Fire and smoke can be used both offensively and defensively.
The militia soldiers also cut down a large number of trees and branches, especially pine branches, and piled them into the valley path more than ten feet long. They also sprinkled lamp oil and flammable dead branches. A dozen torches were thrown in, and the branches slowly burned.
The militia soldiers also moved a large blower. This was a blacksmith who was reluctant to discard it and put it on a cart along the way, so he put it to good use.
A pull-out blower blows air from the bottom, causing the fire to burn fiercely and thick smoke billowing into the valley.
Li Ye immediately ordered the civilians to build fortifications at the mouth of the valley. They used mud and sand bags to form a circle of mud bag walls, about one foot high. Dozens of soldiers with crossbows were arranged on them to shoot and kill the enemy soldiers who put out the fire.
A soldier is responsible for adding branches and wood.
County Magistrate Wei walked forward worriedly and asked Li Ye in a low voice: "Captain Li, will this be useful?"
Li Ye said solemnly: "Whether it's useful or not, this is our last ditch effort. It's not so much about defense as it is about delaying time. This place is less than a hundred miles away from Xiaoguan, and reinforcements should arrive tonight anyway."
"What if... what if reinforcements don't come?"
Li Ye was silent for a while and said: "If the reinforcements really can't come, then let history write this page with rich colors!"
Magistrate Wei nodded helplessly, "I hope Jiren will have good weather!"
Having said that, Li Ye would never be willing to reach the desperate situation. He could lead his soldiers to climb the mountain and escape, but what about tens of thousands of people?
Li Ye could not accept such a result. He wanted to save himself and tried every means to save himself. He could not place his hope on reinforcements.
Li Ye took Yang Li and a dozen soldiers on horseback and walked slowly among tens of thousands of people. They were looking for items useful for defense. It was Yang Li who discovered the blower.
"General!"
A businessman stepped forward and saluted Li Ye and said, "Young man, some of my goods may be useful!"
"What goods do you have?"
"The villain's cargo contains three hundred kilograms of sulfur powder!"
This is a good thing to fuel combustion, and it is most urgently needed now. Li Ye nodded and said to the two soldiers: "Go and carry it, and then record it!"
Li Ye cupped his fists at the businessman and said, "Thank you sir, we will make up for it in the future!"
The businessman waved his hand, "If you have money, give money, and if you have strength, give it. It's not worth much, just think I'll do my best!"
"Thank you!"
Li Ye was really happy that he could meet something good.
He took Yang Li to the lakeside and saw several children gathering together to fight grass. Li Ye's eyes fell on the head of a young lady with a flower on her head. When he saw the flower clearly, Li Ye
Ye's body shook violently.
"Oleander flowers!"
He quickly got off his horse, walked forward and said with a smile: "Can I ask you something?"
Li Ye was covered in blood and exuded the pungent smell of blood, which frightened several children. They turned and ran away. Li Ye grabbed the little lady's wrist and said, "Wait a minute!"
The little lady was so frightened that she started to cry. Li Ye quickly said: "Don't cry. I am a soldier who protects you. Didn't your parents tell you?"
The young lady sobbed and said, "What are you going to do?"
Li Ye picked the flowers off her head and asked, "Where did you pick this flower? Tell me and I'll give you money!"
He took out a handful of copper coins and put them into the little lady's hands.
The young lady held the money and pointed to the distance in the southwest, "Over there, at the foot of the mountain!"
"Are there many?"
The little lady nodded, Li Ye let go of her and smiled: "Go back! Thank you."
The young lady turned around and ran away. Li Ye crushed the flowers and threw them away. He got on his horse and smiled at Yang Li: "We are about to find a top-secret weapon, follow me!"
As soon as he spurred his horse on, he galloped towards the direction the lady had just pointed. Yang Li quickly followed with a few soldiers.
After running for several miles, they arrived at the foot of the mountain. Sure enough, they saw a large number of plants scattered at the foot of the mountain, full of clusters of white and red flowers.
Li Ye recognized it at a glance as an oleander, a famous poisonous plant.
"Captain, this is a willow-leaf peach tree! There are many of them in our hometown, they are very common!"
"Do you know what it's for?"
Yang Li shook his head, and Li Ye looked at several other soldiers. Several soldiers also shook their heads. It seemed that the people of the Tang Dynasty didn't know how powerful it was.
"This is a poisonous weed. Both the flowers and leaves are poisonous. Seven leaves can kill an adult. It will produce poisonous smoke when burned. It is our defensive weapon."
Yang Li was overjoyed and said: "Bizhi will immediately bring people to chop down as much as possible!"
"Go! Be careful, don't eat it by mistake!"
"Please rest assured, Captain!"
Yang Li urged his horse to look for people. After a while, he led a hundred people to the foot of the mountain and began to cut down a large number of oleanders.
Both sides set fire to smoke at the same time, and the whole valley was filled with thick smoke. The Tongluo soldiers could not stay any longer and fled out of the valley one after another.
It was already dusk in the afternoon. Seeing that Dinte's troops were still unable to attack, Nagus lost patience, withdrew Dinte's troops and personally led a thousand soldiers to take over the attack.
Nagus observed for a moment and said: "Give me the order to fill all the water bags with water!"
There was a small stream at the foot of the mountain. Soon, thousands of water bags were filled with clean water and delivered to the mouth of the valley.
Nagus ordered dozens of soldiers to cover their mouths and noses with wet cloths, and then sent water bags in to put out their own fires first.
Soon, the fire burning at the entrance of the narrow valley was extinguished by a large amount of water, and the soldiers sprayed water in the air again, reducing the thick smoke.
Nagus was greatly refreshed and ordered: "The three groups of soldiers continue to extinguish the Tang army's fire!"
More than 300 soldiers carried water bags on their backs and covered their mouths and noses with wet cloths as they headed into the canyon. The long canyon was still filled with thick smoke and they could not see their fingers. The rebel soldiers held their breath and walked slowly.
Climbing up the wooden ladder, I climbed over a mud bag wall and walked more than 60 steps. As I approached the second mud bag wall, the black smoke in the canyon became more intense. Suddenly, dozens of soldiers walking in front fell down.
The soldiers behind also felt dizzy and their legs were weak. They turned around and struggled to escape back, but after only taking a few steps, they all fell to the ground.
"The smoke is poisonous!"
One soldier shouted in fear. His vision went dark and he fell softly. The soldiers behind him felt something was wrong and were so frightened that they ran away.
Many people ran a few steps and fell down.
Oleander is very toxic, and seven leaves can kill an adult. At this time, the smoke in the narrow valley contains a lot of poisonous smoke.
In Nagus's first attack, more than 150 people were poisoned and fell down, and eventually they all died of suffocation.
When Nagus heard that Tang Jun had used poisonous smoke, he was so shocked that he was speechless for a while.
He was not afraid of anything else, but poisonous smoke was hard to guard against. He could not defend himself against the poisonous smoke in the valley of more than a hundred steps, and even the number of soldiers he had was not enough to fill the gap.
Nagus turned back and asked: "How much dry food do we still have?"
"Report to the chief, the dry food can still last for two days!"
Nagos calculated in his mind that he must win it before noon tomorrow, otherwise it would be dangerous.
But the Tang army had poisonous smoke, so how could he attack?
There were no gas masks in the Tang Dynasty. The only way Nagus could think of was to block his mouth and nose with a wet towel. But he did the same thing just now and still poisoned more than 150 people. Others showed signs of poisoning. One
He was dizzy, his limbs were weak, and his heart was beating violently.
No matter how unwilling Nagus was, he had no choice but to think that the main force of the Tang army would arrive soon, and any further delay would be extremely detrimental to them, so he could only wait until later to take revenge.
He immediately ordered: "Send the entire army to retreat back to Mingsha County!"
Three thousand Tongluo cavalry came in pursuit and killed more than 600 people. In the end, they failed. The remaining 2,400 Tongluo cavalry had to give up the attack and turned around and returned to Mingsha County.
Oleander was introduced from India in the Tang Dynasty, so it should not be available in Shuofang. Lao Gao has a golden finger here.