Tibet

The first siege battle was over. The five thousand Shiguo soldiers mainly attacked the southern half of Xicheng guarded by Li Ye's new soldiers, while only a thousand soldiers attacked the northern half of Xicheng, which had little impact on the overall situation.

The enemy's casualties were also mainly concentrated in the southern section. In this battle, the Shiguo army suffered about 2,400 casualties, including more than a thousand killed. Most of the soldiers were slightly burned by the fire. The injuries were not serious. They could continue to invest after a little treatment. war.

This was a tentative siege battle. After more than an hour of fierce fighting, both sides tested each other's true and false intentions.

In the big tent, General Larry of the Second Army of the Stone Kingdom reported today's combat situation to everyone.

"Obviously, the southern section and the northern section of the city are two different defensive tactics. The southern section has obviously stronger adaptability than the northern section. We climbed up to the top of the city on a ladder, and almost all the more than 500 soldiers who came up from the southern section Killed in action.

About 300 people also went up to the city in the northern section, but 260 people successfully withdrew. According to the soldiers' reactions, there were knife formations and spear formations on the southern section of the city wall, while there were only spear formations on the northern section of the city wall. The enemy The army is in great disarray."

King Kundushi said a little impatiently: "Let's get to the point!"

Larillo was a little embarrassed and said quickly: "To put it simply, there are three points. First, the defensive capabilities of the northern section of the city wall are not as good as those of the southern section. Second, the siege ladder is a little weaker. We need to add large siege weapons in the next battle. The third is fire. During the battle, the opponent threw a large amount of hay and set fire to it, catching us by surprise and causing us heavy losses."

Next to him, the leader of the Sogdian Army, Airot, said slowly: "I have participated in more than a dozen siege battles. It is normal for the defenders to use fire. It made us passive at first, but then we gradually mastered the strategy to break it. "

Kundushi said quickly: "Please tell me, general, how to break the opponent's fire battle?"

Airot smiled and said: "There are two ways. One is to transfer. Once the defenders set fire, the siege team can quickly move to a fire-free place and continue to attack the city. They can't set fire to the entire outside of the West City. That won't Reality.

The second method is to set up a fire-extinguishing army. This is the method used by the Abbasid Caliphate. When attacking Damascus, the defenders used military kerosene invented by the Persians, pouring barrels downwards to ignite this kind of fire. The oil cannot be extinguished by pouring water. The only way is to cover it with earth so that it will be difficult to burn. The Caliph specially organized five thousand people to deal with this kind of fire oil.

But there is no need to pull the Khan. Our guard troops use hay to light fires. Behind them is the moat. The soldiers can directly push the hay into the moat with forks. One thousand people are enough. "

Everyone applauded, and Larry also said: "Today was indeed too sudden. No one was prepared at all. If we had known in advance that the other party would set fire, we wouldn't be so embarrassed. I also agree with General Airot's method of forming an army." Dedicated troops for fire protection.”

Everyone looked at Kundushi. He was the general and needed him to decide tomorrow's battle. Kundushi pondered for a moment and said decisively: "We will continue to attack the city tomorrow. I suggest using 12,000 troops. Shi Guo will send out 7,000 troops." army!"

He then said to Airot and Eguli: "The Sogdian Army and the Tocharian Army each sent 2,500 troops. We will try to capture the city of Qisai tomorrow!"

In a courtyard not far from the west city wall, more than a dozen Bukhan men wearing masks were slowly boiling poison. The large clay pots were filled with arsenic syrup, and then specialized soldiers placed arrows one after another. Apply poison and set aside to dry.

This method was not thought of by Li Ye, but by Prince Arolie. A few months ago, the Tocharian Food Army encountered the arrow array set up by Li Ye during a sneak attack on Kesai City, which left a deep impression on Arolie. This time he To follow suit, coat every arrow with poison.

Each poison arrow is about five inches long. The arrow is coated with poison and the other end is sharpened with a knife to facilitate insertion into the soil.

As night fell, hundreds of soldiers went down to the city on ladders and began to plant arrows outside the city. A total of 20,000 arrows were inserted into the soil silently.

At the top of the city, Alole said worriedly to Li Ye: "Tomorrow the enemy will attack the city in a big way. I found that General Solan is not in a good condition. Tomorrow I am very worried about the northern section of the city. I will stay in the north. If the situation is critical, I sincerely request General Li to provide timely rescue."

Li Ye nodded and said: "Tomorrow I will hand over the defense to Xu Jian and Yu Changyang. The two of them performed very well today and can stand alone. I will lead three hundred soldiers to defend the enemy's siege ram above the city gate. , but no matter there is a crisis over there, I will come to the rescue in time."

Li Ye also knew why Solan was in a low mood. In the first battle in the morning, Bukhan's army did not perform well. They killed more than 200 enemies, but he suffered nearly 500 casualties. The enemy attacked the city twice.

The reason was still poor response. The enemy took a ladder up to the city and caught the defenders off guard, causing chaos. A large number of casualties occurred at that time. On the other hand, the New Army only suffered more than 80 casualties.

Li Ye is also a little worried. If tomorrow is still as chaotic as today, there will be big trouble.

But there are some things that must be decided by the senior management, and I cannot overstep their authority.

After pondering for a long time, Li Ye slowly said to Prince Arolie: "Let me tell you a historical story from the Central Plains Dynasty. During the Three Kingdoms period, the powerful northern warlord Cao Cao wanted to attack the weak Soochow Kingdom. The ministers of Soochow Kingdom were frightened. , all wanted to surrender, and the King of Soochow was also undecided whether to surrender.

At this time, a minister named Lu said to the king that even if our ministers surrender, they can continue to serve as officials and will not suffer any losses. But if you surrender, king, if you are lucky, you will become a slave. If you are not lucky, you will be killed directly by the opponent. , the king finally realized that everyone could surrender, but his family could not surrender. "

Prince Arole nodded, "I understand what the general means!"

Before dawn the next day, the war drums in the coalition camp sounded again, and the dark troops marched out of the camp. This time the momentum was much greater than yesterday, and the enemy began a formal attack.

Three teams appeared on the plain, lined up neatly, with flags flying, and the entire team's spears flashing with murderous intent.

In addition to hundreds of siege ladders, there are also several heavy siege weapons in the team, mainly five large man-eating heavy siege ladders. This siege weapon looks like a guillotine, and the guillotine part is Ladders are usually placed in the knife slot like a guillotine.

Arriving at the bottom of the city wall, hundreds of soldiers yanked the rope and pulled up the ladder, which was then placed heavily on the top of the city. The ladder was filled with soldiers in advance. The biggest advantage was that the climbing step was omitted. The soldiers went directly to the city and immediately Build a protective wall to allow subsequent soldiers to quickly advance to the city.

This heavy siege ladder is a bit like a nest car. The key is that it can arrange a dozen people to go directly to the city and cover the continuous flow of soldiers coming up to the city behind. This is a major advantage that ordinary siege ladders cannot have.

Of course, the biggest weakness of this heavy siege ladder is that it is bulky, and there are not many of them, only five in total.

However, all five heavy siege ladders were placed in the north. Li Ye's heart suddenly sank into the abyss. The opponent discovered yesterday that there were loopholes in the defense of the northern section. Today, the Shiguo army will focus on attacking the northern section. These troops led by Solan General Khan, can they hold on?

Just then, someone shouted, "The king is coming!"

I saw King Murdo walking quickly with a group of guards, followed by Prince Arole. King Murdo ordered with a gloomy face: "Call all the generals here!"

After a moment, more than twenty generals of Bukhan hurried over. King Murdo slowly said to everyone: "Prince Arolie has resigned from the post of General Yehu. He believes that he is unable to defend the city wall. From now on, Li The general is appointed as General Bhanna Yehu, and General Li has the right to kill any general Bhanna who disobeys General Li’s orders!”

King Murdo handed Ye Hu's scepter to Li Ye, "General Li, I'll leave it to you to pull the sweat!"

Li Ye pondered for a moment, took the scepter and said slowly: "From now on, I will be the commander of the northern section of Xicheng. I have spoken first. Anyone who does not obey my orders will be killed!"

From the corner of Li Ye's eyes, he clearly saw a few sneers on their faces.