The Flourishing Tang Dynasty: Beginning with Marrying Yang Yuhuan

Chapter 124 A great victory
When the Turkic soldiers guarding the city saw that the gate could not be closed, one of them ran out and tried to take away Li Siye's stick.

But as soon as the soldier ran out, he was shot dead by Cheng Qianli.

What followed was a hail of crossbow arrows from the cavalry behind Li Siye and Cheng Qianli.

For a moment, the Turkic soldiers guarding the city dared not show their heads again.

A moment later, Li Siye and Cheng Qianli rushed to the city gate and hacked at the Turkic soldiers at the gate.

Dumozhi, who escaped death, knew that the city gate must not be lost, so he personally stood behind with a knife and urged the soldiers to block the attack of Li Siye and others. Anyone who retreated would be killed.

Under the threat of death both in front and behind, the Turgesh soldiers continued to rush to the city gate.

Soon, the corpses of the Turgesh soldiers at the city gate piled up to half a person's height.

Li Siye, Cheng Qianli and their personal soldiers were covered in blood. They tried to break into the city twice, but were forced back each time by the Turkic soldiers and their arrows.

The situation was at a stalemate for a while.

But not long after, Gao Xianzhi, An Sishun, Feng Changqing and Xin Yunjing arrived with soldiers attacking the city.

Compared with Mohedagan's shabby siege equipment, the Tang Dynasty's siege equipment was much more luxurious. Not only were there a large number of catapults, ladders, Lu Gong carts, battering rams, etc., but there were also fireball throwing carts, giant crossbows that could shoot 700 steps, and giant hooks that could pull down city gates and even low walls.
An Sishun had always been ashamed of the failure of the first attack on Lianyun Fort. This time, with the attitude of avenging himself, he led the troops and personally climbed the ladder to attack the city.

Xin Yunjing and Feng Changqing were eager to make a contribution, so they also took the lead in attacking the other two city gates.

Under the coordination of several people, the defenders in Dumozhi's city were caught in a dilemma, which reduced the pressure on Li Siye and Cheng Qianli. So the two of them led their troops and entered the city in one go.

With the city gate lost, the morale of the Dumochi troops was greatly reduced and they were defeated one after another.

An Sishun, Feng Changqing and Xin Yunjing also climbed up the city wall one after another, pulled down the flag of the Turks, and planted the flag of the Tang Dynasty on the city of Suiye.

Dumozhi's army was either killed or surrendered. Dumozhi and Yehu were also captured alive.

At this time, the morning sun was rising higher, and the flags of the Tang Dynasty were fluttering in the sunlight, facing the wind from the Western Regions.

Gao Xianzhi led the central army and rode into Suiye City on tall horses.

In the city, the palace of Yehu Khan.

Gao Xianzhi greeted the blood-soaked Li Siye, Cheng Qianli, An Sishun, Feng Changqing and Xin Yunjing one by one, and said, "All the generals were defeated by ten thousand men. It is thanks to the generals that we were able to capture Suiye City today."

Hearing this, several people said in unison: "This is General Gao's brilliant plan."

Gao Xianzhi waved his hand and smiled.

Gao Xianzhi had just seen how brave they were in the central army, and he almost couldn't help wanting to lead the charge.

However, as a commander, he is more important in commanding and dispatching troops than in leading the troops himself, and his safety is related to the morale and success of the entire army.

So he held back.

Gao Xianzhi felt regretful in his heart and turned to look at Yehu and Dumozhi who were captured nearby.

Seeing the young Yehu trembling with fear, Gao Xianzhi couldn't help but sigh in his heart: "We are both princes and nobles, but His Highness Prince Shou remained calm when faced with a huge crisis, while Yehu is so timid. No wonder he was held hostage by Dumozhi. If he had 30% of His Highness Prince Shou's courage and 20% of his strategy, he wouldn't have fallen to this point."

Thinking of this, Gao Xianzhi stopped looking at him and turned to look at Dumozhi.

Dumozhi was a hero after all, and the outcome was already decided, so he was calm. So when he saw Gao Xianzhi looking at him, he laughed and said, "If you hadn't come so suddenly and ambushed me rashly, I wouldn't have been defeated so quickly."

Seeing that Dumozhi was still stubborn even after losing, Li Siye stepped forward with his sword and said, "General, I will kill him now."

"Wait a minute." Gao Xianzhi stopped Li Siye and said, "Your Highness said that we cannot kill him."

Hearing that it was Li Heng's instruction, Li Siye immediately stopped and said, "Then let's take him back to Qiuci and hand him over to Your Highness for disposal." "That's not necessary." Gao Xianzhi sat on the position of the Khan of Yehu.

When Dumozhi heard Li Heng's instructions not to kill him, he thought that the gift he had sent to Chang'an had worked, so he laughed and said, "If you want to kill me, I'm afraid your court won't agree, right?"

"Oh?" Gao Xianzhi was puzzled when he heard this and asked, "Where did you get this from?"

Dumozhi said: "I already have a plan, no need to tell you."

Gao Xianzhi looked at Dumozhi's confident look and remembered that Li Heng had said that Dumozhi had sent people to Chang'an to request for enthronement.

But the court did not agree.

Since the imperial court did not agree, why did Dumozhi say so?

Gao Xianzhi thought about it and understood.

It should be that while Dumozhi requested for the title, he also sent gifts to the dignitaries in Chang'an.

Dumozhi sent gifts not only to get those dignitaries to write to the emperor to confer the title on him, but also to take a step back and save his life if he was not conferred the title.

Bribery has been a great tactic since ancient times.

Gao Xianzhi, who understood what was happening, had a better understanding of Li Heng's difficulties and foresight.

Gao Xianzhi thought for a moment and said to Dumozhi, "I would like to know who accepted your generous gift."

Dumozhi was shocked when Gao Xianzhi revealed his "countermeasure" and said, "Anyway, you can't kill me!"

Gao Xianzhi smiled and shook his head, saying, "As the leader of a region, you are obsessed with those dirty deals. When have you ever thought about your people? When have you ever been considerate of your soldiers? What long-term plans do you have? Do you think I really don't dare to kill you?"

"You..." Dumozhi was so angry that he couldn't speak clearly. He stammered, "What do you mean?"

Gao Xianzhi said: "If I don't kill you, someone else will."

Dumozhi understood and asked, "You want to hand me over to Moheda Gan?"

As Dumozhi finished speaking, Mohedagan finally hurried over.

When Gao Xianzhi saw Moheda Gan, he stood up and said, "Great Khan, you can handle these two. They are our gifts to you."

Mohedagan was also a little surprised to see that Dumozhi and Yehu were not dead.

He also wanted to use the Tang Dynasty to kill these two people, so that he would have the opportunity to blame the Tang Dynasty for the incident in Suiye City and then gather the remaining forces of the Hei surnamed Turks.

But Gao Xianzhi did not kill him, but handed the man back to him.

If he takes these two people, he must kill them.

Because if he didn't kill them, he wouldn't be able to control these two people while they were alive, and the division of the Turgesh would be endless.

Mohedagan was a little reluctant to accept it, but seeing the looks from Gao Xianzhi and several other Tang generals, he could not say no and only said, "Thank you, General Gao."

Mohedagan took Yehu and Dumozhi away and killed them on the road.

When the four cities surrounding Suiye learned that Dumozhi had been defeated and killed, the defenders of two cities abandoned their cities and fled, the defenders of one city resisted but were defeated, and another city voluntarily surrendered.

As for the other remaining forces, the Tang army does not need to take action, Mohedagan can solve them on his own.

The Tang army won a great victory in this expedition.

(End of this chapter)