Tibet

There are two major pastoral areas in the Shuofang area. One is the foothills of Helan Mountain in the west, and the other is the central grassland in the northwest of Lingzhou, which is today's Hangjin Banner area in Inner Mongolia. The grassland is vast and has always been the pasture of the Qiang people in southern Shuofang. .

But now the pasture has been occupied by the Dangxiang people, and more than 200,000 ordinary Dangxiang people are waiting on the grassland.

Of course, not all the Dangxiang people are here. Some of the Dangxiang people are still staying in the mountainous areas of Qingzhou and Wonju. There will be no danger for the time being. The Dangxiang people from Xiazhou and Yinzhou have not come over either.

The sun is shining brightly on the grassland, the breeze is blowing, and the banks of a small river are full of green grass and flowers are blooming. The grassland is full of large cars parked for more than ten miles. People in twos and threes are sitting everywhere, and groups of children are sitting on the grassland. Running, everyone's eyes are full of expectations for future life.

At this moment, the ground began to tremble, and everyone stood up and looked to the northwest in shock.

A black line appeared in the distance. At this time, dozens of party cavalry rushed over, shouting: "It's the Tang army coming to kill, everyone, hide quickly!"

The party members were immediately in chaos. Countless people held their children and took the elderly with them as they fled south, stumbling and crying for their fathers and mothers.

Three thousand Dangxiang cavalry guards went up to fight and were quickly surrounded by the Tang army. The two sides fought fiercely on the grassland. The Tang army cavalry fired arrows and thunder continuously, causing the Dangxiang cavalry to flip over and the team was in chaos.

With the power of thunder, the 10,000 Tang troops annihilated the 3,000 Dangxiang troops in less than half an hour, and continued to pursue the Dangxiang people.

Most of the people in Dangxiang were old, weak, women and children and could not run fast. All the Tang Army cavalry caught up with them. The Tang Army cavalry shouted: "Everyone sit down where you are. The Tang Army will not kill women and children!"

The legs of the party members were weak, so they had no choice but to sit down.

Two hours later, more than 200,000 party members, old, weak, women and children were all captured by the Tang army, as well as nearly 4 million sheep.

More than 200,000 party members and sheep were escorted south by the Tang army. Lu Yan's raid completely cut off the logistics of the party army.

In the afternoon of the next day, the party cavalry who came to collect food came to the central grassland station. They saw only corpses all over the ground. More than 200,000 people and sheep were nowhere to be seen.

The news that Tuoba Qimei ordered the army to massacre the city reached Lingzhou, and Tuoba Chaoguang almost went crazy.

"Crazy! Idiot! Absolute idiot!"

Tuoba Chaoguang was so angry that he cursed. Tuoba Qimei's order would undoubtedly cut off all their escape routes. How could the Tang army let them go again?

No more scolding will help, the matter has come to this, now they can only sink their boats and fight to capture Lingwu County, otherwise the Tang army will come to kill them, and they will be completely ruined.

The irritability in Tuoba Chaoguang's heart subsided a little, and he immediately ordered: "Prepare to attack with all your strength!"

At dawn, the attack drum of the Dangxiang army sounded again. Driven by thousands of personal guards, all the 40,000 troops of the Dangxiang people in Yuanzhou were dispatched to cover up the city.

The leader Tuoba Chaoguang sent out siege ladders, nest carts, and trebuchets to mix with the army. The 40,000-strong army was as dense as a swarm of ants, vast and vast, covering the wilderness outside Lingwu City.

This time Dangxiang's army became smarter. They paved the road with wooden planks and laid out dozens of boardwalks, allowing Dangxiang's army to avoid assassinations on the ground.

But they could not avoid the fire and thunder array above their heads. Twenty trebuchets fired continuously. Iron fire thunder roared down from the sky and exploded among the party soldiers. Blood and flesh flew everywhere, and screams resounded throughout the field.

A nest car full of soldiers was hit by an iron fire thunder. The iron fire thunder exploded inside the nest car. In an instant, huge trees flew into the sky, thick smoke rose into the sky, the soldiers were blown up, and the nest car collapsed.

The only battering ram was also hit. The iron fire thunder exploded in the air, and the hammer body was blown into two pieces. The wooden platform was overturned, and the two wooden wheels fell off. The huge body of the battering ram tilted and lay on its side. There was no more movement on the ground.

Iron fire thunders exploded in the crowd one after another, and screams continued to be heard. The huge fear caused the morale of the party troops to drop, and many party soldiers turned around and wanted to run away. Tuoba Chaoguang was already prepared, with three thousand personal guards. The cavalry held swords and held down the formation from behind, and nearly a hundred party soldiers who escaped from the formation were chopped to the ground.

The soldiers of the Dangxiang Army had no choice but to bite the bullet and charge forward. As the Dangxiang Army advanced, the Dangxiang Army's counterattack also began.

Fifty trebuchets were in place, and boulders weighing hundreds of kilograms flew towards the city.

On the top of the city, all 12,000 soldiers went into battle, and another 8,000 young and strong men were also temporarily recruited. They were wearing leather armor and holding bows and arrows. Apart from their aura and proficiency, they were almost indistinguishable from ordinary soldiers. .

At this time, Dang Xiangjun's trebuchet was about to be launched, and Cheng Bingquan shouted: "Be careful of flying rocks!"

As soon as he finished speaking, dozens of large rocks flew towards the city. The soldiers on the city shouted and squatted down, 'Bang! Bang! ’ Huge boulders hit the city walls and city tops, and rubble scattered everywhere.

A general rushed to Zhang Bingquan and said: "General, use arrows and thunder!"

The firearms of the Tang Army were mainly supplied to Liaodong and the Western Regions on a large scale.

Shuofang also has a point here, but it is mainly placed in Fengzhou, which is the first stop against the nomadic cavalry in the north.

There are only a thousand heavy-duty arrow mines and more than a hundred iron fire mines in the Lingwu County warehouse. There are no explosive arrows, but there are thousands of barrels of kerosene.

Zhang Bingquan looked at the chariot in the distance, pondered for a moment and said: "First take five hundred arrows and thunder, kill the enemy's trebuchet, and the soldiers will use kerosene to deal with it!"

"Follow the order!"

Soon, the soldiers took out the arrows and mines, and Zhang Bingquan ordered them to be used by twenty sharp archers to destroy the enemy's trebuchets.

Twenty sharp archers mounted their large yellow crossbows and aimed at the trebuchet 150 steps away.

Twenty arrows were fired almost simultaneously, and the powerful heavy crossbow arrows hit the catapults one after another. The arrows at the front exploded violently, the catapult bracket was blown off, and the eighteen catapults collapsed.

There was a cheer on the top of the city, and Zhang Bingquan was overjoyed and ordered: "Shoot again!"

Three rounds of sixty arrows were fired, and the fifty large catapults of the Dangxiang people all collapsed. It was difficult to repair them, and they were basically useless.

But the siege was officially launched. Ten thousand Dangxiang archers rushed forward, and the bow and arrow war between the two sides broke out.

Eight thousand newly recruited Tang soldiers shot arrows down on both sides of the battlements of the city wall. There were arrow holes on the walls of Lingwu City, and the battlements could be used as cover, while another part of the soldiers shot arrows at an upward angle from behind.

The Dangxiang army had a slight advantage in terms of dense numbers. The arrows from both sides were like dense rain, weaving a black arrow net in the sky. The Dangxiang suffered heavy casualties, and the Tang army also suffered casualties, and people kept screaming about being shot by arrows.

In the dense rain of arrows, the Dangxiang army began to cross the moat and approach the city wall. To the surprise of the Dangxiang people, there was no water in the moat, just a large trench two feet deep and two and a half feet wide. However, whether there was water in the moat was meaningless to the Dangxiang army. They put up three feet long wooden boards, making the moat lose its defensive function.

At this time, dozens of large siege ladders and twenty nest cars rumbled in. Each nest car was loaded with hundreds of Dangxiang soldiers, each holding a spear and a shield, and there were more than 300 people following below, shooting arrows upwards together.

The nest car slowly approached the city wall, less than 50 steps away from the city wall. At the same time, the arrows and thunder of the Tang army began to play a role.

"Here it comes! Here it comes!"

A lieutenant pointed at a nest car that was slowly approaching and shouted: "String it up and aim for me!"

Two soldiers set up two heavy crossbows and aimed at the nest car.

The captain yelled, "Fire!"

The two soldiers pulled the trigger on their swords, and with two sounds of 'click! click!', two heavy arrows shot out from the firing slots, whizzing towards the nest car fifty steps away.

'Boom! Boom!' With two explosions, the nest car was hit by two arrows, two large holes were blown open, a column beam was broken, the nest car shook violently, and continued to move forward.

"Damn it, come again!"

The captain cursed, and several soldiers re-stringed their arrows, but they didn't need to adjust the direction. Two more arrows shot out, hitting the nest car again, exploding inside the nest car, and there were screams inside the nest car, which was blown into two pieces.

Dozens of belts tied to the main beams of the nest car were blown off, and the nest car disintegrated instantly, and countless soldiers screamed and fell down.

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Although the arrows and thunders of the Tang army were powerful, they could only destroy all the nest cars. Dozens of siege ladders were finally put on the city wall. Under the siege ladders, dozens of Dangxiang soldiers climbed up with knives. Hundreds of Tang soldiers fought against one ladder and the enemy.

More than twenty siege ladders were put on the top of the city wall. The Dangxiang soldiers climbed up the ladders frantically. The Tang soldiers waved their swords and spears to fight the enemy who rushed up. On the horse wall, dozens of Tang soldiers shot the Dangxiang soldiers on the stairs from behind with crossbows. The powerful crossbow arrows shot through the wooden shields, and Dangxiang soldiers kept screaming and falling down the city.

The battle gradually became bloody and tragic.

Zhang Bingquan saw that the time was ripe and ordered: "Throw kerosene!"

Thousands of barrels of kerosene were thrown down the city, the wooden barrels shattered, the kerosene flowed, and was ignited by torches. There was a raging fire under the city, and then thousands of bundles of wheat straw were thrown down.

The 20,000 Tangut troops were engulfed in the flames in just a short moment.