The Great Food Army that came to attack the city of Ashi Burai is the fourth and fifth legions of the Turkic slave army, they are stationed in Samarkand and Bukhara, this army is composed of slaves captured by the Great Food in the process of attacking the East, and the combat effectiveness is strong, second only to the most elite Caliph of the Great Food Caliph and the Khorasan Benzong Army, and the equipment is also very well-equipped, half of the infantry and cavalry, half of which are heavy cavalry, spears and sharp shields, equipped with tall Arabian horses, and the rest of the infantry are dressed in leather armor, holding round shields and short spears, murderous spirit.

Boom! Boom! Boom! The huge drum reverberated on the plain, the Great Food Army was divided into four phalanxes, like four dark clouds floating on the grassland, undulating forward, mixed with nearly a hundred huge trebuchets and battering rams in the middle of them, although the trebuchet of the Great Food Army was not as accurate as the Tang Army, but it was huge, it could shoot hundreds of pounds of boulders out of a thousand steps, known for its great power, and was a sharp weapon for the Great Cannibal siege.

In the dense drumming, the Great Food Army began to move closer to the city wall, the infantry in front, the cavalry in the back, they shouted slogans, and walked vigorously, like a turbulent wave surging towards the city of Ashi Bulai, the whole grassland was full of murderous aura, and the black oppressive Great Food Army could not see the edge at a glance.

The Tang army stood on the city wall in a row, they did not panic in the face of ten times their enemy army, but they were in place, some bows and arrows, some installed bed crossbows, dozens of stones on the city have been creaked apart, this kind of stone is the latest development of the Tang Dynasty Weapons Supervisor, it is a medium-sized stone, the long end of the lever arm is ten times that of the short end, it is a long pole stone, and the standard counterweight replaces the cable, so that the stone is more labor-saving, thirty soldiers can drive, and by adjusting the counterweight and rod length, the range can be accurately adjusted within six gears, Each gear is fifty paces apart. Among them, the precision parts are made of iron, the operation is very complicated, in addition to the soldier who pulls the stone, there are four special operators, one person loads, one person ignition, one person looks, one person adjusts the distance, this kind of stone fully embodies the characteristics of the Oriental people meticulous and rich in technology.

Shi Yang faced tens of thousands of enemies for the first time in his life, and he was as a commander. He is not only responsible for the life and death of 2,600 Tang troops, but also the survival of Ashi Burai City, once Ashi Bulai City is lost, not only will the only attack point of Broken Leaf be lost, but also the Great Cannibal will be beaten to the north of Broken Leaf, and all the land that the Tang Army has easily occupied will be taken away.

"General Shi, why don't you see the big cannibal ladder?" Lai Jinlin discovered a strange place in the enemy. The big cannibal doesn't have a ladder, how can he attack the city?

"So you don't have to be afraid, although the big cannibals are ten times larger than me and are menacing, as long as you look closely, you will find that many of their armies are actually useless. Like you look over there. Shi Yang's hand led the way, and there were five thousand heavy cavalry of the big cannibal gathered there, and he said coldly: "Have you seen it, what effect will the five thousand Xuanjia cavalry have on the siege?" And those cavalrymen, jokes! Did they think we were going out to fight? ”

"But their trebuchets look hideous, could it be that they want to use trebuchets to smash the city of Ashi Bulai?" Lai Jinlin looked at the trebuchets that were several feet high with some apprehension. Some worried.

"It should be like this, their battering rams can't go up to high posts, so they can only rely on trebuchets." As soon as Shi Yang's words fell, there was a shout on the head of the city, and I saw dozens of boulders in the air smashing head-on, and they arrived in an instant.

"General beware!" Lai Jinlin threw himself down on Shi Yang, and a boulder swept over their heads, causing a sharp and strange roar in the air, boom! There was a loud bang. ^^^^ smashed half of the battlements behind him, and the rubble splattered and tumbled down the city.

The rest of the boulders either smashed into the city walls or into the city, and a dozen soldiers carrying stones were hit by a boulder that tumbled down, letting out a terrible scream.

After the first round of stone machine shooting, Shi Yang immediately leaned out of the city to inspect the situation after the city wall was smashed, only to see a large area of soil peeling off from the city wall that was hit, revealing the gray-white rocks inside. The castle is quite sturdy. Not afraid of the attack of the big cannibal trebuchet at all, Shi Yang was slightly relieved. He immediately turned around and ordered: "Pass my order, everyone pay attention to protect yourself, protect the stone, and no one should act rashly." ”

Under the order of the commander-in-chief, all the Tang troops covered the stone with huge cowhide armor, which was stretched on a wooden frame, semicircular, coated with grease, and extremely slippery, even if it was hit by a stone, it was difficult to solidify, and the power of the stone was unloaded aside. Soon, another round of attacks by the Great Food Army began, the boulders roared, and the Tang troops in the city clinged to the stone wall to dodge, this time handled it properly, and there were no casualties.

The black-clothed cannibals inherited the strengths and weaknesses of the white-clothed food, they are good at fighting and killing, especially in the desert area, the Arab light cavalry and the scimitar are formidable, but the black-clothed eater and the white-clothed eater are not good at attacking fortifications, and they also lack siege equipment, huge siege vehicles and catapults are almost all their siege weapons, the Arabian desert is more than stones, and the cities built are difficult to last in front of the huge battering rams, and when attacking Damascus, the army of the Abbasids made battering rams as high as the city, Manipulating by thousands, the walls of Damascus were crushed in a few strokes.

The power of battering rams and trebuchets made the big cannibals even more obsessed with it, coupled with the roughness of the Arabs, so that they continued to develop in a high and large direction, and the big cannibals were not good at bows and arrows, they did not have the technology of the Tang people to make compound bows, and they did not have the patience to spend two or three years making a bow, the secret of their attack was the courage and courage to fight and the Arabian horses given to them by God.

But their courage and agility in the towering and strong Ashi Bulai city but not strong, the castle built on a three-zhang high cliff, through a narrow stone steps up and down, the unique geographical location makes the battering ram useless, the Tang army half a month ago in the cliff and dug a deep ditch about two zhang wide, in and out of the city have to rely on the drawbridge, it is precisely this set of drawbridges with iron sheets to become the natural shield of the city gate, trebuchets are difficult to hit the city gate.

Seeing that the Tang army did not counterattack, the army continued to advance under the cover of dense rain of stones, and gradually, the army had reached 300 paces away, and thousands of soldiers were busy like ants: they were taking soil and filling the road, trying to build a slope under the cliff so that the battering ram could be pushed up the cliff.

Suddenly. The counterattack of the Tang army began, and more than 100 pitch-black gunpowder porcelain bullets rose into the air, scattered like broken beads, and landed in the crowd of the Great Food Army 200 steps away. The limbs were shattered, the flesh and blood were flying, and the casualties were extremely heavy, the Great Food Army was stunned at first, and then shouted wildly, and the deep fear of Datang Lei suddenly exploded in their hearts, and thousands of people were like the ebb tide of the sea. turned around and ran desperately, running out of three miles in one go.

Seeing that the army was unstable, the general of the Great Food Army ordered to set up camp, and at this moment it was getting late, dark clouds were covering the sky, and night fog shrouded the battlefield. There was silence on the battlefield, and in the city, the Tang army was busy clearing the rubble, and in just one hour, 3,000 stones were smashed into the city, smashing many wooden roofs. The Tang army also suffered nearly 100 casualties, on the city wall, the sentries of the Tang army were closely watching the movement of the enemy army, and Shi Yang stood in front of the lookout tower and looked at the army silently, his heart was full of doubts, Ashi Bulai City has been occupied by the Great Food Army for decades, they should know that this castle is easy to defend and difficult to attack, according to their siege ability, even 100,000 people can't take this Xiongbao. Are they really here to attack the city of Ashibulai?

The night gradually deepened, and the thick fog on the grassland quietly fell, and there was no longer a single figure to be seen dozens of paces away

At dawn the next day, the dense fog dissipated, but the Tang army suddenly discovered an incredible situation, nearly 100 siege rams and trebuchets stood alone in the field, like abandoned children, while the 20,000 food army was nowhere to be found.

The preparations for Shattered Leaf City have been going on for a whole month, according to the unified deployment of the imperial court. The 150,000 old and weak women and children in the middle of Broken Leaf City have been transferred to Shule and Beiting. In addition, more than 100,000 Qarluqs captured from the banks of the Ili River were also escorted to Shule, leaving only 140,000 people in the city of Broken Leaves. 50,000 Tang troops and 80,000 young militias, as well as nearly 10,000 young women, were also left behind to serve as logistical support tasks.

Since July, the Tang army has been continuously transporting supplies to Broken Leaves, and it was not until late August that they came to an end one after another, at this moment, Broken Leaves City has accumulated two million stone grain and countless various military supplies, and Wang Siyu ordered to strengthen the city and widen and deepen the moat.

At the end of August, scouts of the Great Cannibals began to appear near Broken Leaf City, a team of several or dozens of people, in the Daqing Pond Valley, on both sides of the Golden Dragon Road, almost in all corners to probe the intelligence of the Tang Army, which was a premonition before the arrival of the Great War, Broken Leaf City was like a student who was about to take the big exam, nervously and expectantly waiting for the coming of the Great War.

Early in the morning, in Chongrenfang in Broken Leaf City, Guo Mu said goodbye to his wife and rushed to the state office, Guo Mu's father-in-law's family except for the brother-in-law who participated in the militia stayed, the rest were temporarily moved to Shule, and the grocery store was also closed, but Guo Mudi's wife volunteered to stay and participated in the Mulan Battalion, the Mulan Battalion is composed of 5,000 military dependents, all of whom are young women, mostly Han Chinese, who will take care of the wounded, cook for the army, wash clothes and other logistics chores during the war.

Guo Mu has now been promoted to the record of Broken Leaf Prefecture to join the army, assisting Changshi in charge of the affairs of a state, he can be regarded as a senior civil official, and his daily government affairs are extremely heavy, leaving early and returning late, and he is exhausted when he returns home, but he, like all officials, has no complaints before the big war, and tries to seize all the time to prepare for the war.

"Guo joins the army!"

Guo Mu just walked out of the door and seemed to hear someone calling him, he hurriedly turned around, only to see a young official running towards him, ran in to recognize, it turned out to be his subordinate Cangcao military Cui Yao, Cui Yao was originally with Meng Jiao to Bahanna, but because of the imminent war and the embassy stayed in Broken Leaves, he was a new branch jinshi, and there was his grandfather's Yu Yin, who was temporarily appointed as Cangcao to participate in the military, to participate in the management of the huge material of Broken Leaves.

These days, Cui Yao is also too busy to put his feet on the ground, a large number of materials are sent, to establish account books, count physical objects, and organize manpower to pile them up in an orderly manner, because of the wartime state, the military and the people are not separated, he became the assistant of the marching Sima Guo Shiqi, today he encountered a difficult matter, and came to ask Guo Mu for help.

Guo Mu stopped his horse and smiled: "What is there to find me?" ”

Cui Yao panted and ran forward, he saw that there was no one left and right, and hurriedly led Guo Mu's horse aside, Guo Mu saw that he was mysterious, so he turned over and dismounted and asked him again: "What happened?" ”

"Guo Senjun, do you remember when we were ambushed by the Qarluqs in Jinlong Dao last year?"

Guo Mu nodded, "Of course I remember." ”

"Then the leader of the two caravans at that time, I mean the caravan from Kangguo, do you still have an impression?" Cui Yao continued to ask.

Guo Mu thought about it, he vaguely remembered that the leader of the caravan was an old man, but he forgot what his name was, he saw Cui Yao mention this distant matter, and couldn't help but ask strangely: "What happened?" ”

"It's such a thing." Cui Yao smiled embarrassedly: "When I went back, I went back to Chang'an with the caravan, the leader of the caravan is called Muta, and he took care of me along the way, he returned from Chang'an a few days ago, and rested in our broken leaves, and happened to encounter the control of going out of the city, they couldn't leave, I don't know how he found out about me, and he came to ask me for help last night." ”

Speaking of this, Cui Yao said with some difficulty: "Can Guo Senjun help me this time and give me an order to leave the city." ”

The power to open the order out of the city is in the hands of Guo Mu, if it is usual, he will happily agree, but in front of him is when the war is coming, his order to leave the city is not casually issued, but Cui Yao is the grandson of the Cui family, his grandfather is the former Xiangguo, the second grandfather is the current Xiangguo, and there is an aunt of the concubine, he doesn't want to offend this backstage, if it is a Han who goes to Shule, he will not hesitate to agree, but the other party is a Hu businessman, what if it is a spy?

After muttering for a long time, Guo Mu said in embarrassment: "That's it! I will ask the commander about this, and if he agrees, I will let him out of the city. ”

Cui Yao nodded silently, he also knew that this matter was extremely difficult, and he wanted to ask Guo Mu to be accommodating, but in the end, he still had to be approved, so he had to say helplessly: "Okay!" I'll go with you to ask for advice. ”

At this moment, Wang Siyu was pondering in front of the sand table, he had just received the news that the 20,000 food army that attacked the city of Ashburai suddenly disappeared, and afterwards sent scouts to find them, and found a trace of them in the desert area in the north.

Obviously, this army knew that it would not be able to defeat the city of Ashi Bulai, so they bypassed Qianquan Mountain from the north, where was their target? Wang Siyu stared at the sand table tightly, from the northern desert to the east is the Yili River Valley, Wang Siyu gasped, did they want to go to Luntai? Or to block the reinforcements and supplies of the North Court, this matter must be immediately notified to the Tang army of Demon Dragon City, Yili City and Gongyue City, so that they can prepare for defense, especially Demon Dragon City, there is no city wall to protect it, and it must be temporarily evacuated.

Thinking of this, he immediately wrote a warrant and instructed his soldiers: "Immediately send this order to the Tang army in Demon Dragon City, Eli City, and Gongyue City." ”

The soldiers agreed, and immediately ran out, at this time, there was a report from the door, "Report to the marshal, Guo Senjun and Cui Senjun have something to ask to see the marshal." ”

(Lao Gao is asking for a monthly pass, eager to return to the top 50)