Yang Hao stood on a dirt platform closest to the front line and watched everything on the battlefield. He was surrounded by a group of senior staff who specialized in siege operations. Among them were veterans who had been through battle formations, young talents who had not yet emerged. Of course, they were senior staffers who were young and strong in their prime.√Wくw    W★.

★8く1くz     W.

CoM

There were hundreds of military prefectures in the Tang Dynasty, and almost every county built city walls. Siege was a great subject. Since ancient times, there were a lot of military books to study siege and defend cities, so the famous generals were as brilliant as the galaxy. Since the founding of the Xining Army, the main enemy has always been a nomadic tribe that did not build city walls on the grassland. Yang Hao himself was a person who advocated attack. Therefore, while winning the respect of the grassland opponents, the Xining Army did not receive recognition from the surrounding towns that were good at defensive operations.

In all the siege battles in Hedong, even if the troops have an absolute advantage, every victory is exchanged for blood. Yang Hao is very sad about this. He is eager to avoid some technical and tactical innovations to avoid such desperate casualties. Yang Hao handed this major issue to the Martial Preparation School and asked each department and battalion to cooperate with it with all his strength.

Tan Kong recommended to Yang Hao a veteran with paralyzed legs. The man was named Hu Poshan. He served in the Ministry of War for many years and participated in many wars to attack local vassal states. He had rich practical experience in siege operations and profound theoretical literacy.

The biggest highlight of his life was that in the eleventh year of Yuanhe, he followed Tang and Deng Jiedushi Li Jue, the governor of Deng, led his troops to attack Wu Yuanji's rebellion. As Li Jue's counselor, military affairs, Hu Poshan planned a strict strategy for Li Jue. The following winter, according to his plan, Li Jue seized the opportunity of the fighter, conquered Caizhou on a snowy night, and captured Wu Yuanji alive. He achieved a great reputation for eternity.

Years of war have caused Hu Poshan to be injured. In his later years, he was paralyzed and could only be with a wheelchair all day long. When he was an official, he was honest and self-confident, and had one son and two daughters. He died one after another. After his legs were paralyzed, he was even more troubled in his livelihood. He often had no meals after eating the last meal. In the face of difficulties and difficulties, he still did not forget to compile what he had learned in his life into a book to alert future generations.

Yang Hao hired him as a professor at Fengzhou Wubei Academy and specially assigned him a house to hire two servants for him. He also asked the resident doctors in the school to come to Hu Poshan for a physical examination every half month. Hu Poshan was like a fish in water in Wubei Academy, writing smoothly, teaching wonderfully, and life was enjoyable.

He formed a school and collected seven closed disciples, specializing in teaching the skills of siege and defending the city. He and a group of masters from the Ordnance Department have figured out some new siege equipment. Because of the huge cost, the Ordnance Department was unwilling to invest in the construction. After Yang Hao learned about the situation, he personally approved a fund for Hu Poshan to research new siege weapons.

Hu Poshan's arrival made a qualitative leap in the Xining Army's siege combat theory, and various talents continued to emerge. Before sending troops to Shuofang, the Xining Army had conducted siege combat exercises many times, and each battalion made great progress in siege skills. What is lacking now is only practical tests. Yang Hao chose Wuhai City as a breakthrough point to hit Shuofang, which to a certain extent was also the result of Hu Poshan's efforts.

Hu Poshan assured Yang Hao that as long as he followed the siege strategy he had formulated in advance, Wuhai City would be able to capture in less than two days, and that each battalion would not suffer more than five hundred casualties. Yang Hao's idea was that if he could capture Wuhai City at the cost of one thousand casualties in three days, even if this trip to Shuofang was a great achievement, the shortest wooden board on the wooden barrel would no longer become a problem from now on.

The siege combat plan was jointly formulated by Yu Chongchong and Hu Poshan. Yu Chongchong was the leading general in the front and a famous general who was good at defending the city. Yang Hao was more at ease to participate.

Everything was steadily advancing according to the combat plan and went smoothly. After the rushing car moved to the edge of the trench, the soldiers quickly built a floating bridge. The floating bridge was made of several logs, which looked like a ladder. The wooden bridge was folded into two sections in the middle and connected by hinges. During the attack, the wooden bridge was hidden in the trench. After advancing to the edge of the trench, a tripod was built with wood. The top of the tripod was equipped with pulleys. One end of the rope was tied to the wooden bridge and the other end was hanging down through the pulley. After choosing a position, the wooden bridge was slowly lowered and the position was adjusted slightly. A floating bridge was successfully built on the trench.

The advantages of this kind of floating bridge are very obvious: they are smart and light, easy to transport, and easy to build; their disadvantages are also very obvious: they have poor traffic capacity and can only pass through infantry, cavalry and heavy equipment.

In order to prevent the pontoon bridge from being burned by the opponent's rocket, the surface of the wooden bridge is coated with a layer of special wood paint to isolate the flame burning. If you don't have this wood paint, you can also apply a layer of mud mixed with crushed grass on the surface, which is also very fireproof. The effect is not very good when dealing with this kind of pontoon bridge except for stone throwing cars, bows and crossbows and other long-range attack weapons.

However, the stone-throwing cart was fixed on the turret and was completely lost under the attack of the Xining army's rockets. The remaining two units were seriously damaged and could no longer adjust the attack angle, and they almost became dead cannons.

Hu Shide realized the danger and was actively considering countermeasures. Min Lan, the guard of Xicheng, panted and said, "Please order to open the city gate to attack, otherwise it will be dangerous for them to set up a floating bridge in the west city."

Hu Shide flatly refused and said, "Don't open the city gate." He thought for a moment, pointed to the two secret doors in the southeast corner and said, "Open the two gates of B and C, you will lead your troops to attack yourself, and be sure to destroy all the enemy's chariots and pontoon bridges." Min Lan said happily: "I have orders." He immediately assembled the 300 soldiers in the headquarters and 200 cavalrymen from the front army divided into two teams to prepare for attack.

The secret door, also known as the rush gate, is a relatively special facility on the city wall. It is generally reserved when building the city wall. It is usually sealed with bricks and soil, and mud is applied to disguise and cover it. It is completely invisible from the outside of the city wall. When you want to attack the besieged enemy, open the door from the inside and attack suddenly, and you can often achieve a surprise victory.

After the Hu Camp's rushing car built a floating bridge by the water, it did not rush to attack. Yu Chongchong wanted to use this to lure the flying fish army to attack from the secret door. If this threat is not eliminated before the general attack, there is undoubtedly a great risk.

The Yi-character Gate was opened first, and Min Lan personally led the 300 troops from the secret door and rushed out of the rushing ferry bridge beside the water. The archers on both sides suddenly became busy, pouring arrow rain into each other's positions, suppressing the opponent's archers to protect the soldiers who were attacking. The archers of the Feiyu Army took advantage of the terrain. They stood high on the city wall and soon forced the soldiers of the Tiger Camp who were moving in the wilderness into the rushing ferry.

Min Lan led the crowd to the moat to rush to the side of the moat, and the soldiers slashed the axes to try to destroy the floating bridge on the river. The strong bows and crossbows in the rushing car kept shooting the soldiers who destroyed the bridge. The distance was so close that almost every arrow would take a life. The moat was covered with corpses, and the originally clear water was stirred up yellow.

"Run with me!"

Min Lan took the lead and waved a big sword to kill the rushing car. The floating bridge originally built for the attack made it convenient for the enemy's counterattack. This seemed to be a satire to the attacking side, but it was not the case. The floating bridge can only be used by two people to walk side by side. If you want to walk fast on the bridge, you can only pass one after another. This made the attacking soldiers unable to use shields to protect themselves, because there were six shooters guarding the opposite side of each floating bridge. Every soldier who stepped on the floating bridge would be attacked from the front, the left, and the right side. Even if you held two shields in your hand, you would not care about your head and feet.

Min Lan rushed to the middle of the bridge and was shot down with an arrow. The two guards lifted him up and retreated. The archers in the tiger camp realized that this might be a big fish, so they overwhelmed the arrows greeted him.

The people around Min Lan fell one after another, and they were shot into the water, either drowned or stabbed to death by bamboo swords and wooden stakes at the bottom of the water. Min Lan was not damaged at all. He understood that the enemy might have wanted to capture him alive, so he drew his sword in his hand and decided to settle himself in the moment of crisis. The dense arrows suddenly stopped, and a team of Xining guards jumped to the floating bridge and rushed towards Min Lan.

They really wanted to capture me alive... Min Lan was desperate. Capturing the enemy's chief general alive in such an occasion would undoubtedly greatly dampen the morale of the opponent. Min Lan bit her teeth and raised her sword to wipe it towards her neck.

Suddenly, a sudden sound of trumpet sounded, and the direction of the city wall suddenly flew, the secret door of the C-font suddenly opened, and a cavalry swept over like a storm. The cavalry of the Shuofang Front Army. The front army, which had always been looked down upon by the soldiers of the Ya Army, became the most dazzling stars at this moment. They crossed the wall of sheep and horses to the moat like wind. The knights held shields in one hand and threw javelins in the other, and they hit a hundred times.

The soldiers of the Tiger Camp who had already rushed to Min Lan fell into the trench, and the cooked ducks flew miraculously! The soldiers of the Tiger Camp were extremely annoyed. Arrows shot towards the cavalry of the forward army like a storm. People were tilted and overturned, and people howled and neighed. Only one-third of the thirty knights who sacrificed their lives to save Min Lan escaped.

Woo--

The signal of the first round of siege in the Tiger Camp sounded, and the soldiers rushed out of the trenches, left the protection of the rushing car, held wooden shields, stepped on the floating bridge, and rushed towards the wall of sheep and horses in densely packed arrows and stones.

This is the first face-to-face battle between the offensive and the defense. The siege side has a slight advantage in the number of people, but the defender defends the city by risk. Because the people on both sides are mixed together and cannot tell the difference between the enemy and us, the crossbows on both hands stop shooting. This face-to-face battle is the most true, including training level, weapons and equipment, command art, strength, no obstacles, and it is clear at a glance.

The highest generals of both sides were nervously staring at the small-scale conflict, and they were testing each other's reality. Soon after, Hu Shide and Yang Hao both breathed a sigh of relief, and the two families tied. The morale of the Feiyu Army was boosted, and the shadow of the failure of Jiahekou was swept away at this moment, and there was joy in the middle of the whole country.

The second charge of the Tiger Camp was launched quickly. This time they changed their tactics and first used a longbow rocket formation to suppress the sheep and horse wall guards. The temporary battle shed built by the guards was burned by fire. The Tiger Camp advanced parallel with two sentries, and the soldiers had only wooden shields and cloud ladders. The archers and the longbow formation in the distance used arrows to suppress the defenders on the city, providing them with low-quality cover.

The tiger camp, which was lightly equipped with battle, was as brave as a tiger, and the sheep and horse wall was immediately lost. The hearts of the soldiers of the Flying Fish Army were covered with shadows, but the strong attack of the tiger camp was not smooth. The wall was dug with pits, and soldiers were worried about their lives if they were not careful. Although the archers on the top of the city were successfully suppressed, the ladders that kept erecting were quickly overthrown by wooden forks. This kind of wooden fork used to defend the city was dozens of meters long. The soldiers could operate in battle sheds or wood, and they did not show up, and naturally they were not afraid of the suppression of bows and arrows.

Hu Shide showed a rare smile on his face, and he also said to the Lou Chuan: "It seems that the Xining Army is only good at field battles, but it is still not good to attack the city." The Lou Chuan had already wanted to say this sentence, but he had never dared to say it because of Hu Shide's majesty. At this moment, Hu Shide started and he followed the words and said:

"The ruler has strengths, but the inch is short. He is not the King of Heaven, how can he be strong in everything?"

"How is it going on in the North City?"

"Tan Rang got up early and attacked twice, but he didn't cross the Sheep and Horse Wall. Now he is lying there and shooting arrows on the wall. I have to admit that Fengzhou soldiers have good archery skills, and they are really not his opponents."

Hu Shide smiled and his expression was very relaxed. Several staff officers also took the opportunity to say: "The Fengzhou soldiers seemed to have left the horse and didn't know how to fight. Fengya camp in Dongcheng set up a few stone cannons to hit the wall. The stones that came were only big, and only a layer of soil fell on the wall. This was not a smashing wall, it was clearly tickling the city wall..."

Hu Shide didn't dare to be careless and asked anxiously: "Does they have ladders?"

The staff officer replied with great certainty: "No, there were several floating bridges on the ground, and there was no cover for rushing vehicles, so there was no one setting up there."

Hu Shide nodded silently and explained: "You must keep a close eye on it, don't be careless."
Chapter completed!