The walls of Tongzhou were filled with smoke and dust, and gravel fell like rain all over the sky, but the city walls were empty. www.biquge.info Of course, Wang Yuan has not been idle in the past few days, and the rebels under the city have seen the situation of wantonly making siege equipment, how can he not deal with it.

In fact, when Wang Yuan ventured to attack the camp and destroy the opponent's siege equipment a few days ago, it was not entirely because he had no way to deal with it, but partly because he wanted to delay the rebels for more time. Wang Yuan understood that the longer he held back the main rebel force in Tongzhou, the more favorable the situation would be. Gao Xianzhi was not idle in the north, he would definitely storm the so-called 200,000 rebel army under the city of Ningzhou, so as to advance into Chang'an to relieve his pressure.

Yesterday at noon, Wang Yuan received a battle report sent by Gao Xianzhi, a few days ago Gao Xianzhi had taken Pizhou and was heading for Chang'an. After learning the news, Wang Yuan was overjoyed. It's not that they are happy that they can recover Chang'an, in fact, Wang Yuan and Gao Xianzhi did not have much hope for the recovery of Chang'an from the beginning. They just wanted to make the main force of the rebels retreat through this move, so as to alleviate the worries of Shu in the overall situation, and have a chance to destroy the living forces of the rebels when the rebels were exhausted. The key is to destroy the rebels' soldiers and horses, and naturally recover the lost cities.

After receiving Gao Xianzhi's news, Wang Yuan knew that the opponents under the city would definitely get the news soon. For Shi Siming, learning the news must have made him angry, because he had to make a choice. Therefore, Wang Yuan had been ordering people to pay close attention to the movements of the rebels last night to see if the rebels would leave the camp overnight. However, the rebels did not withdraw from the camp, and Wang Yuan certainly understood Shi Siming's thoughts.

In another position, if Wang Yuan himself was in such a situation, Wang Yuan would also make the choice of attacking the city. After all, everything is in place, and the army is here, so it is obviously unwilling to return empty-handed. Shi Siming must have captured Tongzhou City, defeated himself, and then returned to Chang'an.

And in this situation, this battle will be extremely dangerous, and Shi Siming will not spare his hand at all, because he has no more time to delay, and he will definitely launch a crazy attack with a thunderous momentum. As long as he delays in Tongzhou for one more day, Shi Siming's suffering will increase exponentially. Because his time is precious, and he will never dare to give up Chang'an, An Lushan will not spare him. Of course, unless this guy is thinking of establishing himself as the king and occupying the land of Shu, then it is another matter. But at present, Shi Siming doesn't dare to do this, his appeal is not enough, and most of the soldiers and horses under his command are An Lushan's generals, and it is impossible for these people to listen to his command.

In response to this upcoming crazy attack, Wang Yuan naturally couldn't take it lightly. In the past few days, the rebels under the city have been busy, and the Shence army in the city has not been idle, and they are also busy. Three days ago, Wang Yuan ordered the whole army to start building small and sturdy bunkers on the inner side of the city wall, and the style given by Wang Yuan was to build a low and thick rammed earth house with a height of more than one person, and the roof was built with several layers of bamboo and thick thatch, and a slip was built along the bottom of the city wall. The generals didn't know the intention of such an approach, and Wang Yuan told them the answer with an experiment. He ordered stones the size of millstones to be lifted from the city walls and smashed on the roofs of these rammed earth houses, and then an astonishing scene occurred, the large stones did not smash through the roofs, but were resisted by the thick thatch and several layers of green bamboo roofs, rolling along the slope of the roof and falling to the ground. Then everyone understood Wang Yuan's intentions.

That's right, Wang Yuan wanted to build these simple but practical little earthen huts on the inside of the city walls to hide his troops, because everyone was worried that once the rebels rebuilt a large number of catapults, the defense of the city walls would be a problem. A small number of catapults can resist hard, but it is a big deal to kill some soldiers. However, the sheer number of catapults would make the city a hell, and it would be impossible to stand at all, so the defense of the soldiers would be a big problem.

Of course, generally speaking, there is a solution to this situation, and that is to temporarily evacuate the soldiers at the head of the city, and only go up to the city to defend when the enemy army actually attacks the city. However, this is very risky, because if the time to enter the city is too late, the enemy army can calmly set up ladders and even climb the city walls first.

Once the catapult starts throwing stones, it is impossible to approach dozens of steps outside the inner side of the city wall, because this area is also an area where rocks have fallen. Soldiers and horses must hide in a safe area farther away, but don't underestimate this short distance. An agile soldier rushed to the bottom of the wall from dozens of paces away, and then climbed the steep and narrow staircase up the wall, a short delay that would allow a nimble enemy soldier to climb the wall first. Such a thing happened in the battle of Xingyang when Chu and Han fought each other, because the time for the defender to go to the city wall was not as fast as the time for the attacker to go to the city, and the original defending side became the besieging side, and it was a strange thing to attack from the city to the outside of the city.

Of course, Wang Yuan didn't want anything to go wrong, he wanted to make sure that nothing went wrong, neither let the soldiers be smashed at the head of the city, nor let the soldiers retreat to dozens of steps away to delay the time of defending the city, so he came up with this kind of rammed earth low house with sloping roofs along the city wall under the city to hide the soldiers. It's more accurate to say it's a house than a kennel. In order to be able to withstand the falling rocks at the head of the city, these houses had to be as short as possible. The thatch and bamboo on the roof act as a cushion, and the stones fall on it to ensure that they do not penetrate the roof. Wang Yuan's experiment was extreme, and in fact it was impossible for the rebels to project a stone the size of a millstone into the city. Moreover, these small kennel-like mud houses were built against the inside of the city walls, and most of the stones could not actually hit these houses.

Although these small houses can only hide five or six thousand soldiers, it is impossible for all the soldiers to hide in them. But if these five or six thousand men were able to quickly go up to the city to defend it, it would be enough to ensure that the enemy would not be allowed to climb the city wall first. A large number of defenders can then calmly go to the city and complete the mission of defending the city. Sometimes the simplest solution is also the most effective way.

Three days was enough time for the defenders to build these little matchbox-like houses under the city. And at this moment, the sky is full of stones like rain, and the yellow dust is churning, in these small houses, more than 5,000 soldiers of the Shence Army are shrinking and hiding inside, listening to the crackling stones on the roof overhead, waiting for the order to go to the city.

Outside the city, catapults are still frantically bombarding the city. But compared to the fierce density at the beginning, it is becoming more and more fragmented at this time.

Shi Siming frowned and shouted, "What's the matter?" Is the stone bomb not well prepared? How scattered it is, this can't be done. ”

The general in charge of the stone throwing replied with a bitter face: "Report to the marshal, there are enough stone bullets, but the catapult can't bear it, and it has already fallen apart three hundred." ”

Shi Siming was stunned, and immediately realized that he had ignored this serious problem, although these catapults were built in a short time, but this kind of improvised catapult was too unstable. They were required to be made quickly, and the purpose was simply to project stones onto the walls.

It is very easy to project stones on the wall, but it is obviously impossible to maintain the operation for a long time and many times. The wood used to make them is all trees cut down in the mountains, and there are all kinds of wood, so I don't have time to pick and choose in a hurry, so I just need to use them. Many trees look thick but are actually very brittle, and some trees have been eaten by insects, even if it is just a small piece of insects, it will quickly break and collapse under the high-intensity projection.

After a dozen or so stone launches, hundreds of catapults began to fall apart and collapse, resulting in fewer and fewer catapults that could be fired, and their momentum became weaker and weaker.

"Marshal Shi, order the soldiers to attack the city, otherwise the more catapults will be damaged in a while, and the enemy at the head of the city will not be able to suppress it, but it will lose the best opportunity to attack the city." Gao Xiuyan reminded.

"I prepared so many stone bullets in vain, and I couldn't bury them in the city, so I really felt uncomfortable. But you're right, let's attack the city now. Brother Gao, it's up to you. Shi Siming said.

Gao Xiuyan silently bowed his hand, turned his horse and rushed forward, and ordered in a loud voice: "The siege begins." ”

The trumpets sounded and the drums sounded. 50,000 rebels rushed to the city to the beat of drums and shouts. Catapults were still smashing stone bullets at the city, and the infantry quickly approached the city walls under the cover of stone bullets. More than a dozen rushing vehicles also quickly assembled towards the city gate. Barely met any resistance, and the swarming rebel soldiers rushed within a hundred paces of the city.

At the same time, hundreds of catapults also completed their mission to stop the projectile. The catapult's projectile has no accurate head, and there is no specific distance, their range is only an approximate distance, and the stone projectile may be thrown within a radius of dozens of steps, which is also a threat to the attacking soldiers, so once the soldiers rush to the front, the catapult can only stop firing.

But this is enough, less than a hundred paces away, the infantry charge only takes a few dozen breaths. And the defenders at the head of the city were categorically unable to recover in just a few dozen breaths. The defenders of the city were too late to go up to the city for reinforcements, and enough soldiers to attack rushed to the city.

Sure enough, when the rebel siege soldiers rushed to the edge of the moat thirty paces away from the city wall, the head of the city was still filled with smoke and dust, and the Tang army at the head of the city did not shoot a single arrow. Shi Siming's nervous expression relaxed: things are going as smoothly as expected, maybe it won't be until the afternoon, and Tongzhou City will be in the bag.