Chapter 165: Fighting for Hetao (30)

The gray walls of Jingyuan City are tall and strong. There is a tall wooden pole in the middle of the city gate. A large eagle flag flutters in the wind. The eagles on the flag are swaying in the wind, just like living things.

Liu Heigou jumped out of the military formation with his horse, took the eagle-feathered arrow tied with a letter, pulled a full moon, looked at the big eagle flag on the city tower, and shot it out. The eagle-feathered arrow shot on the flagpole as thick as a bowl, like thunder, and the arrow tail kept trembling. Several soldiers standing next to the flagpole were frightened by the arrow.

Although the flagpole was as thick as a bowl, it looked like a thin line from the bottom of the city. Liu Heigou shot the flagpole with an arrow, which is worthy of being the most beautiful archer in the Black Eagle Army. The Black Eagle Army soldiers and united soldiers under the city shouted "Okay", and their voices were shocking.

The letter from the Black Eagle Army was quickly delivered to Fang Dangdu. Fang Dangdu's two sword eyebrows were twisted into a ball, and the letters were torn into pieces one after another, and then the palms were opened, and countless pieces turned into dancing butterflies and fell to the city.

Shi Gaojin followed Fangdangdu, looking at the Black Eagle Army with a strict appearance under the city, he was a little uneasy. Sogdian merchant Taiqing had already arrived in Jingyuan City. He knew that his daughter Shi Gao Yueming was pregnant with the child of Hou Dayong, the leader of the Black Eagle Army. Hou Dayong became his son-in-law. Shi Gaojin couldn't help but sigh inwardly: The wonders of the world are really amazing.

Shi Gaojin has a very clear understanding of the current situation. There are only two ways to go to Fangdangren:

A road moved northward, just like Fang Danghanhai. Fang Danghanhai was an overly cautious general in his mind, and he barely squeezed into Fang Danghan's ranks of the Five Tigers. However, when Fang Dangren was in critical survival, Fang Danghanhai made the bold decision to move his family westward, which was indeed extraordinary courage and wisdom, and was not inferior to Fang Dangming. Perhaps the move to move westward could make Fang Dangren rise again.

Another way is to surrender to the Black Eagle Army. Surrender also has precedents among the Dangxiang tribe. The most powerful Tuoba tribe of the Dangxiang tribe accepted the reward from the Tang Empire. After decades of operation, it was possible to have today's situation of strong troops and strong horses.

The Great Zhou Dynasty had a vast land, manpower and material resources. Even if the Zhou army was defeated in a moment, it would soon make a comeback. What's more, the Black Eagle Army was brave and powerful, and Fangdangjun was fragmented and there was a trend of division within it. If it was fought with the Black Eagle Army, it would be really not worth the loss. From a rational point of view, Shi Gaojin hoped that Fangdangmen would surrender to the Great Zhou Dynasty and gain relative peace time and environment for rest and recuperation. Within ten years, Fangdangren could recover their vitality. The Tuoba people used this strategy to gain strength beyond the Dangxiang tribes, but Shi Gaojin was just a guest chat, and such major decisions could not be easily issued.

Fang Dangdu stared at Zhou Jun under the city for a long time, and said to Fang Dang Jinjia, who was standing beside him with some fatigue: "Look at the way the Black Eagle Army looks, I won't launch an attack today. There may be a fierce battle tomorrow. I want to rest for a while, and you will stare at the city wall."

Shi Gaojin followed Fang Dangdu and walked down the city wall silently. Fang Dangjun general He Genggeng led a team of troops to guard the city gate and said, "The Black Eagle Army is good at using gunpowder. The gate of Tongxin City is blown up by the Black Eagle Army gunpowder. You must always pay attention to the movements outside the city gate. If there is a sound of digging the ground, you must attack immediately."

He Genggeng patted his chest with confidence and said, "Every city gate guards are ready to listen. As long as someone digs a tunnel and leaves four miles away, you will know."

Fang Dangdu wanted to say a few words to boost morale, but opened his mouth a few times and gave up. Finally, he patted He Genggeng's muscular shoulder with his hand and said, "Thank you for your hard work."

Jingyuan City was originally a city of Uighurs. When Fangdangjun marched into Jingyuan City, most of the Uighurs fled Jingyuan City. Only some old and weak stayed in the city. Although more than 10,000 Dangxiang civilians were moved from Qingshui River, Jingyuan City, which had passed the war, was greatly declining. In the past, merchants gathered and the scenic spots of people traveling everywhere no longer existed.

Fang Dangdu walked towards the mansion with a daze, and the crisis of Fang Dangdu was heavily pressed on Fang Dangdu's shoulders, which made him feel breathless. His back, which was straight in the past, seemed to become a little curved. Shi Gaojin saw Fang Dangdu's hunched back several times, but he wanted to open his mouth but shrank back.

Just as he was about to walk to the mansion, Fang Dangdu stopped worryingly and said to Shi Gaojin: "Just just now, the Black Eagle Army shot up a letter of advice to surrender. I want to hear Fang Dangzhijin's opinion. Please ask him to come to the tent."

Shi Gaojin hesitated for a moment and said, "Fangdangzhijin will never come to the mansion. I suggest you make an appointment to meet at a place."

After Fang Dangling was killed, Fang Dangzhi Jin still had more than a thousand soldiers on the battlefield for a long time. Fang Dangdu could not solve the problem. However, Fang Dangdu was granted the title of Fang Dangjin as the deputy commander, and temporarily stabilized the situation.

Fang Dangdu smiled bitterly and said, "Then make an appointment with a suitable location. But it should be faster, the Black Eagle Army will attack the city tomorrow morning."

It's safe and sound at night.

He Genggeng prepared dozens of soldiers, and the guards held three places behind the city gate to prevent the Black Eagle Army soldiers from digging gunpowder at the city gate. Some stones and thick ropes were also prepared on the city wall. As long as someone wanted to attack, they would use stones or let the suicide sergeants rush down the city to eliminate the Black Eagle Army soldiers who had the sneak attack at the city gate.

The soldiers who held the ground did not dare to relax at all. One night, they only heard the sound of snoring from the Black Eagle Army camp one after another.

Early the next morning, Fangdangjun on the city wall appeared on the city wall with sleepy eyes. They were surprised to find dozens of trenchers piled up in front of the Black Eagle Army outside the city. These trenchers were made by Guo Baoyu working overtime and were heavy weapons equipped by the Black Eagle Army.

The Black Eagle Army did not prepare for the Fang army. With the sound of a drum, countless fireballs flew over the city walls in a turbulent manner. The fireballs were made very exquisitely. A sealed fire pot filled with hot tinsel oil. A layer of cloth strips soaked with hot tinsel oil on the outside. When the catapult car started, the cloth strips were ignited and a fireball formed. After the fireball landed, the pot would burst and the hot tinsel oil inside would burn quickly. In order to avoid the pot being heated and exploded in the middle, Guo Baoyu also specially made a batch of fire-resistant and heated pots.

The houses in Jingyuan City are mainly earthen houses, and the roofs are also made of a lot of wood. A small number of houses are made of all wood. The fireballs fell into the city. After a while, it caused a big fire. The people and Fangdangmen in the city rushed to put out the fire. Before they could put out the fire, the Black Eagle Army roared in the second round of attacks. This time, it was real stones, and many people who were putting out the fire were immediately hit by dense stones.

These stones weigh more than 20 kilograms, and they fell on the ground and left deep pits. After the first round of attacks, the houses behind the East City Gate were already broken walls. Countless people fled to the center of the city in panic under the threat of stones. After the stone attack stopped, they hid in the ground house on the city wall and became soldiers before they came out from all corners, returned to their posts, waiting for the possible attack by the Black Eagle Army.

However, the Black Eagle Army did not launch an attack, but was just arranged neatly outside the city.

On the catapult position, there were four particularly large catapults, each catapult surrounded dozens of soldiers. After the first round of catapult attacks, an hour later, a loud "boom" sound was heard. A huge rock of hundreds of kilograms flew towards the city wall, and the huge rock hit the city wall heavily. The bottom of the city wall of Jingyuan City was about twelve or three meters, and the top was five or six meters. The 100 kilograms of huge rock fell from the sky, laying down a large piece of the city wall.

The power of the stone made the soldiers of both armies open their mouths wide. Then, the Black Eagle Army cheered, and Fang Dangjun remained silent except for several exclamations.

Shortly after the first huge rock fell, another huge rock flew into the sky.

The stone flew out at a low angle and did not meet the launch requirements. A large sergeant responsible for commanding the launch of the boulder raised his foot, kicked a sergeant in the butt, and cursed angrily: "Don't you have eyes?"

The huge rock was launched once, and dozens of people needed to work together. The sergeant was responsible for positioning. He had a little less mastery. He was about to fall into the moat of Jingyuan City. The huge rock did not fall into the moat as imagined, but it was magically smashing the suspension bridge. It smashed the suspension bridge into two sections. Half of the suspension bridge was still on the city wall, while the other section fell down.

Hou Dayong watched the soldiers throw stones on the city wall quietly. The Stone-Tail Camp attacked this time, one was to test the effect of the Stone-Tailing Machine and cultivate new stone-Tailing players, and the other was to intimidate the people in the room and force them to surrender.

Since Fang Danghanhai led the main force of the Dangxiang Army to move westward, about half of the people on the Qingshui River followed. At this time, Jingyuan City was an isolated city, and sticking to the lonely city was a dead end. Hou Dayong had never had the idea of ​​attacking Jingyuan City forcing him to force himself. Every soldier was a precious wealth, and it was not worth the loss to consume it in the siege.

The commander of the Stone-Toping Army was Yang Tianpan, the deputy commander of the Wolf Army. He was originally the commander of the cavalry of the Qingzhou Army. During the war in the northwest, the Qingzhou Cavalry was organized into an independent army. After the Northwest Jiedushi replaced the defense, the Qingzhou Army naturally became part of the Black Eagle Army. After the establishment of the Stone-Toping Army, Yang Tianpan was transferred to serve as the commander of the Stone-Toping Army. The Stone-Toping Army had fifty medium-sized Stone-Toping Army, four large Stone-Toping Army, and 1,500 soldiers who had turned from the united soldiers.

Yang Tianpan served as the commander of the Black Eagle Army as the commander of the Qingzhou Army, which also made him feel that Hou Dayong was quite useful. The battle in Jingyuan City was the first attack of the Tap Stone Camp. Although the Tap Stone Camp did not need to be close to the enemy, Yang Tianpan deliberately put on black black iron armor, cleaned the war horses, and commanded the Tap Stone Camp's attack majestic.

After the attacks of the medium-sized catapult and two large catapults, Yang Tianpan ran over the position of the catapult camp and came to Hou Dayong, and reported loudly: "Report to the Jiedushi, the first attack of the catapult camp has ended. Will the second attack be launched?"

Hou Dayong looked at Fang Dangjun running back and forth on the top of the city and said to Yang Tianpan: "It seems that there is no problem with using large catapults. Collect four catapults and bombard the city gate."

Yang Tianpan said with some shame: "A large catapult car has malfunctioned and cannot be used anymore."

"Is Guo Baoyu here? Can I resolve it in time?"

"Guo Baoyu's eldest disciple Guo Luojin was in front of the formation. He said that the huge stone was too heavy and the cross beam of the catapult cart was broken and could no longer be used. If forced to use it, it is very likely to cause problems."

"Since that's the case, there is no need to force the use of a boulder cart, and all the catapults are concentrated to bombard the city gate."

After some preparation, all the catapults headed towards the city gate. With Yang Tianpan's order, dozens of huge rocks smashed into the city gate. For a moment, there were "rumbling" sounds of huge rocks hitting the city gate. Fangdang, the army at the East City Gate, was terrified and was killed by Fangdangdu, and then returned to the city wall.

During this round of fierce attack, fourteen more catapults had problems. Seeing that the Huohou was almost done, Hou Dayong ordered the attack to stop.

The city wall where the catapults concentrated attacks showed damage and cracks.

Liu Heigou was ordered to leave the line. At this time, the flagpole of the Big Eagle Flag had been smashed by stones. Liu Heigou looked around for targets. He saw a general wearing a helmet on the city wall, and he aimed at the enemy's helmet and shot a lightning arrow.

The enemy general on the city wall was He Genggeng. His personal guards were smashed into pieces of meat by stones falling from the sky. He Genggeng had a hot temper. He wished he could immediately rush out of the city to fight with the Black Eagle Army to the death. Unfortunately, the enemy was strong and we were weak. Countless crossbows were eyeing the city gate outside the city gate, and He Genggeng could only worry on the city wall.

After the attack of the catapult car outside the city was suspended, He Genggeng was driving Fangdang's sergeant back to the city wall. Suddenly, an arrow flew out of the city and headed straight to He Genggeng's head. He Genggeng was a veteran of the long-term battle position. After hearing the sharp roar, he thought it was not good and suddenly fell back. The eagle feather arrow flew over the helmet, but the feather tip on the helmet was still shot down. After the eagle feather arrow shot down the feather tip, he hit the shoulder of a faith sergeant beside He Genggeng.

After Liu Heigou shot this arrow, the Black Eagle Army began to camp and rest. Dozens of chariots tightly blocked the four doors, and behind the chariot was Huang Hua crossbowman who took turns to rest.

The central army tent is located at the East City Gate. After camping, Hou Dayong was idle and took out the Hou card made in Lingzhou. The Hou card was actually playing cards. The last time Meng Shu came to Tongxin City, he brought iron-shell paper specially made for Hou Dayong. This paper has a high hardness and is close to modern playing cards. However, its flexibility is much worse. Hou Dayong cuts the iron-shell paper into some rectangles and makes a Hou card. Hou Dayong likes to play a game called Doudizhu, and his level is not bad. His master Gao Yueming, Gao Luqi, Luo Qingsong and Fengsha all learned to play this kind of game. After Hou Dayong handled his official duties, Doudizhu became a popular game in the inner courtyard of the Hou Mansion.

The purpose of this siege battle was to intimidate. Therefore, after fighting for a day, the city suffered a great loss under the attack of the catapult. The Black Eagle Army even sprained and did not break the skin. Hou Dayong was extremely relaxed and called Feng Sha and Luo Qingsong in. The three of them fought the landlords in the tent. Luo Qingsong repeatedly used stinky cards and was punished to do 500 burp burps one after another.

Hou Dayong fought fiercely in the tent. This leisure came from the absolute advantage of the battlefield and was not strong. Fang Dangdu was suffering from the hot pot. Fang Dangzhijin refused the first appointment request. After this day of siege, Fang Dangzhijin agreed to Fang Dangdu's request for a meeting. Fang Dangdu and Fang Dangzhijin took their respective hands to the Shi Gaojin's mansion.

"Surrender, or fight?" Fang Dangdu asked the commanders to read the letter of persuasion that Hou Dayong shot up.

Fang Dangzhi Jin and the Hei Diao Army fought with each other more than ten times and knew very well about the Hei Diao Army. He was dissatisfied with Fang Dangdu's killing Fang Dangling, and snorted, but did not speak.

The situation of the battle was like this, and the generals kept silent. They had personally experienced the combat effectiveness of the Black Eagle Army. No general knew that he was naively convinced that more than 3,000 remaining soldiers could break the siege of the Black Eagle Army.

After looking at each other for a while, Fang Dangdu said slowly: "Hou Dayong said wildly. If he did not surrender, he would be massacred after the city was destroyed. What do the generals think?"

Fang Dangzhi Jin stood up. At the beginning of the war, he was a low-level general. Fang Dangzhi Jin suffered a lot of losses. Fang Dangzhi Jin also slowly stood out and became a general who was the solemn leader of the army. "After Fang Danghanhai retreated to Juyanhai, the Qingshui River basin was controlled by the Black Eagle Army. Fangdang people had no soldiers to fight. If they retreated to Xifeng, Mi captured the tribes. With their current strength, they could only obey them, without any resistance. I suggest looking for an opportunity to break through and go to Juyanhai to join Fangdanghanhai."

Fang Dangming assassinated Fang Dang Wang He was a very secret matter. When the incident happened, even Fang Dangdu didn't know. After Fang Dangdu arrived in Jingyuan City, a close confidant in Fang Dangming escaped by chance, and then quietly reported the matter to Fang Dangdu. Fang Dangdu learned about this and was shocked and sweated. Judging from Fang Dang Hanhai's actions, he seemed to have known about it. Fang Dangdu secretly thanked: How wise it was to not go to Xihuizhou at the beginning.

At this time, Fang Dangzhijin proposed to join Fang Danghanhai. Fang Dangdu knew in his heart: All the generals here could join Fang Danghanhai, but he could not. But this matter could not be said clearly.

Fang Dangdu pondered for a long time and said, "The Black Eagle Army surrounded Jingyuan City to death. It is not easy to break through. I heard that Hou Dayong was very generous to surrendered generals. After Tu Shaodu surrendered, his troops were released back to Lanzhou. After the Tubo man Dabu surrendered Hou Dayong, he was able to Ruoergai grassland."

Fang Dangzhi Jin stood up with a "tiger" position. He did not expect that with Xiaoying's arrogant temperament, he would also think of surrender, and said, "If our army breaks through with all its strength, it may be impossible to break out of a bloody path."

Of course, Fang Dangdu could not say that if he arrived in Juyanhai, he would be dead. He shook his head and said, "It's okay for the soldiers to say that the people in the city cannot escape. Hou Dayong has issued a city massacre order. I don't want to make the people suffer with all my benefits."

Fang Dangdu talks about the people, and Fang Dangdu has nothing to say for a moment.

Fang Dangdu said again: "I have decided, and I will immediately send someone out of the city to negotiate terms with the Black Eagle Army. What objections does the General Zhijin have? If the general is unwilling to surrender to the Black Eagle Army, then after the Black Eagle Army retreats, you will lead your troops to join the house and be the Hanhai."
Chapter completed!