Start from the thief

Chapter 601: War

The last time Zhao Yushu experienced a war involving tens of thousands of people was in Nanyang.

Tens of thousands of refugees used their flesh and blood like crazy to attack the government troops who were ready for battle with all their weapons and armor. It was both tragic and sad.

It was also that battle that strengthened Zhao Yushu's determination to hunt down Wang Shaolin for thousands of miles, which indirectly led to the collapse of the Tang Dynasty.

The war before us is just the purest war.

Due to the selfishness of a few high-ranking officials, countless common people took up spears and bows and arrows, fighting desperately with the people they met for the first time in their lives.

The Sand People slaves roared and rushed forward first, falling one after another in the rain of arrows. When they finally couldn't hold on and retreated, the Tibetan supervisors forced them back with long swords and spears to consume the arrows of the defenders.

On average, each of their lives was worth only about five arrows.

The Hengjiang archers of the Red Lotus Sect are famous throughout the world, but unfortunately, the leader had sent a batch of them in Yuezhou before, and only two thousand of them could make it to Songzhou. These two thousand formed a death blockade. If you want to break through their defense, you either have to sacrifice your lives until they are exhausted and can't pull the bow, or rely on your solid armor and strong shield to forcibly hold on, and bet that the arrows of the Hengjiang archers cannot avoid your shield and shoot into your ankles.

Of course, there is one last way, which is to let the monks take over.

For cultivators above the third level, they can rely on their body's spiritual power to withstand the attack, and then quickly climb up the city to slaughter mortals. This is possible in a normal battlefield.

But the defenders of the city are not stupid, and they do have monks. If your monks come up, my monks will naturally take their place. When the two sides are evenly matched, a local balance can still be maintained with monks fighting monks and mortals fighting mortals.

Zhao Yushu is one of the cultivators and also the strongest one.

There would be no cultivators among the sand people, and the spiritual power in this world could not be hidden, so it was destined to be unrealistic to hide among ordinary soldiers and launch a surprise attack, unless he was Zhao Yushu.

Under the constant sweep of the spiritual light of the monks on the city wall, the monks of the other side had nowhere to hide. Both sides stood still and watched the mortals fighting with cold eyes.

The Tibetan monks were looking for an opportunity, while the Red Lotus monks were waiting for the other side to make a move.

Zhao Yushu glanced around and stared at the only ninth-level master, who was also the strongest one on the other side.

As if sensing Zhao Yushu's gaze, the great monk with a very beautiful beard raised his eyes slightly and looked over, then sneered with disdain.

Zhao Yushu didn't care, and he didn't think that he could look down on all the heroes in the world just because he had forced Nei Jing to retreat. He could be confident, but he couldn't be conceited.

The Sand People were eventually defeated. The Hengjiang archers retreated during the last wave of Sand People's charge and were replaced by ordinary crossbowmen to harvest the enemies in order to conserve their energy and arrows to deal with the real opponents.

War drums rumbled, and teams of well-armored Tibetan soldiers marched out in formation, with dozens of ladders slowly moving forward.

Because Ye Ru had already captured Songzhou before, in order to advance quickly, Tubo did not prepare more and stronger siege equipment, and now they could only use ladders, which greatly reduced Yang He's pressure on defending the city.

Almost at the same time, the Tibetan monks also took action.

Tubo has a population of 20 million and more than 2,000 monks. However, like the Central Plains, most of them are low-level monks. There are only a hundred monks who are qualified to go into battle. But this time, the whole country is attacking Tang, and all of these hundred monks have come. There are nearly twenty of them just outside the city.

The Red Lotus Sect's foundation is much weaker, with less than ten cultivators able to come at this time. Although the quality is slightly higher, the pressure on the Red Lotus Sect is still greater due to the difference in numbers, not to mention that the other party also has an outer scene of the Ninth Heaven.

A person of this level should have been dealt with by Yang He personally, but now that Zhao Yushu is here, he can naturally continue to maintain his mystery.

"Leave that person to me, the rest is up to you."

Zhao Yushu pointed at the ninth-level cultivator and said something to his comrades beside him.

The monks of the Red Lotus Sect were stunned. They did not know the legendary Mr. Six, but this man was the leader's guest and a friend whom the leader trusted very much. The order they received was that no matter what Zhao Yushu said or did, they should fully support him, even a crisis like the fall of the city could be put behind Lao Zhao's needs.

"Okay, thank you, young man."

Since Zhao Yushu said so, the other cultivators naturally wanted it very much. The highest among them was only the seventh level, and they were all invited by Yang He from various branches personally. They usually had a very high status in the sect, but when facing a great cultivator from the ninth level, no one was sure of themselves.

Let’s see how strong this young hero is.

With a shout, the Tubo army started to trot, and the real siege began.

The Eastern Capital, the former Prince Fu's Palace, is now temporarily used as the new emperor's residence.

After Li Jian fled, Li Tong ascended the throne, but refused to live in the palace and moved directly back to his own home.

Li Tong's ascension to the throne indeed caused an uproar. The Duke of Yue, the former staunch political ally of Prince Fu, simply turned a deaf ear and dumb, neither supporting nor opposing. There were confirmed reports that he had personally brought Li Jian and a group of royal relatives to Jiangning, but rejected Li Jian's request for him to send troops to attack Li Tong.

Faced with the Liao people's aggressive advance, Li Tong issued a proclamation requesting that military governors from all over the country send troops to defend the king. Bianzhou, Huazhou, Zhengzhou, and Xuzhou to the east of the Eastern Capital responded immediately. Zhengzhou's troops were the closest and even successfully entered the Eastern Capital before the Liao people, greatly strengthening the Eastern Capital's defense. As the other three states had not arrived yet, Li Tong made a prompt decision and ordered them to station nearby and wait for the opportunity to avoid being besieged and attacked for reinforcements.

What's strange is that the states in Hedong Province north of Dongdu remained silent collectively. It seems that they wanted to sit on the mountain and watch the fight like Jiannan Province, conserving their strength and waiting for the right opportunity to act.

"Hedong, Hebei, and Southeast are not responding. I'm afraid we don't have enough troops."

In the temporary court, all the temporarily promoted officials were a little panicked. Some of them did support Li Tong sincerely, but more of them took the opportunity to curry favor with the powerful and find a way out for themselves.

However, the current situation is not optimistic. If the Eastern Capital is destroyed, no one will want these people no matter where they run, and they may even be killed directly.

"That's enough. I'm afraid that they will come too many. The food in the Eastern Capital is not enough. The people in Hedong and Hebei have not rebelled against me directly. They are just watching and waiting for me to do something. If I win, they will cut off the retreat of the Liao people and remain loyal ministers and generals of the Tang Dynasty. If I lose, huh, does that mean the one with the strongest army and the most powerful horses will be the emperor?"

With a loud bang, all the ministers fell to their knees: "Your Highness is terrified!"

Li Tong stood up from his chair and said, "My dear ministers, today you and I share the same glory. I know that some of you may think that if the Eastern Capital is destroyed, I can hide in the academy and everything will be fine. But today, come and draft an edict for me."

The Secretary of the Central Secretariat hurriedly picked up his pen.

The Liao army came from the west and north, and after gathering together, they surrounded the east, south and north sides, deliberately leaving the west entrance and exit, intending to surround three sides and leave one, forcing the defenders to flee westward, and then block them under the city of Tongguan. However, Li Tong issued an imperial edict on the first day of the siege, directly sealing the west gate to show his intention to fight to the death.

On the second day of the siege, the Tang emperor's dragon flag was erected directly on the north city where the Liao people were the largest. Li Tong, wearing full armor, stood proudly on the top of the city wall.