At dawn the next day, the rumble of war drums sounded outside the city. The tranquility of the morning was broken. Teams of Tang troops rushed to the top of the city. The top of the city was already filled with Tang soldiers. Everyone stood on their own.
In the position, bows and arrows are drawn, and the formation is ready.
Craftsmen also built more than fifty medium-sized trebuchets at the top of the city. This is a very simple trebuchet that can throw fifty kilograms of iron fire mines 150 steps away. Although it has poor accuracy, it is
Accuracy is also not required for dense crowds.
Twenty thousand Tibetan troops were already lined up, waiting for the final siege order. They were arranged into two large square formations. The dark soldiers held daggers and shields and were filled with murderous intent.
Huichuan City is actually not difficult to attack. It had a moat in the early days, but it was later filled in by the Tibetan army. Only two rivers flowed out from Shuicheng Gate.
Of course, the Tubo army made it easier for them to attack the city. The Tang army occupied Huichuan City twice, but in the end it was captured by the Tubo army, cutting off the Tang army's supply and retreat.
The Tubo army and the Nanzhao army cooperated well. Once the Tang army attacked, the Nanzhao army would retreat with only a slight resistance, and then surrender Sichuan City to the Tang army. When the Tang army entered the hinterland of Nanzhao, the Tubo army would kill them with swords.
out.
The city is not very high, only about three feet, which is equivalent to a three-story building. The Tibetan army can quickly attack it by climbing the siege ladder.
"Woo--Woo--"
A deep horn sounded, and ten thousand Tibetan soldiers shouted in unison, holding their shields high and charging toward the west wall like a tide.
Qu Huan ordered coldly: "Shoot!"
On the top of the city, ten thousand soldiers fired arrows at the bottom of the city. The overwhelming arrows shot at the crowd like a tide. The arrows were so sharp that even shields could not stop the crossbow arrows falling from the sky. The shields were shot through one after another, and pieces of Tibetan soldiers were killed.
Shot down, thousands of soldiers were lost in the first round of arrows.
But they still couldn't stop the running steps of the Tibetan soldiers. At this time, the trumpet sounded again, and the second phalanx also ran and fought towards the west wall.
This is the characteristic of the Tubo army. They put in a high density of soldiers at one time, and they were all fearless of death. Even if they suffered heavy casualties, they could still attack the city and seize it.
They actually sacrificed a large number of soldiers in exchange for victory.
The nomadic cavalry cannot do this. As long as more than 30 of them are killed, the nomadic cavalry will collapse.
But if the Tibetan army did not blow the retreat horn, whoever dared to retreat without authorization would not only be executed personally, but his whole family would also be implicated and become slaves.
On the contrary, if a soldier is killed in battle, the whole family will receive various benefits.
It was this joint severe punishment and incentive mechanism that contributed to the Tibetan army's fighting style of fighting to the death, which brought huge pressure on the Tang army and the court for hundreds of years. By the end of the Tang Dynasty, the Tang Dynasty was always suppressed by the Tibetans, and even the capital Chang'an was suppressed by the Tibetans.
The army fell, and the entire Longyou, Hexi, and Anxi were returned to Tubo.
Until the end of the Tang Dynasty, with the arrival of the Little Ice Age, the climate became colder, the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau turned into a frozen world, various resources decreased sharply, and internal competition became fierce. Tubo began to decline, and the Tang Dynasty also perished.
At this time, the Tang army on the top of the city also saw this terrifying scene with their own eyes. A dense crowd rushed towards the city, and dense arrows were fired, but it seemed to have no effect.
Qu Huan calmly ordered: "The trebuchet is launched, and the kerosene is thrown in advance!"
The trebuchet opened with a creak, and more than fifty black iron fire mines were thrown into the crowd. They exploded one after another in the crowd. The iron fire mines were extremely lethal. When one iron fire mine exploded, dozens of people were killed.
A Tibetan soldier was blown to pieces, and dense pieces of poisoned iron fragments were shot around. Dozens more soldiers were hit by the fragments, causing screams and wails.
Countless soldiers were frightened. Is this the wrath of God descending on the world?
The Tibetan leader Qi Zang Zhezhe had been watching the battle from behind. He suddenly saw black objects thrown from the top of the city exploding violently in the crowd, like thunder falling from the sky. Qi Zang Zhezhe was shocked.
But he was surprised, and he was worried that the soldiers would run away in fear, so he shouted loudly: "Bang the drum of attack!"
"Boom! Boom! Boom!"
Fierce war drums beat, urging the army to attack.
The frightened Tibetan soldiers heard the sound of the war drums and had to muster up the courage to continue the attack. Even if many soldiers were hit by quenched iron pieces, they could not retreat and had to endure the pain to continue the attack.
The first round of iron fire mines killed more than 2,000 Tibetan soldiers, but for the 20,000 troops, the death rate only accounted for 10%, and the impact was not significant.
However, the Tang army's iron fire thunder was not limited to one round. The second and third rounds of fire thunder exploded in the crowd. The Tibetan soldiers suffered extremely heavy casualties, with the cumulative casualties exceeding 6,000.
At the same time, the Tang army had poured thousands of barrels of kerosene under the city, turning the entire city into black mud.
The Tibetan soldiers rushed to the bottom of the city, and siege ladders were set up on the top of the city. The soldiers jumped on the ladders, shouting and killed towards the top of the city.
"Throw fuel!"
Following Qu Huan's order, thousands of soldiers threw lit kerosene cans at the Tibetan soldiers who were climbing the siege ladder.
Burning kerosene poured on the Tibetan soldiers, and the few soldiers climbing at the front were set on fire. They screamed and jumped downwards, and the siege ladder turned into a fire ladder.
At this time, the ground beneath the feet of the nearly 10,000 Tibetan soldiers under the city burst into flames, and the kerosene poured in advance began to burn rapidly. At five o'clock in the morning, the Tang army poured 2,000 barrels of kerosene in advance and covered it with a thin layer of soil.
So once it burns, not only the city walls, but also those within a hundred steps from the city walls will burn.
The Tang army then threw thousands of bundles of dry straw down, and the city suddenly turned into a sea of fire.
More than 10,000 Tibetan soldiers were trapped in the sea of fire, crying and screaming in fear and running back. The Tang army soldiers on top of the city fired thousands of arrows. Without their shields to protect themselves, the Tubo soldiers fell to the ground one by one after being hit by arrows.
, the fire quickly engulfed them.
"Retreat the troops! Retreat the troops!"
The Tubo Lord shouted anxiously to cover up the beggars.
"Dang! Dang! Dang! Dang!" The retreat bell rang quickly.
Thousands of Tibetan soldiers who had not yet attacked turned around and fled for their lives.
The siege battle had just begun, and the Tang army used powerful firearms to give the Tibetan soldiers a head-on attack. Twenty thousand people attacked, but only more than 3,400 people retreated. The remaining more than 16,000 people were all killed in the rain of arrows and explosions.
and in the fire.
Qizang Zhezhe was completely shocked. This was something he had never encountered in more than 20 years of leading troops. The Tang army could actually kill nearly 20,000 of his soldiers in such a short period of time.
He was frightened to death. If he attacked the city again, all his remaining 30,000 soldiers would be completely dead.
Since it was no longer possible to attack the city, Qi Zang Zhe Zhe did not hesitate to order the entire army to retreat back to Jianchuan. The life and death of Nanzhao had nothing to do with him. He had to keep the remaining 30,000 troops, otherwise Zan Pu would never spare him.
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Qizangzhezhe gave the order to withdraw, and the Tibetan soldiers were so frightened that they did not even bother to clean up their tents, so they turned around and fled towards Jianchuan Prefecture.
Not long after, a Tang Army scout came galloping on horseback from the city. He passed through the charred corpses and suffered from the stench. He rushed to the city and shouted: "We have military information to report to Governor Qu!"
Qu Huan was at the top of the city. He poked his head and asked, "What's going on?"
"Report to General, the Tibetan army has retreated!"
"Where to retreat?"
"Towards Jianchuan!"
Lieutenant General Liu Jing whispered: "Is the retreat of the Tubo army a fraud?"
Qu Huan pondered for a moment and said: "The enemy is already frightened. There is little possibility of fraud. But regardless of whether there is fraud or not, I will send troops to pursue you. You are responsible for cleaning up the corpses outside the city and guarding the city strictly!"
"I humbly obey orders!"
Qu Huan immediately led an army of 10,000 people and carried a large number of kerosene and firearms to pursue the direction of Tubo's retreat.
Qu Huan had already sent two thousand troops to ambush in front of the dangerous mountain road. If the two thousand soldiers could withstand it, it would really be possible to annihilate the Tibetan army this time.