Tibet

That night, 20,000 troops and 10,000 logistics camels arrived at Sanshui Pass. Early the next morning, Li Ye led the army to continue southward and soon arrived at the exit of Dadou Valley.

Walking out of the valley entrance, the view suddenly became extremely broad. In front of them was endless grassland, and in the distance were rolling mountains. The tops of the mountains were covered with snow, and at the foot of the mountains were large grasslands and alpine forests. Behind them were the Qilian Mountains that stretched for thousands of miles.

A few dozen miles away from the exit of Dadouba Valley is a majestic mountain. There is a large forest from the mountainside to the foot of the mountain, but there is a large military city at the foot of the mountain, with an area similar to that of a county town, and the circumference is estimated to be about ten miles.

The road from the mouth of the valley to the military city is all undulating gentle slopes with green grass. However, there is a large river between the mouth of the valley and the military city. The river is gentle. The Tibetan army is stationed on the other side of the river with hundreds of tents.

The guide Chen Kai pointed to the military city in the distance and said: "That is Dadou City. The mountain behind it is called Datong Mountain, and the river in front is called Haomen River. When we go to Shanzhou, we must pass near Dadou City. This is The only marching passage is eighty miles eastward, and there is a military city called Xincheng. Behind the new city is a road that goes directly through Datong Mountain to the north shore of the West Sea."

Li Ye looked at it for a moment and asked, "How many ferries are there to cross the Datong River?"

Chen Kai pointed to the tent opposite and said with a wry smile: "Only this area is relatively flat and the water flow is slightly gentle, so a pontoon bridge can be built. The water flow elsewhere is very fast, making it difficult to build a pontoon bridge, and the terrain on both sides is also steep."

"What if I don't cross the river and go directly east?"

Chen Kai shook his head, "It looks like grassland now, but it will become more and more dangerous as we go. After fifty miles, we will be blocked by a mountain. People can climb over, but livestock and baggage cannot get through, and they have to retreat in the end. The terrain here is like this. From a distance, They are all green and seem to be very flat, but this is not the case. When walking, you will encounter a slope of one or two feet. People can slide down, but the luggage cannot. If there is no luggage, you can walk anywhere, but if you carry it If there is heavy baggage, then this is the only way.”

Li Ye nodded and smiled: "Let's go to the river and have a look!"

The army slowly went down a slope. It was indeed like this. It looked very close, but in fact it was very far. The road was also bumpy. There was only one road that was slightly easier to walk. Camels could walk, but other places required camels to jump all the way. , not realistic at all.

After walking for more than ten miles, we came to the river. This river is called Haomen River, also called Datong River. It is about a hundred feet wide and the water is relatively gentle. The soldier tested it with a spear and found that the water was about one foot deep. This was still the shore. , the center of the river will be deeper.

The Tang army immediately set up camp on the north bank of the river. Nan Jiyun asked in confusion: "Your Highness, didn't we say during the meeting that we would not attack Shanzhou this time?"

Li Ye smiled slightly and said: "It is true that we will not attack, but we have to let Shang Jiezan know that we are here and have established a firm foothold, so I want to seize the Big Dou City on the other side."

Li Ye immediately ordered his soldiers to cut down trees to make rafts. These rafts must be more than three feet tall. They are not only good floating bridges, but also ladders for siege.

The army began to make rafts in full swing, but Li Ye stood by the river and looked at the tents and the Big Dou City on the other side with his clairvoyance. He discovered that the tents on the other side were actually made of wool. They were different from the leather tents of the Tubo army before. This should be The tents and good tents of the Tuyuhun people were all donated to the Tubo people, and they themselves could only use woolen tents.

Wool tents are very afraid of fire and can catch fire at a moment's notice. Fire attacks can be used to deal with enemy tents.

Thinking of this, he sent someone to invite his guide Chen Kai. After a while, Chen Kai hurried over, bowed and saluted, "I'm sorry to see you, Your Highness!"

Li Ye asked him with a smile: "Has General Chen been to Big Battle City?"

Chen Kai nodded, "Thirteen years after Tianbao, the entire West Sea will be our sphere of influence, and the Great Dou City will also be garrisoned by the Tang Army. I have been there in a humble position."

"What do the buildings inside look like?"

"Around the city wall are wooden houses built by the Tuyuhun people, with tents in the middle. The tents were put away during the day and put up again at night. Otherwise, there would be no room for the 6,000 to 7,000 troops stationed there."

"How high is the city wall?" Li Ye asked again.

"Reporting to your highness, it was originally about two to five feet, but later we raised it to three feet."

Li Ye nodded, "I understand, thank you General Chen!"

He had a rough siege plan in mind.

Before dark, the pontoon bridge was completed. It was made of long wooden rafts connected one after another. It was about a hundred feet long, but it had not yet been put into the water. The soldiers would put it vertically into the water. After fixing one end, the entire pontoon bridge would move smoothly. Crossing the current, it happened to be on the other side of the river. If there were dozens of soldiers standing on the pontoon, they could jump directly to the other side.

This is a good way to cross the river to seize the beach. It is a bit like a nest car. Once the nest car approaches the city wall, the soldiers standing on top can rush directly to the city.

But there is a detail here, which is called "It is better to be long than short." The pontoon bridge would rather be longer than the width of the river. It can even be built diagonally on the other side, but it is afraid that it will be short. If it is too short, it will be washed back by the river water.

There is another detail called bow and arrow washing. You must use bows and arrows to suppress the enemy troops on the other side and create opportunities for your charging soldiers to go ashore.

In the darkness, more than a thousand soldiers appeared on the other side. They also realized that the Tang Army was going to cross the river at night, and they also began to deploy on the shore in an attempt to prevent the Tang Army from crossing the river.

Li Ye gave an order, and a thousand heavy crossbow soldiers rushed forward, raised their big yellow crossbows and fired towards the other side. Arrows shot towards the other side like raindrops.

There are two kinds of famous big yellow crossbows. One is the city-defending big yellow crossbow. The kind requires the cooperation of several people and the strength of twenty stones to draw the bow string. The range is up to 1,200 steps, which can compete with the bed crossbow.

There is also a double-person rhubarb crossbow, a ten-stone crossbow, which requires two people to lie down and pedal together, so it is also called the Qianzhang crossbow, with a range of seven to eight hundred steps.

The Xiangyang Ordnance Institute improved the double crossbow and reused the Qixian iron hook of the Han Dynasty, which was referred to as the upper crossbow, which could greatly reduce the power. The five-stone single-handed crossbow appeared.

In fact, it just uses the name Dahuang Crossbow and has little to do with the Dahuang Crossbow of the Han Dynasty. Its broad back is more like the Divine Arm Crossbow of the Song Dynasty.

Even though it only has five stones, its killing range is as high as five hundred steps, which requires very high strength. There are definitely not many people who can fire five-stone crossbows alone. The Helong Army only has 3,000 people, which is called the Heavy Crossbow Army.

Of course, there are many types of crossbows, such as the standard infantry's split-piece crossbow, the cavalry's horn-bow crossbow, and the frontier's mountain-breaking crossbow, static crossbow, winch crossbow, two-bow crossbow, cart crossbow, etc.

The heavy crossbow soldiers of the Tang Army fired arrows like raindrops towards the other side. In the darkness, the Tibetan troops on the other side were caught off guard and fell down one after another. The other Tibetan soldiers quickly lay down to avoid the Tang Army's arrows.

Nan Jiyun shouted, "Let the bridge go!"

A hundred soldiers were put on the pontoon in advance. At the front were twenty heavy armored infantry lying on the pontoon. Behind them were 80 elite infantrymen led by Ying Yanglang general Xin Kuang, also lying on the pontoon. In addition, there were There were several craftsmen who were needed to fix the pontoon.

Xin Kuang is the second brother of Xin Yunjing. He performed well in the battle to defend Jincheng and was promoted to General Ying Yanglang. He is Nan Jiyun's right-hand man.

The soldier let go, and the pontoon immediately flowed toward the center of the river. The rafts of the pontoon were connected with long wooden rafts to ensure that the waist of the pontoon was very hard and would not be swept into an arc by the current, but would move closer to the opposite bank in a straight line.

The moment the pontoon bridge reached the other side, twenty heavy armored infantrymen jumped up and ran onto the other side. With a flash of cold light, they killed the dozen Tibetan soldiers who were blocking them and began to line up quickly.

At this time, several craftsmen pulled the rope tightly to stabilize the pontoon, and Xin Kuang also led eighty soldiers to get up and rush to the shore.

Thousands of Tibetan soldiers came like a tide and fought fiercely with hundreds of Tang troops.

Several craftsmen have fixed the pontoon bridge. On the pontoon bridge, thousands of Tang troops, led by Nan Jiyun, began to rush towards the other side.

Although a hundred Tang troops paid the price of more than 40 deaths, they finally withstood the crazy attack of thousands of Tibetan soldiers and saved the pontoon bridge from being destroyed by the Tibetan troops.

Soon, as more and more Tang troops joined the battle, the situation on the battlefield began to reverse rapidly, and the Tubo troops suffered heavy casualties.

Seeing that the situation was over, the Tubo commander shouted a few times and fled with the remaining hundreds of soldiers to the distant city of Da Dou.

"Woo——"

The Tang Army's horn sounded, and all the Tang Army's infantry, except the cavalry, began to line up to cross the river.