Chapter 441: Broken Leaf Fengyun (Sixth)

"Did you say you want to go to the khan with this caravan and continue your mission?" Wang Siyu looked at the young official incredible way, shocked by his thoughts, whether it was absurd or bold, "Aren't you afraid that they would betray you to the cannibal?"

"I thought about it carefully." Cui Yao's expression was very serious, "They are businessmen. If they help me to Bahan, they will have generous returns in the Tang Dynasty. But if they sell me to Dashi, they will not get any benefits. Besides, Uncle Muta's two sons died under the sword of the big cannibal, and he will not betray me if he is reasonable.

Wang Siyu didn't say anything. He slowly walked to the sand table and stared at Bahanna's position. After the war broke out, Bahanna would become the logistics base for the great cannibals. If Bahanna's royal family was willing to support the Tang Dynasty, perhaps they would play a key role in the late stage of the war. It was indeed necessary to contact Bahanna's king. He glanced at Cui Yao, and his thoughts that he had originally thought were absurd and reasonable now.

Guo Mu next to him was stunned when he learned that Cui Yao's real purpose was to go to the sweat with the merchant. How could this be possible? If Cui Yaoruo had any mistakes, if they explained to the Cui family, he saw that the general had a vague intention of agreeing, so he hurriedly stopped him and said, "Master, Cui Yao has a special identity, you can't let him take this risk."

Cui Yao was afraid that they would make a fuss about their identity. Seeing Guo Mu raised this matter, he immediately retorted: "Isn't Shi Yang's identity more special? But why can he go to the battlefield to fight head-on with the Dashi Army? Although I am a literati, I am also a man of the Tang Dynasty. It is my responsibility to serve the country. Please join the army in Guo and not use the Cui family to talk about it. I am just an ordinary Tang official now, and it is my responsibility to go on a mission to slaughter."

Speaking of this, he bowed deeply to Wang Siyu, "Please be sure of the mercy of the general!"

Wang Siyu was moved by his sincerity. He seemed to see from Cui Yao that he had bravely entered the Nine Curves of the Yellow River. This kind of indomitable spirit was so similar to when he was young. He nodded solemnly and agreed to Cui Yao's request, "Okay! I will discuss this matter with Meng Jiao. I will explain your specific mission to you later. There is also the Kangguo merchant. If you bring him here, I will have a good talk with him first."

The next morning, Cui Yao changed into Hu clothes, pretended to be a Hu Shang, and took a few camels and two entourages of the thunder cavalry and Shi Ren, and went out of the city with Kang Guo's caravan to head towards Bahanna. Guo Mu stood on the city wall, looking at his far away back, and his heart was filled with worries about him. Bahanna was already full of troops. Can he return safely?

It was slowly coming to September. The 20,000 Great Food Army in the north occupied the Yaolong City, but it stagnated. The atmosphere of war in Saiye became increasingly strong, and even the scouts of the Great Food were hard to see, just as if the storm was quiet before the coming, and everyone felt an invisible pressure.

Late at night on that day, the five hundred Tang troops in Yezhi City fell asleep as usual. Only more than twenty sentries patrolled the city walls. The Yezhi River circled the city from the south and entered the Qing pond three miles away. The night was dark, and the dark river surface was slightly shining with rippling waves. The night wind blew across the river surface, and the waves rippled, gently hitting the river bank, making a sound, "Wow-Wow!". This should be a quiet night, but the night insects on both sides stopped chirping, as if something was about to happen, and the air was filled with a strange unusual.

At the fourth update, hundreds of small boats suddenly appeared on the river. The boat was loaded with black soldiers. They were wearing iron armor and holding scimitars in their hands. They looked cold and showed murderous intent. There was a hundred people on the bow of each ship who were directing the boat forward. Yezhicheng was less than two miles away from them.

At the same time, a huge cavalry team appeared on the grassland south of Yezhi City, with more than 20,000 people. This cavalry is the Khurasan Benzong army, second only to the Caliph Guards in the Dashi Army. A Khurasan Benzong army also participated in the Anxi Battle and was finally wiped out in Shule. Today, another 40,000 elite Khurasan Benzong army was involved in the Battle of Shattered Ye.

And their supreme commander Alan.

Mercein became the purview of this Battle of Broken Leaf. He was about forty years old, with a pair of sharp eyes as sharp as an eagle, tall and thin, and his every move showed a unique decisiveness and calmness of a soldier. He wore a set of black and silver chain mail, a black cloak, and a silver helmet. In the middle of the silver helmet was inlaid with a sparkling blue gem, which was given by Jafar Caliph, so Alan had the reputation of General Blue Star in the Great Food.

Following him, his deputy general was a burly man with a melancholy eyes. His eyes were somber because he had fought with the Tang army. He was Moyali, the general captured in Shule. After spending two years of miner career at the Tang army's Snowyye Silver Mine, he was redeemed by Rashid at the cost of 100,000 gold coins. This time, he attacked Snowyye, and Rashid specially ordered him to be Alan's left deputy general.

"General Mercedes-Messein, this Yezhi City is not a fortress of Saiye. You can ignore it and cross the river and march towards Saiye." Moyali carefully expressed his views to Alan, alarming Yezhi City, which was very likely to allow Saiye to get news that the Great Food Army had arrived.

"Why let it go!" Alan said expressionlessly: "I will never let any enemy go when I fight. Even if it is a single-man whistle tower, I will crush it to pieces.

He pointed to the whip and ordered coldly: "Take Yezhi City before dawn, but if you can't take it, all the front troops will be killed!"

The front fleet of the Dashi Army was only three hundred steps away from the Yezhi City Wall. Their target was aimed directly at a water gate in Yezhi City. The water gate was equipped with an iron fence as thick as a thumb, but over the years, the iron fence was already rusty.

"Who! Stop." A Tang army on the mail tower found the approaching fleet. He suddenly rang the alarm bell. The harsh alarm bell echoed over Yezhi City. A burly cannibal stood up and raised his hand and shot a flying spear. The flying spear was as fast as lightning, cutting through the black, piercing the chest of the Tang soldier who was ringing the bell. The soldier let out a long scream and fell from the mail tower.

The sound of bells and screams shattered the sweet dream of the Tang army. They stood up one after another, picked up bows and arrows and rushed to the top of the city. Soon the Tang army discovered the attempt of the great cannibal. They divided into two miles, throwing stones down the top of the city, and the other was hidden around the water gate to shoot arrows at the big cannibal boat. For a moment, the arrows were like locusts, and the big rocks on the top of the city continued to fall, and more than a dozen big cannibal boats capsized one after another. The big cannibal soldiers who were caught in the arrow sank to the bottom of the river.

The Great Food Army immediately changed its tactics. Dozens of small boats lined up, and overwhelming flying spears stabbed the Tang army at the top of the city, pressing the Tang army at the top of the city. Some soldiers of the three ships in front held large shields to block the Tang army's rain of arrows, while the other soldiers carried a bumper wood, and with the impact of the small boat, they rushed towards the rusty iron fence.

‘Boom!’ There was a loud bang in the ground, and the iron fence broke through a large hole one meter wide. Two small boats rushed into the city gate along the rush. The big food army jumped ashore with its shields and rushed towards the Tang army. The two armies fought together, fighting together, shouting and killing sounds shook the sky, flesh and blood were flying everywhere, and corpses were all over the ground. As more and more small boats entered the city cave, a bridge soon formed. Large cannibals like ants swarmed ashore in batches, with cold scimitars dancing in their hands, and rushed into Yezhi City yelling.

Seeing that the situation was over, the Tang army guards in Yezhicheng ordered to give up Yezhicheng and retreat to Saiye. More than 300 Tang soldiers rode horses on the grassland. They brought a major information to Saiye, and the great cannibals finally arrived.

The city gate of Sailye was closed, the huge suspension bridge was pulled up high, and the wartime system in the city officially began to be implemented. All the food in the city was uniformly arranged according to the population. The men were organized into the military camps as militia troops. They were wearing leather armor, shoulders, long bows and arrow bags, and shoulders, and horizontal knives. The difference between them and the regular Tang army was that the regular Tang army was wearing Mingguang armor, and the women also organized to form a logistics camp. The entire Sailye City became a huge military camp. Teams of soldiers led by Yu Hou (i.e., military police) patrolled the streets. Any soldiers or militia soldiers who violated the rules would be arrested immediately.

Late at night two days later, the Tang army on the top of the city was suddenly alarmed by a faint rumbling sound. They rushed to the walls and watched the movements in the south. The dark clouds drooped in the distance and the black fog filled the plains. The Shattered Leaf Plain was covered with stars of fire. They formed a series of red fire flows and twisted in the darkness, quickly rushing towards Shattered Leaf City.

Among the countless stars, you can vaguely see huge black shadows crossing the Saiye River. The black shadows are like giant monsters from the Demon Dragon Mountain, moving slowly on the Saiye Plain, making a rumbling monster roar.

All night, from the distance of Shuye City, they saw endless streams of fire rolling from the south. They were like countless tiny tributaries, merging into a red ocean on the Shuye Plain from all directions.

Suddenly, the endless fire color disappeared in pieces, leaving only scattered stars, and finally disappeared suddenly, like Mars in the strong wind blew away, the dark earth was silent, and Tang Jun's heart also sank.

When the hazy morning light quietly descended on the Shattered Leaf Plain, a spectacular picture appeared in front of the Tang army. The fields were full of big cannibals and marched in black. The entire Shattered Leaf was surrounded. With the eyes, there were large black or dark red tents everywhere, just like mushroom groups growing after a night of spring rain.

Among these endless mushroom groups, five siege hammers stood like hills. The frame of the siege hammers was twenty feet high and nearly thirty feet long. These five siege hammers were made of thousand-year-old iron wood from Possier Mountain, with a total length of fifteen feet. The terrifying hammers and iron chains were made by five hundred blacksmiths in Samarkand from Damascus steel for a year. Each siege hammer was controlled by two thousand Dashi Army and four hundred camels pulled. It took three months to transport it from Samarkand to the Broken Leaf. They were packaged in a special barracks two hundred miles away. This siege hammer once played a huge role in attacking Damascus and had the power to destroy everything.

The Great Food Army has arrived, with 40,000 Khorasan's native army, 30,000 Turkic slave army, and more than 100,000 Zhaowu army recruited from countries east of the Amu River. More than 200,000 troops surrounded the Shattered Leaves like iron barrels. In addition, Rashid transferred 80,000 troops from Egypt and was on his way to the east. In order to deal with this battle, the Great Cannibals drove nearly one million civilians to provide logistics transportation. The warehouses in Baghdad and Damascus were almost exhausted, and the entire war logistics and materials were guaranteed to be unified in command of Agush, the Governor of Samarkand.

The Tang army had only 50,000 regular troops in Suiye City, and there were 80,000 militia troops, which were inferior to the Great Cannibals in terms of military strength, but the Tang army had a strong city and sufficient supplies. Similarly, the Tang Dynasty also mobilized 500,000 civilians from Anxi countries such as Kucha, Gaochang, Shule to transport supplies. Whether it was the warehouse in Yangzhou or the Taicang in Chang'an, the grain transportation was endless, and the official roads to the west were filled with carriages. The Tang Dynasty also devoted all its strength to this battle. This would be a protracted battle, a contest between the will of the army and the national strength, and a contest between the Emperor of the Tang Dynasty and the Great Shi Caliph. The winners would eventually rule the vast land west of the Pamir and east of the Amu River.

Surrounded by hundreds of Dashi officers, Alan rode his horse three miles away from Suoye City. He coldly watched the city built by the Orientals, a wide moat and towering suspension bridge, which was not found in Western cities. This would add trouble to the attack, but it was just a trouble. The Dashi Army not only had sharp siege weapons, but also used another more effective weapon, namely hunger, fear and sluggish morale.

But before the war, he needed to test the truth of the Tang army. Alan immediately turned around and asked, "Have the catapult and the city-mounted car been installed?"

"Report to the general that the installation has been completed overnight and is in the military camp three miles away."

"Okay!" Alan immediately ordered: "Transfer 10,000 Kang Guojun to build bridges on the moat, and then transfer 200 city-mounted cars and 500 heavy catapults to order the Turks to prepare for the first attack."

‘Woo-’ The low trumpet sound suddenly rang in the air, followed by a dull drum sound. The drum sound was unhappy, one after another, each sound was shocking. Under the urging of the drum sound and the trumpet sound, two Kangguo Corps of 5,000 began to assemble in the south of the city.

On the top of the city, Wang Siyu rode his horse to the top of the city. He looked at the overwhelming food army with a serious expression. Under the towering city, they were like small ants. He saw the five giants like mountains. In addition, a tower was built just south of the city. Twenty big drums and a long horn were installed on the tower. The sound of horns and drums came from this wooden tower.

In the enemy's camp, two black troops held hundreds of huge wooden boards and walked towards the camp gate. Wang Siyu saw the first attempt of the Dashi Army. He immediately ordered: "Quickly dispatch five thousand crossbow troops to guard the southern city, and the stone cannon and bed crossbow were ready to be launched."

Under the command of the commander, a team of Tang army crossbow soldiers quickly gathered towards the south of the city, and the 120 stone cannons and 300 bed crossbows installed on the south of the city were also ready for launch.

At the same time, the gate of the Dashi Army was wide open, and ten thousand Kang soldiers carried five hundred pontoon boards and rushed towards the south of the city. This was a fire-proof pontoon bridge invented by the Dashi Army craftsmen to deal with the Greek fire in Byzantine. It was about five meters long and three meters wide. It was made of hard wood olive wood, and it was tightly wrapped with three layers of raw cowhide on the wood. The outermost part was tied with eastern fire cloth. Countless experiments proved that this pontoon bridge was not afraid of fire attacks at all, and even a stone bullet weighing hundreds of pounds could not break it.

As they advanced, the Tang army stone cannons on the top of the city finally began to launch, and batches of round stone bullets were smashed overwhelmingly, as if the hail of early summer was so dense that there was nowhere to escape. In an instant, countless Kang Guo soldiers broke their bones and skulls were crushed, and the floating bridge board became ready-made shields. The Kang Guo soldiers squeezed into the floating bridge board to avoid it. The soldiers who could not hide turned around and fled, running out of the range of the stone bullets, but were forced back to the position by the supervisory team behind them with a knife.

The wooden board was smashed to the ground, and the stone bullet was bounced high, and it hit the group of soldiers following far behind, instantly smashing seven or eight people.

Under the impact of the Tang army's dense stone bombs, some pontoon bridge boards could not resist and broke, while others themselves resisted the impact of the stone bombs, but the stone bombs rolling around on the ground became stumbling blocks. Many soldiers were tripped and then fell down. The pontoon bridge boards were crooked and overturned, and the large group of soldiers exposed were immediately swallowed up by the Tang army's stone bombs.

Despite this, more than 300 floating bridge boards and more than 6,000 Kang Guojun rushed through the Tang army's stone bullet array, rushed to the moat, and began to lay the floating bridge nervously. The moat was about five meters wide, and the floating bridge board carried by the big cannibal could just be installed. At this moment, thousands of arrows on the top of the city were fired at once, and the arrows were as dense as raindrops. The Kang Guo soldiers who had no floating bridge boards were hiding suddenly became targets. Under the dense rain of arrows by the Tang army, Kang Guo soldiers were shot in large numbers and fell into the moat with wail. Blood stained the river red, and the moat was filled with corpses.

With weapons, less than a quarter of an hour, more than half of the soldiers in the six thousand Kang Kingdom had lost. Only the soldiers who were lucky enough to bring shields were spared. They were divided into two teams, one team raised the shield to cover them, and the other team was struggling to place the floating bridge boards. The method of putting the bridge boards was very simple. They raised the bridge boards high against the moat, and then fell down to the opposite bank. After the bridge board was laid, they fine-tuned the distance and fixed the bridge boards. There were special round holes at one end of the bridge board. The soldiers used a hammer to punch the huge nails into the soil. This was considered as the laying of a bridge board.

However, the laying process was not leisurely. In the dense rain of arrows, the Tang army's huge rocks continued to fall down, and soldiers suffered heavy casualties. Countless bridge boards fell into the river, and the bodies of soldiers who fell into the river even piled up into a meat dam. Despite this, no soldier dared to turn around and escape. The horror of the stone bomb array and the severity of the cannibal military law left them with no way out, and they could only pave the bridge to gain a glimmer of vitality.

In the end, more than 300 floating bridges were paved into less than fifty pieces, and two simple wooden bridges were formed under the Nancheng City. However, less than 2,000 Kang Guo soldiers who had paved the bridge fled back, and more than 7,000 soldiers died tragically on this road of death.

The commander of the Dashi Army, Alan, was watching the battle outside Sanli. He was indifferent to witnessing the deaths of a large number of Kang Guo soldiers. He was indifferent. He could have paved bridges at night to reduce casualties, but paving bridges at night could not test the reality of the Tang army's defense capabilities.

More importantly, in his eyes, these soldiers from small Eastern countries were worthless. They were originally meat shields for the Great Food Army to drive away, testing the defense of the Tang army and consuming the Tang army's weapons.

Seeing that two floating bridges had finally been laid, he waved his hand coldly and ordered: "The car on the city will start to launch and use siege bombs to cover the siege."

With a low horn sounding, the earth began to tremble slightly, and hundreds of heavy trenchers appeared. Thirty camels pulled the huge wheels and slowly rolled forward. Thousands of soldiers followed behind. This trencher is the largest in the Dashi Arsenal. It is five zhang high, and the long trench pole is dozens of feet long, with three hundred cables. Each trencher requires nearly a thousand people to launch.
Chapter completed!