Chapter 731: Shocking the Army
Chapter 731: Shocking the Army
At this time, Li Shentong, the general of Wuhou Guard, hurried over and said, "Your Majesty, Yuan Xiaoju, Yuan Shou, and Yuan Hongsi are trying to leave Chang'an, but they are temporarily detained at the city gate. Do you want to let them go?"
Li Yuan frowned, "Where are they going after leaving Chang'an?"
"They said they were going to Luoyang!"
Li Yuan opened his mouth wide and couldn't close it for a long time. Li Jiancheng said anxiously: "Father, we can't let them go. If they leave, it will affect the confidence of other Guanlong nobles and the morale of the army!"
Li Yuan paced back and forth with his hands behind his back. After a while, he sighed, "If we can easily influence them, what confidence do we have? Since they want to leave, let them go!"
"Father!"
Li Yuan waved his hand to stop Li Jiancheng and said to Li Shentong: "I have made up my mind, go!"
Li Shentong bowed and left in a hurry.
Li Yuan then said to his eldest son: "Yuan Xiaoju has clearly stated that he wants to go to Luoyang. He is eager for me to order him to be imprisoned. I don't want to be the bad guy. Everyone has their own aspirations. I won't force them!"
"But the departure of the Yuan family has had a terrible impact."
"Wouldn't it be bad if he stayed in Chang'an? I asked the Guanlong nobles to support me with money and grain three times, but he firmly opposed it and it all failed. His departure will actually help me raise money and grain. Those families who are worried had better leave quickly. Only those who stay are loyal to me."
Li Jiancheng was helpless and sighed: "The most urgent task now is to take over Longyou, otherwise people's hearts will be scattered!"
Li Yuan said after a while: "The most urgent thing now is salt. There is salt in the West Sea, but we can't get it. The salt in Yanchuan County has been occupied by the Turks. The salt pond in Yan'an County is too small, and the salt produced is of poor quality and extremely bitter. Moreover, the locals can't eat it. There is no salt pond in Hedong either. Jiancheng, you should go to Luoyang! Talk to them. We need their salt. Once the salt is cut off, it will be no different from cutting off food."
Li Jiancheng felt extremely bitter. Their necks were really choked by the other side. It was not food, but salt.
In Taiyuan City, hundreds of thousands of troops were lined up neatly in the wilderness south of the city. A few miles behind them was a huge military camp surrounded by fences. Xiao Xia was not in a hurry to attack the city. He was waiting for news from Li Mi's army in Loufan County.
But just now, the news finally came that Zhang Tong'er led an army of 30,000 from Loufan County back to Taiyuan for rescue. Just south of Fenshui in Jiaocheng County, 30,000 cavalry led by the Xue brothers and Su Dingfang defeated Zhang Tong'er's 30,000 Wagang troops in one battle. Zhang Tong'er was killed by Xue Wanjun, and more than 26,000 of the 30,000 Wagang troops surrendered.
At the same time, a large ship carrying a giant catapult was transported to the camp via the Fen River three days ago.
The five giant catapults were discovered by the Sui army in the old warehouse of the Military Arsenal in Luoyang. They were all dismantled into parts. It was ridiculous that Wang Shichong did not have a military craftsman who could put the parts together. Most of the craftsmen in Luoyang had fled to Jiangdu.
It took five hundred craftsmen four days to finally install five giant trebuchets. These can be regarded as the largest trebuchets in history. They are five meters high and require dozens of people to operate. They can throw 200-jin boulders five hundred steps away. They are extremely powerful, but don't expect to be accurate.
Taiyuan City was difficult to attack. The city was tall, wide and thick. The city wall was three zhang high, the moat was four zhang wide and two zhang deep, and the suspension bridge was also very wide and thick.
The Wagang Army was able to capture Taiyuan City because a general defending the city rebelled and accidentally attacked the West City. So when the news of the fall of Taiyuan came, Li Yuan was so shocked. He didn't believe that the Wagang Army could attack Taiyuan at all, so he hurriedly transferred the Bashu and Hanzhong troops back to Chang'an.
But siege has never been a problem for the Jin King's army. They are fully capable of attacking at a lower level and directly blowing open the city gates with iron fire bombs.
However, coach Xiao Xia thought more deeply. He did not want to fight street fighting, and the best way to avoid street fighting was to first undermine the enemy's will to resist.
Recently, the Sui army accidentally discovered a very effective way to undermine the enemy's fighting will, that is, a combination of soft and hard methods. The soft method is to distribute leaflets first, and as long as the soldiers do not resist and lay down their weapons, they will be sent home, but if they resist, they will be killed without mercy. The second method is to use iron fire mines to explode in the air. This is ten times more deterrent than the explosion after landing. Although not many people are injured, it is enough to scare the soldiers, especially the Wagang Army soldiers who have never seen the world.
Five giant catapults rumbled out, and there was still a giant barrier in front. Taiyuan was no different from other small cities. Taiyuan City had very complete defense measures, especially heavy crossbows with a range of more than 500 steps, as many as 2,000 of them. The heavy arrows shot by them could easily penetrate the shield 500 steps away.
There are also hundreds of catapults that can throw stones weighing hundreds of pounds a hundred steps away. The Sui army did not dare to be careless at all and had to prepare large shields for the five giant catapults.
Each giant catapult had a shield as high as 45 feet, leaving only the head of the catapult visible. Hundreds of soldiers pushed a large shield.
Behind the baffle, the giant catapult was also rumbling forward in sync. At this moment, the heavy crossbows on the top of the city were fired, and arrows swarmed like locusts, crackling on the baffle. Except for a few arrows flying over the catapult, the rest were blocked by the baffle.
The baffle and giant catapult stopped moving five hundred steps away from the city wall, and the soldiers quickly secured it.
The trebuchet is a counterweight trebuchet, just like a seesaw, with a thousand-pound iron block on one end and a dozen-meter-long throwing rope on the other end. This kind of throwing rope may seem unreliable, but it is actually very simple and basically has no problems. It is just like using ropes to throw stones in many places, except that it is replaced by a trebuchet.
"Free fire!" the general shouted, and the iron fire mines on the five catapults began to ignite. The large iron fire mine weighing two hundred pounds was extremely powerful, and the fuse was burning with a hissing sound. When it reached the launching point, the soldier swung his sword to cut the hook rope, and the thousand-pound iron block fell instantly. The long rope at the other end was instantly thrown out, and the large iron fire mine was also thrown out.
The five iron fire bombs instantly turned into small black dots in the air, followed by a deafening explosion above the city.
The soldiers defending the city were caught off guard and hundreds of them were killed by the huge explosion. Even if other soldiers were not dead, they would fall to the ground screaming with their ears covered, their ears buzzing and they could not hear anything.
One of the iron fire mines exploded in the city's arrow tower. The four-story arrow tower was instantly blown to pieces and collapsed. Hundreds of soldiers on the top of the city had no time to dodge and were buried by the collapsed arrow tower.
Li Mi was standing next to the arrow tower. He was deafened by the explosion and did not hear the collapse of the arrow tower. Thanks to the quick reaction of two personal soldiers who threw Li Mi more than ten feet away, Li Mi managed to escape the disaster. However, decades of dust still covered his head and face.
Li Mi was stunned with astonishment. A dozen of his personal soldiers carried him and ran towards the city. The iron fire bombs continued to explode in the air. All the soldiers on the city walls lay down. No one dared to move. Tens of thousands of soldiers were almost scared silly.
The Sui army only fired three rounds of fire bombs before stopping. It seemed that the city was not blown down, but a small boat had silently anchored under the suspension bridge. It was completely obscured by the suspension bridge and could not be seen from the top of the city.
Several soldiers on the boat were patiently waiting for darkness to come.
(End of this chapter)