Traveling through Du He, Li Chengqian's rebellion begins

Xi Junmai, who was guarding behind the two of them, shook his head slightly and said.

"Your Highness, this is just the appetizer!"

"When our army reaches the city wall, the enemy's counterattack will be ten times more fierce than it is now!"

Bows and arrows are only the first round of obstacles you face when attacking a city. There are also wolf-tooth maces, flaming oil cabinets, enemy spears, and boiling soup.

Especially when they climbed up the 4-foot-high city wall using ladders, they were faced with several enemy soldiers who were trying to assassinate them from above, which meant that nine of them would die and one would be injured.

Even a brave general like him still had lingering fears about a frontal siege.

Du He looked at the small mound that was slowly being built up to block the crossbow arrows shot straight at him from the city wall, and said with a sigh of relief.

"Your Highness, once we build the earthen hill higher, the enemy's crossbows will not have much impact on us."

"The defenders in Anshi City should be worried now!"

The crossbow has the greatest power, but it can only shoot straight. Although the bow and arrow can be thrown, its power is not enough.

If the enemies in Anshi City did not charge out, they would be waiting for a close combat with the Tang army.

In face-to-face infantry combat, the elite Tang army could hang them up and beat them.

Li Chengqian nodded slightly. He squinted his eyes and looked at the battlefield ahead. Seeing that the craftsmen were building the earthen hill very slowly, he frowned and asked.

"Du He, besides building a mound to attack the city, do you have any other ideas?"

"No."

"Alas! The craftsmen are too slow in building the earthen hill. At the current rate of progress, won't it take us more than ten days to capture Anshi City?"

Li Chengqian sighed heavily.

In the past, whether it was the attack on Liaodong City, Baiyan City or Huaiyuan City, they were all conquered within just two or three days.

Moreover, the number of casualties among soldiers was extremely low.

Now thinking about how long it would take to attack Anshi City, Li Chengqian felt extremely unhappy.

At this moment, a small black dot suddenly appeared in the distance.

"Hey~"

Suddenly, a crossbow arrow shot straight towards Li Chengqian from the front.

"Your Highness, be careful!"

Xi Junmai roared, then held the lance in one hand and thrust it upwards like lightning.

"Dang~"

The huge crossbow arrow shot by the enemy was heavily knocked away by Xi Junmai.

This thrilling scene happened in just a few breaths, and Li Chengqian and Du He didn't even have time to react.

"Whoo~"

Li Chengqian let out a long sigh, and then he said with lingering fear: "This place is a thousand steps away from the city wall of Anshi City. I didn't expect the power of the bed crossbow to be so great!"

If Xi Junmai had not been quick-eyed and quick-handed, his body would have been hit by the crossbow arrow as thick as his arm and he would have probably lost his life.

Xi Junmai said in a deep voice: "Your Highness, Prince Consort Du, this place is dangerous, please return to the tent and wait."

"Let's go!"

Li Chengqian's voice trembled a little.

As they were talking, he and Du He had already boarded the sedan chair and urged their guards to leave quickly.

Seeing that the prince and Du He were so concerned about their lives, Xi Junmai's mouth twitched.

Fortunately, he was still thinking about how to persuade the Prince and Prince Consort Du if they were unwilling to go back.

It seems that he was worrying too much.

Five days later.

A small hill has risen outside the southern wall of Anshi City.

With this barrier, the beds and bows and arrows of Anshi City had become useless, and Qiu Xingyan and thousands of craftsmen could safely push the earthen hill forward.

In order to defend against the arrows shot by the enemy, Qiu Xingyan also had someone build a wooden frame above his head.

No matter how many arrows the enemy shot, they were blocked by the arm-thick wood.

On the city wall of Anshi City.

Yang Wanchun and Gao Huizhen stood side by side, looking solemnly at the approaching earthen hill.

The soldiers holding bows and arrows around the city wall shot intermittently towards the back of the hillside.

But after shooting for so long, no screams were heard from the Tang army.

Gao Huizhen cursed: "The despicable Tang army actually used such a despicable siege method!"

"The cowardly Tang army doesn't even dare to attack the city in an upright manner. What a bunch of rat soldiers and generals!"

Although he cursed the Tang army, he did not dare to mention leading his troops out of the city to attack the Tang army below.

Yang Wanchun frowned and said, "Gao Nuosa, it's no use going down now. It won't be long before the Tang army's earthen mounds come over here."

"If we allow the Tang army to act without any countermeasures, the consequences will be disastrous!"

As Yang Wanchun finished speaking, the city wall fell into a brief silence.

After a long time, an old general with a white beard standing on the side stepped forward and said with a fist.

"Gao Nuosa, General Yang, why don't we raise the height of the city wall in front of us first?"

"It's not difficult for us to raise the city wall, but it will take a lot of effort for the Tang army to build a higher earthen hill!"

Hearing this suggestion, Yang Wanchun and Gao Huizhen nodded at the same time.

It is said that having an old man in the family is like having a treasure. Having an old general with rich combat experience can provide useful suggestions at critical moments.

Yang Wanchun said in a deep voice: "General Gao Minxing, go back and organize the craftsmen to reinforce the city wall now!"

"As ordered!"

The old general Gao Minxing saluted the two men with his fists, then walked down the city wall with strong strides.

Yang Wanchun then said to Gao Huizhen: "Gao Nuosa, we can't just sit there and wait for death!"

"The Tang army has been busy building earthen hills these days, and they must be exhausted physically and mentally. In addition, we avoided fighting, so the Tang army must have mistakenly thought that we were scared."

"Why don't we send a small group of elite troops out of the city tonight to raid the Tang army's food supplies?"

"As long as their food supplies are set on fire, the Tang army will naturally retreat!"

A few days ago, he led his troops to burn the Tang army's food and supplies, forcing the Tang army that was besieging the city to retreat to Jian'an City.

As long as they burned the Tang army's food supplies again, tens of thousands of Tang soldiers would be left with nothing to eat, and they would have no choice but to retreat.

Maybe he could even take advantage of the Tang army's hunger and lead a large army to attack the Tang army.

Gao Huizhen's eyes lit up, and he immediately agreed: "General Yang, the method of attacking the Tang army's food and grass at night is brilliant!"

"Let's go back to the City Lord's Mansion and make some plans!"

After Gao Huizhen had a head-on battle with the Tang army once, he did not want to fight with the Tang army a second time.

When he thought about how their 10-strong army was killed by tens of thousands of Tang troops and had no chance to fight back, he was filled with fear of the Tang army.

Time passed quickly and it was evening in the blink of an eye.

The earthen hill outside the South City Gate.

Ma Wenjuan, a brave and resolute commander under Li Daozon, was leading his infantry on patrol when suddenly bursts of shrill pig squeals were heard from the city of Anshi.

A Tang soldier behind him muttered: "These bastards are living such a damn carefree life. They are surrounded by tens of thousands of troops, yet they still have the mind to kill pigs for food!"

"From the sound, I'm afraid dozens of pigs were killed at once!"

Hearing the soldiers' mutterings, Ma Wenju immediately realized that something was wrong.

He quickly said to the soldiers behind him: "You continue to defend here strictly. I have something urgent to report back."

As he spoke, Ma Wenju ran all the way back in the direction of the Tang army's camp.