Chapter 297: The troops are divided into two groups

Wang Siyu took the wooden pole, walked quickly to the sand table, pointed to Xingxing Gorge and said: "The Uighurs' intention to occupy Xingxing Gorge is very obvious. They want to block us in Hexi, and not stab him in the back. Jiegangas's idea is good, but he forgot one thing that we have built, Baiyun Castle and Minghui Castle, were both built, and no one knows the weaknesses of the castle structure than us. As long as gunpowder is placed on the weak points of the castle, I have estimated that thirty pounds will be enough to blow them up and collapse, but I also know that the governor may not want to do this for the time being."

"Speak!" Zhang Huan was already full of interest, and the last sentence was what he cared about.

"Jiegangas wanted to use two castles to block us in Hexi. He set up a trap for himself. Then we waited patiently, making him think that we could not rush out of Hexi, and it was easy for us to go out. In this way, the initiative was in our hands. Not only that, he also created a plan for us to 'open construction of the plank road and secretly traveling to Chencang'."

Speaking of this, Wang Siyu took a deep breath and pointed the wooden pole to the south of Dunhuang. "From Puchanghai (now Lop Nur) along the Qiemo River, we seized Boxian Town, so that we could penetrate the Tubo people. Does the governor understand what I mean?"

Zhang Huan smiled, Wang Sihuguo did coincide with him. He breathed a sigh of relief and said with relief: "You have made great progress now and have changed from General Xiangshuai. But there is one thing I want to remind you that you must not underestimate the enemy. You obviously underestimated Jie Gangas. Do you think he could not think of the road to Puchanghai? I am sure that his intention to occupy Xingxing Gorge is not just to block us from going west. He just hopes that we can stab the Tubo people behind."

Wang Siyu was solemn, "I have remembered the governor's teachings."

"Although this is what Jegangas thought, it is also beneficial to us."

Zhang Huan pondered for a moment, and then solemnly said to Wang Siyu: "I have great expectations for you. If I can take Anxi this time, I plan to let you governor Anxi and Beiting. So you will work harder in this battle in Anxi, do you understand?"

Wang Siyu nodded silently. He understood what Zhang Huan meant, that was, to lead him to the south to Boxian Town. He bowed and replied, "I understand!"

"It's good that you understand. This time I go south, I hope you can do something for me."

Zhang Huan walked to the tent with his hands behind his back. He stared at the blood-red sunset in the distance that had dyed the west. His tone was a little sad. He slowly said: "You must bring the soldiers who have been alone in Anxi for my Tang Dynasty back to Hexi for twenty years. You must remember that this is your real task."

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That night, Wang Siyu led 20,000 cavalry and tens of thousands of war horses to leave Xingxing Gorge and head towards Dunhuang County. In the next half month, Zhang Huan almost stopped moving. At this time, the court also sent an edict to accept him as the Grand Marshal of the West to take back Beiting and Anxi. At the same time, the Tang court sent Shen Fang, the chief censor, as the envoy of Tubo, and Han Chaocai, the Minister of Taipu Temple, as the envoy of the Uighurs, to go to the two countries to formally negotiate, demanding that they withdraw from the Western Regions of the Tang Dynasty.

In mid-June, the Uighur army arrived at Yanqi Town. At the same time, 20,000 reinforcements from Tubo also arrived at Yanqi Town. The two armies broke out in fierce war to compete for this town. The Uighur general Meng Liandagan pretended to be defeated, but killed a Huimazhan and defeated the Tubo army that had just relaxed. The Tubo army retreated to Kucha. The Uighur occupied Yanqi in one fell swoop. Jiegangas changed his previous style of pursuing victory and ordered the army to station Yanqi Town, began to repair the city walls, collect cattle and sheep, and sent troops to station Tiemen Pass, Zhang Sancheng Guard, Yu Shu Guard and other castle passes to carry out a steady and erosion battle.

On June 20, Zhang Huan received news of the battle between Yanqi, and he immediately realized that the opportunity he had been waiting for for a long time had finally come.

This is a moonless night. The dark clouds are drooping, and darkness is pressing on the mountains. The tall and dark mountains are like giant monsters with ferocious faces. The night has completely swallowed them up.

Minghui Castle is like a foot of a giant monster, built tightly against the mountain. Like Baiyun Castle, it is strong and tall, easy to defend and difficult to attack. Compared with the other two castles, it has a more powerful momentum of being a one-man and being unable to open. It is built on a protruding ridge. It is this ridge more than ten feet high that cuts the Xingxing Gorge across, like a dam that infantry can turn over with bare hands, but the cavalry and baggage cannot pass through and can only pass through the castle.

In the night, the ground could not accumulate heat, and the sultry heat during the day had been driven away by a gust of cool breeze, which was very cool. At this moment, the brigade of Tang troops had already lurked three miles east of the castle, waiting for news from the special service camp. Zhang Huan stood on a big rock, staring at the dark fortress in the distance with deep eyes.

As Wang Siyu said, both Minghui Castle and Baiyun Castle do have structural defects. It is not that the city gate has no moat, but that the castles are built on the mountain. There is no city wall on the side of the mountain. The long and short stone strips close to the mountain, which seem uneven, and there are gaps after gaps. The largest gap can even penetrate into a person. This structural defect makes a section of the city wall behind the mountain look like building blocks. Without support, you can easily hit the wall with just a siege hammer.

This structural defect is not because the Tang army did not want to make up for it, but because the castle had just been repaired for two months. However, even those who know about the castle may not be able to do this. There is a steep slope below that section of the city wall. Not to mention attacking the city rail, even the soldiers had nowhere to work while carrying the bumping wood.

The Uighurs couldn't do it, but the Tang army, or the Xiliang army, was different because they had a unique weapon.

The one who carried out the secret mission was naturally the Fei Yuan team in the special service camp. They were not many, less than a hundred people, but they all had the unique skills of flying eaves and walls. In the rugged Star Gorge, they walked like flying and walking on flat ground, but only three people were carrying out the mission. They carefully selected them from the hundred people. Not only were they more agile, but they were also bold and careful.

At this moment, the three of them were less than 200 steps away from Minghui Castle. They were wearing black night clothes, each carrying a flat thin iron box, each containing twenty kilograms of gunpowder. After three years of research and testing, the Xiliang Army's development of gunpowder has become increasingly in-depth. Not only has the proportion of nitrate in the gunpowder increased from 60% to 72% of the original, increasing the explosive power, but also mastered more fine grinding methods, making the gunpowder grains as small as corn and full and smooth, but because it had to be manually ground, the output was never increased.

The three of them ran like cunning rabbits, sometimes hiding behind the big stones, sometimes lying behind. Under the cover of dark night, the three of them finally arrived behind a big stone about fifty steps away from the stone fort. Patrol soldiers on the city kept walking back and forth, watching the movements under the city. Several special wells were dug in the city, with new tanks and a piece of cowhide covered with cowhide. In this way, the gangs of soldiers within two miles of the castle could be heard clearly.

Going further forward, the three of them were exposed to the sight of the patrolmen. They had already planned. As soon as they jumped, the three of them climbed up the stone wall one after another. With the protection of the lush vines on the stone wall, they climbed towards the city wall bit by bit.

After fifty steps, they climbed for a quarter of an hour, less than ten feet from the city wall. When they kicked their feet in the stone nest, they landed lightly under the city wall like three monkeys, silently and breathlessly, tightly against the city wall.

At this time, a patrolman in the city had a dazzled eyes. He seemed to have seen something on the stone wall. He rubbed his eyes and saw a few vines shaking on the stone wall, without any abnormality. He leaned his head down and looked down, but still didn't see anything.

‘Maybe Ye Snake came out of the hole.’ He muttered, then turned around and walked in the other direction.

Three Tang soldiers emerged from the gap between the city wall and the stone wall. According to the instructions of the craftsmen who built the city wall, they found the place where the gunpowder was placed, which was a large loose bluestone at the base of the wall.

‘One, two, three!’ The three of them whispered together and tried hard together. With a slight sliding sound, the bluestone was pushed one foot deep, and the three of them immediately hid again. After a while, seeing that there was no movement in the city, the three of them came to the bluestone again and pressed against the bluestone with their feet. ‘One, two, three!’ The three of them tried hard again. The bluestone was finally pushed into the wall, revealing a square hole that was one foot high, three feet long and five feet deep, enough to place the gunpowder box on their bodies.

The three of them embedded the gunpowder box into the hole, and calculated it very accurately. The height of the three gunpowders stacked together was exactly one foot. One of the tall and thin Tang Army took out a rope and carefully tied the three leads together. It was confirmed that the three of them looked at each other and nodded. The tall and thin Tang Army took out the flint and the scythe again, "Crack!Crack!" and a ball of flame appeared in his hands.

In the dark night, the fire was extremely dazzling. The patrol soldiers on the city suddenly noticed, "Who!" With a shout, the bell to call the police rang, and countless footsteps began to run up to the top of the city.

At the city, the three of them had already run out for nearly a hundred steps. They ran away desperately, as if they were racing against time. The leads in the square hole were burning wildly, twisting the red flames, less than half a foot from the iron box.

The three of them had already run a hundred and fifty steps, and the sound of arrows broke through the air, and hundreds of arrows shot towards them from behind. Although they could no longer shoot them, the three of them were still running as if they were escaping from the realm of death.

At this moment, a low muffled sound suddenly appeared behind them, followed by a shocking explosion, deafening, and a bright light burst out under the city wall, and then the flames rushed to the top of the city, and the black smoke rose into the air, forming a huge mushroom cloud. The earth was trembling and gravel flew everywhere. The three of them were already unstable and rushed to the low-lying area, holding their heads tightly.

After the mushroom clouds dissipated, another sound was heard soon, as if it was a landslide of a mountain. With a loud "boom", a city wall about a hundred feet wide collapsed in the southeast, stirring up dust in the sky. More than a hundred Uighur soldiers screamed and were buried alive in the collapsed city wall.
Chapter completed!