On June 16, the Tibetans began a large-scale siege of the city with rudimentary ladders without any preparation. Pen % fun % Pavilion www.biquge.info

More than 2,000 Tibetan infantry divided into more than a dozen siege teams with ladders to the west city wall of Xiping City ran to all parts of the city wall, the Tang army generals and colonels on the city wall stared at the Tubo soldiers rushing over, while shouting to their soldiers: "Don't panic, stabilize me, don't release arrows for the time being, wait for the Tubo people to rush to the city wall and then shoot arrows, our arrows are limited, aim for Lao Tzu and shoot again, don't waste arrows!" ”

Just when more than 2,000 Tubo soldiers rushed towards the city wall, some trebuchets in the rear of the Tubo army began to throw fire oil bombs into the city wall and the city, and the stone bullets that were ground round were moved to the wire mesh pocket of the trebuchet by the Tubo soldiers, and a layer of fire oil was poured on the stone bombs before they were fired, and some soldiers held torches to ignite the fire oil bombs.

The oil bomb flew in a parabolic trajectory, dragging a long smoke tail that quickly dispersed in the sky, and the originally clear sky soon seemed to be overshadowed.

Zhao Ziliang, who was standing on the city tower, looked at the oil bombs that flew from the rear of the Tubo army's formation, and said to the generals and officials around him: "As far as I know, the Tubo people have never used trebuchets when they attacked my Tang City, and this thing is definitely not something that the Tubo people can make, it seems that this time the Tubo people should have caught many craftsmen in the Longyou Army!" ”

Cen Shen nodded and said: "The big marshal has a lot of them, now they don't have many trebuchets, if this battle continues, their catapults will be more and more, then we will be in trouble, they can catch the surrounding people to work at will, there is no shortage of people to operate trebuchets, even if the people don't know at first, but it is not difficult to learn to operate this thing."

Zhao Ziliang said: "We don't have to worry too much, as long as we resist for ten days, and when the main army rests and adapts to the plateau terrain here, we can fight a decisive battle with Dazaru Gong!" ”

After speaking, Zhao Ziliang ordered: "Give the catapult crew an order, their enemy is not an ordinary Tubo soldier, let them aim at the trebuchet in the rear of the Tubo army and launch!" It is not difficult to learn to operate a trebuchet, but not everyone can throw it accurately, the Tubo people think that they can cause us harm by finding some people to operate the trebuchet, then they are very wrong, Ben Shuai does not give them a chance to learn completely, they build a one and smash one for me! ”

"Yes, Dashuai!"

The firing trebuchet is more technical than firing artillery, and it can only rely on the experience of operation, the more experienced, the more accurate the fight, which is by no means just a day or two days to learn, or even ten days and half a month can be accurate, and the officers and men of the Beiting Army have been training in the Beiting Army for three or four years, and have come to the Central Plains to quell the rebellion for another five years, and the rich experience of nearly ten years has made the soldiers of the Beiting Army who operate the trebuchet easily hit the target.

The Tang army's trebuchets were placed on top of the mounds of earth next to the city wall, which were three feet higher than the city wall, so that the Tang army observers of the trebuchet could clearly see the location of the Tubo army's trebuchets.

"A thousand steps away! Two quarters to the north, "the observer informs the operator of the distance and direction of observation.

The launching power of the trebuchet is the power generated by the sudden fall of the heavy object, and the lever is driven by the effect of the moment to launch the stone projectile, the length of the moment is fixed, and the distance of the throwing can only be achieved by increasing or decreasing the weight of the heavy object.

The two soldiers constantly added lead and iron blocks to the heavy object frame, and the other two soldiers pushed the main body of the trebuchet to launch the lever, so that it was facing the west and the direction of the north two quarters, it was mounted on the trebuchet support, and it could rotate freely at 360 degrees through the bracket bearing, not only to launch it from the front, but also to the rear The exact scale direction and the function of free rotation are the characteristics of the siege trebuchet built by the Beiting Army, which is not possessed by other Tang troops.

"A set of fire oil bombs ready!" A Don soldier shouted and raised a small flag after pouring oil on a stone bullet rolled into a barbed wire pocket. There is a long groove connected to the launch frame of the trebuchet, a long string of stone bullets is placed in this long groove, there is a special valve control, and then put down after the stone bullet of the launch frame is launched, a Tang soldier opens the valve, and a stone bullet in the long groove rolls into the launch frame, so constantly semi-automatic repeating, not only saves manpower, but also saves time.

"Two sets of fire oil bombs are ready!"

As the sixteen trebuchet teams were ready, the standard-bearers of all the groups raised small flags, and the Tang Army general, who was in charge of commanding the trebuchet crews, pulled out his waist knife and pointed to the outside of the city, shouting: "Launch!" ”

The flag-bearers of all the groups waved down the small flags in their hands together, and the Tang Army launchers of each catapult unit picked up the hammer and smashed off the pole supporting the heavy objects, and the heavy objects fell violently, and the powerful kinetic energy brought by the free fall drove the launch frame through the lever, and the launch frame was quickly driven, and the fire oil bombs in the frame flew out of the air with a "whew", and more than a dozen fire oil bombs flew into the sky together, and fell in a parabola, some hit the trebuchet of the Tubo army, and some were not far enough, and killed a series of Tubo soldiers, and some of them were too far to launch, and they flew too far.

The Tang Army observers of each trebuchet group began to adjust the direction of the weight of the heavy object according to the landing point of the fire oil bomb.

According to statistics, three of the sixteen trebuchets hit the target with the oil bombs fired just now, and the other thirteen deviated more or less, and this hit rate was already very high, after all, it was a salvo.

The catapult unit naturally has its own set of launch and operation regulations, and the operation and launch in accordance with this set of regulations not only has high efficiency, but also has a very high hit rate.

After four rounds of firing, the eighteen trebuchets in the rear of the Tibetan army were all destroyed, and there were a large number of casualties, the fire oil bombs thrown by the Tang army not only smashed the trebuchet of the Tubo army, but also caused a raging fire, the wreckage of the trebuchet and the surrounding fire oil were all ignited, many Tubo soldiers were devoured by everyone, burning and shouting in the flames, extremely miserable.

"Marshal, all our trebuchets were smashed and burned by the Tang army, and even the fire oil was all ignited!" The commander of the Tibetan army, who was in charge of the trebuchet launch, ran over to Dazaru with a black face and a frightened expression.

Dazarugon's face was very ugly, and he scolded: "Useless things, they can smash your trebuchet, can't you smash their trebuchet?" What an idiot! ”

Qianfu said aggrievedly: "Marshal, it's not that we don't want to do this, it's really that the trebuchets of the Tang Army are launched fast and accurately, we only launched one round, they launched four rounds, we launched several times and couldn't hit, they hit extremely accurately, we are not opponents at all!" Although our trebuchets were also built by Tang craftsmen, none of our soldiers were familiar with trebuchet operation・・・・・・"

Dazaru gritted his teeth when he heard this, waved his hand and said, "Forget it!" Ben Shuai doesn't believe that without trebuchets, he can't attack the city? Let those Tang craftsmen continue to build trebuchets and polish stone bullets! ”

"Yes, Marshal!"

A Tibetan general next to him said to Dazarugong: "Marshal, this Tang army is too strong, they defend calmly on the city wall, without the slightest panic, you see that their soldiers will kill one of our soldiers every time they shoot an arrow, according to this siege method, we will kill a lot of people!" ”

Dazarugon was furious: "So what? How can there be immortals in war? Zhao Ziliang, I have long known that more than ten years ago, he was here to kill my country's Dalun and Mangbu Zhi in embarrassment, at that time I was a thousand commanders under the command of Mangbu Zhi, and the combat power of the Tang Army under his command far exceeded that of other Tang troops! Even so, today he is surrounded by us in the city, can only be passively defended, even if there is no heavy siege equipment, we have to attack the city, their arrows and city defense equipment and materials are limited, as long as we use up their arrows, our sons can attack the city wall, pass the order, let the 3,000 and 4,000 teams prepare for the siege! ”

"Yes, Marshal!"

The shouts of killing, screams, and help from the beginning of the battle never stopped, and after the siege ladder was erected on the city wall, the Tubo soldiers continued to climb up from the ladder under the city, and were shot and killed by the Tang soldiers one by one and fell down, but the Tubo army below persevered one after another and continued to follow after the people in front were killed.

If there is only one Tubo soldier on the ladder, the Tang soldiers on the city wall will shoot them with arrows, and if there are multiple enemies, the Tang soldiers will lift the thunder stone and smash it down the ladder, so that they can smash a long line.

The price of the Tibetan army attacking the city was heavy, in less than an hour, five or six hundred people were killed, many people were injured, and more than two thousand people were almost half lost, which made Dazarugon have to order the first group of siege teams to rush over and replace the rest of the first group, and fought for more than two hours, the rest of the first group of siege teams were already very tired, and their sharpness had been lost, and it was impossible to hit the city wall if they continued to fight.

"Marshal, the Tubo army has been replaced!" Wang Zhen pointed out the outside of the city and shouted.

Zhao Ziliang saw it and immediately said: "Since they have changed people, we will also change people, and order the next group of people to take over on the city wall immediately!" ”

"Yes, Dashuai!"

The second group of men and horses quickly went up to the city wall to replace the first shift of defending men and horses, although the Tubo army suffered heavy casualties, the Tang army was not easy, there will inevitably be casualties in the melee, there are also those who were shot by stray arrows and died, and those who were killed and burned by the stone bullets of the Tubo army, but the proportion of casualties is calculated, the casualty ratio of the Tubo people is more than seven times that of the Beiting army, and only a few dozen people were killed in the battle of the Beiting army, these are all killed by stone bullets or arrows, and only more than 30 people were injured. (To be continued.) )