When Li Daozong and An Xinggui slowly rushed to the capital of Gaochang, the people of Gaochang felt like they were mourning their heirs. Their king led the Turkic reinforcements to attack Yiwu City. But not long after they left, Gaochang was besieged?
The point is, 20,000 elite troops of the Tang Dynasty!
Ju Zhisheng's people were numb. As Ju Wentai's eldest son, Ju Wentai was away on the expedition, so Ju Zhisheng would naturally be responsible for supervising the country. The problem was that the problem in front of him was an unprecedented one.
What to do in Gaochang? Surrender? Surrender is impossible. What if all of them surrender and are killed by the Tang Dynasty? As the prince of Gaochang and the ministers of Gaochang, they all knew what Ju Wentai had done to Datang over the years.
Forget it, he repeatedly provoked the Tang Dynasty, and he also contacted the Zhenzhu Khan of Xue Yantuo and instigated the relationship between him and the Tang Dynasty, saying, "If you are a khan, you will rival the emperor, so why should you bow down and bow to the Tang Dynasty?" Where to worship? (Volume 195 of Zizhi Tongjian)"
Zhenzhu Khan did not want to cause trouble, so he quickly condemned the envoy to express his loyalty to Li Shimin and expressed his willingness to send troops to attack Gaochang. It's just that the Tang Dynasty is facing a good situation of reform, so Li Shimin naturally appeases Zhenzhu Khan.
Therefore, all fools know how deep the conflict between Ju Wentai and Datang is. Isn't surrendering at this time just asking for death?
The only thing that makes them feel at ease now is that although Ju Wentai is stupid, he is not stupid. From the time when he relied on the Western Turks to the Yibidulu, he provoked the Tang Dynasty and continued to build the capital of Gaochang. What he was afraid of was The Tang Dynasty sent troops, and then he had the opportunity to defend the city.
In Ju Wentai's imagination, the Tang army traveled thousands of miles to the vast Gobi desert and arrived here with not much food. They could hold on to the city for ten or twenty days. The Tang army did not have enough food and would inevitably retreat, and there were still people behind them. With the support of the Turkic army.
Therefore, in recent years, the capital of Gaochang has been built with deep ditches and strong walls. Ju Zhisheng, who is stationed in the capital of Gaochang at the moment, is naturally unable to surrender directly, but how to send the news out without surrender is also a problem.
The army of the Tang Dynasty came too fast. They obviously crossed the border city of Gaochang and went straight to the capital of Gaochang. After all, Gaochang is only so small and does not have as big a strategic buffer as the Tang Dynasty, so several cities around Gaochang should still be there. There are some defenders who can provide support.
The problem is... As for the Tang troops outside, even if reinforcements from the surrounding cities come, Ju Zhisheng doubts whether they dare to attack. He knows very well that Gaochang only has five thousand elite troops! Even counting the slightly worse ones, the total was ten thousand, and his father took them all with him when he left!
Although there may be two or three thousand garrison troops in each of the remaining cities, these... can only be said to be embarrassing and useless! Their weapons are not complete, let alone armor. The leather armor on their bodies is only available to some troops, and most of the auxiliary defenders don't even have leather armor.
Of course, they can also be useful when defending the city. After all, there is still a natural defense like the city wall.
What Ju Zhisheng didn't expect was that the Tang army did not attack, but only besieged the city. For a capital city with a population of only 40,000 to 50,000 people, 20,000 troops were enough to surround the entire city, and it was impossible to let anyone escape.
Ju Zhisheng now hopes that the Turks in Khanfutu City (later Jimusar County, Xinjiang) will get the news, and then ask the army of Yibidulu to come over for support.
Otherwise, the situation in Gaochang would be to wait until Datang's own food and grass were exhausted and to retreat.
Li Daozong and the others have actually entered the territory of Gaochang. Not long after leaving Yiwu City, they actually belong to the territory of Gaochang. Liugu (later Hami urban area) is the border of Gaochang, but most of them are some common people of Gaochang. In Da When the Tang army passed by, these people saw the Gaochang and Turks among the prisoners.
They didn't dare to run or react. They just silently hoped that Datang would not express his anger at them. What surprised them was that the Tang army did not harass them in any way and just passed by the official road near them. What surprised them even more was that the passing Datang army bought some meat from them.
Yes, it’s meat, and it’s paid for.
In fact, it is impossible for the Tang army to be short of food, and there is no shortage of meat supplements. Although it is not much, the reason why Zhou Shaoshan bought these things is actually to give the people of Gaochang along the way an attitude and tell them that the Tang army will not bully any common people. , and will not harass any common people.
Not only are they given money to buy things, but they are also given more money.
This is what Li Daozong and the others did along the way.
The total population of Gaochang is not small in the Western Region (the previous description is wrong, it is not the total population of Gaochang is 40,000, but the population of Gaochang's capital city is more than 40,000. After all, some descriptions in the old and new Tang books need to be read in the context). The total number of people in Gaochang There are four counties, of which the capital is Gaochang City, and the other three counties are: Jiaohe, Tiandi, and Nanping (later the ancient city of Rangbu, commonly known as Lamubo).
There are a total of four counties, fourteen county towns, four border fortress cities, and a total of twenty-two cities. However, even the capital of Gaochang only has a population of more than 40,000, and the population of other county towns is even less, which is just over 30,000, and the county towns are even smaller. These county towns have no value at all in capturing them.
There is no problem with those low city walls, or whether you call them earth walls. They cannot be called city walls. The height is only a little over three meters. Some more powerful soldiers can even climb up directly.
The total population of Gaochang is about more than 400,000. The population is not small, but there are not many soldiers. All the elite soldiers were buried in Yiwu by Ju Wentai. Although the remaining soldiers still total 20,000 to 30,000, but There is no need to think too much about the quality of these soldiers who can only defend the city.
This is to defend the city. If it were in the wild, Ju Zhisheng would have surrendered long ago.
The remaining 10,000 elite Tang troops, with several thousand prisoners and 15,000 logistics and transportation troops, swaggered past some border cities and several counties in Gaochang and rushed directly to the vicinity of Gaochang City.
The cities passing by naturally saw the Tang army. What else could they do besides remain silent? Even if their generals guarding the city saw the Tang army heading towards the capital, they did not dare to send troops out to take a look. They just pretended not to see it.
And when they saw Datang's long carriage fleet, everyone knew that Gaochang... was over.
The food transported on these thousands of carriages is enough to feed the Tang army for more than a month. What's more, do you know if there will be any follow-up from the Tang Dynasty? In this season, the horses of Tang Dynasty are not short of food, so what support does Gaochang rely on?
In one month, no matter how bad the soldiers of the Tang Dynasty were, the siege was over.
