readx; At night, the dark and dreary night shrouded the land of Hebei, but the defenders of Xiangzhou City were extremely nervous, everyone's eyes were full of despair, the endless field outside the city was covered with firelight, forming an incomparably huge oval, spread out on the ground outside the city, as if gathering into a sea of torches, extending to dozens of miles away, and on both sides of the ellipse, two bright streams of fire continued to flow into this sea of fire. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 info

An Lushan's army and Cai Xide's main force arrived in Xiangzhou almost at the same time, until the two watches, the troops injected on both sides began to gradually weaken, and at the same time, the huge oval army formation began to change formations, like an elongated steel rope, longer and longer, from the east and west to encircle the trend of Xiangzhou City, the east and west of the city continued to have soldiers shouting loudly, "Coming!" It's coming this way. ”

An Lushan's army became longer and longer, and at the fourth watch, the 300,000 army finally turned into a huge ring, tightly surrounding Xiangzhou City, and began to be more noisy.

The day has just dawned, the warm sun shines on Xiangzhou City, but the hearts of the soldiers defending the city are like falling into an ice cave, only to see that the outside of the city is covered with dense tents, such as mushrooms that grow after a night of spring rain, tens of thousands of tents are close to each other, and Xiangzhou City is besieged like an iron bucket.

Cheng Qianli looked at the huge An Lushan army three miles away, at this time his heart calmed down, it is impossible for the 300,000 army to be put into the siege of the city, at most 100,000 people at a time to attack the city, and his defenders have more than 47,000 people, and nearly 50,000 people, the grain can last for a year, only the law of defending the city, An Lushan may not be able to capture Xiangzhou City, this is also the reason why Guo Ziyi insists on defending the city, Xiangzhou City is strong, food and troops are sufficient, why abandon the city and flee?

Thinking of this, the anxiety of the past ten days was swept away, and thinking that An Lushan's fine work had been completely wiped out last night, Cheng Qianli's confidence soared, and his soldiers guarding the city were panicked, all showing fear, so they shouted: "Why be afraid, cheer me on the drums!" ”

The rumbling drum sounded at the head of the city, which was also the order of the army to assemble, a group of soldiers rushed from the city to the head of the city, in all directions, such as ants gathered, a quarter of an hour later, more than 30,000 soldiers rushed to the head of the city, densely lined up in the north and east of the city, on the towering city wall, the banner was unfurled, the army was like a forest dozens of miles long, and also formed a majestic and magnificent momentum.

It should be said that this method is very effective, if you don't let the soldiers understand their own advantages, and don't let the soldiers see the balance of power between the two sides, the fear in the hearts of the soldiers will form a strong psychological hint, thinking that An Lushan's 300,000 army is pressing, and their army will be defeated, and this panic will spread like an infectious disease, and finally it will seriously affect the morale of the army, seriously reduce morale, and not wait for the siege of the city, the army's heart has been defeated.

Therefore, Cheng Qianli must let the soldiers understand their advantages, although the enemy army is six times their own, but they have a strong city, there is enough food, the enemy army cannot attack the city in full force, if it can be dragged on for a long time, the reinforcements of the Anxi army will come, and An Lushan will definitely withdraw the army.

"Brothers, shout to me, we will win!"

"Victory!"

"Victory!"

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The voice changed from one person to a hundred, then to a thousand, ten thousand, and soon spread throughout the city, and every Tang army was infected, and they raised their swords and shouted, "Victory!" ”

Their confidence began to restore, their fighting spirit began to rise, and the head of the city of Xiangzhou was drowned out by the shouts of victory.

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An Lushan's handsome tent is located in the north, this is his subconscious behind the north and the south, his handsome tent will always be tied in the north, at this time, wearing a golden armor An Lushan sat on the chariot carried by 800 people, the so-called chariot is a five-zhang square, one zhang high big sandalwood platform, the surface of the wooden platform is covered with gold leaf, shining golden in the sun, his golden ivory handsome chair is installed on the wooden platform, he sits in the middle, next to him there are eighteen strong martial arts personal guards surrounded by him, Eight hundred wrecks carried this huge wooden platform with manpower.

An Lushan squinted at the city in front of him, if it was half a month ago, this city was undoubtedly a thorn in his side and a thorn in his flesh, but the situation was quietly changing, with Guo Ziyi sending troops from Jingcheng to Hebei, this city suddenly became less important in An Lushan's strategic balance.

How can Xiangzhou be defeated and directly face the 200,000 troops deployed by Li Qingan in Henan Province? An Lushan knew in his heart that Chang'an's military was divided into two forces, Li Qingan was just one of them, Li Qingan he might not be able to provoke, could he not afford Guo Ziyi, the old military leader?

An Lushan was squinting and thinking about his thoughts, when a personal guard next to him stepped forward to report: "Lord Wang, Mr. Gao is here, and I have something to ask to see the prince." ”

"Hmm!"

An Lushan nodded and ordered: "First send twenty scout teams, and within an hour, let me find out the situation around the city." ”

Someone immediately went down to give the order, An Lushan stared at the city again, and waved his hand: "Go back to the camp!" ”

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Gao Shang is with An Lushan's army to the south, but he is the rear army, until the morning did not enter the camp, as soon as he entered the camp he hurriedly found An Lushan, last night in the middle of the night he received an urgent information from Xiangzhou City, he wanted to report to An Lushan.

Gao Shang was pacing back and forth outside An Lushan's tent with his hands behind his back, he was still thinking about that information, according to his regulations to the spies in Xiangzhou City, he must send a piece of information every two days, it stands to reason that this information in his hand should have been sent the day before yesterday, but the day before yesterday there was no information coming, even if there was nothing to report, they should have explained in last night's information, the day before yesterday because of something delayed, with Song Yi's caution, he should add this sentence, but no, there is no explanation, which makes Gao Shang slightly suspicious in his heart, Did they inadvertently omit it, or was there another article in it.

But from other aspects, there is nothing wrong with this information, everything is normal, Song Yi's words, Mao Sheng's chapter, are completely correct, and it stands to reason that he should not suspect anything, he should believe his subordinates, but why did they delay the delivery of the letter for a day, but they didn't explain the situation clearly? This little abnormality makes the noble who is as careful as a hair feel like a sharp short hair hidden somewhere in his underwear, and his body is uncomfortable.

"King Yan returns to the camp!"

There was a shout in the distance, only to see thousands of soldiers rushing to this side, a high wooden platform appeared in the distance, the wooden platform was brilliant, noble couldn't help but sigh secretly, since the army, An Lushan has become more and more exquisite, food and clothing are completely no different from the emperor, he has regarded himself as the emperor, especially he used 800 people to carry the chariot, I am afraid that even the emperor Yanjing does not have this pomp, Sima Zhao's heart, has been exposed, but now even Hebei has not been beaten out! How the people of the world can support him, as well as the several massacres ordered by An Lushan, that is undoubtedly his biggest political failure.

Gao Shang's heart was full of disappointment and regret, what An Lushan did was not what a king should do, but it was like the style of the grassland chieftain Hu, did he still want to sit on the Han people?

Gao Shang sighed in his heart, An Lushan had already arrived in front of him, Jin Mutai slowly landed, An Lushan smiled: "Mr. Gao, what do you want to teach me?" ”

"Humble position, see His Royal Highness King Yan!"

"You're welcome, go! Speak in the big tent. ”

The two entered the big tent, sat down, and Gao Shang took out the information received in the middle of the night and handed it to An Lushan, although he was still a little hesitant, but the content of the information was quite important, he couldn't swallow it, he had to let An Lushan know such important information.

An Lushan took the information and read it carefully, and couldn't help but be surprised, the intelligence said that there were heavenly thunders of the Anxi Army in Xiangzhou City, the number is unknown, but there is no doubt that there are heavenly thunders, and they also heard the sound of explosions.

An Lushan didn't expect that there would be a thunderstorm in Xiangzhou, Li Qingan actually gave his secret weapon to Guo Ziyi, he suddenly remembered that his heavenly thunder had succeeded, but it was destroyed by Li Qing's security department, and later even the sulfur he bought was intercepted, and an unspeakable bitterness surged in his heart.

"Mr. Gao, could your subordinates be mistaken?"

Gao Shang shook his head, "It shouldn't be, Mao Sheng has also seen Tianlei with his own eyes in Youzhou, he can't be mistaken, and he also thinks that Xiangzhou City has a big surname of Tianlei." ”

"Why?"

"If we Yan Jun never knew the secret of the heavenly thunder, Li Qingan would definitely not give this secret weapon to Xiangzhou, but now that the marshal has known this secret, knows its formula, and even successfully experimented, then Li Qingan has no need to hide it from Guo Ziyi, so I don't think it's strange that Xiangzhou has heavenly thunder."

Although An Lushan was very depressed in his heart, he also had to admit that Gao Shang had a point, but he didn't know how much damage Xiangzhou's heavenly thunder would bring to his army.

"Dashuai, there is intelligence ..... behind" Gao Shang saw that he was only paying attention to Tianlei, so he reminded him again.

An Lushan continued to look down, but the following is a relatively good news, Cheng Qianli distributed a large amount of food to the fleeing people, although he advertised that it could be supported for a year, but in fact it could only be supported for a month at most, and the food rationing system had been implemented in Xiangzhou City, this news was absolutely accurate.

"Good news, sir! As long as I besiege Xiangzhou for a month, they will run out of food and collapse without a fight. ”

An Lushan turned his worries into joy, haha laughed, noble but a little confused about An Lushan's tactics, didn't he say that he wanted to take Xiangzhou City before the Yellow River was completely frozen? If so, what does a month's worth of food have to do with a year's worth of food?

"Dashuai, why is that?"

An Lushan sold it, and said with a mysterious smile: "Sir, wait and see how my An Lushan's strategy is?" ”

Gao Shang only felt that the battle situation had become confusing, should he rush to take Xiangzhou, or besiege the city to send reinforcements? Even he couldn't understand what medicine was being sold in An Lushan's gourd.

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At noon, the army of An Lushan besieging Dongcheng launched the first siege, and the general of the left army, Li Guiren, carried out a tentative attack, although this was only a tentative attack, but An Lushan still invested an army of 36,000 people, more than 100 siege equipment, and the ferocity of its siege was no less than the official attack.

The army of 36,000 was arranged in six phalanxes, each with a distance of 100 paces, like six huge black carpets, rising and falling on the earth, the morale of the army was high, and the murderous spirit of the army was high, and they approached the city wall from two miles away, the drums were like thunder, the trumpets were like the sky, the flags covered the sky, the spears were like forests, the shields were like mountains, and the black of death was shining in the sunlight.

General Li Guiren rode on his war horse and pointed at the city with his war knife, "Forward!" ”

"Woo~~"

The sound of a low horn resounded through the heavens and the earth, and in the middle of each team erected a dozen wooden doumeng, which was used to defend against the flying stones in the city, accompanied by the huge sound of wheels under the wooden doumeng, as well as nearly a hundred nest cars and ladders, the team began to slowly kill towards the city wall.

The city also made a loud drum, Cheng Qianli's eyes were red, and he roared again and again, although he also knew that this was a temptation of the Yan army, but the other party invested more than 30,000 people, which still caused him great pressure, he invested 10,000 people to defend the eastern city, and personally commanded the battle, and all the previous response plans were left behind him.

"Quick! Arrows are brought up....."

"Bastard! Go move the stones first, and the trebuchet is ready! ”

The thirteen heavy trebuchets on the head of the east city creaked open, three zhang high, six zhang long, the stone can be thrown to 700 steps away, and it takes 200 people to pull it, the swarthy thirteen trebuchets stand at the head of the city, just like thirteen monsters, the 300-pound boulder is put into the bomb pocket, and the two hundred people pull the twenty arm-thick belts, waiting for the order to launch.

In the middle of the battlements, 8,000 soldiers held longbows and arrows, and a four-foot-long thick pole arrow had been put on the bowstring, and the bows and arrows used for defense were different from those used for peaceful battles, and they did not need to shoot far with arrows, but they had to be heavy, so that the arrows could rely on their own gravity to shoot through the armor of the enemy, so they generally used large arrows, finger-thick arrow shafts, sharp arrow tips were streamlined, and there were bloodletting grooves on the four sides.

The enemy had gradually entered the range of the trebuchet, and Cheng Qianli gave the order to shoot, and he shouted in a hoarse voice: "Shoot!" ”

The red flag waved down, and the army struggled, only to see the long arms of the thirteen demonic beasts swing out, and the thirteen boulders flew into the air, roaring and smashing towards the city.

Looking up from the city, I saw thirteen small black dots in the sky, like a flock of geese skimming the sky, but the small black dots got bigger and bigger, and instantly turned into a boulder tumbling in the sky, smashing down on their heads, the team shouted, and the soldiers hid under Doumeng, but there were still a large number of soldiers who had nowhere to hide, they shouted and dodged everywhere, and the boulder fell, 'Bang! With a loud bang, the dust flew, and several soldiers couldn't dodge, and were smashed into meat sauce by the boulder, and the boulder continued to roll forward, knocking over dozens of people in a row before stopping.

A boulder hit the cowhide Doumeng, 'click' loud, Doumeng was smashed, the soldiers rolled and crawled out from below, but the stone was rebounded by Doumeng, and popped forward more than 20 steps, rushed into the crowd, and a miserable scream sounded.

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The second round of trebuchets shot again, and at this time a nest car full of soldiers was hit, the upper part of the nest car was suddenly shattered, fragments flew in all directions, wood mixed with the human body collapsed, and the huge impact force made the nest car lose its center of gravity and fell backwards, and more than 200 soldiers in the nest car suffered heavy casualties......

The heavy trebuchets of the Tang army brought nearly 3,000 casualties to the Yan army, but it could not stop the attack of more than 30,000 troops, and as the drums in the Yan army camp accelerated, the soldiers of the six phalanxes ran and rushed towards the city.

The moat froze solid, lost the function of obstruction, one by one ladders and nest carts crossed the moat, and landed on the city wall, tens of thousands of Yan soldiers climbed up the ladder like an ant colony, climbing the ladder in one hand, holding a shield in the other, biting the horizontal knife in the mouth, struggling to climb up, the arrows on the city were raining down, the stones and logs were falling like hail, and the soldiers were hit and shot, screaming and falling down the city......

There is another structure of the Xiangzhou city wall, that is, the horse face, that is, a protruding piece of the city wall, because the shape resembles the face of the horse and gets the name, it is generally protruding outwards two zhang, its function is to make the soldiers defending the city can shoot arrows from the back to the enemy, in this way, the siege soldiers ignore the back, the back is exposed and becomes the target, the long arrows are shot out intensively, which brings serious danger to the Yan army on the ladder, the casualties are extremely heavy, most of the soldiers who are shot to death and fall down are arrows in the back.

The dead corpses under the city wall quickly piled up, the blood flowed into the city river, seeping out from the corpse pile, staining the moat ice red, although the cold winter made the moat lose its protective function, but the cold winter brought another advantage to the city defense, a large amount of water splashed on the city wall, frozen into ice, thickened and widened, so that the city wall became extremely smooth, the ladder was difficult to support the city, and the soldiers on the city used steel forks to both sides to support it, the barb at the top of the ladder creaked across the ice, but it was difficult to support, and the oblique thorn fell sideways, A long scream was uttered by a string of soldiers on the ladder, and many of them jumped from the ladder, still suffering from death and injury.

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The real threat to the Tang army is the nest car, they are as high as the city wall, this kind of siege weapons made of wooden frames, covered with raw cowhide on the outside like a moving high house, full of soldiers, on the platform on the top of the nest car gathered at least a hundred Yan troops, they are tall, wearing heavy armor, holding swords, hammers and spears, fierce eyes, from time to time like a beast let out a low roar, in front of the platform is a long thick wooden board covered with iron sheets, when the nest car advances, the plank is pulled up, become a natural shieldAs long as they are not hit by boulders, it is difficult for the arrows of the Tang Army to shoot the enemy in the nest car, although the bed crossbow can penetrate the nest car, but it only kills and injures individual soldiers in the car, making it extremely difficult for the nest car to hurt the muscles and bones.

When the nest car is getting closer and closer to the city wall, only one zhang close to the city wall, the heavy wooden plank is put down with a bang, smashed on the battlements, and the gravel flies around, it forms a natural bridge, and more than 100 Yan soldiers in the platform in the car rushed out of the nest car, rushed directly to the head of the city, and the Tang soldiers fought together.

Four nest cars close to the city wall, nearly five hundred soldiers rushed to the head of the city, this is An Lushan from the three hundred thousand army selected two thousand elite, for the first wave of impact on the city wall, behind them there are a large number of soldiers are along the channel inside the nest car steady stream, these five hundred soldiers fierce and unstoppable, instantly in the defenders rushed a bloody road, more than a thousand defenders were killed and retreated, the situation of defending the city suddenly became tense.

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(To be continued)