Late Tang

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On the banks of the Sanggan River, a fast horse galloped there.

"Report to Commander, Zheng Shuai has led an army of [-] to attack Shanyang City!" the scout reported.

In the army tent of the big camp by the river, the generals were very excited, Qi Bizhang smiled and said: "It seems that the Shatuo people will perish soon, and we have to prepare for reinforcements." When he said the word reinforcement, he bit it particularly Heavy.Mi Haiwan, Shi Jingcun and other generals understood what he meant by reinforcements. Now that the [-] troops are attacking Shuozhou City, Li Keyong will definitely not be able to stop it.Their [-] elite cavalry are far away on the banks of the Sanggan River, a hundred miles away. At this time, they have to leave early, otherwise, when they rush over, Zheng Congzhen and the others will not only eat up the meat, but also the soup. up.

Sag Commander Mihaiwan said excitedly: "General Qibi is right, we should prepare and set off."

Lin Wu smiled lightly and said: "You generals don't need to be impatient, this battle will still be fought." He saw that Li Jing hadn't spoken, so he guessed that Li Jing must have other arrangements.At this moment, Shi Jingcun felt a cold gaze stabbing him from the side, but when he turned his head, it was Liu Xun, one of Li Jing's six disciples.

Immediately he couldn't help but asked with a smile: "Why, does Liu Yanei have any different views on this?"

Liu Xun has changed a lot since the last Thai Opera Pass battle.In the past, Liu Xun was both wise and brave, but they always showed on the surface, always appearing a little rough and not calm enough, making people feel a little clever.But during this period of time, I calmed down and followed Li Jing, standing beside Li Jing every day to see how he handled things.In the evening and in his spare time, Li Jing often gave lectures to them. This growth is changing day by day.

Li Jing turned around and said to Liu Xun with encouraging eyes, "You can speak up if you have any opinions."

Liu Xun looked at the relaxed and excited chiefs of the three tribes, and said with a sneer, "If you think Li Keyong is really that bad, and think that this battle can be easily won immediately, then I am willing to lose my head to you. "

"How do you say that?" Mi Haiwan had a gloomy expression on his face. If it wasn't for the fact that Liu Xun was Li Jing's disciple, such a small guard would not be qualified to talk to him.

"Commander, the Tang Army under the city of Shuozhou does have a large number of soldiers, but these soldiers and horses are an allied army composed of soldiers and horses from seven towns. Shanyang City is the governing place of Shuozhou, although it is not as good as Jincheng, the old nest of the Shatuo people. It is strong, but it is also a big city. In my judgment, there must be no less than 1 soldiers and horses in Shatuo people's city. 5 people attack a big city defended by ten thousand people, it seems to have the upper hand, but don't forget, Shatuo The strongest of the Tuo people is not the defense of the city, but the cavalry attack. I am sure that Li Keyong has already assembled an elite cavalry at this time, and is paying attention to the battle situation under the city of Shuozhou at all times just like us."

"Once our army cannot take down Shuozhou City in one go, the situation will become more and more unfavorable to our army. If the defenders in the city can last a little longer, then when the siege troops are exhausted, Li Ke will use It will definitely break out in one fell swoop. At that time, Shuozhou City was a big chopping block, and the soldiers and horses of the seven towns besieging the city were fish and meat. They would let Li Ke use the sledgehammer of the Shatuo cavalry led by Li Ke to continuously attack. Once the coalition forces If there is confusion in command, or poor logistics, then the soldiers and horses of the Seven Towns will definitely be defeated."

The grumpy Mi Haiwan's expression changed, "You are boosting other people's ambitions and destroying your own prestige!"

Li Jing smiled lightly and said: "The governor doesn't have to be as knowledgeable as a child, but although what he said is a bit alarmist, it is not impossible. I think it is worse than this, so the three governors will lead their headquarters to the city of Shuozhou for reinforcements. Just in case?"

Sage, Anqing, and Qibi had already waited impatiently here, and they all nodded in agreement at this moment.After receiving Li Jing's military order, they left one after another, returned to each battalion, greeted their subordinates, and did not want to stay for a moment, for fear that Shuozhou had already been captured, and left screaming.

Watching the cavalrymen of the three tribes leave, Liu Xun was a little puzzled: "Teacher, what I just said is the truth. Shuozhou City is a meat grinder, a trap set by Li Keyong. The soldiers and horses in the Seven Towns are short of food and grass. It all depends on the food and grass we gave them earlier. Moreover, their equipment is not enough, and it is impossible for the various coalition forces to cooperate too tacitly. If Li Keyong sticks to Shuozhou, and then sends a group of surprise soldiers to burn the food and grass of the coalition army, the coalition army Without food, you will be defeated without a fight."

"I believe Li Keyong must be thinking the same as you are now." Li Jing nodded, very satisfied with Liu Xun's calm analysis.

"But teacher just now..." Halfway through the sentence, he suddenly realized that Li Jing knew all this a long time ago, but Li Jing had only sent [-] infantry at the bank of the Sanggan River before, and now he sent another Go to the three tribes and nine thousand cavalry.Could it be that the teacher is going to let them die? "Teacher, are you sending the three tribes to die?"

Li Jing said with a serious face: "Wrong, the three tribes are loyal, and I am helping them with sincerity. If they can help win Shuozhou, or even defeat Li Keyong, it will be a great achievement."

"However, Master should know that these three tribes will never take Master's warning to heart. If they leave here, there will never be any good results."

Li Jing said lightly: "War always kills people, either you die or I die. Now, the three tribes are our allies, but they are not our race, so their hearts must be different. The Shatuo people back then, why not? Loyal to Datang, made great contributions? For these barbarians, the so-called loyalty is just that they don't have enough bargaining chips for betrayal. When they will one day become stronger, the first one to bite will be the former master. These Hu people will always be a group of white-eyed wolves who are not familiar with them. No matter how cute they are when they are young, they will definitely show their fangs when they grow up. If the Shatuo people are wiped out in Daibei In fact, it was just changing from Shatuo people to Tuyuhun people or Dangxiang people, or even Huihe, Tiele and other tribes."

He patted Liu Xun on the shoulder: "Your savvy is unmatched by the other juniors, but if you want to become a handsome talent instead of just a general who charges into battle, you have to learn a lot. Not only It’s just about fighting, the things to consider outside of fighting are more important.”

At this moment, Liu Xun fully understood what was going on in Li Jing's mind, and he couldn't help being filled with shock. He was a little dazed, as if another door had opened in front of him.

Under the city of Shuozhou, the [-] coalition troops directly surrounded the three gates of east, west and south to attack, leaving only the north gate.

The battle lasted for a day, and within a hundred steps of the city on three sides, it had already become a hell on earth.

Numerous crossbow machines and bows and arrows on the city tower fired non-stop, and the rain of arrows and crossbow nails swept across one by one, and the arrows shot the sky and covered the sun, and there were blood and flesh flying everywhere.Under this terrible attack, the flesh and blood seemed as fragile as paper, and countless soldiers fell to the ground before they even had time to shout.

Screams, groans, blood, death, panicked people and horses trampled on each other, arrows rained like locusts, and the sound of sharp wind piercing through the air filled the space.

Arrows flew horizontally, and rolling stones fell densely like hailstones. Tang Jun was beaten so hard that he didn't dare to look up or take a step. Someone lay down on the ground and pretended to be dead, and was immediately followed by the follow-up troops.

The soldiers screamed and wailed, bumping into each other and huddling into a ball, trampling each other; some people lay down to avoid, but were trampled on the back of the head by the panicked horses, and a miserable howl was heard from afar, not like The battlefield sounded like the sound from a slaughterhouse.

Zheng Congxuan's smile on the cloud car had already froze on his lips, and his face was gray.

However, the battle was not over yet. After risking huge losses and paying a huge price, the army had already paved the road with corpses and reached the city.Numerous ladders were erected on the top of the city, and soldiers one after another climbed the ladders to attack the city.

And the catapults and crossbow carts in the back also began to exert their power. Countless catapults and crossbow bolts roared and hit the top of the city, smashing the guarding Shatuo archers to death.

"Throw stones out to attack the arrow towers, and the chariots attack the enemy's ballista!" Zheng Congzhen had never expected that the opponent had so many bows and crossbows, catapults, and ballistas. The small city was full of arrow towers and ballistas. Although the opponent's catapults were placed under the inner wall of the city and could not be seen, the stones they threw could tell that the opponent had a large number of catapults.

Continue to attack, but under the fierce counterattack of the soldiers and horses of the Seven Towns, although they continue to kill the defenders on the city and destroy the arrow towers and crossbows at the top of the city, the attack intensity of the opponent has not decreased.Zheng Congxuan has seen that there are a lot of defenders in the city, and they can be replenished as soon as they die. They even have a lot of bows and ballistas, which can completely maintain the current strength.Seeing that the setting sun was about to set in the west, but after fighting for a day, there was no progress at all, and the casualties were huge.

Zheng Congxuan waved his hand and issued a military order to withdraw troops.

The sound of Mingjin sounded, and a cavalry messenger sent orders everywhere, "The commander-in-chief has an order, the whole army withdraws!"

Wang Jian had brought dozens of brothers to the top of the city for the third time, but he couldn't hold his feet every time, and he would be driven off the top of the city in a short while.Hearing the sound of withdrawing troops, Wang Jian was stunned for a moment, and was immediately slashed in front of him by a Shatuo officer's battle axe. Wang Jian, who was stepping on the battlements, dodged backwards, and fell off the wall immediately as he couldn't stand firmly.Falling into mid-air, Wang Jian reacted very quickly and grabbed a ladder on the city. Although there were bursts of burning pain in the palm of his hand, he finally managed to save his life without any danger.

After fighting for a day, hundreds of brothers in the Eighth Capital were killed or injured. Although he was unwilling in the end, Wang Jian had to lead his troops to retreat slowly and leave the battlefield.

After the battle was over, taking advantage of the light before the sun went down, the Tang army cleaned up the battlefield.Wang Jian took his brothers to find out the brothers who were killed and injured in the eighth capital, and the dead were cremated and wounded and sent to the wounded camp for treatment. (To be continued.)