The third emperor of the Sui Dynasty

Chapter 990 Capture Longshuitun and burn them to death

Three miles away from Longshuitun, on the official road filled with eight tall trees, there was only a three-foot passage for the Sui army in Wolongao to escape. Dozens of soldiers had already poured oil on the trees. When they saw their soldiers After fleeing, two miles away, another general with a wooden hammer led hundreds of Tang cavalry in hot pursuit.

The brigade marshal who was in charge of setting the fire rushed to the front and shouted: "Lieutenant Guo, you go from the left, there is a passage on the left!"

The cavalry led by Guo Ming immediately slowed down and rushed through the narrow passage one by one. At this time, Guo Xiaoke had already led his troops to chase three hundred paces away.

The soldier in charge of setting the fire waited for the last soldier from his side to pass by, and quickly blocked the narrow passage with the rolled logs he had prepared. Several other soldiers lit the kerosene on the big tree, and the flames rose into the air, and the fire quickly extinguished the last one. A dozen or so big trees outside burst into flames.

Guo Xiaoke had led his army to kill them at this time, but their horses were afraid of fire, so they refused to move forward no matter what, Guo Xiaoke had nothing to do, so he was so angry that he cursed.

When the Sui army saw the fire, they retreated and moved big trees to block the passage, and then lit the fire again.In just a moment, the raging fire engulfed the official road that was more than a mile long, and began to spread to both sides of the official road under the strong wind.

After a while, Zhang Gongjin led the army to kill, and saw the raging fire, the raging flames were swept to the mountains on both sides by the wind, and the red flames of trees and trees flew up, forming a sea of ​​flames several miles wide.

The fire did not go out until noon, and the fire on the mountain was also extinguished because there were no trees. The mountain was burned to a large area, and the sound of exploding rocks was heard from time to time.

"Are there any casualties?" At this time Hou Junji also led an army of [-] to arrive. He heard that the road was blocked by fire, so he divided his troops to check the situation.When he arrived, he could only feel the heat blowing in his face. Hundreds of Tang soldiers were tying up the blackened trees on the official road with ropes and dragging them down the nearby valley.

"Back to General," Zhang Gongjin reported to Hou Junji, "We have no casualties, but we were delayed for half a day."

"It's good that there are no casualties." Hou Junji heaved a sigh of relief, looked at the faintly visible Longshui Tun, and concluded: "It seems that Longshui Tun has already fallen, and the opponent's troops are not many, so I thought of setting fire to it." The method of burning the road has only one purpose, and that is to delay the time and clear the road quickly.”

Not long after, hundreds of charred trees were pushed off the cliff by Tang soldiers.Hou Junji gave an order, and the army marched towards Longshuitun three miles away, but when it was still one mile away from Longshuitun, Guo Xiaoke pointed to the big flag on the top of the city and shouted: "General, what kind of flag is that?" ? So weird."

"This is the national flag of the Sui Dynasty that Yang Tong enacted this year." Hou Junji also looked at the big flag fluttering in the wind, it was clearly the national flag of the Sui Dynasty.

Before that, the Central Plains dynasty did not have the concept of "nation-state" or "sovereignty", and believed that "under the sky, there is no king's land", so there was no national flag symbolizing national sovereignty in all dynasties.

Most of the ancient banners were military flags, and the colors, sizes, lengths of flagpoles and decorations of the flags were different, indicating the status of the leader of the army.The military flags of each dynasty are marked with the abbreviation of the dynasty on the banner.If the word "Sui" is embroidered, it is the army of the Sui Dynasty.In addition, commanders and generals often embroidered their surnames on the banners to show their distinction.For example, the army led by Qin Qiong played the "Qin" flag, and Luo Shixin played the "Luo" flag.

But this year, on the second day of February when Yang Jian established the Great Sui Dynasty, Yang Tong not only officially named the Sui Dynasty the Great Sui Empire, but also designated the day when the dragon raised its head on the second day of February as the National Day. On top of the army flag with the word "Sui" on it, a supreme national flag representing the Great Sui Empire was added.

The national flag of the Sui Dynasty is crimson, with a length-to-height ratio of 3:2. There is a golden sun emitting nine golden rays on the upper left of the flag, and five five-pointed gold stars surround the golden sun on the right. This not only means that the people of the world are united in one center, but also symbolizes the Ninth Five-Year Supreme, and it is also compact and beautiful in form.

Since Guo Xiaoke had been listening to Li Shimin before, the first time he saw the national flag of the Sui Dynasty, he couldn’t recognize it at once, and Hou Junji not only read articles about the country name and national flag of the Sui Dynasty in "Half Moon Talk", I also saw it in Li Jing's army, so I recognized it immediately.

"General!" Zhang Gongjin took a deep breath and said worriedly: "This Sui army is delaying Xue Wanjun and Li Jing. We must take back Longshuitun at all costs."

Hou Junji nodded silently, secretly becoming anxious in his heart. After they abandoned the rock, they had already become helpless dogs. Xue Wanjun and Li Jing had no reason not to cover up and kill them, but at this time, Longshuitun was captured by unknown people. The Sui army has occupied it. If they cannot break through, their own army will face the danger of being besieged by 10,000+ troops.

But it’s useless to be anxious. The most urgent thing now is to retake Longshuitun. He said to Guo Xiaoke in a deep voice: “Guo Xiaoke, you are in charge of attacking the city. You need people, people, and things. But you must take back Longshui before dusk. Tun, if you can't take it, cut it off!"

"The last general obeys." Guo Xiaoke dropped the wooden hammer, took the spear from the soldiers, and with a wave of the spear, tens of thousands of soldiers from the headquarters rushed towards Longshuitun.

While waiting in front of the sea of ​​fire, they also realized that Longshuitun had fallen, so they temporarily built more than a hundred siege ladders, which came in handy at this time.

"Dong dong dong dong" the battle drums rumbled, and thousands of Tang army vanguards rushed to the front of the pass. However, the terrain of Longshuitun is slightly higher. Not allowed to move forward in large numbers, the Tang army filed up, getting closer and closer, but when they were a hundred steps away, the army stopped advancing.

Guo Xiaoke stared at the pass a hundred paces away, and ordered: "A thousand troops first!"

Following an order, a thousand soldiers of the Tang Army held shields and guarded the siege echelon and swarmed towards Longshuitun.

On the top of the city, Zhang Sheng watched the Tang army rushing towards the city gate with cold eyes. This army ran for more than [-] steps, and the speed suddenly slowed down, and the shields that began to be cautious formed a shield wall.

Five hundred soldiers of the Sui army held crossbows on the top of the city and aimed at the soldiers of the Tang army who were approaching continuously. When the enemy army had entered within [-] steps, the sound of attacking drums stopped suddenly, and there was silence in front of the pass, only the soldiers of the Tang army marched forward. The rustling sound.

Zhang Sheng waited for the soldiers of the Tang army to enter within sixty steps, and gave an order: "Fire arrows from the side!"

There were two hundred soldiers on the left and right sides. They were divided into three teams. After hearing the order, they immediately fired arrows at the same time. More than a hundred powerful crossbow arrows shot at the enemy crowd from the side. The crossbow arrows of the Sui Army were so powerful that the arrows pierced The shields on both sides were relatively weak, and there was a terrible sound. Dozens of Tang soldiers were shot down and fell to the ground. Others even fell from the nearby cliffs, screaming and falling into the deep stream below the mountain stream. .

But since the war started, there was no reason to retreat. The soldiers of the Tang army suddenly accelerated and rushed upwards frantically. As long as they rushed to the open area in front of the city, their forces could expand to both sides.

The arrows of the Sui army on both sides of the city were like locusts, and they were divided into three teams to shoot in turn, while the hundreds of soldiers in the front smashed down stones one by one. , was knocked to the ground by the impact of the tumbling stone.

Their shield array can withstand the intensive shooting of soldiers and arrows, but it can't stop the huge impact of the rolling stones. Pieces of them are knocked over, and the dense arrows hit them. The Tang army in chaos can't assemble the shield array. , suffered heavy casualties.However, under the command of Guo Xiaoke, the soldiers of the Tang army in the back rushed forward again, and followed each other amidst the turbulent battle drums. When one fell, the soldiers behind immediately added it.

The battle was extremely fierce. On the short slope between sixty steps and thirty steps, corpses began to pile up rapidly. In less than a moment, hundreds of soldiers of the Tang Army were killed or injured. withdraw as usual.

Guo Xiaoke snorted coldly. He had already discovered that the biggest weakness of the Sui army was the small number of people. After the tentative attack was over, he gave the order for a formal attack: "Attack with 3000 men!"

The attacking Tang army suddenly increased three times, roaring and brandishing their swords, rushing towards the front of the pass crazily, the arrows were like rain, and the stones were as dense as hail, a tragic battle for the dangerous pass kicked off...

Zhang Sheng calmly directed the soldiers in the front to smash down the stones first. He considered that the corpses could block smaller stones, so he used the stones first. The opposite round log is one foot long, and once it is lowered, it can roll down the corpse, so it is left behind.

Immediately, arrows rained down on the city, and stones fell like hailstones. Thousands of soldiers of the Tang army came slowly with shields in their hands, carrying siege ladders, and they were shot down one by one, causing heavy casualties. The archers of the Tang army under the city also began to counterattack on a large scale. Although the casualties to the soldiers of the Sui army were not large, they played a suppressive role, which greatly reduced the strength of their counterattack.

As the battle unfolded, the slope was like hell. The ground had been completed and could not be seen, and it was all covered with unrecognizable corpses. However, although the Tang army suffered huge casualties, the second, third, and fourth The next attack followed, leaving countless corpses behind. Dozens of broken siege ladders fell on the bloody ground, but more of them were soldiers who died in battle. More than [-] casualties were paid.

Some were curled up by the stones, and their faces were changed beyond recognition. Some were pierced in the chest by arrows, and there was still pain from the past on their faces. Some had lost their heads and their bodies were mutilated.

Everything in front of them was shocking, and even the Tang army was unwilling to attack in the east city, but moved the battlefield to the north city.Hou Junji waved his saber and gave an order: "Give me the order, the army will attack again!"

In fact, Hou Junji could have walked around the city and retreated directly to Longshan with a large army. If he retreated like this, Zhang Sheng, who had few troops, would not dare to go out of the city to chase after him; but the problem is that Hou Junji has serious character flaws, He used to be ignorant and had extremely low self-esteem when getting along with his colleagues, but now that he has caught up with and surpassed his colleagues, his previous low self-esteem has evolved into extreme conceit.After seeing that Longshuitun only had more than a thousand defenders, Hou Junji felt that if he couldn't even take down this small town, it would seriously affect his reputation; more importantly, he couldn't do anything to this small enemy army. To turn a blind eye, so no matter what, we must take this fortified city.

Following Hou Junji's order, the Tang army's attack began again, and the fierce drums sounded again, and another [-] Tang troops joined the siege battle. This was already the fifth siege.

Seeing this, Zhang Sheng in the city also gave the order for the whole army to go to the city. The soldiers who were preparing for battle in the city also rushed to the top of the city and joined the fierce battle.

Under the city, the Tang army organized [-] crossbowmen to cover the attack of the siege army. Arrows rained down on the top of the city, overwhelming the soldiers of the Sui army.

There was a loud "boom", rubble from the battlements splashed everywhere, and a siege ladder finally reached the top of the north city, followed by more than a dozen siege ladders successively on the top of the city. Thousands of soldiers of the Tang army were like ants A group of people boarded the ladders and rushed to the top of the city desperately.

Some of the Sui soldiers on the city smashed down with rolling logs and stones, some stabbed them with knives and spears, and some used steel forks to hold ladders and pushed them outward.

A siege ladder was pushed up, and then fell backwards. The soldiers on the ladder jumped down screaming in horror. The soldiers under the ladder avoided one after another, but the siege soldiers were too dense to avoid it at all. When the heavy siege ladder is turned over, it will kill and injure a large area.

However, death has become numb to the soldiers of the Tang army under the city, and the same is true for the soldiers of the Sui army on the city. They all have only one belief at this time, to capture or defend the city.

……

"General." A general of the supply troops stepped forward and saluted: "The catapult has been installed on the mountain!"

Although Hou Junji went into battle lightly this time, he followed Zhang Gongjin's suggestion and brought ten heavy catapult parts.He found that in the north of Longshuitun there is a cliff seven or eight feet higher than the city, and it is only about two hundred steps away from the city. With the range of a heavy catapult, it is possible to throw stones into the city. Launched, everything in the city was smashed into powder.

After arriving here, people moved five pieces of catapults to the cliff for assembly. It took more than an hour, and the heavy soldiers finally installed the catapults. The heavy stone was shot three hundred paces away.

At this time, on the top of the cliff, three heavy-duty catapults were ready. More than a thousand soldiers of the Tang army lined up on the narrow mountain road, passing huge stones. Due to the narrow terrain, the other two were placed in the forest for backup.Each catapult was controlled by thirty soldiers. They had already placed a huge stone in the iron pocket of the catapult, and everything was ready, just waiting for Hou Junji's order.

But what they didn't expect was that after Zhang Sheng and Zhou Yong occupied Longshuitun, they prevented this move. At this time, several Sui soldiers were holding torches and setting fire around in the depths of the jungle. Pine trees covered with kerosene The woods burned quickly, thick smoke billowing above the pines, fueled by resin from the fire.The soldiers of the Tang army who were waiting for the launch order suddenly shouted when they saw a fire emanating from the pine forest behind them.

Hou Junji was about to give the order to launch the stone, but he saw thick smoke billowing suddenly from the mountain. He was stunned for a long time before he sighed: "The Sui army also took precautions against this, let the soldiers retreat!"

In fact, there was no need for Hou Junji's order. The rapid fire on the mountain had already engulfed two spare catapults and was approaching the other three. The soldiers of the Tang army could not stand the heat and fled down the mountain one after another.But the fire didn't stop on the cliff,
Since this is a forest dominated by pine trees, the baked pine resin caused the fire to spread rapidly northward, and the entire mountain was burned.

Looking at this tragic scene, the warring parties even forgot to fight.Guo Xiaoke saw the opportunity to fight, and suddenly picked up the locust tree hammer again, rode his horse and rushed up the slope, heading straight for the gate of Longshui Tuncheng, Hou Junji hurriedly ordered to the left and right: "Archers cover!"

Four thousand crossbowmen rushed up quickly and shot arrows at the city. The arrows shot at the top of the city. The soldiers on the city were suppressed by the dense arrows and could not shoot Guo Xiaoke who had rushed to the city.

Guo Xiaoke repeated his old trick, swinging a wooden hammer and smashing at the city gate, there was a loud "dong", but the city gate remained motionless.

"I've guarded against this move a long time ago. If you have the ability, just smash it." Guo Ming returned to Longshuitun and immediately reported to Zhang Sheng the reason for the fall of Wolong'ao. So he blocked the city gate with big stones. Seeing Guo Xiaoke attack him again, Guo Ming triumphantly shouted: "Stone this bastard to death!"

The soldiers picked up several stones weighing tens of kilograms and were about to smash them down when a flurry of arrows shot them to the ground. The legs of more than a dozen soldiers immediately filled the city with mourning.

Zhang Sheng said angrily, "Drew it with kerosene, and burn this bastard to death."

"Here."

Dozens of soldiers poured the kerosene in the leather bags into the wooden basins that had been prepared. Under the cover of the shield bearers, several soldiers poured the wooden basins on Guo Xiaoke who was under the city.

Under the city, Guo Xiaoke was banging on the door frantically, and was sprayed all over by kerosene falling from the sky. When he smelled the smell of kerosene, his face changed with fright, and when he was about to retreat, several burning torches on the city circled fell down.

The fire blazed up in front of the city, and Guo Xiaoke and the horse surrounded by the fire ignited the fire. The horse neighed lazily, and its front hooves raised high in pain, knocking Guo Xiaoke on its back to the ground.

The horse galloped forward and crashed to death on the city gate.Guo Xiaoke, who was covered in fire, stood up and ran down the slope for dozens of steps, then fell to the ground, hissed for a while and then died away.

Looking at Guo Xiaoke who was burned to death by the fire, Hou Junji shouted in grief and indignation: "Take Longshuitun, not one will be left, and all will be burned to death."

(End of this chapter)