Traveling through the early Tang Dynasty starts with hanging

Chapter 588 Inadequate
A few miles away from Guji Town, Jieli Khan listened to the narration of the soldiers who had fled back, and his cold eyes rolled over the faces of Tuli Khan and Ashina Jiehui.

It is said to control 40 strings, but Jieli Khan knows very well that the grassland tribes cannot confront the Han cavalry head-on, whether it is the previous Sui or the current Li Tang.

The key reason lies in the difference in equipment. Many Turkic cavalry are wrapped in a leather jacket, holding a riding bow in their hands, and some of the arrows are made of bones and stones. Even the knife is elite.

That is to say, the king's tent soldiers under Jieli Khan's command are slightly better. In addition to bows and arrows, they also carry ordnance such as long knives and spears, and those with higher status can wear armor.

In the Tang Army, Jieli Khan's eyes are the most eye-catching, and the most feared is the Tang crossbow. Although this weapon has the disadvantage of being cumbersome to operate and can only shoot one or two arrows before the battle, it has a long range, sharp arrows, and strong lethality. .

The year before last, Jieli Khan invaded Hedong on a large scale, and was accidentally attacked by Li Shenfu, who was then the governor of Bingzhou. At that time, Li Shenfu dispatched crossbowmen. After a burst of wild shots, Jieli Khan also had to retreat ... That day, the crossbow arrow shot a general in iron armor next to Jieli Khan, and his heart was chilled.

Well, there are three types of arrows used in Tang crossbows, one of which is called armor-piercing arrows, which are specially used to break armor.

However, Tang crossbows have always been made by the North Korea Central Military Weapons Supervisor. Because of the long production time, there are few military equipment, and it is impossible for civilian soldiers to have them. Jieli Khan invaded Hedong many times, and he met in Taiyuan. .

And here is Shuozhou, west of Yanmen Pass.

There are a lot of crossbows on the top of the city, which shows that the Tang army stationed here must be elite, and it is impossible for ordinary soldiers to have a large number of Tang crossbows.

The first batch of men who attacked the city lost a lot of cavalry, and more than half of the infantry. After the cavalry fled, the defenders on the city wall calmly shot down the infantry one by one with bows and arrows, and very few of them escaped back.

Turks have always been good at cavalry, and there are very few infantry. These so-called infantry are actually young and strong Yunzhou or even serfs attached to Turks. At least at first, it is impossible to use elites.

Jieli Khan, with a gloomy face, asked a few more questions in person, swung his horsewhip fiercely in the air, stared at the rate of association and shouted: "Although the city wall is not high, it is extremely strong. This is just two months in Daizhou." Built a stockade?"

Zhang Shigui built a village in Guji Town, the Turkic side probably didn't know about it, but every time a small group of rangers attacked, there would be a warning in advance from the party of the association. Before yesterday, Xieli Khan didn't know what the state of Guji Town was.

The defeat in the first battle can be said to be an underestimation of the enemy, but today's attack on the city, although this is the weakness of the Turks, Jieli Khan did not expect that facing such a small fortress, he could not even touch the city wall.

Considering that the cavalry went out to battle yesterday and Tang crossbows were shooting today, Jieli Khan had to consider that this stronghold might be stuck here like a nail.

And all of this must have the connivance of Ashina Khan and even Tuli Khan.

Jieli Khan had to admit that Sheer's conjecture might be true. His uneasy nephew probably had some kind of agreement with Li Shan, the ruler of Daizhou.

Li Shan was extremely surprised that the first wave of siege ended so quickly. He watched from afar, and Zhang Shigui sent soldiers to climb down the city wall to collect crossbow arrows. Unlike bows and arrows, these are custom-made, and every shot is one less, so try to recycle it. Can be reused.

Li Shan got down from the high place sullenly, and paced back and forth in the conference hall. Not long after, he heard roaring from outside, and the second wave of offensive was coming.

Wang Junhao went out to take a look, and came back and said in a low voice: "The leader of the association leads the team personally."

Well, [-]% of them were persecuted by Jieli Khan. Li Shan wondered in his heart, is Jieli trying to use a knife to kill people and weaken the power of Tuli Khan?

But the small town of Guji can't consume too many troops. Is it necessary?

Zhu Wei reminded from the side: "Da Lang, now that the war has started, don't get distracted."

Li Shan forced a smile, nodded and said, "Have you counted the number of people?"

"It's all counted." Zhu Ba held the abacus and said in a low voice: "Infantry, cavalry, civilian husbands and the personal guards of the generals, there are a total of 710 four people, and a total of more than [-] horses."

"The cavalry is only 1000 or [-] or [-]." Li Shan knew that the extra horses should be the horses captured yesterday. Make meat porridge."

If Jieli Khan insists on pulling out the nail of Guji Town, then Li Shan’s plan of mutual support among Mayi, Yanmenguan and Guji Town will come to nothing... The key is that the troops dispatched by Jieli Khan this time are too large. No matter which side is too strong, no one dares to leave the city at will.

Li Shan thought in his heart that if he wanted to continue to defend, he could kill the horse first, and then consume the food... No way, a horse consumes too much food and grass, it needs to be fed at least four times a day, and it needs to be fed once at night .

There is not much food, mainly millet, big yellow rice and some wheat food. A total of [-] shi was transported from the Great Wall one after another, and the total of less than [-] shi was added to the previous ones.

The fortress is full of young and strong men, and a catty of rice and noodles in a day may not be enough. After all, there is no oil and water. The kind of steamed buns in the previous life, which is the steamed cakes at this time, it is normal for young and strong to swallow more than a dozen in one go.

According to previous calculations, there are only about [-] men in the stronghold, which can indeed last for half a month, but now there are seven or eight hundred more mouths.

Li Shan was too lazy to use the abacus, so he went out to find a stone on the ground and did an arithmetic problem... But no matter how he did the calculation, it was difficult to sustain it, even if he kept beheading the horses to supplement.

The rations must be deducted, otherwise they will not be able to survive.

Equal distribution is impossible. Are civilian husbands treated the same as defenders?

Are cavalry and infantry treated the same?
It is even more impossible for ordinary soldiers and generals' personal guards to be treated the same.

Li Shan fell into deep thought for a long time. He didn't come back to his senses until the afternoon, when the shouts of killing outside gradually died down, and Zhang Shigui and Xue Wanche went down the city wall.

"If this is the case, it will be difficult for the Turks to break through the city." Xue Wanche said as soon as he came in: "But I am afraid that the Turks will attack with all their strength."

"If Jieli Khan wants to pull out the nail of Guji Town, he will definitely not be able to defend it." Zhang Shigui saw that there were no other people around, and said calmly: "But if you want to break through the fort, the Turks will definitely suffer heavy casualties."

Li Shan nodded. Although the Turks were not good at attacking cities, they had an army of tens of thousands, possibly more than [-]. Even a heap of human lives could flood Guji Town. The key was how much Xieli Khan was willing to pay for it.

If it is said that Jieli Khan took revenge for his only son, Li Shan believed it, but if it was said that Jieli Khan wanted to take revenge for his son by capturing every Tang army fortress he saw, Li Shan would not believe it.

As long as the news that he was in Guji Town did not leak out, there was no need for Jieli Khan to break through Guji Town at the expense of his troops and generals.

At this moment, Xue Wanche rubbed his stomach, and before he could speak, Li Shan rushed ahead, "Starting today, eat twice a day."

People in the Tang Dynasty had two meals a day, but it was not necessarily the case for high-ranking officials, such as Xue Wanche, Zhang Shigui, and Li Shan, who always ate three meals a day, and sometimes had a supper.

But now that there is not enough food and grass, the general must lead by example. Xue Wanche also understands this truth, and complained softly without saying anything.

Li Shan thought for a while and added: "Brother Wu An will form the whole army. Those who go to battle will get ten, those who don't fight will get seven, and the rest will get five."

After a pause, Li Shan pointed to Wang Junhao and the others, "All meals are five."

That day, the Turks sent troops to attack Guji Town more than ten times, and only climbed up the city wall twice, but their foothold was unstable and they were swept down immediately.

Even at dusk, the Tang army lost less than fifty soldiers, but more than a hundred people were injured by arrows. Li Shan was busy in the wounded barracks very late.

(End of this chapter)