Tibet

Li Ye stared at the two long dragons on the ice. They were formed entirely to adapt to the width of the branches. The width of each row was about fifteen feet. Fifty soldiers were running forward in a mighty manner. It could be seen that The opponent's arrangement was to attack the city with a group of 5,000 people, attacking three times in total.

Guan Pei shouted: "The crossbowmen are ready! The catapults are ready!"

There were 1,500 soldiers deployed on both sides of the city walls, which was the maximum number of soldiers the city could accommodate. Each soldier held a crossbow and aimed at the gap.

Behind the ice wall, ten catapults were already creaking and being pulled into place, with clay pots weighing fifty kilograms of kerosene placed in the catapults.

Dozens of soldiers stood on the catapult. Some soldiers were holding torches, patiently waiting for the order to light the fire. They could not see the situation on the other side of the ice wall. They could only hear the closer and closer shouts of killing. The captain was watching. Flags on the city wall.

At this time, the enemy troops were getting closer and closer, and finally rushed to the branches. Guan Pei bit his lips. This was the first time he independently commanded the defense. He had to weigh the pros and cons and see the right time. It would not work if it was too early, and it would not work if it was too late. no.

Thousands of Yan army soldiers ran on the branches holding shields and spears, and carried dozens of siege ladders. The branches did have a very good protective effect. The threat of poisonous caltrops was removed, and only occasionally soldiers fell. I don’t know whether he stepped on poisonous thorns or tripped over a branch.

Yan Jun had already rushed a hundred steps away from the ice wall. Li Ye glanced at Guan Pei and admired his calmness.

He actually didn't know that Guan Pei was already sweating profusely. Guan Pei suddenly bit his lip and shouted: "Shoot!"

Three thousand crossbowmen on the top of the city fired at the same time, and arrows shot at the enemy on the ice like a rainstorm. The Yan army soldiers raised their shields high and ran against the rain of arrows.

The flag bearer at the top of the city also raised the red flag, and the catapult captain shouted: "Fire and launch!"

The soldiers lit the kerosene in the clay pot, and the kerosene in the clay pot burned violently. The catapults swung their throwing rods at the same time, 'Bang! Bang! Bang! ’ Ten burning fireballs rolled in the air, spilling a large amount of burning fire oil.

This is a special arrangement. The clay pot has no lid and rolls in the air. A large amount of burning kerosene will be poured out and ignited everywhere.

The catapult began to retreat, and some soldiers overturned the clay pots on the vehicle to the ground. The clay pots shattered and kerosene flowed all over the ice. They threw hundreds of bundles of wheat straw on the ground and accelerated their retreat.

The branches outside began to burn, and there was fire and thick smoke everywhere, mainly concentrated between the one hundred and one hundred and fifteen steps. The soldiers were in chaos, and some soldiers began to retreat.

Zhang Zhongzhi, who was supervising the battle from behind, was furious. The emperor was watching the battle from behind. Who dared to escape at this time?

He ordered: "Those who retreat will be killed without mercy!"

He ordered a thousand swordsmen and axemen to hold down the formation behind them, and anyone who dared to retreat would be killed immediately.

Fortunately, they were not dried branches, but freshly cut branches, which were relatively moist and did not burn quickly. After beheading nearly a hundred escaping soldiers, the more than 10,000 Yan army soldiers had no choice but to bite the bullet and continue running.

Really not knowing whether to live or die, Li Ye said to Guan Pei: "Fire the gunpowder arrows!"

Three thousand soldiers fired gunpowder arrows together. The biggest feature of gunpowder arrows is to support combustion. Three thousand gunpowder arrows were shot into the crowd. Some shot on the shields and some shot on the ground. The fire began to increase, and thick smoke appeared on the ice. It was so thick that many soldiers fainted from being choked.

At this time, more than a thousand soldiers at the front had already rushed to the bottom of the ice wall. They climbed up on ladders. There was a rope several feet long at the top of each ladder. The soldiers climbing on the top of the ice wall threw the rope to the other side. On one side, he slid down the rope directly. This was Zhang Zhongzhi's intention, and he never thought about letting the soldiers come back.

Hundreds of soldiers climbed over the ice wall and discovered that there was a high wall hundreds of steps ahead. At this moment, several torches were thrown down from the top of the city, 'Boom! ’ It burned much faster than before. Suddenly the entire ice surface was in flames, and the wheat straw was also ignited, causing hundreds of soldiers to wail and scream.

The soldiers on the ice wall were so frightened that they retreated one after another. The flames on the branches behind them began to become fiercer. Thousands of soldiers were burned until they cried for their mothers and fled to both sides. Many of them stepped on the poisonous caltrops and fell down. On the ground, even if they managed to escape ashore, they would still be greeted by dense arrows from the top of the city wall.

An Lushan's face was livid, and he felt extremely regretful. Then he remembered that Li Ye was good at using fire and paving roads with branches. Didn't he just fulfill his wish?

At this time, a general rushed to An Lushan and whispered: "Your Majesty, you can see clearly from the tower. There is a high wall three hundred steps away behind the ice wall. There are a large number of heavy armored infantry deployed behind the high wall!"

"Heavy infantry?"

An Lushan was startled. At this time, he also saw the raging fire burning on the other side of the ice wall.

Forget it, let's wait until the nest cart and trebuchet are built before attacking Qujiang!

An Lushan sighed and ordered: "Send an order to Zhang Zhongzhi to withdraw his troops!"

He ordered again: "I want to go back to the military camp!"

Dozens of soldiers carried his cradle chair onto an extremely large carriage, which slowly left under the escort of hundreds of cavalry.

At this time, a soldier ran to Zhang Zhongzhi and shouted: "Your Majesty has an order, order General Zhang to retreat!"

In the chaos, Zhang Zhizhong breathed a long sigh of relief, "Withdraw troops!"

"Dang! Dang! Dang!"

The gong of retreat sounded, and the army retreated one after another. Fortunately, this was the first round of the 5,000-man attack. There were still 10,000 people who did not start the attack. Half of the 5,000 soldiers were lost, and the other half of the soldiers escaped by luck.

The army retreated ashore, and Zhang Zhongzhi discovered that the emperor had disappeared.

A guard general came forward and said: "The emperor has ordered that today's attack is temporarily suspended. The army will withdraw to the barracks?"

Zhang Zhongzhi quickly asked: "Excuse me, General Xu, why did the emperor stop attacking?"

The general named Xu glanced at him and said, "The emperor said that Li Ye would not let us attack the city so easily. There must be more deployments in Quchifang, as evidenced by the fire that just started."

Zhang Zhongzhi also secretly breathed a sigh of relief. The guard general named Xu left. A general came forward and whispered: "The emperor just sent people to check the octagonal tower in Furong Garden and found that there is a high wall inside the ice wall. wall."

"I see!"

Zhang Zhongzhi understood that the emperor had seen what was happening on the other side of the ice wall.

The Yan army that attacked Qujiang Pool retreated, but the fire on the ice was still burning. After the fire was extinguished, the melted water gradually froze again, freezing together with the remains of trees and charred corpses. There were large pieces of hard debris and many sharp branches, which instead became obstacles to the siege.

In the afternoon, the soldiers of the Yan army who demolished the houses in Chang'an of the Han Dynasty came back and used strong oxen to drag more than a dozen huge and thick wooden pillars. Li Ye stood on the east city wall and watched the huge wooden pillars being dragged into the military camp. , he also felt a huge pressure.

Chief Shi Cui Guangyuan said from the side: "Actually, Your Highness, you don't have to worry too much. Chang'an City is strong enough. The battering ram cannot penetrate the city wall. At most, it can only attack the city gates. However, there are urns at the gates of Chang'an City. Even if they break through one gate, There is another inner gate.”

General Li Sheng also said: "Beizhi has experience in Fengxiang's battle with the Yan army. Using a big yellow crossbow can shoot through the enemy's shields and armor within a hundred steps. It is a good way to deal with battering rams. Beizhi is willing to volunteer to guard the North City. If Beicheng is lost, I would like to come and see you!"

Li Ye nodded, "I approve General Li's self-recommendation. In addition, I plan to spread poisonous caltrops outside Beicheng tonight. Outside Beicheng are the West Inner Garden and the East Inner Garden. It will have little impact on the people. Do you have any different opinions?"

Li Ye glanced at the generals, including Cui Guangyuan and Su Zhen, who did not express their opinions. At this time, Su Zhen smiled and said: "After the ice and snow melt, the toxicity on the tribulus will completely subside. After the spring begins, you can call on the people to pick up the tribulus. If you find a thorn, you will be rewarded five cents, and five thousand cents can eliminate most of the hidden dangers."