Tibet

Zhang Zhongzhi held up his hand curtain and watched the attacking soldiers, but the other side acted extremely calm. He always felt that something was wrong, and it was impossible for the other side to let them climb over the ice wall.

There was an urge in his heart to withdraw his troops, but the emperor was staring at him from behind, so he had no choice but to bite the bullet and watch.

It was already less than a mile away. Suddenly, the soldiers running on the ice fell down one by one. The soldiers behind him couldn't stop and rushed forward, but also fell to the ground. Zhang Zhongzhi was shocked and stared at the ice nervously. mutation on.

"General Zhang, what's going on, brothers?" An Lushan asked anxiously.

"There seems to be an obstacle on the ice!" Zhang Zhongzhi was not sure what happened.

The soldiers behind finally stopped running and backed away cautiously. The soldiers who fell on the ground also struggled to get up and limped back.

Soon, a soldier rushed back to report, "General, there are a lot of thorns on the ground, frozen in the ice. The brothers all stepped on the thorns."

So that was the case, Zhang Zhongzhi quickly asked: "Is there any quenching poison?"

"It seems there is, it's shining with a little blue light!"

Zhang Zhongzhi's heart sank. Poison would be a problem. As the soldiers were running, their blood flowed quickly, and the poison would quickly damage the internal organs. He had no choice but to come back and report to An Lushan.

"Poisonous Tribulus?"

An Lushan frowned and asked, "How many people have been tricked?"

"It looks like only about 2,000 people fell."

"Find a military doctor to treat them immediately, find a way to eliminate the enemy's thorn threat, and let me continue the attack!"

The soldiers all retreated and wrapped themselves in blankets to keep warm. The cold air on the ice was still unbearable to the soldiers, and all the soldiers were shivering from the cold.

There were more than 2,100 injured soldiers in total. Tribulus thorns basically pierced the soles of the soldiers' feet. When they took off their shoes and socks, their entire feet were black, and some even their ankles were black. The military doctors were helpless, mainly because the soldiers were running. After being stabbed, the blood flows very quickly, and the toxins have been carried into the heart by the blood.

Military doctors had no choice but to arrange carriages to take these injured soldiers back to the camp for treatment.

Zhang Zhongzhi summoned more than a dozen generals to discuss countermeasures. One general said: "You can let the soldiers skate across. Maybe the thorns will not hurt the soldiers."

This suggestion was immediately rejected by Zhang Zhongzhi. The skates were made of wooden boards with the front ends raised and tied with ropes to prevent ice thorns. However, the other party also thought of this. Not only were there thorns on the ice, but also broken pieces. Stones and gravel are frozen on the ice, which is specially designed for skating. You will fall if you use skates.

"There are gravels on the ice, so it's impossible to skate. Think of another way!"

Another general said: "You can fill a large wooden box with sand and soil, and the soldiers push it on the ice. The wooden box can scrape up the gravel and poisonous caltrops."

This method is okay. Zhang Zhongzhi went back and reported it to An Lushan. An Lushan nodded, "You can try it and adopt it if it works!"

Zhang Zhongzhi immediately found two large wooden boxes, which were filled with sand and weighed several thousand kilograms. Zhang Zhongzhi ordered several soldiers to push the large wooden boxes and run on the ice.

It started relatively smoothly, but when we were still a mile or two away from the ice wall, two large wooden boxes tipped over one after another, sand and gravel spread all over the ice, and everyone let out a sigh of regret.

Not long after, the soldiers came back and reported, "General, there are relatively large rocks on the ice, and the ice is quite solid. The wooden boxes will overturn when they hit them."

Zhang Zhongzhi nodded. This was as he expected. He was also worried that the stone would be too big to scrape the wooden box.

At this time, a Khitan general offered advice: "General, when pulling sleds across the glacier in our hometown, we often encounter sharp gravel exposed on the ice. We are afraid of hurting the horses' hooves, so we use thick straw mats or tree branches. Lay it on the ice so that the horses' hooves won't step on the small sharp stones. If you are more particular, it would be better to lay it on a wooden board!"

This method was very practical. Zhang Zhongzhi reported it to An Lushan again. An Lushan immediately said: "Weaving straw mats is too troublesome. Order the soldiers to lay the branches directly!"

"Your Majesty, there are many garden houses beside Qujiang Pool. Can we use the roof tiles from them to pave the road?"

An Lushan immediately said angrily: "I have given the garden house to ministers and meritorious soldiers, can I demolish it at will?"

Zhang Zhongzhi suddenly did not dare to say anything, and An Lushan said again: "There are many trees in the Furong Garden. I am tired of looking at them, so I will cut them all down and use them to lay the ice surface!"

An Lushan ordered more than 10,000 soldiers to rush into the Furong Garden like wolves and tigers. They cut down all kinds of precious trees in the garden and destroyed the surrounding walls. A large number of trees were dragged out by horses and piled on the ice. superior.

At this time, Li Ye was standing on the city wall next to the gap. There was actually a small city gate here, which connected the Daming Palace and Furong Garden through the city wall. However, it had been blocked by the Tang Army with city bricks. In fact, it was not only the gate of Furong Garden. Small city gates and many unnecessary gates were sealed by the Tang army.

Li Ye felt a little regretful when he saw countless Yan army soldiers dragging trees out of the Furong Garden to pave the ice. He knew that there were many precious trees in the Furong Garden, and it took gardeners countless efforts and more than ten years to successfully cultivate them. , and now it is so destroyed by the sword and ax of the Yan army, which is sad.

However, Yan Jun eliminated one danger, but it brought another hidden danger. Didn't An Lushan know that he was an expert in using fire?

"Prepare the catapult!"

Li Ye gave an order, the red flag waved, and ten catapults were seen rumbling from a distance, pulled by strong horses and pushed by soldiers.

The two-foot-high military wall blocked the Yan army's sight. They could not see the other side of the ice wall. An Lushan thought that they could enter the city by climbing over the military wall, but he was totally wrong. Li Yejue We will not let an ice wall determine the success or failure of Chang'an.

Coming along the Qujiang River is Quchifang. There are very few residents in Quchifang. First of all, Leyou originally occupies more than half of the entire area, and half of the remaining land is occupied by Qinglong Temple. Only less than 30% of the land is used for construction. House.

Moreover, most of these private houses are the villas of wealthy businessmen. The gardens and houses along the Qujiang Pool are all the villas of the powerful. Those wealthy and powerful businessmen also want to enjoy the comfort of Qujiang Pool, so only Qujiang Fang is left. A little bit of land fell.

For example, the Wang Yuanbao brothers' Wang Family Villa, the Chen Family Villa built by the big grain merchant Chen Siyuan, etc. These big businessmen bribed the court with huge sums of money before they were qualified to buy a piece of land in Quchifang to build the courtyard. Therefore, Quchi is also called Biyuanfang.

Li Ye initially placed some people from the county in other courtyards, but for defense needs, he moved these people to other places. The monks from Qinglong Temple also went to Ci'en Temple to stay temporarily.

Li Ye ordered all the dozens of other courtyards to be demolished, and used the demolished brick walls to build a thick square wall, which was integrated with Leyouyuan.

The enemy troops came in and either used a battering ram to destroy the newly built square wall, or climbed over Leyouyuan. However, no matter which option they adopted, they would suffer heavy losses from the Tang army. Li Ye deployed a thousand heavy weapons in the other courtyard areas. Jia infantry deployed three thousand troops on Leyouyuan, thus ensuring that Qujiang Pool would not become Chang'an's weakness.

"Your Highness, look!"

Guan Pei pointed his finger and saw countless civilians being driven in from a distance. They were all drivers driving large carts, and there were thousands of them.

"The Yan army won't let them dig out the thorns!"

Li Ye shook his head, "We should let them lay branches!"

"Then are we going to shoot to stop them?"

Li Ye said calmly: "Just let them lay it, no need to interfere!"

Thousands of civilians dragged a large number of branches and began to lay bundles of branches on the ice a mile away from the ice wall, where the Yan army soldiers began to fall.

More than half an hour later, the tree branches were gradually approaching the ice wall. The thousands of cart drivers were hardly harassed by the Tang army, and no one stepped on the poisonous tribulus.

Soon, a road of tree branches about fifteen feet wide and one mile long was laid.

Thousands of civilians glanced gratefully at the soldiers on the city wall and began to retreat quickly.

After laying the groundwork for more than half an hour, An Lushan was already very impatient and ordered Zhang Zhongzhi: "Why don't I attack in a big way and wait too long? It will take years of monkeys and horses and months to conquer?"

"I humbly obey my orders!"

This time, Zhang Zhizhong invested 15,000 troops. "Woo-hoo!" In the deep sound of horns, 15,000 soldiers rushed onto the ice. Under Zhang Zhizhong's personal command, they attacked the ice wall several miles away. go.