The Flourishing Tang Dynasty: Beginning with Marrying Yang Yuhuan

Chapter 123: Successful in Everything
After formulating a plan, the joint army of Mohedagan and Gao Xianzhi marched towards Suiye City, resting during the day and marching at night.

At dawn that day, Mohedagan and his tribe appeared at the gate of Suiye City.

The defenders of Suiye City Dumozhi were startled when they saw Mohedagan suddenly appear, and they quickly sounded the emergency drum.

Mohedagan also prepared to attack the city.

Catapults, ladders, Lu Gong chariots, and battering rams were all deployed.

Dumozhi was still sleeping in the arms of his wife. He was suddenly awakened by the sound of drums. Without even having time to put on his clothes, he stepped on the body of the woman on the big bed and rushed out of the door.

He ran out of the room, put on his clothes and asked his guards: "Could it be that Mohedagan is here again?"

"That's right." The guard next to him answered.

"Isn't he scared of being beaten?" Dumozhi looked annoyed.

Although Mohedagan never attacked Suiye City and mostly harassed border towns, Suiye City was an important node on the Silk Road. Mohedagan would harass the city whenever he had nothing to do and scared away all the merchants, which basically cut off Suiye City's trade routes.

Without trade routes, the strategic value of Suiye City would be greatly reduced.

Therefore, Dumozhi was unhappy until Mohedagan was eliminated.

The guard replied: "General, judging from this attack, the enemy is not only not afraid, but also seems to have the intention of taking the city."

"Really?" Dumozhi rushed to the city wall quickly.

As Dumozhi climbed up to the city wall, a stone thrown by the catapult fell right next to him.

Dumozhi was startled and looked up, only to see that several of Mohedagan's Lugong cars had been set up.

With the help of Lu Gongche, Mohedagan's lookouts could see the situation in their city clearly.

Dumozhi understood instantly that the stone just now did not fall beside him by accident, but was thrown at him by Mohedagan's soldiers under the guidance of Lu Gongche.

Dumozhi was instantly furious. He came to his own catapult and ordered the soldiers on it to throw stones at the Lu Gong cart of Mohedagan's soldiers.

The soldier with the catapult missed the target twice, so Dumozhi simply took action himself.

Under Dumozhi's guidance, a huge rock was thrown out and landed on Lu Gong's carriage on Mohedagan's side. The soldier on Lu Gong's carriage was instantly crushed to death.

Dumozhi laughed out loud when he saw that he had succeeded.

But at this time, the first round of stone throwing by Mohedagan's catapult had ended, and Mohedagan's soldiers carried ladders and pushed battering rams to start a large-scale siege.

When Dumozhi saw this, he knew that Mohedagan had taken out all his family assets.

Dumozhi was surprised and happy.

He had long wanted to kill Mohedagan in order to unify the Turks and restore the prosperity of Suiye City.

This battle has been waiting for a long time.

So Dumozhi arranged for his deputy general to guard the city, while he personally led a large group of soldiers, opened the car door, and rushed out.

Dumozhi was extremely brave and his military force was no weaker than Mohedagan's. He led his soldiers to charge out and instantly broke through Mohedagan's formation, turning from defense to offense.

Mohedagan hurriedly sounded the horn and retreated in embarrassment.

Dumozhi was not willing to let Mohedagan go just like that, so he led his troops to pursue him.

The deputy general advised: "General, if the enemy is pretending to be defeated, we may be ambushed if we pursue them too far." Dumozhi said: "If it is a feigned defeat, the flags will not fall and the retreat will be orderly. But you see the enemy's flags fell to the ground, the retreat is chaotic, and many people were trampled to death. This is definitely not a feigned defeat! If I don't take the opportunity to kill Mohedagan, he will gather the remnants and come to harass again. By then, our Tuqishi will be in constant turmoil and the trade route of Suiye City will be blocked. When will our Tuqishi return to the top and gallop beyond the borders?"

After saying that, he pulled up the reins and chased after him.

They chased for five or six miles and were about to catch up with Mohedagan when suddenly drums sounded like thunder and shouts of killing rang out.

Dumozhi looked up and saw flags covering the sky behind the valley, and a large group of people suddenly appeared.

I saw that all the people who came were wearing bright armor, and the horses all had vests. Under the shining of the rising sun, the people and horses were shining brightly. The people were as agile as dragons, and the horses were as strong as tigers. Thousands of troops and horses swept in like a tidal wave.

This scene frightened Dumozhi to the point of trembling with fear.

The soldiers behind Dumozhi were terrified when they saw the big Chinese character "Tang" on the fluttering flags. They shouted, "It's the Tang army! It's the Tang army!"

This shout woke up the shocked Dumozhi soldiers. Without thinking much, the soldiers turned around and ran.

Dumozhi had no courage to fight, and said to the deputy general beside him: "You come to cover the retreat. I will reward you handsomely in the future!"

As he spoke, he turned his horse's head and galloped away.

The deputy general was also very scared, but he was also a loyal man, so he suppressed his fear and shouted, "Follow me, vanguard troops, line up to meet the enemy!"

Half of the vanguard troops had already run away, and the remaining half immediately formed a battle line.

On the Tang army side, Li Siye and Cheng Qianli led the charge.

When the two men led the Tang army's vanguard cavalry to a distance of 150 steps from the Turgesh army, they began to fire a volley of bows and crossbows.

The Tang cavalry was equipped with horn crossbows with a range of 200 steps.

Depending on the tactical arrangements and the proficiency of the cavalry, they would choose whether to shoot arrows during the charge.

Li Siye and Cheng Qianli are now leading soldiers who have experienced many battles and are skilled in archery and horse riding, so they will choose to fire a barrage of arrows when they rush close to consume some of the enemy's manpower.

Moreover, this was an ambush, so Dumozhi's rearguard troops had no time to form a good battle formation, and many of their soldiers were killed by crossbow arrows.

Thanks to the terrain outside Suiye City, only a shallow ambush could be carried out. If there were dense forests or narrow gaps in the sky, most of Dumozhi's troops would probably be killed or injured in a hail of arrows.

After the Tang army launched a rain of arrows, Li Siye took the lead, running to the front of Dumozhi's deputy general with a Mo Dao in hand. He dodged the deputy general's spear and chopped him down with his sword, killing the deputy general and the horse he was riding together.

Following closely behind was Cheng Qianli, who was also a fierce general. Seeing the enemy's leading deputy general being killed by Li Siye with one sword, he was both surprised and impressed. Not wanting to be left behind, he struck with his long spear, and the tip of the spear pierced another enemy general, and with inertia, threw him off his horse seven or eight steps away.

Dumozhi's rearguard troops, under the charge led by Li Siye and Cheng Qianli, were like thin ice that shattered at the slightest touch and were completely unable to put up any effective resistance.

After Li Siye and Cheng Qianli led their team to break through Dumozhi's rearguard troops, they did not stop at all and went straight after Dumozhi.

Dumozhi looked at the fierce man chasing him from behind, and was so frightened that he whipped his mount and kept asking his guards to intercept him.

The obedient guards, determined to die, went to intercept them, but were killed by Li Siye and Cheng Qianli in a short time.

Dumozhi had no choice but to ride his horse and run away. After a lot of effort, he finally ran back to the city of Suiye. Dumozhi shouted, "Close the city gate! Close the city gate!"

After hearing this, the gatekeepers pushed the city gate open, leaving only a narrow path for Dumozhi to pass through.

When Dumozhi rode his horse through the narrow road, the gatekeepers wanted to close the city gate completely.

But at this time, Li Siye had already approached. Li Siye threw his other weapon, a stick, across the gate, preventing it from closing.

(End of this chapter)