readx; The sound of explosions on the river can be clearly heard dozens of miles away, this is the signal of the Tang army's attack, 50,000 Tang troops in the west began to march towards Bushi City, at the same time, 30,000 Tang troops in the north also received the order of Li Qing'an, the commander of the Tang Army, to press south from the north, and the two Tang armies formed a joint encirclement of the Tubo army in Bushi City. Pen | fun | pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 ｉｎｆｏ

The city was in a panic, every house was closed, the streets were empty, only a group of Tubo soldiers were smashing the door from house to house, they looted one by one on the grounds of searching the Tang army, food, money, livestock, all were robbed, some young and beautiful women will be defiled, the Tubo to the people in the occupied area to cover up their inner panic, but also shows that they are not optimistic about the future of the city, before the Tang army occupies the city, the people in the city to carry out the final looting.

Above the city, the commander of the Tubo army in the infantry division city, Xi Zhu, looked desperately into the distance, he seemed to have seen the figure of the main force of the Tang army, although he ordered to repair the pontoon bridge, but it would take at least three days to repair the pontoon bridge, and dozens of small boats could not transport many reinforcements across the river.

And the army of the Don Army is already approaching, what to do? Whether to fight with the Tang army, or to defend the city and wait for reinforcements, the crisis is imminent, but he has not yet figured out how to deal with the Tang army.

People tend to retreat when they are in a panic, and they don't want to forge ahead, which is the weakness of people's surnames, and only brave and extraordinary people dare to challenge themselves in adversity.

This Tibetan general obviously lacks courage, he hesitated under the pressure of the main force of the Tang army, and never had the courage to go out of the city and fight with the Tang army, he carefully looked at the city wall of the infantry city, the city wall is only six people high, and there is no moat, although it is not very high, but it is very heavy, all made of large bluestone, maybe able to resist the Tang army for a few days, maybe be able to wait for the day when reinforcements arrive.

He was looking for comfort in all kinds of self-assumptions, but the arrival of the Tang army was real, not his hallucination.

'Woo~Woo-'

A low and distant trumpet sounded in the west of the earth, a long black line appeared in the west, as if it were an echo, and the trumpets sounded in the north, and the Tang army in the north also appeared.

The black line gradually spread out, pulling out an overwhelming black curtain, the flag is like a cloud, the armor is distinct, the team is neat, the swords and guns are like a boundless forest, the cavalry is in front, the infantry is behind, the speed of the march is not fast, but every step is so thrilling, the rhythm of the march is accompanied by the sound of horns, and the rumbling drums roll across the sky like thunder.

This is an army dominated by Han people, they still retain the unique neat military appearance of the Han army, strict discipline, but they can not see the feminine spirit of the Han army in the Central Plains, they have a unique blood and fire in Anxi, but also have a steel-like tough temperament, they are like a piece of high-density steel, indestructible.

The Tibetan army has retreated from all directions into the city, their retreat is so embarrassed that they even have no time to carry a lot of baggage and throw it away, as the 10,000 Tubo troops stationed on the north bank of the pontoon bridge retreat to the infantry city, the gate of the infantry division city is slowly closed.

The 40,000 Tibetan troops all went to the city, they did not have heavy defensive weapons such as trebuchets or bed crossbows, only bows and arrows, and the most primitive rolling wood stones, and the way to obtain stones was easy, they demolished all the stone houses near the city wall, and obtained a large number of stones.

At the end of the city, the Tubo army attacked the city, but today it was reversed, 80,000 Tang troops attacked the infantry city, the city has been in chaos, the main general Xi Zhu commanded the soldiers to block the door with a boulder in front of the city gate, a piece of boulder weighing several thousand catties was moved by the Tubo soldiers, densely stacked behind the city gate, the city gate is the most vulnerable place in the fortified city of the infantry city, and it is very easy for the Tang army to open the gap from here.

His voice was hoarse, and he pointed to a door and shouted in a hoarse voice, "Quick! This way, this way, plug this place. ”

More than 200 Tubo slowly transported a square boulder with crowbars and rolling logs, blocking the city gate, and several large stones were also transported behind and piled on top of the boulder.

At this time, the Tibetan soldiers drove thousands of old and weak women and children to the city from all directions, many of them still holding children in their hands, crying and pleading, but the Tibetan soldiers ruthlessly drove them to the city with whips and wooden sticks, these old and weak women and children will be their hostages, which can hinder the Tang army's attack.

The drumming outside the city gradually subsided, and the two Tang armies in the west and north arrived at the city of Bushi almost at the same time, and they stopped advancing two miles from the city, waiting for the next order.

Li Qing'an rode on a horse, located in the middle of the team, he looked at this familiar city coldly, although he made a response plan for several possible situations, but he did not expect that the Tubo army finally chose to trap itself in the city, although the thick city wall of the infantry city can slow down the iron hooves of the Tang army for a while, but the Tubo army can not hold the city at all, on the contrary, the city wall will trap the pace of the Tubo soldiers to escape.

If it were him, if he knew that he was invincible and there were no reinforcements coming, he would rather choose to break through and break through to the west, after all, they also had an army of 40,000, and at least 20,000 could break through the siege, and if they were trapped in the city, they would be easier to be annihilated.

"General, look!"

One of his soldiers pointed to the city and shouted, "They have brought all the women and children into the city." ”

Li Qingan couldn't help but smile contemptuously, he had already smelled the cowardice of the Tubo army, and the women and children were brought to the city as shields, didn't it show their cowardice?

These Tibetan soldiers do not know what war is, war is a struggle after the soldier becomes a beast, there is no mercy, in the face of war, the most worthless thing is human life, whether it is a soldier or the old and weak, women and children.

"Pass my orders, and the chariot will go to battle!"

The rumbling drum sounded again, and two hundred chariots appeared from behind the Tang Army Brigade, which is a heavy weapon that Anxi has painstakingly built for many years, with a huge size, with six wheels to carry weight, and the entire carriage is made of a unique century-old ironwood on the coast of Yibohai, the wood is extremely delicate and thick, and it is the raw material for the Anxi Army to make shields, this ironwood is actually a kind of oak, not afraid of fire, not afraid of knife cutting, hard and abnormal, only the bed crossbow can shoot through it within one hundred and fifty steps, and the warmaker wraps a layer of iron sheet outside, To make it more sturdy, a carriage is about three zhang long, one zhang five wide, and one zhang high, and is pulled by twenty-four tall and majestic Dawan horses, which is unimaginable in the Central Plains, but can be easily done in Anxi.

Each cart could contain thirty crossbowmen, and there were shooting holes all around the carriage, and there were also bed crossbows and small stone cannons in the form of winches, that is, stone generators, rather than lever trebuchets, which could fire objects weighing twenty pounds to a distance of 300 paces, and this kind of chariot was actually a kind of ancient heavy tank.

Although it is a bit bulky and not fast, it can exert great power in group combat, especially the Anxi army craftsmen invented the evenly burning lead, which has an extremely important impact on the control distance and time of the earth-shaking thunder, and it is possible to throw the earth-shaking thunder from a long distance, and the power of the chariot can be doubled.

'If you want to do a good job, you must first sharpen your tools!' ’

The earth-shaking thunder is not Li Qing'an's invention, it was invented by military craftsmen in the Song Dynasty more than two hundred years later, and it is an inevitable product of gunpowder used to a certain extent.

In fact, the gunpowder craftsmen of the Tang Army also invented the assault rifle last year, which also used a bamboo barrel to shoot iron sand, but this weapon is not practical, the range is only a dozen zhang away, the use is cumbersome, and it will be damaged in two or three times, far less sharp than the bow and arrow of the Tang Army, and at this time, the forging technology of the Tang Dynasty could not reach the level of manufacturing seamless barrels, so they gave up the development of the assault gun, and focused on the development of simple and practical earth-shaking thunder.

Compared with last year's battle of Khorezm, the earth-shaking thunder began to appear small and huge, the small type weighs eighteen pounds, the size is like a small flat watermelon, it is specially developed to match the use of the chariot, and the huge earth-shaking thunder weighs about two hundred pounds, like a large vat, used to explode the city wall is extremely effective.

Today, two hundred chariots did not carry crossbowmen, but a small stone machine, which was fixed in the carriage and carried by three soldiers.

Under Li Qing'an's order, two hundred chariots rumbled towards the infantry city, the scouts of the Tang army had already explored clearly, there was no trebuchet in the infantry city, the Tubo army did not have a long-distance weapon, the Tubo army was not good at defending the city, although they learned a lot of techniques from the Tang Dynasty, they could build sharp weapons, they could make bows, and they could make strong chain mail, but they could also be like the Tang army, to create all kinds of heavy weapons and all kinds of high-quality weapons, and form a complete set of military industrial system, they did not have that ability.

For defending the city, the Tibetan army was still the most primitive method, using rolling wood and stones, and the Tang army to engage in hand-to-hand combat, but today they were fortunate to see the most advanced and sharp weapons in the world: the two hundred six-wheeled chariots used by the Tang army for the first time.

Six wheels, huge as a room carriage, twenty-four majestic horses, only to see the dust, covering the sky, two hundred war horses galloping together, the Tubo soldiers on the city head were stunned, two hundred chariots stopped when they were about two hundred and fifty steps away from the city wall, turned the horse's head, and turned the tail of the car to the city wall, at this time, the cover plate at the tail of the carriage was lifted, revealing a frame of black stone cannons, the two Tang soldiers on the left and right had tightened the winch, and a dark red flat round earth-shattering thunder was placed on the stone cannon, ready to go, Dragging a two-foot-long slow-moving fuse, a Tang soldier lit the fuse.

There is a scale on the lead, two hundred paces, two hundred and fifty steps away, but the position of the chariot is not so accurate, in order to prevent the earth-shaking thunder from shooting prematurely on the city without exploding, being doused with water by the enemy or cutting off the lead, a craftsman invented a special design, made an iron cover on the earth-shaking thunder, so that the last thirty steps of the lead can burn inside the iron shell.

Every earth-shattering thunder is engraved with the name of the craftsman, if there is a dumb thunder or an early explosion, the craftsman will be held responsible, this accountability is not only used in important firearms, all the weapons of the Tang Army have the name of the craftsman, in order to facilitate recognition or accountability, which ensures that the craftsman makes every weapon conscientiously, what 'more sweat in peacetime, less blood in wartime' and other slogans are useless, only a strict and perfect system and assembly-line like division of labor, is the real effective management and quality guarantee.

Leads' snort! ' burned, bursts of white smoke, Tang Jun, who was making a stone cannon, squinted his eyes, the lead had burned to the scale of two hundred and fifty steps, he pressed the handle hard, and the winch was full of power and exploded, and the strong thrust pushed the dark red earth-shattering thunder out, a 'click! Click! Click! Two hundred earth-shattering thunderbolts emitting white smoke drew a parabola and shot towards the city.

The carriage started and left, and just after walking a few steps, I heard a deafening explosion at the head of the city, which shocked people's hearts and almost stopped beating, and the earth-shattering thunder exploded one after another, and the red flames burst out, and puffs of black smoke rose into the sky, converging into a huge mushroom cloud.

Large sections of the city walls were blown flat, the dense crowd at the head of the city was gone, countless rubbles and bloody flesh and bones were scattered in all directions, the air was filled with choking gunpowder smoke and disgusting bloody smell, only the screams of dying and the screams of great fear came one after another, like a miserable scene in hell.

The 80,000 Tang troops a few miles away were also stunned by the power of this earth-shaking thunder, although the power of this small sky-shaking thunder was relatively small, but the two hundred exploded together, and the kind of landslide-like effect it caused still made the Tang soldiers feel a chill.

The city was already silent, and in a powerful explosion, thousands of Tibetan soldiers disappeared, and all the Tibetan soldiers were shocked, and a sense of despair arose in everyone's hearts, as if death had taken their hearts away.

At this time, Li Qingan issued a second order, "Siege!" ”

The earth-shattering drums sounded again, hundreds of nest cars and ladders have been assembled, and began to rumble towards the Bushi City, 60,000 Tang soldiers rushed up like a tide, although the Tang army has the most advanced and sharp weapons, but it is people who fight, the Tang army needs to temper itself with blood and fire, they need to grow in death, and they need to become the most powerful army in the world in the baptism of war.

The morale of the Don army was high. A cloud ladder set up the head of the city, the Tang soldiers climbed the city, the arrows on the city head were like rain, the rolling wood and stones fell down like hail, a Tang soldier was smashed to the skull shattered, screaming and falling off the city, another soldier went up bravely, with a spear and the Tubo soldiers at the head of the city to fight, under the city, 20,000 Tang troops fought back with strong bows and crossbows, the overwhelming strong arrow rain pressed the Tubo soldiers on the head of the city could not raise their heads, the Tubo army suffered heavy casualties, and the soldiers kept falling into the city with arrows.

At this time, the Tang army's fifty nest cars finally arrived at the city wall, the nest car is installed with rollers, hundreds of soldiers push it forward, the city wall of the infantry city is not high, the nest car is just the same as the city head, there are two hundred soldiers in each nest car, the iron plate of the city is pulled up by the iron chain, which can resist the bow and arrow of the Tubo army.

'Boom! With a loud bang, the iron plate hit the head of the city, smashed the gravel and flew around, two hundred Tang soldiers shouted, rushed out of the nest car, waved their war knives and spears, rushed into the Tubo army, and fought with them, with the 10,000 Tang troops in the nest car to kill the city, so that the Tang army climbed the cloud ladder to get the opportunity, they rushed to the city, the fighting spirit was strong, the momentum was high, and the shouting of killing, but the Tubo army was still sunk in the explosion cloud of the earth-shattering thunder just now, it was difficult to extricate themselves, their military spirit was scattered, and their morale was low, was killed by the Tang army and retreated.

At this time, the city of infantry became a prison for the Tibetan army, making it difficult for them to escape.

Li Qing'an saw that the gate of the infantry division city was open, and the Tang army waved the banner of the Anxi army, he immediately pointed his sword at the city gate, and ordered the 20,000 most elite cavalry: "Kill the advanced division city, and the resistance will be killed!" ”

The horses' hooves were rolling, and the momentum was overwhelming, and the 20,000 cavalry rushed towards the infantry city like the highest wave.

(To be continued)