The boulder weighing one hundred and twenty catties fired three rounds in a row, smashing a large area of blocks within 100 steps of the southern city of Xizhou into a terrifying sea of fire in one fell swoop. Due to the ban on the removal of the city gate ordered by the former Banda Hongbin, the barbarians have withdrawn from the city on a large scale, and the once prosperous capital of Dongxi is now empty, and most of the remaining people are Han Chinese who migrated here with the Peng family decades ago.

As Han Chinese, they naturally have a heartfelt affection for the Peng family, which has the same ancestry. When the Peng family of Xizhou Assassin Mansion was killed a month ago, the Peng Shiyu brothers and sisters were able to escape, in addition to the desperate guards of the Qin brothers under their command, many Han people spontaneously rushed to the rescue when they heard the news.

Recently, I heard that the young master of the Peng family returned to Xizhou with the help of the Tang army, although these Han people live as usual on the surface, but in fact, they have been secretly jubilant in their hearts for a long time, but they never expected that the young master they had in their hearts would bring them such a catastrophe today.

Fireballs fell from the sky, and when the weight of this 120 catties alone fell at high speed, many unlucky people were stoned to death at home with the bricks and tiles on the roof.

The surviving people panicked, and finally fled from the fire with their families and mouths, and just wanted to run to the east and north of the city to run for their lives, but found that a large number of houses destroyed by the surrounding flames had spread rapidly under the pressure of the wind, and hundreds of boulders soaked and dripped fire oil splashed everywhere with the rubble, and set fire to several large and small streets, and the way was almost cut off, and there was no hope of escape.

Smoke billowed into the sky, almost obscuring the daylight, and the suffocating smoke mixed with the smell of blood and burning, gloomy and gloomy enveloped almost the entire southern city, and everywhere was the cry of desperate people under the flying ash and sparks, and it was not an exaggeration to say that it was an endless hell.

In front of the Wuping army under the city, 300 trebuchets began to slowly advance their positions under Liu Jiangsheng's flag-raising order, intending to reduce the attack range by another hundred steps according to the established strategy. Xu Kuangheng also galloped to command the people's troops in the rear, and was continuously sending the reserve boulders to the front army.

Seeing that the trebuchets attacked several rounds in unison, Li Yuan looked at the ruined Xizhou City, and his heart was not shocked, but he was still determined to continue to extend the distance and area of the attack, and completely crush the arrogance of the barbarians. Although this indiscriminate boulder bombardment and the spread of fire would have caused a large number of casualties, he must not save the kindness of a woman, and must wait for all the boulders to be thrown before attacking the city with soldiers.

Not to mention that this style of play can greatly reduce the casualties caused by the previous ant-attached siege mode, the key is that if you don't deter Tian Hongyou and the barbarians with terrifying and powerful force, with the stubbornness and deceit that the barbarians have always had, I don't know how long the war will last.

In the final analysis, Li Yuan's real heart knot now is not the small Xizhou in front of him, but the main force of the Han army hundreds of miles away.

Whether the cause of this battle is due to Peng Shiyu's request for help, or out of the strategy of stabilizing the rear of Langzhou, at present, Li Yuan has dragged the main force of Wuping's army in such a barren place, and the two-front battle is always a risky move, and now Yiyang and Tanzhou are in danger, and we must end the battle in Xizhou as soon as possible, and personally lead the army back to solve the real trouble, otherwise once we take care of one and lose the other, the overall situation of Langzhou will be shaken on all fronts.

Therefore, to deal with the barbarians, you can only adopt the tactics of quick battle, since you are equipped with a big killing weapon such as a trebuchet, the best way is naturally to directly burn this city to rubble, so as to force Tian Hongyou into a desperate situation.

Now in Li Yuan's heart, there is no suspense in this war. There is only one question to be quickly considered, after pacifying the land of Sanzhou, how to govern this large area in the future? I have to say that even though he had previously formulated a strategy of using barbarians to rule barbarians, when he thought of the vast land and population of Sanzhou, Li Yuan couldn't help but be moved many times, but he quickly retracted this dangerous idea.

There is no doubt that from the day of the army to the present, Li Yuan, who has personally experienced the barbarism here, has become more and more aware that this barbaric land, even if it is under the jurisdiction of Wuping Jiedu, it will be difficult to maintain the stability of this place if the previous state and county governance methods are adopted.

The estrangement between the barbarians and the Han is indeed deep, and it cannot be quickly eliminated by forceful means, not to mention that the barbarians can abandon the city and live in the mountains and dense forests, but the Tang army cannot. It may be possible to conquer all the large and small cities in the three states by force alone, but it is impossible to conquer every piece of high mountains and dense forests here, let alone conquer the hearts of the barbarians.

Therefore, this is also one of the reasons why Li Yuan dared to attack the city by devastating means in this battle.

Anyway, it has been openly promised that Peng Shiyu is still the lord of the three states, and he only needs to change his flag and pay taxes and servitude, so how to deal with the aftermath of this mess after the conquest, and throw it all to Peng Shiyu and the family behind him, and the Peng family can be in charge of Xizhou for decades, I believe they can be handy.

After that, Sanzhou became under the rule of Wuping Jiedu, and unless there was a crisis that made it difficult to determine himself, Li Yuan was by no means willing to expend a lot of energy to directly intervene here.

In the end, he is still the feudal official of the Tang State, and he naturally has a merit in opening up the territory for His Majesty who is far away in Jinling, but Li Yuan, who is already eye-catching, has added a hidden danger, as long as this barbaric land is not maintained effectively or even has a major incident, he is very likely to suffer from the Yushitai and even the government and the opposition......

Thinking of this, Li Yuan inexplicably turned his head to look at Peng Shiyu, who was gloomy and silent, and threw away the so-called brotherhood with the oath of the heavens, judging from the recent performance of this young master of Xizhou, the more he knows how to forbear, the more he can see that his ambition still exists.

Peng Shiyu and his brother Peng Shigao are actually different, the latter has been integrated into the Han court system for many years since he left the tribe to follow the former Chu king Ma Xicao, and has been used to being a military general, and his heart has been polished for a long time, while the former is cultivated in the way of the ruler, even if he suffers such a danger, he can also see from him that it is obviously different from ordinary people's temperament, like a wolf who is proud of the wolves.

Therefore, if he wants to make the land of Sanzhou safe and stable in the future, Li Yuan needs to ensure that he is obedient and obedient, and solve the hidden dangers in the rear of Langzhou once and for all.

Because of this, today's siege battle is even more deterrent to Peng Shiyu. In fact, he also has similarities with Tian Hongyou in the city, to deal with this kind of guy whose heart is higher than the sky, he must go down with a stick to fight obediently, and he will only be restrained in the future. Let Peng Shiyu see the tragic scene of confrontation with Tang Jun with his own eyes, and make him succumb from the bottom of his heart with unimaginably powerful force, which is far better than speculating with each other and changing cups and calling brothers and sisters.

In a short time, 300 trebuchets had advanced to a distance of 250 steps from the Xizhou city wall under the traction of the sergeants and horses, and at the sound of an order, the sergeants began to lean over and drive piles to fix them, preparing to start a new round of boulder air raids.

On the southern city wall of Xizhou, the barbarians who had already been devastated by the heavenly fire and cried their fathers and mothers, and now finally received the order of the governor Tian Hongbin, and were able to temporarily abandon the city wall, and hurriedly gathered along the hot stone steps to the city and hid in the urn city behind.

As for the streets and houses that were bombed into ruins by the Wuping army, and the Han people who were desperately struggling and crying in the sea of fire on the streets, none of the barbarians came to the rescue. Not to mention the difference between barbarians, in the end it is a war, and after seeing too many tragic deaths and injuries, everyone has long become numb.