The Yellow River in Fengzhou is not wide, less than 100 zhang wide, the Turkic military bus "learned the simple method of building a pontoon bridge by the Han people, first pulled out a steel cable, firmly fixed on both banks, and then quickly spliced a large sheepskin raft along the steel cable, only 50 sheepskin rafts were used to spell out a pontoon bridge, and then continuously widened into five rows, they were tightly tied together, and the soldiers quickly laid wooden planks on it, and then erected a wide and stable large pontoon bridge.

In less than two hours, the Turkic army had built eight of these large pontoon bridges and two more sturdy baggage bridges, and 300,000 troops crossed the Yellow River and marched towards the city of Dali.

Shibi Khan Duji rode a horse and stood in front of a high mound on the south bank of the Yellow River, there is also a huge stone tablet in front of the mound, the big characters on it have become a little blurred due to the erosion of wind and sand, but it is still barely recognizable, there are three big characters on it: "Warning Tablet" next to the Turkic text, the following line of Chinese characters: "Those who commit the Great Sui Tianwei will not be severely punished" below is a dense small character note, which is the warning set by the Sui army of Fengzhou after Xue Yantuo invaded Fengzhou ten years ago, and the high mound behind, It is the Kyokan Mound, where tens of thousands of heads are buried.

The fiasco of Xue Yantuo ten years ago has always been a nightmare in the hearts of the grassland people, and Dali City is also a city that cannot be touched and killed in the hearts of the grassland people.

Lu Ji sneered, he knew that Yang Yuanqing was in Dali City, if he didn't raze Dali City to the ground, the grassland people would never be able to turn over, and what the Xue Yantuo people couldn't do, let the Turks do it.

Duji immediately divided his troops into three routes, ordered his brother Ashina Duxin to lead an army of 70,000 to attack Yongfeng City and Hekou City, opened the passage for the Turkic army to go south, and ordered his uncle Ashina Kunji to lead an army of 30,000 to sweep Fengzhou, and flatten all the farmland, villages, and cities in Fengzhou, and he himself led an army of 200,000 to kill Dali City, ten miles away.

The Turkic army finally pressed Dali City, Yang Yuanqing stood at the head of the city, silently watching the Turkic army in the distance slowly move towards Dali City, he couldn't help but think of a scene ten years ago, Xue Yantuo's 100,000 army also appeared in the wilderness outside the city.

But Xue Yantuo was far from being able to compare with the Turkic army, the military flags in the Turkic army in the distance were overwhelming, the drums shook the sky, and the dust was flying, with experience, he quickly judged that this was at least 200,000 troops, so what about the rest of the 100,000 troops?

Yang Yuanqing understood Duji's strategy, he was not stupid, he did not press all the troops on Dali City, but divided his troops and marched separately.

He glanced back at his army, the city wall was also full of dense Sui soldiers, Dali City is also the focus of the Sui army's defense, there are 30,000 Sui troops and 10,000 militias, a total of 40,000 troops, just as Dali City is the nightmare city of the grassland Hu people, Dali City is also the spiritual city of Fengzhou and even Dasui, as long as Dali City does not fall, then the grassland people will not be able to go south to the Central Plains.

After more than ten years of expansion and repair, the area of Dali City has been twice as large as before, divided into the outer city, the middle city, and the inner city, the middle city and the inner city are the former semi-circular cities, and there is no change compared with more than ten years ago.

The outer city was built later, rectangular, with a circumference of more than ten miles, concentrated on ordinary residents and various bazaars, and the city was already an empty city at this time.

The outer city wall is four zhang high, three zhang wide, the ear accommodates four carriages in parallel at the head of the city at the same time, all are made of fired bricks of the big city, tall and strong, there is a horse wall every sixty steps, four zhang wide, three zhang outside the protruding wall, because the wall shape is like a horse face and gets the name, mainly to cooperate with the city wall, eliminate the dead angle under the city, attack the enemy from three sides from top to bottom.

The outer city wall is directly against the mountain wall, and it is not directly connected to the middle city wall, but is connected to the middle city through the air wooden suspension bridge, even if the outer city is lost, the Sui army can quickly retreat to the middle city through the suspension bridge to continue the defense.

The city of Dali has been transformed into a huge fortified castle, and the Turkic army will pay a heavy price if they want to capture it.

The 200,000 Turkic army stationed a large camp three miles away, and one after another Turkic dome tents rose up in the wilderness, eight miles wide, stretching for several miles to the north, and the dense dome tents were one after the other, and the momentum was magnificent.

"Chief, there are large siege engines in the enemy camp!" A pro-soldier lieutenant whispered as he pointed to the huge objects standing in the Turkic camp.

Yang Yuanqing nodded, he also saw it, it was the nest car and the cloud ladder, as well as the cowhide doumeng and the battering ram, it was obvious that this time the Turks came prepared, unlike the last attack on Yanmen, which temporarily made a simple siege ladder.

At this time, Yang Yuanqing also saw the ladder, which is a large siege ladder, similar to the ladder, but wider than the ladder, below is a wooden platform one zhang high, above is a ladder made of more than ten five or six zhang long giant trees, directly on the city wall, and equipped with an iron hook to grasp the city, the army can rush up along the ladder in groups, there is this kind of straight and tall giant tree in Yin Mountain, which is also the Sui Dynasty craftsmen who fled into the Turks taught the Turks.

Yang Yuanqing's mood became heavy, with the sturdiness of Dali City, he might be able to barely defend against this kind of siege weapon, but Yongfeng City and Hekou City were in danger, he couldn't help but curse in a low voice, "Damn traitor!" ”

Du Ji also looked at this city that made the people of the grassland tremble in front of the camp, it did look taller and stronger than the city in the Central Plains, a huge Great Sui red flag fluttered on the city tower, and there were dense Sui soldiers standing on the city wall, at least 15,000 people.

"You say, Yang Yuanqing is not in this city?" Duji pointed to the distant Dali City with his sword and asked the generals behind him.

A captain bowed down and said, "I think that with Yang Yuanqing's character as a pioneer, he should be in Dali City." ”

Another commander also said: "He is the main general, and if he is not in Dali City, it will affect the morale of the army." ”

Duji smiled, "You're right, he really should be in Dali City, such a strong castle, if he doesn't hide here, where will he be?" ”

At this time, a tribe came forward and suggested: "Khan, I am afraid that there will be heavy casualties in attacking this city of Dali, I suggest that we can bypass this city and continue to march south, to attack other towns, so as to avoid too many casualties of the Turkic army." ”

Tong Jin is the title of the chief of the big tribe, this Tong Jin is called Amutai, is the leader of the Tata Department of the fourth largest tribe of the Turks, his opinion represents the thoughts of many people, this time they are coming south to plunder property, robbing women, not to fight bloody, losing men and horses, but also a fear of Yang Yuanqing in their bones, coupled with various legends of Dali City, so that they have no confidence in attacking Yang Yuanqing.

Ji Ji glanced at him coldly and said, "Do you mean to remind me to change the golden wolf head on the banner to the golden sheep head?" ”

Amutai's face turned red, and he hurriedly explained: "I mean that you don't have to fight with Yang Yuanqing first, you should go to harvest the spoils first, and when you finally return with a full load, you will attack Dali City, and take Yang Yuanqing's head away by the way." ”

As soon as he finished speaking, Du Ji picked up the whip and whipped him fiercely, and angrily reprimanded, "There is no war, how can the spoils of war come from?" The Turks are wolves, not sheep, when we see a powerful enemy, we want to rush up and bite him to death and tear him apart, instead of running away with his tail between his legs, I know that you are afraid of Yang Yuanqing, today I will let you fight the first battle, if you don't dare, just roll back to the grassland for me, and change the name of the Tata Department to the Sheep Department. ”

The dozen or so commanders behind all laughed, and the piercing ridicule made Amutai's face swell into the color of pig liver, and the shame and anger made him lose his mind, and he roared, "The Tata tribe is not a sheep, the Tata tribe is the tribe of warriors, and they are never afraid of the enemy!" ”

"Good! You show it to me.

Du Ji immediately turned around and ordered: "Tata is going to attack the first battle, give me a drum and shout kill!" ”

'Boom! Boom! Boom! , The sound of the giant drum shook the sky, and the shouts and cries in the Turkic camp were higher than one wave, this is the way the Turks urged the war, Amutai has regained his senses, he secretly regrets it in his heart, but he can no longer get off the stage, at this time, cowardice will make him lose his face again, he had to grit his teeth and said: "The Tata Department can fight, but our tribe only has 30,000 troops, and the siege can only be sent to death, only let us fight, this is not fair!" ”

"I will also send 30,000 troops to fight with you!"

Amu was so helpless that he had to whip his horse and run towards his tribe.

Duji looked at his back coldly, a sly smile flashed in his eyes, this Amutai was also one of the people who opposed him some time ago, and he had long wanted to clean up the Tata Ministry.

The sound of war drums in the Turkic camp suddenly made the atmosphere over Dali City suddenly tense, and Yang Yuanqing watched the movement of troops in the Turkic camp, and in the southeast corner of the Turkic camp, an army of 50,000 or 60,000 people was rapidly assembling.

Yang Yuanqing also turned around and shouted: "Beat the drum and prepare for war!" ”

The war drums of the Sui army also rumbled, and 10,000 Sui troops were quickly deployed on the city wall, and 10,000 militia troops also entered their respective positions as operators.

This time the defense of the Sui army is very well prepared, unlike the defenders of Yanmen City who do not have large defensive weapons, they can only rely on human flesh to fight for their lives, two hundred and forty large trebuchets are deployed on the city wall of more than ten miles outside the city of Dali, which can throw hundreds of catties of boulders out four or five hundred steps away, this kind of two-zhang high heavy trebuchet needs at least one hundred and fifty people to pull, but after Zhang Lei's improvement, the old-fashioned trebuchet pulled forward was changed to a backward pull type, and the belt elastic force of the trebuchet was used to shoot out, and the principle of the water well wheel was used to pull the force into a double winch, In this way, only twenty people are needed to maneuver a trebuchet.

Zhang Lei is not only the first crossbowman of the Great Sui, he is also a military mechanical wizard, not only designed a winch trebuchet, but also designed a row of crossbows similar to a repeater, that is, the use of bed crossbows, shot ten arrows at a time, powerful, three hundred steps away can penetrate the shield, this kind of bed crossbow can be operated by only two people, but also with a winch winding, there are four hundred such bed crossbows on the city, to deal with the dense siege army, the lethality is amazing.

In addition, there is a stone robe, this kind of stone cannon is with a trebuchet, is a short-distance heavy stone machine, the advantage is high accuracy, known as the nest car killer, within fifty steps, the nest car can be broken.

In the impassioned drums of the Sui army, 10,000 Sui troops and 10,000 militia operators were already waiting for him, Yang Yuanqing's eyes were cold, and he wanted to use the most brutal killing to make the Turks unforgettable this battle for generations.