On the north bank of Rushui in Xiangcheng County, a Tang army of about 20,000 people is speeding northeast along the river, this team is the Tang army of the Eastern Front led by Qu Tutong, Qu Tutong's goal is very clear, to find Xu Shiji's army, and defeat or annihilate it in one fell swoop.

But the Scout's situation does not seem to support Qu Tutong's ambitions, and he has not been able to accurately determine where Xu Shiji's army is.

This made him very difficult, if he could not find the Sui army within five days, the food and grass he carried would be exhausted, in fact he only had three days, and he could not return hungry.

Yesterday he finally got a clue, someone told his scouts that two days ago they had found a brigade of Sui troops near Runan County, and this news made Qu Tutong ecstatic, and immediately waved his army to Runan County.

Runan County and the southern Runan County are not the same thing, the county of Runan County is called Ruyang County, close to Xiangyang, and the Runan County here is only a small county under Xiangcheng County, located in the south of Rushui, the city is dilapidated, the population is only 1,000 households, and it has been repeatedly looted by bandits over the years, and the population has been sharply reduced to less than 300 households.

In the afternoon of the next day, Qu Tutong led 20,000 Tang troops to arrive at this small county on the plain, Qu Tutong squinted and looked at this dilapidated city a few miles away, the city wall was low, the circumference was only seven or eight miles, and some important military fortresses were larger than it.

At this time, more than a dozen Tang army scouts rushed to the city, and the first brigade commander clenched his fists on the horse and reported: "Old General Qi, the county seat is almost empty, and the Sui army has been stationed in the city for nearly ten days. ”

Qu Tutong frowned, "How can it be an empty city?" ”

The brigade commander turned around and waved, and several soldiers brought an old man up, and the old man trembled and said: "General Qiyu, the Sui army is like a wolf and a tiger, and the people in the city are so frightened that they run away, and there are only a dozen old bones left who don't want to leave home." ”

Qu Tutong was a little puzzled. "The Sui army has not always been strict in military discipline. How do you become like a wolf? ”

"Alas!"

The old man sighed, "It was okay at first, just two days ago. The Sui army demanded food and property, and wanted to catch the strong men, and the young women also had to go to the army. The chickens and dogs jumped in the city, and there were not many people in the city, so they were all scared away. ”

"Then where did the Sui army retreat?" Qu Tutong was a little frustrated in his heart, and he was a step too late.

The old man shook his head, "I really don't know, they left yesterday afternoon and left in a hurry. ”

It seems that the Sui army discovered their arrival, so they evacuated in a hurry, and Qu Tutong could not decide whether the Sui army would withdraw to the south or north. Only when the scout had inquired about the situation nearby, he looked up and saw that it was already afternoon. Then he commanded: "Deliver my orders." The army enters the city to rest! ”

The 20,000 troops of the Tang army marched into the city, and the small county town was filled in a moment. Although it was a little crowded, I barely managed to stay.

They got the harvest of grain and grass, which was also quite surprising to them, they found that the Sui army had abandoned a lot of materials, in addition to some ordnance, there were more than 1,000 stone of grain and 2,000 loads of forage, which just solved their urgent need.

Qu Tutong rode a horse to inspect the city, according to the Sui system, this kind of small county can only have two city gates, a south city gate, a north city gate, the two city gates are separated by about three miles, and also form the only main street in the city.

Most of the houses were in tatters, many of them had collapsed due to disrepair, and every house was filled with soldiers, and Qu Tutong saw a group of soldiers fetching water at the well, preparing to cook.

"Have you inspected the well?"

Qu Tutong asked loudly, he was very cautious, the wells and houses had to be inspected one by one to prevent the Sui army from poisoning, and also to prevent the Sui army from accumulating dry firewood, sulfur and other things that ignited fire.

Luckily, they didn't find anything out of the ordinary.

When the soldiers saw that the Lord was coming, they immediately replied: "Report to the general, the well has been inspected, and there is nothing abnormal." ”

Qu Tutong nodded, and continued to turn his horse to patrol everywhere......

Night gradually fell, the Tang army that had marched for two days was exhausted, fell asleep early, and the city gate was closed, and a group of Tang troops patrolled back and forth at the head of the city, with strict guards, and outside the city, nearly 100 Tang army scouts went to inspect the suspicious situation within ten miles.

Tonight was cloudy, there were no stars and moonlight, thick dark clouds obscured the sky, and the night was so thick that the earth became extremely dark.

At about one o'clock, a group of twenty Tang army scouts were running towards the city at a rapid pace, they found an abnormality, and were hurrying back to the city to report, at this moment they were still five miles away from the city.

Just as the twenty cavalry rushed through a low hurdle, they heard the sound of arrows breaking through the air, and the dense arrows on both sides shot at them, and the twenty of them fell off their horses screaming miserably, and after two rounds of arrows, none of them survived.

At this time, more than 20,000 Sui troops have gradually approached the two city gates of the county seat, and under the cover of the dark night, the defenders of the city did not find the Sui army approaching, but in the slow deployment, the Sui army's 10,000 crossbowmen have blocked the city gate.

At this time, hundreds of fortifications were erecting objects on the flat ground two hundred paces away from the city, they had ready-made parts, and they used huge logs and nooses to construct long-range projectile weapons, and half an hour later, ten huge behemoths appeared outside the city, and the tall support towers were even higher than the city walls.

When the construction was almost completed, the defenders finally discovered the anomaly, and some soldiers rushed down to the city, urgently reporting to the main general Qu Tutong.

Qu Tutong had just fallen asleep, but he had not yet fully fallen asleep, and although he was also very tired, the pressure of the commander made him a little anxious and difficult to sleep, and after decades of military service, he had an unusual sense of vigilance against danger.

He also sensed that something was wrong with this little city, but he couldn't say what was wrong, he checked everything suspicious, and even dug three feet into the ground to see if anything was buried in the ground, but he found nothing.

Qu Tutong was lying on the couch, and the scenes of the day flashed in his mind, and he must figure out where his uneasiness came from.

Suddenly, Qu Tutong sat up, he thought of the problem, the old man said during the day, the Sui army wantonly looted grain and grass and extorted property the day before leaving, if the Sui army really needed food, why did it leave more than 1,000 grains and more than 2,000 loads of forage, this can't be explained.

So the Sui army violated military discipline in such an abnormal way, there was only one purpose, that is, to force the residents of the city to flee, they didn't need to persuade the way, the way of persuasion would make themselves vigilant, so what did the Sui army do? Drive out all the inhabitants of the city, and leave an empty city for yourself.

Qu Tutong's heart jumped up violently, his twin strands trembled, he had already vaguely guessed Sui Jun's intentions, and at this moment, there was a rush of running sound in the courtyard.

"We have something urgent to report to the general!"

"But the old general has already rested, and he is too tired, can't he report tomorrow?"

"No! I'm afraid it'll be too late tomorrow. ”

Qu Tutong stood up at once and opened the door, "What happened?" ”

The patrol soldier stepped forward to report, "Old General Qiqi, we have found an abnormal situation outside the city. ”

Qu Tutong's heart was a little cold, although he didn't know what was going on outside, he had already realized that they were stationed in this county town because they fell into the trap of the Sui army, he only considered the city wall as a security protection, which could defend against the Sui army's sneak attack at night, but forgot that the city wall was actually a kind of bondage.

Qu Tutong walked quickly to the top of the city, and gazed into the distance, only to see ten giant-like towers standing two hundred paces away, two and a half feet high, one zhang higher than their low city walls, and a long arm could be faintly seen in the deep night.

This is a giant trebuchet, cold sweat rolled down Qu Tutong's forehead, he already understood Sui Jun's intentions, he turned around and shouted: "Ring the alarm!" ”

"When! While! While! ……”

The piercing bells echoed in the small county town, but at the same moment as the alarm bell rang, the Sui army's giant trebuchet also attacked.

These are ten simple trebuchets, no wooden wheels, no complex towers, and no winches, they are tied with a dozen giant logs, and each trebuchet is pulled and thrown by 200 people.

In the piercing siren, ten oil barrels were thrown at the same time, over the city wall, and flew towards the city, the oil barrels smashed on the roof and the ground, and immediately burst, and the black oil flowed all over the ground, and then the second round of oil was thrown, and ten oil barrels roared and smashed into the city.

Hundreds of Sui archers rushed to the front of the city, fired arrows together, hundreds of rockets rose into the air, and shot towards the city, and fire points began to appear in the city, and some fire oil was ignited, and began to burn rapidly.

In Runan City, a group of Tang troops has been lined up, they are under the command of Qu Tutong, they are not panicked, more importantly, the fire in the city is still only burning near the city wall, and has not yet burned to the center of the county.

Qu Tutong knew in his heart that the biggest threat to them now was not the fire, but the casualties in the breakthrough, if the casualties exceeded thirty percent, then the battle would undoubtedly be lost.

This result made Qu Tutong very sad, he was like a hunter who was looking for a beast of prey, but in the end he was hunted by the beast.

"Old general, do we have to break through?" The deputy general, Qin Wutong, galloped forward on horseback and asked loudly, he also realized that there would be losses in the breakthrough.

Qu Tutong looked at the fire that was getting closer and faster, and replied calmly: "At the latest, in half an hour, the entire county will become a sea of fire." ”

All the generals were gloomy in their hearts, biting their lips, Qu Tutong estimated in his heart the time it would take to rush out of the city, and it was too late to walk through the city gate, he turned back to Qin Wudao: "General Qin, you can lead the left army to break through from the southern city, and we will meet in Sanlipo in the east of the city." ”

"Obey!"

Qin Wutong shouted, "Brother Zuo Jun come with me!" ”

Countless Tang troops turned around and ran towards the south gate, Qu Tutong waited for a while, and then ordered: "Open the city, put the suspension bridge!" ”

The city gate rumbled open, the drawbridge was slowly lowered, and the Tang infantry raised their large shields and marched out in dense formations.

One hundred and fifty steps away from the north city, Xu Shiji led five thousand crossbowmen to wait for a long time, among which in the front were two thousand heavy crossbowmen, they were in pairs, and a thousand heavy crossbows were coldly aimed at the city cave