Chapter 549: Artifact

Chapter 549: Artifact

  Chapter 549 Artifact

   dawn.

  The Tang flag is fluttering on the five-star fortress.

  The overnight ranger attack killed more than a hundred Qiang forwards and brought back about a thousand defeated soldiers. More than 20,000 men and horses fled back to this point.

   Qiang cavalry slowly approached the five-star fortress.

   Tuoba Chici rode on the horse, looking at the castle from a distance.

   "The last time we left, there was no castle here, and the people of Tang actually built a castle here quietly?"

  The leaders of the Tuoba tribe were also very surprised. The forward reported last night that a Tang city was found at the source of the Qiang River at the foot of the Xiqing Mountain, but they still didn't believe it.

   "Calculating the time, the last time we came back from here was only two months, right? How was this city built?"

   Several leaders were very puzzled there.

  Some people say that such a castle may not look very big, but it will take half a year to complete, and many craftsmen and civilians must be conscripted.

At this time, another sentry came to report that there was a larger earthen city two miles to the east of the castle, with a circumference of several miles, but now there were no people in the earthen city, and it seemed that the people in the city had withdrawn. up.

   "Another city?"

  The Tuoba Qiang leaders were shocked, why didn't they have any news?

  In the past, I only got some information, saying that Qin Lang stayed on as the governor of Diezhou, the original Fangzhou was also merged into Diezhou, and Datang also set up Zhenxi Army in Diezhou and sent more frontier troops. And Qin Lang also added two counties to the original attached Qiang Di in the prefecture, and the attached Miscellaneous Qiang were relocated to the west of Diezhou as nomads.

  But I didn’t hear that a city was built here, and two were built at once.

   "This castle doesn't look that big." A leader said.

Compared to Diezhou City, where they suffered a loss last time, it is naturally much smaller and less dangerous. Diezhou stands on the top of Dushan Mountain, with a desperate situation in the west and Qiang River in the south. There is only one small road leading to the mountain. It is really easy to defend but difficult to attack.

  But the location of the city chosen by the Tang people this time is not as dangerous.

  The two cities are located in a valley. Although the valley is dangerous on all sides, this valley like a big basin is actually very large, and the valley is quite flat.

  The two cities stand in the middle of the mountain, and there is nothing dangerous at all.

  Although this small castle is located on a high slope, the **** is not too steep, and it does not lean against the mountain and face the river.

   But looking at the red flag, Tuoba Chici did not dare to underestimate the enemy.

He urged his mount, circled the castle a few times, and finally came to the conclusion that the castle was not as simple as he imagined, "Although the castle is small, it has two ditches, three embankments, and more than a dozen The bunker is easy to defend but difficult to attack."

   A branch of Qiang cavalry gathered.

   Tuoba Chi resigned to besiege but not to attack.

   "Your Majesty, I just got the news that there are fat sheep in the castle. Li Daoyan, the governor of Minzhou, fled into this castle. In addition, Qin Lang, the governor of Diezhou, happened to be in this castle and was surrounded by us."

  Hearing the news, all the Qiang leaders were very surprised and cheered together.

"Damn, I didn't expect not only to surround Li Daoyan, but also to surround Qin Lang. This is really a surprise. Last time, this Qin man caused us a lot of losses. This time, he must be captured alive. And then cut him open, gouged out his heart and liver."

   A group of people clamored to attack the city immediately and capture Qin and Li.

   "Don't worry!"

  Tuoba Chici was extremely cautious this time. This weird castle always made him feel a little uncomfortable. He thought of several ways to attack the city, but he was not sure.

   "Surround here first, and we will talk about it after we have wiped out those **** defeated Tang soldiers on the grassland." Tuoba Chici sent troops to continue the sweep and search for the defeated Tang soldiers, and at the same time sent people to send letters to the tribes, inviting them to send troops.

   Even sent people to borrow troops from Tuyuhun Khan.

"After Li Daoyan's defeat this time, the Taomin prefectures have been empty." Chi Ci sent an order to his son, ordering him, who was chasing Jiuqie Luosheng, to directly invade Taozhou, invade and plunder along the Tao River, expand the results of the battle, and ruthlessly Grab a fortune and save some of the losses from last time.

   As for the direction of Diezhou, because Qin Lang and Li Daoyan have been surrounded, Chi Ci plans to take charge of it himself.

   "If you want me to say, such a small fort, just hit it directly."

   "You go, you go, you take your troops to attack the city, if it is captured, I will let you choose half of all the money, food, equipment, horses, etc. in the city." Chi Ci said with a gloomy face.

  The leader hesitated.

   "It's fine if you're not sure, we'll fight again when reinforcements arrive."

The leader seemed to be enraged, and shouted, "Why does your lord look down on our tribe so much? Ask your lord to lead the formation for me, cover us with bows and arrows, and lend us some shields. When we rush to build some ladder bridges to climb the city and cross the moat, we must It can be won in one fell swoop.”

   "Okay, just as you said!" Chi Ci agreed happily.

  Although he doesn't believe that this guy can win this weird castle, he is still very willing if someone is willing to test the reality of the castle for him. Anyway, the loss is not from the main force.

  In fact, it is not easy for Tuoba Chici to be the leader of the Tuoba tribe.

  During the Sui Dynasty, many party Xiang Qiang were defeated when they invaded the Sui Dynasty, so they surrendered to the Sui Dynasty. Chici's father, Tuoba Mumi, surrendered after he was defeated by invading the Sui Dynasty in the eighth year of Emperor Kaihuang's reign. Mumi led more than a thousand tent tribesmen to be relocated to the interior of Longyou for resettlement.

  After Mu Ya was attached, he sent his son to Chang'an as usual, nominally as a guard to study, but in fact it was a hostage. Mu Mi sent several sons to Chang'an, and Chi Ci was among them.

   Therefore, Chi Ci actually spent his childhood and youth in Chang'an.

It was only later that the situation changed. During the Sui Dynasty, Tuoba Mumi led the tribe to rebel against the Sui Dynasty and returned to the foot of Jishi Mountain. When Chici became the patriarch, he even married Tuyuhun Khan Fuyun. Fu Yun's daughter.

   As the leader of the Qiang people who has stayed in Chang'an for many years, he is different from many other leaders of the Qiang people.

  ······

  Five-star fortress, on top of the bell tower and watchtower, Qin Lang looks from a high place.

  The Qiang people came one after another, five or six thousand people, but it can be seen that not all of them were soldiers, and there were also many women, children, old and weak, driving cattle and sheep.

   Xi Jun bought a request to play.

  Qin Lang refused.

   "Doesn't Duke Wei believe in my strength?"

   "It's not because I don't believe you, but there's no need to rush to fight."

Right now, there are actually not many soldiers in the Five-Star Fortress. When the castle was designed, it was used as a frontline fortress, so the usual garrison does not exceed 600 people. It has a light cavalry regiment, two infantry regiments, and two rangers in the light cavalry regiment. regiment, two regiments of light cavalry.

  Among the two infantry regiments, one is a crossbow regiment and the other is a light infantry regiment.

  As a frontier fortress on the border, six hundred people is already quite a number.

But now that the Qiang people are attacking on a large scale, six hundred seems to be very little. Fortunately, a lot of Minzhou defeated soldiers came in yesterday, and those who escaped from the Qiang people are basically elite soldiers. There are horses, and they run fast.

   More auxiliary soldiers, village warriors, and infantry cannot escape the pursuit of the Qiang people.

  With the addition of more than a thousand defeated soldiers, Qin Lang's army strength is still sufficient.

But Qin Lang is also unwilling to go out to fight now, because he feels that there is no need to go out to fight with a five-star fortress in his hand. If he goes out to fight, his strength will not be superior, and the casualties will inevitably be great. Killing a thousand enemies will hurt himself Eight hundred, not worth it.

   Sitting on a bastion fortress, it is time to test the power of this bastion, wouldn't it be better to stand on the castle and shoot arrows and crossbows.

  Anyway, Qin Lang deliberately raised the banner of himself and Li Daoyan early on, just to attract Tuoba Qiang, so that they would not ignore the five-star fortress.

"I don't expect the war to simply end this time. The war provoked by this idiot Li Daoyan may last for a long time, but we don't have to worry about it." Qin Lang knocked on the battlements, under normal circumstances , the last battle just ended, so it is not suitable to fight again.

  Datang was not able to fight another major battle in a short period of time, and Dangxiang Qiang was not prepared for this either.

   It was also in this situation that Li Daoyan's peace talks and recruitment made Tuoba Chici hesitate and decided to give it a try, all because he wanted to delay for a while.

   But who would have expected that Li Daoyan would be so stupid that he wanted to rob the alliance. Even if the robbing was not successful, 20,000 people were sent away at once. The old thief Chici was both enraged and saw an opportunity.

  So I want to take advantage of the attack and counterattack.

   This idea is naturally no problem. Whoever sees the opportunity will hold back and not make a move, let alone when he suffered such a big loss just now.

   "Since this battle may take a long time, we don't have to rush for a while, take our time and grasp the rhythm."

   Li Daoyan lost troops and lost generals, but Qin Lang did not.

  Minzhou is now empty, but the strength of Diezhou is stronger than last time. Therefore, Qin Lang is not afraid of consumption or delay. If the delay is longer, the court still has time to transfer troops from other places to fill the gap left by Li Daoyan.

  The beacon tower was lit yesterday.

  According to the speed at which the Beacon Tower of the Tang Dynasty transmits information, it can transmit two thousand miles a day. At this time, even Chang'an may have received a warning.

Fortunately, Li Daoyan was stupid after the party members were defeated, and now the party members are also greatly weakened. Otherwise, if he died before the party members' defeat, then the party members who were not seriously injured would take advantage of the victory to kill them. It's kind of tricky.

   "Will those defeated soldiers come back to their senses?" Qin Lang asked.

"Well, I've had a good night's sleep after eating and drinking, and now I'm full of energy. Everyone is a good guy, most of them are from Guanzhong, and there is no shortage of bravery. It's just a pity that I met such a stupid boss as Li Daoyan. They suffered such a big defeat, when I went to see them earlier, I clapped my chest and shouted that I would fight the Qiang people for revenge."

Since the Western Wei Dynasty, the military soldiers formed by the children of Guanzhong have always been fierce. They are famous for their bravery and bravery. .

The children of Guanzhong are martial arts, and the Fubing is the son of a wealthy and powerful noble official. Their family conditions are good, they practice martial arts, learn to ride and shoot, and the equipment is also good after selecting the Fubing. They go to the battlefield for fame, not like In some dynasties, the recruits were all for nothing, or the kind that were forced to be recruited to the battlefield.

   It's just that the brave Guanzhong children are not invincible.

  At that time, the Western Wei Dynasty established the government military system, but they were also often defeated in the battles with the Eastern Wei and Northern Qi, but the Guanzhong government soldiers were more tenacious, and they were not afraid of fighting for a few rounds, and they were not afraid of fighting.

  As long as the generals are good enough, in fact, leading such a group of Guanzhong children with a good background will lead to more victories than defeats.

   But when it comes to Li Daoyan, there is no other way.

"Let them have a good rest for two more days. In these two days, we will also reorganize these defeated troops and temporarily subordinate them to our Diezhou Town West Army and obey our command. Tell them that a small defeat is nothing, as long as everyone works hard , I will take them to avenge their shame."

   "Mr. Wei, is Li Daoyan still locked up?"

   "Why, you want to intercede for him?" Qin Lang asked back.

   "Not really, it's just that he is a clan after all."

"What's the matter with the clan, I know his father is Li Shentong, King of Huai'an, I also know that he is the emperor's cousin, and I know that he is the governor of Minzhou, Minzhou is still a middle governor's mansion, and my Diezhou governor's mansion is just the lower governor's mansion , but, he came to my site and disturbed my army, so I can lock him up. Is there any defeated army general Li Daoyan to plead for mercy?"

   "No, everyone seems to be very unhappy with this governor, and they are suppressing their anger."

  Qin Lang laughed.

   "Since this is the case, then continue to shut it down, eat two meals a day, and don't be hungry."

  ······

   Tuoba Chici sent people to cut down trees and temporarily built siege equipment.

  Qin Lang stayed in the castle very quietly, looking down at the Qiang camp from the top of the bell and drum watchtower every day. Every day, new people would arrive in the Qiang camp.

  After a few days, the Qiang camp under the city had gathered more than 10,000 horses.

  They also produced a batch of crude siege equipment and some crude and clumsy ladders, but Qin Lang didn't think such ladders were useful.

  His bunkers are very tall, and this kind of ladder can't get up the bunkers and towers. The equipment that can really threaten the fortress is actually the catapult and the siege crossbow.

  If there are enough catapults and enough precision, they can smash down the watchtowers, and the crossbow guns fired by the siege crossbow can be firmly nailed to the city and act as a tool for climbing the city.

   But obviously, as a nomadic tribe, the Dangxiang Qiang people don’t even know how to grow crops, so how do they know how to build such sophisticated and advanced siege equipment? They even make crude ladders like shit.

   In a few days, the more than a thousand defeated soldiers were finally reorganized. These people are now full of anger and want to avenge their shame.

   It's just that Qin Lang has always strictly prohibited going out of the city to fight without permission.

  He is waiting for the Qiang people to attack.

   On the seventh day, the Qiang people finally started to attack, but instead of attacking the five-star fortress, they first attacked Anhua County, which was guarded by the surrounding Qiang city soldiers.

Anhua City is not a big city at all. It is a county town built for the Qiang people attached to it. In fact, it should be said to be a border town market. Will settle in the city.

  When Dangxiang Qiang came, Qin Lang gave an order, and the few people in the city withdrew to the east, leaving only the thousands of Qiang riders gathered to guard the city.

   But Qin Lang also gave them an order earlier, the Qiang people really want to attack the city, they can defend it if they can, and if they can't defend it, they can retreat and break through.

  Dangxiang Qiang sent troops to attack Anhua on the seventh day. As a result, all the Neifu Qiang who defended the city left the city immediately. The two sides fought outside the city for more than two hours, causing mutual casualties.

   When Dangxiang Qiang sent more soldiers and horses to try to surround Anhua Qiang soldiers, these guys immediately turned around and ran away without a trace.

  So Dangxiang Qiang captured the deserted Anhua City.

  From the beginning to the end, the five-star fortress that was two miles away did not send a single soldier.

  The Qiang people cheered for a while, but soon fell silent, perhaps because they felt that winning an empty city was not worth showing off and cheering.

  The five-star fortress has completely become an isolated city.

   However, the Tang flag on the castle is still fluttering in the wind, hunting, and the Tang army in the city is not affected.

   Afternoon.

  A group of Qiang soldiers finally came towards the fortress carrying their shoddy ladders and large shields.

  Because the fortress is very small, they simply swarmed from all directions, preparing to take the fortress in one go.

  The bullhorn sounded.

  Qin Lang climbed up to the Bell and Drum Tower, but he was smiling all over his face.

   "After so many days, these guys finally dared to attack the city, and the show has begun!"

  If the Qiang people don't attack the city again, Qin Qiong in Songzhou may have already rushed to the city after seeing the beacon fire. Calculating the time, Qin Qiong came to Diezhou from Songzhou, if he left Gansongling and headed northwest, in fact, he should arrive there in at most ten days.

  The time left for the Qiang people is running out.

   "Tell the soldiers, don't waste arrows, shoot with aim."

  Looking at the Qiang people surrounded by the black crows, Qin Lang was not at all moved. Although the five-star fortress is small, it is an epoch-making war fortress. Today is the time for him to show his power and become famous.

  (end of this chapter)