers brother twice, and called the two of them with a smile.

With her slick means, Wu Meiniang quickly got along with the people around Zhang Yunwen. Almost everyone likes this young girl, but she is smart and beautiful.

The matter of Zhang Yunwen and the concubine Niangniang of the East Palace becoming brothers and sisters soon spread in Chang'an City. For Li Zhi's side concubine, whether it is a courtier or an ordinary person, except for knowing that she looks like a country and a city, there is not much that is known about her. I only know that this Wu clan is the daughter of the warrior Yan back then. And after the samurai left, the entire samurai family had declined. Now that this Wu Meiniang and Zhang Yunwen, who is now in hot demand, have become brother and sister, presumably the status of this Wu family in the palace will be greatly improved in the future.

And after Li Zhi ascended the throne, this Wu Meiniang is definitely a concubine second only to the queen and the like of a noble concubine, which is not a help for Zhang Yunwen?

It's a win-win move.

Time flies and flies. In the blink of an eye, it's December. And the fact that Zhang Yunwen and Wu Meiniang became brothers and sisters was quickly forgotten.

At the end of November, the Investigative Institute received a piece of information from the Western Regions. It recounts Guo Xiaoke's dispatch of troops. And the military report of the Ministry of War about the Western Regions has not yet arrived.

Although there are only a few words on the intelligence, in Zhang Yunwen's opinion, it is still a little thrilling.

Before Li Shimin attacked Goguryeo, Guo Xiaoke sent troops to Yanqi in the name of Yanqi not paying tribute on time. He drove with an elite force, day and night, arrived at Yanqi, took advantage of the enemy's unpreparedness, killed the city, and finally took down the Yanqi city, which has rivers and lakes on all sides. But unfortunately, not long after taking Yanqi City, the Western Turkic army came to the outside of Yanqi City. Guo Xiaoke was helpless, knowing that with his own people, he would definitely not be able to fight the Western Turkic army, so he proposed peace talks. Then he elected a friendly Yanqi royal family to be the king, the two sides withdrew their troops, and Yanqi paid tribute to the Tang Dynasty.

However, the king of Yanqi, who was friendly to the Tang Dynasty, did not do it for two days, and he died. The Yanqi people elected a new king. This king had a very different position from the previous one, and he was more friendly to the Western Turks. So, after the king succeeded to the throne, Guo Xiaoke made things difficult everywhere and often harassed. At this time, the Western Turks were busy with civil strife and had no time to take care of Yanqi, so the king of Yanqi was submissively following Guo Xiaoke, while repairing the city walls and training the army.

It was under such circumstances that Guo Xiaoke sent troops.

There were 5,000 elite Tang troops and 10,000 troops formed by Gaochang people in the entire Anxi Prefecture, and in addition to the 7,000 people left behind, the remaining 8,000 people all participated in the war against Yanqi.

In this war, there were 3,000 elites of the Tang Dynasty and 5,000 soldiers of Gaochang. Among them, there were 2,000 cavalry and 6,000 foot soldiers, and they killed Yanqi in a mighty way.

The entire country in the Western Regions, said to be a state, is actually composed of a few large cities and some settlements in river oases. Except for these places for human habitation, the rest of the place is full of sand, no people, no water and no food.

Therefore, as long as the larger cities were captured, especially the ones where the royal palaces were located, the whole country would fall into the hands of the enemy. There is no need to worry about "the countryside surrounding the city" or guerrilla warfare.

In addition to Yanqi City, there is no big city in the whole Yanqi, but there is an iron gate across the road from Gaochang to Yanqi. This iron gate pass is easy to defend and difficult to attack, and it is almost half of the army stationed here.

When the army of the Anxi Protectorate set out from Gaochang and went to Yanqi to kill, they were seen by Yanqi's scouts. With their familiarity with geography, these Yanqi scouts escaped from the pursuit of the Tang army scouts and returned to Tiemen Pass. In an instant, the entire iron gate was closed. At the same time, the Iron Gate Keeper sent a fast horse back to Yanqi City to report the situation here to the King of Yanqi.

And the king of Nayanqi also immediately sent an envoy to ask the Western Turks for help.

Guo Xiaoke set up several artillery pieces before the Iron Gate Pass, and after a few rounds of shooting, he drove the Gaochang soldiers to knock on the pass and attack the city. In less than a day, the Tang army took the Iron Gate Pass. Most of the Yanqi soldiers fled back to Yanqi City. In this battle, more than 400 people were beheaded and more than 800 people were captured. And their own side lost more than 300 people, all of them Gao Changbing.

As soon as the iron gate was closed, Yanqi City was exposed to the Tang army's attack range.

When Guo Xiaoke led the cavalry to the outside of Yanqi City, he saw that the city wall of Yanqi City had been raised by nearly a zhang, and above the head of the city, there stood a soldier with a bow and crossbow in his hand. There are also a few city-guarding crossbows that don't look like they were made by the Tang Dynasty on the wall. The reason why it is not like the Tang Dynasty is that the crossbow arms of these city-guarding crossbows are engraved with golden yellow ornaments, and the structure of the crossbow is not the same as that of the Tang Dynasty. This Yanqi city is surrounded by water on all sides, which is not conducive to cavalry combat, coupled with high walls and sharp arrows, this Yanqi king clearly wants to be a turtle in the city, waiting for reinforcements from the Western Turks.

Guo Xiaoke looked at this hard turtle shell, there was no way, who told the artillery to run slowly!

On the one hand, they surrounded Yanqi City, cutting off their internal and external exchanges, and on the other hand, waited for the arrival of infantry and artillery.

There were a total of thirty artillery pieces in the entire Anzai Prefecture, and there were more than seventy mortars. These cannons were accumulated every year from the day of the establishment of the Anzai Imperial Palace. In order to attack Yanqi City, Guo Xiaoke brought six artillery pieces.

After a day of waiting, the artillery finally came too late.

As soon as the artillery arrived, Guo Xiaoke launched an attack on Yanqi City.

In the meantime, there is a joke. The king of Nayanqi ascended to the top of the city and loudly asked Guo Xiaoke why he attacked Yanqi, who was a vassal state of the Tang Dynasty. Guo Xiaoke was silent for a long time, unable to think of a reason, and finally said angrily: "Lao Tzu just can't get used to seeing you hook up with the Western Turks!" With a wave of his hand, he began to attack the city.

As in the attack on the Iron Gate, artillery fire was first fired. Six artillery pieces fired ten rounds in a row, and then the Gaochang soldiers attacked the city.

At the head of Yanqi City, ten thousand arrows were fired together.

Although the city of Yanqi was finally broken and the king of Yanqi and the royal family were captured, the losses of the Tang army were not small, and the total loss of more than 800 Gaochang soldiers and more than 60 Tang troops were lost in this battle. However, the result was that 700 people were beheaded, nearly 3,000 Yanqi soldiers were captured, and nearly 10,000 men, women, and children were killed in Yanqi City.

On the one hand, Guo Xiaoke ordered his soldiers to escort the Yanqi royal family to Chang'an, and on the other hand, he actively prepared to defend against the attack of the Western Turks.

On the third day of the capture of Yanqi, a Western Turkic army of 8,000 men appeared outside Yanqi. Under the cover of artillery, Guo Xiaoke made a decisive attack and defeated the Western Turkic army, completely breaking the thoughts of some people in Yanqi City.

After this battle, the Western Regions were shocked. This time, Tang Jun cleanly and neatly pocketed Yanqi, which was really unexpected. Under the leadership of Guo Xiaoke, the territory of Anxi Protectorate is getting bigger and bigger. To the west of Yanqi is Qiuzi, a country that also has close ties with the Western Turks. After hearing the news that Yanqi was captured by the Tang army, King Qiuzi immediately panicked and hurriedly asked the Western Turks for help.