The Dangxiang people have a total of three armies, the Gyeongju Army, the Wonju Army and the Xiazhou Army, with an army of nearly 100,000 people.
According to Dang Xiang's plan and deployment, 30,000 Xiazhou troops were responsible for attacking Yanzhou and at the same time luring the main force of the Tang army to buy time for Dang Xiang's army to attack Lingzhou.
The two parties' Xiang armies totaled 70,000 people and attacked Lingzhou.
The two major leaders were Tak Chao-gwang, the leader of the Wonju party line, and Toba Qimei, the leader of the party line in Gyeongju.
Following the 70,000-strong army to Lingzhou were hundreds of thousands of party members.
They had long been prepared that if they turned against the Tang Dynasty and rebelled, they would all move north to Lingzhou.
Of course, there is a more practical problem. The Dangxiang army all went north to attack Lingzhou. Once the Tang army raided their lair from behind and captured all the Dangxiang people, the army would collapse without a fight.
Therefore, due to practical considerations, Dang Xiangjun also had to take his family members with him. At the same time, he also took away millions of sheep belonging to the Tang Army.
There are about 20,000 troops stationed in Shuofang, but they are relatively scattered. Among them, there are 5,000 troops stationed in Fengzhou in the north.
There are 12,000 people in Lingwu and 3,000 troops in Mingsha County.
The commander-in-chief of Shuofang was Xin Yunjing, but unfortunately, Xin Yunjing happened to be ill, and the army is currently led by deputy general Zhang Bingquan.
Zhang Bingquan is also an old lieutenant general who has cooperated with Xin Yunjing for many years. Although he is a lieutenant, his rank and title are very high. He is worshiped as the champion general, granted the title of Duke of Tao, and is on the same level as Xin Yungjing.
The attack by Dang Xiang's army came too suddenly, and the governor-general of Shuofang was caught off guard.
If they were prepared, they would move the people from Mingsha County to Lingwu County and then bring back the Fengzhou army, but they were not prepared for this. They were defending against the nomads from the northern grasslands.
But they never expected that the party members would stab them hard from behind.
Zhang Bingquan urgently asked for help from the imperial court, Hexi and Longyou, and organized troops to defend the city.
In order to seize Shuofang and found the country, the party members have been preparing for many years. They took advantage of the Anshi Rebellion to hoard a large number of weapons. At the same time, they purchased a large number of spare parts for siege weapons and assembled them secretly.
Therefore, the equipment of the Dangxiang army is not inferior to that of the Tang army. The only deficiency is firearms, but they have thousands of barrels of kerosene.
Only two hours after setting up camp, Dangxiang Army launched its first large-scale attack. Ten thousand troops rolled toward Lingwu City like a black tide, with a hundred siege ladders mixed in. This attack
The party's army did not go all out, and the trebuchets, nest vehicles and battering rams were not put into battle.
They are testing the reality of Lingwu City.
The party soldiers held their shields high, and the 10,000 charging soldiers held spears and sabers in their hands. Their morale was high. Behind them were 10,000 archers who were responsible for covering the formation. Amidst the heart-shaking drumbeat of "Boom! Boom! Boom!", they were all in a dark atmosphere.
They lined up to fight towards Lingwu City.
One siege ladder after another moved quickly among the crowd, with hundreds of people following behind each siege ladder. The drumsticks beat on the huge leather drum, making an earth-shattering sound, accompanied by waves.
With waves of shouts of killing, the party's army rose and fell like waves, with a huge momentum.
The Tang army temporarily dug three trenches one foot wide two miles away from the city, but these three trenches could not stop the party members. They put up thick wooden boards on the trenches, making the trenches immediately useless.
Still one mile away from the city wall, the sound of drums suddenly became intensive, and the ten thousand Dangxiang troops rushed towards the city wall with shouts. The defenders on the city wall watched the Dangxiang army nervously and expectantly, as if waiting for something to happen.
The twenty large trebuchets on the front city head began to creak and twist the thick ropes, the long projectile rods bent backwards, and the accumulated potential energy reached the extreme.
Outside the city was a piece of grass that was as deep as one's knees. The party's army rushed towards them. Thousands of people at the front suddenly shouted in fear. The grass was on fire and the fire spread rapidly.
I didn't take it to heart just now, but I soon realized something was wrong. The fire was so fierce that it surrounded and engulfed thousands of people.
The soldiers turned around and ran away. At this time, they stepped on the thorns of caltrops scattered in the grass. This kind of caltrops has four one-inch long spikes on it. When it is scattered on the ground, there will always be one spike pointing upward. The thorns are highly poisonous.
After being tempered, once stabbed, it can be disabled at least, or fatally at worst.
In addition to the iron caltrops, there is also a hidden horse-trapping hole. A three-inch long poisonous iron thorn is inserted upside down in the hole. Many party soldiers stepped into the hole, and the long spike pierced the insteps, attacking the party army.
Unprepared, more than a thousand people fell down, howling and crying, and mourning was everywhere. What was even more terrifying was that their legs began to turn black and swollen, and the pain was unbearable. After many people rolled and howled for a while, the poison attacked their hearts and died.
Fire, poisonous needles and iron sticks caused heavy casualties to thousands of soldiers.
But the other two thousand party troops had already rushed to a distance of two hundred steps from the city wall. They carried the siege ladder and rushed towards the city wall with all their strength.
At this moment, a strange sound came from the sky, like the sound of a flock of pigeons circling in the sky.
The Dangxiang soldiers looked up to the sky one after another, and saw small black dots appearing in the sky, whizzing towards their heads, getting closer and closer, and a panicked shout suddenly broke out among the Dangxiang army. It was actually a piece of
A black iron ball, they held their heads and ran away.
A large iron fire thunder weighing only about a hundred kilograms fell into the crowd and exploded. There were screams all around, and blood splashed everywhere. The nearest people were blown into pieces of flesh, and an iron fire thunder was killed and injured.
Dozens of people were injured, ranging from serious injuries to corpses. The party's army suffered heavy casualties. Immediately afterwards, a second wave of iron fire thunder roared in.
With firearms on their heads and murderous intentions lurking on the ground, the party's main army was only a mile away from the city, and more than 3,000 people were killed or injured. Tuoba Chaoguang saw that the situation was not good, and immediately ordered, "Retreat!"
Thousands of party troops retreated like a tide, and the Tang troops on the city cheered.
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The siege battle in Mingsha County was extremely fierce. The war started fiercely at night. Tuoba Qimei, the leader of Dangxiang Qingzhou, led a massive offensive of 20,000 Dangxiang troops. Mingsha County is not high and its defense capabilities are very weak. Once a war breaks out, Mingsha County's
People will go to Lingwu County to escape.
Therefore, Mingsha County did not have large-scale defensive weapons, nor kerosene and firearms. It never occurred to me that Mingsha County would be attacked.
This time the party members arrived so suddenly that thousands of people in Mingsha County had no time to move.
Siege ladders were built one after another on the top of the city, and the shouts of killing were loud. Twenty thousand soldiers of the party's Xiang Army climbed up the ladders, braving dense rain of arrows and rolling logs and rocks, fighting to the death to seize the city.
As long as they take Mingsha County, they will have the first foundation city, so they are bound to win Mingsha County.
Soldiers from the Tang Army kept screaming and falling from the ladders. A fierce battle was fought on the top of the city, with horizontal knives smashing into bones and blood dripping from the tips of spears. There were less than a thousand Tang Army soldiers left on the city, but they still resisted desperately.
All the men went to the city, and even women and old people went to the city to join the battle.
When daybreak was approaching, there were less than 500 defenders left on the city. They still resisted desperately and perished together with Dang Xiang's army.
At this time, the city gate was finally knocked open by the battering ram, thousands of party soldiers rushed in, and Mingsha County fell.
In the small town of Mingsha County, Dangxiang's army actually paid a price of nearly 5,000 people.
Tuoba Qimei became angry and ordered a massacre of the city, killing all the people in the city.
……….
At this time, the 10,000 Tang soldiers who came from the clouds also reached the Yellow River, about two hundred miles north of Lingwu County. They happened to encounter 50 Tang soldiers stationed in Minghe Town in the north of Lingwu County.
These Tang soldiers had no time to return to the city, so they had to retreat to Fengzhou.
The leader of this group of Tang troops was a school captain named Feng Kang. He was brought to Yunzhong General Lu Yanming.
Huben General Lu Yan was originally called Lu Ye. To avoid taboos, he changed the word Ye in his name to Yan. This was his mother's name, so it sounded a bit feminine.
Feng Kang stepped forward, knelt down on one knee and clasped his fists, saying: "Feng Kang, a humble official, meets General Lu!"
Lu Yan nodded, "Thank you Captain Feng for your hard work. How is the situation in Lingzhou?"
"Reporting to the general, an army of 60,000 to 70,000 soldiers came to attack Lingzhou. We were caught off guard. I and my subordinates had no chance to return to the county seat, so they had to flee north."
"You are stationed outside the city, what are you responsible for?"
"Report to the general, we will protect thousands of acres of melon fields and hunt wild boars!"
Lu Yan chuckled, "I understand, I want to know where the enemy's logistics are?"
"The enemy's logistics came from the east. I heard some herdsmen who fled from the east said that there were hundreds of thousands of party members staying on the central grassland, and there were millions of sheep."
Lu Yan's heart moved. His army of 10,000 people might not be able to deal with the 60,000 to 70,000 Dangxiang troops, but he could completely cut off the Dangxiang army's logistics, or hijack the Dangxiang people and move south.
Thinking of this, he immediately said: "You lead us to the central grassland!"
"I humbly obey orders!"
The 10,000 Tang troops immediately turned their horses and rushed towards the central grassland a hundred miles west of Lingwu County.