The Tang army seized the weakness of the Sui soldiers who were too few to take turns defending the city, and thus exhausted, and launched an attack as soon as dawn came.

Five thousand Tang army crossbowmen were in the vanguard, lined up in nine rows, and swept towards the city pass, they raised their shields and resisted the bows and arrows fired from the city.

And behind them are the five thousand most elite soldiers, who are the real main force of siege warfare.

When entering within a hundred steps of the Huguan city wall, the crossbowmen on the head of the city fired at the same time, and a thousand powerful arrows rained out towards the Tang army, and the Tang army brushed the ground and erected shields, forming countless shield walls, and powerful arrows crackled and shot at the shield wall, sending out a series of 'do! Chemical element! Chemical element! Most of the sound was nailed to the shield.

This is the experience, after experiencing bloody battles again and again, both sides will find each other's weaknesses and take advantage of them, there is no boulder impact of trebuchets at the head of the city, the Tang army will be much more relaxed when shooting arrows at the head of the city, Li Xiaogong has been through dozens of battles, he knows how to deal with the bow and crossbow at the head of the city.

After dodging the first wave of arrows from the Sui army, the 5,000 Tang crossbowmen began to counterattack, and at the same time they fired arrows at the head of the city, and the dense arrows like locusts were overwhelmingly shot at the head of the city, so that the Sui soldiers on the head of the city could not raise their heads.

At this time, a low horn sounded in the Tang army camp, and the five thousand elite soldiers of the Tang Army who were waiting behind them carried dozens of freshly built siege ladders to the city like a tide.

But the Sui soldiers also accumulated a lot of experience, and many of their soldiers, including the original commander Zhao Ping, died in the dense bows and arrows fired from the city, and the crossbows under the city caused their greatest casualties.

Therefore, the soldiers of the Sui army would not shoot at the Tang army under the city, and when the arrows under the city were overwhelming, they immediately hid behind the battlements, squatted on the ground and fired blind shots with parabolas or arrows in the shooting holes, which greatly reduced the mortality rate.

But when the Don soldiers began to storm the city in a big way, the crossbowmen at the head of the city would stop shooting arrows, and they began to counterattack with spears and rolling logs.

When the Tang soldiers were engrossed in fighting with the soldiers at the head of the city, a spear would suddenly pierce out of the lower shooting hole, directly piercing the lower body of the Tang soldiers, which was unguardable.

Almost half of the Tang soldiers besieging the city died in the sneak attack of the shooting hole, and it was extremely secretive, and the Tang soldiers who were stabbed could no longer alert the soldiers behind them, but fell down the city screaming.

Five thousand Tang soldiers had already attacked, and the Sui army's crossbow arrows did not exert much power, and the first phalanx of the Tang army rushed to the city, 'Boom! With a sound, he set up a raft in front of the ditch and raised ladders to the wall.

Thousands of arrows were fired in the shooting hole on the head of the city, and sections of rolling wood were smashed down from the city, the arrows were like dense rain, and the wood was like hail, and nearly a thousand Tang soldiers who first rushed through the moat were shot by arrows, and were hit by rolling logs, and their bones were broken and their tendons were broken, and they wailed.

At this time, the Tang army crossbowmen also began to counterattack, they worked in pairs, one raised a shield, one shot, and the arrows were overwhelmingly shot towards the city, and the dense arrows up and down formed a network of arrows.

With dozens of city ladders successively set up the city wall, the Tang soldiers swarmed up, 5,000 elite soldiers were fully put into the battlefield, at this time the Tang army had invested 10,000 people, and the Sui army only had more than 1,000 people, with a disparity of one enemy and ten to the Tang army in a bloody battle.

More than 100 soldiers of the Tang Army on the city ladder were burned unbearably by the strong corrosive poisonous juice, and the poison attacked rapidly, and the soldiers in great pain jumped off the city ladder one after another......

On the other side of the city wall, two Sui soldiers carried the crucible and scooped up the molten iron juice in the crucible with an iron spoon and scattered it towards the Tang soldiers on the city ladder.......

In several places where the Tang army focused on attacking, there were fierce Tang soldiers rushing to the city, and they were constantly killed by the tenacious and heroic Sui army, the flesh and blood of both sides were flying, life and death struggle, a Sui army was pierced through the chest by a spear, he burst out of the last strength, hugged the Tang soldiers and fell down the city wall together...... A bloody and brutal offensive and defensive battle was fought in Huguan.

The soldiers of the Tang Army are like the devil's army from hell, taking Huguan has become their only belief, they have killed the red eye, and five thousand soldiers have entered the battle, they have disregarded death, and used all the means they can think of to kill the head of the city.

Under the drawbridge, Zhang Liang personally led hundreds of soldiers to carry the corpses, and there were 3,000 Tang army crossbowmen on both sides to suppress the Sui soldiers at the head of the city to cover Zhang Liang's movements.

In less than half an hour, thousands of corpses piled up into a two-zhang high mountain of corpses, Zhang Liang shouted, holding a big knife in one hand and a shield in the other, stepping on the corpses of the Tang soldiers who piled up like mountains and climbed onto the suspension bridge.....

The fall of the moat made the battle begin to take a sharp turn, Li Xiaogong saw the hope of breaking through the Huguan, and he shouted the order: "On the battering ram!" ”

Hundreds of Tang soldiers wearing iron chain mail held nearly ten zhang long giant trees that crashed into the city, and under the dense protection of hundreds of shields, they rushed to the city gate again and again, and the bows and arrows, rolling wood, and iron juice of the Sui army on the city could not shake this hundred-legged iron beetle.

"Boom!"

The city gate was shaking, the pot was trembling, the city bricks and dirt were falling in a flutter, the iron-armored centipede took dozens of steps back again, and in a roar like a beast, the giant tree carried the strength of ten thousand catties, and once again rushed frantically towards the gate of the pot.

There was another earth-shattering muffled sound, the city wall was shaking violently, the Sui soldiers on the city stood unsteadily, and they fell one after another, the gate of Huguan was crumbling, the fall of Huguan was inevitable, and many Sui soldiers closed their eyes in despair.

However, at this moment, a low trumpet suddenly sounded in the valley behind him, like a storm sweeping across the valley, resounding through the thunder in the mountains.

Wei Chi Gong personally led 10,000 reinforcements to Huguan at the most critical moment.

Li Xiaogong, who was supervising the battle in the camp, heard the sound of the horn in the valley, he couldn't say a word, and only let out a long sigh after a while, "Heaven's will is so!" ”

．．．．．．．．

Zhongdu, ten days have passed since the imperial examination, and finally the day of the list is released, this imperial examination, a total of 90,000 people participated in the imperial examination, Zhongdu and Chang'an have a total of 90,000 people, of which 47,000 people are in Zhongdu, and Chang'an is 42,000 people, the number of people in the two places is similar, and the admission is also surprisingly consistent, all admit 100 people.

In addition, Taixue in Zhongdu will recruit 5,000 outstanding scholars to study, and Chang'an will also imitate, recruiting more than 4,000 people to study in Taixue, and Taixue in both places will provide free accommodation and monthly food subsidies, and the competition between the two capitals is very fierce.

Since tomorrow is the day of the list, these two **** are busy with this matter, at noon, in the Tianci Building of the Inner History Province, more than a dozen important ministers and high-ranking officials are negotiating the admission list.

Zhang Xuan led the army to fight in Goguryeo at this time, and he could not participate in the grand first imperial examination, so Zhang Xuan appointed Wei Yunqi, the secretary of the ministry, as the main examiner, and Lu Zhuo and Du Yan as the deputy examiners.

In addition to daring to adhere to principles in major events, Su Wei likes to be a peacemaker in other court affairs, and this imperial examination is not a major event for him, so he has shown his true colors of being good at peace as always.

Although Zhang Xuan asked for fair admission, but in fact it is difficult to do, very simple, if the admitted scholars are concentrated in Hebei, it will be unfair to the scholars in other regions, because the reference scholars and local families are inextricably linked, which will hit the support of the scholars in various places for Zhongdu, these truths are understood by everyone, so everyone unanimously decided to allocate regional quotas.

But on the specific quota allocation, everyone's opinions are divided, Lu Zhuo and Cui Huan represent the interests of the Hebei scholars, they require the Hebei scholars to account for forty percent, and Pei Ju represents the interests of the Bingzhou scholars, Wei Yunqi represents the interests of the Shandong scholars, Zheng Shanguo represents the interests of the Central Plains scholars, Xiao Yu and Yu Shinan both speak for the Jiangnan scholars, hoping not to forget the south, even Su Wei, who has always been and muddy, inevitably has a little bias towards the Guanlong scholars in his words.

However, quarrels are quarrels, but in the end, a plan must be come up, and Su Wei used his talent as a peacemaker at this time.

Su Wei coughed heavily and said to the whispering crowd: "Everyone be quiet! ”

Everyone gradually quieted down, and Su Wei said slowly: "The list will be released tomorrow, we are still arguing, this is not good, and His Royal Highness King Qi repeatedly told us to get this matter done when he left, but we spent two days in a row arguing, so we have betrayed His Royal Highness King Qi's trust in us, so let's do it!" I come up with a plan, and then everyone votes on it, and when more than half of the people in favor of it, they pass it, and everyone will see if they agree with it. ”

Wei Yunqi nodded and said: "Su Xiangguo is right, there will be no result if the argument continues like this, when the decision continues, we should suffer from the chaos, we should make a decision." ”

Everyone agreed, and Su Wei said: "My plan is very simple, let's first admit 5,000 Tai students according to the results of this imperial examination from high to low, and then divide the 5,000 Tai students to see the proportion of each region, and then the imperial examination will be admitted according to this ratio, for example, Hebei scholars account for 30 percent, and the state scholars will admit 10 people, as for the final ranking of these 100 people, they will be arranged according to their examination talents, this is my plan, Let's raise your hands! ”

Su Wei raised his hand first, and then Wei Yunqi also raised his hand, everyone was silent for a long time, and they also raised their hands one after another, fourteen participants, eleven raised their hands to agree, only Pei Ju, Lu Ju and Li Jing did not agree, Pei Ju and Lu Ju felt that the plan was inappropriate, and Li Jing did not agree to divide the proportion according to geography at all, he advocated treating everyone equally, and only admitting students according to their talents.

Su Wei didn't care about Li Jing's attitude, he glanced at Pei Ju and Lu Zhuo, and said apologetically: "Both, I'm sorry!" (To be continued.) )