The siege of Fengzhou continued, and compared to the fierce fighting on the first day, today's battle was not so bloody, thanks to the great contribution of the iron fork to the defense of the city, so that the soldiers of Xue Yantuo did not have a chance to enter the city.

"Kill—"

Several militia soldiers roared and pushed the iron fork hard, and the siege ladder on the head of the city gradually left the city head and tilted outward, and a dozen soldiers on the ladder screamed loudly, following the siege ladder and falling down, being pressed under the heavy ladder, the siege ladder was crudely made, and most of them were damaged after heavy falls and could no longer be used.

In one morning, nearly 300 of the 400 siege ladders were overturned by the Tang army's iron forks, and Xue Yantuo's army suffered heavy casualties.

But soon, the Tang army found another weakness of the siege ladder, the rungs in the middle of the ladder are easy to break, Xue Yantuo's army used slightly thinner pine wood as rungs, under the slamming of the boulders, it was easy to break, the distance between the rungs was two feet, as long as one of the rungs was broken, the entire siege ladder was basically scrapped.

The target of the Tang army's boulder was no longer aimed at the soldiers on the ladder, but smashed directly into the rung, as the rungs broke, the boulder wrapped in broken wood and continued to smash downward, and the soldiers below could not dodge, they were hit by the boulder, screaming and rolling down the city.

Just when Xue Yantuo's army was gradually in an unfavorable state in attacking the northern city, the attack on the western city also quietly kicked off, and a hundred soldiers slowly stepped forward with extremely thick battering rams, and a hundred soldiers on each side held high shields to protect the siege soldiers, as if a huge millipede crawled in the wilderness outside the western city.

In order to protect this siege hammer team, Xue Yantuo's army sent a thousand archers to guard them, and the thistle thorns and traps outside the west city have basically been flattened, so there is no need to worry about the safety of the feet, but the threat comes from the overhead, above the city gate, a thousand Tang soldiers are waiting with heavy crossbows in their hands, and they are piled up with seventy or eighty pounds of heavy stones directly above the city gate.

At this time, Guo Song also came to the top of the West City Gate, and he could see that the other party did not have much confidence in attacking the North City Gate, and basically attacked the city in order to drag the Tang army and cover the battering ram of the West City.

The success of the siege ram in Xicheng has become the key to this battle.

The soldiers of Xue Yantuo increased their speed, they got closer and closer to the city, and a thousand Xue Yantuo archers ran, and they ran to the bottom of the city and fired arrows at the city head together, and the crackling arrows shot on the battlements, or flew over the city and landed in the city.

The Don army did not return fire, they hid behind the battlements and calmly waited for the battering ram team to approach, they were also a thousand people, but only five hundred soldiers shot crossbows, and the other five hundred were responsible for winding.

The crossbow of the Tang army is a three-stone crossbow, this kind of crossbow is also called the Zhang crossbow, a strong soldier lies on the ground, pulls the bowstring with both arms, kicks the back of the bow with both feet, and uses force with both hands and feet at the same time to pull the bow on the string.

Two soldiers, one shooting, one winding, and two heavy crossbows alternately.

The crossbow can shoot through the iron scale armor within a hundred steps, and the penetration power is extremely powerful, the wooden shield and leather armor of Xue Yantuo's soldiers may barely be able to resist one hundred and fifty steps away, and between a hundred and fifty steps can not block the shot of such a powerful crossbow arrow, not to mention that the Tang army is ready to launch a counterattack within a hundred steps.

200 steps...... One hundred and fifty steps..... One hundred steps......

Liang Wu couldn't help but look back at Guo Song, Guo Song nodded, and Liang Wu immediately shouted: "Shoot!" ”

Five hundred heavy crossbows appeared at the mouth of the battlement at the same time, shooting at the 'millipede' together, the powerful crossbow arrows shot through the wooden shield and leather armor, a miserable scream sounded inside the millipede, and the shield-raising soldiers on the periphery fell down one after another, like insects stripped of their shells, and the huge battering rams and a hundred soldiers were immediately exposed to the sun, and also exposed to the crossbow arrows of the Tang army.

Xue Chake in the distance was so angry that he scolded, "A bunch of useless things, where is the bow and arrow cover?" Damn Ada, I'm going to have to cut off his head! ”

Xue Chake hated the commanders of the archers to the core, why couldn't he shoot intensively, so he had to give the Tang army a chance?

As the coach, Xue Chake is really not qualified, he does not understand the arrangement of the arrow array, and he must shoot in turns in order to form an impeccable dense arrow rain array, so that the opponent cannot raise his head to shoot.

However, the three-stage archery formation requires a long period of rigorous training, and it is by no means something that these Xue Yantuo herdsmen can do as soon as they go into battle.

The five hundred Tang troops on the head of the city were replaced with another well-wound heavy crossbow, and when a crackling crossbow bolt was fired, they immediately leaned out, and five hundred powerful crossbow arrows were shot at the running enemy soldiers, and the Xue Yantuo soldiers carrying the giant tree were hit by arrows one after another, screaming and falling to the ground, the giant tree lost its balance and fell to the ground with a bang when it was still thirty steps away from the city gate.

At this time, Guo Song also struck, he opened his bow and set up an arrow, and shot an arrow at the enemy commander who commanded the archers, and the commander on the horse was about to send a hundred soldiers to take over the giant tree, and the arrow shot by Guo Song instantly came to his eyes.

'Poof! The arrow pierced his throat, and the commander clutched his throat, rolled on his back, and fell from his horse.

The giant tree fell to the ground, the commander was shot, the soldiers lost their purpose and command, and began to be at a loss, and many soldiers turned around and fled.

The heavy crossbow target at the head of the city turned to the enemy archers below, and five hundred powerful crossbow arrows were fired, and Xue Yantuo's archers were caught off guard, and a large number of them were immediately shot down, and the ranks were in chaos, and the soldiers rushed back.

Xue Chake froze, unable to say a word for a long time, the battering ram on which he had pinned great hopes was easily cracked, and they lost the battle in a mess.

At this time, Yantuo Manshan persuaded him again, "General, the Tang army obviously knows that we are going to attack the city gate, and is fully prepared, if you don't guess it, the inside of the city gate should also be blocked by big stones, and it is useless to break through the city gate, don't let the soldiers do any more unnecessary casualties, withdraw the army!" ”

Seeing that the casualties of the soldiers were getting bigger and bigger, Xue Chake's confidence had been lost, so he had to sigh, "Pass my order, stop the siege!" ”

'When! While! While! The bell rang for the collection of troops.

The army of Xue Yantuo outside the northern city was relieved, and retreated to the main camp with the wounded soldiers like a receding tide.

Today's battle lasted more than three hours, and Xue Yantuo's army had invested more than 13,000 people, with more than 5,000 casualties, of which the number of dead was not much, only more than 1,900 people, and the remaining 3,000 people were injured, most of them broke their arms and legs, tied to splints, and could be healed after two or three months of cultivation.

But even so, the two-day siege battle had killed more than 4,000 people and wounded nearly 5,000 people, nearly half of the 20,000 troops were killed or wounded, and 5,000 commanders were killed.

Xue Chake realized at this time that the consequences were serious, not only did they take Jiuyuan City, but also paid nearly 10,000 dead and wounded, and the Great Chief had to skin him.

At this time, hundreds of soldiers sent to Feng'an County also returned, bringing back some very crude belongings, the county was empty, and valuable things were taken away by the people, only broken bedding, rotten sheepskins, and some tattered furniture.

They dug up a few hundred horses of coarse cloth from the cellar of a large family, which was their only harvest.

Xue Chake wanted to cry and look at the pile of dull and rough cloth rolls, is this what they have gained from nearly 10,000 dead and wounded?

In the afternoon of the same day, Xue Yantuo's army finally gave up its illusions and slowly withdrew its troops, and the heaven-shaking drum sounded on the head of the city, and it was called the victory drum, and the drum was strong and powerful, filling the whole city, and it told the people and soldiers all over the city that they had won.

The city was full of celebrations, the soldiers hugged and cheered, the people rushed out of their homes, beat gongs and drums, sang and danced in the streets, and children ran in the streets and cheered, "We have won!" We've won! ”

The entire city of Jiuyuan was immersed in the great joy of victory.

.........

The morale of Xue Yantuo's soldiers was low, and the hearts of the soldiers were generally full of dissatisfaction and resentment, they were originally herdsmen of various tribes, not professional soldiers, the soldiers' food, war horses and armor were all provided by themselves, many soldiers in order to get the opportunity to loot Fengzhou, but also handed over a lot of sheep to the tribal leaders, they paid a huge cost, and the profits were their income from looting Fengzhou.

They came with hope, but in the end they found nothing, and they returned disappointed, many of the soldiers were wounded, and their anger can be imagined.

Introverted soldiers are in a depressed mood, sighing all day long, not knowing how to go back to explain to their families, while short-tempered soldiers are scolding every day, picking quarrels and provoking trouble.

The deputy general Yantuo Manshan pacified the soldiers every day and was so busy that he was so busy that the main general Xue Chake completely became the shopkeeper who didn't care about anything, drank as soon as he stopped to rest, and was drunk every night.

Early that morning, when they arrived at the Yellow River, they were ready to cross the river, and one by one the sheepskin rafts were full of air, and they brought with them four hundred large rafts, which could cross the river with two thousand cavalry at a time.

By noon, five thousand cavalry had already crossed, and at this moment, on the low hillside not far behind, countless Tang cavalry suddenly appeared, and a low horn sounded.

10,000 Tang cavalry overwhelmingly killed, Xue Yantuo's soldiers were suddenly in chaos, their morale had completely collapsed, no one thought of resisting, they fled along the scattered, many soldiers were cornered, and even jumped into the Yellow River, trying to swim to the other side, but they were soon swallowed up by the Yellow River.

This is the consensus of Duan Xiushi and Guo Song, half-crossing.

Xue Chake was the first to cross the Yellow River, and Yantuo Manshan was responsible for the break, and it was still on the opposite bank.

Xue Chake was so anxious that he stomped his feet, but there was nothing he could do, and he watched the soldiers on the other side wailing helplessly, and was finally slaughtered by the Tang army one by one.

Xue Chake was like a thousand arrows piercing his heart, he suddenly had a sweet throat, a mouthful of blood spurted out, his eyes were dark, and he fell on his back.

In the autumn of the eleventh year of the Great Calendar, Xue Yantuo's 20,000 troops plundered Fengzhou, and were met with the stubborn resistance of the Tang army of Fengzhou under the city of Jiuyuan, Xue Yantuo's army suffered heavy casualties and retreated, and then encountered 10,000 Shuofang cavalry when retreating, and only 5,000 people of Xue Yantuo's army fled back in the end, which was an unprecedented defeat since Xue Yantuo's revival.