On the morning of the next day, Zheng Congyan led 20,000 Chinese troops to finally arrive and set up a military formation under Shanyang City.

After hearing that Tuoba Sigong and Helian Duo had suffered a big loss last night, Zheng Congyan couldn't help but raise his vigilance and sent several cavalry to search within a radius of thirty miles to prevent Shatuo cavalry from ambushing. In addition, he rejected the proposal of Tuoba and Helian to immediately attack the city. Instead, two heralds were sent to urge Li Jing and Yu Xuan to arrive. Prepare to wait for the soldiers and horses to arrive, and then start attacking Shuozhou City, preparing to fight a real siege battle.

The soldiers and horses retreated ten miles away from Shuozhou City to camp, while waiting for the arrival of Li Jing and Yu Xuan's soldiers and horses, Zheng Congyan ordered the soldiers to cut down trees and make large wooden shields and ladders, catapults, battering rams and other equipment needed for the siege.

For a whole day, there was no movement in Zhongzhong, and after another day, Yu Xuan's 14,000 rear army finally arrived with grain and grass baggage. In the afternoon, Fu Wenda, Fu Wentong, Gao Wenshun, and Gao Wenji arrived with 10,000 infantry, along with Li Jing's military envoy Zhang Chengye.

"Why didn't General Ji Yu arrive?" Zheng Congyan saw that Li Jing and the three soldiers could not be seen among the soldiers and horses, so he couldn't help but ask strangely.

Zhang Chengye explained: "My general said that the cavalry did not play a big role in the siege of the city, and he had already led the cavalry into Shuozhou. Li Zhenguo said that there are enough soldiers and horses in his hands to recruit envoys, and when he is critical, he will naturally lead the army to appear. ”

For this explanation, Zheng Congyan nodded slowly, Li Jing is not the kind of person who plays with war. "Understood."

With 50,000 soldiers and horses in hand, the army has already made a lot of rudimentary equipment in the past few days, and after resting for another day. Zheng Congyan began to attack the city.

Compared to the last siege of Tuoba and Helian. The soldiers and horses of the towns commanded by Zheng Congyan attacked the city. The military appearance is even more prosperous.

With the battalion as a unit, dozens of phalanxes were neatly laid out and marched forward in unison. Each phalanx of infantry fluttered its own flag, and countless spears lit up to form a forest of spikes.

"Raise your shield!" Beneath the purple chariot in the center of the army was a huge moving building cart. Zheng Congyan stood on top of the moving ten-zhang cloud car, commanding from a high position, taking in the entire battlefield situation. Cloud car platform. There were sixteen heralds and sixteen drummers.

With Zheng Congyan's order, there was a flag bearer waving the order flag immediately above the cloud car, and there was a herald cavalry under the cloud car to watch the cloud car at any time, and after seeing the order, he immediately sent orders to the front of each formation. "Raise your shield!" The general in front of the formation shouted loudly, and the shield men in the front row of the phalanx immediately raised huge wooden rows, these wooden rows were enough to be a man high, and the shieldmen in front could completely hide behind, these wooden rows were all improvized. It is thick and heavy, and two people must carry it together on each side. This wooden raft made of freshly cut trees. Even cowhides don't need to be covered, and they are not afraid of arrows and crossbows, nor are they afraid of fire attacks. Local materials, very easy to use.

Countless wooden rows were erected, and suddenly a wooden wall was erected in front of the entire advancing phalanx, and the soldiers of each battalion shouted the rhythm of the trumpet, advancing in order, constantly holding weapons and beating their shields, making a huge sound, and finally gathering into a neat and unified loud sound, leading the armies forward like a drumbeat.

Accompanied by the sound of shouting, the phalanxes marched in unison, and the huge drums of the hundred-sided cowhide war drums moved forward majestically like a mountain. Suddenly, the mountains were constantly persecuting the city wall, and the city looked at the clouds, as far as the eye could see, there were slowly persecuting officers and soldiers everywhere, and the blood-boiling cries resounded through the heavens and the earth!

"Datang! Datang! Datang! ”

Between the phalanxes, there were also a large number of siege equipment, including 30 catapults, 500 ladders, 100 mobile arrows, 30 building carts, 30 cloud carts, and 300 chariots.

The use of such a large number of siege equipment at one time is also quite rare in Datang in recent years. In order to manufacture these devices, tens of thousands of Tang troops spent almost five or six days.

The attacking soldiers and horses are like mountains and seas, the sound of chariots is loud, the iron armor is sonorous, and the war horses are roaring.

The footsteps were heavy and unified like thunder, and such a huge attack made Tuoba Sigong and Helian Duo feel that Zheng Congyan was too bold. In the face of a small number of defenders who could not shrink from the turtle, they actually used such a battle, it was simply to kill chickens with knives, and they could not win.

Li Youjin and other Shatuo generals who were hiding behind the soldiers at the head of the city couldn't help but look extremely ugly when they saw that Zheng Congyan did not underestimate the enemy, but instead used all his strength to attack as soon as he came up. They originally thought that by showing this weakness, Zheng Congyan should be able to directly attack the enemy, so that they could kill the other party by surprise. Who would have thought that this Zheng Congyan was not tempted at all.

It seems that this battle can only be a bloody battle.

"Are you ready?" Li Youjin asked.

"It's all ready, and the Tang Army will fight to the death!" Kang Junli and the others shouted in unison.

"Okay, herald, all-out counterattack!"

When the black pressure of the soldiers poured into the distance of two hundred paces below the city, the counterattack of the Shatuo people began.

One after another sharp whistling flew over the city, and small black dots rose from the top of the city, as if they were swarms of locusts that had suddenly flown by. One by one, the stones were rapidly expanding in the field of vision of the Tang army, and countless sharp whistling sounds came from the ears, and dozens of fist-sized stone bullets came from the sky with a huge momentum, like a meteor shower smashed into the Tang army's attacking array, and the stone bullets smashed the shield and smashed on the soldiers, splashing bright blood flowers.

Among them, there are some large head-sized throwing stones that are even more powerful, and even the huge wooden rafts in the front row are smashed and directly shattered. smashed into the army formation, directly smashed several people to death, and even bounced a few times, each time it bounced, it had to carry the lives of several soldiers.

The whole team was slightly stagnant and a little confused. But under the orders of the army, in the sound of the heroic war drums, there was only a small delay, and the 50,000-strong army continued to advance, and the soldiers in the back row stepped on the bloody corpses in the front row, and the entire phalanx was like a huge wheel advancing slowly but firmly.

At the head of the city, Li Sizhao's face sank like water, and Tang Jun's reaction made his heart heavy. In the face of such a fierce blow, the Don army was not at all like many of the opponents they had encountered before, and they had no fear.

Maybe Tang Jun is like this because of the numerical advantage, Li Sizhao comforted himself. Turning his head, he waved his hand to the crossbowman who had already prepared it: "Crossbowman prepare!" ”

"Put!"

Crossbow arrows slashed like meteors, and countless arrows descended from the city, and even though there were shields in front of them, soldiers still fell one after another. The front army on the left is an array of loyal troops, and the eight loyal and military forces have fully opened up eight large phalanxes. The eight phalanxes were led by the eight generals of Zhongwu.

The eight generals are Lu Yanhong, Han Jian, Wang Jian, Li Shitai, Zhai Cong, Zhang Zao, Li Jian, and Jin Hui.

Born as a smuggler of salt, he later received the imperial court Zhao'an and took refuge in his hometown of Xuzhou Zhongwu Army, because he betrayed many friends who sold salt in the past, handed over a lot of names, and after killing these brothers, he took a lot of private salt and the brothers' family wealth and handed it over, so he obtained the position of the head of the general. Later, Cui Anqian took over as the envoy of the Zhongwu Army, and because the Zhongwu Army was too talented and arrogant, he reorganized the Zhongwu Badu, and most of the people used were newcomers. Wang Jian was promoted to one of the eight generals because of his bravery and outstanding performance, although he was only the bottom of the eight generals, but he also led a thousand brothers.

Now no one calls him the thief king eight anymore, and the old brothers who are more familiar with the army call him the eighth brother of the king, and the others have to call him the king general. Straddled on the horse, Wang Jian held a spear, very brave. Wealth and fame are taken immediately, and the more you fight, the more chances you have to rise.

Just as he was turning back and beckoning the thousand brothers of Pontus to advance, suddenly a sharp whistling sound came, and a man with a warhorse under his crotch stood up and neighed. Wang Jian was caught off guard, and was directly thrown off the horse, and was angry in his heart, but he heard two consecutive whistles, and his war horse lay down the first crossbow arrow, but then two crossbow arrows were shot. One of them landed a foot in front of him, and the other went straight through the horse's neck, and was already dead and could not die again.

Secretly said that it was dangerous, Wang Jian hurriedly got up, and simply retreated directly into the wooden shield and then commanded on foot.

At this time, it was less than a hundred steps away from the city, but a moat ten zhang wide was blocked in front of it.

Wang Jian waved his spear and shouted, "Brothers, rush! ”

"Kill!" The soldiers with yellow turbans on their heads in the eighth capital of Zhongwu all shouted desperately, in order to cheer themselves up and forget the flesh and blood on the battlefield. Under the leadership of Wang Jian, the soldiers of the Eighth Capital took the lead in rushing to the edge of the moat, and then the seven-foot-long wooden rafts in their hands also quickly played an important role at this time, and the wooden rafts began to be connected, and the connecting interfaces were left on these wooden rafts in advance. At this time, the wooden rafts are connected to each other, and then at the joints, two wooden planks and a few large iron nails are added, and then they are tightly wound with ropes, and a simple long bridge is suddenly sitting.

Pieces of improvised bridges made of stones under the rain of arrows were pushed to the top of the moat, and a simple bridge that could accommodate one person was immediately erected. The yellow-headed army was clamoring, and Wang Jian, holding a round shield in one hand and a spear in the other, was the first to step on the rickety improvised bridge and the first to rush across the moat. The soldiers of the Eighth Capital also rushed up, with the Eighth Capital taking the lead, and the other seven Zhongwu were also driven and swarmed up.

Zheng Congyan of the Chinese army couldn't help but be overjoyed when he saw the loyal army so brave on the cloud car, and made the Chinese army fiercely step up the drums. The drums of war rumbled, and the whole army set off a climax like a tide, flooding straight to the city.

The defenders of Shatuo in the city immediately launched a fierce counterattack, arrows poured like a torrential rain, and the stones continued to whizz and fall. At this time, the largest catapults of the Shatuo people even smashed the dozens of catties of stones into the Tang army's formation, and the huge stones smashed on the ground made people feel that the mountains were shaking for a while, and no matter how well equipped the Tang army was, as long as it was hit, it would immediately become a puddle of flesh and blood.

However, in the sound of high-spirited war drums, the Tang army was quite brave at this time, and only pounced forward without any advance, regardless of casualties.

At this time, behind the infantry formation, hundreds of catapults and heavy crossbows had also reached the attack distance and began to spread out in place, ready to shoot at the defenders of the city to cover the infantry siege. (To be continued......)