Tibet

Chapter 850 Entering Hebei

Rolling logs and stones hit the car hard, making a 'Bang! Bang! 'Muffled sound, the raw cowhide is not directly covered on the wooden board, but is stretched on the wooden frame like a drum. It is extremely elastic. The pyramid-shaped structure of the cart has played a huge advantage. The huge stone hits the cart, like Like hitting a pile of cotton, most of the force was removed. The stones and rolling logs slid to both sides and rolled down along the edge.

The car continued to move upwards, and there were still fifty steps before the city's trump card was finally used. Three hundred jars of kerosene fell down, and the black oil flowed downwards, carrying raging fire, and hundreds of bundles of wheat straw were thrown down.

The soldiers of the Tang Army moved quickly and spread the thick, wet bedding on the burning kerosene to cut off the air. These beddings also formed a ridge to stop the kerosene from flowing downwards and concentrated the burning within fifty steps. Smoke billowed and flames soared into the sky.

The first and second blocking vehicles were still engulfed in flames, and the soldiers withdrew behind the third and fourth blocking vehicles.

At the foot of the mountain, the generals watching the battle could see clearly. Lei Wanchun frowned and said, "I really don't understand, how much kerosene do they have?"

Li Ye sneered: "It doesn't matter whether they have it or not, I won't give them another chance!"

The generals were stunned, and Li Ye did not explain, but immediately ordered: "Send my order and shoot gunpowder arrows into Guancheng with all your strength!"

Li Ye is best at seizing the enemy's weaknesses. At Niangziguan, he seized on the crudeness of the enemy's defense and created a passage in the fire.

The same was true at Tumen Pass. He found that the enemy had actually thrown out hundreds of bundles of wheat straw, which meant that the enemy must have accumulated a large amount of wheat straw in the city. This was equivalent to creating an extremely dangerous fire hazard for himself. This hidden danger opportunity Of course he had to catch it.

Thousands of burning gunpowder arrows were shot at the top of the city and into the city. More than 5,000 bundles of wheat straw were piled up in the city. Hundreds of them were immediately ignited by fire. They burned rapidly and spread extremely quickly. The Yan army soldiers were immediately frightened. The soldiers who panicked and reacted faster ran away like Guancheng. At this time, more than two hundred kerosene jars remaining on Guancheng were also ignited. Under the high temperature, the jars exploded one after another, and kerosene overflowed. The entire Guancheng Tower was engulfed in flames.

Duan Xiushi and Bai Xiude were both stunned. Bai Xiude scratched his head and asked, "How did your Highness know that it was all wheat straw?"

Li Ye smiled slightly and said: "The enemy's burning of wheat straw should have learned from us. I saw that they threw out hundreds of bundles of wheat straw. This must be collected from the surrounding villages. Do you think they will only collect a few hundred bundles of wheat straw?" ?”

"will not!"

Bai Xiaode shook his head, "A farmhouse has hundreds of bundles, and they have to collect at least several thousand or even tens of thousands of bundles."

"The question is, where do they put the wheat straw they collected? Move the grain out and put it in the granary? It's definitely impossible. It can only be piled in Guancheng. There are so many wheat straws piled in the small Guancheng, so we have thousands of gunpowder Can a volley of arrows still fail to ignite a bundle of wheat straw?”

Everyone laughed, and Li Ye immediately ordered all the soldiers to withdraw.

The fire burned for a day and a night. The next day, the fire was completely extinguished. Li Ye sent scouts to investigate. Soon the scouts came to report that there was no one in the city and they could pass through.

Li Ye immediately ordered the army to march through Tumen Pass and enter Hengzhou.

Hundreds of scouts were divided into more than a dozen teams and went to various places to investigate the situation of the Yan army. The Tang army began to publicize the news that the Uighur army would plunder the Han people in the spring of next year.

Just as Li Ye opened up Jingxing and entered Hebei, two major events happened in Luoyang. The first major event was that Xu Shuji, the military governor of Puhua, was impeached by Liang Chongyi, the military governor of Bian Song Dynasty, and robbed the Helong grain ship.

Emperor Li Heng issued an order to remove Xu Shuji from the post of Puhua Jiedushi and ordered him to return to Beijing for investigation.

Xu Shuji refused to obey the order and surrendered to Shi Siming, breaking the confrontation between the Yan army and the Tang army. Shi Chaoyi immediately led his army south. Without the cooperation of Xu Shuji's army, Bian Song Jiedushi Liang Chongyi fled in panic, and Bianzhou and Songzhou fell. into the hands of the Yan army. The loss of Songzhou meant that the Yan army opened the door to the south to Jianghuai, and the situation in the Central Plains took a turn for the worse.

Another major event was that Shi Siming and the Uighur mission concluded an agreement to jointly destroy the Tang Dynasty. The Uighurs promised to send 100,000 troops into the Tang Dynasty next year and attack the Tang Dynasty from the north, while Shi Siming's army attacked Tongguan from the east. If the two armies attack, the Tang Dynasty will be destroyed.

However, as a condition for sending troops, Shi Siming agreed that in the spring of next year, the Huihe army could plunder the population of Hebei Province for three months.

In the Imperial Study Room of the Luoyang Palace, the Prime Minister Gao Shang advised: "Your Majesty is the lord of the world. It is a bit inappropriate to send your own people to Huihe. I hope your Majesty will think again!"

Shi Siming was originally famous for his brutal massacre of cities. He had massacred countless cities in Hebei. He had no sympathy for the people. He snorted and said: "It is a good thing to trade a few ordinary people in Hebei to join forces with Huihe's 100,000-strong army." , what’s wrong?”

"I am afraid that the Uighurs will not keep their word and will not send troops again after plundering the population."

Shi Siming laughed, "That's because the Prime Minister's information is unclear. I got the exact news. Before returning to Hehe, the Khan died in the hands of Li Ye because he underestimated the enemy. Now that the Khan has vowed revenge after he ascended the throne, he needs to launch a war against the Tang Dynasty to consolidate his position as Khan. position, so I fully believe that the opponent’s army will go south to attack the Tang Dynasty, and it may even be more than 100,000 troops, 200,000 or 300,000 troops are possible. Isn’t Uighur known as an army of 400,000 troops?”

At this time, Zhang Tongru, the left prime minister, said from the side: "Your Majesty, I heard that Li Ye has reached an agreement with the court to attack Luoyang in the spring of next year, and he also promised to capture Luoyang. The person who came here is evil!"

Shi Siming raised his head and laughed, then said coldly: "What a bad person. I want to see how he can conquer Luoyang?"

At this moment, the sound of hurried running came from the imperial study, and a guard Gao Sheng reported, "Your Majesty, there is an urgent military situation in Hebei!"

Shi Siming shouted: "Send it up!"

Not long after, a guard rushed in and presented an urgent report to Shi Siming.

Shi Siming opened it and took a closer look. He suddenly slapped the table and said angrily: "A bunch of idiots, I gave them so much kerosene, but they still haven't defended Jingxing!"

Gao Shang was surprised and said: "Your Majesty, has Jingxing been lost?"

"Helong's army has entered Hengzhou. The soldiers and horses made Sun Zhongan dare not resist and led his army to flee back to Youzhou. This means that the report he wrote was called preserving strength. I must kill him!"

Gao Shang pondered for a moment and said: "Your Majesty, it is said that the Helong Jiedu Mansion established a refugee passage in the east of Hedong. He also opened up Jingxing to recruit refugees from Helong. Could it be that he knew that the Uighurs wanted to plunder Hebei and struck first."

Shi Siming snorted, "Last time you said it was because Helong ran out of soldiers, and the purpose of recruiting refugees from Hebei was to obtain soldiers. Why has your statement changed again now?"

"Your Majesty, what I said has not changed. I am sure that they came to Hebei to recruit refugees for the purpose of recruiting troops. Otherwise, there is no need for them to travel so far and spend so much money and food. I just feel that the other party has seized this opportunity very cleverly. It is just right." When we reached an agreement with the Uighurs, I suspected that Li Ye's motive was not only to accept refugees, but also to block the Uighur army."

Shi Siming waved his hand, "Whether it's accepting refugees or blocking the Huihe army, I don't care. I only care about whether Li Ye wants to take the opportunity to occupy Hebei and cut off my retreat!"

Zhang Tongru shook his head and said with a smile: "Your Majesty, don't worry, it's unlikely!"

(End of this chapter)