Immediately afterwards, Li Kuan shot a second arrow, hitting the upper right corner of the suspension bridge. As an iron chain flew up like a snake, the suspension bridge fell heavily and hit the other side of the moat, revealing the east city gate.
At this time, a violent explosion also occurred at the South City Gate, and a large hole about ten feet wide was blown out of the city wall.
"Prepare fire cannons!"
The Fire Thunder Cannon is a huge lying crossbow, specially used to throw stones, so it is called the Stone Cannon. It has high accuracy, but its range is not far. Now it is basically no longer used to throw stones. It is used to throw iron fire thunder, so it was renamed Fire Thunder. gun.
A heavy torpedo cannon rumbled forward, with dozens of soldiers on both sides holding large shields covering it. Several soldiers behind were pushing the torpedo cannon forward slowly.
The soldiers on the top of the city were already aware of the danger, and thousands of arrows rained down on the torpedo cannons.
Li Baochen was also anxious and shouted: "Pile big rocks at the city gate quickly!"
The soldiers couldn't find a large stone for a while, so they quickly piled hundreds of stones used to defend the city in the city gate cave. Each large stone weighed about fifty or sixty kilograms, and they were piled full in the city gate cave.
At this time, the torpedo cannon had arrived a hundred steps away from the city gate. The soldiers quickly adjusted to Wangshan, loaded a 30-pound nail mine into the projection port, and lit the match rope.
"emission!"
At the command of the captain, the fire cannon flew out, throwing a graceful line in the air, and with a sound of 'bang!', it hit the city gate and was firmly nailed to the city gate.
In just a moment, there was a loud "Boom!" and a big hole was blown open in the city gate, revealing the stones inside.
Immediately afterwards, another iron fire laser was shot out and exploded on the city gate again. The remaining city gate was blown to pieces, and all the gray-white rocks were exposed.
Guo Ziyi saw it clearly, and he immediately ordered: "Assemble ten thousand crossbowmen to suppress the city head, and use large iron fire thunder to blow open the city gate!"
General Chen Hua led 10,000 crossbowmen and charged forward, firing thousands of arrows. The dense arrows hit the top of the city. The soldiers on the top of the city had to squat down and were so suppressed that they could not lift their heads.
At this time, a carriage pulled an iron fire thunder weighing three hundred kilograms and rushed forward. Three soldiers held the iron fire thunder tightly in the carriage, and they were about to approach the city gate.
Li Baochen saw clearly and ordered: "Throw a hundred jars of fire oil down!"
The soldiers squatted on the ground and threw hundreds of clay pots outside the city gate. The kerosene splashed and flowed all over the ground. Then they threw down a few torches, the kerosene was ignited, and a raging fire suddenly broke out in front of the city gate. .
"Come in!"
The soldier driving the carriage stared with blood-red eyes, without any thought of stopping the carriage. He whipped the horses desperately, and the horses ran forward like crazy, neighed, rushed onto the drawbridge, and rushed directly into the fire.
The three soldiers jumped into the sea of fire holding the iron fire thunder. They were surrounded by fire under their feet and around them, and their bodies were also ignited by the fire. They were not afraid. They rushed up with the three hundred kilogram iron fire thunder and held the iron fire thunder tightly. On the big rock, at this moment, the match rope was completely ignited by the fierce flames and was about to explode. The three people remained motionless and pressed the iron fire thunder against the big rock.
"Boom!"
There was an earth-shattering explosion, and the three soldiers were blown into pieces, but the huge impact also ejected all the boulders, and the city wall dozens of feet long collapsed.
"Kill--"
General Ma Sui led 10,000 cavalry towards the collapsed city gate and rushed directly into the city through the gap.
Behind them, an army of 50,000 soldiers led by deputy general Ma Lin came towards the east city. Planks were also put up on both sides of the suspension bridge.
The vanguard cavalry took the lead in entering the city, followed by an army of 50,000 soldiers who also entered the county town.
As Guo Ziyi expected, the 20,000 defenders in the city were all loyal to Li Baochen. They refused to surrender, and the two sides launched a brutal street battle in Hejian County.
Fierce fighting broke out everywhere in Hejian City. The four city gates were wide open, and the Tang army continued to send ordinary people into the city in groups.
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This is also an effective means of street fighting. It can continuously send people out of the city and reduce the casualties of ordinary people to the greatest extent.
However, we often encounter enemy forces using ordinary people as hostages to threaten Tang soldiers. In this case, Tang soldiers will not be held hostage and will directly kill them. If the hostages can be saved, they will be saved. If they cannot be saved, they will be burned together.
The cruelty of street fighting lies here, so once a street fighting breaks out, ordinary people will suffer heavy casualties.
There are two strong points in Hejian County. One is Cangcheng, which has a four-foot-high city wall and a moat around it. Three thousand soldiers stand guard on the inner city.
Huben Zhonglang General Chen Hua led 10,000 soldiers to attack Cangcheng. Cangcheng had no gates, only a water gate for entry and exit.
The Tang army quickly found a countermeasure. Since Cangcheng was built according to the city, the other half of it was the city wall.
The soldiers rushed up to the city wall. Two thousand soldiers climbed down the rope ladder from the city wall, and another two thousand soldiers fired arrows at the three thousand defenders on the inner wall from behind.
Soon, the Tang army took control of the warehouse. A dozen soldiers drilled a hole in the inner city wall, stuffed an eighty-pound iron fire thunder into the hole, and lit the match.
Just for a moment, I heard an earth-shattering explosion, "Boom!"
The thin inner city wall collapsed, and more than a thousand soldiers fell, most of them buried by the city wall.
The Tang army tasted the sweetness and used the same move one after another. In a moment, there were four explosions in succession, and the entire inner city wall collapsed. Before the soldiers could get up, the Tang army fired a volley of arrows, cutting off their way of survival.
Another tough nut to crack was the Chengde Palace, which Ma Lin led 10,000 people to attack. The Chengde Palace covers an area of 200 acres and is located in the north of the city. Li Baochen and his family were hiding in the palace, guarded by 5,000 elite soldiers.
The security of the palace.
Ma Lin watched for a moment and then made a decisive decision: "Prepare the trebuchet to burn the palace!"
More than a hundred small trebuchets were brought in, and Tang Army soldiers also brought hundreds of jars of kerosene. Following Ma Lin's order, burning kerosene pots were thrown into the house one after another.
A raging fire started, and the fire quickly ignited the interior of the palace. As the second and third rounds of fire oil burned, the fire became more intense.
Thousands of soldiers fired gunpowder arrows together, and the gunpowder arrows were more flammable. With just one round of arrows, the entire mansion was engulfed in flames.
The five thousand soldiers never fought out. They chose to be loyal and live and die with the palace.
At this time, Li Baochen was dying. When the city gate exploded, he was buried by bricks and sand on the city. His right leg and spine were broken, and he was dug out of the sand by soldiers.
He could no longer move and could only wait for death to come.
The fire burned for a day and a night, and the royal palace covering an area of 200 acres was finally burned to a white ground. All five thousand soldiers, including Li Baochen, his wife and children, were burned to death, and no one survived.
The street fighting lasted until the next morning and finally ended.
All 20,000 German soldiers were killed. The Tang army did not accept prisoners of war, and all surrendered soldiers were executed.
In this street battle, the Tang army also paid a price of more than 6,000 casualties, and the number of civilians exceeded 10,000 in the morning.
After the war, Li Ye heavily rewarded four soldiers who died when they bombed the city gate. The soldiers who drove the carriage did not escape. Each of them was rewarded with a thousand taels of silver and gave it to their families.
At this time, news also came from Zhao County that 15,000 Zhao County defenders opened the city and surrendered.
Lei Wanchun and Li Sheng's 80,000 troops surrounded Zhao County. Xu Chongjun, the chief general of Zhao County, was killed by mutinous soldiers, and the entire army surrendered.
With the surrender of Zhao County, the two major vassal towns in Hebei, Tian Chengsi and Li Baochen, were destroyed one after another.
The Tang army's more than 200,000 troops continued to advance northward.
Two days later, more than 200,000 troops arrived at the Juma River and set up camp on the south bank of the Juma River.
