readx; This time, the Great Food Army did not give the Tang Army any chance, and the incendiary bombs were thrown round after round, not only the monstrous fire was ignited on the city, but even the city walls and the city were also on fire, but the Tang Army was quiet, without any counterattack, the Great Food Army was getting closer and closer, and once again entered the most tragic field, and many Great Food soldiers began to rescue their comrades who were struggling in a pool of blood, and quickly carried them off the battlefield. Pen × fun × Pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 ｉｎｆｏ

'Boom! With a bang, a boarding car finally approached the westernmost part of the north city where there was no fire, the huge wooden plank was lowered, and more than 100 big food soldiers with shields and spears rushed to the head of the city, shouting and rushing towards the west city head, the city car formed a passage, and more big food soldiers climbed up from the stairs inside, and rushed up to the city wall continuously.

But the two thousand crossbow archers of the Tang Army had been waiting for a long time, when the Great Food Army had just rushed through the corner of the city, immediately a thousand arrows were fired together, and the dense rain of arrows blocked the way for the Great Food Soldiers to advance, within seventy steps, the powerful crossbow arrows shot through their shields, and the Great Food Soldiers were immediately killed and wounded, and the first batch of soldiers who rushed up were almost completely annihilated, and they retreated one after another, being suppressed in the narrow corner of the northern city.

At this moment, the nightmare of the Great Food Army came again, and dozens of earth-shattering thunderbolts were shot out at the same time from the east and west city heads of the two wings, although they could not shoot eight hundred steps away like the Great Food Trebuchet, but the farthest could shoot five hundred steps, and it was five hundred steps, three hundred steps and two hundred steps, far and near, front and back, three kinds of distances were staggered, and they exploded violently in the dense Great Food Army, as if they had stirred up countless blood-colored waves in the black ocean, and a large area of the Great Food Soldiers was blown up, and the Great Food Soldiers wailed and screamed, Immediately after that, dozens of earth-shattering thunderbolts were thrown, and they exploded violently in the crowd one after another, causing blood and flesh to fly, dead bodies pillowing their bodies, and extremely heavy casualties.

Haman was already in a state of semi-madness, his eyes were red as he watched large swaths of his army being killed, and he shouted hoarsely, "The trebuchet comes forward and burns the east and west cities to the ground!" ”

An officer was shocked and hurriedly stepped forward and said, "Your Highness Amir, our army has already attacked the city, and we can't expand the attack. ”

"Bastard!"

Haman was furious, stabbed the officer to death with a sword, and shouted with his bloody sword: "Trebuchet come forward, fire incendiary grenades!" ”

The trebuchet rumbled forward, and walked about two hundred steps, 'Boom! The ground fired incendiary bombs, dozens of burning fireballs swept through the sky, crossed the north city wall, and hit the east and west sides of the city, on the west city, a huge fireball roared, at the corner of the very edge, there were thousands of soldiers of the Great Food Army who had rushed to the head of the city were hiding behind the corner and the Tang Army engaged in bow and arrow battles, they never dreamed that the fire would burn their heads, more than a dozen fireballs hit their hiding place, in an instant, the city head was engulfed in flames, the Great Food Eater soldiers wailed, hundreds of fire men raised their hands and fled in all directions, After running a few steps, he fell headlong, but the biggest impact was the boarding car, the four boarding cars that were just close to the city were hit by the fireball, and immediately ignited a raging fire, and thousands of food troops gathered in the boarding car were in a mess, trampling each other down and fleeing for their lives, and one step later was engulfed by the fire, and all of them were burned alive in the boarding car.

A hundred steps away from the head of the west city, the crossbowmen of the Tang army also suffered the impact of the fire, in an instant, hundreds of Tang soldiers were engulfed in the fire, the Tang soldiers retreated one after another, with the fire after the fire came out, the flames had approached the trebuchet on the head of the city, and there was a thunderstorm next to the trebuchet, and the crisis began to appear.

At this time, a soldier rushed to the city and shouted: "The general has an order, and the earth-shaking thunder will immediately retreat to the city!" The general has an order, and the earth-shaking thunder will go down to the city immediately! ”

The situation was extremely critical, thousands of soldiers rushed to the city with earth-shattering thunder, the trebuchets could not be withdrawn, and were instantly engulfed by the fire, the fire of the Great Food Army was overwhelming, and the entire northern part of Khiva City was plunged into a raging fire, the city was in chaos, and the terrified residents screamed and retreated to the south of the city, and many people could not escape, and were engulfed in flames, 'Boom! With a loud bang, a sky-shattering thunder burned and exploded in the fire, blowing up the corridor of the lower city, and the last more than 400 Tang soldiers had no way to escape and died tragically in the fire.

Although the defense of the Tang army was greatly suppressed, but the Great Food Army was also unable to attack, at this time, fifteen Tang Army heavy trebuchets counterattacked in the city, one after another earth-shattering thunder crossed the city wall, and projected towards the dense Great Food soldiers outside the city, when a swarthy sky-shaking thunder flew out, the Great Food Soldiers were immediately terrified, and rushed to flee for their lives, but the Great Food Army was too dense, and every earth-shattering thunder exploded, and hundreds of people were always blown up and died.

The soldiers retreated again and again, but were driven back again and again by thousands of troops who pressed the formation, and His Royal Highness Amir had a strict order to take the city of Khiva at all costs and capture Li Qing'an alive.

At this time, Haman pinned all his opportunities on the battering ram, and he also found that most of the thunderbolts shot by the Tang army from the inner city were concentrated on both sides, and there were almost none in the middle of the city, which brought a glimmer of hope for him to capture the city gate.

The earth shook, thousands of soldiers desperately pushed the battering ram step by step forward, the five hundred camels that originally pulled it had been paralyzed by the tragic battle, and refused to work hard, as long as the manpower was used, this battering ram was more huge than the siege used by the Tang army, only the body of the mallet was ten zhang, plus the wooden frame, it was fifteen zhang long, four zhang high, and it took three thousand people to push.

This battering ram was the weapon used to capture the city of Damascus, the Arabs called it 'Devil', made by 2,000 craftsmen in Kufa, when 200,000 Abbasid troops besieged Damascus, and it was this battering ram that finally broke through the gates of Damascus.

The three thousand soldiers shouted rhythmically, the battering rams rumbled forward, two fireballs fell in front of the city gates, and the flames soared into the sky, and the battering rams advanced in flames and explosions.

At this time, a heaven-shaking thunder fell on the crowd next to the battering ram, exploded violently, a powerful wave of air blew hundreds of people away, blue iron nails scattered and burst out, screaming, the battering ram tilted sharply to the left, the iron chain rattled, the huge mallet body shook left and right, frightened the two big food soldiers shouted in unison, Allah forbid, the battering ram finally stabilized.

The battering ram continued to move forward, walked another hundred steps, and finally arrived at the city gate, at this time, more than 2,000 soldiers of the Great Food struggled to pull up the chain, roared and stepped back, the mallet body was gradually pulled up, an officer raised the flag and waved down, all the troops put the chain together, the mallet body smashed towards the city gate, as if shaking the heavens and the earth, 'Boom! There was a muffled thud on the ground, and everyone's hearts were almost shaken out, and the gates shook violently, and cracks appeared in the newly repaired bricks again.

In the city, four layers of big bluestones are piled up on the city gate, but despite this, the huge impact force still makes the four layers of big bluestones shake back and forth, like an earthquake, and the two big stones on the very edge fall, almost killing the Tang army below.

Seeing that the situation was not good, a Tang military captain rushed to the rear, he rushed through the flame array, and soon found Li Qing'an, who was directing the throwing of the earth-shattering thunder.

"General, the enemy is attacking the gate with a battering ram, the power is too strong, I'm afraid the gate can't be resisted!" Li Qing'an also felt the shaking under his feet just now, but the towering lookout tower in the middle of the city covers too much area, blocking the attack route, so that the heavy trebuchet can not project the middle of the city gate, and the watchtower is surrounded by soaring flames, the fire is extremely fast, the trebuchet can not move forward, Li Qingan also had to sigh, the fireball of the Great Food Army is indeed too violent, and the fire oil overflowing from the fireball is not the viscous oil of the Tang Army, but similar to the light gasoline refined in later generations, and the firepower is even more rapid.

At this time, there was another violent shaking, and the battering ram hit another hammer, Li Qing'an frowned, he knew that the city bricks that had just been repaired had not yet dried out, and he was afraid that he would not be able to support the heavy blow of the battering ram, he looked up at the city again, and the fireball flying over the city seemed to have weakened, and the trebuchet of the big cannibal should not be able to withstand the frequent projection.

Now there is only one way, and he resolutely ordered: "The first scout battalion will send people to the city and manually throw earth-shaking thunder!" ”

Immediately, hundreds of warriors poured buckets of water from their heads, and carried ice and fine sand, wrapped several large wooden boxes containing earth-shattering thunder with cotton quilts, and rushed towards the north of the city.

Although the main target of the Great Eclipse had turned to the east and west sides and the inside of the city, there were too many fire oil bombs shot at the head of the northern city, and the fire oil was still burning all over the ground, and the flames were more than one person high.

The soldiers quickly paved a straight road with ice and fine sand, leading directly to the top of the city gate, hundreds of Tang soldiers lined up in a long walkway, endured the blazing back of the flames, and quickly transmitted three earth-shaking thunderbolts to the battlements, nine Tang soldiers squatted down close to the battlements, pried open the wooden box with daggers, and in groups of three, two people carried out more than 40 pounds of iron-shelled earth-shaking thunder.

At this moment, the big food army below shouted in unison, and the captain officer shouted, "Squat down!" "Tang Jun, who was so frightened that he hugged the earth-shattering thunder, hurriedly squatted down, only to hear 'boom!' There was a muffled sound on the ground, this muffled sound made everyone's hearts almost burst, the city shook violently, dozens of Tang soldiers stood unsteadily, fell into the flames, instantly covered with flames, even their hair was burned, the surrounding Tang troops were in a hurry, pulling them over and beating them, despite this, there were still more than a dozen people screaming and being burned to death.

I only heard the cheers of the Great Food Army outside the city gate, and the gate had been knocked open, revealing the green and faint boulder inside, at this time, as long as it was hit again, the gate would be broken, and the Great Food Army could move the stones away from the outside, and the army would be killed into the city.

The situation has reached a critical moment, but God is destined to change Li Qing'an's history, just when the cheers of the Great Food Army have not stopped, I saw three black and swarthy flat round iron guys thrown from the city, emitting white smoke, falling on the bottom plate of the battering ram, the surrounding hundreds of Big Food soldiers were frightened and heartbroken, one by one, their souls were scattered, and they turned around and fled, but it was too late, one of the earth-shaking thunders exploded violently, blowing up more than 100 soldiers around them, and the other two earth-shaking thunders were blown up and fell into the crowd behind, and exploded continuously, with bloody limbs and flesh splattering everywhere.

The bottom plate of the battering ram was blown open, more than a dozen thick side pillars were broken, and the seat frame could no longer support the battering ram weighing tens of thousands of catties.

The remaining survivors let out a shout, turned their heads and ran back, the collapse of the battering ram reversed the situation of the war, the morale of the Great Food Army was low, and he had no intention of fighting again, and the commander Haman was stunned, he looked at the soldiers who were blown up by the Tang Army's fire and thunder bombs, the legion had long been out of formation, nearly half of the 70,000 soldiers had disappeared, and the city of Khiva was still standing majestically in the fire, and he finally realized that he had committed a heinous crime.

"Withdraw... Army! ”

He was so angry that his eyes were so dark that he fainted to death.

This is an extremely tragic battle, the two sides did not have a hand-to-hand encounter, but each used the most violent weapons to attack the other side, but the number of dead soldiers of the Great Food Army far exceeded that of the Tang Army, although the Tang Army was burned to death and burned by the flames Although it was close to 3,000 people, the Great Food Army had been killed in a morning of more than 40,000, for which the Tang Army had thrown more than 400 earth-shattering thunderbolts.

The tragic siege battle on the first day finally came to an end, and at the head of the city, Li Qing'an watched the Great Food Army slowly retreat, and it could be clearly seen that the morale of the retreating Great Food Army was very low, and there were a large number of wounded soldiers among them, at least 10,000 people.

Li Qingan's eyes narrowed, his expression was complicated, no one knew what he was thinking?

．．．．．．．． The war subsided, the Great Food Army withdrew to the big camp ten miles away, but the air was still wafting with a thick smell of the corpse being burned, which did not disperse for a long time, in the camp of the Great Food Army, there were wounded soldiers of the Great Food Army lying everywhere, and people were constantly dying and being carried away, the venom in many people's bodies began to attack, the wounds were black and swollen, and they were dripping with pus, and the big food military doctors were no longer busy, and the soldiers could only solve it by themselves, using knives to rip off the flesh of the poisoned parts, and some people even cut off their arms together, and the screams came one after another, and the morale was low to the extreme. In the tent, Haman lay on the bed with his eyes blank, and the internal officer was reporting to him the battle report that had just been counted, and there were 39,000 soldiers on the battlefield who had not returned, and 16,000 wounded in the withdrawn army, and some were constantly seriously wounded and died, and the rest were almost incapacitated.

In a war for most of the day, nearly half of his 100,000 troops were killed and wounded, although on the surface he had the advantage, and the Tang army was powerless to fight back by his fire and oil bombs, but in fact, he was the real loser.

Haman's heart was in great pain, and he suddenly felt a sweet throat, and a mouthful of blood spurted out, and several military doctors hurriedly stopped the bleeding for him.

Haman waved his hand, and said in an unusually weak voice: "Go to General Shaykh and please!" ”

A personal soldier went out, and after a while, he invited the adjutant general General Shaikh in, and Shaikh had a gloomy face and did not say a word.

Haman sighed and said: "General Shaikh, the reason why I didn't listen to your opinion on the matter of military rations last time was because I thought that we had tens of thousands of camels, and it was really impossible to kill camels for military rations, but I didn't make it clear and directly reprimanded you, it was me who was wrong, and I apologize to you!" ”

This is probably the first time in Haman's life to apologize, Shaikh's face finally softened a little, he looked up to the sky and sighed, and said: "I am actually not afraid of the Tang Army's fire and thunder, because our burning fireball is no less powerful than it, what I am afraid of is Li Qing'an's tactics, His Highness must have seen it with his own eyes, in fact, the Tang Army has the same heavy trebuchet as us, if they use the heavy trebuchet to fire fire and thunder bombs at us at the beginning, then we will not have the opportunity to throw incendiary fireballs at all, but they don't need to, This is the terrible thing about Li Qing'an's tactics, he would rather be passive in attack and defense, but also attract our army to press on a large scale, and then they will use fire and thunder to kill and injure our soldiers in large numbers, this is Li Qing'an's strategy, annihilating our living forces, has His Highness ever thought about such consequences? ”

Haman lowered his head and didn't say a word, Shaykh glanced at him, and said slowly: "I also figured it out later, because Li Qing'an knew our internal contradictions, and killed a large number of troops loyal to the caliphate, then the caliph's power to control the empire would become weaker, then the Qiyad of Khorasan would become stronger accordingly, and our empire would most likely have a civil war, then Egypt, which was loyal to the old Ali, might be divided, and the remnants of the Umayyad dynasty in Spain, their power was not weak, and the empire would fall into a serious crisis, This is Li Qingan's strategy. ”

"But... But we are no match for the Tang Army's fire and thunder in any case, their fire and thunder are too powerful. Haman's face turned pale and he muttered.

"Nope! I have already said that the Tang Army's fire and thunder are not powerful, but Li Qingan's strategy is powerful. ”

Shayih saw that Haman was still obsessed and still only recognized weapons, he couldn't help but feel heartbroken: "We have every chance to defeat him, as long as we pretend to be out of food at the beginning and withdraw the army, so that Li Qingan wants to annihilate us, he can only be forced to chase after us, or he will abandon the city and retreat south, as long as he is led away from Khiva, we will send troops to cut off his back road, and the main force will counterattack again, then we will fight in the desert, our strength is superior, even if the Tang army has earth-shattering thunder, it is by no means our opponent, we will win this battle, it's a pity!" We were deceived by his tactics to lure the enemy and did not seize this fighter. ”

Haman's face turned pale for a while, and he complained a little for a long time: "But you didn't say this plan at that time, you just said that the army food was insufficient, otherwise I would not have attacked the city on a large scale." ”

Sha Yih was speechless, in fact, he only remembered this strategy later, but it was too late, and he didn't understand Li Qing'an's true purpose at first, and he slowly understood it afterwards, just hindsight.

Neither of them had anything to say, and the big tent was silent, and after a while, Haman said in a hoarse voice, "Then what do we do now?" Will the withdrawal of troops attract him out? ”

Shayih shook his head, "It's a little late now, 50,000 against 30,000, morale is low, and we have brought so many wounded soldiers, we are not advantageous, and our burning fireball is almost running out, the bows and arrows of the Tang army are basically not used, even if we are fighting in the desert, we may not be their opponents, and now, we can only really withdraw our troops, while he is unprepared, withdraw overnight." ”

"Then can we wait for reinforcements from the caliphate?"

"Nope! No! Without waiting for the caliphate's reinforcements to arrive, the reinforcements of the Tang army came first, and at that time we were really going to be annihilated, and we had to withdraw so that we could save most of our troops. ”

Haman pondered for a moment, then finally nodded, "Alright! We withdrew overnight. ”

At this moment, they suddenly felt that the ground was shaking, and the silver kettle on the table also fell to the ground, and the two couldn't help but look at each other, only to see a soldier stumbling in and making an urgent report: "Your Highness, no... Oh no, the cavalry of the Tang Army is coming. ”

(To be continued)