Chapter four hundred and twentieth fierce battle in Taiyuan
Al-Khwarizmi became famous for his work "Shu Dao", which introduced Indian numerals to Persia.
In order to accurately measure the stars, directions and time so that believers can worship in the exact direction at the exact time, Khwarizmi expanded the scope of the stars that have been passed down for hundreds of years.
In order to observe the starry sky, Khwarazmi also invented the quadrant and the sine and cosine numbers for calculating stars.
The trebuchet manufactured on the basis of this theory is larger, has a longer range, and has a more accurate projection.
Sun Fu has been good at making various tomb-robbing tools since he was a child, and he has always been fond of all kinds of ingenious craftsmanship. After becoming a rich man, his interest has not diminished, and he still collects design drawings for various equipment manufacturing.
At that time, Bai Fu and others found several parchment scrolls of Khwarizmi from the "Zhuanlunzang" of Prince Yin's residence, one of which was about the manufacture of instruments.
As a reward for assisting the Persian princess in her treasure hunt, Poniadi allowed the Sun brothers to copy the volume and help them translate the Persian text into Chinese.
When he came to Li Guangbi's army, the drawings of these siege equipment immediately came into use. Sun Fu selected several equipment suitable for the defense of Taiyuan City and ordered the carpenters of the Ordnance Department to work day and night.
…
The elusive Tang army in the tunnels and the extremely powerful trebuchets made the generals of the Yan army fearful of fighting.
Cai Xide said to Shi Siming: "Commander, today Taiyuan City is strong and sharp. If we attack by force, even if we capture Taiyuan, our army's losses will definitely be considerable. It is better to besiege the city."
Taiyuan City is isolated in the Central Plains. Hundreds of miles outside the city are all under the control of our Yan army. There are no reinforcements and there are no cities that can provide food and grass supplies to Taiyuan.
Not counting the civilians in the city, there are nearly 10,000 soldiers of the Tang Army alone. Every day people eat and feed horses, which consumes a lot of food. As long as the siege of the city is tight enough, there will always be a day when the food and grass are exhausted."
Shi Siming followed Cai Xide's suggestion, changed his strategy, and relied on nearly ten times the force to surround Taiyuan City tightly.
Sure enough, not long after, Tang Jun could no longer hold on and could only survive on bark and grass roots.
Cai Xide offered another idea and said: "Commander, Li Guangbi is also a Khitan Hu, and his ancestral home is Liucheng, Yingzhou. Speaking of which, he is a fellow villager with you and Your Majesty. He has no reason to sacrifice his life for Li Longji and the Han people.
The elm leaves in Guancheng are turning yellow early, and the clouds and sand are an ancient battlefield at dusk.
Please return to the army to cover your bones. Do not teach the soldiers to cry for help.
——"Seven Poems on the Military March" by Wang Changling
…
"A mountain of dirt!"
Shi Siming was so angry that he ordered thousands of soldiers to leave the camp and build mountains of earth.
Building mountains to siege a city is a cumbersome and time-consuming method. But other than that, there is no other way to siege a city.
Shi Siming imagined that opposite the city wall, outside the range of bows and arrows, a large earth slope higher than the city wall could be piled up, and a defensive shield could be easily built on it.
Engineers dug up the sand from the far side of the city every day and filled it to the near side of the city. At the same time, they sent archers from a high position to suppress the archers on the opposite side of the city, and used giant shields to cover the engineers, so that the mounds of soil gradually moved toward the city wall.
With the strength of the three armies, the amount of work required to move a mound is not very large, and the casualties will be much smaller than siege methods such as ladders.
Once the mound of earth is pushed to the city wall, it is equivalent to building a slant bridge on the city wall, and the city's destruction is just around the corner.
There are always people who better than you.
Just listen to the roar of the wind, several huge rocks were thrown high from the Taiyuan city tower, and they hit the engineers of the Yan Army who were building the earth mountain. Taiyuan is rich in stone, and these huge rocks are extremely hard and sharp-edged. If they hit the military formation, no giant shield will work.
.Each boulder thrown could kill twenty or thirty Yan soldiers.
Even the rams wrapped in wet cowhide, wooden curtains, and siege engines with battering rams could not withstand the attack of boulders and were smashed to pieces.
Once the huge boulder came out, it was invincible. Whether it was the Yan army attacking the city or the engineers building the earth mountain, the number of soldiers killed by the stone accounted for 20% to 30% of the army formation.
The Yan army suffered heavy casualties and was unable to fight anymore.
Shi Siming had no choice but to withdraw his troops and ordered the army to retreat until they were beyond the range of the boulder before they dared to set up camp.
…
It turned out that in the process of preparing for the war, the Sun brothers led the carpenters of the ordnance station to make a giant trebuchet - the Dacheng. This trebuchet was quite different from the trebuchets in the Central Plains.
The design drawings of the trebuchet come from the chief elder of the Persian Wisdom Palace, Khwarizmi.
Now that the Tang army is short of food and grass, it is a good time to send someone to persuade Li Guangbi to surrender."
Shi Siming nodded, deeply convinced.
As Cai Xide expected, Li Guangbi was indeed willing to contact him. The Tang army immediately sent people to negotiate with Shi Siming to discuss the terms of surrender.
The Tang army hoped that Shi Siming would lead his troops into Taiyuan City and surrender within the city; while the Yan army hoped that Li Guangbi would lead his troops out of the city and surrender their weapons at the Yan army camp.
While listening to the exchanges between the negotiators from both sides, Shi Siming kept twirling the rat whiskers with his fingers, and his gray-yellow eyes rolled around.
After the Tang army envoy left, Shi Siming summoned the generals to discuss it to see if there was any fraud. Everyone had different opinions and did not agree on the same.
It is a fact that the Tang army in the city is short of food and grass. But Li Guangbi has always been cunning, and no one can say whether he was deceitful or not.
Cai Xide whispered a few words into Shi Siming's ear, and Shi Siming was overjoyed.
Calling the Tang Army's envoy into the tent again, Shi Siming said to the Tang Army's envoy: "In order to ensure the sincerity of the Tang Army's surrender, the Yan Army will send a team of 100 people into the city to supervise the Tang Army's destruction of trebuchets and other large defensive equipment.
After the city defense equipment is destroyed, the Tang army can leave half of the soldiers in the city and the other half leave the city to surrender.
All the bows, crossbows and horses of the Tang army must be handed over to the Yan army, and they will be carried to the Yan army's camp by the Tang army who surrendered out of the city."
Li Guangbi finally agreed to Shi Siming's harsh conditions, and the two sides quickly reached an agreement on the specific details and agreed on a date for the Tang army to leave the city and surrender.
After the two sides reached an agreement, Yan Jun also relaxed his vigilance.
On the appointed day, the gates of Taiyuan City were opened.
A usually prudent Yan army general entered the city with a hundred engineers and supervised the Tang army's destruction of large-scale city defense equipment such as trebuchets.
As expected, Li Guangbi did not break his promise. In front of the officers and soldiers of the Yan army, he ordered people to pour kerosene on the dozens of giant trebuchets at the top of the city.
, turned into ashes.
Thick smoke billowed from the top of the city, and the generals of the Yan army below the city whispered to each other and nodded frequently.
After the inspection was completed, the Yan army generals and engineers returned to the camp to resume their duties. Only then did Shi Siming become convinced.
At this time, Li Guangbi arrayed half of his army on the city tower and sent his lieutenants to lead thousands of people out of the city to surrender. The Tang army soldiers led their horses and carried crossbows, formed a column, entered the Yan army camp, surrendered and surrendered.
Arriving at the center of the camp, the soldiers of the Tang army put down their weapons and belongings, handed over their horses to the Yan army, and then retreated silently.
The central open space was filled with Tang army's bows, crossbows, arrows, swords, guns, swords and halberds. Gold, silver, treasures, cloth, brocade and other valuables were also piled up like mountains.
The entire Yan Army camp was joyful and peaceful. The Yan Army soldiers came to the open space and watched the surrender ceremony with great interest.
Just as the officers and soldiers of the Yan army were happily selecting the trophies, they heard a loud bang. The ground in the center of the military camp suddenly collapsed, and more than a thousand Yan army soldiers who were watching were instantly buried alive on the spot.
When the Yan army officers and soldiers were stunned, they surrendered and the Tang army took advantage of the chaos to sneak into the Yan army camp. The Tang army soldiers took out the weapons hidden in their armors and cut down everyone they encountered, and set fire to tents when they saw them.
In an instant, the tents were on fire, the horses fled, and the Yan army's camp was in chaos.
Seeing the fighter planes appearing and the war drums rumbling on the towers of Taiyuan, Li Guangbi personally led the troops to attack.
Due to the surrender, the gate of the Yan army's camp was opened, and all the antlers, iron caltrops and other defensive objects in front of the door were cleared. Li Guangbi, holding a long spear, took the lead and led his army into the Yan army's camp.
The soldiers of Yan Army were not well prepared, panicked and fled in all directions.
…
It turned out that during the days of negotiations between the two parties, the Sun brothers led people to dig a tunnel under the Yan Army camp and use wood to support it.
As soon as the surrender ceremony began, the mechanism was activated and the ground collapsed, burying the Yan army soldiers.
In this battle, the Tang army won a great victory, killing and capturing tens of thousands of Yan army soldiers.
Shi Siming fell into the trap and lost his troops. He was so ashamed that he sat alone in the tent all day long, drinking heavily to relieve his boredom.
When Shi Siming didn't know how to explain it to An Lushan, in February of the second year of Zhide, Luoyang sent an urgent message of 800 miles.
Shi Siming opened the military newspaper and took a breath!