The army led by Li Wenyuan and Zhang Jintai was busy defending against the Turks and suppressing local stability in the four counties of Gaochang in order to face the Turkic army that might arrive soon.

According to the information given by the military lord, the defense of the city called Futu City in front of him is very empty. At this time, the main army in the city, as well as the vast majority of young men, were conscripted into the army and joined the Western Turkic army. However, in this attack of the Western Regions Army, although the defense force of this Futu City is very weak, there are not many elite troops to defend the city.

Moreover, because the city built by the Turks here, the city wall is not as grand and solid as the city wall built in the Central Plains, and only a layer of earth wall is rammed according to local conditions. Finally, the stone bricks collected from Shiluo Man Mountain on the outer pile of earthen walls were barely built into a city.

But even if the defense force of Futu City is very weak, it is still a strong city for the army led by Cheng Yanjin at this time. Because most of the heavy siege weapons that were not easy to carry were left behind when he crossed the Roman Mountains, he himself led a lightly armed army to surround the city of Futu.

With a letter eagle with the news of the four counties of Gaochang leaped over the Roman Mountain to Cheng Yanjin's military camp, after learning that Zhang Juntai had completely captured Gaochang State and returned all the land under Gaochang State to Wang Hua, Cheng Yanjin also started his own action.

Cheng Yanjin knew that for the Western Turks, Futu City, which was blocked by endless mountain ranges in the north, was not the focus of the Western Turks. Even if the city there is lost, it will not directly pose any threat to the Western Turkic royal court, but on the contrary, once the Gaochang State, which is the eastern gate of the Western Turks, falls, it is equivalent to opening the door of the Western Turks, because among the vassal states of the Western Turks, the Gaochang State is a relatively powerful vassal state, and most of the Gaochang countries are Han people, so there are some experiences in the construction of city defense cities, which are naturally not comparable to the city defense of Yanqi and Qiuci that gather on the trade road because of the pursuit of interests.

Therefore, after Cheng Yanjin led his army over Shiroman Mountain, he did not rush to expose his whereabouts and set off to besiege the city. Instead, he has been waiting for the news from Zhang Juntai in the middle lane, because once Zhang Juntai can successfully capture Gaochang Kingdom, he will also be able to firmly attract the attention of the Turks to Zhang Juntai, and he can also lead the army to take the weakly defended Futu City as a military merit when the Turks have no time to look north.

This is not that Cheng Yanjin himself is greedy for utilitarianism, greedy for life and afraid of death, but that the Fifth Army led by Cheng Yanjin is too thin compared to the Middle Route Army led by Zhang Juntai. Once the main force of the Turks is targeted, then the future fate of this legion is difficult to say. Therefore, at the pre-war meeting, Cheng Yanjin proposed that the main route army of the middle route should attract the main force of the Turks, and the northern and southern armies should be used as a partial division to attack and harass the Turks in the north and south directions, which has achieved the goal of making the Turks take care of themselves.

Therefore, since this trip has learned that the main army of the Turks is heading towards Zhang Juntai's middle route army, and Zhang Juntai has also successfully passed several attacks by the naturalized army, so that the Turks have a grudge against him, and even want to eat his flesh raw, it has attracted all the attention of the Turks.

After confirming that the actions of the Turks mentioned in the intelligence of the military owl were indeed true, the Fifth Army led by Cheng Yanjin also besieged the Futu City in front of him for the first time. After besieging Futu City, Cheng Yanjin also commanded the army to make several tentative attacks on the city in front of him, but the results ended in failure, but his own casualties were not small.

Seeing that the besieging army was once again repulsed by the defending side, they hastily withdrew from the battlefield. Cheng Yanjin, who was watching the battle in the camp, slammed his fist on the table in front of him, and he was also worried and regretful at this time, on the one hand, if the Turks divided their troops over, then they would be in danger here, and on the other hand, if they hadn't given up a large number of siege equipment with the army in front of him for the sake of their troops being able to reach the destination as soon as possible, the earthen city built by the Hu people in front of him would not last for half a day at all and would be overcome, how could it be like today that several charges were repelled by the Turks defending the city?

Several staff officers on the side saw that Cheng Yanjin was a little annoyed, and seemed to be dissatisfied with the army's poor siege, so several staff officers talked to each other for a while, and then a staff officer walked out of the queue and said to Cheng Yanjin with a deep salute:

"Commander Cheng, otherwise, let's let the troops bring explosives bags to attack the city together, we currently lack heavy equipment to siege the city, so it seems a bit fantasy to count on the traditional way to take the city. It's better to have the troops carry explosives bags. If the city gate or city wall is blown down, and the troops directly step on the ruins and climb the wall, they can also break the empty Turkic city in front of them. ”

"This is our first city raid since we set out on the expedition, if we take out all our secret weapons at this time, then if the Turks have defense, it will be even more difficult for us to attack the city again." Cheng Yanjin said.

"Legion, Commander, that's what you're worried about. Not to mention that the Futu city in front of it was the only fortified city north of the Roman Mountains when the Turks were there. Even if there are more cities, as long as we capture the Futu City in front of us as the rear, we can build siege equipment at any time, and with these siege equipment, in the face of those Turks who are not good at building cities, what else can stop us?

What's more, to the northwest of Futu City is the boundless Yellow Sand Desert, even if the Western Turks want to mobilize reinforcements from somewhere, they must bypass this desert from the north to threaten us. Moreover, there is only one Futu city north of the Roman Mountains in the whole time, which is the boundless desert and endless grasslands, which are not only of strategic significance.

At least in all the information we have about the Western Turks, there is no clear information that shows that there is a second fortified city in the territory of the Western Turks north of the Roman Mountains in addition to Futu City, and the rest are just some nomads who chase the water and grass pastures and live a nomadic life, and we don't need this kind of heavy weapons to attack the city in the face of them. So you can squander the explosives in your army with your hands and feet in this siege war, and it will be a burden to carry it later if you don't use it now. ”

Cheng Yanjin nodded, and immediately organized the army to carry explosives bags for siege operations according to the plan proposed by the staff officers.

(End of chapter)