"Ye Hu, we only have three days, I'm afraid we can't take down this strong city, right?" A Turkic captain looked at the majestic city in front of him, feeling a little frightened. The Great Walls and cities on the border between the Sui Dynasty and the Turks were relatively small. It is low, but the wall of this border city built by Dugu Min with money is taller than that of the capital city.
Legally speaking, the tall walls of Datong City are illegal, but Yang Jian always believes that inland cities and border cities cannot be treated in the same way. Inland cities are only used to defend against bandits and bandits, and a wall of two or three feet high is enough; while border cities need to deal with them. For powerful foreign enemies, the generals guarding the border only need to report the actual defense situation, pressure and other factors of the border city, and the court will usually approve it. The Datong City built with money from Dugu Min did not cost the court a single penny, even if it was repaired to the Ten feet high, no one is free to impeach anything; besides, the official system of the Sui Dynasty is a system where officials who have completed their term are transferred to other places if they are not promoted, and the court is not worried about the occurrence of some people trying to fortify the city and stand on their own feet; if someone If some imperial censors who did not understand military affairs dared to talk about the height and thickness of the Sui border city, they would definitely be criticized verbally and written by civilian officials who knew more about military affairs than military generals, and military generals who were more refined than civilian officials.
But as a result, the strategic towns that gradually became taller made the Turks feel powerless.
The Turks have now lost more than 30,000 soldiers. This is certainly because the Sui army is good at conquering and defending well, but if the Sui army did not have this tall Datong City, its own casualties would have doubled.
"We will fight even if we can't defeat it. Even if Datong City is leveled with corpses, we will still conquer it." Ashina Hezhen said calmly: "We must win this battle."
Ashinahe knew very well that the Turks were in danger and about to collapse. Now, the Great Lakes region was bloodbathed by the Sui army. Therefore, if Bujia Khan wanted to correct this general, he must defeat the Sui army. As long as he had the fighting force, Winning the prestige of the Sui army can intimidate those opposition forces who are ready to move.
Otherwise, they can only give up the vast land east of Jinshan and retreat to the war-torn west of Jinshan. If the Western Turks really fall to that point, they will lose their long northern border line, and the threat of the Turks to the Sui Dynasty will also disappear. The difficult-to-defend north was reduced to the northwest corner with complex terrain. The Sui Dynasty, with its free hands, could draw a huge army from the north to deal with them; if it were to defend them, it would only need a very small number of troops to rely on natural dangers such as Jinshan Mountain, Shiluoman Mountain, desert, and Gobi to keep them at bay. Outside the Sui Dynasty.
With such fluctuations, the Western Turks will no longer be able to protect themselves sooner or later.
"Ye Hu, I'll go first." Captain Ten Thousands raised his hands and asked for orders.
"No!" Ashina Hezhen glanced at the Turkic general with a curly beard, shook his head and said: "I order the Huihe tribe to be the front army, and you to be the center army."
The trumpet sound of "Wooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooftformer" army.
The Uighurs are one of the nine tribes of Tiele. They live in the fertile North Sea (Lake Baikal) and the Saling River. Their strength is greater than that of the nine tribes of Tiele. The combined strength of the four tribes headed by Xue Xuecang is barely enough. More than the Uighurs; originally the two competed for each other's pastures, and the war continued. However, with the tragic defeat of Xue Xuecang in Naumugang, the strength of the two was no longer balanced, and the powerful Uighurs would sooner or later become a serious problem for the Turks, so Ah Shi Nahezhen planned to let Huihe go first to offset the vigor of the Sui army.
In fact, although the Tiele people are good at fighting, their status in the Turks is low. They usually take the lead in such wars with heavy casualties.
More than 10,000 Uighur troops lined up more than 100 siege ladders, then arranged their chariots and catapults one by one, and then slowly marched towards Datong City.
Behind and on the left and right sides were 30,000 Uighur soldiers wearing leather armor and holding shields and spears. They formed a massive lineup and escorted the main attacking army forward.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Several miles away, on the top of Datong City, Sui army officers and soldiers, civilians and craftsmen stood in formation. Look up at the city tower and listen to the general Zhang Xutuo's pre-war mobilization.
"Dear soldiers, warriors, and fellow countrymen. Since the Turkic Khanate replaced Rouran, our border towns have been looted and harassed by Turks almost every year. Sometimes there are hundreds of riders, and sometimes there are four to five million. , today they kill my neighbors in the Sui Dynasty, and tomorrow they plunder the wives, daughters, and property of my brothers in the Sui Dynasty. In spring and summer, when there is no harvest, small groups of wandering riders come to hunt grass and valleys, and in autumn, when the horses are fat and strong, they come in large numbers to rob them. Food, even in the icy and snowy winter, we have to come to the bandits to grab some clothes to keep out the cold. Now hundreds of thousands of thieves and bandits are arrayed outside the city. If Datong City is broken, the first people to be brutally poisoned will be the people of Ganzhou behind us, and these people , they are all your relatives, friends and fellow villagers..."
Zhang Xutuo stood on the city tower in full armor. He knew that the battle that was about to begin would definitely be more fierce than the previous few days, so he urgently carried out pre-war mobilization and shouted loudly: "So this battle is not only for the great war." The Sui saints fought not only for the Great Sui Zun, not only for the city of Datong, but also for each of us, for our fellow villagers. Even if we fight to the last man, we will never defeat the city of Datong. Fall, otherwise, the land of Ganzhou will become littered with corpses and rivers of blood."
They were not on the border and did not know the troubles. Especially in the years when the Sui Dynasty was established, the Sui Dynasty was troubled by internal and external troubles, but the Turks were at their peak. They could easily pull hundreds of thousands of troops southward, looting extremely wildly, and now they are falling apart. Although the Turkic Khanate is getting weaker and weaker, it is still violating borders until now. The current battle may be the last madness of the Turkic Khanate, but the madness of this madman is not so easy to deal with.
If you talk about loyalty to the emperor, patriotism, etc., these people may not understand it, but Zhang Xutuo mentioned people who are closely related to the soldiers. But it made these soldiers and civilians who had fought against the Turks for generations share the same hatred and their blood boiled. They raised their spears and shouted with all their strength: "Fight for the saints of the Great Sui Dynasty, fight for the great masters of the Great Sui Dynasty, fight for each of us, and fight for our fathers and fellow villagers." And fight.”
The shouts shook the city, and the soldiers and civilians in the city followed suit.
Zhang Xutuo had already seen the enemy troops approaching slowly, and shouted sternly: "The enemy troops have arrived, all soldiers are in position. If you dare to disobey military orders and shake the morale of the army, you will be killed immediately!"
The "obey orders" soldiers, led by generals at all levels, left one after another and rushed to their respective positions, preparing to attack the invading enemy.
Zhang Xutuo walked quickly down the city and said to Yin Shishi, Liu Quan and Zhang Dinghe as he walked: "Looking at this menacing posture, Bujia Khan is probably ready to fight us desperately, but the city wall is only so wide. , we don’t need to send all the soldiers to the city to fight, we first send 5,000 people and 5,000 civilians to fight, and the rest stay in the city to wait for the battle order."
"You will finally understand."
"I understand."
Yin Shishi, Liu Quan, Zhang Dinghe cupped their fists and saluted.
"Liu Governor!" Zhang Xutuo said to Liu Quan: "Please send people to spread the news throughout the city, saying that Lingzhou's 20,000 reinforcements and Qimin Khan's 100,000 troops have arrived in the northeast of Datong City. Very soon. Soon we can help us defeat the enemy from the outside."
"I obey my command!" Liu Quan saluted and asked: "Zhang Sima, do you want to also tell me about General Shi's 30,000 cavalry?"
Shi Wansui and Yang Lun's mission was to meet Yang Ji who was deep in enemy territory. However, they did not follow Yang Ji's butt. Instead, they crossed the desert and Gobi from the passage south of Datong City, and then turned north after arriving in Guazhou. , and then garrisoned troops at a pass in the remaining mountains of Jinshan, responsible for intercepting the Turkic troops marching to the west or to the Great Lakes area. As long as the troops sent by Bujia Khan to rescue were completely annihilated, Yang Ji would naturally not be in any danger. If Yang Ji withdrew his troops in time, and the two armies launched an offensive from the west towards Bujia Khan's camp.
Zhang Xutuo pondered for a long time, shook his head and said: "This is one of our special forces, don't say anything about it yet."
"As ordered." Liu Quan bowed his hands and turned around.
"General Manager Zhang, you are more familiar with the soldiers and civilians in the city than we are. You lead the soldiers and civilians in the city to prepare for battle." Zhang Xutuo said to Zhang Dinghe: "This battle will be fought by me and General Yin first."
"Yes!" Zhang Dinghe also followed the order and left.
…
Five thousand Sui soldiers and five thousand civilians stood on the top of the city, raising their bows and arrows together to aim at the invading enemies outside the city. Compared with the calm Sui soldiers, although the civilians had participated in the battle for several days, they had certain skills. Although they had great combat experience, they still felt a little frightened when they saw the overwhelming Turkic army outside the city. It's just that the war has swept to the doorstep of their homes, so they still join the battle without any shirking duty and no regrets.
The civilian husband is responsible for pulling up the catapult. The large catapult in the city is about two feet high, with a stone bag hanging on the back of the long arm. A catapult requires a hundred people to pull it, and it can lift boulders weighing dozens of kilograms from a high position. Throw it four or five hundred steps away.
Zhang Xutuo watched as the black enemy troops rushed forward. Both sides of the ladder trucks were filled with Turkic soldiers holding high shields and preparing to attack the city. These ladder trucks had wheels at the bottom and were equipped with shields, winches, and grappling hooks. , auxiliary ladders that can be raised and lowered, and other objects are exactly the same as the ladder trucks used in the Central Plains. This also confirms what Yin Shishi and Zhang Dinghe refuted on that day - while the Sui army was learning the way of riding and shooting from the Turks, The Turks must also work hard to learn the art of war and siege methods in the Central Plains.
When he saw that the enemy troops were within three hundred paces, he loudly ordered: "Launch the catapults."
"Dong dong dong" drums suddenly sounded loudly on the top of Datong City. Thirty trebuchets were launched in unison. The long arms suddenly swung out and threw the boulders into the air. Dozens of boulders spun countless circles in the air. Finally, it hit the dense crowd.
A stone rolled "bang" in the crowd, and more than a dozen people were beaten to bloody and horrific injuries. Then, the stone continued to fall on the crowd, and there were screams one after another, and pieces of blood mist suddenly rose into the sky. Under the rays of the morning sun, it is particularly charming.
"Crack!" A ladder truck was smashed into pieces, and the ladder was smashed into pieces. The soldiers in the ladder truck fell off one after another, and dense boulders hit the ladder truck. Although the Turks controlled the manufacturing of ladder trucks, nest trucks and other siege vehicles However, they did not learn the subtleties of the equipment. They could not learn the exquisite hinges and mortise-and-tenon structures. If they were slightly damaged, they would be unable to move forward. In just over a hundred steps, about half of the ladder trucks were damaged. , unable to move forward, but there were still more than 40 ladder trucks gradually approaching the city wall.
In the sky, huge rocks roared and smashed against the enemy troops on the ground. In a short period of time, the catapults on the city launched four rounds, smashing more than a hundred huge rocks into the enemy groups outside the city, killing more than a thousand people. There were casualties, but the Turkic soldiers did not stop there. They quickly rushed within the range of the bow and arrow.
The Sui soldiers who were waiting in full formation were firing arrows like rain. Five thousand arrows were fired at the enemy intensively. The arrows used by the defenders were different from the cavalry arrows used by the cavalry. These arrows were longer, thicker and heavier than the cavalry arrows. Soldier arrows are thrown down from a high place, and the lethality produced by their own weight is far more powerful than that of mounted arrows.
There are three types of shields used by Turkic soldiers. The first is a wooden shield covered with iron on the outside and cowhide on the inside. It is generally used by the vassals of khans and chiefs. The second is a strong and strong wooden shield covered with leather, which is used by direct soldiers. The third type of shield is a simple wooden shield, which is also a shield used by Turkic soldiers on a large scale. This kind of wooden shield can defend against arrows on the grassland, but it cannot be used against the crossbow arrows and heavy military arrows of the Sui Dynasty, but For the sake of safety, many soldiers covered the wooden shields issued by the tribe with several layers of cowhide, which barely withstood the power of the arrows. However, many shields were still pierced and broken, and then the Turkic soldiers behind the shields were killed. Shot to death and wounded.
Zhang Xutuo, who was directing the soldiers to fight, saw that the ladder truck had also driven into the blind spot of the catapult, and quickly ordered the two thousand civilians on standby to work together to lift the rolling logs up the parapet and roll them towards the enemy troops below the city.
The city wall generally has an inward slope. Archers can not only see the enemy troops in the corner and shoot arrows at them, but rolling wood and stones from the top will not fall directly to the bottom of the city like vertical city walls. Because of this Due to the slope, rolling logs and stones can roll over the city wall, producing greater power. As a result, they can roll further after landing, and the casualties caused are several times higher than those on vertical city walls.
However, as the number of corpses and wounded soldiers increased underground, they became bunkers to prevent the rolling logs and stones, which greatly reduced the power of the rolling logs and stones, and the ladder trucks also arrived at the bottom of the city.
"Pour oil on the ladder truck and set it on fire." Seeing this, Zhang Xutuo from the city calmly issued a new order.
The order was given, and jars of kerosene burst out on the ladder trucks. Immediately afterwards, torches were dropped, and the ladder trucks ignited into blazing fire.
But the Turkic soldiers were extremely fierce. They used the prepared sand to put out the fire on the ladder truck.
Finally, a ladder truck completely approached the city wall. Hundreds of soldiers suddenly pulled back the leather rope, and a auxiliary ladder six to seven feet high was pulled up. Dozens of soldiers were still clinging to the ladder.
Only a loud "boom" was heard. The first ladder reached the top of the city as expected, and then more than ten ladders were set up on the top of the city. Thousands of Turkic soldiers used shields to block arrows and rocks. , like a swarm of ants, they rushed to the top of the city with all their strength. Arrows on the city were like locusts, and rolling logs and rocks were smashing down on the ladder like hail. Some Sui soldiers squatted on the ground and inserted their spears into the arrow holes under the parapet. The Turkic soldiers at the top of the ladder were stabbed to death one after another. The civilians who had stopped launching the boulders used long and thick tree forks to hold the ladders on both sides. Everyone shouted and pushed hard, pushing the ladders away from the city wall. The Turks on the ladders saw that the ladders were getting steeper and steeper. , were so frightened that they all jumped down. The weight-reduced ladder quickly tipped over backwards, causing the Turkic soldiers behind to scream in agony.
When the Turkic soldiers under the city came within the range of their bows and arrows, they also began to fire arrows to fight back. Arrows fell like dense rain on the city. Sui soldiers and civilians were constantly shot and fell to the ground, and casualties began to appear.
At this time, the desolate horns of the Turkic Army sounded again, and another 10,000 Turkic Army soldiers entered the battle. They pushed out the nest carts that were higher than the city wall.
The civilians responsible for distributing the catapults quickly retreated, struggled to control the catapults, and fired huge rocks towards the nest carts.
Zhang Xutuo on the city also flew the flag in time, and ordered the soldiers to push out the powerful and long-range bed crossbows, aim at the nest car, and once within the range, they would fire at the "little house" where the people were installed. If the Chariot is approached, the Turkic soldiers can shoot arrows at the Sui army from a high position, so the best way is to destroy the Chariot before the threat.
Just as the war was heating up, several dusty soldiers rushed from the direction of Guazhou and marched quickly towards the main entrance of the southern wall of Datong City.
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