Chastity Layman

  Chapter 529 Iron Cavalry Around Dragon City

  The horn sounded, and the barbarians couldn't wait to launch an attack.

  Qin Lang watched the Qiang warriors get off their horses at the foot of the mountain and ordered the cavalry to run and shout, but he didn't panic at all. This Diezhou city was moved here from the old city, precisely because the location of the new city is more dangerous than the old city.

  It is bordered by Juejian in the west, Qiangshui in the south, and dangerous peak in the north.

   To attack the city, there are no dangers on three sides. There is only a small path in the east to go up the mountain. This path can only allow a horse to walk alone, which is dangerous and long.

  At the beginning, Lao Liu also took a fancy to the terrain here, so he urged Fanzhou City to move here, and he did not hesitate to move westward for dozens of miles to be closer to Qianghu.

   Now Qin Lang is also interested in this.

  This is simply another stone castle. You must know that the Tang Dynasty and Tubo competed for the stone castle. Several battles were launched before and after, and countless people were killed or injured.

  Shibao City is a much smaller castle than Diezhou City, but its geographical location is important. It is stuck on the main road of Hehuang, and it is a must for Tang and Tubo to attack and defend Longyou.

   Around Stone Castle City as the core, the two sides launched several battles with tens of thousands of people. In one battle, Ge Shuhan, a famous general of the Tang army, even fought hard to capture Shibao City with more than ten thousand casualties.

  At that time, the Tubo army in Shibao City only had more than 400 people.

  In the era of cold weapons, such a dangerous terrain is difficult to ignore. Whoever dares to attack head-on will inevitably pay a huge price.

  No matter how many soldiers and horses you have, there is no danger on three sides, and there is only one small path to attack.

  Not to mention that the Tuyuhun Party Xiangqiang were not good at building siege equipment, even if they got a lot of catapults, siege crossbows, etc., it was useless. The distance is too far, and the city on the mountain cannot be attacked at the bottom of the mountain.

  There is only one siege method, but how many soldiers are there on the mountain? Moreover, Qin Lang has sufficient reserves now, so he is not afraid of being besieged at all.

  This kind of city defense, as long as the guard is not too stupid, normal points can be defended.

   "Wei Gong, Qiang Hu seems to want to test it." Old Liu stood aside.

   "Just let them try, let's play with them." Qin Lang didn't care. "How are the people's arrangements?"

   "Arrangements have been made in accordance with Duke Wei's instructions. The family members of the attached Qiang have been scattered and arranged in each city and fort. The soldiers near the city and the troops near the side have also been assigned to the generals of the forts to command."

   Horns and leather drums are loud.

  About a thousand Qiang soldiers began to test their attack. The narrow and steep path affected their attack. Looking down from above, the thousand people stretched into a long and narrow snake, thin and fragile.

  There were only some low shrubs and weeds on both sides of the path, which had been cleaned up by Governor Liu on a regular basis, leaving both sides of the path bare and without cover.

  The mountain wall to the east is full of chaotic rock walls. The path is a stairway opened from the chaotic rock wall, narrow and curved.

  The entire path was completely exposed to the firepower of the city defenders, especially the section near the city.

  Zhang Chao led a team of knights standing in front of the battlements, stringing the bow and checking the arrows.

   They are all relaxed.

   "It was not easy to build this city back then!" Qin Lang sighed.

Old Liu said, "It's not bad. It was originally a garrison fortress. A small village was built on this platform by cutting down trees. Later, Xirong was expelled, prefectures and counties were established, and Hechuan County was established, so the city began to be built with earth. The cornerstone of the city wall It was built with stones from the road construction on the mountain wall, and then rammed earth for the wall. The soil was also excavated on the platform. In the past, there was a dense forest on the platform, and there were many big trees. Later, these trees were cut down one after another. Yes, build a village and build a house."

  According to what Lao Liu said, this Diezhou City was actually built with local materials, and it has been built for many years, gradually being completed little by little.

  From the earliest fortress, to the later county seat, and then to Xinzhou city, it has gone through fifty years.

  Old Liu is looking at this city, from scratch, from simple to strong, every brick and stone here has poured a lot of his hard work.

  The city builders back then deliberately did not widen the road, and deliberately only allowed a maximum of two horses to run side by side, in consideration of defense needs.

  Actually, there are too many dangerous terrains along the Qiang River and the Dieshan line. Along the banks of the Qiang River, it is easy to find such dangerous places that are easy to defend and difficult to attack, and control the passage of the river valley.

  Hechuan City is relatively more dangerous, and the platform for building the city can build a bigger city and accommodate more people.

  In the past, the Qiang people also invaded Diezhou many times, but no Qiang people tried to attack Diezhou city by force, basically they all bypassed it. As long as you don't attack by force, then the natural danger is relatively not so powerful. Of course, bypassing is also very dangerous.

   It means a bone spur stuck in the throat.

But relatively speaking, the Qiang people’s invasions were all looting, and their fighting methods were to drive cattle and sheep, so generally speaking, there was no need to worry about the logistics supply being intercepted, and because there were few soldiers in Diezhou in the past, it was okay to defend the city , but taking the initiative to go out of the city and down the mountain to fight, it is a bit powerless.

   Therefore, in previous wars, the dangerous cities of Diezhou City could guarantee that the Central Plains would always occupy these borders, but they could not guarantee that the Qiang people would invade and plunder from time to time.

   Unless the imperial court can send a large army to conquer.

   Only this time it was different.

  Qin Lang brought 3,000 elites to the castles and stationed them in various castles, forming a three-dimensional defense system, and could even coordinate remotely with the large Tang army troops in Songfu and Songfu states hundreds of miles to the south.

If Wusu and Tuoba Chici kept bypassing the 60,000 people, Qin Lang could harass and intercept them, so this time Wusu wasn't stupid and wanted to attack Diezhou, but he didn't dare to go deep into the city easily. .

  War is always fickle.

  More than a thousand Qiang people struggled to climb the mountain, but the steep terrain limited their speed, and the winding mountain road made it difficult for them to reach the mountain quickly.

   After checking the weapon, Zhang Chao put the helmet on his head.

  Qin Lang patted him on the shoulder, "This is a rare training opportunity, strengthen your archery skills, otherwise your stinky arrow skills will make other soldiers laugh at you."

  Zhang Chao blushed, "I must shoot some Qiang thieves!"

   Far away, the Qiang people approached little by little.

  In the farther valley below the mountain, there were also Qiang cavalry chasing and fighting outside the camp. They were the rangers arranged by Qin Lang at the foot of the mountain.

  The number of these rangers is quite a lot, and they are also a living soldier who are designed to harass the enemy.

The rangers carefully kept a sufficient distance from the Qiang army camp, but they were able to monitor their every move. Wusu sent out sentries to clear them, but facing these forward sentries, the rangers They are not afraid at all.

  They chased in the valleys and forests, fighting in small groups, relying entirely on their own riding and shooting skills, this kind of confrontation, even large troops could not intervene.

Qin Lang could see on the mountain that the rangers performed as well as before. The Qiang sentry cavalry obviously suffered in front of them. One group of Qiang cavalry was even lured to the edge of the dense forest in the valley, and then another group of rangers Kill out and surround.

   After a fierce battle, they shot and killed the group of Qiang cavalry before the other Qiang sentry cavalry arrived.

  They even had time to clean up the battlefield before the Qiang soldiers arrived, took away their horses, repaired the wounded soldiers, cut off the left ears of the dead Qiang soldiers, and searched them all over by the way.

  Dried meat, highland barley, salt, tea, and even some valuable jewelry on their bodies were taken away, along with their dirty and old leather armor and weapons.

   Only those Qiang cavalry who were dying with regret were left lying on the ground.

  Zhang Chao held his breath, drew his bow, and aimed at a Qiang soldier who was advancing wretchedly while holding a masked shield.

  Although he tried his best to raise his shield to protect himself, Zhang Chao, standing on the high city wall, still found many flaws.

Inspector Liu said with a smile, "Don't worry, wait a little longer, wait a little closer before shooting the arrow. Do you see the piles of dyed stones on the side of the road below? Those are all signs, and the white stones represent where the city is. There are three hundred steps, which is the range of the Fuyuan crossbow on the city to kill the enemy."

   "The black stone is two hundred paces, which is the range of the crossbow."

   "The green stone is one hundred and twenty paces, which is the range of a single soldier crossbow."

   "When the Qiang soldiers are close to the red stone, you can shoot arrows. There are sixty steps away from the city. At this distance, bows and arrows can hit better."

  Zhang Chao laughed, but he was not so nervous anymore.

  Several officers were patrolling the city, and they asked the archers to bring the enemy closer to sixty steps before shooting.

   "Don't waste the bow and arrow, aim and then shoot the arrow."

  The thin formation of the enemy makes it easy for the officers defending the city. There is no need to lob shots at all, let alone shoot all over the sky, which is a waste of arrows.

   Just zoom in and aim and shoot one by one.

  The officers even sent out five groups of archers defending the city. One group defended the city for a quarter of an hour. They took turns to step forward and rest alternately.

  The cavalry didn't even put on their armor, so they stayed in the city to rest.

  The atmosphere on the city wall is very relaxed.

   Rather than defending the city and fighting, it is better to say it is daily training.

Old Liu walked up to Qin Lang and stood still, patted his waist, "This year is seventy, really old." In fact, before Qin Lang's arrival, Old Liu just sent a memorial to the court to beg for bones, intending to become an official . "I have been here all my life. I was born here, grew up here, and guarded here for fifty years. I am old and have scars all over my body. The biggest regret in my life is that I have never been to Chang'an or the Central Plains. So I thought, when the imperial court approves my official report, I will go to Chang'an, Luoyang, and Yangzhou on horseback after I hand over the errand, and I also want to see the East China Sea!"

   Having stayed in this mountain all his life, Lao Liu wanted to get out of this mountain before he died, to see the Central Plains and the sea.

   "After this battle is over, I will recommend Liu Gong, an East Palace official, to the crown prince to go to Chang'an to retire." Qin Lang smiled.

  Old Liu looked at the countless tents at the foot of the mountain with a worried look on his face.

   "I don't know if we can wait until that day. Xi Rong is aggressively invading. I am afraid that it will be difficult for Xijiang to be peaceful in a short time."

   "Don't worry too much, Mr. Liu. Turks have been wiped out. How long can Tuyuhun and Dangxiang survive? Just take this opportunity to clean them up together!"

   There was a sound of arrows.

  Zhang Chao shouted excitedly, "It's hit, it's hit, I shot that Qiang thief!"

  (end of this chapter)