Tibet.

Chapter 1456 A desperate move

There are two major pastoral areas in the Shuofang region. One is the foothills of the Helan Mountains in the west, and the other is the central grassland northwest of Lingzhou, which is today's Hangjin Banner, Inner Mongolia. The grassland is vast and has always been the pasture of the Qiang people in southern Shuofang.

But now the pasture has been occupied by the Dangxiang people, and more than 200,000 ordinary Dangxiang people are waiting on the grassland.

Of course, not all the Dangxiang people are here. Some of them are still staying in the mountainous areas of Gyeongju and Wonju, so they will not be in danger for the time being. The Dangxiang people from Xiazhou and Yinzhou have not come here either.

The sun was shining brightly on the grassland, with a gentle breeze blowing. There was green grass and blooming flowers on both sides of a small river. The grassland was filled with large cars, stretching for more than ten miles. There were groups of people sitting everywhere, and groups of children were running on the grassland. Everyone's eyes were full of expectations for future life.

At this moment, the earth began to tremble, and everyone stood up and looked towards the northwest in astonishment.

A black line appeared in the distance. At this time, dozens of Tangut cavalrymen came running and shouted, "The Tang army is coming. Everyone, hide quickly!"

The Tanguts were in chaos, countless of them fled southwards, carrying their children and elderly, stumbling and crying for their parents.
Three thousand Dangxiang guard cavalry went up to fight, but were quickly surrounded by the Tang army. The two sides fought fiercely on the grassland. The Tang cavalry kept firing arrows and torpedoes, which blew the Dangxiang cavalry off their horses and threw the team into chaos.

With the force of thunder, the ten thousand Tang troops wiped out the three thousand Dangxiang troops in less than half an hour and continued to chase the Dangxiang people.

The Tangut civilians were mostly old, weak, women and children, and could not run fast. The Tang cavalry caught up with them. The Tang cavalry shouted, "Everyone sit down where you are. The Tang army will not kill women and children!"

The Dangxiang people's legs became weak and they had to sit down obediently.

Two hours later, more than 200,000 old, weak, women and children of the Tanguts were captured by the Tang army, along with nearly four million sheep.

More than 200,000 Dangxiang people and their flocks of sheep were escorted southward by the Tang army. Lu Yan's surprise attack completely cut off the logistics of the Dangxiang army.

The next afternoon, the Tangut cavalry who came to collect food arrived at the central grassland camp, only to see corpses all over the ground. More than 200,000 civilians and sheep were nowhere to be seen.

When the news that Tuoba Qimei had ordered his army to massacre the city reached Lingzhou, Tuoba Chaoguang almost went mad with rage.

"Mad man! Idiot! Absolute idiot!"

Tuoba Chaoguang was so angry that he started cursing. Tuoba Qimei's order would undoubtedly cut off all their retreat routes. How could the Tang army let them go?
There was no point in cursing. Things had come to this point and they could only fight to the death to capture Lingwu County. Otherwise, when the Tang army arrived, they would be completely finished.

Tuoba Chaoguang's irritability subsided a little, and he immediately ordered: "Prepare for an all-out attack!"

At dawn, the attack drums of the Dangxiang army sounded again. Driven by thousands of guards, the 40,000-strong Dangxiang army of Yuanzhou was fully mobilized and attacked the city.

The leader Tuoba Chaoguang sent out siege ladders, siege carts, and catapults to mix in with the army. The 40,000-strong army was as dense as an ant colony, and it was so mighty that it covered the wilderness outside Lingwu City.

This time the Dangxiang army got smarter. They used wooden planks to pave the road, laying out dozens of wooden plank roads, allowing the Dangxiang army to avoid assassinations on the ground.

But they could not escape the fire and thunder array above their heads. Twenty catapults kept firing, and iron fire thunders whistled down from the sky and exploded among the Tangut soldiers. Blood and flesh flew everywhere, and screams resounded throughout the wilderness.

A nest car full of soldiers was hit by an iron fire mine, which exploded inside the nest car. In an instant, huge trees flew everywhere, thick smoke rose into the sky, the soldiers were blown flying, and the nest car fell apart.

The only battering ram was also hit. The iron fire bomb exploded in mid-air, breaking the ram into two pieces. The wooden platform was overturned, and the two wooden wheels fell off. The huge body of the ram tilted and lay on the ground unable to move.

One after another, iron fire bombs exploded in the crowd, and shrill screams continued to be heard. The great fear caused the morale of the Dangxiang army to drop, and many Dangxiang soldiers turned around and tried to flee. Tuoba Chaoguang was well prepared, and three thousand personal guards cavalrymen held swords in the rear to support the formation. Nearly a hundred Dangxiang soldiers who escaped from the formation were chopped to the ground.

The soldiers of the Dangxiang Army had no choice but to charge forward. As the Dangxiang Army advanced, the counterattack began.

Fifty catapults were deployed one after another, and huge rocks weighing hundreds of pounds flew toward the top of the city.

On the top of the city wall, all 12,000 soldiers went into battle, and another 8,000 young and strong men were temporarily recruited. They wore leather armor and held bows and arrows. Except for their lack of momentum and proficiency, they were almost indistinguishable from ordinary soldiers.

At this time, the Tangut army's catapults were ready to fire, and Cheng Bingquan shouted, "Be careful of flying stones!"

As soon as he finished speaking, dozens of large stones flew towards the top of the city. The soldiers on the top of the city shouted and squatted down one after another. "Bang! Bang!" The huge stones hit the city wall and the top of the city, and the broken stones splashed everywhere.

A general came running to Zhang Bingquan and said, "General, use the arrow mines!"

The Tang army's firearms were mainly supplied on a large scale to Liaodong and the Western Regions.

There were some in Shuofang, but they were mainly in Fengzhou, which was the first stop to defend against the nomadic cavalry in the north. There were only a thousand heavy arrow mines and more than a hundred iron fire mines in the warehouse of Lingwu County, no explosive arrows, but thousands of barrels of kerosene.

Zhang Bingquan looked at the nest car in the distance, thought for a moment and said: "First, take 500 arrow mines to kill the enemy's catapults, and the soldiers will use kerosene to deal with them!"

"Follow the order!"

Soon, the soldiers took the arrow mines, and Zhang Bingquan ordered twenty archers to use them to destroy the enemy's catapults.

Twenty archers set up their crossbows and aimed at the catapult one hundred and fifty steps away.

Twenty arrow mines were fired almost at the same time. The powerful heavy crossbow arrows hit the catapults one after another. The arrow mines at the front exploded violently, the catapult supports were blown off, and eighteen catapults collapsed.

There was a round of applause from the top of the city. Zhang Bingquan was overjoyed and shouted, "Shoot again!"

After three rounds of sixty-arrow lasers were fired, fifty large catapults of the Tanguts all collapsed and were difficult to repair, so they were basically useless.

But the siege officially began, and 10,000 Dangxiang archers rushed forward, and a bow and arrow battle broke out between the two sides.

Eight thousand newly recruited Tang army soldiers shot arrows down from both sides of the battlements of the city wall. There were arrow shooting holes on the walls of Lingwu City, and the battlements could be used as cover, while other soldiers shot arrows at an upward angle from behind.

The Dangxiang army had a slight advantage in terms of their large numbers. Arrows from both sides rained down like dense rain, forming a black arrow net in the sky. The Dangxiang suffered heavy casualties, and the Tang army also suffered casualties, with people screaming continuously as they were shot by arrows.

Amidst the dense rain of arrows, the Dangxiang army began to cross the moat and approach the city wall. To their surprise, there was no water in the moat, only a large trench two meters deep and two and a half meters wide. However, whether there was water in the moat was no longer meaningful to the Dangxiang army. They put up three-meter-long wooden boards, making the moat lose its defensive function.

At this time, dozens of large siege ladders and twenty siege carts rumbled in. Each siege cart was loaded with hundreds of Dangxiang soldiers, each holding a spear and a shield. There were more than 300 people following below, shooting arrows upwards together.

The nest chariot slowly approached the city wall and was less than fifty steps away from it. At the same time, the arrows and torpedoes of the Tang army began to take effect.

"I'm coming!"

A lieutenant pointed at a nest car that was approaching and yelled, "Load the bow and aim for me!"

Two soldiers set up two heavy crossbows and aimed at the nest vehicle.

The captain yelled, "Fire!"

The two soldiers pulled the trigger on their swords, and with two "clicks!", two heavy arrows were fired from the firing slots, whizzing towards the nest car fifty steps away.

"Boom! Boom!" There were two explosions. The Nest Car was hit by two arrow mines, which blew two large holes and broke a pillar. The Nest Car shook violently and continued to move forward.

"Damn it, come again!"

The captain cursed loudly, and several soldiers loaded their arrows again without adjusting the direction. Two more arrows were shot out powerfully and hit the nest car again. They exploded inside the nest car, and there were screams inside the nest car. The nest car was blown into two pieces.

Dozens of leather belts tied to the main beam of the nest car were blown off, and the nest car disintegrated instantly, and countless soldiers fell down with screams.

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Although the Tang army's arrows and mines were powerful, they could only destroy all the nest vehicles. Dozens of siege ladders were finally placed on the city wall. Below the siege ladders, dozens of Dangxiang soldiers climbed up with swords in hand. Hundreds of Tang soldiers dealt with one ladder and fought fiercely with the enemy.

More than twenty siege ladders were placed on the top of the city wall. The Dangxiang soldiers climbed the ladders and rushed up frantically. The Tang soldiers waved their swords, sabers and spears to fight with the rushing enemy. On the wall, dozens of Tang soldiers held crossbows and shot at the Dangxiang soldiers on the stairs from behind. The powerful crossbow arrows pierced the wooden shields, and Dangxiang soldiers kept falling down the city wall with screams.

The battle gradually became bloody and brutal.

Zhang Bingquan saw that the time was ripe and ordered, "Throw kerosene!"

Thousands of barrels of kerosene were thrown down the city. The wooden barrels shattered, and the kerosene flowed out and was ignited by torches. Suddenly, a raging fire was burning under the city, and then thousands of bundles of straw were thrown down as well.

The 20,000 Tangut troops were engulfed in the flames in just a short moment.

(End of this chapter)