Chapter 423: First-time military achievements

In the dark mist, a horse was running towards Xuanwu City. The sound of horse hooves was shattering in the quiet night. This was a Tang army scout wandering on the periphery. He found danger was approaching.

Before the war horse could stop, the scout flew off the horse, stumbled and rushed to Shi Yang who was alarmed by the sound of horse hooves, and came out to check the situation, "What happened?" Shi Yang suddenly felt uneasy.

"Shi Guzheng found that the brigade of Geluo cavalry was several miles away."

"Order brothers to get up quickly, I'll go find Huang Guzheng and Yang Guzheng." Shi Yang ran and shouted.

The sudden alarm made the Tang army very nervous. Teams of fully armed Tang army ran towards the top of the city. Dozens of Tang soldiers ran outside the city to cut off the ropes that tied the hanging towers. The tall hanging tower fell down with a bang. They lit the simple wooden bridge again. At this time, there was already a loud sound of horse hooves in the distance. The Tang soldiers retreated to the city and the suspension bridge was immediately pulled up high.

"There are at least four thousand people." A team surnamed Huang was pale. He inferred the number of the Gloru cavalry from the faint sound of horse hooves. They only had three hundred people, a castle that had not been completed yet. What's more, there were three thousand prisoners of war in the city. What would they choose in the face of the enemy's large-scale attack?

"We want to ask Zhuque City and Canglong City for help immediately." Another Team Yang suggested without hesitation.

"No, it's easy to be ambushed by the enemy when coming to help late at night." Shi Yang looked at the heavy night, and he slowly shook his head and said, "I'm even more worried that I will be trapped in the enemy's plan to lure the tiger out of the mountain."

"But we only have 300 people, not even the city gate, how can we fight?" Yang's team turned his head and stared at this young team. How much combat experience can he have?

"Not only that, there are three thousand prisoners of war in the city. If they mutiny, I will die without a place to bury." Huang Guzheng's heart seemed to sink into the abyss.

"You guys go to organize brothers first, and I will find a way to the prisoners of war." Shi Yang bit his lip tightly, turned around and ran down the city wall.

The two teams were looking at each other, their eyes full of deep worries. The situation was so serious that it was not something that little officers like them could control.

The prisoner-of-war camp was also stationed in the city, consisting of more than 100 large tents. Thirty people were sleeping in each large tent. At this time, the prisoner-of-war camp had heard a little wind, and each large tent began to stir up.

"Let everyone come out." Shi Yang, contrary to his usual silence, shouted sternly: "I have something to say to them!"

The dozens of Tang soldiers who were in charge of the prisoner-of-war camp rushed into each large tent, shouted loudly, and drove groups of prisoners out of the large tent. Perhaps they had been captured for too long. These prisoners of war had a heartfelt fear of the Tang army. Although they had three thousand people and only a few dozen people in the Tang army, they were still obediently driven to the open space in front of the camp, waiting for the young officer's speech uneasy.

"I want to tell you that the Geluo people are here, and they have at least two or three thousand cavalry." Shi Yang did not hide the truth and told all the prisoners of war straight to the point. The prisoners looked at each other and let out a low scream. The scream contained complex feelings, a little hope, but more of an instinctive reaction to emergencies. Most of them did not know what the Geluo people came meant to them.

"Maybe some of you are wondering whether you will be free from now on when the Geluo people come. If someone really thinks like this, it would be a big mistake. Will the Geluo people hand you over to the great cannibal? No! The Gelu people are greedy jackals. The weak among you will be killed by them, and the young and strong will become their slaves and will never be able to turn over for the rest of your life!"

Every time Shi Yang said a word, soldiers who spoke the Great Eats and soldiers who spoke the Charoy immediately translated his words. In the flashing fire, every prisoner of war was silent and thought deeply.

"You will be free next year. This is the will of His Majesty the Emperor of the Tang Dynasty. No one dares to keep you again. Next year you will be with your parents, wife and children. You have been with you for four years. Why should you fall into the hands of the Geluo people before the hope is coming? Perhaps some of you will have the idea of ​​luck. The Geluo people may return you to Dashi, but I believe you are also very clear about why Dashi only redeems the Persians but throws you into the Tang Dynasty without any regard for them, because they don't care about your life or death at all. You have even died in the Dashi household registration book. Be more sober! Dashi people will not want you anymore, your destiny is connected to us."

Shi Yang's bright eyes swept across everyone's faces. He took a deep breath and said loudly: "I promise you that if you and the Tang army defend Xuanwu City, you will be free in advance. Do you understand? Fighting side by side with us is not just about protecting your own lives. The Tang people are a nation that is grateful. When dawn comes, you will start a new life. How about it! Are you willing to obey my command? Who? Who is willing!"

Amid a sigh, the desire for freedom of three thousand people was aroused, "I do!" Someone began to murmur,

"I can't hear it, you guys shout it out!"

"I do." Finally someone raised his arms and shouted, "I do it too... I do it too!"

The shouts of three thousand people were heard one after another, and more and more people shouted, and gradually they formed a torrent of intense emotions.

The blazing fire burned over Xuanwu City, and several cavalry informed soldiers had already rushed to all directions. They wanted to convey the news of the attack of the Gelulu people to every city around them, not to ask for help, but to make them be vigilant and strictly prevent the enemy's attack.

The city was also extremely busy. Countless people carried heavy bluestones in groups in front of the city gate. As the bluestone continued to build up, a stone wall as thick as four meters quickly blocked the gate, leaving gaps above the stone wall for bows and arrows to shoot.

Then three thousand prisoners of war were divided into two groups, one thousand people left behind to guard the city gate, and the other two thousand people went up to the city wall. Without weapons, they would use stones to help the Tang army guard the city.

At this moment, more than 4,000 Cavalrymen of Glorou had stopped half a mile away. The wide moat blocked their iron hooves. Arthuran frowned and looked at the castle that had not yet been completely repaired. The wide moat, the dark walls, and the towering suspension bridge. All of this seemed like insurmountable mountains in the eyes of a cavalry team without siege weapons.

But this was the city they were the first to bear. The sky was burning with raging fires over the castle, and Arthuran knew that today's pace would stop there, and there was no point in attacking other cities. As Surman said, he was just here to make a gesture, but no matter how simple it was, he had to attack, asking the enemy to bleed and himself, otherwise the Caliph would not be able to realize his sincerity.

At this time, a fast horse ran over, and the soldiers reported to him: "The subordinates have discovered that although the other party's moat has frozen, they cannot walk on it."

Arthuran groaned, and he knew it would be the result. This is the strange place in the Qing Pond. No matter how cold the sea is, it only has a thin layer of ice. It would be completely different if it goes north ten miles. The river freezes from the river surface to the bottom of the river, so it is called Rehai and is a paradise that all herders yearn for. Unfortunately, it was occupied by the Tang Dynasty. Arthuran gritted his teeth. If Dashi had not taken away the broken leaves, the Tang army would never have succeeded so easily.

"Is the giant tree cut-off over?" Arthuran turned around and shouted loudly.

"Report to the chief, fifty giant trees have been cut down."

"Okay, build a bridge over the river and start tentative attack!"

With Arthuran's order, the sound of bronze horn suddenly sounded among the Gloru cavalry. Each of the Gloru cavalrymen was dragging a big tree up to five or six feet tall toward the moat.

This Gloru cavalry is different from the cavalry that was preparing to rob the merchants on the Golden Dragon Road. It was a mob that was temporarily pieced together by herdsmen. It had no organizational discipline and was completely relied on a brute force to defeat it. This cavalry was Arthuran's personal guard. After rigorous training, it was not only well-equipped, but also had a strong impact and could fight in concert.

They held the shield in one hand and dragged the giant tree in the other hand, and were not impatient to attack. They knew that there were only a few hundred Tang troops in the city and there would not be too many bows and arrows. If they lured the Tang army's bows and arrows, they would become turtles in the jar.

Two hundred and fifty Tang soldiers lined up on the north wall and watched the enemy approaching silently. Behind them were thousands of people standing, preparing to fight together, while the other thousand were divided into two teams and busy, one team demolished dozens of newly repaired houses and transported the stones to the city wall. The other team moved a bucket of boiling water to the top of the city wall, and poured water on the city wall with the help of the night cover. In the bitter cold wind, a layer of ice was soon frozen, making the wall and the ground under the city extremely smooth.

At this moment, Shi Yang had been elected as an acting captain by everyone. He successfully persuaded the prisoners of war to fight together, which made the possibility of successful defense suddenly wider. The gate was blocked, and the prisoners of war carried stones on the upper floor, while the opponent had no weapons to attack the city so far. The soldiers saw the hope of victory and their morale was greatly boosted. This is the tradition of the Anxi Army, and they have always been convinced and capable people.

"No arrows are allowed without my order!"

"If you want to save every arrow, you need to hurt people, you would rather rush across the moat."

"Use the sound of the bangzi as a command, the sound will be fired, and the sound will be stopped when it stops!"

After Shi Yang's orders were sent, the Tang army was still silent. Each of them held a longbow in his hand and carried two pots of arrows on his back. There were 300 people, a total of 18,000 arrows. There were indeed not many, but fortunately, there were not many enemies, with no more than four thousand shadows. The bow and arrow pointed straight at the dark shadow under the city. The Tang army was waiting for the final order.

"Boom!" A giant tree was thrown on the river. One of the giant trees smashed the thin ice, stirring up a splash of water, floating on the water surface, and immediately jumped off more than a dozen Gelulu people, holding up a large shield and pushing the giant tree towards the city wall, but it was only halfway through. More than a dozen arrows shot out from the city like pearl arrows. One arrow was as fast as an arrow, and screams came one after another. More than a dozen Gelulu people fell to the ground, and no one could stand up.

There was silence on the top of the city, and all the soldiers' eyes showed a look of shock. The enemy was thirty steps away, and the eyes were hard to reach in the dark night. They only saw black shadows shaking, and the other party seemed to be holding a shield, but he could shoot through the slightly exposed gap in an instant. What kind of archery is this?

Shi Yang slowly retracted the longbow and said coldly: "Do you dare to be so arrogant in front of me, do you really think that there is no one in the Tang Dynasty?"

For three years, Shi Yang spent his life in a boring and cruel life. He was a member of the Tianqi Camp and stationed in Dongneiyuan. During the day, he rode horses and practiced guns like ordinary soldiers, patrolling and duty. After he was disbanded in the afternoon, he went to the shooting range to practice arrows alone. Whether it was a hard crossbow or a long bow, he shot thousands of arrows every day. His fingers were worn out and his tiger lips were swollen. He did not return to study until he was exhausted. He did not even go out to study every day. In Chang'an for three years, he had never even left the gate of Dongneiyuan. The birds in Dongneiyuan also disappeared because of him. He had a talented and extraordinary archery talent, and the most cruel training made him win the championship with an indisputable advantage in the archery competition of the 400,000 Xiliang Army last year.

Shi Yang looked at the brothers around him and nodded with praise, "Very good!" In the tense atmosphere, no one followed blindly because of his shooting, waiting for the sound of the clapper to ring. With such discipline, why worry about not being able to win tonight?

Dozens of other Gelulu cavalry under the city were also frightened by this terrifying archery technique. They shouted, turned around and fled. The teams of Gelulu cavalry dragging giant trees behind them stopped. They didn't know what had happened.

"Barewell!" Arthuran rushed up in anger, whipped his head and slapped at the retreating cavalry, "How dare I shake my morale, come! Drag all of them to me and chop them down."

"Great Chief!" A thousand-time captain stopped Arthuran, and he pleaded hard: "It is ominous to kill people before the battle, so let them attack first."

"Okay!" Arthuran let out a breath. Seeing that it was already the fourth update, he stopped delaying. He pulled out his battle knife and roared: "The whole army rushed forward and knocked open the door for me."

The Gelulu people had no weapons to siege the city, and the only way to break open the city gate. As long as they entered the city, they could use hundreds of Tang army heads to explain to the Dashi Caliph. With a shout, there was a harsh shout. The Gelu people jumped off their mounts and rushed towards the moat. The hundreds of people who rushed in the front pulled the giant tree and threw it into the river. "Boom! Boom!" With a huge sound, the giant tree smashed the thin ice and rolled on the moat. Hundreds of people worked hard to push the giant tree into the river. This time they became smart, hid in the dense branches and pushed the trees, with a natural barrier.

The river swayed violently, sucking the giant trees together, forming a huge and wide wooden bridge, but there was still no movement in the city. The Tang army pulled the bow and arrow, and looked at the enemy under the city coldly, waiting for the order to shoot.

The attack of the Gelulu people began, and arrows roared like raindrops, shooting on the top of the city. The head of the city has not been completely repaired, and many warheads have not been built. The Tang army and prisoners of war squatted down one after another, and the rain of arrows roared past their heads.

The harsh sound of bronze trumpets rang through the sky, and the black crowd rolled in waves. Shi Yang leaned behind a battlement and stared at the details of the enemy expressionlessly. There were no siege ladders in the dark crowd, and there were several long enemy groups, which must be the bumps of wood. Shi Yang's eyes moved to the city, and it was only fifty steps from their floating bridge to the gate. The ground beside the wall was less than six feet wide, allowing two people to pass side by side. In other words, the two bumps of wood could not pass at the same time. These fifty steps would determine the outcome of the night.

Although he was young, his calmness and calmness had the spirit of a general. He was undoubtedly a military genius. This was his first command of a battle, and he soon found the key point in this battle.

"Take a few big rocks here." Shi Yang shouted with a finger at the fifty steps under the city, and immediately rushed up to a hundred prisoners of war and threw down more than a dozen huge rocks weighing hundreds of pounds. Two of them rolled into the river and smashed two big holes on the river surface. The rest of the big rocks were blocked in a row and blocked the narrow road.

Three rounds of arrows shot, and groups of enemy troops jumped down from the moat like monkeys and rushed to the opposite bank from the wooden bridge. At this moment, the sound of clappers on the top of the city sounded like rain, and the stones fell head-on like hail. Nearly a hundred enemy troops were shot into arrows and screamed and fell into the water. A stream of blood like ink emerged from the black water surface. The big stones smashed and gathered together with the floating bridge. The dozens of people who had just jumped down from behind were unstable and fell into the water one after another, holding the giant tree and swimming up the shore in a mess.

"Don't come up, tie the floating bridge with a rope!" The commander in charge of the battle behind found a loophole in the floating bridge. He shouted loudly and ordered people to throw the long rope into the water.

The Geluo people behind him retreated like a tide, and the moat became quiet again. Only one cold arrow after another shot from the city. Each arrow shot into the water, and there must be a scream. In an instant, only a dozen people in the water hid under the big tree, so scared that they didn't dare to move. The city wall suddenly became silent like death.

‘Woo~!’ The sound of the bronze trumpet resounded throughout the sky, and the black tide surged again. They held up their shields and shouted to kill the sky. Arthuran came to supervise the battle himself, surrounded by more than a dozen personal guards. Amid the harsh sound of the bronze trumpet, more than two thousand Gelulu people were like wolves, one after another, screaming and jumping off the floating bridge and running towards the other side.

The other two thousand people squatted by the river and shot arrows at the top of the city, suppressing the Tang army's counterattack with dense rain of arrows. This was an extremely effective method. The Tang army was suppressed and could not show up. Only a few battlements could shoot arrows, or throw a few stones without targets from the city, and occasionally smashed a few shields, but for the enemy troops with more than two thousand attacks, this was no longer effective.

Soon, most of the two thousand Doguilu people rushed to the narrow path beside the city wall, holding their shields high and running towards the city cave. The narrow path, which was less than 200 steps less than six feet wide, was crowded with black Gelu people, just like an ant colony that was about to move before the heavy rain, hiding three thick bumps among them, moving towards the city cave bit by bit. More than a dozen huge rocks on the narrow path delayed their speed, and some people rushing in front were lifting the huge rocks into the river one by one. Despite this, the front bumps were less than thirty steps away from the city cave. Once the bumps into the city cave, it is unpredictable whether the loose stone wall formed can withstand the impact of hundreds of people.

Seeing that the situation was critical, while the Tang army was still suppressed by the dense rain of arrows from the Geluo people, he yelled, "If you don't fight back, everyone will die!"

He leaned forward to shoot arrows under the city, immediately shrank and leaned out again. Under his influence, the Tang army followed suit and shot arrows down the city. However, in this way, the Tang army also suffered casualties, and people kept getting caught in the arrow and fell down from the city, dragging their long screams into the evil wolf-like Gelu people.

After a few rounds of arrows, Shi Yang found that there was still no effect. There were heavy shields below, covering the enemy's head like an eaves, and the shield was nailed like a hedgehog.

"Stop shooting arrows and smash them with stones!" Shi Yang decisively changed his tactics.

With a command, the prisoners behind carried heavy stones and rushed forward and threw them down the city. Compared with arrows, the heavy stones began to produce effects. The shield could not resist the stamping of the stones, cracked and crushed. The piles of Geluo people were smashed to pieces and broken bones. There was a wailing sound under the city. The first bumping wood also fell from the crowd and rolled into the moat.

When the Tang army on the city saw that the huge stone battle had effect, their morale was greatly boosted. They also began to put away their bows and arrows and instead used the huge stones to attack. More than 100 Tang army raised their shields to form a long shield wall, effectively resisting the rain of arrows from the city. Stones as big as millstones began to fall from the city, blocking the way forward, making it difficult for the Geluo people, who were only seven or eight steps away from the city gate.

The sound of the broken bones, the screams of pain when they were hit, and the sound of chopping meat with the body being smashed by stones, intertwined. Under the city wall, it seemed to have become a hell on earth, and someone began to escape back.

After Shi Yang leaned against a battlement, he looked closely at the dozen horse riders about fifty steps away from the other side of the moat from the hole in the wall. He had noticed that the dozens of horsemen had never moved since the attack. There should be the leader of the Geluo people tonight among them. However, who among these dozen people was their leader? He could not tell their faces away from fifty steps.

Shi Yang thought for a moment and immediately touched his arms. He remembered that there should be a letter in his arms, which was the appointment letter he had promoted to the commander of the team. After finding it, Shi Yang took out the letter, pulled out another arrow, bit the arrow, and directly penetrated the letter on the shaft. He immediately set off the bow and shot the arrow letter out, "Swoosh!". The arrow letter was like a white dove flying through the night, and accurately fell in front of more than a dozen black shadows.

At this time, the bow and arrow in Shi Yang's hand had been replaced with his steel crossbow. He put a crossbow arrow into the arrow groove and slowly raised it. The steel crossbow was placed on his left arm and aimed at the white arrow letter.

Under the city, a personal soldier turned over and dismounted, stepped forward and picked up the letter of arrow shot from the city, "The chief, it's a letter!"

The personal soldiers quickly handed the letter to Arthuran with both hands. Arthuran sighed. It was almost dawn and he was about to succeed. Unfortunately, the Tang army's Stonehenge made his sneak attack eventually disappear. He took the letter casually, turned his head and shouted, "Light a torch!"

Just as he turned his head, a crossbow arrow shot like lightning, and a "puff!" arrow shot through his neck. A severe pain made Arthuran open his mouth wide, and his hands loosened, and the letter fell to the ground. He fell from his horse with a bang.

It was already dawn, and piles of corpses were everywhere under the city walls of five-foot-high rocks, with blood and blood everywhere. A thousand Doguilu people were buried under the stone formation. The person closest to the city cave was only one step away, but was smashed to a huge rock. The group of Gelu people had already evacuated before dawn. His chief was caught in the arrow and was not sure of his life or death.

Shi Yang and more than a dozen soldiers inspected their results outside the city. After a night of hard fighting, most of them were exhausted. Even the prisoners of war returned to the camp to sleep. Today will be on a day off.

"Team is right! Look." A soldier suddenly pointed to the West and shouted. Shi Yang turned around and saw a black line appearing in the distance. There were cavalrymen. A cavalry was galloping towards this side. Several soldiers turned around in panic to escape, but Shi Yang stopped them, "Don't panic, see clearly before you talk!"
Chapter completed!