"Throw it again, blow up these bitches!" Wang Cheng stood in the humble arrow tower, stretched out his hand and threw a grenade out of the window, shouting loudly.

The Ming army in the Iron Gate Pass City did not have many arrows, they were still in a peaceful state when they came to the Iron Gate Pass City, the archers only brought sixty arrows each, and they used a lot of them these days, although they were forced to do so before the Mongols ran away, but these Mongols did not give much because the prospects of the war were unclear at this time, so that they did not dare to waste arrows.

But when setting off, Qin Shoushan out of prudence, ordered each soldier to bring a few grenades, which could not be used for this period of time, and was used for defense at this time, so Wang Cheng first used the trick of luring the enemy to lure the enemy to the city, and then let the soldiers pretend to flee in panic, and finally the soldiers who had been hiding in the arrow tower threw grenades intensively.

The west captives at the head of the city were suddenly bombed and cried wolf. In this era, the development of firearms in the East was a little more advanced than that of the West, they had never seen such weapons, although the power of a single grenade was not large, but it could not be thrown much, and most of them were killed almost in a snap of a finger, and the soldiers of the West who were climbing on the ladder and were about to rush into the city to rob were suddenly frightened, and hurriedly retreated downward, and in a panic, several ladders were overturned, and more than ten of their own people were killed.

Wang Cheng saw that Xiyu was beginning to retreat, and was about to rush out of the arrow tower in pursuit, but was caught by Qin Shoushan. "There are only three or four hundred Western captives who rushed to the head of the city, and there are more than 10,000 soldiers in total, and the defeated soldiers will not break through the formation, are you going to go down to the city to die!"

"It's me who gets dizzy." Wang Cheng patted his head: "Seeing the ghost crying wolf howling when I saw the bombing of Xiyu, I wanted to chase them, but I forgot for a while that there were many of them, and I couldn't beat them when I went out of the city." ”

"But they were bombed like this, don't dare to despise our Ming soldiers."

"Don't think about what you have and don't have, hurry up and clean up the corpses on the city. The city was already small, but now that the weather is hot, it is not good to be rumored to be plagued. ”

"Yes."

After that, Qin Shoushan stood at the head of the city, raising his clairvoyance with both hands and looking at the camp of Xilu with the help of the sun. He saw that the military general who had just led the troops to attack the city walked out soon after entering the Chinese army camp, and it seemed that he was not deprived of military power, but arranged for his soldiers to set up camp, and sighed: "This battle is not easy to fight." ”

……

……

"Please punish me, General." Kule said as he stood in front of him with his head bowed.

"Sit down, I won't punish you. It's not your fault, either. Bermu said: "Although I heard that the army had this thing called a grenade in his hand before leaving, no one had seen it, and he didn't know how powerful it was, so this time it will be used as tuition for the war teacher." ”

"Thank you, General." Kule saluted. This matter can be big or small, and now Bermu does not hold him accountable, but is very lenient with him.

After he sat down, Bermu instructed his attendants beside him: "Hurry up to the city of Hami and tell the Great Khan the power of this thing called a grenade in the hands of the Ming army." ”

Then he turned his head and said to his military attaché: "Although the siege of the city failed today, it has also been proved that the morale of the Ming army is not low, and it is necessary to hold the city." The geographical location of the Iron Gate Pass is dangerous, and it is not easy to attack the city, so we can no longer fight the idea of capturing the city in two or three days, and we must be prepared for a long-term siege. You also have to get rid of your anxiety and take it easy. ”

"We don't need to be in a hurry. Although the Iron Gate Pass City guards the north-south communication choke point of the Eastern Chagatai Khanate, and in the future, it will go south to Qinghai or even Uszang, threatening the Ming State from the flank to contain the Ming military, but now it has no impact on the war, and we can fight it slowly. ”

Kule and the others suddenly realized and agreed. Bermu was right, they didn't have to rush to capture the Iron Gate Gate.

"Now you all retreat and lead the soldiers to set up camp, and tomorrow morning, we will start the official siege of the city!"

From the second day of the sixth month, Bermu commanded the army to attack the city in the most formal way of siege.

The Ming army stationed in the city suddenly became uncomfortable. Although the front of the city is not wide, they have too few people, and they have to guard against a few people sent by Xilu to go up the mountain and sneak into the city, and there are even fewer soldiers who can defend, so they can only hold on for four days and are about to be unable to support it.

"Qianhu, today is only the fifth day of the sixth month, nearly 300 brothers have been killed in battle, the others are all wounded, 60% of the grenades have been used, and more than 70% of the arrows have been used, according to this situation, at most you can only hold on to the city for three more days." It was that room again, Qin Shoushan and his ten hundred households got together, and one of them said.

The atmosphere at the scene was a little gloomy. Although they didn't think they could hold the city from the beginning, they had such a great geographical advantage that they could only hold the city for seven days at most, and many people were unwilling.

"Didn't you say at the beginning that you would stick to the iron gate and close the city? It's just that it's a little earlier to die, and what's the matter? After a while, Wang Cheng stood up and said.

"That's it, if you can hold on for a few days, it's a few days, let it be fate. Anyway, in the past few days, I have killed three Western captives with my own hands, and it can be regarded as earning. Another hundred households said.

"That's right! I also killed five Western captives with my own hands, and this time our entire army, counting those who were killed at the beginning, has already killed more than 1,100 Western captives, and it is already worth it. ”

As soon as these words came out, the atmosphere at the scene was a little more relaxed, and everyone joked with each other. However, Qin Shoushan knew that this was just their stress reaction under despair. It is also likely to cause them to break the jar in the next few days, so that the city that could have held out for a longer time will be breached earlier.

He was a little anxious. Although he now also thinks that unless the Western Expeditionary Army defeats the main force led by Timur himself in a short time, the city will not be able to hold on in the end, but the longer he persists, the higher the reward for their family may be in the future, and he still wants to hold on for a few more days.

He was thinking about it, when he suddenly heard Wang Cheng say: "When the day the city is broken, I will definitely run to the mass grave to commit suicide." These Silu were devout believers in the Heavenly Religion and prayed five times a day, even once in the morning before the siege began. And Tianfang Sect is a bullshit religion, who knows what evil ways will be used to vent their anger with my corpse. I committed suicide by running to mass graves, and they saved me from humiliating my body. They wouldn't be interested in digging graves in mass graves. ”

"I don't know, who knows what these brutes from the west can do. I said you might as well put a ring of pork around before you die. The people of the Heavenly Sect don't eat pork, and they think that pork is particularly dirty, and when they see that you are surrounded by pork, it is estimated that even if they want to humiliate your corpse at first, they will turn around and leave with a disgusted face. Someone even made such a joke.

"That's not bad, but now there are a lot of cattle, sheep and horses in the city, and there is not a single pig, and I can't get pork if I want it." Wang Cheng even thought about it seriously.

Everyone laughed, and one of them was about to say something more, when he suddenly heard Qin Shoushan shout and said, "I have a way to keep it for a few more days." ”

"What! Qin Qianhu, what have you thought of? The crowd hurriedly asked.

"Hehe, the secret of heaven must not be revealed." Qin Shoushan also sold the lawsuit.

Two days later, on the morning of the seventh day of the sixth month, Xilu began to attack the city step by step, but the defense of the Ming army was much sparse. Seeing this, Kule wanted to lead his troops to attack again, but he immediately thought of the time when he was blown up by a grenade before, and he was afraid that the Ming army would arrange some tricks, so he ignored it and just fought according to the regulations.

But even according to the charter, the battle was much faster than usual, and soon someone attacked the city and fought with the Ming army.

Although Kule was cautious, he saw that the resistance of the Ming army was very fierce, and there could be no ambush, so he also led his soldiers to rush to the city to fight with the Ming soldiers.

Then Qin Shoushan led reinforcements to come to the rescue, to press back the Xilu who attacked the city, but the Xilu also fought hard this time, to lay down the iron gate to close the city, even if people were killed, they did not retreat, and the reinforcements behind also continued to rush to the city.

Seeing this, Qin Shoushan suddenly took out an arrow from his waist, put the arrow on it with his bow, and shouted loudly in Mongolian: "I have the blessing of the Buddha, shoot this arrow, the one in the middle will be different!" Then an arrow shot out of one person. Several soldiers beside him also drew their bows and arrows, shot several people, and shouted loudly in Mongolian: "We have the blessing of the Buddha, shoot this arrow, the one in the middle will be different!" ”

The Samarkand soldiers sent to attack the Iron Gate Pass, with the exception of 2,000 of whom were the main force of Timur's men, were all herdsmen recruited from the vicinity of Lake Balkhash, many of whom were of mixed race and knew Mongolian. At first, they were unimpressed by this cry, but they were surprised to see that the wounds of those who had been shot by more than twenty arrows were rapidly festering, and they were greatly frightened.

They were all devout Heavenly Sect believers, and they couldn't help but mutter when they saw this. For them, although the gods of Buddhism are all false gods, false gods only mean that they are evil, not that they have no magic power.

Thinking that these people who were fighting were all blessed by the evil gods, but the true gods did not show the attitude of protecting them, their morale plummeted for a while, and they were killed by the Ming army and retreated.

It was just then that rain suddenly began to fall, and although it was not heavy, it was difficult to use the bow and arrow, and Kule had to give the order to retreat.

Qin Shoushan breathed a sigh of relief when he saw the retreat of the Western Prisoners; And because of the rain, he returned to his residence to take a bath. Wang Cheng was very curious about the situation just now, but Qin Shoushan could go back now, and he couldn't. I can only stay in the city and deal with the rest.

The rain is getting heavier and heavier. It was always not so convenient to move in the heavy rain, Wang Cheng took a long time to dispose of the corpse capital at the head of the city, and the arrows that could be recovered were also recovered, so he left a few sentries and let the other soldiers take shelter from the rain in the arrow tower but always pay attention to the situation outside, and hurriedly went down to the city to find Qin Shoushan to ask for an understanding.

He met Qin Shoushan on the way, and as soon as he wanted to speak, he heard Qin Shoushan say, "Quick, gather your subordinates!" ”