Tibet

Li Ye arrived at the south of the city. He climbed up to the main building and stared outside the city for a long time. Pei Xiu next to him asked, "Does your Highness think the enemy will attack Nancheng next?"

"This is inevitable!"

Li Ye said calmly: "Dongxi and Beicheng's chariots are useless."

Pei Xiu thought for a while, finally understood, and said quickly: "Your Highness is right, neither the chariot nor the ladder can attack the east and west city walls!"

In order to prevent the moat from eroding the city wall, a long embankment was built on both the east and west sides of Chang'an City. It was made of bricks and stones. The embankment was not high, only four feet. An adult could jump on it, but for Large siege weapons with heavy chassis, such as nest cars and ladders, are insurmountable for them.

The embankment is still nearly two feet away from the city wall. Needless to say, the chariot is also a little too far away from the ladder.

Although there are no moats built in the West Inner Garden and the Forbidden Garden, they are royal gardens. In order to create a mountainous atmosphere, the terrain is deliberately undulating. Large siege weapons cannot walk. More importantly, a large amount of poison is spread outside the North City. Tribulus, the Yan army can no longer attack the city from the north.

In the south, because the moat bed is relatively deep and the water level is low, the river water will not erode the city wall, so no river embankments were built. However, this leads to another problem. The water level is low. Whether the Chao chariot walks down the river bed or comes up from the river bed, the inclination They are very big and will definitely tip over, not to mention that once they hit the river bed, they may not be able to push them up.

The only way is to build a pontoon bridge, but compared with the insurmountable moat embankment, building a pontoon bridge is much easier and can be done.

Pei Xiu also figured this out. The Yan army used large siege weapons, so they could only attack the south wall.

Li Ye pointed to the moat: "They will definitely build a pontoon bridge. We can use kerosene to block and burn the pontoon bridge."

Pei Xiu hesitated and said: "I am worried that there is not enough kerosene!"

"There are many?"

"There are still two thousand cans, all of which are small cans of five kilograms."

It was indeed a bit short. Li Ye thought about it and smiled: "The floating bridge is easy to build, so there is no need to waste our precious kerosene. Let's save it for dealing with the nest car and the ladder!"

Coincidentally, just when Li Ye was standing on the main building at the head of Nancheng to observe the terrain, on the west side of Nancheng,

Gao Shang and a group of generals were also inspecting the terrain. An Lushan was ill and could not come out in person, so he had to let Gao Shang lead the team and choose the place to attack the city.

"Everyone has seen the east city and the west city. There are moats and embankments that can't be passed by chariots and ladders. The north city is poisonous. Thousands of soldiers who attacked Qujiang before were killed. It had a great impact on the soldiers, so the north city also gave up. Now, There’s only Nancheng.”

An Shouzhong said: "But the moat in Nancheng is very shallow, like a huge trench, and it is not easy for the nest car to pass through."

Gao Shang shook his head and said: "This problem is easy to solve. Just build a pontoon. It is very simple to make some large boxes. The boxes are buckled on the bottom of the river and wooden boards are built on them. They are all simple crafts and can be made overnight."

Li Guiren nodded, "Building a pontoon bridge is a good idea. I suggest not using the battering ram. The enemy's kerosene is too powerful."

Gao Shang pondered for a moment and said: "The battering ram still needs to be used. People will always die in war. What if the battering ram knocks open the city gate?"

After a pause, he said to everyone: "Everyone, the emperor's situation is not very good. In fact, we don't have many chances. This attack on the city is likely to be our last attack on Chang'an. We must go all out. If we still can't If we succeed, then we will retreat eastward to Luoyang. The most important thing is to ensure the emperor's health."

Gao Shang was most worried that if An Lushan died outside Chang'an City, An Qingxu would successfully ascend the throne in Luoyang. They didn't even have a basic city, so how could An Qingxu ascend the throne?

His subtext is that the emperor must ensure that he returns to Luoyang alive in order to ensure Anqing and replace the prince.

"Gao Xiangguo, is the emperor's condition serious?" Zhang Zhongzhi asked worriedly.

Gao Shang sighed and said: "Actually, the illness itself is not serious. It's just a little cold. But as you all know, the emperor's body is different from that of ordinary people. A little ailment can be life-threatening, so I am very worried. The emperor also agreed with me. My suggestion, this siege is the last battle, I hope all generals will go all out!"

Everyone rode back to the camp. Gao Shang rode beside Zhang Zhongzhi and asked, "The emperor is still a little unwilling to accept Qujiang Pool. Does General Zhang have any better ideas?"

Zhang Zhongzhi nodded, "I went to see the battering ram that day. I felt that using the battering ram to deal with the ice wall would definitely be effective!"

"But there are many obstacles on the ice, how do you deal with them?"

"It's simple. I'll let the drivers handle it."

Gao Shang nodded, "Let's deal with it as soon as possible!"

In the afternoon of that day, thousands of people began to clear various obstacles on the ice of Qujiang Pool. These obstacles were actually a large number of burned or unburned branches, as well as a large number of corpses of Yan Army soldiers. Most of these soldiers They all died of suffocation due to smoke, and some fainted and froze to death without receiving timely treatment.

Cleaning up the broken branches is not troublesome. What is troublesome is the poisonous caltrops hidden in the ice. Of course, there are ways to solve it. Every coachman has an ice-breaking hammer in his hand. This is not issued to them by the Yan army. It is a must for carriages when driving in winter. They walked slowly on their stomachs on the ice and saw a little blue glow, which was poisonous thorns. They used hammers to bend the poisonous stings exposed outside the ice so that they would not sting the soles of their feet.

On the top of the city, the soldiers of the Tang Army silently watched thousands of civilians busy on the ice. His Royal Highness King Lu told them the bottom line. As long as these civilians did not touch the ice wall, they could do whatever they wanted and ignore them. But once they hit the ice, wall, or even climb over the ice wall, then don’t hesitate to draw your bow and shoot them with arrows.

"His Royal Highness King Lu is here!"

A soldier shouted, and the soldiers at the top of the city moved out of the way. Li Ye, accompanied by several generals, walked quickly. He had just received the report that there was another movement on the ice, and a large number of civilians were clearing obstacles.

This was expected by Li Ye. The last time the Yan army attacked Qujiang, it failed halfway, and they would definitely not be willing to accept it.

This time, they concentrated their forces to attack Nancheng, which happened to include Qujiang Pool.

"General Li, how do you think the Yan army will attack this time?" Li Ye asked Li Sheng who came with him.

Li Sheng thought for a moment and said: "I think they are likely to attack the ice wall!"

"How can I see it?"

"They climbed over the ice wall and suffered heavy losses. I believe they will not make the same mistake again, so the only way left is to attack the ice wall. I think they may have extra battering rams."

Li Ye nodded, "What you said makes sense. They demolished more than a dozen large pillars from Chang'an City in the Han Dynasty. Now they only use three. In fact, it doesn't matter if they break through the ice wall. I will make the wall of Quchifang taller and thicker. It becomes a new ice wall, I think they can attack it a few more times."

Li Sheng smiled slightly and said: "Your Highness, we still have tens of thousands of poisonous tribulus left, which is just in time to work!"

The two looked at each other and laughed together.

At night, Li Ye was sitting in front of the table, taking a nap with one hand on his forehead. At this time, a cup of hot tea appeared in front of him. The hand holding the tea was so slender and white, it was a woman's hand. Li Ye was startled and raised his head. At first, in front of him was a beautiful woman, about twenty-five or six years old, with a face like a peach blossom and charming eyes.

"Who are you?"

The woman whispered: "The little girl's name is Li Chuanchuan. She is a musical concubine and is here to serve His Highness!"

"What are you doing"

Li Ye wanted to ask her why she appeared in his tent, but when he thought about it, he suddenly understood that it was the soldiers who brought her. He was under great pressure before the war, so the soldiers brought this woman to relieve his pressure.

"These bastards!"

Li Ye cursed secretly in his heart and said to the woman: "I don't need it, you go back!"

The woman suddenly knelt down and begged: "As long as His Highness spares the little girl's family from being a member of the family, the little girl is willing to serve His Highness wholeheartedly!"

In the Tang Dynasty, singers, dancers, musicians, brothel prostitutes, etc. were all classified as unworthy. Although they made a living in this way, their status was very low. They could only marry musicians or businessmen in the same industry, or work as mistresses for wealthy people. Concubine, like Li Ye's father's concubine is a happy girl, this is still the best ending for them.

If you marry a man from the same industry and give birth to a child, your whole family will be of low status. This was also a major criticism of Tang Dynasty society, and it was not improved until the Song Dynasty.

It is difficult for these women to get rid of their lowly status, even if they encounter great social upheavals such as the Anshi Rebellion. Even if they flee to the south and have no food or clothing, they will still return to their old jobs and become lowly.

Li Ye stepped forward, lifted her chin, and looked at her carefully. This woman was plump, fair-skinned, and pretty, which suited his taste. The final battle was coming, and he really needed a woman to relieve his stress.

"Is anyone forcing you?"

"No!"

The beautiful woman quickly shook her head. She lowered her head and said shyly: "I am willing to serve His Highness. It is a little woman's honor!"

The fire in Li Ye's heart gradually ignited, he helped her up, held her hand and walked into the back tent.