Tibet

Tian Chengsi led the army to the city of Raoyang County, but was stunned. He saw that the gate of Raoyang County was closed, flags were flying on the top of the city, a flag of the Guanlong Army was erected, and the top of the city was full of soldiers.

It turned out that Xi Wanli knew that he would plunder the city, so he sent 3,000 men to take a detour to Raoyang County, occupy the county first, and move the people from the villages around the county into the city.

At this moment, Tian Chengsi was completely desperate, and his soldiers were also desperate. The food was cut off. They were hungry since breakfast and did not eat lunch.

For the army, the first taboo is the cut off of military food. Once the army is hungry, desertion is a small matter. The biggest problem is internal strife, mutiny, and even the killing of the commander.

So in history, why did the army eat people? That is because there was no other way. They would rather eat people than let the soldiers starve.

Tian Chengsi made up his mind and shouted: "Tear down the houses to find wood to build bridges, build ladders to climb up the city, and attack the city. All the women and wealth in the city are left to the brothers to rob!"

When they are in a hurry, there is always a way. The cavalry rushed to several nearby villages, searched for food, demolished houses, and took out the beams one by one.

They did find some yams, radishes, melons and beans, which the soldiers used to make soup. At this time, the soldiers also built two simple floating bridges.

There was no time, Tian Chengsi immediately ordered the whole army to attack the city, including the Donghu soldiers, who also rushed up to build ladders and began to climb up.

At this time, all the people in the city went up to the city, and men, women, old and young fought desperately with each other, rolling wood and stones fell, and the Tang soldiers stabbed with spears, chopped with swords, and bit with their teeth. Both sides were blood-thirsty.

At this moment, a series of low trumpet sounds came from a few miles away, "Woo-woo-"

The 40,000 main cavalry of the Tang army arrived. Xi Wanli certainly would not use 50,000 cavalry to fight against the enemy's 18,000 weak troops and waste time. He ordered Wei Ran to lead his 10,000 cavalry to fight the enemy, and he led 40,000 cavalry to rush to Raoyang County.

Seeing the overwhelming cavalry of the Tang army coming, Tian Chengsi sighed. He had to abandon the army and flee north with several sons and more than a hundred personal soldiers.

Tian Chengsi's army collapsed, and the army retreated and fled in all directions. The horses of the Donghu cavalry were gone. Their horses were in the rear and had been occupied by the Tang army.

The floating bridge was chaotic and crowded. The soldiers rushed forward and cried. In addition, the arrows on the top of the city rained down, and countless soldiers fell into the moat.

Tens of thousands of Tang cavalry had already reached the moat. The soldiers were desperate and knelt down to surrender. The soldiers who wanted to escape also had no hope. The 20,000 cavalrymen, one in the south and one in the north, cut off the soldiers' escape route.

Only a few thousand Donghu soldiers refused to surrender. Even without war horses, they fought desperately to break through to the south. Xi Wanli was furious and ordered them to be annihilated without leaving any survivors.

More than 3,000 Donghu soldiers were surrounded by 10,000 Tang cavalry. The more they fought, the fewer they were. Finally, they all disappeared and became ghosts under the knife of the Tang cavalry.

Of the 24,000 troops, except for Tian Chengsi who escaped with more than a hundred personal soldiers, the other soldiers either surrendered or died, and the whole army was destroyed.

A rare scene also occurred in the 18,000 people sent to entangle the Tang army. The 10,000 soldiers of the Hezong Army were dissatisfied with Tian Chengsi's unfair treatment. The Dongsheng Army and the Jinwei Army had eaten horse meat last night, but they didn't drink a single sip of soup.

The whole army was extremely angry and turned against the enemy. The main general Tian Qianzhen and the deputy general Yang Guoye were killed by the chaotic army, and all 18,000 soldiers surrendered.

A clever trick to cut off Tian Chengsi's food supply cut off Tian Chengsi's 120,000 troops.

Tian Chengsi led several sons and soldiers to plunder food all the way north. His only idea now was to go to the Huihe people and serve as a guide for the Huihe people to go south. Maybe he still had a way to survive.

That evening, Tian Chengsi and his party arrived at Gaoyang County, the northernmost part of Yingzhou.

The county gate was wide open, and the county magistrate Tang An led a group of officials out of the city to welcome him.

Tang An and Tian Chengsi were from the same hometown. He had worked as an assistant teacher in the county school. When he was young, he went to Tian Chengsi and was recommended to An Lushan by Tian Chengsi. An Lushan appointed him as the magistrate of Gaoyang County, and he has been doing it until today.

Tian Chengsi ran for three days in a row and was exhausted. Seeing that it was an old friend, he was relieved and ordered his men to go into the city to rest.

Tian Chengsi and his party were invited to the county posthouse. At this time, night had fallen. After eating and drinking, everyone was already exhausted and fell asleep.

In the middle of the night, one of his men was suddenly awakened by a crackling sound. He opened the window and found that there was a raging fire outside.

The soldier was shocked and shouted, "My lord, there is a fire!"

Tian Chengsi and his men were also awakened and rushed to the yard. Sure enough, there was a raging fire all around.

Suddenly, a pile of burning things flew in the air and fell into the yard with a "boom!" It turned out to be a pile of wheat straw that had been ignited.

Everyone understood that the county magistrate had set a trap to burn them to death.

Everyone was so angry that they cursed, but Tian Chengsi had no time to curse. He immediately ordered, "Go to the stable and bring the horses!"

More than a dozen men ran to the stable.

After a while, he came back to report, "Your Majesty, the horses are gone!"

"Damn it!"

Tian Chengsi gnashed his teeth in hatred and ordered, "Get your weapons and charge out!"

Several sons and personal soldiers guarded Tian Chengsi with swords and rushed to the front gate.

The entire post house was engulfed in flames, and the fire got bigger as they got to the periphery. The personal soldiers fought desperately to open a way out and rushed to the gate.

As soon as they arrived outside the gate, they were met with a hail of arrows. The personal soldiers were not wearing armor and fell to the ground one after another.

The hundreds of archers were all local soldiers organized by the county.

Tian Chengsi vaguely saw Tang An's figure and immediately shouted: "Tang An, who promoted you back then? How dare you be so ungrateful!"

Tang An also shouted back: "You traitor, what have you done to Hebei? Do you still have the face to live?"

Tian Chengsi was furious and ordered: "Kill him out and take the head of this thief."

His personal soldiers rushed out to protect Tian Chengsi regardless of everything.

Tang An shouted: "Fellow villagers, the traitor Tian Chengsi is here, avenge your dead parents and brothers!"

Thousands of angry county residents rushed from all directions with sticks, hoes and spears, surrounding Tian Chengsi and dozens of others. Their eyes flashed with hatred, and sticks and hoes rained down like raindrops.

Tian Chengsi, a generation of heroes, died tragically in Gaoyang County.

In Hejian County, 80,000 troops lined up in a large formation, ready to attack the city at any time.

Guo Ziyi just received Li Ye's order, 'Don't be afraid of street fighting, take Hejian as soon as possible! '

Guo Ziyi is indeed an experienced veteran. He divided a thousand firearms soldiers into five hundred groups, two people in each group, and then equipped each brigade with one group.

Then five hundred brigades were put into street fighting, with one hundred people in each brigade, a total of 50,000 troops.

Guo Ziyi set the important attack point at the East Gate because the warehouse in the city was close to the East City.

The four gates launched attacks at the same time.

Three hundred steps away, a crossbowman raised a three-stone hard crossbow and aimed at the suspension bridge three hundred steps away.

The crossbowman was called Li Kuan, a native of Chang'an. He was the champion of two consecutive crossbow shooting competitions and shot arrows within three hundred steps.

At this time, Li Kuan was a little nervous. After all, he used explosive arrows. It was the first time for him to use this powerful crossbow arrow.

Li Kuan took a deep breath and pulled the trigger.

"Ka!"

The explosive arrow shot out instantly and hit the upper left corner of the suspension bridge accurately, 'Boom! 'Wood fragments flew everywhere, the iron chains of the suspension bridge flew up, and the huge suspension bridge sank heavily.