Seeing the wall of the Sui army camp open in the distance, tens of thousands of troops sweeping out in a mighty manner, the Tang army soldiers on Jiangyuan City were in an uproar. Han Wei on the city tower had seen the total strength of the Sui army. Judging from the scale of the attack, Pei Xingyan, even if he was not

With all the troops mobilized, there may not be many soldiers left in the camp.

"General, this is a God-given opportunity for us to defeat the Sui army." When the Sui army reached the city, Han Wei's deputy general Quan Hongshou had also seen the size of the Sui army. His current mood and thoughts were exactly the same as Han Wei's. He was pleasantly surprised.

Intersection said: "The Sui Camp is located between Jiangyuan City and General Li. Judging from the size of the troops attacking in front of us, there must be only a few thousand troops left behind in the Sui Camp. The general believes that we should cooperate with General Li's actions. The Sui Army

Once the camp is lost, the Sui army fighting General Li will inevitably be in turmoil, their morale will plummet, and they will fall into a predicament where they cannot care about each other."

"Yes, General! General Li has traveled a long way here, and the soldiers are exhausted. Compared with the Sui army, which is waiting for work, our soldiers cannot fight for a long time. We cannot let the Sui army's cavalry do their best, let alone sit back and watch General Li and the others fall into a hard battle.

.”

"General, if the Sui army returns to support the main camp, it will give General Li an opportunity to use his troops to cover up the attack. Let's send troops."

"General, send out troops."

The other generals spoke out in support of Quan Hongshou.

"General, the Sui army's camp has surrounded half of Jiangyuan City. Even if the whole camp cannot be captured, it must be destroyed so that our army can connect with General Li and others nearby. They can continue to stay in the city and wait for death.

What's the difference?" Quan Hongshou saw Han Wei's hesitation and said loudly: "If General Li and others, who fought against the odds, are defeated, the isolated and helpless Jiangyuan City will not be able to defend it at all, and our army will have to show the courage to break the boat and fight with all our strength.

The entire city's troops attacked the Sui army's camp."

Facing the fiery gazes of the generals who were begging for battle, Han Wei took another look at the carriage behind the Sui army. Although he didn't know what the purpose of this thing was, he was already moved and knew that what the generals said was reasonable and made a decisive decision.

The order said: "Send the order and order all soldiers to gather in the north city. Once the two armies fight, immediately open the city gate and attack the Sui army camp. Be sure to cooperate with General Li to annihilate Pei Xingyan's army outside the city."

"General, I obey." The generals clasped their fists and saluted, quickly dispersed, and directed their soldiers to go down to the city. They gathered at the north gate and lined up to wait for the order to attack.

When Han Wei on the city saw that the armies were ready, he immediately lowered the drawbridge and gave the order to open the city. He also quickly got off the city and mounted his horse, resolutely ran towards the front with the ambition of success if he failed.

Immediately, the entire army filed out and rushed to the Sui army camp several miles away.

…

At this time, the Tang army outside the city was also marching quickly, preparing to face the Sui army.

Li Xiaochang planned to have 60,000 troops. In addition to the main army of Tongchang County, he also included all Liu Hongji's mobile forces. This was Pei Xingyan's large-scale march into Tongchang and Liu Hongji made a response decision in order to reduce the pressure on Shu County and improve the efficiency of the army.

, he appointed Li Xiaochang as the general manager of Jiannan March and asked him to deal with Pei Xingyan flexibly.

Li Xiaochang knew that the elite level of his own soldiers was far inferior to that of the Sui army, and saw the smoke billowing from the war, so he led the entire army southward, leaving the defense of Tongchang to Liu Hongji.

He demonstrated in front of the Sui camp, and he really wanted to lure the Sui army out of the camp in order to observe the strength of the enemy's army. However, when the Sui army actually launched a large-scale attack, he was deeply surprised. However, since the matter had come to this, he naturally could not give the order to retreat.

Otherwise, the entire army would collapse. So he raised his hand and loudly ordered: "The entire army forms a formation to face the enemy."

The 60,000-strong army was divided into four parts in the vast wilderness and faced each other in formation. The central army, left and right wings and reserve troops stretched across several miles.

When they completed their formation, everyone felt the earth tremble. They saw a dark cloud sweeping in from a distance. The sky and the earth seemed to change color. The sound of huge horse hooves made the earth tremble. This was the Sui army's cavalry killing.

As they arrived, the Tang army's horses began to snort uneasily, and the soldiers' hands clenching their spears were sweating.

A black line quickly appeared, sweeping towards the Tang army's formation with an unstoppable force. Li Xiaochang showed a cruel smile on his lips. This was the moment he was waiting for: "Arrowmen, prepare!"

Fifteen thousand crossbowmen lined up in front. The crossbowmen responsible for long-range shooting lined up in front, and the short-range archers lined up behind, forming a staggered formation from far to near.

Six thousand crossbowmen were arranged in three rows, one foot apart from the front and back. The first row squatted down, and two thousand crossbows stood up from the ground, coldly aiming at the overwhelming Sui army.

The Sui army's cavalry were getting closer and closer, and their murderous aura seemed to destroy everything in the world into dust.

Pei Xingyan, who was under the banner of the rear army, saw the arrow array of the Tang army in the distance, but a smile that was mixed with weirdness, cruelty and relaxation appeared at the corner of his mouth.

In fact, Li Xiaochang's response pattern and Jiang Yuan's attack were all expected by him. In today's battle, he not only wanted to defeat Li Xiaochang, but also captured Jiang Yuan City. It can be said that his ambitions and risks were both high and low.

It was quite large, but he commanded the First Army, the most elite among the ten armies of the Sui Dynasty, and had thousands of honeycomb crossbows, so he never thought about his defeat. At this time, the two Tang armies were

The opposition was as expected, and they immediately raised their arms and shouted excitedly: "Divide into formations!"

"Divide into formations!"

As the banner pointed south, the Sui army on the right south of the central army drew an arc. Under the leadership of General Mai Zhongcai, they attacked Jiang Yuan's army who had just left the city; and Qian, the former commander of the central army,

Jie, on the other hand, led the cavalry of the former army to seize the position of the right army, which also exposed the honeycomb crossbows located in the middle of the central army to the front of the battlefield. Qian Jie's department became the right wing of the crossbow army and took on the task of covering it.

, once the Honeycomb Crossbow showed its power and defeated the Tang Army's arrow formation, he and the left army to the north of the Central Army broke into the Tang Army's center at the same time. As for the left and right wings of the Tang Army, they were handed over to the two rear armies led by Pei Xingyan and Liu Rengui.

to deal with.

"This is..." Li Xiaochang, who was in the distance, was about to give the order to 'shoot' when he saw the Sui army's right army. The Chinese army suddenly drew an arc and ran towards the south. A car appeared behind the front army of the Chinese army.

A carriage drawn by two horses, with the front door wide open.

However, it can be seen that these carriages are completely different from the chariots in the records. Although they look a little weird, they are not much different from ordinary carriages. The whole body seems to be made of solid wood and is dragged by four iron-clad wheels, but the top of the carriage is divided into two

area, the front part is a "human"-shaped vehicle ridge with one side high and one low. The rear part is the same as a normal carriage, leaning to both sides in a smooth manner. At this time, there are two soldiers in front of each carriage to move the "human"-shaped vehicle.

The ridges are lowered to both sides of the carriage. From a distance, the carriage seems to have two wings.

Marching Sima Li Shousu's face changed drastically, and he shouted to Li Xiaochang in a very anxious voice: "Commander, please quickly order the crossbow troops to stop fighting and retreat immediately."

As a confidant under Li Shimin, he not only had contact with the Tibetan generals, but also knew that the Sui army had a very powerful crossbow. Once it was activated, it would hunt down the enemy troops like a violent storm. Lu Dongzan's Tubo

The main force was defeated by this kind of crossbows, and the Sui army's cavalry that came later was completely wiped out. The intelligence obtained by Li Shimin said that when Yang Tong returned to the court after winning the victory, he used this kind of car with huge damage.

The crossbow was left to Pei Xingyan. Ten percent of the nearly a thousand carriages that appeared on the battlefield for no reason were those terrifying crossbows.

Because it was blocked by the front army and the flag bearers before, it could not be seen, but now as the front army slides to the south, the flag bearers retreated, making the crossbows ferociously revealed in front of the Tang army's center.

"Is this a chariot of the Sui Army?" Li Xiaochang obviously didn't know the existence of crossbows. He looked at the crossbows lined up in a row and was surprised.

During the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, chariots were almost one of the standards for measuring the military power of various vassal states. However, as the years passed and the cavalry rose, chariots sadly withdrew from the stage of history due to various defects and drawbacks. Unexpectedly, they are reappearing today.

Now on the battlefield.

"Grand Governor, these are not chariots, but powerful crossbows. The main force of Tibet was slaughtered by these crossbows." Li Shousu saw that it was too late in time. If he retreated at this time, the crossbowmen in front would definitely be killed.

He broke up the rear army formation and provided convenience for the Sui army's cavalry, who was looking at them. He immediately roared loudly: "Quickly order the sword and shield soldiers to attack and cover our army's arrow formation."

"The soldiers with swords and shields are pressing forward." After Li Xiaochang heard this, he also understood and quickly gave the order according to Li Xuansu's suggestion.

When the trumpet sounded, two thousand shield-bearers on standby quickly rushed to the front from the gaps in the arrow array, placing their shields in front to cover the crossbowmen behind.

…

"Haha..." Pei Xingyan saw that Li Xiaochang reacted quickly and used the shield array to cover the arrow array tightly, and sneered: "A mere skinned wooden shield wants to block the crossbow arrows of the honeycomb crossbow? This is simply a daydream. Order both sides

The cavalry was ready to attack the Tang army's central rear formation, and its chariots and crossbows were launched."

When he issued the order, he could hear killing cries and screams coming from the south. However, the right-wing cavalry commanded by Mai Zhongcai had already begun to fight with Jiangyuan Army. They took advantage of the cavalry's maneuverability and the range of their crossbows.

Drawing a circle around the Tang army and firing arrows, like peeling pine cones, hunting down the Tang soldiers layer by layer.

On the side of the Chinese army, the messenger standing high on the command vehicle heard Pei Xingyan's order, and immediately waved the command flag and gave the firing instructions to the crossbow army. Suddenly, the sound of "dong, dong, dong" war drums was loud, and the sound was loud.

It was so big that it almost drowned out the cries of killing in the southern battlefield.

Pei Xingyan's eyes were like those of a hawk, staring coldly at the shield array ahead. In fact, he knew what kind of tragic scene it would be without even looking.

This honeycomb crossbow was only used once on the snowy plateau. Due to its huge power and ferocity, Yang Tong did not throw it into the civil war. After all, they were all of the same race, and Yang Tong did not want to go too far. But he was not a saint.

The Holy Mother is a living person with selfish thoughts. Naturally, she will not be pedantic and treat enemy soldiers equally, benevolent as a woman, and pretend to be benevolent and righteous.

If a choice was made between Sui and Tang soldiers, Yang Tong would not hesitate to massacre hundreds of Tang soldiers for the safety of one Sui soldier. Therefore, when receiving Pei Xingyan's request for instructions on whether to use a honeycomb crossbow, Yang Tong

Dong simply answered "play it by ear and consider it as appropriate". The implication is that if Pei Xingyan thinks it can be used, he must use it. There is no need to worry or burden at all, and he can just use it to his heart's content.

Now Pei Xingyan rushed these honeycomb crossbows to the battlefield, obviously thinking that it was time to use them, to use them, and to use them to their heart's content.

"Buzz, buzz, buzz, buzz, buzz..." The honeycomb crossbows placed at the front line had been waiting for a long time. When the sound of drums came, thousands of honeycomb crossbows suddenly launched, and a black cloud of iron crossbows rose into the sky, as if they were hungry.

Like 10,000-year-old locusts, they roared towards the enemy shield formation ahead.

The soldiers of the Tang army did not have iron shields, not because the iron shields were heavy, but because after the Tang Dynasty was forced to withdraw from Guanzhong, it had been in poverty and was in a dilemma of lack of pig iron. They first 'imported' iron ore from the Sui Dynasty and smelted it into iron.

, and then cast weapons, armor, arrow clusters (arrowheads), and most of the iron ore that is 'imported' every time is a stone that cannot be smelted, but looks like iron ore, so the scarce iron produced is cast first.

Weapons, armor and arrow clusters, so the soldiers naturally had no iron shields to use.

Most of the shields they use now are wooden shields covered with two layers of skin. Ordinary arrows cannot penetrate at eighty paces, but they cannot prevent crossbows. However, when Li Xiaogong was trapped in Chung Ling County, he accidentally

He accidentally discovered that the double-layered vine shield made of Laoshan vines was so strong after drying that it could not even be penetrated by a crossbow. So when he returned to Yizhou, he told the story of the vine shield's lightweight characteristics and used it.

Rattan shields became the first choice of shields for the Tang army. However, it was not easy to collect vines from Laoshan and difficult to prepare, and the preparation time for them was too short. Therefore, the number of rattan shields was not large, and wooden shields are still the main ones now.

But whether it was a wooden shield or a rattan shield, what we faced today was not an ordinary crossbow bolt, but an iron crossbow bolt fired by a honeycomb crossbow.

The iron crossbow's own weight and flight speed make it have strong impact and penetration in the air. When the arrow hits the shield formation, only a dense "crackling" sound is heard, and the iron crossbow passes through

Wooden shields and rattan shields penetrated the simple leather armor of Tang soldiers.

The shield array shattered and collapsed under the dense rain of arrows. The shield-bearers and archers hiding behind had no time to react and turned into hedgehogs. With a heart-wrenching crunching sound, this wave of iron crossbow arrows hit the Tang army.

The military formation plowed out strips of death stripes formed by blood. It was a hell on earth. Some soldiers of the Tang Army still kept their forward posture and slowly fell forward, but the second row of crossbow arrows that followed them had already fired, and the powerful

The iron crossbow arrows righted some corpses, and then they fell backwards. A crossbow arrow that passed through the corpses caused cruel and merciless killing to the Tang Army's arrow array behind them.

The third row of arrow clouds roared in again, and the dense crossbow arrows shot through the soldiers' leather armor like a violent storm, and the Tang army soldiers rolled to the ground one by one.

The crossbowmen of the Sui Army who were responsible for operating the crossbows skillfully loaded, advanced, and fired the crossbows, and fired in turns at the people in front of them. After only three rounds of shooting, the shield formation and arrow formation were broken. The 17,000 people who made up this second formation were

There were not many soldiers left in the Tang army. The heavy losses caused the murderous spirit of the Tang army to fade quickly, and the position began to be in disarray.
To be continued...