Late Tang Dynasty Floating Life

Chapter 545
"Kill!" More than a hundred Bian soldiers suddenly rushed to the earth wall and put down the wooden plank.

As if it was a signal, there were figures in the darkness in the distance, and a large group of soldiers charged over with weapons in hand.

Before them was a ditch, behind which the excavated earth was patted into a wall.

Being rushed to the front by the Bian army, the defenders were also a little panicked, and the gong was struck immediately, resounding through the night sky.

The resting prairie young adults jumped up, took up bows and arrows, Tibetan spears, sickles, axes, bones and other miscellaneous weapons, and were about to face the enemy.

"Shoot!" Chief Hao with braided hair and iron armor ordered loudly.

The long arrows were shot densely, and a layer of white hairs immediately grew on the large shields of the soldiers of the Bian army.

The screams continued one after another, and an unknown number of people died on the spot in the darkness.

"The descendants of King Miyao, uh—" A chieftain was shot in the throat by an arrow just as he was about to boost his morale.

In fact, he didn't need to encourage them, and the two sides quickly killed each other.

The Bian army climbed over the earth wall with difficulty, and was soon pierced into a bloody man by the Tibetan spear stabbing over.No matter how many layers of armor you wear, there will always be places on your body that you cannot cover. When facing a dozen sharp spear points, your chances of winning are always very low.

The corpses fell powerlessly behind the wall, and the successors took advantage of the chaos they caused to climb over the earth wall and fight desperately.

Swords and axes flew, spears stabbed, blood rained, and one life after another disappeared in the night wind.

The young and strong Tibetans couldn't bear the bloody fight, and some people had already retreated, but they were greeted by dense arrows.Even the soldiers of the Bian army who were chasing after them all the way were shot into a sieve——

In front of the second earthen wall, there was an awe-inspiring array of archers and spearmen, and the number of them was desperately large.

Drums sounded in the night.

Every time the drum is played, a chieftain rushes forward with his young men.

Most of them have no armor, all kinds of weapons, and their coordination is terrible, and there is no killing skill, only a brute force and wildness, driven by the supervisory team, howling forward.

The Bian army was pushed back step by step, and the first earthen wall was taken back.

Lu Huaizhong came down from the watchtower with a serious face, still watching the retreating Bian army from afar.

Sergeants of the Wuwei Army escorted dozens of rout soldiers, and in front of everyone, raised their knives and dropped them, in order to rectify the military law.

The fleeing sergeant will not only be beheaded himself, but his family members will not be eligible to receive land.Even the leader of the tribe to which he belongs will have more severe punishments, and the Shuofang Army will not care.

But even such harsh punishments still couldn't stop some people from fleeing.Between life and death lies great terror, which even a savage cannot pass.

"This night attack is not as good as yesterday." Lu Huaizhong looked at the Fan soldiers who were rushing out of the earth wall and chasing the Bian army, and said: "Last night, we killed the second earth wall, and today we haven't even completely broken through the first one. , the breath is dying."

Yang Liang, who had rushed back from Mengzhou City to supply food and grass, watched the battle from the sidelines. Hearing the words, he echoed: "Baiyacang City has been attacked for two days, and more than 500 people have been lost. Can we make a strong attack?"

"Marshal asked to surround first, and then persuade to surrender." Lu Huaizhong shook his head and said: "Bai Yacang, the best thing is to go down without a fight."

Attacking such a city with a relatively high and dangerous terrain will cause a lot of casualties and thieves, and it may not be possible to defeat it.

Before the chaos, the imperial court attacked Shibao City.Tubo mobilized the power of the whole country to rescue from the periphery, but was defeated one by one by the Tang army.During the offensive and defensive battle of the core Shibao City, there were actually only a thousand Tubo defenders, and only a few hundred defenders, but the Tang army died more than ten thousand in the battle.

The main casualties were not the ant-attached siege. In fact, when the stone castle itself was attacked, the casualties were not large, and there were very few defenders in the castle. In the end, they even surrendered collectively, and more than [-] people were captured.The real flesh and blood mill is on the way up the mountain. According to historical records, the Tubo people prepared a large number of rolling logs and stones, rolled down the mountain road, fortified layer by layer, and intercepted everywhere.Without city walls, the terrain alone will cost you tens of thousands of casualties, and all this is caused by only a few hundred defenders.

During the blockade and counter-attack around Shibao City, a large-scale field battle broke out between Tang and Tu. Both sides fought real fire, and the Tang army suffered tens of thousands of casualties.

This was a tragic victory soaked in blood, and whether it is worth it will be judged by future generations. Anyway, Wang Zhongsi sympathized with the lives of soldiers. A stone castle with hundreds of defenders.

Of course, Baiyacang is not as extreme as Shibaocheng's terrain, but Shao Shude is not as desperate as Tang Xuanzong, who used his life to make up for the disadvantages of the terrain.It is enough to build an earthen wall to block the road that the Bian army went down the mountain to harass. The pier has been taken down, and now it is still important to attack Heqing County.

Bian Jun, may not give you much time.

At this time, outside of Heqing County, the Xia army besieged the city on three sides. The main force of the Wuwei army and nearly 2 Hewei Fan soldiers had stormed the city for several days.The defenders in the city went out of the city to fight several times, but they were all defeated.After suffering a loss, he hid in the city with all his heart and stood firm.

The Xia army had already suffered a lot of casualties, but Gao Renhou, who had full command of the offensive and defensive battles, was no longer "benevolent", driving groups of foreign soldiers to consume the defenders in the city all night long.

The Bian army is still unwilling to surrender, and it seems that there is no need to surrender if the fight continues. This place will surely become a land watered with blood.

……

In the Shanzhou River Transportation Institute, all the sailors were summoned.

There are orders in the dynasty, boats, Jin, Jiliang, nine-rank officials, sailors, and carpenters.The river transportation institute and the water and land transportation institute are of higher rank, and with transshipment envoys, there will only be more ships, chariots, drivers, and sailors under their jurisdiction.

The Shanzhou River Transportation Institute has not started work for a long time.

In fact, not only them, Weikou, Heyang, Heyin and other courtyards have not started work for a long time.Some of these delivery yards are the destination and starting point, and some are midway maintenance and storage locations. The entire work content is to transfer money and food for the court—mainly goods.

However, the war in the Kanto was endless, and the water transportation was intermittent. These bureaucratic organizations, sailors, carpenters, etc. who relied on water transportation for their livelihoods were half-starved and extremely difficult.

But their fortune has come.

Shao Shude, the king of Lingwu County, sent an order to requisition the ships of the Transshipment Institute to transport grain, grass, and equipment, and the destination was the Liaowu Wharf in Heqing County downstream.

The principle of water transportation in the country and dynasty is that river boats do not enter Bian, Bian boats do not enter rivers, and river boats do not enter Wei. Because the hydrological conditions of each water system are quite different, the ships sailing on them are specially designed.From Tongguan to Heyincang, it is absolutely right to use the ships and sailors of the Imperial Court Transshipment Institute.

Wei Nian, the transfer envoy of the Shanzhou River Transportation Institute, immediately took action after meeting with Huang Tao, the governor of Guozhou who rushed over.

Sailors and boat workers received rewards of one coin, two bolts of silk, and two dendrobiums of wheat, which greatly boosted their morale.

Who do you work for?If the court doesn't distribute money, is it possible that everyone will starve to death?
"You are all capable people who are seasoned in their work, so I don't want to say anything superfluous. The [-] hu of military rations should be transported to Liaowu Wharf as soon as possible, and unloaded for storage." Wei Nian called the official Zuo Er of the Transshipment Institute And Miscellaneous Ren, said with a serious expression.

"Officer, Liaowu is not big, and there is a small warehouse that can only store [-] dendrobium at most. Now it is rainy, and if there is no warehouse for storage, the extra [-] dendrobium will probably rot." Soon, a Miscellaneous officials reminded.

"Transport it over there first." Wei Nian said irritably: "There is a reward for every shipment, you don't care if he has enough to store it, we just transport it. Think about the whole family, they all count on you to take back the rewards to live. Then Something happened in the middle of the journey, and the envoy Huang of Guozhou said that the state will pay out money for pensions, and according to the death of the Yamen in battle, the family will receive a grain of grain every month and give them ten years."

"Officer, from Weikou to Liaowu, the mountains on both sides of the bank are towering, and the towpaths are difficult and dangerous. Usually, they are transported by Hezhong and Shanguo, but now..."

"There will be arrangements for the return journey." Wei Nian said impatiently: "Leave quickly. The military situation is urgent, and we may not be able to make it if we are late. If you are lucky, you will get an extra reward. Why hesitate?"

"Since that's the case, I have nothing to say, so let's go."

"Officials have orders, and they should obey them."

"The family can't open the pot anymore. It's a good thing that the King of Lingwu County is willing to use us."

Everyone responded one after another, and then dispersed, each summoning their own people without mentioning it.

Wei Nian breathed a sigh of relief, and then he remembered something again, and suddenly became a little anxious.

The Xia army envoy who came with Huang Tao also asked him to find more carpenters to build simple fireboats to prevent the Bian army navy from moving upstream and block shipping.

Guochao Navy has many types and systems, but generally follows the old system since the Han Dynasty, and is divided into six types: building boats, boats, fighting ships, walking boats, yachts, and sea falcons.

There are very few boats going upstairs in the Yellow River, and the Bianjun navy is equipped with the most warships and Mengchong.

"Warship, a middle wall is set up on the side of the ship, and a hole is opened under the half-body wall. The side is five feet, and a shed is built to be on the same level as the parapet, and a parapet is built to re-arrange the battle grid. flags, banners, golden drums, and warships.”

"Mengchong, covered his back with rhinoceros leather, opened the pole holes on both sides, and opened the crossbow windows and spear holes in the front, back, left, and right. The enemy cannot get close, and the arrow and stone cannot be defeated. This does not require a large ship. It is for speed and to take advantage of people's unpreparedness. , not a warship."

There are two kinds of power for warships, oars and sails, which are quite different from tank ships.

Tank boats can basically be considered unpowered because of their small size, and they use punting to control the direction of the boat.It is also necessary for the tracker to pull the fiber when encountering a dangerous voyage or going upstream.

But warships are powered, oars are rowed through "holes", and sails are also installed on board.Moreover, the mobility is strong, and most of the time there is no need to pull the fiber.

Ship weapons include crossbow bolts projected through crossbow windows, long spears pierced through spear holes, striking weapons and clappers, and sergeants for melee combat. The tank boat is basically sunk after one or two blows when encountering them. There is no suspense.

Except for places where the water flow is particularly turbulent, the Bian Army navy may not be willing to take the risk to go there, but they are absolutely dominating the overall situation on this big river.

To be honest, it is quite eye-catching to transport grain downstream from Weikou, Shanzhou and other places.Once the Bian army found out that the navy paddled upstream, none of these tank boats could escape.

Temporarily preparing some fire boats is also a helpless move.As for whether it can act as a deterrent, only God knows.

"This trip is really a life-threatening trip." Wei Nian sat down on the chair, his face pale.

(End of this chapter)