The 50,000-strong army marched with overwhelming force. The Han people jumped for joy and supported the arrival of the imperial army. Nanzhao officials and people fled in despair.
That morning, the Tang army was less than fifty miles away from Huichuan Mansion.
At this time, Li Sheng had received information from the scouts from many sources that there were about 20,000 troops in Huichuan Mansion, among which there were about 3,000 or 4,000 Tibetan troops.
Li Sheng also received detailed information about the city. Huichuan City was built by the Tang Dynasty to defend Nanzhao. Nanzhao renovated it ten years ago. The city is tall and solid, easy to defend and difficult to attack. The moat alone is ten feet wide.
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However, the county town is not big, and the houses in the county town are very dense.
Basically 90% of the people in the city were from Nanzhao. Tang Dynasty people fled and died, and the remaining Tang Dynasty buildings were basically eradicated and replaced with Nanzhao people's residential style.
Li Sheng had seen a lot of Nanzhao people's architectural style along the way. They were on both sides of the official road. They were basically bamboo-wood structure elevated houses. They looked very simple and comfortable, had good ventilation, and were relatively cool, but this kind of building
There is one thing I fear most, and that is fire.
Li Sheng already had a battle plan, and he immediately ordered the troops to rest where they were and set up a marching tent.
Li Sheng immediately sent someone to invite his deputy general Qu Huan. Not long after, Qu Huan rushed to the marching tent, bowed and saluted: "General, are you looking for me?"
Li Sheng nodded and pointed to the sand table in the marching tent: "We are still fifty miles away from Huichuan County. Once the enemy troops evacuate, the Tubo army will inevitably withdraw along this official road to Jianchuan Prefecture. The general can lead his 10,000 troops
If the army intercepts and kills you in the middle of the road, be sure to use the whole army and leave no prisoners of war!"
"I humbly obey orders!"
Qu Huan took the military order, and Li Sheng said to General Han Qiu: "The enemy army is defeated and will inevitably flee to the river to cross the river. The general can lead five thousand cavalry to the river bank to clean up and join the army. Once the enemy army is defeated, you
Immediately go north to intercept them, and I will chase them from behind.
"Follow the order!"
Han Qiu also took a detour with five thousand cavalry to go ahead. Li Sheng immediately ordered the army to set off again and attack Huichuan Mansion in a mighty manner.
This time Li Sheng led an army of 50,000 people and went south, along with 20,000 camels.
There were 20,000 cavalry and 30,000 infantry in the 50,000-strong army. Qu Huan took away 10,000 infantry, Han Qiu took away 5,000 cavalry, and Li Sheng still had 20,000 infantry and 15,000 cavalry.
That night, the army arrived at Huichuan City.
The governor of Huichuan was Minao Luodong, the second grandson of Ge Luofeng. He was also the instigator of the attack on the Tang Dynasty prospecting team.
Minato Luodong was about twenty-five or six years old. He saw that the Tang Dynasty was weak, incompetent, and infighting. In addition, he was the grandson of a prince, which gradually developed his extremely arrogant character.
He despised the Tang army from the bottom of his heart, so when he got the news that 50,000 Tang troops were coming south to fight, he didn't care at all.
Yin Qiukuan, an official of the Qing Dynasty, advised him to withdraw his troops and civilians to the south of Lushui, but he arrogantly said: "I have a strong city and ten thousand archers like tigers. What does the Tang army have? He can attack a field ten feet wide.
moat?"
He flatly rejected the suggestion that he withdraw his troops, but after Yin Qiukuan's repeated requests, he finally agreed to evacuate the people. Without the people, he could throw off his arms and fight the Tang army.
For several days, tens of thousands of people in Huichuan City were evacuated to the south of Lu River. The city gradually became empty, leaving only more than 10,000 people who did not want to retreat, 17,000 Nanzhao troops and 3,000 Tubo troops.
The leader of the Tubo army was called Lund Deling, who was the lieutenant of the Tibetan governor of Jianchuan. He led 3,000 men to cooperate with the Nanzhao army to guard Huichuan.
So when Yin Qiukuan persuaded Couo Luodong to retreat, Lun Deling encouraged Couo Luodong to fight against the Tang army behind his back.
His one sentence surpassed the hundreds of words Yin Qiukuan tried hard to persuade.
"The reason why Your Majesty looks down upon Shijun is because Shijun has not yet made any military achievements. If you flee without fighting, what will Your Majesty think? What will the Nanzhao army and people think?"
This sentence made Cou Luodong determined to fight the Tang army to the end.
Under the bright moonlight, 35,000 Tang troops arrived three miles outside Huichuan City.
This time, the Tang army did not carry any large-scale siege equipment. They only carried two large trebuchets, which were dismantled and carried and reassembled temporarily during the siege.
Li Sheng stood on a high place and looked at Huichuan City not far away. The city wall was indeed tall and strong, but so what?
There are densely packed bamboo and wooden houses in the city, and the night wind is strong, which is a good opportunity for fire attack.
He immediately ordered: "There are five thousand heavy crossbowmen ready to go to war!"
The 5,000-heavy crossbowman carried 2,500 large yellow crossbows, preparing to use them to shoot arrows and thunder. However, Li Sheng did not plan to use fire thunder to attack Huichuan City, so as not to alarm the enemy. He planned to use gunpowder arrows to set fire to Huichuan County.
The Dahuang Crossbow is a seven-stone heavy crossbow that cannot be pulled open by one person. Two people must lie down and use pedals to wind it up. It can shoot a three-foot heavy arrow to a distance of 700 steps. It is an out-and-out killer weapon.
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It is about two hundred steps away from the city, which is a safe distance. The farthest distance of Nanzhao's bow and arrow is only about one hundred and fifty steps.
The five thousand cavalry were divided into five rows, with five hundred men in each row, working in groups of two. They had been training in Jiazhou for more than a month and were already very good at it.
Each group of heavy crossbow soldiers of the Tang Army lit up the fire rods and stuck them on the ground. The burning time of each fire rod allowed them to shoot five arrows, which was enough.
The Tang army made arrangements as soon as they arrived, and the defenders on the city were also panicked. Twenty thousand troops went to the city to defend themselves, nervously looking at the Tang army two hundred steps away.
Minato Luodong stared at the Tang army below. The opponent was beyond the range of his bow and arrow, which was difficult to deal with, but what were they doing?
Liu Shaluo, the general of the Nanzhao army, whispered: "Your Highness, this should be a heavy arrow from the Tang army. It has a very long range. Their target is not us, but the county town!"
Minato Luodong was shocked and quickly turned around to look into the city. He immediately ordered: "All the people should evacuate to the south!"
But it was too late. As soon as his order was issued, the Tang army began to launch.
One by one, the soldiers lit the match ropes with fire sticks, and 2,500 heavy gunpowder arrows were fired at the same time.
The flaming arrows shot up into the sky like a rapid rain, quickly passed over the city head, and shot into the city overwhelmingly. The tops of Nanzhao people's houses were covered with hay, which were ignited by gunpowder arrows and began to burn rapidly.
The biggest advantage of gunpowder arrows is arson, flame spray, long burning time, and can easily ignite bamboo wood.
Minato Luodong's eyes widened. It turned out that a rocket flew into the city. This was something they never expected. The Tang army actually used rockets.
Immediately afterwards, a second round of 2,500 gunpowder arrows roared in, igniting more bamboo and wooden buildings again, and the entire northern part of the county burned. The people of Nanzhao who had not evacuated were so frightened that they fled southward.
But the fire took advantage of the wind, and ignited thatch was flying everywhere. More and more bamboo and wooden houses were ignited, and the fire had already burned half of the county seat.
Then the third, fourth, and fifth rounds of gunpowder arrows were shot out one after another. The whole city was in flames and smoke billowing into the sky.
All the soldiers on the city were stunned and at a loss. Suddenly someone shouted, "The warehouse has been set on fire!"
Minato Luodong was so anxious that he stamped his feet and shouted: "Go put out the fire quickly, we must keep the army rations!"
Countless Nanzhao soldiers rushed towards the warehouse. At this moment, a soldier came to report, "Your Highness, the Tibetan army has retreated through the west gate!"
Minato Luodong was shocked for a moment. In the morning, he had vowed to fight together, but now he abandoned him and ran away. At this moment, Minato Luodong's heart felt completely cold.
General Liu Shaluo said anxiously: "Your Highness, the Tang army has not been fully deployed yet, so the Tubo people seized the opportunity and ran away. Let's retreat quickly! It will be too late by the time the Tang army is deployed."
Minato Luodong took another look at the warehouse. The warehouse had been engulfed in fire and there was no way to save it. Without military rations, they could not survive for three days.
Looking inside the city again, the Tang army fired five rounds of rockets. The entire Huichuan City was a sea of fire. Tens of thousands of people were crying at the south gate, asking for the door to be opened to escape.
"Your Highness, give the order to withdraw!" all the generals shouted together.
Luo Dong's heart was bleeding, so he could only sigh and said, "Open the east gate and order the entire army to retreat!"
The south city gate opened, and tens of thousands of people fled out of the city. The east city gate also opened, and 17,000 troops retreated in panic.
Li Sheng had already received the news that he didn't care about the Tubo army, and there were loopholes to deal with them.
He immediately ordered: "Send fifteen thousand cavalry to pursue and kill without mercy!"
The Tang army's 15,000 cavalry launched and chased southward at high speed under the bright moonlight. The Nanzhao soldiers were immediately in chaos and scrambled to escape.
But they couldn't outrun the cavalry of the Tang Army, and were quickly overtaken by the cavalry. The cavalry of the Tang Army killed them all the way without mercy, and did not accept surrender. They all were killed without mercy. Corpses were everywhere on the ground, and rivers of blood flowed. Many Nanzhao people fled.
He also died in the rebellion.
Cou Luodong was frightened and had no fighting spirit. Dozens of cavalry guards protected him and ran all the way. At dawn, they gradually arrived at Lushui. Suddenly, a soldier escaping from Lushui shouted, "Your Highness, to the south
There were cavalry from the Tang Army, and all two thousand soldiers at the ferry were killed!"
Minato Luodong was immediately frightened to death. Seeing the yellow dust billowing from the south, an army was coming. The leader of the soldiers immediately made a decision. He immediately divided his troops into two groups, and with most of the soldiers surrounding the fake prince, fled towards the east path.
go.
And Luo Dong and several soldiers took off their armor and fled to a nearby village. He was betting that the Tang army would not burn, kill and loot, so he could escape this disaster.
