When the Great Stone City was still called the Great Stone Fort, the Six Divisions of the Murwei had besieged the city for eight months, at that time the power of the Turks had weakened, their brothers the Uighurs were rising, and the grasslands were in chaos for hegemony.

The war broke out, 10,000 people besieged the big stone fort for eight months, the loss of more than half of the soldiers, the castle could not be surrounded, but dragged themselves down, the strong six departments of the Wei people since then to fight this grassland disappeared, their vitality was greatly damaged, the village was broken by the Shatuo people, wine, food and population became the spoils of the Shatuo people, and they themselves were completely expelled from this grassland, and went to the cold north to endure the years,

After this battle, the big stone fort was renamed Tucheng, and the area was expanded tenfold, and the earthen city wall replaced the stone city wall.

The increasingly prosperous trade attracted the attention of the powerful Hui Great Khan, the Great Khan demanded that the people of Tucheng be loyal to him, and include their homeland in his direct domain, and the benevolent Great Khan solemnly promised that as long as they were sincere and obedient, the nobles and residents of Tucheng would have a good end, and the nobles would be knighted, and those with both ability and political integrity could come to the royal court to be officials, and the original property would be protected by the royal law, and as for the residents, in addition to paying taxes directly to the royal court, life and property would be guaranteed.

"The cunning Shatuo people and the arrogant Khitans will no longer dare to bully you, as my people, you enjoy the privilege of trading with the Tang Dynasty, it is a country like heaven, the people are rich, the products are abundant, and each of you will get rich."

Despite such a wonderful promise, the Tucheng people still categorically refused, rather than being slaves, how to be their own masters, the result of resisting the king of the grassland means war, the emerging king of the grassland can not tolerate a small Tucheng damage their majesty, so, the second siege began, the wolf army dispatched 40,000 people, the Tucheng group besieged, cut off water and food, besieged for a month, the outer city was declared lost, the defenders were forced to retreat to the big stone fort, at that time the wolf army in addition to the original 40,000 people almost unscathed, but also recruited thousands of new servants,

These servant armies are as humble as dust in the eyes of the king of the steppe, and they are indeed regarded as dust, the commander of the wolf army drove them to attack the city, and used their flesh and blood to build a "wall of flesh", a "wall" as high as the stone wall of the big stone fort, the strong, arrogant wolf army stormed the big stone fort day and night, for more than ten days, the corpses under the big stone fort were like a mountain, and the wall was built up, but the son of the wolf could not climb up, and the feather arrows flying out of the castle were terrifying, Every time you try to get close to the enemy, you will be cold,

The rugged terrain wrapped the hooves of the war horses, and the narrow area was not conducive to the development of the brigade, and the brave soldiers of the Sky Wolf Army could only line up in a neat queue to send them to death one by one, which was really frustrating, and the warriors died tragically, and the meaning was only to raise the "meat wall" that was already higher than the city wall inch by inch.

In this way, the descendants of the wolf were helplessly dragged into a protracted war and a war of attrition, the high walls and deep fortresses of the big stone fort made the Hui people unable to move forward, and the huge trench dug by the Hui people around the big stone fort also made the defenders unable to cross the thunder pond, and the two sides were deadlocked, to see who would consume who would die first,

This terrible war of attrition was stalemate from autumn to spring, and from spring stalemate to autumn, the piles of corpses brought terrible diseases, inside and outside the city, the dead accumulated like a mountain, repeated four spring and autumn, the big stone fort still stood majestically, the reckless actions of the Hui people exhausted the treasury, the arrogant son of the wolf was questioned by the Quartet tribes, he had to send messengers into the city, ask the defenders to issue a surrender document, be soft, let the Great Khan have a light on his face, and there are steps down, and then end this protracted war,

The return given by the Hui people was very considerable: Tucheng was autonomous from then on, except for paying some special products to the royal court every year, maintaining a superficial subordinate relationship, and the royal court did not interfere in any internal affairs, in addition, the benevolent Han also allowed the people of Tucheng to enjoy the trade privileges with the Tang Dynasty that only the Hui nobles could enjoy.

Since then, the nobles and inhabitants of Big Rock City have not believed that their city will fall to their enemies, and Big Rock City has become a myth on the steppe that will never fall.

With the trade privileges with the Tang Dynasty, the Tucheng developed rapidly, and the area was tripled, with the big stone castle as the center of the three-story city wall, at first it was an earthen wall, and soon it was changed to an expensive brick wall, and finally it was changed to an extremely expensive stone wall, which is said to have exhausted the treasury of the Tucheng, so that for a period of time when the stone wall was repaired, the nobles often quarreled and even broke out due to financial surprises, and even conflicts, but the tall city wall defended the peace and fought for more than a hundred years of stable life for the residents of the city,

In the past 100 years, the Uighurs have changed their name to the Uighurs and still dominate the grasslands, but their knives are no longer as sharp as before, and their vigor has turned into a decadent twilight, and the country in the south, which is like a paradise, has become conservative and lonely after repeated civil strife, and the officials are conservative, rigid, **, and incompetent, and the people are dissatisfied with reality, willing to sink, poor and sick, and it seems that it is also declining.

Dashicheng, in the year when the Uighurs changed their name, they also changed their name to Dashicheng, and it seems that they are also going downhill, but their downhill pace is a little slower than that of the Uighurs or the Tang people in the south, and they have also become increasingly conservative due to the harassment of the emerging Khitans and unscrupulous Shatuos.

Psychological unconfidence prompted them to do their best to increase the height and thickening of the city wall, after decades of efforts, now the outer stone wall of the big stone city is about 100 zhang high, the inner city wall is 120 zhang high, the city wall is not only high, but also thick, the base thickness is up to 100 zhang, the top of the outer wall can be parallel six horses, the top of the inner city wall can be parallel to eight horses, the city wall is set up every 100 zhang a watchtower, every 200 zhang set up an arrow fort, the appearance of the arrow castle is like an upside-down bowl, the four sides have been arc-shaped, the top is a circular platform, On each platform is placed a flowering cannon, the range of the cannon can reach up to two miles at the farthest, and it has a devastating lethality to the densely marching army, and the arrow fort is full of organs, which can hide 500 soldiers, and the elevator is connected to the city with an elevator made of large cannibals, and the elevator is controlled by a huge winch, which can transport twenty people up and down at a time,

In addition to the artillery at the top of the tower, each tower is equipped with three huge crossbows, which can produce six to eight crossbow arrows at a time, and the crossbow arrows are large enough to pierce a war horse from head to bottom.

Yang Hao stroked those huge ballistas, looking out from the lookout hole of the bowl tower, the sight is very good, the design is also very ingenious, even if people stand in front of the lookout hole, they don't have to worry about the arrows outside shooting themselves, Dongfang Lan who accompanied him has a gloomy face and can wring out the water, when he was sixteen years old, he was a soldier in Hebei Domain, and he has experienced siege and defense of the city.

Hebei military town is known as the hero of the world, the city is high and deep, the soldiers are arrogant and fierce, the morale of the soldiers is not concerned for the time being, the equipment alone, far less than the defenders of Dashicheng, the ordinary soldiers here are dressed in thick armor, equipped with strong bows and crossbows, there are three self-defense weapons, long knives, short swords, daggers on the leggings, all forged with stainless steel, sharpness even exceeds the standard broadsword of the deputy generals of Hebei towns, and when it comes to the equipment of the generals here, Dongfang Lan even doubts what can kill them in a head-on battle,

The armor they wore was so thick that there was hardly any place to attack except for two eyes, and even the eyes were covered with a layer of iron gauze on the outside, and the idle sword could not hurt them.

Yang Hao ascended the bowl tower as a salt merchant and a guest of honor, and his sudden arrival made Yin Yisi panic and helpless, he said to Yang Hao: "You must be a messenger sent by heaven, otherwise how can you have the courage to come to the city." Yang Hao said: "The city of Big Stone City is too high, I am afraid that the children will not be able to climb up, so I will explore the road first, my friend, you will not welcome me to come." ”

"To tell you the truth, I really don't want you to come here at risk, but since you are here, what do I have to say, I can only protect you with my life, my friend." ”

Yang Hao immediately proposed to go to the city to have a look, which made Yin Yi Sip think about it for a while, because of the Krare has already ordered that the private soldiers of each family be mixed and grouped, so that you have me, I have you, monitor each other, contain each other, Yin Yi sighed: "Now I, the prime minister, have no soldiers in my hands, noble friend, if you insist on going to the city to see, I will accompany you." These words are quite a bit of sacrificing their lives to accompany the gentleman,

Yang Hao was sneering in his heart, he reorganized the troops before the war for monitoring, and Clarge did this to show that his mind was quite clear, but saying that he had no soldiers in his hands was a nonsense that he didn't believe in ghosts, and when it came to what danger would happen if he accompanied a curious friend to the city to see what danger would occur, he was even more ignorant and took people as fools.

Exposing him to such a hypocritical person can certainly be quick for a while, but at this moment it seems a little reckless, Yang Hao patiently maneuvered with him, until Yin Yi agreed to accompany him into the bowl tower,

After turning around on the top of the tower and walking along the wide road on the top of the city wall, Yang Hao suddenly asked Yin Yisi: "Where do the people in the city take the water source to drink?" ”

Yin Yi replied quietly: "There is Daze in the northwest of the inner city, which is inexhaustible all year round, and people and horses rely on this water for drinking. ”

Yang Hao said: "As far as I know, this water is very turbid, do the nobles in the city also drink this water?" ”

Yin Yi slurped and laughed: "The Great Commander is not going to poison the wells. He shook his hand and said, "This law does not work, there are twenty-seven wells in the big stone city, all of which are under the jurisdiction of the water office, and each well has a house built on it, and there are soldiers at the door, and no one is allowed to trespass except the water lifter of the water office, and the water lifter is responsible for bringing the water out of the well and pouring it into the trough, and the water flows to the big stone trough outside for the citizens to use.

"The watermen are all hereditary without exception, they come from the far north, they speak a strange forest language, they worship the big tree with two branches, they regard them as their protectors, there are not many big trees with two branches in the city, they live next to the big trees, they are very grouped, they disdain to associate with foreign peoples, and they do not let anyone come near, because their gods are not social, there is hardly anyone in the city to deal with them, and it is not feasible for them to threaten or buy."

After Yin Yisi said such a call, the response he got was:

"You think too much, my friend, the lack of virtue of poisoning the well is not done by us Khitans, maybe the Shatuo people can do it." Yang Hao winked at him, looking very relaxed, as if the paragraph just now was just a casual question,

"Maybe the Tang people, that is, the Han people in the south." Yin Yi added a sentence, thinking that he was very funny,

"The Han people would never do that kind of thing." Dongfang Lan couldn't help but argue,

"His new wife is a Tang man, and he is mad about her love, you have to pay attention." Yang Hao easily defended Dongfang Lan's reckless behavior, glanced at him Yinyi, and saluted: "I'm sorry for my friend, forgive me for offending." ”

Dongfang Lan immediately said: "Please forgive me for making inappropriate remarks. ”

Coming down from the city wall, Yang Hao said to Yin Yisi: "Goodbye, my friend, I hope that the next time we meet, we can raise a glass and drink together, the wine syrup of victory." ”

Yin Yi Si hugged his chest with one hand and said sincerely: "Don't you need me to do something for you, I sincerely want to help you, the glory of the Yin Yi Si family is tied to you." ”

Yang Hao said: "You are in danger now, I will not let our friends take risks for me." Then he pointed to the two young men: "They stay in the city, like diligent birds, what you need to say to me, they can convey it, but I advise you, my friend, that we should not contact unless it is urgent." ”

Yin Yi sipped and bowed again, and said, "On the occasion of parting, my distinguished friend, do you have anything to warn me?" ”

"Close the door and live in peace."

After Yang Hao finished speaking, he rode on his horse, and in the twilight, through the blood-red city gate reflected by the slanting sun, he ran towards the vast grassland.

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