"kill...!"

That night, Xin Liao'er led three thousand cavalry to attack Qikou in Gaochang at night... At this time, the Gaochang Jikou defenders did not have any defense at all, and Xin Liao'er accidentally rushed into Qikou.

The two thousand Gaochang defenders at Jikou were captured without even having time to struggle.

Only one garrison at Jikou fled overnight with less than one hundred garrison at Jikou.

The next day, Hou Junji's army was approaching. At this time, the entire Gaochang Kingdom realized that something was wrong. The king of Gaochang Kingdom, Tuo Wentai, was still watching the dancers in the palace dancing in his palace on the eve of the previous day.

He originally thought that he could live like this forever.

But who knew that when he woke up, his palace gate was slammed, and then he brought news that the Tang Dynasty's army had captured Jikou, which was less than two hundred miles away from Gaochang Country.

As soon as he said this, a mouthful of blood was spurted out of Gaochang Wang Tuo Wentai's mouth, and then Tuo Wentai fell backwards, causing him to lose his mind.

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"Hou Junji, Xue Wanjun meets His Highness...!"

At this time, in the Hou Junji tent in Jikou, Hou Junji and Xue Wanjun knelt down on one knee to meet Li Zhan. Li Zhan smiled and helped the two of them up and said, "Mr. Hou, Deputy General Manager Xue, thank you for your hard work. It's all for you to successfully attack Jikou this time. I just don't know why you two invited me here?"

"Your Highness, please sit down..." Hou Junji gave his position to Li Zhan, and then sat in Li Zhan's lower head with Xue Wanjun.

Li Zhan sat down and then heard Hou Junji say, "Your Highness like this... We have arrived at Jikou now, and two hundred miles ahead is the capital of Gaochang State. However, I think Gaochang State should have known the news that we had broken Jikou at this time.

So the night attack like yesterday is no longer of use, so we have to attack hard below."

"But your Highness, you should know too." Xue Wanjun said: "The battle of siege is the most consuming of soldiers. We only have 50,000 people here. If we pile up all our soldiers to attack the city, it would be unwise."

"That's right...!" Li Zhan nodded immediately and said, "Brothers, follow us all the way through the desert. It would be a pity if we die on the way to siege the city. General Manager Hou and Deputy General Manager Xue, what do you mean?"

"Your Highness...I found a place called Liuyungu a hundred miles ahead, where there are a lot of trees... So I think we can build siege weapons in Yishan of Liuyungu, so that we don't need soldiers to charge, and we can rely on siege weapons to attack...!"

After Hou Junji finished speaking, Li Zhan laughed haha ​​and said repeatedly: "Okay...Okay...General Manager Hou is really worthy of being the chief manager. This plan is very good."

"Thank you for your praise... So this time we invite Your Highness to come here, hoping that Your Highness can enter Liuyun Valley and help us supervise the creation of siege equipment. Deputy General Manager Xue and I will protect Your Highness on both wings!"

When Hou Junji said that, Li Zhan nodded and said: "Okay... I will take this task. In just one month, I, Li Zhan, will definitely create enough siege equipment. During the bureau, I will definitely break through Gaochang."

"As for the order..." Hou Junji and Xue Wanjun immediately knelt down on one knee.

In this way, the next day, the entire army entered Liuyungu. What Hou Junji and Xue Wan did not expect was that in fact, they invited Li Zhan to enter Liuyungu, in the name of hoping that Li Zhan would supervise the construction of siege equipment.

In fact, the biggest hope of the two was to protect Li Zhan. You should know that the Tang army had been exposed at this time, so they could be attacked by the Gaochang army and the Western Turks at any time.

If Li Zhan is exposed, Hou Junji and Xue Wan both will be uneasy.

Just like the ancient emperors personally fought in person, you think the emperor's personal battle was really a war, and the swords and weapons were facing each other. Don't joke. The personal battle did not mean that the emperor really wanted to go to the battlefield to kill the enemy. Many times, they hid from a safe distance and watched their soldiers fight with the enemy soldiers, so the personal battle may only reflect the word "Zheng".

Now that we think about it, it is unlikely that the emperor will lead troops to fight. If someone who is blind and kills the emperor, then the country will not be in chaos.

Even if the emperor is willing to go into battle to kill the enemy, those princes and ministers will definitely not want to. Therefore, the emperor's duty is to bring the troops into battle and watch the battle from afar. This is the correct way to open the battle in person!

However... I can't stop some emperors from trying to be powerful. It can be said that they are confident, but they may also be ignorant.

The emperor did not know the horror of the battlefield, and thought that he was the pride of heaven, how could he die? But the ministers didn't think so. They knew what the emperor's death meant. Once the emperor died, the country was destroyed. It was a small matter. They were most afraid of to let them be buried with him.

Because they could not persuade the emperor, they would definitely not survive once the emperor died. No one on the battlefield could ever guarantee victory. Once the emperor died, it would be easy for the country to be in chaos.

Therefore, ordinary generals and ministers will try their best to dissuade the emperor. What if they really can't persuade him? Then they can only leave it to fate. However, the ministers will not sit still and wait for death. They will definitely bring the emperor the strongest team, the most powerful weapons, and a lot of supplies.

There were no long-range weapons in ancient times, so they just need to ensure that the tent where the emperor is located is within the range that the enemy cannot attack. To ensure that the enemy cannot attack, the emperor's safety can be guaranteed.

Everyone tried their best to defend the emperor's life because everyone knew that once the emperor died, they would definitely be cold.

Li Zhan's identity is a bit like an emperor at this time, so of course Hou Junji and Xue Wanjun would not let Li Zhan be in any danger. They just happened to protect Li Zhan in Liuyun Valley, where the safest place was. In the name of giving Li Zhan a supervisory duty, in fact, they were staying safe.

But the two of them never expected that they would bring Li Zhan to Liu Yungu to protect him, but it became the most critical step in Gaochang's victory this time.

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Liuyun Valley...This place should be the place with the most trees in the entire Gaochang area, because there are no people here all year round, so the trees are very thick.

After Li Zhan's Hu Ben Army entered Liuyun Valley, it immediately began to cut down trees.

This time, in addition to Xue Wanjun, the deputy general manager, there is also a deputy general manager, whose name is Jiang Xingben... This Jiang Xingben was once a master craftsman who was the general manager. Li Shimin cultivated 90% of the Luoyang Palace and he was the leader in the construction.

Li Shimin attaches great importance to this Jiang Xingben. This time, letting Jiang Xingben come as the deputy general manager can explain everything.

"Jiang Xingben pays homage to Your Highness...!"

For the sake of Li Zhan, Hou Junji told Jiang Xingben that Li Zhan was the identity. After Jiang Xingben knew about it, he was also very respectful to Li Zhan.

"Deputy General Manager Jiang, don't be too polite... What siege equipment should we build this time?" Li Zhan was also very concerned about the siege equipment at this time.

Jiang Xingben also immediately said: "Flying bridge, cloud ladder, nesting car, sling car, Linchong Lu Bus, etc...!"

Li Zhan looked at Jiang Xingben and smiled and said, "It's too complicated... I now ask to build only three types of siege equipment, one is a cloud ladder, two is a catapult, and three is a nest car!"

Of course, after Li Zhan finished speaking, he immediately gave Jiang Xingben three creation maps, namely the cloud ladder, the trench machine and the nest car.

A ladder is a tool for climbing the city wall.

It is generally composed of three parts: wheel, ladder body and hook. The ladder body can be raised and down, and is carried and lifted by humans to the city wall. There is a hook at the top of the ladder to hook and support the city edge. There is a wheel under the ladder body, which can be moved.

According to legend, the cloud ladder was invented by Lu Ban, a skilled craftsman in the Spring and Autumn Period. In fact, it was found in the Xia, Shang and Zhou dynasties. It was named "Hou Yuan" at that time. Lu Ban in the Spring and Autumn Period improved it.

The cloud ladders in the Tang Dynasty were greatly improved compared with the Warring States period. The bottom frame of the cloud ladder was made of wood, with six wheels underneath, and the ladder body was fixed on the chassis at a certain angle. A "sub-ladder" was added outside the main ladder, and a pair of wheels were installed at the top. When climbing the city, the cloud ladders could move up and down freely along the city walls, and no longer needed to carry them on their shoulders.

However, the drawings given by Li Zhan were from the Song Dynasty. The main ladder of the Song Dynasty was also divided into two sections and adopted a folding structure, connected by a rotating shaft in the middle. This shape is a bit like the folding flybridge that was passed by at that time.

At the same time, the secondary ladder also has various forms, making it easier and faster to catch the enemy. In order to ensure the safety of the ladder pushers, the ladder of the Song Dynasty learned from the improvement of the ladder in the Tang Dynasty and designed the bottom of the ladder as a shielded vehicle on all sides, and reinforced the outside with raw cowhide. When the personnel push carts in the shed to approach the enemy city wall, they can effectively resist the damage of the enemy arrows and stones.

After reading Jiang Xingben, it was amazing. Then it was the nest car. The nest car is a lookout car specially used for observing the enemy situation. The bottom of the car is equipped with wheels to push. Two long pillars are erected with solid wood on the car. A wheel is set up at the top of the column. A small board house is tied with a rope to the wheel. The board house is 3 meters high, with 12 observation holes on all sides, and there are raw cowhides on the outside to prevent the enemy's arrows and stones from destroying it.

The house can accommodate two people, and the wheels are lifted several meters high through the wheels. When siege, you can observe the situation of enemy soldiers in the city.

Li Zhan gave a car in the Song Dynasty. This car was made of a solid wood as a rod, nearly five meters high, with a plate layer on the top, and the content was to hold a white flag to watch the enemy's movements and tell the enemy situation with the soldiers below.

In use, rolling up the flag means that there is no enemy. When the flag is opened, the enemy will come; when the flagpole is stretched horizontally, the enemy will be close; when the flagpole is vertical, the enemy will arrive; when the enemy retreats, the flagpole will be slowly raised, the enemy has retreated and rolled up the flag.

There are wheels at the bottom of the car to push back and forth; there are foot pedals on the vertical pole, which can be climbed up and down by sentry; there are thick ropes to fix them next to the vertical pole; there is a rotation shaft under the tower itself, which can be rotated and observed on all sides. This tower car is taller than the nest car and has a wide viewing field.

Finally, there is the catapult. Li Zhan's catapult is also called the torsion catapult... Its power is exerted by wrapped ropes or pimps.

It uses the rope twisted by the gear to create tension. After being loosened, the rotating rope will throw the throwing arm out. When the throwing arm hits the bulky curb tribute, the projectile set in the basket at the end of the throwing arm will be thrown out.

The trajectory of the projectile can be adjusted to change the ballistics of the projectile. Compared with the giant trencher, the ballistics of the trencher are relatively flat and can produce the same power.

The intensive shooting of the trenchers can cause great destruction to the city wall. In addition, projectiles and collapsed wall fragments help fill the trench, and the piles of gravel they create also provide siegemen with climbing into the city.

As soon as these three siege equipment were released... Gao Chang's defeat, and he was a defeated defeat!

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Chapter completed!