With the advent of gunpowder, the leap from the era of cold weapons to the age of hot weapons will make war more brutal, brutal and simple.

However, what made Zheng Peng embarrassed was that he only remembered the simple formula, gunpowder with actual combat value, and he had to study it slowly, which took a lot of time, but Zhang Xiaosong gave a death order, captured Liancheng within ten days, and then split up to meet a new round of troops from Tubo and Dashi.

Guo Ziyi thought about it, and finally said with a flat face: "Fate." ”

"Fate?"

"That's right, this is fate, if you choose the path of joining the army, you must be prepared to die on the battlefield, death is just a turning point, not the end, third brother, we marry Jin Lan, we don't want to be born on the same day and month of the same year, nor do we want to die on the same day of the same month and the same year, if I die on the battlefield, don't be impulsive, eighteen years later, I will be a good man again."

The battlefield is changing rapidly, and no one dares to say how long they can live, Guo Ziyi can be regarded as persuading Zheng Peng in advance.

When the three of them married Jin Lan, they said that they would die on the same day, the same month, and the same year.

Zheng Peng suddenly said, "Big brother, do you believe in fate?" ”

"Faith!" Guo Ziyi said with a straight face: "The ancients had clouds, one life, two luck, three feng shui, four accumulation of yin virtue and five reading, six seven phases and eight gods, nine nobles and ten health, life in the first place, for example, some people are born with royal nobles, and they enjoy endless wealth and glory in their lives, and some people are born poor and exhaust their life's efforts, which are not as good as those who have a good life." ”

The ancients believed in feudal superstition very much, but they didn't expect Guo Ziyi, who was both wise and brave, to think the same way.

No wonder Guo Ziyi turned the tide, which is equivalent to creating another Tang Dynasty and still being able to keep the duty of a courtier.

At that time, Guo Ziyi was heavily armed, and the army and the people returned to their hearts, as long as he wanted, he could replace Li Tang at any time, many people persuaded him to ascend the throne, but he refused to live or die, showing his true colors of loyal ministers, listening to his theory of fate, Zheng Peng understood Guo Ziyi's thoughts.

Zheng Peng deliberately asked: "If you say that, wouldn't that person with a bad life be miserable?" What if they forcibly change their fate? ”

Guo Ziyi pondered for a moment, and then said slowly: "Those who obey the heavens, sadness; Whoever rebels against the sky, die! ”

When Zheng Peng heard this, he nodded a little wordlessly.

Early the next morning, Zheng Peng not only saw the "sorrow of those who obey the sky", but also saw the ruthlessness on the battlefield.

"Drumming" Zhang Xiaosong's face sank like water, and he gave orders to the herald on the side in a low voice.

This is the slogan of the attack, when the drum sounds, it has long been on standby Zhang Rui's order, and the soldiers of Anxi Mansion officially launched an attack on Tiancheng.

When Zheng Peng saw the Tang army attacking, his eyes couldn't help but light up, and he secretly praised in his heart: How smart.

Imagine that the besieging side of the city is in a queue, while hitting the city gate with a log, while desperately erecting ladders and fighting to the death on the city wall, however, when the Tang army attacked, the soldiers were hiding in a similar wooden house with iron sheets wrapped in iron sheets on the top, and the wooden house was equipped with shooting holes, which were convenient for recognizing the direction and returning fire with bows and arrows.

It can be seen as an ancient version of the "tank", and the Tang Army called itself a "war tower".

Hundreds of war towers slowly marched towards the heavenly city, and the Arida coalition army standing at the head of the city saw this siege equipment for the first time, and they were very surprised, and under the orders of the upper floors, they bent their bows and shot arrows.

In a "dong dong" sound, the bow and arrow were either bounced off by the wrapped iron sheet, or shot on the thickened wooden plank, which could not hurt the Tang army in the slightest.

From the top of the tower, he saw clearly and commanded, "Use trebuchets, woods, and rolling stones to force people out before they use bows and arrows." ”

Soon, the army defending the city changed its strategy, aiming trebuchets, wood, and rolling stones at the moving wooden houses below, and the faces of the Tang soldiers who were watching the battle with a smile on their faces just now slowly became solemn:

A log hit the front battle tower, only to deflect the war building, and soon, the war tower continued to advance;

A boulder fell from the sky and smashed the battle tower, only to see sawdust flying, and smashed a big hole in the war tower at once, and the war tower that was hit only stopped for a while, and quickly continued to move forward, but when the war tower walked past the place where it was hit, it left a few bloody corpses;

Rushing to the front of the war tower, suddenly more than a dozen fist-thick crossbow arrows shot directly through, it turned out that the enemy started the large bed crossbow installed on the head of the city, the arrows used in this crossbow are as thick as an adult's fist, in order to enhance the lethality, the front end is also wrapped with iron sheets, the lethality is amazing, this special crossbow, the city wall is densely covered;

Some war towers were smashed by trebuchets, and the soldiers in the war towers suffered heavy casualties;

Some of the war-buildings were smashed by rolling stones, and except for a small number of nearby war-buildings that joined nearby, most of them were shot on the spot by the enemy with bows and crossbows;

There is a war tower hit by the enemy's fire bombs, the fire bombs are the enemy's cloth strips and other things tightly wrapped around the stones, and then soaked in fire oil, after the hit, the fire oil will splash out, splash out with fire, igniting nearby objects, this is a majestic and vicious weapon, many Tang soldiers were burned everywhere, but waiting for them, either burned to death, or killed by the enemy's arrows;

The Tang army suffered casualties and losses almost every moment, and the enemy who could occupy the danger was attacked only slightly, and only occasionally soldiers fell from arrows.

The sound of shouting and killing, the sound of slogans, especially the sound of the Tang Dynasty war drums, has been endless, because of the drums covered, the distance is far away, Zheng Peng can not hear the screams of the soldiers, you can see the fallen corpses and scattered sawdust, you know that the battle has entered the white heat.

Before touching the city wall, Zheng Peng estimated that the casualties were as fast as one-third.

Liancheng, which has been run by several generations of kings, is known as the first pass in the Western Regions, and the Anxi soldiers who swept through the Western Regions also suffered heavy casualties under its thorny defense.

Zheng Peng felt a fire burning in his chest, every time he fell, it was a hot-blooded man from Datang, and every hot-blooded man who fell, there would be a pair of grief-stricken eyes behind him: from now on, there will be one less good man in the world and one more sad family.

If I had known this, I would have gotten the gunpowder out earlier.

Just when Zheng Peng blamed himself, he suddenly heard the sound of finger bones, turned his head to look, and saw Zhang Xiaosong staring ahead, and his two fists were clenched inadvertently.

At this time, I suddenly heard someone excitedly say, "Look, I have touched the city gate." ”

Zheng Peng immediately looked up, couldn't help but light up, after layers of dangers, after paying a heavy price, there were more than 20 battle towers touched the city wall, some people began to erect ladders, some people began to attack the city gate, all heard the sound of huge metal colliding, it was a strong man picked up the hammer he carried with him, and beat the city gate violently.

The Central Plains is full of dangerous passes and cities, after years of war and dynastic changes, has accumulated rich siege experience, for others is out of reach, in the eyes of Zhang Xiaosong, Liancheng is equivalent to the existence of the tiger prison.

Although the Xiongguan is dangerous, there is no Xiongguan in the world that cannot be conquered, and there is no city that cannot be broken.

Zheng Peng caught it from the corner of his eye, and seeing the soldiers successfully approaching the city wall and city gate, Zhang Xiaosong's face was more relieved.

Just when the Tang soldiers were hopeful, suddenly, a group of tall soldiers appeared on the wall of Yuncheng, only they were holding a big stone weighing about 100 catties in their hands, aiming at the Tang army under the city wall, and smashed it down.

After smashing the stones, another row of archers appeared and began to harvest the lives of the Tang soldiers, and for a time the casualties of the Tang army skyrocketed.

Zheng Peng couldn't hold back any longer, and immediately said to Zhang Xiaosong: "Zhang Jianjun, let them retreat, if they continue to fight, they will be defeated." ”

When Zhang Xiaosong heard this, he glanced at Zheng Peng, and then shouted: "Mingjin." ”

With the sound of gold, the soldiers who were fighting bloodily in front of the gate of the Heavenly City began to arrange their protective gear and retreat in an orderly manner, and when they were halfway scattered, the shield soldiers rushed forward to respond.

The people were withdrawn, but Zheng Peng couldn't laugh at all, from the scale of the departure and the number of people who successfully withdrew, it is estimated that the casualty rate is nearly half.

Before I had time to see the wounded soldiers, I saw the red and white flags crossed left and right on the handle of the flag commander standing in the cloud tower, and the stopped war drums sounded again, and the second team, which had been prepared, once again pushed the ladder against the war tower.

Wheel warfare-style sieges do not give the enemy a chance to breathe.

The second team is a team dominated by Hui soldiers, whether it is training or combat skills, there is a big gap with Zhang Xiaosong's carefully built Anxi soldiers, and in the eyes of Zheng Peng, it is a new round of slaughter of Tang soldiers by the enemy.

couldn't bear to see this kind of scene, Zheng Peng excused himself to see the wounded soldiers, and then went down the ladder without looking back.

Zhang Xiaosong didn't stop it, but there was a trace of pride and a trace of disdain in his eyes.

Young people are young people, they don't have to go to the front line in person, they can't stand it just by looking at it, this kind of person can't become a climate, but it's okay, they can't threaten their status.

Zheng Peng arrived at the wounded barracks, endured the discomfort, assisted the army Langzhong to treat those wounded soldiers, and personally helped to bandage them, how many wounded soldiers Zheng Peng did not know, only knew that this side had not been dealt with, and the wounded soldiers over there were continuously sent.

In the evening, Zheng Peng read the battle report and realized that it was only one day's work, and four groups of people attacked at once, killing more than 1,800 people and wounding more than 3,000 people.

It's really tragic, you know, the Tang army entered Pakhania, and there were no so many casualties in the fierce battle for half a month.

Righteousness is not in charge of wealth, mercy is not in charge of soldiers, Zheng Peng finally understood the meaning of this sentence, for generals, not only to plan far-sightedly, but also to be hard-hearted, knowing that attacking Yuncheng is a matter of great casualties, knowing that many soldiers will not come back after the attack, but Zhang Xiaosong still did not hesitate to give orders to attack again and again.

On the third day of the attack, a group of soldiers of the Hobei Si tribe were frightened by the huge casualties and broke down, and fled on their own without Ming Jin collecting the troops, Zhang Xiaosong personally shot the one who fled the fastest with an arrow, and the remaining more than 30 soldiers of the Hobei Si clan were also shot on the spot.

In just three days, the Tang army suffered more than 10,000 casualties, which was nearly one-sixth of the strength of the Tang Dynasty's Western Expedition, however, after paying such a large number of casualties, no soldier could climb to the top of Cloud City.

The location here is too good, Ayanda is too well prepared, and there are the elites of Tubo and Dashi here to assist in the defense, which is very difficult for Datang.

Seeing that Zhang Xiaosong did not give up the slightest intention of capturing Yuncheng, Zheng Peng finally couldn't help it.