Tibet

Chapter 1257: Crossing the River and Fighting Again
At night, 50,000 troops and 20,000 Fanyang troops gathered again, preparing to attack the south bank again.

This time they summed up the lessons of the last failure and decided to walk on two legs. On the one hand, they used rafts to cross the river, and on the other hand, they built a floating bridge. In fact, the modules of the floating bridge had been completed, and they just had to piece them together. In this way, the speed of building the bridge was more than twice as fast.

Moreover, the Uighur army still chose the place where they crossed the river for the first time. There were two reasons. One was that the river here was the narrowest, only 25 meters wide, but the water flow was very stable. In addition, although the pontoon bridge had been destroyed by the Tang army's ships, most of the wooden piles were still preserved, which saved a large part of the process of driving the wooden piles.

Twenty-five zhang is only about seventy-five meters, and crossbow arrows can reach the other side. This time the Uighur army decided to build three pontoon bridges to deploy the cavalry to the other side as quickly as possible.

The two sides have already started an open war and there is no way to conceal it. A large-scale military assembly will be immediately discovered by the other side.

On the other side of the river, 60,000 Tang soldiers also gathered under the command of Guo Ziyi. Guo Ziyi's steady character and experienced methods were fully displayed at this moment.

He first deployed 10,000 crossbowmen by the river and temporarily built a three-mile-long and four-foot-high mud bag wall, on which the soldiers could lie and shoot.

In addition, Guo Ziyi also deployed a fire mine belt. Once the Tang army collapsed, the explosion of the iron fire mines could be used to stop the enemy's pursuit.

Of course, try not to use this fire mine belt.

As night fell, 3,000 Fanyang army soldiers were dispatched. They placed the pre-built modules into the river for splicing. Since the width of the river was only 25 meters, they only needed to build 50 modules, and one module was exactly six feet long.

The 10,000 crossbowmen of the Tang army were not idle. They shot arrows like heavy rain at the soldiers working on the fortifications.

The fortification soldiers were crawling on the ground and on the deck to avoid the rain of arrows. People were shot and screamed continuously.

"Raft attack!"

At Zhu Ci's command, five thousand Fanyang soldiers carried the rafts and rushed into the river, jumping onto the rafts one by one.

They used medium-sized rafts, with five soldiers sitting in one raft. Three soldiers held up shields, and two soldiers rowed the raft to the other side.

Ten thousand crossbowmen immediately changed their targets and shot arrows into the water like a torrential rain. Soldiers were shot and fell into the water one after another, and sheepskin bags burst and rafts capsized.

However, the river channel of twenty-five meters was too short, and only more than three hundred of the one thousand rafts capsized. The rest reached the shore smoothly, and the remaining soldiers shouted and rushed ashore.

Guo Ziyi ordered: "Blow the horn, and the spearmen will attack!"

"Woo——" the horn sounded.

There were 10,000 spearmen squatting under the mud and sand wall. They immediately stood up, spears in their hands, and rushed towards the enemy in a black mass. The two sides launched a fierce battle on the shore.

At this time, the crossbowmen turned their target to the fortification soldiers who were laying the pontoon bridge.

The Tang army also had 3,000 soldiers busy working on the fortifications. They were digging six deep trenches, each aimed at the six pontoon bridges. Each trench was two zhang wide and two hundred steps long, and the trenches were filled with sharp spears.

Guo Ziyi's experience was demonstrated here. In the darkness of night, the enemy cavalry could not see the six deep trenches at all.

As time passed, the first batch of soldiers who came ashore on rafts were basically wiped out, and the pontoon bridge was gradually being completed.

Guo Ziyi immediately gave the order: "Order the crossbow troops and spear troops to retreat!"

"Dang! Dang! Dang!" The gongs sounded, and ten thousand spear soldiers and ten thousand crossbow soldiers retreated like a tide. The crossbow soldiers retreated behind the second defensive mud wall. They changed their quivers and replaced ordinary arrows with poison arrows.

Guo Ziyi gave another order, "Heavy armored infantry, move forward!"

Six thousand heavily armored infantrymen were divided into three teams, blocking the three exits.

Dengli Khan was overjoyed, wielded his sword and shouted, "Cavalry, attack!"

Zhu Ci's army had already lost 15,000 men, but he had no other choice. If he tried to hide now, he would suffer no consequences. He had no choice but to grit his teeth and order, "Attack!"

Twenty thousand Uighur cavalry and ten thousand Fanyang army infantry rushed towards the three pontoon bridges respectively. This time the pontoon bridges were built wide and solid, and the cavalry could run on them.

The width of the river was only 75 meters, but 30,000 people rushed to the other side in an instant. The sound of gongs rang out, and 10,000 crossbowmen once again shot arrows at the rushing enemy. They shot arrows from the side, and horses and soldiers were hit by arrows one after another.

At this moment, an accident happened. Many cavalrymen were running and suddenly disappeared. They fell into the deep pits on both sides, and the sharp spears pierced the men and horses.

Many cavalrymen discovered the deep pit in front of them. They were shocked and tried to rein in their horses, but were suddenly hit by the cavalrymen behind them. The cavalrymen in front fell into the deep pit with their horses, and were immediately pierced by spears and died.

The same went for the infantry. Soldiers kept stepping on empty air and falling into the pit, or were pushed into the pit while screaming by the soldiers behind them.

But most people were not aware of the danger on both sides, and many people thought the screams came from being shot by arrows.

Of course, arrows are more dangerous. The arrows come like raindrops. Soldiers can dodge them, but war horses cannot. They are constantly hit by poisoned arrows, and the poison takes effect slowly. After about a quarter of an hour, the war horses will be poisoned and fall down.

The cavalry rushed forward like a tide, and groups of them fell into the deep pit, but a large group of enemy troops still reached the entrance of the passage.

What greeted them were the sharp heavy-armored infantry, with a cold flash of Mo Dao, slashing up and down, blood splattered immediately, and corpses fell. The heavy-armored infantry had a clear division of labor, some were responsible for cutting off the horses' legs, and some were responsible for killing the cavalry.

All that could be heard was the screaming of war horses. Countless horses had their front legs cut off while running, and fell headfirst. Before the cavalry could get up, a cold light flashed, and their bodies were immediately separated.

The cavalry continued to rush onto the pontoon bridge and head towards the other side. The pontoon bridge was a one-way street, so they could only move forward but not reverse.

But after more than 8,000 people rushed out on each pontoon bridge, the speed began to slow down and the bridges became congested.

Dengli Khan frowned, feeling something was wrong. What happened ahead? Was there a problem with the floating bridge?

But that’s impossible. Why are all three floating bridges blocked?

Dengli Khan immediately ordered his personal soldiers, "Go and see what's going on."

Several bodyguards dismounted from their horses and ran forward along the edge of the pontoon bridge.

The blockage of the pontoon bridge is a major signal, meaning that the enemy commander is about to discover the trap.

Seeing that the enemy troops were almost on the bridge, Guo Ziyi immediately ordered: "Send the rocket signal!"

"Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!" Nine gunpowder arrows flew into the sky, shining brightly in the air.

Dozens of water ghosts suddenly appeared under the three floating bridges. They lit special waterproof fire tubes. As the fuses were lit, the water ghosts immediately dived away.

In just a moment, a series of explosions occurred on the three pontoon bridges. Flames burst out and explosions sounded like thunder. The three pontoon bridges were blown to pieces. The soldiers crowded on the bridges were also blown to pieces, and thousands of people fell into the water.

Dengli Khan was stunned. He actually knew that the Tang army had powerful firearms, but he forgot it.

The enemy troops on the shore were also in chaos. Countless kerosene barrels were thrown over their heads, and then a big fire started. The fire on the shore was even more raging.

In extreme terror, the soldiers fled in all directions, but without exception they fell into the deep pits on both sides, and were pierced by spears. Fires also ignited in the deep pits. Thousands of soldiers cried and wailed in the flames, and finally died in great pain.
In this battle, more than 18,400 Uighur cavalrymen were killed, burned to death, stabbed to death after falling into deep pits, blown to death by iron fire mines, or drowned in the river. All 15,000 Fanyang troops that Zhu Ci had deployed to the battle were also killed.

In just ten days, Zhu Ci had only 5,000 soldiers left.

(End of this chapter)