The Sui Dynasty's chess game

Chapter 857 Battle of Chishui
Thirty thousand Tibetan troops besieged Chishui City.

At dawn, just as the rising sun shone on the city walls, the attack drums began to beat in the Tibetan camp.

"Thump! Thump! Thump..."

Squads of Tibetan soldiers began to pour out of the camp and quickly assembled in the open space in front of the camp. Yu Zebu committed all 30,000 troops, aiming to capture Chishui County in one battle and gain a foothold in Heyuan Prefecture.

Qima Naval City was too small to accommodate 30,000 Tibetan troops, while Chishui County was just right. With a city wall 30 li in circumference, tall and sturdy, and fertile fields all around, it was a homeland that the Tibetans coveted. Unfortunately, it didn't belong to them, so they would take it at all costs.

This was also the order given by the Tibetan king to his general Yuzebu: to take Heyuan County at all costs, so that Tibet could have a foothold east of Jishi Mountain.

At the same time, they seized Han Chinese artisans, as Tibet desperately needed the various technologies of the Sui Dynasty.

"Thump! Thump! Thump!"

The thunderous drumming of the Tibetan army was so deafening that it seemed to stop everyone's heart from beating, yet the drumming of the attack only boosted the morale of the Sui army.

"Thirty strings of cash will be awarded to each person who defends Chishui County!"

Commander Li Zhangtian also became determined, shouting loudly from the city wall: "Heyuan County is the territory of the Great Sui Dynasty, and we will never let the Tubo take an inch of it!"

The soldiers were also filled with patriotic fervor, raising their arms and shouting, "We swear to live and die with Chishui City!"

All the Sui soldiers rushed to the city wall, each one full of energy, bows drawn and arrows nocked, ready to fight the Tibetan army to the death.

The Sui Dynasty mainly equipped Li Jing's army, which was conquering the west, and Luo Shixin's army, which was conquering the east, with very few being deployed in Longyou.

The reason was that the imperial court believed that the Tibetan population was small and not yet unified, and that they would not invade the Sui Dynasty within thirty years, so they only needed to guard against some small-scale disturbances.

Therefore, the Xihai Commandery and Heyuan Commandery together had only 15,000 troops stationed, while the Hehuang Commandery had 10,000 troops stationed, mainly to prevent the Qiang people from rebelling.

However, the imperial court was clearly unaware of the enormous damage the trade blockade had caused to Tibet, and underestimated the Tibetans' determination to obtain ironware at any cost.

Chishui City itself did not have any arrows and mines; they were all distributed to various military cities, and the garrison troops of each military city brought them back. Currently, there are only two hundred crossbows with arrows and mines, each equipped with five arrows and mines, and thirty small catapults, each equipped with five small iron fire mines.

However, although Chishui City did not have many fire bombs, it had a lot of oil, with as many as three thousand bags, each weighing twenty catties.

This was the greatest source of confidence for the Sui army defending the city.

Just as the Sui army entered the battle preparation phase, the first wave of Tibetan troops, numbering about 15,000, arrived. The three black square formations of the army were arranged in a vertical line, like a rushing river, and swept in from the southwest, northwest and due west directions of Chishui City.

The Tibetan army carried hundreds of rafts, which were simply made by binding together five straight pine logs and nailing crossbars on top. They were simple and practical.

When the Tibetans entered within two hundred paces, the two hundred crossbow bolts on the city wall fired simultaneously. Two hundred crossbow bolts and two thousand arrows whistled towards the Tibetan army. The Tibetan army quickly raised their rafts, and powerful iron arrows struck the rafts one after another, making a series of 'boom! boom!' explosions. Most of the crossbow bolts exploded on the rafts.

Commander Li Zhangtian was stunned; he hadn't expected the Tibetan army to use such a method to break the arrow mines.

He immediately shouted, "Stop the arrows and mines! Prepare the oil!"

The soldiers carried heavy leather bags filled with sloshing oil from below the city walls. They rushed forward, waiting for the Tibetan army to approach.

The Tibetan army's wooden ladders were indeed very practical; they could be used not only as ladders but also as bridges. They laid the wooden ladders across the moat, and countless soldiers rushed over to carry the ladders up to the city walls.

At this moment, Sui soldiers on the city wall, carrying leather bags, sprayed oil into the Tibetan army. Streams of black oil gushed from the bags, splattering the dense Tibetan soldiers from head to toe. Although iron fire and thunderbolts were scarce in Longyou, oil was plentiful, with supplies in every city. In a short time, nearly a thousand bags of oil had been sprayed into the Tibetan army. The pungent odor caused the Tibetan soldiers to begin to stir, and some, sensing danger, began to retreat step by step.

At this moment, dozens of torches were thrown into the Tibetan army. With a loud bang, a raging fire broke out in the Tibetan army. This kind of oil was not crude oil that was directly mined. It was oil that the Sui army had settled and removed impurities from, and it had an extremely strong burning power.

In an instant, the fire spread across the entire city wall. Thousands of Tibetan soldiers fled desperately as if their nest had been blown apart, and countless Tibetan soldiers, their bodies engulfed in flames, cried out as they rushed out from the moat ladders.

The Tibetan soldiers were no longer fighting. The fire was raging on their heads and bodies. Many of them spread their arms and ran only a few steps before collapsing to the ground, where the fire burned them into curl-up positions.

Dozens of Sui soldiers were also affected by the fire. They fell to the ground, rolling around and screaming in agony, until their comrades used wet blankets to extinguish the flames on their bodies.

Most of the thousands of Tibetan soldiers were set ablaze. Near the southwest corner of the city, some Tibetan soldiers who had not been doused with oil were terrified. They tried to escape down the ladders, but in the chaos and crowding, people were constantly pushed off the ladders, screaming as they fell down the city walls. Soon, these soldiers were also engulfed by the flames.

The sudden turn of events during the siege stunned all the soldiers. The raging fire was particularly shocking, and the oil reversed the tide of the battle, quickly turning the tide of the entire war.

The fire started when a dozen or so city ladders on the west side of the city were set ablaze. Then, dozens more ladders near the middle of the city wall were set ablaze with oil by the Sui army. The fire raged on and around the city, with flames shooting into the air and thick smoke billowing into the sky. At this moment, the sound of bells signaling the retreat came from within the Tibetan army.

"Dang! Dang! Dang! Dang!"

Amidst the dull and jarring tolling of the bells, the Tibetan army retreated like a receding tide.

..........
The siege was fierce, resulting in over three thousand casualties among the Tibetan soldiers. Although this only accounted for one-tenth of the total, the shock to the Tibetan soldiers was no less than that caused by iron fire and thunder.

Just as the commander-in-chief Yu Zebu was preparing to attack Chishui County again, a scout reported that Sui reinforcements, numbering about 20,000, were approaching from a distance of more than ten miles away. They were moving very fast and were about to arrive.

Yu Zebu was shocked and immediately assembled his army. Just then, the earth trembled in the distance, and 20,000 Sui cavalrymen charged in.

This is You Junda leading 20,000 cavalrymen to attack.

The banners fluttered in the wind, and thousands of troops galloped across the plains. Twenty thousand cavalrymen roared forward, their rolling hooves kicking up sand and dust that covered the sky and blocked out the morning sun. The murderous aura was like a storm on the wasteland, sweeping towards the Tibetan army.

Two hundred paces away from the Tibetan army, the two thousand soldiers at the forefront raised their crossbows and fired.

Two thousand arrows hurtled in and struck the Tibetan army, causing a dense explosion that tore Tibetan soldiers apart, filling the air with screams and wails.

The darkness that had enveloped Chishui County seemed to be driven away at that moment. The Tibetan army was thrown into chaos, gripped by extreme fear. Many soldiers turned and ran, while others were bewildered and at a loss.

"Kill all deserters!"

Yu Zebu gave a stern order, and a thousand supervising officers rushed forward, killing hundreds of fleeing soldiers and barely managing to stabilize the army.

The Sui army, like a raging torrent, had already rushed in front of them. Their swords flashed with a blinding light, their spears were like a forest, and the roars of the Sui army echoed across the land. Their iron cavalry rolled forward, attacking the Tibetan soldiers who had not yet had time to assemble.

Like cornered beasts, the Tibetan army fought desperately, even without warhorses. They simply formed ranks, holding shields and short swords, and fought back fiercely. But the dark mass of Sui cavalry instantly charged into their ranks, the storm of their charge blinding them, and many cried out in despair.

Twenty thousand cavalrymen charged into the Tibetan army like a storm, carving a bloody path through them. In this path, they trampled, crushed, and annihilated everything in their path. Tibetan soldiers rolled under the hooves of their horses, their necks were cleaved by swords, and their chests were pierced by spears. Heads rolled to the ground, limbs flew everywhere, and blood mist filled the air. Shouts of battle and screams of agony echoed across the plains.

The Sui army penetrated the Tibetan army's formation like mercury spilling onto the ground, dividing and surrounding them one by one. Although the Tibetan army put up a stubborn resistance, the disparity in combat strength between the infantry and cavalry was too great, and the Tibetan army collapsed completely in less than a quarter of an hour.

(End of this chapter)