Chapter 1207: First Battle in Qi County

In the night, Gao Xiuyan looked deeply at Qi County in the distance.

Gao Xiuyan is already a veteran in his sixties. He was originally a general of Longyou Jiedufu and stayed in Longyou Jiedufu for twenty years. In the eighth year of Tianbao, he led his troops to capture Shibao City at the risk of his life, and was rewarded by the court and was named the governor of Yunzhou.

But this was also the beginning of his nightmare. In the twelfth year of Tianbao, An Lushan was appointed as the governor of Hedong, and Gao Xiuyan became An Lushan's subordinate.

An Lushan was quite fascinated by Gao Xiuyan, which made Gao Xiuyan grateful to An Lushan. In the second year, An Lushan rebelled, and Gao Xiuyan also followed him in a daze to "clear the emperor's side and rectify the government". It was not until he found out that An Lushan was rebelling that Gao Xiuyan regretted it too late.

Fortunately, Gao Xiuyan met Li Ye. In the battle of Lantian County, Gao Xiuyan was captured and surrendered to Li Ye. From then on, his life opened the second door.

But Gao Xiuyan has always been known as a rebel general. For so many years, he has never had the opportunity to lead troops to fight alone. He either followed Li Ye to fight, was responsible for logistics, trained surrendered soldiers, or served as deputy instructor of the martial arts hall.

This time, when he was already 59 years old, Li Ye appointed him as the defense envoy of the southern part of Hedong Road, and led an army of 20,000 to block Tian Shenyu's way south. He finally made it.

At this time, Deputy General Chen Mi whispered: "General, why not use a catapult to throw a long nail iron fire bomb and let it nail it on the city wall."

Gao Xiuyan shook his head, "Since the city wall can still support it, it means that the bricks are not so bad. The iron fire bomb may not be nailed on, and it will fall into the water and extinguish. That would be a pity. It is a pity to use people to ignite it on the other side."

Gao Xiuyan paused and said: "Prepare three groups of brothers to go up, and 5,000 archers will cover in the south!"

"I obey your order!"

Gao Xiuyan then sent General Zhao Fengxian to lead 5,000 cavalry to the north to cut off the retreat of the Qi County defenders.

Soon, three groups of soldiers ran towards the southeast corner of the county under the cover of night.

Each group of soldiers consisted of five people, and each group carried a wooden box, which contained more than 20 kilograms of iron fire bombs.

Five thousand black archers were running in the south, and the archers on the top of the city immediately found the running archers and sounded the alarm.

"Dang! Dang! Dang!"

Three thousand soldiers on the top of the city gathered on the south top of the city, holding large bows and ready to fight.

In just a moment, five thousand Guanlong Army crossbowmen ran to two hundred steps away from the city wall, squatted together, and fired crossbows at the top of the city.

Arrows shot at the top of the city like raindrops, pressing the defenders to raise their heads. They had to leave the battlements and shoot arrows outward from the middle of the top of the city. The defenders on the top of the city all held city defense bows and used heavy arrows. The advantage is that the arrows are heavy and have strong penetrating power, which can easily penetrate ordinary leather armor.

But the weakness is also obvious, that is, the short range, and the killing distance is only about a hundred steps.

Gao Xiuyan had anticipated this, so he sent out heavy crossbowmen, using crossbows with a range of more than 300 steps. The bows on the top of the city were of no use to them.

Of course, both sides were shooting in the air. The defenders on the top of the city were not close to the battlements, and the crossbows of the Guanlong crossbow army had no effect on the defenders.

But the focus was not on the crossbow army, but on the three groups of firearms battalion soldiers in the southeast corner. They ran with their backs bent and soon reached the moat. One group of soldiers went into the water silently, and the other two groups of soldiers crawled on the bank of the moat. They were backup. If the first group of soldiers failed, they would go up again.

Five soldiers swam in the moat. There was only a large wooden box floating on the river. The crossbow battle near the city gate attracted the attention of all the soldiers guarding the city. Naturally, they would not pay attention to the small abnormality in the moat. It was night, and basically no one would notice it.

Generally speaking, whether this sneak attack was discovered is also closely related to the number of defenders watching. If 100 defenders watch the river, the probability of discovery is about 70%. If 30 soldiers watch the river, the probability of discovery will be reduced to 30%. If only a few soldiers watch the river, the probability of discovery will be negligible.

In fact, this is also a process from quantitative change to qualitative change. The number of people watching is increasing, which is quantitative change, but if one of them finds the abnormality in the river, it is qualitative change.

Gao Xiuyan sent 5,000 crossbowmen to attack the city in order to reduce the defenders in the southeast corner and attract the attention of the remaining defenders.

Five soldiers climbed ashore and stood close to the east city wall at the bend. There must be no soldiers on the east city wall. Even if there are soldiers, they will go to the south city wall more than ten steps away to watch the fierce battle in the distance.

Two soldiers used steel spikes to pry the bricks of the city wall. As expected, the city wall was very rotten. Bricks and stones were pried off one by one, and soon a two-foot-wide hole was formed. The other three soldiers stuffed the iron fire mine into the hole. At this time, the iron fire mine was no longer gunpowder, but explosives. Although it was only 20 kilograms of iron fire mines, its power was enough to compare with hundreds of kilograms of gunpowder mines.

The leading soldier waited for his four companions to go into the water and walk away. He then threw a fire stick, lit the fire, quickly jumped into the water, and dived desperately to the other side.

"Boom!"

A red light burst out, followed by a thunderous explosion. The entire city wall was blown away, countless bricks and stones flew into the sky, and thick smoke filled the air, covering the top of the city.

On the top of the city, all the soldiers were stunned, and countless soldiers fell to the ground, but their eyes were full of shock.

The main general Du Feng saw clearly that a huge gap was blown open in the city wall.

He turned around and ran to the city without saying a word.

At this time, the sound of war drums was "dong! dong! dong! dong! dong! 'The bell rang, and the Tang army from Guanlong rushed in like a tide.

"General Du ran away! General Du ran away!"

The soldiers couldn't help shouting when they discovered that General Du Feng was leading hundreds of soldiers on horseback to flee towards the north gate.

In panic, the soldiers threw off their helmets and armor and ran away towards Beicheng.

They originally had only 4,000 people, but the Tang army on the opposite side had 20,000 people. Their only support was the strong and tall city wall. Unexpectedly, the city wall was broken in an instant. It was unknown what kind of terrifying weapon, as if it was split by thunder. .

Along with the collapse of the city wall defense line, it is also the psychological defense line of thousands of defenders. Once the psychological defense line collapses, everything will be lost.

The Guanlong Tang Army entered the city, and more than 2,000 soldiers who had no time to escape knelt down and surrendered.

Li Ye no longer allows killing and surrendering. Mining requires labor. These surrendered soldiers will be sent to the mines to serve for three years before being released home.

Du Feng led his soldiers to escape from Beicheng. Du Feng was experienced and cunning. He guessed that the Tang army would set up an ambush outside Beicheng to intercept them. On the pretext that he wanted to meet the brothers behind, Du Feng let more than 1,700 people flee north first. .

He himself led more than 20 mounted soldiers to escape to a small road in the northwest, and fled back to Taiyuan City in a circle.

Sure enough, more than 1,700 soldiers fled more than ten miles away before being killed and surrounded by 5,000 Tang Army cavalry. The cavalry shouted sternly: "Those who surrender will live, and those who resist will die!"

More than 1,700 people were so frightened that they knelt down and surrendered.

This battle was fought beautifully. Gao Xiuyan wiped out all the enemy troops without losing a single soldier and captured Qixian County.

Two days later, Li Fei Yuanli led an army of 30,000 to Qi County. The two armies then continued to march north. According to Li Ye's deployment, the two armies were independent. Li Fei Yuanli led an army of 30,000 to besiege the west city of Taiyuan. Gao Xiuyan led 20,000 troops to besiege the south city of Taiyuan, and Lei Wanchun also led 30,000 troops south from Loufangguan to surround the north city of Taiyuan, leaving only the east city unsieged, giving Tian Shenyu a chance to abandon the city and escape.

Of course, Tian Shenyu could escape from Jingxing, but his army could not escape the pursuit of tens of thousands of Guanlong cavalry.