Shangzhou is very close to Chang'an, but its situation is completely different from Chang'an.

After the rebels occupied Chang'an, out of political needs, Anlushan prohibited the rebels from killing wantonly in Chang'an City. The rebels who occupied Chang'an City had strict military discipline. After all, there were too many officials and civilians in Chang'an City. General Anlushan

If the rebellion is glorified as "eliminating traitors under orders," then the rebels need a fig leaf to cover up their rebellious actions.

However, Shangzhou City is completely different. Although the Anxi Army has not yet captured Shangzhou City, burned villages can be seen everywhere on the country roads outside the city, covered with the corpses of people injured by swords and arrows. The sight of thousands of miles of blood is like a purgatory.

This fully shows that the rebels are not so polite to Shangzhou City.

Along the way, there were more and more corpses, and Gu Qing became more and more angry towards the rebels.

War is of course cruel, but why should the people deserve it? Why should they take their lives and kill them wantonly?

Gu Qing suddenly regretted the military order he had just issued. He could only secretly hope that the rebels guarding Shangzhou City would ignore his surrender letter and refuse to surrender. Then after the Anxi Army captured Shangzhou City, the rebels in the city would

No one will be spared, they will all be killed.

Leaving this group of scourges in the world, unable to account for the people who died, also created evil karma for Gu Qing himself.

When Shen Tian's arrow shot into the Shangzhou City Tower, the Anxi Army had arrived outside Shangzhou City and camped five miles away from the city, and at the same time completed the encirclement of Shangzhou City.

A siege usually consists of three walls and one wall, leaving a gap so that the enemy will not be tempted to defeat the enemy and cause greater casualties to our own soldiers when they attack the city.

This time Gu Qing also adopted the method of surrounding three palaces, surrounding the city on three sides: southeast, north, and south, leaving only a gap on the west side of the city. The west side faced the direction of Chang'an, giving the rebels greater hope of survival.

The city has been surrounded, and the next step is to wait for the rebel general's reply. If they still refuse to surrender at this time tomorrow, it will mean that the siege will begin.

Gu Qing stood on a small hillside, squinting and looking at Shangzhou from a distance. Flags were fluttering on the top of Shangzhou city, and rebel soldiers were coming and going like the wind on top of the city, desperately carrying hammered stones, rolling logs and kerosene to defend the city.

Before the siege, the scouts had found out that there were about 3,000 rebels left in the city. The rebel general leading the army was named Li Lijie. He was a general who was highly regarded by An Lushan. After An Lushan's death, An Qingxu came to the throne. Within the rebel army,

It seems that there is a factional dispute. Li Lijie was originally the defense general of Gyeonggi Province. He was moved to the position of guard general of Shangzhou five days ago. He was obviously marginalized by the rebels.

Gu Qing was followed by the generals of the Anxi Army, including Xianyu Zhongtong. Everyone was staring at Gu Qing's back, waiting for him to assign specific tasks. Looking at the situation on the city, the rebels would most likely not surrender, and they would definitely do so tomorrow.

Will attack the city.

After staring at the city in the distance for a long time, Gu Qing suddenly turned around and said, "Where is Ma Sui?"

Ma Sui stepped out of the queue, bowed and clasped his fists: "The general will be here."

Gu Qing stared at his face and smiled: "Is the injury on your butt healed?"

Ma Sui looked stunned and said, "Okay."

"You just joined the Anxi Army, and you haven't fully integrated in yet. After fighting side by side with the robes a few times, everyone recognized you."

"yes."

Gu Qing pondered for a moment and said: "Ma Sui, you are very good at ambush warfare. I will give you a task. I will give you five thousand soldiers and horses to ambush thirty miles to the west. The location of the ambush is up to you. If there is any

If the enemy troops are defeated and flee towards Chang'an, lead your troops to annihilate them all. Remember to annihilate them all. I will not take prisoners. No matter if they surrender or not, I will kill them all."

All the generals were shocked when they heard this.

Gu Qing's tone was full of murderous intent. Wei Sanqueyi deliberately let go of the west side, but then set up an ambush in the distance to the west. It was obvious that he had already made up his mind not to give the rebels defending the city a way to survive, and they must kill them.

Kill them all.

Ma Sui cupped his fists and said solemnly: "The last general will take orders."

Gu Qing saw that the generals were silent, so he explained: "On the way from Xiangzhou to Shangzhou, you have also seen that although the south of the Tang Dynasty was peaceful, after moving north to the capital, the rebels killed the people wantonly, burned down the villages, and did not know what was happening.

No matter how many crimes have been committed, these beasts cannot be kept, and I don’t want to surrender. They have lost their humanity, and keeping them here would be a disaster.”

The generals were suddenly enlightened and all agreed.

Gu Qing thought for a moment, looked at Xianyu Zhongtong, and said with a smile: "Uncle Xianyu, I asked your uncle to lead thirty thousand Shu troops to Tongguan. If Tongguan can be defeated, they will attack. If they cannot, they will station troops outside Tongguan and guard Tongguan."

If they come out, we will fight with them. If they don't, the Shu army will stand still. If any of Shangzhou's defeated troops flee, they will flee to Tongguan and annihilate them all."

Xianyu Zhongtong thought for a while and said: "What Mr. Gu means is that the first task of the Shu army is to completely annihilate the defeated army of Shangzhou, and the second is to capture Tongguan?"

Gu Qing nodded: "It doesn't matter whether we attack Tongguan or not. It doesn't matter if we don't attack. I will make arrangements in the future, mainly for the defeated Shangzhou army. If we encounter them, we must wipe them all out and leave no one behind."

Xianyu Zhongtong followed the example of other generals and said, "Yes, I will follow General Gu's order."

Gu Qing looked at Qu Huan again and said: "Ge Shujieshuai is inconvenient. You will lead the 10,000 Hexi Army. You will lead the Hexi Army to the east and approach Luoyang City. Your task is similar to that of Xian Yujieshuai. If Luoyang defends

If it is weak, you can take the opportunity to attack. If the defenders are strong, you can retreat to the only road between Shangzhou and Luoyang, waiting to completely annihilate Shangzhou's defeated army."

Qu Huan accepted the order solemnly.

Gu Qing looked around at the generals and said: "At noon tomorrow, we will attack Shangzhou City. We must capture it before sunset. After capturing Shangzhou, the Anxi Army will divide its forces and go to the east and west. Together with the Shu Army and the Hexi Army, they will take advantage of the opportunity to capture Tongguan and Luoyang.

"

All the generals responded in unison.

Gu Qing asked again: "Where is Sun Jiushi?"

Sun Jiushi stepped out of the queue and clasped his fists: "The final general is here."

"Is it okay if I attack the city tomorrow and show my face to the Marksman Battalion?"

Sun Jiushi puffed up his chest and said proudly: "The Divine Archer Battalion is invincible in the world. The first attack on the city tomorrow has been made by the Divine Archer Battalion!"

Gu Qing nodded, waved his robe sleeves heavily, and said, "Let each of you perform your duties."

…………

At noon the next day, as expected, the defenders in Shangzhou City ignored the Anxi Army's persuasion to surrender.

At a quarter past noon, Gu Qing, wearing armor and helmet, stood in the middle of the army and nodded to Chang Zhong beside him.

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Chang Zhong understood and shouted: "Attack the city——"

As soon as he finished speaking, the rumble of drums sounded, and the catapult that had been assembled was launched. The huge stones crossed a parabola and hit the head of Shangzhou City heavily. At the same time, five thousand archers lined up and advanced.

, advancing into the shooting range, the general waved his command flag, the bowstring buzzed, and a rain of arrows poured from the sky towards the city head.

The siege of the city officially began.

The Anxi army seldom used the human wave tactic when attacking the city. Gu Qing was a businessman and always believed in exchanging the maximum benefit with the minimum price. He climbed the city tower one after another at the cost of human life. In Gu Qing's opinion, it was a stupid method. Gu Qing did not use it as a last resort.

Don't want to use it.

When the siege began, the catapults were launched first. After the city was smashed into a mess, the archers lined up and rained arrows on the city. Round after round, the defenders on the city did not dare to come forward.

The Anxi Army suffered no casualties, but the siege still made no progress.

Chang Zhong, who was standing far away from the central army, was a little impatient. He came to Gu Qing's side and said: "My lord, please order the soldiers to climb the city wall. If this continues, the confrontation between the two armies will be endless. We will definitely not be able to capture Shangzhou before sunset."

Gu Qing said calmly: "Don't worry, we will definitely win it before sunset. Order the Marksman Battalion to go out and cooperate with the archers and shield formation. Sun Jiushi knows how to do it."

Soon, the five thousand soldiers of the Chinese army's sharpshooting battalion were ordered to march out of the formation and march towards the city. After arriving at the city, the sharpshooting battalion quickly lined up neatly, still in three sections in three rows, and calmly fired towards the barrels of the guns.

Pound gunpowder inside and add iron pills.

The rebels at the top of the city quietly emerged from the arrow stacks and looked at the soldiers holding strange weapons below the city with puzzled faces. The guard Li Lijie who was standing at the top of the city supervising the battle was also puzzled. He calculated the distance.

A group of troops armed with strange weapons stood just outside the range of the defenders' bows and arrows, unable to hurt them, so Li Lijie had to give up.

After a while, the defenders finally figured out what those weird weapons were.

After the soldiers of the Marksman Battalion finished loading, the general waved the command flag, and the five thousand soldiers lined up facing the city head. The front row squatted down and took aim. There was a loud bang, and the defenders who popped up from the arrow stacks on the city wall were hit.

Hit in the head, he fell to the ground and died without saying a word.

The defenders were shocked and retracted their heads. They looked closely at Pao Ze's body and found a small bloody hole on the deceased's forehead. Blood kept pouring out of the wound. Just a small bloody hole was enough to kill someone.

However, what evil method did the Anxi army use? What exactly were the weapons in the hands of that army?

No one knew the answer. They only knew that it was dangerous to take the initiative. The range of that strange weapon was obviously much longer than that of a bow and arrow. Two hundred steps away, the strange weapon could hit the top of the city, but the defenders' bows and arrows could not reach the bottom of the city at all.

in the military formation.

The strange weapons caused great panic to the defenders. This was due to the fear of the unknown. Because of the unknown, there was fear.

The sharpshooting battalion continued to fire guns, and the general's flag kept waving. In the three-stage shooting array, the soldiers carried out the general's military orders in an orderly manner, like a precision machine that was started, with every part matching perfectly.

Sun Jiushi, who was standing next to the Marksman Battalion array, suddenly couldn't hold himself back any longer.

In the last battle of Yingshui, Sun Jiushi was like a lonely hero, abandoning his soldiers and sneaking into the front line alone. He inexplicably killed the enemy's commander. Sun Jiushi also made great contributions. Later, Gu Qing went to Shu to ask for credit, and Sun Jiushi was rewarded with ten strings of gold and was granted the title of

The prison guard general.

Having tasted the sweetness, Sun Jiushi couldn't help but be ready to take action. If he killed the enemy's general again this time, what kind of official title would Mr. Gu give him? Anyway, the credit would not be small.

Sun Jiushi's marksmanship was originally the best in the sharpshooting camp. When the sharpshooting camp fired its guns, Sun Jiushi's eyes had already begun to look back and forth towards the opposite tower.

Soon Sun Jiushi locked onto an enemy general.

The general was about forty years old, with a gloomy face and standing in front of the city tower holding his sword. Guards on the left and right surrounded him. Judging from the majestic armor of the general, he must be no small person.
Chapter completed!