Tibet

Immediately afterwards, Li Kuan shot a second arrow, hitting the upper right corner of the suspension bridge. As an iron chain flew up like a snake, the suspension bridge fell heavily and hit the other side of the moat, revealing the east city gate.

At this time, a violent explosion also occurred at the South City Gate, and a large hole about ten feet wide was blown into the city wall.

"Prepare the thunder cannon!"

The Fire Thunder Cannon is a huge lying crossbow, specially used for throwing stones, so it is called the Stone Cannon. It has high accuracy, but its range is not far. Now it is basically no longer used for throwing stones. It is used to throw iron fire thunder, so it was renamed Fire Thunder. Cannon.

A heavy torpedo cannon rumbled forward. Dozens of soldiers on both sides held large shields to cover it. Several soldiers behind were pushing the torpedo cannon forward slowly.

The soldiers on the top of the city were already aware of the danger, and thousands of arrows rained down on the torpedo cannons.

Li Baochen was also anxious and shouted: "Pile big rocks at the city gate quickly!"

The soldiers couldn't find the big stone for a while, so they quickly piled hundreds of stones used to defend the city in the city gate cave. Each big stone weighed about fifty or sixty kilograms, and they were piled full in the city gate cave.

At this time, the torpedo cannon had arrived a hundred steps away from the city gate. The soldiers quickly adjusted to Wangshan, loaded a 30-pound nail mine into the projection port, and lit the match rope.

"emission!"

At the command of the captain, the thunder cannon flew out, throwing a beautiful line in the air, 'Bang! ’ With a sound, he hit the city gate and was firmly nailed to the city gate.

In just a moment, there was a loud "Boom!" and a big hole was blown open in the city gate, revealing the stones inside.

Immediately afterwards, another iron fire laser was shot out and exploded on the city gate again. The remaining city gate was blown to pieces, and all the gray-white rocks were exposed.

Guo Ziyi saw it clearly, and he immediately ordered: "Assemble ten thousand crossbowmen to suppress the city head, and use large iron fire thunder to blow open the city gate!"

General Chen Hua led 10,000 crossbowmen and charged forward, firing thousands of arrows. The dense arrows hit the top of the city. The soldiers on the top of the city had to squat down and were so suppressed that they could not lift their heads.

At this time, a carriage pulled an iron fire thunder weighing three hundred kilograms and rushed forward. Three soldiers held the iron fire thunder tightly in the carriage and were about to approach the city gate.

Li Baochen saw clearly and ordered: "Throw a hundred jars of fire oil down!"

The soldiers squatted on the ground and threw hundreds of clay pots outside the city gate. The kerosene splashed and flowed all over the ground. Then they threw down a few torches. The kerosene was ignited, and a raging fire suddenly broke out in front of the city gate. .

"Come in!"

The soldier driving the carriage stared with blood-red eyes, without any thought of stopping the carriage. He whipped the horses desperately, and the horses ran forward like crazy, neighed, rushed onto the drawbridge, and rushed directly into the fire.

The three soldiers jumped into the sea of ​​​​fire holding the iron fire thunder. They were surrounded by fire under their feet and around them, and their bodies were also ignited by the fire. They were not afraid. They rushed up with the three hundred kilogram iron fire thunder and held the iron fire thunder tightly. On the big rock, at this moment, the match rope was completely ignited by the fierce flames and was about to explode. The three people remained motionless and pressed the iron fire thunder against the big rock.

"Boom!"

There was an earth-shattering explosion, and the three soldiers were blown into pieces, but the huge impact also ejected all the boulders, and the city wall dozens of feet long collapsed.

"Kill--"

General Ma Sui led 10,000 cavalry towards the collapsed city gate and rushed directly into the city through the gap.

Behind them, an army of 50,000 men led by deputy general Ma Lin came towards the east city. Planks were also put up on both sides of the suspension bridge.

The vanguard cavalry took the lead in entering the city, followed by 50,000 troops who also entered the county town.

As Guo Ziyi expected, the 20,000 defenders in the city were all loyal to Li Baochen. They refused to surrender, and the two sides launched a brutal street battle in Hejian County.

Fierce fighting broke out everywhere in Hejian City. The four city gates were wide open, and the Tang army continued to send ordinary people into the city in groups.

This is also an effective means of street fighting. It can continuously send people out of the city and reduce the casualties of ordinary people to the greatest extent.

However, the enemy often used ordinary people as hostages to threaten the Tang army soldiers. In this case, the Tang army would not be held hostage and would directly kill them.

The cruelty of street fighting lies here, so once a street fighting breaks out, ordinary people will suffer heavy casualties.

There are two strong points in Hejian County. One is Cangcheng, which has a four-foot-high city wall and a moat around it. Three thousand soldiers stand guard on the inner city.

Huben Zhonglang General Chen Hua led 10,000 soldiers to attack Cangcheng. Cangcheng had no gates, only a water gate for entry and exit.

The Tang army quickly found a countermeasure. Since Cangcheng was built according to the city, the other half of it was the city wall.

The soldiers rushed up the city wall. Two thousand soldiers climbed down the rope ladder from the city wall, and another two thousand soldiers fired arrows at the three thousand defenders on the inner wall from behind.

Soon, the Tang army took control of the warehouse. A dozen soldiers drilled a hole in the inner city wall, stuffed an 80-pound iron fire thunder into the hole, and lit the match.

Just for a moment, I heard an earth-shattering explosion, "Boom!"

The thin inner city wall collapsed, and more than a thousand soldiers fell, most of them buried by the city wall.

The Tang army tasted the sweetness and used the same move one after another. In a moment, there were four explosions in succession, and the entire inner city wall collapsed. Before the soldiers could get up, the Tang army fired a volley of arrows, cutting off their way of survival.

Another tough nut to crack was the Chengde Palace. Ma Lin led 10,000 people to attack it. The Chengde Palace covers an area of ​​200 acres and is located in the north of the city. Li Baochen and his family were hiding in the palace and were guarded by 5,000 elite soldiers. The security of the palace.

Ma Lin watched for a moment, and immediately ordered: "Prepare the catapults, and burn the palace!"

More than a hundred small catapults were brought in, and the Tang army soldiers also brought hundreds of jars of kerosene. With Ma Lin's order, burning kerosene pottery jars were thrown into the palace,

A raging fire was ignited, and the fire quickly ignited the interior of the palace. With the second and third rounds of kerosene burning, the fire became more intense.

Thousands of soldiers fired gunpowder arrows together. Gunpowder arrows are more flammable. After just one round of arrows, the entire palace was engulfed in flames.

Five thousand soldiers never came out. They chose to be loyal and live and die with the palace.

At this time, Li Baochen was dying. He was buried by bricks and mud on the city when the city gate exploded. His right leg and spine were broken, and he was dug out from the mud and sand by the soldiers.

He could no longer walk and could only wait for death to come.

The fire burned for a day and a night, and the palace covering an area of ​​200 acres was eventually burned to a wasteland. Including Li Baochen and his wife and children, 5,000 soldiers were all burned to death, and no one survived.

The street fighting finally ended the next morning.

All 20,000 Chengde soldiers were killed. The Tang army did not accept prisoners of war, and all the surrendered soldiers were executed.

In this street fighting, the Tang army also paid the price of more than 6,000 casualties, and the civilians also exceeded 10,000 in the morning.

After the war, Li Ye rewarded four soldiers who died when bombing the city gate, and the soldiers driving the carriage did not escape. Each of them was rewarded with 1,000 taels of silver and given to their families.

At this time, news came from Zhao County that 15,000 Zhao County defenders opened the city and surrendered.

Lei Wanchun and Li Sheng's 80,000 troops surrounded Zhao County. Zhao County's main general Xu Chongjun was killed by mutinous soldiers, and the entire army surrendered out of the city.

With the surrender of Zhao County, the two major vassal towns in Hebei, Tian Chengsi and Li Baochen, were successively destroyed.

The Tang army of more than 200,000 troops continued to advance northward.

Two days later, the army of more than 200,000 arrived at the Juma River and set up camp on the south bank of the Juma River.