Chapter 34: Waiting for the sword

The Yellow River in Fengzhou is not wide, less than a hundred feet wide. The Turkic army has learned the simple way for the Han people to build a floating bridge. First, pull out a steel cable and firmly fix it on both sides of the shore. Then, quickly splice a large sheepskin raft along the steel cable. A floating bridge was formed with only fifty sheepskin rafts, and then widen it into five rows in succession to tie them together. The soldiers quickly lay wooden boards on it and then built a large wide and stable floating bridge.

In less than two hours, the Turkic army built eight such large floating bridges and two more sturdy baggage ferry bridges. Three hundred thousand troops crossed the Yellow River and rushed towards Dali City.

Shibi Khan Duji stood in front of a tall mound on the south bank of the Yellow River. A huge stone tablet was erected in front of the mound. The large characters on the top became a little blurred due to wind and sand erosion, but they could still be barely identified. There are three big characters on it: "Warning Monument" next to it, and the middle characters on the line below: "Those who violate the power of the Great Sui Dynasty will be severely punished." Below are dense small characters notes. This is the warning issued by the Sui army in Fengzhou ten years ago. The tall mound behind it is the Jingguan Daqiu with tens of thousands of heads buried.

The disastrous defeat of Xueyantuo ten years ago has always been a nightmare in the hearts of grassland people, and Dali City is also a city that cannot be violated and killed in the hearts of grassland people.

Duji sneered. He knew that Yang Yuanqing was in Dali City. If Dali City was not razed to the ground, the grassland people would never turn over. Let the Turks do things that the Xueyantuo people could not do.

Duji immediately divided his troops into three groups and ordered his brother Ashina Duji to lead his army to attack Yongfeng City and Hekou City, open the passage for the Turkic army to go south, and then ordered his uncle Ashina Kunji to lead his army to sweep Fengzhou by 30,000, and put all the farmland, villages and cities in Fengzhou into flat ground. He himself led an army of 200,000 to kill Dali City ten miles away.

The Turkic army finally suppressed Dali City. Yang Yuanqing stood on the top of the city and silently watched the dark Turkic army slowly moving towards Dali City. He couldn't help but think of a scene ten years ago, and Xue Yantuo's 100,000 troops also appeared in the wilderness outside the city.

But Xue Yantuo is far from comparable to the Turkic army. The inner flags of the Turkic army are covered with earth, drums are sounding and dust is flying. Based on experience, he quickly judged that this is at least 200,000 troops, so what about the remaining 100,000 troops?

Yang Yuanqing understood Duji's strategy. He was not stupid. He did not suppress his entire army on the city of Li, but instead divided his troops into each other.

He looked back at his army, and the city walls were also filled with dense Sui soldiers. Dali City was also the focus of the defense of the Sui army. There were 30,000 Sui troops and 10,000 militias, totaling 40,000 troops. Just as Dali City was the nightmare city of the Hu people in the grassland, Dali City was also the spiritual city of Fengzhou and even the Sui people. As long as Dali City did not fall, the grassland people could not go south to the Central Plains.

After more than ten years of expansion and renovation, the area of ​​Dali City has been twice as large as before, and is divided into outer city, mid-city, inner city, mid-city and inner city are the semicircular cities of the past, and there is no change compared to more than ten years ago.

The outer city was later built, with a rectangular shape and a circumference of more than ten miles. It is concentrated in ordinary residents and various markets. At this time, the city was already an empty city.

The outer city wall is four zhang high and three zhang wide, and can accommodate four carriages in parallel at the top of the city at the same time. They are all made of fired big city bricks. They are tall and sturdy. Every sixty steps there is a horse wall, four zhang wide, protruding three zhang outside the wall. It is named because the wall looks like a horse's face. It is mainly to cooperate with the city wall, eliminate blind spots under the city, and attack the enemy from top to bottom from three sides.

The outer city wall is directly attached to the mountain wall and is not directly connected to the middle city wall, but is connected to the middle city through a wooden suspension bridge in the air. Even if the outer city is lost, the Sui army can quickly retreat to the middle city through the suspension bridge to continue defending.

The city of Italy has been built into a giant castle with extremely strong defense capabilities. If the Turkic army wants to capture it, it will definitely pay a heavy price.

Two hundred thousand Turkic troops stationed Xiadaying three miles away. Turkic dome tents rose from the ground in the wilderness, eight miles wide, stretching north for several miles. The dense dome tents were one by one, with spectacular momentum.

"General Manager, there are large siege weapons in the enemy camp!" A personal captain shouted in a low voice at the huge objects standing in the Turkic camp.--net.

Yang Yuanqing nodded, and he also saw that it was a nest car and a cloud ladder, as well as a cowhide and a siege ram. It was obvious that this time the Turks were prepared, unlike the last time they attacked Yanmen, which temporarily made simple siege ladders.

At this time, Yang Yuanqing also saw a staircase. It was a large siege ladder, similar to a cloud ladder, but wider than a cloud ladder. Below was a staircase that was one staircase that was one staircase that was composed of more than ten giant trees with five or six stairs long. It was directly placed on the city wall and equipped with a city-catching iron hook. The army could rush up along the ladder in groups. There were such straight and tall giant trees in Yinshan. This was also the Sui craftsmen who fled into the Turks who taught the Turks.

Yang Yuanqing's mood became heavier. With the strength of Dali City, it might be possible to barely defend against such siege tools, but Yongfeng City and Hekou City were in danger. He couldn't help but curse, "Damn traitor!"

Duji also watched the city that made the people of the grassland tremble in front of the camp. It did look taller and stronger than the city in the Central Plains. There was a huge Great Sui Red Banner floating on the city tower, and there were dense Sui soldiers standing on the city wall, with at least 15,000 people.

"You guys say, is Yang Yuanqing in this city?" Duji pointed at Dali City in the distance and asked the generals behind him.

A ten thousand men bowed and said, "I believe that with Yang Yuanqing as the leader, he should be in Dali City."

Another ten thousand men also said: "He is the master general, and if he is not in the city of Italy, it will affect the morale of the army."

Duji smiled, "You are right. He should be in the city of Italy. Where would he be if he didn't hide in such a strong castle?"

At this time, a tribe Shi Jin stepped forward and suggested: "Khan, attacking this Dali city will cause heavy casualties. I suggest that we can bypass this city and not fight. We will continue to march south to attack other towns, so as to avoid excessive casualties and injuries of the Turkic army."

Qi Jin is the title of chief of the large tribe. This Qi Jin is called Amutai. He is the leader of the Tata tribe, the fourth largest Turkish tribe. His opinions represent the ideas of many people. This time they went south to plunder money and women, rather than fighting bloody battles and losing people. It is also their own fear of Yang Yuanqing in their bones. Coupled with the various legends of Dali City, they lost confidence in attacking Yang Yuanqing.

Duji glanced at him coldly and said, "Do you mean to remind me to change the golden wolf head on the big banner to a golden sheep head?"

Amutai's face suddenly turned red and he quickly explained: "I mean, don't have to fight with Yang Yuanqing in blood first. You should first harvest the spoils. When you finally return with a full load, you will attack Dali City and take Yang Yuanqing's head away."

As soon as he finished speaking, Duji swung his whip and whipped him hard, angrily saying, "There is no war, how can there be spoils? The Turks are wolves, not sheep. When we see powerful enemies, we want to rush up and bite him to death, tear him to pieces, instead of running away with our tails. I know you are afraid of Yang Yuanqing. Today I will let you fight the first battle. If you don't dare, go back to the grassland and change the Tata tribe to the Sheep tribe."

The dozen ten thousand men behind laughed. The harsh ridicule made Amutai's face swell into pig's liver. The shame and anger made him lose his mind. He yelled, "The Tata tribe is not a sheep, the Tata tribe is a tribe of warriors, and he never fears the enemy!"

"Okay! You guys show it and let me see."

Duji immediately turned around and ordered: "The Tata tribe is going to attack the first battle, beat me the drum and shout to kill me!"

The loud drum sound of 'dong!dong!dong!' was ringing loudly, and the shouts of killing in the Turkic camp were rising and falling. This was the Turkish way of urging war. Amutai had regained his rationality. He secretly regretted, but he could no longer get off the stage. At this time, the cowardly battle would make him lose face. He had to grit his teeth and said, "The Tata tribe can fight, but our tribe has only 30,000 troops. Siege can only kill us. It is unfair to let us fight!"

"I will also send 30,000 troops to fight with you!"

Amutai was helpless and had to whip the war horse hard and run towards his tribe.

Duji looked at his back coldly, and a cunning smile flashed in his eyes. This Amutai was one of the people who opposed him some time ago. He had long wanted to clean up the Tata Department.

...........

The sound of war drums in the Turkic camp suddenly became tense of the atmosphere above Dali City. Yang Yuanqing watched the army mobilization in the Turkic camp. In the southeast corner of the Turkic camp, an army of 50,000 or 60,000 people were quickly gathering.

Yang Yuanqing also turned around and ordered: "Beat the drum to prepare for war!"

The sound of war drums of the Sui army also rumbling. Ten thousand Sui army quickly deployed on the city wall, and the ten thousand militia army, as manipulators, also entered their respective seats.

This time, the Sui army prepared very well for defense. Unlike the defenders of Yanmen City, they did not have large defensive weapons and could only rely on human life to gain life. Two hundred and forty large trenchers were deployed on the walls of more than ten miles outside the city of Dali City, which could throw hundreds of kilograms of huge rocks for four or five hundred steps away. This heavy trencher, which was two feet tall, required at least one hundred and fifty people to pull, but after Zhang Lei improved it, the old trencher that was pulled forward was changed to a rear pull type, and the elastic force of the trencher was shot out using the belt on the trencher, and the principle of the well wheel was used to turn the pulling force into a pair of winch. In this way, only twenty people were enough to operate a trencher.

Zhang Lei was not only the first crossbow craftsman of the Great Sui Dynasty, but also a military mechanical genius. He not only designed a winch-type catapult, but also designed a crossbow similar to a crossbow. He used a bed crossbow to shoot out ten soldiers and arrows at a time, which was powerful and could penetrate the shields three hundred steps away. This kind of bed crossbow can be operated with only two people, and he also used a winch to siege the strings. There were 400 such bed crossbows on the top of the city, which dealt with the dense siege army and had an astonishing lethality.

In addition, there is a stone cannon. This stone cannon is combined with a trench machine. It is a short-distance heavy stone generator. Its advantage is its high accuracy. It is known as a nest car killer. It can smash the nest car within fifty steps.

Amid the intense drums of the Sui army, the 10,000 Sui army and the 10,000 militia manipulators were already waiting for him. Yang Yuanqing's eyes were cold. He wanted to use the most cruel killing to make this battle unforgettable to generations of the Turks.

............

[On Monday, I asked everyone for recommendation votes. Lao Gao is now ranked third on the historical recommendation list, so everyone voted to keep it!]
Chapter completed!