In the first round of attack, the Sui army invested 3,000 soldiers, concentrated on attacking the northeast corner, forming a strong pressure, 3,000 soldiers were like a sea tide, soldiers were like forests, soldiers carried wide ladders and ran forward, drums were beaten intensively, and the sound of killing shook the sky.

Qu Tutong has dug three defensive ditches in front of the Tumen Pass, each deep ditch is two zhang wide, one zhang and five feet deep, and it is necessary to use wooden planks to build a bridge to pass, which increases the difficulty for the attacker, and Qu Tutong deployed two thousand crossbowmen behind the three defensive ditches, and scattered tens of thousands of tiny thistle terrestris thorns within 100 steps before the ravine, forming an effective defense system.

At this time, the drums in the Sui army were beating, and a phalanx of 3,000 people launched a large-scale attack.

In the rumbling drums, the offensive wave of the Sui army had been pushed to a hundred and fifty steps away from the ravine, and had not yet entered the range of the crossbow arrows, at this time, Qu Tutong sneered and shouted: "Bed crossbow ready!" ”

The Tang soldiers opened the tarpaulin covering the wall, revealing three hundred bed crossbows, which were the defensive baggage brought together when transporting food, two soldiers in front of the bed crossbow tightened the bowstring, and the other soldier placed nine arrows on the bed crossbow, shooting nine consecutive rings, with a killing range of 300 steps, which was extremely powerful.

"Shoot!"

With Qu Tutong's order, three hundred bed crossbows, two thousand seven hundred arrows shot out together, the arrows were like thunder, the strength was strong, although the Sui army's shield could block the crossbow arrows, but it could not block the power of the bed crossbow, suddenly, the shields were shot through, and also shot through the soldiers behind the shields, only to hear the screams, more than three hundred soldiers who ran in the front died tragically and fell to the ground.

But the Sui soldiers did not stop, and still ran forward, and suddenly, many soldiers threw themselves to the ground, curled up in a ball in pain, and they stepped on the iron thistle thorn hidden in the grass. Although there was no poison on the thistle, it effectively blocked the offensive of the Sui army, and the offensive formation of the Sui army immediately became chaotic.

At that moment, two thousand crossbowmen hiding behind the ravine came into full swing, and they appeared at the same time, their crossbow arrows slanting into the sky. Pieces of arrow clouds rose into the air, like flying locusts pounced, shot into the dense army, the Sui army's shields and armor were difficult to resist the impact of bursts of arrow rain, under the heavy blow of bed crossbows and arrow arrays, the attacking Sui soldiers suffered heavy casualties, dead bodies pillowed in front of the ravine, and blood flowed like a river.

Luo Shixin never expected that there were thistle thorns in the grass within a hundred steps of the ravine, and his face turned blue with anger. But he had no choice but to order: "Mingjin retreats!" ”

'When! While! While! The bell rang for the collection of troops, and the soldiers of the Sui army left hundreds of corpses and retreated to their own formation, and the soldiers took off their boots one after another, and plucked out the deep thistle thorns from the soles of their boots. Otherwise, one leg will not be saved.

Roth was annoyed in his faith, although this thistle thorn was small. But it has a great impact on morale, but there are also ways to deal with this kind of thistle thorn, and his soldiers broke the threat of thistle thorn by tying a piece of wood to the sole of their shoes.

The soldiers tied the soles of their shoes to wooden blocks, and Luo Shixin immediately ordered: "All the troops are thrown into battle, and the first one to attack the Tumen Pass will be rewarded with 5,000 yuan!" ”

The Tang army's crossbow arrows and bed crossbows brought nearly 700 casualties to the Sui army. But it could not stop the second round of more than 5,000 soldiers' attacks, and as the Sui army's war drums accelerated, Luo Shixin led all the soldiers to line up and kill the wall.

This time, the Sui army marched forward step by step, holding their shields high, and the thistles in the grass did not cause trouble for the soldiers again. Only the large arrows of the bed crossbow that flew from the front row continued to penetrate the shields of the soldiers in the front row, causing a certain degree of casualties, but the Tang crossbowmen behind the ravines were no longer able to hurt the Sui soldiers.

Qu Tutong could see it clearly, he knew that Luo Shixin had found a way to break the formation, so he had to order: "The crossbowmen withdraw to close the wall!" ”

As the bell rang, the two thousand crossbowmen hiding behind the ravine got up one after another and retreated towards the wall like a tide.

But the Sui soldiers still marched step by step, while walking, while removing the thistle thorns on the ground, until they crossed the three ravines, and there were no more thistle thorns on the ground, at this time, Luo Shixin, who had been indignant for a long time, shouted, "Kill-"

He jumped up and took the lead in rushing towards the wall, and more than 5,000 Tang soldiers behind him also shouted: "Kill! ”

The Sui soldiers threw off the wooden blocks on the soles of their shoes, held their shields high and swept towards the city, and the walls were also full of dense Tang soldiers, who together fired arrows at the Sui army besieging the city, and the arrow rain was overwhelming towards the rushing Sui soldiers.

But the rain of arrows was no longer able to repel the Sui soldiers, and a wide siege ladder was erected on the city wall, and thousands of Sui soldiers climbed the ladder like an ant colony, climbing the ladder in one hand, holding a shield in the other, biting the horizontal knife in their mouths, and striving to climb up.

Arrows rained down on the walls, stones and logs fell like hailstones, and soldiers were shot and fell down the city screaming, and the dead bodies under the walls quickly piled up, and rivers of blood flowed out of the piles of corpses, staining the ground outside the walls.

The wall is only one zhang high, even if the siege ladder is overturned, it can not cause substantial damage to the Sui army, only a moment, more than a dozen siege ladders on the Sui army has rushed to the wall, and the Tang army guarding the wall has a decisive battle.

Soon, more and more Sui soldiers killed on the wall, nearly 10,000 people fought on the mile-long wall, and some people kept rolling down, at this time, Qu Tutong's clever strategic and tactical command had lost its role, and his role in this hand-to-hand combat was far lower than that of Luo Shixin.

Luo Shixin played the overlord gun to the fullest, his big gun flew over, like a flying dragon in the air, the shadow of the gun was dotted, and it seemed to be a colorful pear blossom, killing the Tang soldiers on the city wall, the flesh and blood of the soldiers were flying, and the corpses were all over the ground.

Although Qu Tutong's martial arts were not as strong as Luo Shixin's, and he could not fight like a soldier, his ability to judge the situation and his decisiveness could not be compared with ordinary people, and he had seen that the Tang army was at a disadvantage, although his army was also well-trained, but the actual combat experience was not as good as Luo Shixin's army, and Luo Shixin's courage and invincibility inspired every soldier under him.

Qu Tutong knew that he had no reinforcements, and once he was at a disadvantage, it would be difficult to turn over, their morale would be worn out little by little, the soldiers would be wiped out little by little, and in the end, there would only be an end to the annihilation of the whole army.

In this case, only timely retreat is the only way to protect oneself, Qu Tutong did not hesitate to order: "The whole army retreats!" ”

The retreat bell rang, and the Tang soldiers withdrew from the wall one after another, and quickly ran towards the Jingcheng, which meant that they gave up the Tumen Pass, Luo Shixin waved his spear and shouted: "No pursuit, let them leave!" ”

Luo Shixin knew that pursuing the enemy army in the well would not have any killing effect, and in the end he would only run out of food and retreat.

What's more important is that the military order given to him by the commander is very clear, 'Retake the Tumen, and do not enter the well without recklessness.' ’

Even if Luo Shixin was no longer convinced, Zhang Xuanjun ordered him not to disobey.

However, Luo Shixin knew that they would soon enter the merger state, and they would never miss the opportunity.

．．．．．．．．．

At this time, Zhang Xuan was not in Tumen Pass, the Sui army except for 10,000 cavalry rushed to support Luo Shixin, the other 50,000 troops surrounded Zhending County, Sang Xianhe's army was just about to retreat to Tumen Pass was intercepted by 20,000 cavalry, but he responded quickly, and retreated to Zhending County before the cavalry had not encircled and annihilated him.

Sang Xianhe was originally a general of Huyalang in the Sui Dynasty, and he has always been Qu Tutong's deputy general, and he also has rich combat experience, and after surrendering to Li Yuan, he was named the general of the left guard and the prince of Changning County.

Just last night, he gathered hundreds of defeated soldiers of Li Shuliang's army, and only then did he know that Li Shuliang's 30,000 troops had been wiped out, and the Youzhou army they were counting on to meet had long since disappeared.

Zhending County is later Zhengding County, Hebei Province, and is also the county governance of Hengshan County, the circumference of the county seat is about 30 miles, the city is tall and strong, and there are more than 100,000 people living in the county.

Although the population was large, the people were determined that neither the officials nor the people were willing to help this foreign army, so that Sang Xianhe had no people to help defend the city, and there was not enough food to defend the city, and before sending the troops, Li Jiancheng issued a strict order that the army would never harass the people of Hebei, kill people and kill traitors.

The internal and external difficulties made Sang Xianhe at a loss, and at this time, a cavalry galloped from a distance and shouted from the city: "A letter from my marshal to General Sang!" ”

He shot the letter on the head of the city with an arrow, and a soldier picked it up and rushed to report to the main general, Sang County heard that it was Zhang Xuan's letter to himself, he was secretly frightened, it turned out that Zhang Xuan himself personally led the army to annihilate Li Shuliang's army.

He opened the letter and read it, Zhang Xuan said very frankly in the letter, Li Shuliang had been killed, Qu Tutong was also defeated and returned to the state, and it must have become an isolated city.

If he is willing to surrender to the new Sui, his official position in the Tang Dynasty can be maintained, and he is not to blame for the past, if he is not willing to surrender, he can also be let go, but the army must stay, but if he resists stubbornly and hurts the people of Hebei, once the city is broken, the whole army will be slaughtered, and he will be limited to make a decision before dark.

Sang Xianhe looked at the sky, it was almost dusk, that is to say, Zhang Xuan only gave him an hour to consider, Sang Xianhe let out a long sigh, as a Sui general who descended to the Tang Dynasty, if he returned to the Sui Dynasty, wouldn't he be ridiculed by the world, although he also knew that this Sui was not the other Sui, but Li Yuan treated him well, how could he betray?

Before dark, the gate of Zhending County was wide open, and 5,000 Tang troops went out of the city to surrender to the besieging Sui army, while Sang Xianhe led a dozen personal soldiers to Jingcheng and returned to Bingzhou under the supervision and escort of hundreds of cavalry. (To be continued.) )