Chapter 212 Siege War
Chapter 212 Siege War
On the third day when the Tuyuhun army surrounded Zhangye City, Xue Shixiong suddenly appeared in the Dadouba Valley with 15,000 main forces of the Sui army.
Under the moonlight, the military city in the Dadouba Valley was exceptionally quiet, with only a small number of troops stationed there. To the well-prepared 15,000-strong Sui army, a military city with less than a hundred people was almost an undefended city without soldiers.
This was Xiao Xia's suggestion. Use Zhangye City to hold back the enemy's main force, and Xue Shixiong lead the main force to attack Dadouba Valley. Use the powerful army to sweep across the enemy's empty rear, cut off their logistical supplies, and finally trap their 20,000 troops in the Hexi Corridor.
Xue Shixiong stared grimly at the military city in the night. He had already sent three hundred men to attack the city, and he was waiting for news from the front army.
At this moment, a ball of fire suddenly shot up into the sky above the military city, and the city gate opened. Xue Shixiong raised his sword and shouted, "Charge into the city!"
"kill!"
Thousands of Sui soldiers ran in the valley, and the Sui army broke through Tuyuhun's Dadou military city in one fell swoop. More than a thousand Sui soldiers rushed into the city, and Tuyuhun's military city fell completely.
Liang Qucong, the commander of the Tuyuhun army, still received news that the main force of the Sui army had captured Dadougu City and cut off their retreat, which frightened him very much.
He realized that he had no way out and had to go all out to capture Zhangye City, only then would they have a chance of survival.
At dawn, the Tuyuhun army outside the east city launched another large-scale siege, still commanded by Deputy General Murong Baoshu. This time Liang Qucong deployed all 16,000 troops, and they had filled all the trenches in the middle of the night.
The 16,000-strong army was arranged into three square formations, with each square formation a hundred steps apart, just like three huge black carpets, undulating and advancing on the ground. The army's morale was high and murderous intent was overwhelming.
Liang Qucong concealed the news that their retreat had been cut off from their soldiers, and promised that once Zhangye was captured, he would allow the army to plunder for three days. This promise made all the soldiers extremely excited, and they couldn't wait to rush into the city and enjoy themselves.
The army moved towards the east city wall from two miles away. Drums beat like thunder, trumpets blew in the air, flags covered the sky, and spears were like a forest, looking the black of death against the backdrop of the white snow.
Liang Qucong was riding on his horse and looking at the catapult on the top of the city wall with mixed feelings. Last time he discovered that the enemy's catapult was mobile. If they attacked the west city, the catapult would still move to the west city.
"Well, how can we take the city without paying a price?"
Liang Qucong pointed his sword at the city and said, "Forward!"
"Woo~~"
The deep sound of horns echoed across the snowy plains. In the middle of each team, a dozen large pine trees were erected with all their branches intact and lush and leafy. They were used to protect against flying stones from the city.
In addition, there were hundreds of crude siege ladders and leather rope ladders around the big tree. Encouraged by the sound of trumpets, the team rushed towards the city wall in a mighty manner.
There were also loud drum beats on the city wall. Yin Shishi's eyes were red and he was roaring continuously. He knew, of course, that this was an all-out attack by Tuyuhun, but the other side had deployed 15,000 to 16,000 men, which was three times his own strength. It was not a lot, but it still put him under tremendous pressure.
Following the orders of Commander Xiao Xia, Yin Shishi deployed all 5,000 troops to the defense of the East City, while the defense of the other three city walls was handled by the newly recruited militia.
Yin Shishi personally commanded the battle on the east side of the city wall, while Xiao Xia led 500 soldiers for emergency rescue.
It’s not that Xiao Xia is incapable of commanding a battle, but his martial arts are too strong. As long as he is there, even the most dangerous situation can be turned around. Everyone unanimously asked him to be responsible for emergency rescue.
"Prepare the catapults..." The twenty heavy catapults on the top of the east city wall creaked open. They were two meters high, with arms five meters long, and could throw stones three hundred steps away. They required fifty people to pull them. The twenty black catapults stood on the top of the city wall like twenty magical beasts. Hundred-pound stones were put into the bullet bags. Fifty people pulled twenty leather belts as thick as their arms, waiting for the order to fire.
In the middle of the battlements, three thousand soldiers were holding longbows and arrows, with four-foot-long thick-shafted arrows already on the bowstrings. The bows and arrows used for defense were different from those used in peacetime battles. It did not matter how far the arrows could be shot, but they had to be heavy so that they could rely on their own gravity to penetrate the enemy's armor. Therefore, large arrows were generally used, with shafts as thick as fingers, sharp streamlined arrow tips, and bleeding grooves on the four sides.
The enemy had gradually entered the range of the catapults. Yin Shishi gave the order to shoot. He shouted hoarsely, "Shoot!"
The red flag was waved, and the soldiers fought hard. Twenty monsters swung their long arms, and twenty huge rocks flew into the air, whistling and smashing towards the city.
Looking up from the bottom of the city, twenty small black dots suddenly appeared in the sky, like a flock of geese flying across the sky, but the small black dots grew bigger and bigger, and instantly turned into huge rocks rolling in the sky, smashing down on their heads. The team shouted, and the soldiers hid under the big trees one after another, but there were still a large number of soldiers who had nowhere to hide, and they shouted and dodged everywhere.
The boulder fell down with a loud "bang!" and the dust flew up. Several soldiers were unable to dodge and were smashed into a pulp by the boulder. The boulder continued to roll forward with its remaining force. The soldiers were so scared that they shouted to dodge, but many soldiers were unable to dodge and were knocked down by the boulder.
A huge rock hit a big tree. With a loud "crack!", the trunk of the tree was broken by the rock, and the tree fell down, crushing the soldiers underneath.
The soldiers rolled and crawled out from underneath, but unexpectedly another huge rock hit them, fell to the ground with a loud bang, and rolled forward more than twenty steps, just in time to rush into the crowd, and a scream rang out.
． ． ． ． ． ． ． ． ．
The second round of catapults was fired, the third round of catapults was fired, and three rounds of catapults were fired in succession, causing heavy casualties among the Tuyuhun soldiers...
The Sui army's large catapults caused nearly two thousand casualties to the Tuyuhun army, but it could not stop the attack of the remaining 13,000 troops. As the drumbeats urging war in the Tuyuhun army quickened, soldiers in several phalanxes ran and rushed towards the city in an overwhelming manner.
The soil filling the moat had frozen solid and had lost its barrier function. The Tuyuhun army crossed the moat with simple siege ladders and rope ladders. The ladders were placed on the city walls with a bang, and the rope ladders were thrown accurately to the top of the city wall and placed on the battlements.
Thousands of Tuyuhun soldiers climbed up the ladders like ants, holding one hand on the ladder and the other holding a spear. Both the simple siege ladder and the traditional rope ladder were filled with soldiers.
The soldiers of the Tuyuhun army struggled to climb up, arrows rained down from the top of the city wall, and a large number of rolling logs and ice blocks weighing dozens of kilograms fell like giant hail. This was the creativity of the Sui army soldiers. They used large barrels to make tens of thousands of ice blocks, which could also smash the enemy soldiers' heads and cause them to bleed.
One after another, the soldiers were hit and shot, and fell down the city wall with screams...
The Zhangye city wall also has a horse-face structure, which is a protruding piece of the city wall. It is named because its shape resembles a horse's face. It protrudes outward by 15 feet. Its function is to enable the soldiers defending the city to shoot arrows at the enemy from behind.
In this way, the attacking soldiers only cared about their heads and not their backs, with their backs exposed and becoming targets. Long arrows were shot intensively, posing serious danger to the Tuyuhun army on the ladders. The casualties were extremely heavy, and most of the soldiers who were shot to death or fell down were shot in the back.
The dead bodies piled up quickly under the city wall, and blood flowed into the city river, seeping out from the pile of corpses and dyeing the ice surface of the moat red. Although the cold winter made it impossible for the excavated trenches to divert water to form a moat, the cold winter brought another advantage to the city defense. A large amount of water was poured on the city wall, froze into ice, thickened and widened the wall, and made the wall extremely smooth.
The siege ladder could hardly hold up the top of the city wall. The soldiers on the city wall pushed it to both sides with steel forks. The rough wooden ladder slid across the ice surface, and the city wall could no longer hold up. It fell sideways. A group of soldiers on the ladder let out long screams, and many of them jumped off the ladder, but they still could not escape death and injury.
Dealing with the rope ladder is another method. Although the Tuyuhun military leather rope is extremely tough and difficult to cut with a knife, Xiao Xia also found a way to deal with the leather rope through repeated experiments.
The Sui soldiers opened a vertical groove on each battlement of the east city wall. When the leather rope was put around the battlement, the soldiers defending the city pressed the red-hot iron rod on a small section of leather rope suspended on the vertical groove. A thick smoke rose up, and the leather rope broke with a snap. All the Tuyuhun soldiers on the rope ladder fell down from the city wall with screams.
(End of this chapter)