Chapter 531: Bloody Bath in Anshi City (2)

On the fourth day of the seventh month of the twenty-first year of Zhenguan, at four o'clock, the sky had just dawned, and several rays of light burst out from the horizon, cutting through the gloomy sky like a sharp blade, and in an instant, a few white clouds floating in the sky were rendered into a pale golden piece, the mist in the forest gradually disappeared, and groups of early birds circled and sang in the low altitude, everything seemed so harmonious and peaceful, until a poignant horn sounded in the Tang camp, and the illusion of peace was instantly broken into pieces, replaced by an endless killing atmosphere, However, when he saw a group of Tang officers and soldiers marching out of the camp with neat steps to the beat of drums, they burst into a murderous spirit and rushed straight out of the clouds, causing the birds and birds hovering at low altitude to fly in all directions and scream again and again.

The Tang army's large-scale move, frightened not only the birds, but also the defenders at the head of the city were frightened - in the past month, although the Tang army has not stopped invading the city defense with trebuchets and ballistas, it has never been dispatched by the whole army, let alone launched a siege war. Rushing out of the city gate tower in three steps and two steps, he saw that the Tang Army Brigade was lining up towards the city wall, his pupils immediately shrank, he gasped, raised his voice and shouted: "The whole army is on alert, ready to meet the enemy!" ”

Gao Huailong has a very high prestige in the army, and is the backbone of the whole army, under his roar, the originally panicked defenders and officers immediately woke up, and suddenly agreed, each of them rushed to the battle position, clenched the blade in his hand, and looked at the Tang Army Brigade slowly on high alert, and a sense of slaughter rose spontaneously, circling over the city.

The Tang army's movements were swift and uniform, and in only half an hour or so, the Tang army had already formed a formation under the city, and the 180,000 troops were neatly lined up in more than a dozen phalanxes, and the crowd of black crows stood silently, overflowing with murderous energy, and while waiting silently, the morale gradually rose to an extreme.

When the sun slowly poked its head out of the mountain peaks, the morning light that should have been soft was actually bloody, Li Zhen, who was standing in the middle of the army, looked up at the sky, and then raised his hand, waved down violently, and shouted: "Beat the drum, march into the army!" Suddenly, more than a dozen drummers lined up not far behind Li Zhen raised their drumsticks at the same time, and suddenly beat violently, the passionate drum sounded, and more than 100,000 troops broke out at the same time The strongest sound, the battle horn of "Tang Dynasty Might" shook the sky, and the Tang Army's trebuchet position, which had been on call for a long time, roared into action, more than 150 trebuchets of all kinds were launched in unison, shooting huge stone projectiles to the city, at the same time, more than 2,000 musketeers from Yan Donglai's department ran forward, jumped into the circular trench, and rushed forward along the traffic ditch, Arriving at the first line more than 120 paces from the city, more than 2,000 muskets poked out from the edge of the ditch and pointed at the head of the city in unison, ready to open fire at any time.

After five rounds of bombardment, hundreds of stone bullets smashed the city into a mess, smoke and dust billowed up, although the momentum was huge, how could the Goguryeo army have long been accustomed to the bombardment of the Tang army of this intensity, and they knew how to deal with it - in addition to leaving dozens of observation posts hiding behind the city plate on the head of the city, the rest of the people were hiding under the city wall, standing close to the city wall, so let the Tang army's trebuchet position attack no matter how fierce it was, It can't do much damage to the defenders, at most it is just to destroy the ancillary facilities on the city that have long been broken again, and as for the rest, there is really no great gain.

Obviously, the Tang army also knew that the stone bomb offensive could not be effective, and after six rounds of bombardment, the Tang army did not continue to waste its efforts, and after a sound of horns, the trebuchet position under the rain of bullets stopped, and at the same time, the 3,000 infantry of Cheng Wuting's headquarters began to slowly press forward with cloud ladders and other siege equipment on their shoulders, stepping over the wooden planks covered on the first trench, and forcing towards the city. The frightened observation post at the head of the city noticed the whereabouts of the Tang army's siege troops, and immediately shouted: "The Tang army is coming, the Tang army is coming......

"Go to the city, quick, go to the city, get ready to meet the enemy!" Gao Huailong, who was hiding from the stone bullets at the base of the city wall, heard the shouts of the observation post, quickly stood up, and roared loudly, and the defenders who had just woken up from the dizziness immediately listened to the order and rushed to the city from the stairs on both sides of the city gate, so they panicked, but suddenly found that although the Tang Army Cheng Wuting was approaching the city wall, it did not accelerate forward, and was always walking there unhurriedly. The officers and soldiers of the defenders who were probing their brains at the top of the city fell in large numbers.

"Demon law, demon law!"

"It's a divine soldier!"

……

The defenders of the city had never seen the power of the muskets at all, and they had vaguely seen the officers and soldiers of the Tang Army Firearms Battalion lying in the trenches, holding a long pipe in their hands facing the city, and they didn't care, but at this time, seeing the sound of gunfire, everyone didn't find out what was shooting at the city, and many of the comrades-in-arms around them had fallen to the ground, and they were all spurting blood from their wounds.

"Don't mess around, squat, all squat!" When Gao Huailong was standing behind the city to observe the movements of the Tang army, he was also scratched on the forehead by the stray bullets flying sideways, but fortunately, it was just a bruise, and there was no big problem, but he was also startled by the power of the Tang army's musket team.

"General Gao, you are injured......"

"General Gao, Tang Kou has played a demon trick, how should this be?"

"General Gao, are you alright?"

……

After Gao Huailong roared, a group of frightened officers and soldiers found out that Gao Huailong was also injured, and immediately gathered towards Gao Huailong, shouting in unison.

"It's okay, I'm going to be fine, it's just a little bit of skin." Gao Huailong pushed away the two guards who rushed forward to help, waved the horizontal knife in his hand, cut off a corner of the robe on his body, used it as a towel, held it in one hand, wiped it on his face indiscriminately, wiped away the flowing blood, pressed the bleeding wound hard, and gestured with the horizontal knife with the other hand, and said in a very sure tone: "Don't panic, Tang Kou is not playing a demon technique, but a crossbow gun, all step back, don't show your head easily!" ”

Gao Huailong actually didn't know what the musket was at all, that is, he just said it nonsense, his intention was just to appease the army, but when he said that, all the officers and soldiers really believed it, and squatted behind the city plate one after another, carefully observing the Tang army's actions through the arrow holes, so that although the Tang army's musket battalion still kept shooting, the city walls and city plates were splashed everywhere, and some of the defender soldiers who showed their heads were killed inadvertently. But it was difficult to achieve the same brilliant results as the first shot, and the defenders of the city were completely suppressed by the musket battalion.

Just when the Tang army musketeers were shooting happily, the Tang army's trebuchet position was also launched again, huge stone bullets flew in the air, hovering and smashing towards the city, this time because of the approach of Cheng Wuting's department, the Goguryeo defenders did not dare to easily withdraw from the city, they could only carry it on the city, and were greeted down by this chaotic stone, the defenders of the city head suffered heavy casualties, the city was full of stumps and broken arms, and the flesh and blood stains could be seen everywhere, and its condition could be described as miserable, but the Goguryeo defenders were eager to defend their homeland, Still gritted his teeth and persevered, and did not retreat because of the fierce attack of the Tang army, and after a few rounds of stone bullets, the dizzy Goguryeo defenders showed their heads, but they were shocked to find that the Cheng Wuting Division, which was constantly approaching, was still walking more than 150 steps away, and there was no intention of taking advantage of the situation to launch a siege war.

There must be something wrong with this! Gao Huailong saw that the situation was extremely strange, and a bad premonition immediately surged in his heart, but he couldn't figure out what kind of medicine was sold in the Tang army's gourd, although he expected that the Tang army was very likely to surprise the army, but in the face of the dual threat of the Tang army's musketeers and trebuchets, Gao Huailong hesitated again and again, but still didn't dare to pull the reserve team up to the city to fill the loopholes in the city defense due to the loss of nearly half of the soldiers, frowned and thought for a while, called a herald to his side, and just wanted to explain a few words, The mutation took place - a dull bang rose from the ground, and a section of the city wall that was about thirty feet away from the city gate tower suddenly arched with a roar, and then sank down heavily, and the smoke and dust and gravel that soared into the sky instantly exploded all over the sky, and even went up to the blue sky, forming a huge black mushroom cloud, and the entire city wall also waved, like water ripples from the explosion along the city wall to both ends, all the objects on the city's head, whether people or things, All of them jumped off the ground by the impact of this huge shock wave. Affected by this great change, the defenders who were still able to hold their positions under the attack of the Tang army's trebuchets could no longer bear their strength, and all the survivors rushed to the stairs by the city wall, frantically crowded to try to escape from this terrifying hell, although Gao Huailong was eager to stop the collapse of the army, how could the people's hearts have been completely confused at this time, since no one would listen to its call, and at the end, it was Gao Huailong himself who was also carried by the guards, and stumbled down the city.

This sudden explosion not only frightened the defenders in the city, but also a group of Tang officers and soldiers under the city were also taken aback, and they didn't know what was going on.

Well done! It's done, haha, it's finally done! As soon as she heard the explosion, Li Zhen immediately laughed, and excitedly pulled the hand holding the reins of the horse. Needless to say, this explosion is Li Zhen's masterpiece - Li Zhen previously ordered to dig trenches, in addition to creating a favorable condition for the musketeers to dispatch, more importantly, to take this opportunity to dig a tunnel to bury gunpowder, the reason why the trebuchet position for more than half a month in a row to attack the city head regardless of loss is also to cover up this secret operation - this tunnel did not dig into the city, but only under the city wall, by the Shenji battalion is responsible, nearly 4,000 catties of high-quality black gunpowder were buried in the tunnel, under this explosion, The effect was really shocking, although the dust had not yet settled, and it was impossible to see how much damage the explosion had caused to the city walls, but Li Zhen knew that the Goguryeo defenders in the city must have been frightened - the fighter plane appeared!

Fighters are often always fleeting, once the defenders reacted, dispatched troops to seal the breakthrough, this battle can be difficult to fight, only while the defenders are still in chaos, can they break into the city in one fell swoop, this truth Li Zhen is very clear, therefore, Li Zhen did not wait for the dust to settle, and did not care about some signs of instability in his own camp, he was full of energy, and shouted: "Drums!" At the same time, as the second echelon support, Xue Rengui's 5,000 infantry also pressed forward as a whole team, and arrived in the open space between the two trenches, ready to meet the stroke troops at any time, and the battle of breaking the city was officially kicked off.

Although black powder is a rare thing, it does sound very loud when it explodes, a large firecracker of four thousand catties, it sounds really strong, but it is a pity that the power of black powder is not too big, so many of them are piled together, although the earth is shaken, and it barely blows down a section of the city wall, but it failed to level the entire section of the city wall as Li Zhen expected in advance, just blew out a collapse area of about ten zhang, forming a pile of rocks, this kind of terrain is not too favorable for the Tang army besieging the city, It is almost impossible to rush into the city as a group, but in any case, it is better than climbing a ladder to attack the city.

It was too late, it was fast, and the Cheng Wu Ting, who had been on call for a long time, heard the drums behind him, and he didn't dare to slack off, and rushed all the way to the place where the city collapsed in the face of the splashing gravel, only to find that the large army could not rush in from the collapse of the city wall, so he had to divide into three ways, all the way to climb the pile of rocks, and the other two roads set up ladders one after another, and climbed to the two ends of the city wall at the collapsed place, trying to control the breakthrough here, so as to attack inside and outside, and take the outer city wall in one fell swoop, so as to open the city gate and let the follow-up army enter the city.

More than a dozen big drums in the Tang army's formation were beating very loudly, not only the one-way enemy Long Wuting heard it, but also Gao Huailong, who was being carried by the guards in the city to retreat to a safe place, also heard it clearly, at this time, although Gao Huailong did not know how the Tang army made such a big explosion, but he knew that the Tang army was prepared. A pair of eyes were red as blood staring at the dust-shrouded city fall, and shouted anxiously: "Quick, it is rumored that Dawu will immediately lead his troops to block the city fall, and tell Hou Tao and Liu Hu to go to the city immediately, prepare to meet the enemy, go quickly!" ”

Several guards saw that Gao Huailong's bloody face was extremely hideous, and they did not dare to slack off, they each answered, and ran separately to the defenders of the city who were in chaos, and announced Gao Huailong's combat orders to the main generals one by one, fortunately, Gao Huailong dug tunnels to prevent the Tang army from entering the city, and the army garrisons were not too far from the city wall. Tried to resist the offensive of the Don army.

Gao Huailong's reaction can not be said to be unhappy, how can he just realize it in hindsight, plus the generals of the army also spent some time to rectify the team, when the defenders moved out in a big way, the Tang army has already climbed to the top of the city, and more than 100 soldiers have climbed to the highest point of the city under the leadership of a burly captain, and they are charging down the slope, and they are about to break into the city, and the situation is at a critical moment for the Goguryeo defenders!

Not good! As soon as he saw that the figure of the Tang army in the smoke and dust had already appeared within the city wall, Gao Huailong's heart immediately cooled half, and in a panic, he grabbed the last guard beside him, and commanded in a low voice: "Quick, go to Lord Yang, please be sure to close the inner city, no matter what, don't send help, go quickly!" ”

"Ah......" As soon as the guard heard Gao Huailong's words, it was clear that he was planning to martyr the city, and he was so frightened that he looked at Gao Huailong with round eyes, and he didn't move for a long time.

"Bastard, don't go yet!" Gao Huailong knew that today's battle was sad, this enemy dragon was anxious all the time, seeing that the guard was actually in a daze at this juncture, he was furious, and with a wave of his hand, the knife was already on the guard's neck.

"Ah, ah, yes, yes, subordinates obey!" Seeing that Gao Huailong was angry, the guard dared to hesitate, hurriedly answered, jumped on horseback, and hurried towards the direction of the inner city.

"Sons, the time has come to fight hard, for the sake of my city, fight hard to kill thieves! Kill! Kill! Kill! Gao Huailong glanced at the direction of the inner city with a memorist, and then resolutely turned his head, looked around at the more than 100 officers and soldiers who were still gathered around him, and shouted loudly, regardless of whether he was injured, he rushed to the city to kill him......

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