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Dunhuang City, the city guard mansion hall.

Li Chengliang once again convened a meeting of civil and military officials in the city to report on the movements of enemy troops outside the city and listen to the preparations for war in the city, which was presided over by the garrison general Fan Yunchao.

The intensity and scope of this winter's snowstorm are beyond everyone's imagination, and the extent of the disaster in Mengyuan, the Western Regions and the Western Tibet can be said to be a once-in-a-millennium level, and they cannot resist it at all. Under the pressure of racial survival, the three parties had to put aside their enmity and send troops to the Tang State together, loot the materials of the Tang State, and divert domestic contradictions.

In the past, it was almost impossible for the three forces that had attacked each other to reach a unified command and steps in a short period of time.

After the vanguard was sent in a hurry, the size of the follow-up Chinese army, the time of the expedition, the supply of grain and grass, and the distribution of benefits became a matter of nonsense, and the envoys of several parties spent a lot of time in quarrels and compromises.

The Chinese army, known as the "Barbarian Alliance" by the Tang people, arrived two days later than expected, and gave Dunhuang City two more days to prepare, which also made the overall preparation progress of Dunhuang City better than expected.

Hearing General Fan say this, the civil and military officials in the city were a little relieved, after these days of busy work, seeing with their own eyes that Dunhuang City was fully prepared for various battles, everyone's fear of the barbarian alliance army dropped a lot.

At this time, the main battle faction in Dunhuang City occupied the mainstream, and they believed that as long as they could hold out until February of the next year, the imperial army could go out of the customs to help, and the crisis in Dunhuang City would naturally be solved.

However, the Lords and Peacers (including the Surrender Faction) still had some power in the city, and after the initial panic, the Lords and Peacers were now relieved, and they advocated sending envoys to negotiate with the barbarian coalition.

If the barbarian coalition does not ask for too much, but only asks for some grain, grass, gold and silver, you can give them some and make them retreat, it is better than seeing each other with swords and soldiers and ruining their lives; if they cannot be persuaded to retreat, it is also a great achievement to delay the barbarian army's attack through negotiations.

As soon as these words came out, the anxious generals in the main battle faction immediately became furious, the barbarian coalition army had already attacked the city, and at this moment there were still people proposing peace, which was simply a loss of power and humiliation of the country, and an insult to the prestige of the Tang Dynasty.

All the generals of the main battle faction stood up one after another to denounce the main and faction, but the main and political factions argued with each other on the grounds that the war was wasteful of money, the suffering of the people, and the lives of the soldiers, and the two sides immediately quarreled.

City Lord Li just sat quietly and did not say anything, while General Fan had an angry face, holding the hilt of his sword in his hand, and was about to explode.

At this time, there was a sudden sound of horses' hooves outside the city guard's mansion, and now only the sentinels returning from outside the city could still gallop in the city, otherwise they would have been shot by the ubiquitous border army and the city defense army.

The sound of horses' hooves did not stop until outside the door of the council hall, and a man in armor covered in blood slammed open the door of the council hall, stumbled in, and when he saw that all the adults were there, he immediately threw himself on the ground, kowtowed like pounding garlic, and cried out in a mournful voice:

"Ladies and gentlemen, save the people outside the city! The brutes of the Western Regions countries imprisoned all the people scattered outside the city into the barracks, and even dragged back the dead corpses, saying that they were going to be crushed into minced meat and used as military rations!"

"What?" Li Chengliang got up suddenly, because he used too much force, he immediately felt dizzy, his eyes were dark, he held his forehead and fell back, and Fan Yunchao on the side hurriedly reached out to support the city lord.

Several high-ranking officials sitting in the front row immediately stepped forward to lift Master Li to the Taishi chair and patted his chest for him, and it took a long time for Li Chengliang to relieve his breath.

Li Chengliang's eyes flashed with hatred, he grabbed Fan Yunchao's arm, stared at Fan Yunchao's eyes and said, "Yunchao, do you have a good way to save those people?"

Fan Yunchao couldn't look directly into Li Chengliang's eyes, and silently looked away and said: "My lord, Shu Yunchao is incompetent! The city gate has been completely closed, and we can only hang down from the city wall when we send troops outside the city, and now we are afraid that it will be too late to rescue them, besides, there are 380,000 barbarian coalition troops outside the city, and we have no ability to rush to rescue the troops!"

Li Chengliang's eyes widened angrily, and his hands grabbed Fan Yunchao's arm like iron tongs and shouted: "Those are all the people of our Dunhuang Mansion, our compatriots of the Tang Kingdom, 20,000 people! If they die of cold and starvation, it would be fine, but now they will be used as military food by the barbarians!

I order you to bring someone to save them now, quickly! If something happens, I will bear it with all my strength in the imperial court!"

Fan Yunchao shook his head firmly and said, "My lord, I'm sorry. My current duty is to defend Dunhuang City with all my might, and I can't take care of the others. ”

"You, you!" Li Chengliang scolded angrily with green tendons on his forehead: "Fan Yunchao, the imperial court handed over 800,000 soldiers and civilians in Dunhuang Mansion to us, but you want to watch them die, you are shameless, cold-blooded, you are a coward!"

Fan Yunchao's pupils contracted, and he wanted to refute, but he immediately suppressed his anger and said calmly: "It is precisely because the imperial court handed over the Dunhuang Mansion to the two of us to guard, and we can't be rash, and we can't bury the lives of the 780,000 soldiers and civilians in the city for the 20,000 people outside the city who did not return to the city according to the regulations.

What's more, if the city of Dunhuang is broken and the country is wide open, it will not be 20,000 people who will die, it may be 2 million or 20 million people, please think twice!"

Li Chengliang pointed at Fan Yunchao angrily, but he couldn't say a word, his face was flushed, and finally a mouthful of blood spurted out, and he completely fainted.

The officials hurriedly wanted to carry City Lord Li to the back hall, Fan Yunchao said coldly: "Just go to two people, and the rest of the people will continue to have a meeting." ”

Those civil officials dared not speak out, so they had to send two representatives to follow the subordinates in the mansion to carry Li Chengliang to the back house.

Fan Yunchao looked around at the officials in the council hall with a cold gaze, and said in an equally cold and piercing voice: "Ladies and gentlemen, City Lord Li is seriously ill, and now the situation in the city is in crisis, according to the regulations of the imperial court, from now on, I will temporarily take charge of all affairs in the city!"

As soon as these words came out, the audience was in an uproar, and the military attaché immediately felt energetic, and unconsciously straightened their backs, opened their shoulders, and showed a brave posture.

Some of the usually domineering generals widened their eyes even more, and viciously scanned the civilian group to see which civilian official dared to raise objections!

Without the support of the civil officials of the city lord of Li, who dared to offend the garrison general, most of them lowered their heads, which can be regarded as acquiescing in this seizure of power.

Fan Yunchao nodded with satisfaction and said: "Okay, since everyone has no opinion, I announce the first order, from this moment on, whoever dares to propose the city to save people will be punished as collaborators!"

......

Su He waited in the camp for half an hour before the generals of the coalition army arrived one after another, and more than 30 people came with the vanguard officers of various countries and ministries, but no less than 3,000 guards came.

Su He can only shake his head secretly at such an inefficiency of the coalition army, how well can you expect them to perform well in the army that joins forces for the sake of profit?

Su He ordered Chaolu to order a hundred guards to accompany him, and set off for Dunhuang City on horseback.

More than 20 miles of snowy road, the horses walked for an hour to arrive, when the generals of all ethnic groups saw Dunhuang City with their own eyes, they couldn't help but be shocked.

The twenty-two miles wide and fifteen zhang high city wall stood in front like a towering mountain, cutting off the road leading from the Western Regions to the Hexi Corridor.

No one dared to bypass this Xiongcheng and directly attack the hinterland of the Tang Dynasty, because once the back road was cut off by Dunhuang City, no matter how many troops entered the Hexi Corridor, they would eventually be wiped out.

Su He squinted his eyes and observed the situation around Dunhuang City, for defensive considerations, the walls around Dunhuang City were clear, and there were no hills and woods within dozens of miles nearby, so it was impossible to establish a commanding height outside the city, and it was impossible to cut down trees on the spot to make siege equipment.

There is no large river near Dunhuang City, so there is no moat, but there is a deep trench under the city, but at this time it has been covered by ice, and the entire ice surface extends from the city wall to the outside for thirty zhang, which is extremely unfavorable for soldiers to attack the city.

On the city wall, there are many arrow towers, corner towers, all kinds of defending equipment are complete, the shadows on the city wall are full of soldiers, it seems that the soldiers in the city are also sufficient, it is definitely a city that is easy to defend and difficult to attack.

Su He first observed from a distance for a while, and decided to get closer to see the direction and route of the attack under the city.

Soon more than 30 coalition generals came to the junction of the ice and snow under the city, because the snow was too thick, the snow surface here was a full zhang higher than the ice surface, forming a snow cliff a foot high, as if the earth had suddenly sunk here.

A one-zhang high snow cliff is not very high, but if a soldier jumps from here, he has to step on the smooth ice and stagger towards the city wall thirty feet away, such an attack will be difficult.

During this period, there was enough time for the city to harvest the lives of the besieging soldiers with bows and arrows, and even if it was under the city walls, it was a headache to use what method to attack the city walls.

There is no need to think about attacking directly from the city gate, which must have been sealed a long time ago, and it is useless to smash the gate, but under the premise of lack of siege equipment, it is really more difficult to climb the fifteen-zhang city wall than to ascend to the sky.

Once the attack fails, because of the existence of the snow cliff, the attacking soldiers will not be able to retreat at all, and they will eventually be destroyed.

You have to find a way to flatten the cliffs, at least create a gentle slope so that the attacking troops can smoothly attack under the city walls, and there is also a retreat route when retreating.

Su He observed for a while, grasped the general situation of Dunhuang City, and decided to return to the camp first and then think about countermeasures.

At this time, a group of Tang generals suddenly appeared on the city tower, and they had just received a report that they were suspected of being the other party's generals coming to peep into the city.

The generals were immediately furious, and climbed the tower with General Fan, ready to denounce the thief chieftain.

Fan Yunchao climbed the city tower and saw that the enemy generals were only forty zhang away from the city wall, and no one in the border army in the city fired arrows to expel them, and said angrily: "Where is Ji Chang, shoot the enemy's main general for me!"

Fan Yunchao flashed a young man in his thirties with a fit body and an ape arm and bee waist, and without saying a word, he shot an arrow at General Meng Yuan, who was dressed as the leader on the opposite side.

Ji Chang is the most famous archer in Dunhuang Mansion, and this arrow is really like thunder, and it arrived in front of Su He on the opposite side in an instant.

Su He didn't pay attention to the arrow at all, turned the horse around and walked back, and when the arrow was still three feet away from Su He, a big man jumped up from the horse's back from one side, grabbed the arrow shaft from the side with a loud shout, and then landed firmly on the ground.

This big man was the Mengyuan vanguard general Chao Lu, Ji Chang's arrow shook violently in his palm a few times before calming down, Chao Lu laughed loudly and broke the arrow with one hand and threw it on the ground.

He took off the big bow from his back, quickly drew three arrows from the quiver, put on the bowstring, and shot it up the castle tower with a "whoosh".

Ji Chang's pupils contracted, and he hurriedly released three arrows in a row, crashing two arrows, but the third arrow suddenly accelerated, dodging Ji Chang's interception, and went straight to Fan Yunchao, Ji Chang hurriedly used the longbow in his hand to forcefully pull away the last arrow.

Although Chaolu did not hurt Fan Yunchao, Ji Chang's archery skills were obviously inferior to Chaolu, but he didn't expect that before the two sides went to war, Dunhuang City lost for a while.

All the Tang generals on the city tower were all iron-faced, but they thought that their archery skills were not as good as Ji Chang's, and no one dared to come out to show their ugliness again.

At this time, the enemy generals had already walked out of fifty zhang, and it was too late for the soldiers to release arrows, and it seemed that this battle was lost.

After Chao Lu personally broke off, he stretched out his right hand and clenched his fist, thumb down, and laughed and shouted in stiff Huaxia language: "Another day, take, you, the first level!"

At this moment, the mutation protruded, and the ground two feet in front of Chao Lu suddenly cracked, and the thick snow exploded, and a large canopy of snow and broken ice flew out, hitting Chao Lu's face and body.

Chaolu subconsciously raised his hand to cover his face, and at this time, a relatively large piece of snow in the flying snow actually accelerated in the air by itself, and a shining knife light passed through the flying snow and sent it into Chaolu's throat.

Chao Lu didn't have time to dodge, he was sealed by a knife, and then the knife flashed, Chao Lu's head was cut off, and the blood in his thick neck cavity spurted out a few feet high, quickly losing heat in the extremely cold air, and when he landed, a lot of blood had turned into blood-colored ice beads.

The generals and soldiers on both sides were all stunned, only to see that the snow block turned out to be a samurai dressed in pure white, he grabbed the hair of Chaolu's head, turned around and jumped off the ice, ran desperately on the ice, and quickly approached the city wall.

Su He's eyes widened angrily, and he roared: "Hurry up and release the arrow, I will kill him to avenge Chaolu!"

Immediately, the generals and guards took out their bows and arrows one after another, and began to fire arrows at the fleeing white figure!

At this time, after a short period of panic on the city wall of Dunhuang City, Fan Yunchao shouted: "Release the arrows to suppress the barbarians, and you must save that warrior!

The Tang army on the tower of the city saw with his own eyes that someone had assassinated the vanguard officer of the barbarian coalition army, and he felt his blood boiling, and he shot the arrows in his hands at the enemy army with the height of the city wall, blocking the footsteps of the barbarian army.

A large number of the rushing barbarian guards were shot and dismounted, and they had to be fired from a distance, but the arrows were too unruly to threaten the Assassin warrior, and he reached the bottom of the city walls with great speed.

A soldier had already thrown a rope from the wall, but the warrior did not rush to climb so as not to become a target for the barbarians, but he used his long knife to fend off the arrows from the opposite side, waiting for an opportunity.

The muffled sound of "buzz~~" came, this was the sound of the Tang army's bed crossbow when it was launched, and the powerful machine could shoot the arm-thick arrow out of five hundred zhang, and the bed crossbow was powerful, and the barbarian army had to retreat again and again.

When the Assassin saw the barbarians retreating, he immediately climbed the rope and was as nimble as a tanuki, and soon climbed to the top of the wall.

As soon as he jumped off the battlements, more than a dozen elite guards forced him against the walls with spears, and the Assassin threw down his long knife in his hand, threw Chaolu's head to the other side, and reached out to take off his mask.

Several of the military attachés exclaimed, and Fan Yunchao asked strangely, "Do you recognize this person?"

Mr. Huang Qian took a step forward and said: "General, the lower officials recognize him, he is the very famous hero of the hundred beheadings a few days ago - Li Mao!"

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