Tibet

The North City was also the focus of the Tang army's defense. Li Ye also knew very well that once the Tibetan army came over from the Yellow River, they would definitely protect their retreat and baggage, camp on the edge of the Yellow River, and attack the city on a relatively flat ground. The spacious North City.

Based on this consideration, Li Ye also placed the main defensive weapons in Beicheng, including thirty medium-sized trebuchets and three super-large trebuchets, as well as 10,000 heavy crossbowmen and Modao troops.

A platform specifically designed to house trebuchets was also built on the top of the city. Its appearance is the same as that of the horse-faced wall, except that the horse-faced wall protrudes outwards, while the trebuchet platform protrudes inwards.

Basically, the trebuchet on the city wall cannot be used with a rod-type trebuchet. The long hurling rod extends outside the city wall, and there is no way to load stones into the trebuchet. Therefore, long trebuchets are used. The principle is the same. The flying stones used by Tibetan soldiers are actually the same thing.

But after experiencing the Battle of Chang'an, Li Ye had learned his lesson and decided to abandon this long-rope trebuchet. Although the rope-type trebuchet was simple and convenient and did not require the production of a special throwing rod, its flaws were also obvious. First of all, Do not throw fire oil cans or fire clay as it will burn the rope.

Secondly, the throwing will fail. If the stone fails to be thrown, it will be wrapped in a leather bag and then hit hard on the city head, causing casualties to the soldiers. Moreover, the probability of failure is very high. Ten throws will fail three times, so in Chang'an, During the war, the trebuchets were eventually discontinued.

This time Li Ye used a medium-sized trebuchet. The throwing rod was only two feet long. The trebuchet was slightly forward and the trebuchet could be placed on the city wall.

This kind of trebuchet is a counterweight trebuchet. An iron block is dropped from the front, and the stones from the back are thrown out. Seven soldiers control a trebuchet, but the range is not far, only about a hundred steps. The Tang army is planning to use it. Projecting sulfur, charcoal, fire mud, flying all over the sky, the effect was good in Chang'an.

In addition, there are three super trebuchets, which are five feet high and have a throwing pole eight feet long. They can throw eighty or ninety kilograms of heavy objects five hundred steps away. The only drawback is that they require a lot of manpower. A super large trebuchet requires two hundred people. Pushing two large winches together, but three super large trebuchets only require 600 people, so it is not a big problem.

Li Ye saw it clearly and ordered: "Prepare the large trebuchet!"

Three super-large trebuchets were ready, and several soldiers placed large bags of sulfur and charcoal clay on oil paper pads in the trebuchets, weighing a full eighty kilograms.

The 20,000 Tibetan troops had already rushed 500 steps away. Li Ye coldly ordered, "Launch!"

The red flag was waved by the soldiers on the starting platform, and the soldiers ignited the sulfur and charcoal mud in the oil paper bags. The tuck pockets burned violently. Three super-large trebuchets were suddenly launched. The three burning oil paper bags flew into the sky, and the sulfur and charcoal mud was in mid-air. Scattered, like a fairy scattering flowers, and flew towards the dense crowd below.

Countless Tibetan soldiers were shot, and their heads, bodies, faces, and legs burned rapidly. Many soldiers instinctively slapped the flames on their bodies. The sulfur and charcoal clay immediately stuck to their hands and burned. The severe heart-breaking pain caused many soldiers to collapse. On the ground, they curled up into a ball and howled at the top of their lungs.

But for the Tibetan soldiers, they were not affected in any way and continued to charge forward overwhelmingly. At this time, the second round of sulfur, charcoal and clay was thrown and fell from the sky. The soldiers raised their shields to resist, but thousands of them were still hit. , was burned and moaned in pain.

But at this moment, a scene that annoyed Li Ye appeared. Most of the thousands of Tubo soldiers who had been hit in the previous round stood up, still enduring the severe pain, and stumbled forward.

On the top of the city, Li Ye could see clearly and frowned. The soldiers of the Yan Army in Chang'an were hit by charcoal clay and basically lost their combat effectiveness. These Tubo soldiers could actually stand up and continue to fight. They are so tough and strong. No wonder In history, Tubo became the biggest enemy of the Tang Dynasty.

Li Ye has realized this problem. Whether it is kerosene or kerosene, it looks like it is burning fiercely, but in fact, it has no effect on the running enemy. After all, people are alive and they will avoid the fire area. Things like trebuchets and nest carts cannot be avoided.

"Stop using fire clay and replace all trebuchets with gravel!"

Li Ye decisively ordered that all gravel be used instead, one or two kilograms each, which could kill someone if hit.

The Tibetan army had already rushed 300 steps away. The three super-large trebuchets changed to gravel and threw it for the third time. The dense gravel roared and hit the heads of the army soldiers in the rear. Two to three hundred people were killed. When hit, his head was immediately bruised and he fell to the ground.

But in the dense crowd, these casualties did not make any waves.

At this time, five thousand heavy crossbows were launched. Two people controlled a large yellow crossbow, and the heavy arrows flew into the sky at a 45-degree angle, forming a dark cloud and shooting towards the heads of the Tibetan soldiers like raindrops. This was the real The big killer is coming.

Heavy arrows shot through shields, leather armor, straight through the body, or were shot through the head. Blood splattered everywhere, and large numbers of Tibetan soldiers screamed and fell.

In the first round of five thousand heavy crossbow arrows, more than a thousand Tibetan soldiers were killed.

As the second round of 5,000-heavy crossbow arrows was fired, thirty trebuchets also fired, and dense stones hit the Tibetan soldiers, knocking them off their feet.

At the same time, the Tibetan soldiers also rushed within a hundred steps, and they also began to fight back. Flying rocks rained down towards the city. Many Tang soldiers were caught off guard and were beaten with bloody heads and broken nose bones. , fell on his back.

"Squat down! Squat down!" the generals shouted, asking the soldiers to squat down.

The Tang army also fought back. The 20,000 archers deployed in the city opened fire. The arrows flew out of the city like dark clouds. Stones and arrows intertwined in the air. A large number of Tibetan soldiers were shot down by arrows. The army's casualties rose rapidly and exceeded 6,000.

At this time, Ma Chongying was a little anxious. Before he even started to attack the city, the casualties exceeded 30%. How could this be done?

He immediately ordered: "Blow the drum to cheer!"

"Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!"

The war drums of the Tibetan army were beating, and the drums were so exciting that the Tibetan soldiers on the battlefield were as if they had been given blood. They were all extremely brave. One after another, siege ladders were set up on the top of the city and began to climb quickly.

On the top of the city, hundreds of axemen stepped out and swung their long axes to attack the siege ladder. Li Ye's army was already very skilled in dealing with the siege ladder. The first thing they did was to chop off the top two rungs. , of course, the Tubo soldiers could still go to the city, but the difficulty became obviously greater.

If the soldiers of the Tang army were heavily defended, with dozens of spears and daggers in front of each siege ladder, the possibility of climbing to the top of the city would be slim.

But what greeted the Tubo soldiers immediately was hail-like rolling logs and rocks, which fell on their heads and faces. They were unable to hide, and strings of Tubo soldiers were hit and fell down the city.

They finally managed to avoid the rolling logs and stones and reached the battlement, but found that they could not use their feet to gain strength and could not climb up at all. Before the soldiers could even curse, more than a dozen spears had pierced their bodies, and then a cold light flashed. , the head flew away, the headless corpse fell from the sky, and the blood from the neck was flying in the air.

This was Li Ye's defense innovation. Two heavy armored infantry were stationed in front of each siege ladder, taking turns to fight. The effect was excellent. Almost every Tibetan soldier who rushed to the top of the siege ladder would be chopped into two pieces.

There are also two thousand heavy armored infantry on standby. Their task is to fight against twenty enemy flying ladders.

At this time, twenty flying ladders also crossed the moat and rushed to the bottom of the city wall. The yaks that were pulling them had been removed, and the soldiers were pushing them to slide. The front end of the flying ladder was heavily pressed against the city wall.

Each flying ladder was equipped with two long ladders. Hundreds of Tibetan soldiers pulled the ropes from behind. The two long ladders were erected one after another. The ladders were filled with powerful Tibetan soldiers in advance.