War is cruel, and the war of cold weapons is even more cruel.

The 1,500-strong wing attacked Windy City for less than half an hour, and according to later statistics, 232 people were killed and 437 wounded, of which 1002 were seriously wounded, and the casualty rate was nearly half.

Before the attack, the army was neat and morale was like a rainbow; When he returned, the camp was full of wounded soldiers and bleeding, and this attack was only a test.

After retreating, Ashina went to the wounded barracks to take a turn, and then summoned a group of generals to the Chinese army's big tent to discuss the next move, Zheng Peng observed, mostly to discuss how to attack, about divided into two opinions, one is to transport large siege equipment, the other is to divide the attack in multiple ways, and the wind city is flattened.

Zheng Peng listened for a while, then quietly withdrew and ran to the wounded barracks to visit the soldiers.

A small Windy City, it is only a matter of time before he takes it down, Zheng Peng is not worried about it at all, anyway, if there is any decision in the end, Ashina Xian has to inform himself in the form of a document.

Early the next morning, Ashina Xian gathered his troops again, taking turns to attack the defense system of Windy City, this time it was no longer a temptation, the three troops attacked in three directions at the same time, in addition to conventional weapons, siege ladders and trebuchets that were not used on the first day also came in handy.

With the help of the ladder and trebuchet, Datang had the advantage, and was about to attack Windy City, and at the most critical point, Gu Taibai personally led his army friends to respond, desperately protecting Windy City.

Neither side backed down, and fought fiercely for many days in the Windy City.

I have to say that with trebuchets, the attack power of the Tang army has been qualitatively improved, such as fireballs, stones and other things are constantly thrown into the wind city, day and night, the first three days are the Tang Dynasty is attacking, the Great Food Alliance is defending, three days later Gu Taibai had to send troops out of the city, attack the Tang trebuchet position, want to destroy those powerful trebuchets.

The soldiers and civilians in the Windy City were frightened by the stones and fireballs that rumbled from the sky, and no one knew when they would drop a few stones, sometimes they fell asleep, and a big stone smashed over, and people said that it was gone, and sometimes they were walking on the street, and they were suddenly hit by a boulder, and they were talking and laughing one moment, and the next moment they became bloody and blurry.

Gu Taibai was almost hit by a boulder, if it weren't for his subordinates sacrificing their lives to save him, he would be seriously injured if he didn't die, so he was very afraid of Datang's siege equipment.

The Central Plains from the Shang Dynasty there are large-scale battles, the city is more and more solid, the siege equipment is also constantly improved, due to the inconvenience of transportation, the trebuchet transported is a simple version, but the city of the Khan is not even comparable to the ordinary small city in the Central Plains, Gu Taibai originally wanted to defend in the city, and finally could not resist, took advantage of the night to send troops out of the city, sneak attack the Tang army's stone throwing position.

Ashina Xian has been on the battlefield for a long time, and has already taken precautions, Gu Taibai promised several raids organized by a large number of corpses, and each time he returned with a feather, and twice he also let the Tang Dynasty kill the whole army, and he didn't dare to go out of the city in the back.

Due to the heavy casualties, Gu Taibai only resisted in Windy City for eight days, and eight days later, on a dark night, with the help of reinforcements from the Alida Tribe, he escaped from Windy City.

Gu Taibai is gone, and what is left for Datang is a vervete-eyed and dilapidated Windy City.

At the same time that Ashina Xian successfully captured the Windy City, Zheng Peng received the news that just two days ago, Zhang Xiaosong broke through the Xucheng of Pakhana, and the Tubo army guarding in Xucheng was defeated and fled, and it only took two days from attacking the city to breaking the city.

Xucheng is the southern gate of Pakhana, and laying down Xucheng is equivalent to opening the gate of Pakhana.

Connecting the two great victories, Tang Jun should be very happy, however, Zheng Peng saw Ashina's expression a little dignified.

The relationship between Zheng Peng and Ashina Xian had already broken the ice, and he took the initiative to comfort him and said: "Is the chief manager worried about the speed of breaking the city? In fact, there is no need to be like this, there are many cities in the big food country, the soldiers are good at attacking and defending, and they have rich experience in defending the city, while Tubo is located on the plateau and is not good at defending the city, even if the speed is a little slower than that of Zhang Jianjun, it is also reasonable. ”

Ashina Xian captured a windy city, it took eight days, more than 800 people were killed, and more than 1,000 wounded, and Zhang Xiaosong captured Xu Cheng, it took only two days, and the death was less than 300.

There is a sentence that Zheng Peng did not say that the Anxi soldiers were more well-trained and elite than the Tingzhou soldiers, after all, Anxi received the most assistance from the imperial court.

Ashina Xian shook his head and said: "Zheng Jianjun is too worried, he will not play games with the lives of the soldiers, only one day is still on the battlefield, there are variables in one day, and the victory or defeat for a while is harmless, how can I be depressed because of these little things, in fact, I am worried about Windy City." ”

Zheng Peng paused for a moment, and quickly reacted: "Boss, you are worried about the people of Windy City, right?" ”

Zheng Peng has not really seen how good Gu Taibai's military talent is, but he really has to say a word about his shameless methods.

Before retreating, Gu Taibai used a very ungraceful tactic of clearing the wilderness, filling in all the wells, and taking away all the food and goods that could be taken away, but all the things that could not be taken away, all burned and destroyed, and left Ashina to offer, more than 2,000 old, weak, sick and disabled, and a city without any vitality.

All the cattle were killed, and it is no exaggeration to say that as soon as the Tang Dynasty's army withdrew, most of these old, weak, sick and disabled people would die.

Most of the cities will be gained, however, Ashina has spent so much effort to capture a city, there is no spoils, but a lot of burdens, which will be depressed.

"That's right," Ashina said angrily: "These big cannibals are simply devoid of morality and humanity, and if they fall into my hands, they will definitely be worse off than dead." ”

Gu Taibai forced the people of Windy City to carry grain and grass for them, build city walls, and forcibly drove the people away when there was danger, blocking the route of the Tang army with flesh and blood.

Zheng Peng nodded: "The practice really does not have the bearing of a soldier." ”

Ash Naxian did not hide it, and said: "Many soldiers suggest that these people be left to fend for themselves, which one can take care of these people, it will inevitably disrupt the original rhythm, I don't know what Zheng Jianjun thinks?" ”

Under the leadership of Zhang Xiaosong, the South Road was like a bamboo, and Ashina Xian, who had the intention to show himself in front of the court, was a little hesitant, for fear that he would let Zhang Xiaosong pull too far.

Zheng Peng was a little surprised, he didn't expect Ashina Xian to discuss this kind of problem with him, thought about it, and quickly said: "Emperor Taizong said that people are people-oriented, these people who are sweating are originally the people of the Tang Dynasty, but they were forced by the enemy to participate in the defense of the city, and it is natural to help them, even if Your Majesty knows, he will also support the approach of the chief manager." ”

After a pause, Zheng Peng continued: "As for this trip to the west, the chief manager doesn't need to care about temporary gains and losses, Datang's dispatch of such a large army is definitely not just focused on a small sweat, right?" ”

Ashina Xian nodded, and the whole person was obviously much more relaxed.

After capturing Windy City, Ashina Xian sent a pioneer to set off, and he stayed in Windy City to rest for two days, in addition to arranging the follow-up of the casualties and handling the supply of grain and grass, he also spent a lot of energy on pacifying and stabilizing the people of Windy City.

Until the third day of the capture of Windy City, Ashina Xian once again embarked on the journey.

followed Ashina Xian on the road together, as well as Zheng Peng, according to the convention, the supervising army mostly followed the main general together, supervising the army and supervising the army, and the "army" of the superintendent was the general.

However, the complex terrain and sparse population factors made it the best battlefield for various forces, and the regular army of the Tang Dynasty, the dependent tribes, the Great Food, the Tubo, and the remnants of the Western Turks turned the entire region into a huge, crisis-ridden battlefield.

Night raids, ambushes, harassment of grain roads, sieges, confrontations, the whole Pakhana region into a nest of porridge, today the south road has made significant progress, tomorrow there is an army on the north road to encounter an ambush, for a time the Tang army burned the granary of the Tubo army, and then it will be said that the city that has just been captured is recaptured by the big food, the battle situation is flying all over the sky, Zheng Peng every day just read all kinds of war reports on the head.

Encounter the enemy, write a battle report; Fight a war, write a war report; Lay down a town and write a war report; Lose a place, write a war report; When the war was unevenly distributed, another war report was written; Which tribe does not rescue in time, or charges in the back and retreats in front, write a battle report; Which two forces have contradictions, etc., no matter how big or small, are written down in the form of battle reports.

On the most important day, Zheng Peng read more than 300 battle reports, and the whole person was a little dizzy.

A small prison army with so much work, Zheng Peng finally understood why Zhuge Liang, who had an IQ close to a demon in the Three Kingdoms, died young, and he was really tired.

At the beginning, Zheng Peng would be shocked by the cruelty of the battlefield, sad about the casualties of the soldiers, worried about the victory or defeat of the battle, and slowly, he began to become accustomed to various situations, and the number of casualties in the battle report also became numb.

The battle of the Western Expedition was in a stalemate at the beginning, with both sides having their own victories and defeats, and even an important position would change hands several times in a short period of time, and slowly, the balance of victory began to favor the Tang Dynasty.

In addition to the number of troops, the quality of training, and the courage of the soldiers, the war is a competition of comprehensive national strength in the end, and slowly, the advantages of the Tang Dynasty in being rich and strong began to be reflected.

Zhang Xiaosong used the method of grace and power to let many tribes and forces in the Western Regions stand in line, and then encouraged and strictly ordered them to kill the enemy and make meritorious contributions.

Gu Taibai and others originally wanted to make the logistics of the Tang Dynasty unable to keep up with the Tang Army by lengthening the battle line, but he didn't expect that the grain and grass of the Tang Dynasty were continuously delivered, and the various forces in the Western Regions also took the initiative to send supplies to the Tang Dynasty in order to curry favor with the Tang Dynasty.

In the past, through purchase, intimidation and other means, Ah Lida easily bought enough grain and grass from various surrounding countries and tribal forces, but as soon as Zhang Xiaosong made a move, he cut off the vast majority of the forces that wanted to be "wall grass", so that they were simply unwilling or afraid to sell grain and grass to the Allida coalition army.

The food and grass are urgent, and the loss of weapons and armor is also very large, such as the shortage of arrows, the storage is getting less and less, the production cannot catch up with the consumption at all, the knife is broken and there is no blacksmith to connect, the armor is broken and there is no craftsman to repair it, etc., plus the people are in the heart of the Tang Dynasty, and they take the initiative to provide intelligence to the Tang Army from time to time.

After a bitter battle, the northern and southern armies continued to advance, while the Alanda coalition army retreated.

After nearly two months of fierce fighting, on 9 May, the Southern Route Army and the Northern Route Army finally met victoriously at Liancheng in Pakhana.