Guiyi Fei Tang

Chapter 24: Success and Demise
"The tower is lost!"

"Uuuuuu——"

"Outside the city! Hannu's reinforcements are coming!"

As the battle progressed, when the Tibetan army witnessed the loss of the city tower and the appearance of reinforcements from Shazhou outside the city, their morale plummeted.

Compared with their loss, the Shazhou soldiers fought more and more bravely, and their shouts were filled with the joy of victory.

In this life-and-death battle, the warriors of Shazhou wrote their legend with their lives and courage.

On and below the city walls, the boundary between life and death was blurred by blood, but the soldiers of Shazhou had only one belief in their hearts: "Recover lost territory and fight until the last moment."

"Siege!"

Outside the city, when Zhang Yichao saw the Sanchen flag hoisted on the city wall, he ordered an attack without hesitation.

Thousands of Shazhou soldiers from the north and south gathered at the East Gate and poured into it.

Faced with the overwhelming influx of his own reinforcements, Zhang Huaishen had no right to rest.

Capturing the city gate tower only prevented the city gate tower from using asphalt to attack and launch a surprise attack on the troops attacking the city gate.

Without the obstruction of asphalt, the Shazhou soldiers outside the city could use battering rams to attack the city without scruples, but the city gate of Zhangye was not so easy to break through.

In order to capture Zhangye City, Zhang Huaishen also needed to take the inner city gate and open it.

"Brothers, fight with me again and retake the city gate!"

"Kill, kill, kill!"

Zhang Huaishen's action despite his injuries won the support of the soldiers of the 13th Regiment.

Leaving twenty men to guard the city tower, Zhang Huaishen led the remaining less than a hundred men down the horse road and attacked the hundreds of foreign soldiers at the city gate.

At the same time, the able-bodied men of various ethnic groups who were originally captured to defend the city saw that the Tubo army had lost their power, so they picked up some weapons from under the city and joined in the siege of the Tubo soldiers at the city gate.

Some clever young men took this opportunity to run to various alleys in the city, constantly shouting the news that Tubo was about to be defeated.

"The East Gate is lost! The pig-dog bandits are going to die!"

"Take up your weapons and start a rebellion! The Tang Dynasty is back!"

The balance of victory tipped towards the Shazhou soldiers, and sporadic shouting men began to appear in the streets and alleys.

When some people who were under house arrest by Tubo heard these people's voices, they beat their chests and stamped their feet in excitement.

A white-haired old man listened to the sound outside the door and looked behind him excitedly.

Inside the small courtyard, three middle-aged men and seven or eight young boys and girls stared at him, each with excitement on their face.

The old man spat on the ground and said, "The third daughter-in-law takes the girls to stay, and the men of the Sun family go up together!"

"Yes!!"

They opened the courtyard gate, holding wooden farm tools, and resolutely rushed to the East City, where the shouts of killing were the loudest in the entire city.

No one wants their descendants to become slaves, so they will not let go of any opportunity.

Even though they only had flesh and blood, they would undoubtedly sacrifice themselves for that little bit of hope.

"Recapture Zhangye and drive out these bandits!"

"Kill the foreign dogs!"

"Kill these dogs who are worse than pigs and dogs!"

"Kill them!!"

"kill……"

In less than a quarter of an hour, shouts of killing broke out in the city, which made Dazalubu on the top of the city look so gloomy that water could drip from his face.

"Festival..."

Xiaojie looked at Dazalubu with a dry mouth. Dazalubu said calmly: "We still have at least 1,500 people. I don't believe that these slaves can turn the tables!"

"Yes..." Although Xiaojie agreed, his mouth was still dry.

It is difficult to save the situation now. Although Dazalubu has enough talent, the Shazhou army is too tenacious and the outcome is hard to predict.

Thinking of this, Xiaojie couldn't help but seek a way out for himself.

At the same time, Dazalubu stood up under the flagpole and tried to command the reinforcements coming from various cities. However, just as he showed his head, an arrow grazed his helmet.

"Damn man!"

Dazalubu identified the person who shot the arrow without much thought. Apart from Liu Jilong, no one else would keep staring at him and shoot such a powerful arrow.

He just saw the man pull the standard bow to a full moon and shoot multiple arrows in succession.

The standard bows and arrows of the Tibetans in the Hexi region were the same as those of the Tang army, all of which were longbows made of mulberry wood, with a bow force ranging from four dou to one shi. However, the Tibetan soldiers and horses in Zhangye City were all old soldiers, and the longbows they used were six-dou bows.

The man who can pull a six-bucket bow to the full moon and shoot at least one pot of arrows continuously can be called "dragon-elephant" in strength.

It is for this reason that no matter how much he hated that man, he was willing to call him "man" rather than "Han slave" or "servant" as he called other people.

"kill!!"

In the corridor, the fight between the foreign soldiers, Shazhou soldiers and Zhangye people was coming to an end.

As the last foreign soldier was knocked to the ground by Zhang Huaishen, Zhang Huaishen immediately led his men to lift down the 300-jin bolt of the city gate.

"Recapture Ganzhou, recapture Zhangye, kill!!"

When the city gates opened, a steady stream of Shazhou soldiers and horses began to pour into the city.

Dazalubu saw this scene and he immediately knew that it would be difficult for him to defend Zhangye today.

"Natso! Natso!"

Dazalubu tried to call out to Xiaojie, but when he turned around, he found that the guy had run away without him noticing.

"Dog slave!!"

Dazalubu cursed angrily, then picked up a discarded shield from the ground and rushed out with a deep breath.

"Clap clap clap..."

After running only a dozen steps, he felt three huge forces coming from the wooden shield in his hand.

Fortunately, he managed to escape, tumbled down the city wall along the horse trail, and joined the retreating foreign soldiers at the foot of the city.

"Retreat to the north gate!"

While giving orders, Dazalubu raised his shield and looked towards the top of the city wall.

After confirming that Liu Jilong was not paying attention to him, he led hundreds of foreign soldiers who had hurriedly arrived and retreated towards the north city while fighting.

At the same time, the entire Zhangye city was in chaos.

The people of all ethnic groups who were oppressed on a daily basis rose up in rebellion, took up all the "weapons" they could get, and rushed towards Dongcheng, or perhaps where the families of the Tibetan soldiers lived.

But all this has nothing to do with Liu Jilong. At this moment, his knuckles are cracked and blood is piled up terribly.

He leaned against the parapet, surrounded by corpses and the smell of blood.

The third group, which was once full of people, now only had him, Ma Cheng, Li Ji, Geng Ming, and Zhang Chang left alive.

After the fight, all that was left to them was incomprehensible confusion and the luck of survival.

Not only them, everyone in the 12th and 13th Regiments had the same thought.

Unlike the other regiments that were advancing triumphantly in pursuit of the foreign soldiers, sobbing sounds were heard from the top of the East City wall at some point in time.

The sobbing was very small at first, but gradually it became louder and louder. Each group was crying and searching for the bodies of their former comrades on the trail.

Liu Jilong leaned against the parapet, he no longer had the strength to stand up.

After sitting for a while, Zhang Chang and his companions followed the team and began to search for the bodies of Jiao Da, Mao Zhong and the other six people.

"Zhao Qian!!"

Soon, Zhang Chang's wailing awakened Liu Jilian from his fatigue.

He looked towards the direction of the wailing, and saw Zhang Chang and others kneeling in the pile of corpses, hugging the bodies of Zhao Qian, Mao Zhong and others and crying.

Liu Jilong tried to get up, but when he moved his fingers, he felt as if his whole body was torn apart and he couldn't stand up at all.

He could only lean against the parapet, staring blankly at the tragic scene on the city wall, watching the blood of his former comrades-in-arms flow out bit by bit, staining the entire horse trail with blood.

He still broke his promise. He failed to bring all the brothers from the third group home as he had said before the war...

(End of this chapter)