At night, the blacksmiths in the forging yard are bare-chested, sweating like rain to build a big iron fork, to create a three-strand fork, three strands are flat, round head, weighing more than 20 catties, with a three-zhang long jujube wood rod, it is better to use than the iron fork of the wheat straw, but also because the quality requirements are not high, so the build speed is very fast, to a watch, five hundred large iron forks will be built, after installing the long rod, it has become a sharp weapon to defend the city.

At the head of the city, Guo Song looked at the military camp in the distance, which was also full of torches and bright lights, and it could be seen that the enemy army was also going all out to make siege ladders.

"Envoy, in fact, I think the quenched iron thistle is a good secret weapon, isn't it a pity to stop building it?" Town general Ma Wei asked in a low voice.

Guo Song smiled faintly: "Tribulus terrestris is just a surprise to the other party, but it is easy to crack it, at least I have thought of several ways, I believe that the other party will come up with a countermeasure tomorrow, and the poison tribulus terrestris is scattered too much, it will hurt the people in the city in the future, so I stopped building, or the big iron fork is more effective." ”

Ma Wei hugged his fists and said: "I understand the humiliation!" ”

Next to him, Li Ji said again: "If the humble position is not mistaken, the other party is likely to hit the city gate with a battering ram tomorrow, and we need to have a countermeasure." ”

Ma Wei immediately said: "This is easy, use a boulder to block the city gate in the city, even if the other party smashes the city gate, it is still useless." ”

Guo Song smiled happily: "This is also a good method, you can use it, attacking with a boulder is also a way, and shooting with a heavy crossbow, even if you use a shield, you can't block the sharp arrows, tonight we will start to implement it overnight." ”

After a moment of discussion, they went down to the city to implement the blockade plan.

On the road, Li Ji asked Guo Song in a low voice: "I can see that the envoy has something on his mind, but he is worried about the reinforcements of the Shuofang army?" ”

Guo Song did not deny it, nodded and said: "Actually, whether the Shuofang army will come to aid us or not, the problem is not big, but I hope that they will appear at the right time and not cause unnecessary losses for the sake of greed." ”

Li Ji said with a smile: "It's enough to use the eagle, there are still dozens of scouts on our periphery, send the eagle letter to them, and ask them to convey the opinion of the envoy to the chief general of the reinforcements." ”

Guo Song thought about it and agreed, "This is a way, I will write an eagle letter early tomorrow morning." ”

.........

Before dawn the next day, thousands of militia soldiers blocked the east and west gates with boulders, and there were only two gates in Jiuyuan County, so even if the enemy smashed the city gates with battering rams, it would be useless.

In the early morning, the rapid alarm bell rang on the top of the city, and the soldiers woke up from their dreams, watching the situation under the city with spears in hand, and the defenders unexpectedly found that the battlefield of the Shatuo army had moved to the northern city.

I saw that thousands of soldiers of the Shatuo Army were paving three passages with thick pine branches, which was also the countermeasure that Guo Song said to deal with thistle thorns, the general army was paved with wooden planks, and the Shatuo army was simple because of its ugliness, and directly paved the road with pine branches, although it was simple and rude, but it was also very practical, and it could basically avoid the secret calculation of tribulus thorns and traps.

The reason why the Shatuo army chose to attack the city in the north city was mainly because the north city did not use sandbags to raise the city wall, which greatly reduced the difficulty of the Shatuo army soldiers to climb.

In less than half an hour, the Shatuo army paved three pine branch avenues with pine branches that were hundreds of paces long.

At the head of Beicheng, two thousand Tang troops were already in battle, Ma Wei sighed and said to Li Ji: "Guo Yuanjun is right, it is indeed easier to crack the tribulus thorn and trap, and with a pine branch, the tribulus thorn will lose its effect." ”

Li Ji smiled slightly: "We have the Iron Fork Army, and we are not afraid of the enemy attacking the city!" ”

The two of them glanced back, and a thousand militia soldiers stood behind the city wall with five hundred long iron forks in their hands.

Today, the Tang Dynasty dispatched 3,000 militia soldiers to participate in the battle, of which 1,000 were responsible for using steel forks, and 2,000 were archers. Guo Song stood on the corner tower at the turn of the northwest city wall, watching the battlefield movements in the north and west.

He could basically judge the opponent's combat intentions from the enemy's deployment of troops.

"There are only 1,000 people left in the second battalion at the head of the west city, and the rest of the army is all concentrated in the north city!"

Guo Song judged that Xue Yantuo's army would attack the northern city with all its strength today, but the other party still left two or three thousand troops outside the western city, and it was very likely that they would use battering rams to attack the city gate.

After Guo Song's order was issued, the army began to move rapidly, except for the 1,000 people led by Liang Wu to stay in Xichengtou, the remaining 4,000 troops all gathered in Beichengtou, and there were 1,000 militia steel fork soldiers, as well as 2,000 militia archers, 7,000 troops had been gathered in Beichengtou, even if the enemy attacked Beichengtou with 10,000 people, the Tang army still had the upper hand.

Of course, the Tang Army's troop movement and its deployment are not known to the Xue Yantuo army under the city, and they cannot see it, they can only implement it according to their own pre-deployment, which is also an advantage of the defending side.

The besieging side can only adjust its tactics after the battle is unfavorable to itself, and it is often too late, which determines that the besieging side's strength must be many times greater than that of the opponent, so that it can offset the defender's advantage in deploying troops with full deployment.

This huge difference is obviously not known to Xue Chake, the fierce general of Xue Yantuo, who became the coach for the first time.

Xue Chake raised his knife and shouted: "Beat the drum and attack!" ”

"Boom! Boom! Boom! The sound of war drums was earth-shattering, and the 12,000 Xue Yantuo troops rushed towards the city like three black frenzy, with pine branches under their feet, and without the worry of thistles thorns, the soldiers advanced extremely quickly.

Xue Chake made a desperate bet, and he put all the 400 siege ladders he made overnight into today's siege battle, with an average of 30 people using one siege ladder.

Li Ji shouted: "Archers prepare!" ”

The yellow flag waved on the head of the city, the 2,000 soldiers in the city stretched out their bows and arrows, and the 2,000 militia soldiers in the city also drew their bows and stood by, and the 4,000 people formed two arrow strike ranges, which were 100 and 50 steps respectively.

The atmosphere of war suddenly broke out, enveloping the entire city, and the soldiers all felt a strong pressure, their teeth clenched, their eyes grim, and the militia soldiers became obviously a little nervous, sweat in their palms, and many of them trembled with their legs.

Ma Wei, the town general, shouted to the militia soldiers: "You can't be afraid, your house and your family are behind you, you rely on your protection, if you want the house not to be burned down, your property and your wife and daughter not to be robbed, and your parents not to be killed, you must muster up the courage and fight the enemy!" ”

Ma Wei's words hit the hearts of the militia soldiers, like a thunderclap, which made many people wake up from ignorance, a strong sense of responsibility overcame the fear in their hearts, and the 1,000 militia soldiers gradually mustered up their courage, no longer intimidated by the atmosphere of war, and straightened their backs.

Xue Yantuo's army was getting closer and closer, and he could already clearly see their hideous faces, as if countless demons had rushed out of hell, rushing towards the city wall with their bloody mouths open.

"Arrows at the head of the city!"

Xue Yantuo's soldiers entered within a hundred steps, and the two thousand Tang soldiers on the city's head released arrows at the same time, and the arrows rained down like raindrops above Xue Yantuo's soldiers' heads, and the powerful arrows 'whoosh!' Sou! Shooting into the crowd, the wails rang out, and the soldiers fell to the ground with arrows.

"Push the drums of war again!" Xue Chake shouted with red eyes and brandished his sword.

'Knock-knock-'

The war drums of Xue Yantuo's army became heavy and powerful, on the one hand, inspiring the soldiers to fight, and on the other hand, warning the soldiers that those who retreat will not be killed.

In the sound of strong drums, Xue Yantuo's soldiers had to ignore the rain of arrows above their heads, regardless of the wailing of their companions, rushed forward like a tide, and finally killed under the city wall, hundreds of siege planes have set up the city, and the soldiers are like wolves and tigers to kill the city.........

At the same time that Xue Yantuo's army was attacking Jiuyuan City, a Tang army of 10,000 people appeared at the bend of the Yellow River in the west of Fengzhou, where the Yellow River split into two streams, one south and one north, flowing eastward.

It was still three hundred miles away from Jiuyuan County, but the Tang army slowed down, they didn't seem to be in a hurry to support Jiuyuan County, but what were they waiting for?

The commander of this Tang army was Duan Xiushi, the envoy of Shuofang Jiedu, who received a letter of help from Guo Song and personally led 10,000 troops to rescue Fengzhou.

However, as the situation changed, Duan Xiushi was not so eager to rescue Jiuyuan.

General Cheng Han said in a low voice: "Jie Du envoy, will the Tang army not be able to hold Jiuyuan County?" ”

Duan Xiushi smiled slightly: "Jiuyuan County is not a mud-walled thatched house, vulnerable to attack, on the contrary, its city wall is made of huge stones from Daqing Mountain, which is stronger and stronger than the city wall of Lingzhou, unless the people of Xue Yantuo come prepared and bring sufficient food and siege weapons, then I will be worried."

But the Xue Yantuo people obviously had wrong intelligence, thinking that Fengzhou was still as undefended as before, and could easily take away the population and property, and actually didn't carry logistics baggage, so I wasn't too worried, I was just thinking now, how could I wipe out this invading Xue Yantuo army? ”

Cheng Han hesitated and said: "That being said, I am worried that Guo Yuanjun is too young and inexperienced, and he will be hot-headed for a while, lead the army to attack, or defend the city ineffectively, and be attacked by Xue Yantuo's army, and the people in the city will suffer." ”

Duan Xiushi glanced at him, "You think too much, Guo Song is brave and strategic, although he is young, he already has the style of a famous general, otherwise he would not be able to succeed in the Western Regions, even Li Ji is willing to follow him with all his heart, are you still worried that he will not be able to defend the city?" ”

Cheng Han's face was full of shame, and he clasped his fists and saluted, "I understand my humble position!" ”

At this time, a soldier came to report, "The scout of Jiuyuan County asks to see the marshal, and there is an eagle letter from Guo Yuanjun to present to the marshal!" ”

"Bring them up!"

After a while, a Tang Army scout was led up and presented an eagle letter to Duan Xiushi, "This is a letter from our Guo Envoy Jun to the Jiedu envoy, please take a look at the Jiedu envoy!" ”

Duan Xiushi opened the letter and looked at it with a smile: "It seems that the hero sees the same thing, you reply to Guo Yuanjun, and say that I have this intention!" ”