Tibet.

Chapter 1383 Night Battle of Hanzhou
Li Chengshi pointed his sword and waved the command flag, and the attack began.

"emission!"

Following the commander's order.

One hundred ignited arrow lasers shot towards the suspension bridge. In a series of sudden explosions, the suspension bridge was blown to pieces and the two iron chains flew high into the air.

Before the soldiers on the city wall could react, the second batch of arrow mines were fired at the same time. Dense arrow mines shot towards the city gate. In the explosion of fireworks and thunder, the city gate was blown to pieces.

The soldiers on the city wall were terrified. Everyone of them was so terrified that they lay on the city wall and dared not move.

Commander Zheng Qingxuan's heart sank into the abyss. He knew that this battle was very dangerous. Zheng Qingxuan also understood the Tang army's intentions and shouted, "All troops, retreat! All troops, retreat!"

The soldiers on the city wall were in panic and fled down the city.

At this time, the smoke at the city gate dissipated, and the third batch of arrow mines were launched. The third batch of arrow mines was to make up for the deficiencies and clean up the city gates that were not blown up completely. With the explosion of the third batch of arrow mines, the city gates that were already in pieces were blown up cleanly.

"Kill!"

The commander Li Chengshi shouted loudly, and 30,000 troops rushed into the city. Three bridges had been built, and the soldiers rushed across the bridges and rushed into the city.

A fierce battle broke out with the Silla soldiers who had just rushed down from the city.
There were shouts of killing at the city gates. Twenty thousand Silla soldiers occupied thirteen important strongholds and put up a stubborn resistance against the Tang army.

The largest stronghold among them was the Hanzhou Military Governor's Mansion, a building complex covering an area of ​​300 acres built by the Tang army in the sixth year of Xianqing, and was renovated again during the Tianbao period.

Currently, the Hanzhou Governor's Mansion is the third largest building complex after the Silla Royal Palace and the Baekje Royal Palace. The Governor's Mansion is located in the north of the city, with a small river passing by. In the past, the Tang army built the Governor's Mansion relying on this small river, using large bluestone to build walls and a suspension bridge. It is tall and sturdy, and it is completely a city within a city.

Commander Zheng Qingxuan had a glimmer of hope for street fighting because of this city within a city covering an area of ​​300 acres and the 4,000 troops gathered there.

But he had never fought against the Tang army, so he didn't know that the Tang army possessed countless powerful weapons for street fighting.

The number one weapon in street fighting is the explosive arrow. One explosive arrow can cause a wall to collapse, thereby causing the collapse of the entire house.

The second most powerful weapon in street fighting is fire. Especially when dealing with densely packed buildings like the Hanjiang Governor's Mansion, the Tang army would not fight head-on.

At the command, two thousand gunpowder arrows were fired into the Governor's Mansion, and fire immediately broke out everywhere. Then, hundreds of small catapults threw kerosene cans into the Governor's Mansion from all directions. After three rounds of kerosene cans being thrown, the entire Governor's Mansion was on fire, and thick smoke filled the sky above the entire north of the city.

Countless Silla soldiers cried and jumped into the small moat to escape, but they were all ruthlessly shot and killed in the small river by the Tang soldiers. The fire in the governor's mansion became more and more fierce, and finally the entire governor's mansion was engulfed.

At this time, fires broke out everywhere in Hanzhou City. The Tang army used fire attacks to deal with the entrenched soldiers. Except for the warehouse, the other twelve entrenched points were engulfed in flames.

The civilians in the city also suffered a devastating disaster. The brutal street fighting did not distinguish between soldiers and civilians. Both sides were so bloodthirsty that they would instinctively kill the other side if they saw that the other party was not their own.

Women and children were slightly better off, but almost all men were killed. This brutal street fighting lasted until the second watch and was basically over. The rest was just cleaning up and killing. By the fourth watch, all the fighting was over, and 20,000 Silla soldiers were killed, but the Tang army also paid the price of more than 2,000 casualties.

As the sky gradually brightened, the Tang army began to drive the people out from house to house. Each family was only allowed to carry two packages. All the people were driven out of the city. The cries of grief were deafening. The fear of their families being killed in the street fighting and the fear of the future almost made everyone collapse.

But the Tang army was not the Japanese army of the Bohai Kingdom. The Tang army did not kill civilians or plunder the property of ordinary people, but the nobles were in danger. In fact, the mansions of the three major nobles in Hanzhou City had been looted by the Silla army in advance, becoming one of the thirteen strongholds occupied by the Silla army. In the end, they were burned down by fire. The wealth looted by the Silla army finally fell into the hands of the Tang army.

The warehouse in Hanzhou City was not attacked with fire, but the wall was blown down with explosive arrows. The Tang army rushed in and fought with more than a thousand Silla soldiers guarding the warehouse. In the end, more than 1,300 Silla soldiers were completely wiped out.

Hanzhou City was mainly the granary of Silla, where the largest amount of grain of Silla was stored, with a total of 600,000 dan of grain.

Tens of thousands of Silla people were sitting in the wilderness. There were not many young and strong men, and most of them were the elderly, the weak, women and children. In recent years, there had been many rebellions and civil wars in Silla, as well as the great uprising of the Baekje people. The major nobles and major forces were constantly recruiting soldiers, and the young and strong men were either captured or massacred in the uprisings. In addition, the Tang army's total annihilation campaign without leaving any prisoners of war, so the young and strong men of Silla were almost wiped out.

At this time, the fear in the hearts of tens of thousands of elderly, weak, women and children had subsided a lot, and the Tang army began to distribute steamed buns, one to each person, which meant that the Tang army would not kill them.

Several Tang soldiers who could speak Silla repeatedly shouted: "Don't be afraid, the Tang army will not harm civilians. We need to remove the bodies in the city, otherwise there will be an epidemic."

By noon, all the bodies were carried out of the city and the people were allowed to return to the city. Everyone felt relieved and supported each other as they stumbled back to their homes.

The county magistrate who took over Hanzhou City was called Wang Yihou. He was from Dezhou and was a Jinshi. He was originally the chief clerk of Chuqiu County. He performed well and was selected by the Ministry of Personnel to come to Silla to serve as the county magistrate of Hanzhou County. There were other county officials who would be responsible for educating the people and turning them into children of the Tang Dynasty.

Two days later, Li Chengshi received a military order from Ma Lin, telling him that he did not need to come to Jincheng to join the forces. Ma Lin ordered him to go directly south and capture Xiongzhou.

Li Chengshi immediately left 3,000 troops to guard the city, and he led 25,000 troops south by boat, and the fleet sailed towards Xiongzhou.

Xiongzhou was the former capital of Baekje. It was originally a good place, but because of the cruel oppression of Baekje people by Silla, the Baekje people revolted last year. Kim Jeong-ji led his army to defeat the rebels and began a massacre against Baekje men. About 300,000 Baekje men died in the massacre.

At this time, Xiongzhou was desolate and dilapidated, with only 10,000 Silla soldiers guarding the city. For the 25,000 Tang troops, it was easy to capture Xiongzhou.

The 30,000 Liaodong troops in the north crossed the Yalu River under the leadership of Nan Jiyun, and then burned down the city of Ugut. Half of the 10,000 Silla defenders were burned to death, and the other half escaped from the city but were surrounded and annihilated by 20,000 cavalry, and the entire army was destroyed.

The 30,000 Tang troops continued to move southward and marched towards Pyongyang, an important city in the north of Silla. There were also 10,000 Silla troops in Pyongyang, but 10,000 troops were completely insufficient to counter the fierce attack of the 30,000 Tang troops.

The really tough nut to crack was the decisive battle in Jinzhou, the capital of Silla.

Ma Lin personally led 30,000 Tang troops to fight against the 30,000 Silla troops guarding the capital.

At this time, Jin Zhenzhi, the special envoy to the Tang Dynasty, was still on his way back and had just arrived in Luoyang. It was estimated that Silla would become a fish on the chopping board before he even reached Dengzhou.

(End of this chapter)