Chapter 114 Qingshui River (11)

Tongxin City is like a ripe water-tight peach, attracting countless coveting gazes. In order to successfully pick this fresh watertight peach without excessive casualties, the coalition forces adopted the tactic of trapping the city.

The coalition forces surrounded Tongxin City for a month, and the food in the city gradually became tense. Some ordinary people in Tongxin City had already been cut off. Dangxiangfang was a person who had been grazing for generations. Although they lived in the city for a long time, most of them maintained the national tradition of eating meat. Before the war began, a large number of cattle and sheep were sent to the city every day. After Tongxin City was surrounded, the supply of meat in the city was naturally cut off. They could only rely on a small amount of grain to survive. After being besieged for a month, there was still some food in the grain depot of Fangdeng Army. With the reduction of quantity, it was difficult to help the people in the city. As long as the city was besieged for another month, the food supply in the city would have problems, and Tongxin City would be destroyed without attacking.

However, Fang Dangjun's ability to recover himself was much beyond the expectations of the coalition forces. Various intelligences showed that the Dangxiang Army in Xihui Prefecture had a scale of about 20,000 people, and it was regained the power to fight the coalition forces and quickly captured Tongxin City, which became the consensus among the leaders of the army.

At the morning of September 12, the sun rose shortly after the command of the siege commander-in-chief Wang Yanchao, the coalition forces finally launched the peach-picking operation.

This time, the main attackers were 8,000 infantry and 4,000 Black Eagle Army, with a total strength of 12,000. Wang Yanchao was the commander-in-chief of the siege. In order to cooperate with the siege, Wang Tengxiang led 3,000 cavalry of Lingzhou Army to fight against the Dangxiang Army heading north from Guyuan, Guo Jiong led the Independence Army to guard Xiaoniu Pass, and Hou Dayong supervised the battle as the head camps in the northwest.

Wang Lantian took several commanders to climb up the mound. Standing on the mound, he could look down at the city. The distribution of troops on the walls of the troops was completely visible. Wang Lantian commanded the commanders and used the red and white flags in his hand to convey information to Wang Yanchao who was organizing the attack in flag language.

The coalition's attack was extremely fierce. Ninety artillery trucks threw huge stones into the city. The East City Gate was shaking under the heavy blow of countless large stones. After the first round of attacks, the East City Wall seemed to be hit by the stones. After seeing the cannon cars outside the city, the soldiers of the Fangdang Army quickly hid or retreated to the city wall that the cannon cars could not attack. They had seen so many cannon cars bombarded at the same time, and they felt a chill on their backs.

Seven vehicles were installed on the edge of the moat, and each vehicle had an arrow cabin. The arrow cabin could accommodate seven sergeants. The soldiers were all holding crossbows and prepared to shoot on the vehicle. However, under the bombardment of large rocks, there were no rooms on the city walls to serve as soldiers. When the artillery trucks attacked, they did not attack targets and were on standby.

After the first round of attacks of the artillery vehicles, the soldiers attacking Zhou army lined up in sparse formations and began to yell and walk towards the moat. The moat outside Tongxin City was seven or eight meters wide and had a depth of between two and three meters. The soldiers tentatively advanced in the water.

Fangdang soldiers left a small number of soldiers on the east city wall. They relied on hiding battlements, avoiding stones, and observing the movements of the Zhou army. When the observers saw the Zhou army running towards the moat, they blew the horn vigorously. Fangdang soldiers hiding at both ends of the city wall and under the city wall swarmed out and gathered quickly towards the east gate.

Wang Lantian, standing on the mound, saw clearly the dispatch of Fangdang Army. After Fangdang Army gathered on the city wall, the messengers on the mound turned a red flag, which indicated that the number of Fangdang Army on the wall was large.

Wang Yanchao glanced at the signal on the earth mound and ordered: "Boiling carts fire." Ninety artillery cars were ready, and the stones that were covered in the sky flew towards the city wall. Fangdangjun was preparing to fight the Zhou army's attack, and they quickly retreated when the stones flew. Many soldiers were already covered with blood and blood by the big rocks falling from the sky. At the same time, the sergeant's waist crossbow and the sergeant's bed crossbow on the earth mound also joined in the favorable opportunity of Fangdangjun gathering and poured towards the city wall like rain. As soon as the long-range weapon was launched, the Zhou army soldiers crossing the river turned their heads and ran back. It was nowhere to be the river. They lined up again on the bank of the river, waiting for the next attack.

The range of artillery vehicles, waist-length crossbows and bed crossbows is far higher than that of Fangdang's main long-range weapons - bows and arrows. Although Fangdang's army occupied the city, they could only be beaten passively because of the insufficient range of weapons, and there was no way to fight back. Fangdangdu had no choice but to attack Zhou's army. However, he was not very afraid. Although this method would bring great damage to the soldiers, the Zhou army could not enter Tongxin City without getting close to the city wall. If they approached the city wall, the Zhou army must first break through the moat before they could come under the city wall. The stones piled up on the city wall, and the logs would definitely bury any Zhou army who dared to attack under the city wall.

Wang Lantian on the mound discovered that all Fangdangmen on the city wall had hidden, and ordered the messengers to turn the white flag, which means that there were very few Fangdangmen on the city wall. Soon, the Zhou army stopped attacking with long ladders and was just ready to shoot. Two hundred Zhou army soldiers jumped into the river with long ladders and rushed to the other side of the river. Fangdangmen observed that Zhou army crossed the moat and quickly blew the horn. The hidden Fangdangmen appeared on the city wall again. As soon as Fangdangmen appeared, the red flag on the moat was waving. Zhou army long-range weapons desperately covered the city wall, while the infantry that rushed across the river took the opportunity to jump into the moat and swam back.

After several rounds of tug-of-war warriors, hundreds of Fangdangjun soldiers were killed by long-range weapons on the city wall. Fangdangdu was so angry that he knew that Zhou Jun used this method to consume Fangdangjun, but every time the Zhou Jun crossed the river, it might turn into a real attack. Therefore, Fangdangjun knew that it was a trap and had to jump inside, so he could only minimize the density of defense on the city wall.

After Tongxin City was surrounded by the Zhou army, Fang Dangdu, who was arrogant and arrogant, was not ready to bow to the Zhou army. He knew that Fang Dangmao was unable to fight the strong Zhou army in the city, so he defended Tongxin City and waited for reinforcements. If the reinforcements had not come yet when the food in the city was about to end, Fang Dangdu was ready to organize the war-capable people in the city to rush out of the city to fight the Zhou army to the death.

Now that the city has been besieged for only one month, and when there is still food in the city, the Zhou army began to attack the city in large numbers. Fang Dangdu breathed a sigh of relief: The Zhou army was eager to attack the city, and for no other reason, it must have been under pressure from Fang Dang's military. As long as it can defend Tongxin City, the Zhou army will inevitably retreat.

After the fourth tug-of-war, all the artillery chariots were ready for the launch site. This time, the artillery chariots replaced all the stones with fire caltrops. As the war drums of the central army sounded, countless fire caltrops ignited the leads and flew towards the city wall. The fire caltrops were filled with tinder oil, and the tincture oil was supplemented on the city wall. The burning fire and rolling smoke enveloped the East City Wall.

Just as the fire caltrops were burning on the city wall, a team of infantry shot oil arrows and rockets at the east city gate. Last night, the Black Eagle Army soldiers took advantage of the darkness to secretly swim across the river, buried several barrels of gunpowder at the city gate, and left a long lead at the city gate. In the Great Zhou Dynasty, only Hou Dayong liked to use gunpowder to attack. People in the Dangxiangfang in Tongxin City had never seen the mine array, and they believed too much about the tall city wall. The monitoring of activities outside the city was not tight, giving the Black Eagle Army an opportunity to take advantage of. The turbulent oil at the city gate burned extremely violently, and the lead outside the barrel was quickly ignited. "Boom, boom" several loud noises, and the earth-shaking explosion sounded at the east city gate. The earth also trembled with the loud noise, and the city gate was blown into pieces in the explosion.

Before the explosion had not dissipated, dozens of Zhou army soldiers quickly pulled two thick ropes from the side of the moat, and then hundreds of infantry soldiers raised more than twenty small wooden boats, rushed into the moat along the ropes, and tied the wooden boats firmly to the ropes. Then, hundreds of sergeants lifted the wide wooden boards and supplemented them on the small wooden boats. Each board had several eye holes as thick as fingers. The soldiers picked up the prepared sharp iron.

The stick was inserted into the wooden boat through the eye hole and then knocked hard with an iron hammer to fix the wooden board and the small wooden boat. In a blink of an eye, a simple floating bridge appeared on the moat. He Wulang led the five hundred Black Eagle troops across the floating bridge and rushed towards the explosion of the city gate of Tongxin City. The city walls were still a sea of ​​fire. The soldiers of Dangxiang had no time to throw down the stones to attack these lightning-fast cavalry, and let the Black Eagle troops rushed in from the east gate.

When the Tang army was building the defense of Tongxin City, they learned from the defense design of Lingzhou City. There was a rammed earth wall of about four meters behind the city gate. Since Tongxin City had not fought for many years, people in the Dangxiang House had to transport many cattle and sheep into the city every day. This rammed earth wall used to prevent the enemy from entering the city quickly was a bit hindering in peacetime. I don’t know that year, the rammed earth wall was ordered to be removed by Tongxin City. After the 500 cavalrymen from He Wulang entered the city, they cut and killed dozens of sergeants who were shocked by the big explosion due to the blockade of the rammed earth wall and controlled the East City Gate.

At this critical moment, Fang Dangdu was very calm. He held a long knife and kept ordering: "Go and put down the hanging gate." "Tuoba Dai, take people down to destroy the Zhou army that attacked the city." "Fang Dangquan, bring people to smash them down the city gate with stones."

The fire and explosion caused a brief chaos in the military sergeant on the city wall. However, under Fangdangdu's order, Fangdang's soldiers began to wake up, and more than a dozen soldiers rushed towards the wheel that controlled the lifting and lowering of the hanging door according to the order.

During the offensive and defensive battle in Lingzhou, Fang Danghan Hai led his army to the city gate, and it was this inconspicuous life that saved Lingzhou City. After the mound outside Tongxin City was repaired, the coalition soldiers found that there were also winches on Tongxin City, so the coalition troops designed a way to deal with the hanging gate. After the city gate was blown open, Wang Lantian ordered the crossbowman on the car to control the winches with a strong crossbow.

When more than a dozen sergeants rushed towards the wheel in the fire, dozens of crossbow arrows on the side of the car were accurately shot at them. The first group of sergeants fell to the ground to attack the crossbow arrows. The second group of sergeants rushed towards the wheel with shields. The shield effectively protected the sergeants. Several sergeants approached the wheel. Under the command of Wang Lantian, more than a dozen sergeants on the mound were all shot at the wheel. The power of these sergeants was far greater than that of the sergeants. The thick crossbow arrows hit the shield hard. The sergeants holding the shield were like kites with broken strings, and fell down the city wall under the huge impact. The sergeants in the room knew that the hanging gate was related to the entire battle situation, and continued to pounce on the wheel without fear of death. After paying dozens of casualties, they finally put down the hanging gate.

In this short period of time, the brigade of infantry rushed into the city gate quickly to help the cavalry guard the East City Gate. As the heavy hanging gate landed, the coalition soldiers rushing into the city faced the crazy siege of Fangdang Army. If the hanging gate could not be opened, the coalition soldiers rushing into the city would undoubtedly die. The battlefield situation at this time was very similar to the battle in Lingzhou. The soldiers in Fangdanghanhai were blocked by this inconspicuous hanging gate.

When the hanging door fell, the coalition forces quickly came up with a second plan.

A team of soldiers who specialized in dealing with the hanging gate kept guarding the pontoon bridge quietly. After the hanging gate fell, they hid three large wooden barrels under the van and crossed the pontoon bridge. A young team in charge of the operation was anxiously shouting at the coalition infantry who was blocked by the hanging gate outside the city, "Get back quickly, you're going to blow up the hanging gate." At this time, the Fangdang Army on the city wall was in a fire and began to throw rocks under the city gate frantically. The Zhou infantry, who could not hide, was instantly Dozens of people were smashed down. The Zhou army infantry had to retreat from the pontoon bridge to escape the attack of stones. The more than 20 soldiers who were protected by the chariots had approached the hanging gate. They pressed the wooden barrel tightly against the hanging gate and then lit the lead. After the lead was ignited, more than 20 soldiers ran back desperately and jumped into the moat. After the loud "boom, boom", the hanging gate was blown to pieces, and the Zhou army rushed towards Tongxin City again.

The siege plan was formulated under the leadership of Hou Dayong. He used improved gunpowder to explode the city gate and build a floating bridge. After the plan was formulated, Hou Dayong would not care about how to attack the city. He led dozens of personal guards to stand on a gentle slope to watch the battle. On this sing city, you can clearly see the fierce battle for the East City Wall. When the hanging gate was blown up, Hou Dayong easily turned around and said to the two civil officials: "Tongxin City has fallen into his pocket."

Hou Dayong followed two civil officials, one was the judge Qian Xiangnan, and the other was Zhao Pu who had just arrived in Tongxin City. As soon as he arrived in Tongxin City, Zhao Pu was appointed as the secretary of Fengzhou.

Qian Xiangnan was very familiar with Zhao Pu's situation. Judging from the known situation, Zhao Pu was just an ordinary small official and had no particular point. Qian Xiangnan was a little confused about this. He didn't know why Hou Dayong was so interested in Zhao Pu. He ordered him to find his whereabouts repeatedly, and after finding it, he tried every means to transfer him to the Black Eagle Army.

However, the longer we get along with Hou Dayong, Qian Xiangnanyue felt that Hou Dayong had many puzzled secrets hidden in Hou Dayong. As for the matter of building a floating bridge on the moat, after the coalition forces besieged Tongxin City, the commanders and generals of each army were worried about how to cross the moat outside Tongxin City. The water depth of this moat was generally between two and three meters and seven or eight meters wide. Most of the soldiers of the coalition forces did not know the nature of the water. The siege infantry could not wade through the water. The long wooden board used to assist the trenches was no longer than five meters long. They could not be placed on the other side of the moat. Although the cavalry could use horsepower to cross the river, the cavalry could deal with it. The tall walls of Tongxin City are not worth the loss, and half the effort is achieved with twice the effort. It is scary to think about it. Some generals suggested that they divert the moat, while others proposed to make wooden rafts across the river. Both suggestions were feasible. The first suggestion must be recruited to complete the amount of people in a considerable number of people. When the people arrived outside Tongxin City, they needed to increase their food. The transportation line that was already incompetent would be overwhelmed; the second suggestion also faced a series of problems such as using a large number of people to transport wood. Finally, Hou Dayong suggested to make a floating bridge and cross the river. After he explained the method of making a floating bridge, all the generals were convinced.

After Qian Xiangnan took charge of the military camp, he deliberately or unintentionally collected some information about Hou Dayong. Hou Dayong's previous experience in Cangzhou was like a piece of white paper. He formed the Black Eagle Army shortly after returning to Cangzhou from Baitou Mountain. Over the past few years, Hou Dayong had never come into contact with the navy. His idea of ​​building a floating bridge was extremely clever, which made Qian Xiangnan quite puzzled. Why did a military governor who had never commanded the navy have such a wonderful idea as building a floating bridge, and even the details were considered very thoughtful.

After Zhao Pu received the order to transfer, the monk was also confused. The messenger of the coalition forces came to Weizhou at the end of August. Hou Dayong ordered Zhao Pu to report to the coalition forces before September 15th. Zhao Pu really couldn't figure out why he, a small person, was transferred to the Black Eagle Army.

When Zhao Pu was in Huainan, he and Zhao Kuangyin hit it off at first sight. Both of them had surnames Zhao, so they naturally joined the clan. Zhao Pu was older, so Zhao Kuangyin called Zhao Pu a "brother". Zhao Kuangyin admired Zhao Pu very much, and the intention of recruiting was very obvious. Zhao Kuangyin was about to transfer Zhao Pu to Daliang City, but because the war in the northwest suddenly broke out, Zhao Pu temporarily stayed in Weizhou.

Zhao Pu was born in a family of officials from generation to generation and had a sharp vision. He believed that Zhao Kuangyin must not be a thing in the pool, so he agreed to Zhao Kuangyin's invitation very happily. He was ready to serve Zhao Kuangyin. Zhao Pu never expected that he would suddenly receive this transfer order. He did not dare to disobey the military order, so he had to hurry to the coalition forces.
Chapter completed!