Shuzhong won a great victory, but Nanyang was in a hurry, and Li Jiancheng asked Qin Qiong to lead 20,000 troops to support Shangyong, defeating Ma Gongyou, who came to attack; Later, Li Jiancheng left Wang Qi to guard Xiangyang, with Lei Changying and Li Shuliang as generals, and the 80,000-strong army attacked all the way to Nanyang. Yang Gongqing had 30,000 elite soldiers, the city of Nanyang was tall, and the grain and grass materials were abundant, so he followed Wang Ji's advice and defended the city; No one expected that the two sides would attack and defend for a full 33 days.

On Nanyang City, the torches reflected the red sky, Yang Gongqing looked at the Tang army retreating like a tide, the moat under the city tower has been filled with various equipment and rocks, the stumps and broken limbs, the weapons and banners discarded by the Tang army can be seen everywhere, and the dark red ground has increased a lot compared with the last attack. Knowing that Li Jing had mobilized 40,000 troops from Kan Ling, Luo Shixin, Suo Yanshou, Shi Derui and other troops to come to help, the Tang army was like crazy; The army of 80,000 was divided into four teams and attacked the city day and night.

For four days and four nights, round after round of fighting, there were only drums and shouts above and below the tower; Fortunately, Wang Ji transferred 10,000 people to form two teams with the 30,000 troops defending the city, rotated every day, and arranged various measures to transport materials to cope with the fatigue of the Tang army. According to Wang Ji's guess, today's short rest is that the Tang army's siege equipment is not available, and after an hour or two of adjustment, the Tang army will attack with all its might.

Wang Ji had already gone down to mobilize the men and horses who had been resting, and were ready to go to the city to support when needed; Yang Gongqing looked at the soldiers who were sleeping on the side, closed his eyes, and seized this rare gap to replenish his strength. At most, the watchout sentry woke up Yang Gongqing, and the Tang army on the opposite side erected hundreds of towering arrow towers, which were slowly pushing towards Nanyang City with a piercing creaking; Yang Gongqing visually measured the height, which was close to the height of the city wall.

"Greek fire, additionally prepare rockets." Yang Gongqing shouted, and the defenders immediately launched the defensive Greek fires that had been useless, a total of twenty units; Another two thousand rockets began to be delivered, and the battle horn immediately sounded through the tower. If the arrow tower can enter the distance of 100 steps, it will become a nightmare for the Hexi army, but between 100 steps and 150 steps, it is the nightmare of the arrow tower.

There were still thirty arrow towers rushed to the predetermined location, and the rain of arrows that came in an instant made the Hexi army at the head of the city scream in all directions, and the ladders, wells, and crashing cars of the Tang army took the opportunity to swarm and stop, and the army was more than this benefit, the people in front fell, and the people in the back continued to rise; The Hexi army's fortification equipment was indeed sufficient, stones, sassal wood, hot oil, and torches were constantly smashed down from the city, and the color of the city wall was almost dark brown.

Due to the wrong direction of the wind, the effect of the Greek fire is not obvious, although more than a dozen arrow towers were burned at once, but there are still twenty arrow towers in effect; In the end, the retort destroyed all the arrow towers with rockets, but the process of firing each other not only killed a large number of soldiers, but the most important thing was to weaken the defense of the enemy troops under the city, and the Tang army climbed the tower within an hour of launching an attack for the first time.

The soldiers of the Hexi Army immediately rushed up with their weapons and fought each other in the narrow strip of the city tower, and the Tang Army took the lead in landing the city, and there was no shortage of Jianghu masters who took the lead in the city, and they played a hundred strength in a small area, and the two breakthroughs fought fiercely for more than half an hour, and the city was full of corpses, but still did not drive the Tang Army down. It wasn't until Wei Lu brought a thousand swords to the city tower that the momentum of the Tang army's arrival in the city was defeated and the battle situation was regained.

The Tang army under the city suddenly cheered, and the cowhide crash car actually hit a crack in the ancient city wall, and the Tang army cheered and poured in, Yang Gongqing and Wei Lu were suddenly shocked; Suddenly, there was a rumbling sound, and Shi Motian, who had been on standby, commanded the soldiers of the five hundred Thunderbolt battalions to rush to the breach, constantly throwing heavenly thunder. With the continuous explosions and terrible screams, the Tang army finally lost its strength and withdrew from the gap; Yang Gongqing woke up like a dream, and hurriedly ordered the archers to seal the angle and block the crack by falling stones.

Li Jiancheng's hand was held hard, the green tendons on the wrist were exposed, and about 3,000 Tang soldiers fell into the crack in a short period of time, so that the Tang army lost the courage to attack. Just one step away, the Tang army went from heaven to hell, paying the price of 7,000 people, and still missed Nanyang City.

At this moment, the sky was already bright, and the pale shadow of the moon could still be seen in the sky, and a few jackdaws chirped in the treetops, which made people feel upset; Li Jiancheng was about to give the order to continue the attack, when suddenly, there was a tremor from the earth, and the trumpets sounded in the distance, and a black cavalry appeared; The scout came back in a panic to report that fifteen thousand cavalry were galloping towards him. Li Jiancheng snorted coldly: "Array." ”

Li Shuliang was stunned, did he really think that the thousands of bows and crossbows in the army could fight against the iron cavalry of the Hexi Army?

Li Shuliang has fought with the Qin army and the Hexi army since Fufeng, and can deeply feel the difference between the two cavalry, Xue Ju's Qin army's iron cavalry is brave and brave, but the Tang army can still fight. But in the face of the cavalry of the Hexi Army, the most important thing is the difference in tactics and equipment, Yang Chong has money and technology, and can build an army that crushes the opponent, and the traditional arms of the army will not work at all. However, 30,000 Tang troops had already rushed out, 3,000 heavy armored infantry and 400 bed crossbows were in array, 2,000 crossbowmen were in the left and right gates, and 3,000 archers of the horse infantry army were behind the crossbow array.

To the surprise of the Tang army, the cavalry of the Hexi army stopped their horses far away and formed a scattered formation, with two thousand rangers separating from the left and right, sweeping in front of the Tang army and shooting arrows; The Tang army was stunned to look at the arrows fired at each other on the battlefield, and the range of the other party's firing was sixty or seventy steps farther than the ordinary bow and arrow, and it was these sixty or seventy steps that allowed the cavalry of the Hexi Army to shoot calmly, and the Tang army's counterattack was useless.

After the opponent's two thousand horses had finished, two thousand horses ran out; The generals of the Tang Army understood that the purpose of the Hexi Army was not to attack, but to entangle their own army by killing. The bed crossbow took the lead in returning fire, shooting at the Hexi army, an hour passed, even Li Jiancheng began to sweat, the consumption of the bed crossbow's arrows was too great, and he shot more than 20,000 arrows, only killing more than 400 opponents; The Tang army was killed by the other side more than 1,000 people, and there were more than 1,000 wounded soldiers.

Lei Changying was a veteran general in the army, and he had doubts in his heart, so he ordered the bed crossbow to be divided into four teams to shoot in turn to save arrows; As soon as Lei Changying finished giving the order, the little colonel beside him showed panic, pointed to the sky and said, "Fly, fly." ”

(End of chapter)