Tibet.

Chapter 1455: Defending Lingwu
The Dangxiang people had a total of three armies, the Qingzhou Army, the Wonzhou Army and the Xiazhou Army, with a total of nearly 100,000 troops.

According to the plan and deployment of the Dangxiang, 30,000 Xiazhou troops were responsible for attacking Yanzhou, while luring the main force of the Tang army to buy time for the Dangxiang army that was attacking Lingzhou.

Two Dangxiang armies with a total of 70,000 troops attacked Lingzhou.

The two main commanders were Tuoba Chaoguang, the leader of the Dangxiang in Yuanzhou, and Tuoba Qimei, the leader of the Dangxiang in Qingzhou.

Following the 70,000-strong army to Lingzhou were hundreds of thousands of Dangxiang people.

They had been prepared for a long time. If they turned against the Tang Dynasty and rebelled, they would all move north to Lingzhou.

Of course, there is a more realistic problem. The Dangxiang army went north to attack Lingzhou. Once the Tang army raided their lair from behind and captured all the Dangxiang people, the army would be defeated without a fight.

Therefore, for practical reasons, the Dangxiang army had to take their families with them, and also took away millions of sheep of the Tang army.

There were about 20,000 troops stationed in Shuofang, but they were relatively scattered, with 5,000 stationed in Fengzhou in the north.

Lingwu had 12,000 men, and Mingsha County had 3,000 troops.

The governor of Shuofang is Xin Yunjing, but unfortunately, Xin Yunjing is ill and the army is currently led by Deputy General Zhang Bingquan.

Zhang Bingquan is also an old deputy general who has cooperated with Xin Yunjing for many years. Although he is a deputy general, his official rank and title are very high. He was appointed as the Champion General and was granted the title of Duke of Tao, which is equal to Xin Yunjing.

The Dangxiang army attacked too suddenly, catching the Shuofang Governor's Office off guard.

If they were prepared, they would have moved the people of Mingsha County to Lingwu County and then transferred the troops from Fengzhou back, but they were not prepared for this. They were defending against the nomads in the northern grasslands.

However, they never expected that the Dangxiang people would stab them hard from behind.

While Zhang Bingquan urgently sought help from the imperial court, Hexi and Longyou, he organized troops to defend the city.

In order to seize Shuofang and establish a kingdom, the Dangxiang people had been preparing for many years. They took advantage of the An-Shi Rebellion to stockpile a large amount of weapons and at the same time purchased a large number of parts for siege weapons and assembled them in secret.

Therefore, the equipment of the Dangxiang army was not inferior to that of the Tang army. The only thing they lacked was firearms, but they had thousands of barrels of kerosene.

Just two hours after setting up camp, the Dangxiang Army launched its first large-scale attack. Ten thousand troops surged towards Lingwu City like a black tide, with a hundred siege ladders mixed in with them. This time the Dangxiang Army did not go all out in the attack, and no catapults, rams or battering rams were used in the battle.

They are testing the strength of Lingwu City.

The Tangut soldiers held up their shields, and 10,000 siege soldiers held spears and swords, with high morale. Behind them were 10,000 archers, who were responsible for providing cover. To the sound of "boom! boom! boom!" that shook people's hearts, they lined up in a black mass and charged towards Lingwu City.

Siege ladders moved rapidly among the crowd, with hundreds of people following behind each ladder. Drumsticks hit huge leather drums, making earth-shaking sounds, accompanied by waves of shouts and cries of killing. The Dangxiang army rose and fell like waves, with a huge momentum.

The Tang army temporarily dug three trenches ten feet wide two miles away from the city, but these three trenches could not stop the Dangxiang people. They placed thick wooden boards on the trenches, making the trenches immediately useless.

When they were still a mile away from the city wall, the drum beats suddenly became dense, and ten thousand Dangxiang troops shouted and rushed towards the city wall. The defenders on the city wall looked at the Dangxiang army nervously and expectantly, as if waiting for something to happen.

The twenty large catapults on the front city wall began to creak and twist the thick ropes, and the long catapult rods bent backwards, and the accumulated potential energy reached its extreme.

Outside the city was a field of wild grass that was as high as people's knees. The Dangxiang army rushed forward violently. Thousands of people in the front suddenly shouted in fear. The wild grass was on fire and the fire spread rapidly.

They didn't take it seriously at first, but soon realized something was wrong. The fire spread rapidly and surrounded and engulfed thousands of people.

The soldiers turned around and fled, and at this time they stepped on the thorns of caltrops scattered in the grass. This kind of caltrops has four one-inch long thorns. When scattered on the ground, there is always one thorn facing upwards. The caltrops have been tempered with a highly poisonous substance. Once pierced, the cause may be either disability or death.

In addition to the caltrops, there were also hidden horse-trapping holes with a three-inch long poisonous iron spike inserted upside down in the hole. Many Dangxiang soldiers stepped into the hole and the long spike pierced their insteps. The attacking Dangxiang army was caught off guard. More than a thousand people fell down howling and crying, and the whole place was in wailing. What was even more terrifying was that the legs began to turn black and swell, and the pain was unbearable. Many people rolled around and howled for a while, and then died from the poison.

The fierce fire, poison needles and iron sticks caused heavy casualties to thousands of soldiers.

But another two thousand Tangut troops had already rushed to within two hundred steps of the city wall. Carrying siege ladders, they rushed desperately towards the city wall.

At this time, a strange sound came from the sky, like the sound of pigeons circling in the sky. The Tangut soldiers looked up at the sky and saw small black dots in the sky, whistling and flying towards their heads, getting closer and closer. Suddenly, a cry of fear broke out in the Tangut army. It turned out to be black iron balls. They fled in all directions with their heads in their hands.

Large iron fire bombs weighing about a hundred pounds fell into the crowd and exploded with a loud bang. There were screams all around, blood splattered everywhere, and the few people closest to them were blown into pieces of meat. One iron fire bomb killed or injured dozens of people, some seriously injured, and some dead. The Dangxiang army suffered heavy casualties. Immediately afterwards, the second wave of iron fire bombs came whistling.

With weapons pressing down on their heads and murderous intentions lurking on the ground, the main force of the Dangxiang army was still one mile away from the city, and more than 3,000 people were killed or injured. Seeing that the situation was not good, Tuoba Chaoguang immediately ordered, "Retreat!"

Thousands of Dangxiang troops retreated like a tide, and the Tang army on the city cheered...
..........
The siege of Mingsha County was extremely brutal. The war broke out fiercely at night. Tuoba Qimei, the leader of the Dangxiang Qingzhou, led 20,000 Dangxiang troops to launch an offensive. The county seat of Mingsha County was not high and its defense capability was very weak. Once the war broke out, the people of Mingsha County would go to Lingwu County to take refuge.

Therefore, Mingsha County did not have large-scale defensive weapons, nor did it have kerosene or firearms, and it had never been thought that Mingsha County would be attacked.

This time the Dangxiang people came too suddenly, and thousands of people in Mingsha County had no time to evacuate.

Siege ladders were placed on the top of the city walls, shouts of killing shook the sky, and 20,000 Dangxiang soldiers climbed up the ladders, braving the dense rain of arrows and rolling logs and rocks, fighting to the death to capture the city.

As long as they take Mingsha County, they will have their first foundation city, so they are determined to take Mingsha County.

Soldiers of the Dangxiang Army kept falling from the ladders screaming. The fighting on the city walls was fierce. Swords cut into bones and blood dripped from the tips of spears. There were less than a thousand Tang soldiers left on the city walls, but they still fought desperately. All the men went up to the city walls, and even women and the elderly went up to join the battle.

When daybreak approached, there were less than 500 defenders left on the city walls. They still fought desperately and died together with the Dangxiang army.

At this time, the city gate was finally broken open by the battering ram, and thousands of Dangxiang soldiers rushed in, and Mingsha County fell.

The Dangxiang army lost nearly 5,000 men to capture the small Mingsha County town.

Tuoba Qimei became furious and ordered a massacre in the city, killing all the people in it.

..........
At this time, the 10,000 Tang troops who had rushed from Yunzhong also arrived at the Yellow River about 200 miles north of Lingwu County. They happened to meet 50 Tang soldiers stationed in Linhe Town, north of Lingwu County.

These Tang soldiers had no time to return to the city and had to retreat to Fengzhou.

The leader of this group of Tang troops was a captain named Feng Kang, who was brought before the Yunzhong general Lu Yanming.

General Lu Yan was originally named Lu Ye. In order to avoid taboo, he changed the character Ye in his name to Yan, which was his mother's name, so it sounds a bit feminine.

Feng Kang stepped forward, knelt on one knee, clasped his fists and said, "I, Feng Kang, pay my respects to General Lu!"

Lu Yan nodded and said, "Captain Feng, you have worked hard. How is the situation in Lingzhou?"

"Reporting to the general, 60,000 to 70,000 troops are coming to Lingzhou, and we are caught off guard. I and my men don't even have the chance to return to the county town. We can only flee northward."

"You are stationed outside the city. What are you responsible for?"

"Reporting to the general, we are protecting thousands of acres of melon fields and hunting wild boars!"

Lu Yan laughed, "I understand. I want to know where the enemy's logistics are?"

"The enemy's logistics came from the east. I heard some herdsmen who escaped from the east say that there are hundreds of thousands of Tanguts staying on the central grasslands, and there are millions of sheep."

Lu Yan's mind moved. His 10,000-man army might not be able to deal with the 60,000 to 70,000 Tangut troops, but he could completely cut off the Tangut army's logistics or kidnap the Tangut civilians and march south.

Thinking of this, he immediately made a decision: "Lead us to the central grassland!"

"I humbly obey my orders!"

The 10,000 Tang troops immediately turned their horses around and rushed towards the central grassland a hundred miles west of Lingwu County.

(End of this chapter)