Chapter 70: Taking Lianyun Fort

When Li Heng arrived at the camp, the soldiers were having dinner. When they saw Li Heng, they hurriedly came up to salute him.

Li Heng asked everyone to continue eating, then asked the cook to serve him a bowl. He sat down and started eating with relish.

The soldiers were a little surprised to see that a prince was actually willing to eat from the same pot with them. After all, Gai Jiayun had never done so before.

After Li Ying finished eating, he asked, "Why does the meal today taste like Chang'an?"

A skinny soldier bravely said: "The cook in our team is Chang An Le, he said he can cook Chang An rice."

Li Ying smiled and said, "From your accent, you are also from Chang'an?"

Another soldier said, "He is not. He is a Shatuo who wants to marry a woman from Chang'an. He has been learning the Chang'an dialect, but he has never been to Chang'an."

As soon as the soldier finished speaking, everyone burst into laughter.

Li Ying sat down next to the skinny soldier and asked, "Do you want to go to Chang'an?"

"Yes, I dream about it!" replied the skinny soldier.

Li Heng said, "After the battle, if you have made merit, I will take you with me when I return to Chang'an."

"Great!" The soldier jumped up with joy.

Another soldier asked, "Your Highness, what does Chang'an look like? I heard that Chang'an is very beautiful."

Li Ying said: "There are 108 wards in Chang'an, and four canals pass through the wards."

"One hundred and eight wards, how big is that?" the soldier wondered, "I heard that the curfew in Chang'an is very strict, and we can't go out at night."

"Country bumpkin!" Before Li Heng could say anything, another soldier complained, "That's just the closed block. There is a curfew between blocks, but you can stay open all night in the blocks. Otherwise, how can the girls in Pingkang Block do business?"

"Pingkangfang, what is it for?"

"It's a good place for you to find a wife."

A soldier said this and everyone started laughing again.

This time, everyone laughed even louder than last time because they realized that Li Ying didn't care about their jokes.

Another soldier asked, "Your Highness, I heard that Suzaku Street is a hundred steps wide?"

"Yes." Li Heng nodded.

One step in modern times was called "跬" in Tang Dynasty. Two steps in modern times was one step in Tang Dynasty, so one step in Tang Dynasty was about 1.5 meters.

One hundred steps is one hundred and fifty meters.

After receiving the confirmation, the soldier exclaimed: "We need a wooden crossbow to shoot the enemy from one end to the other!"

"You are such a tiger!" The old soldier next to the soldier patted his head, "After going to Chang'an, you are still thinking about crossbows. Chang'an is the best place. We should do other things after we go there."

The soldiers gradually relaxed and began to ask Li Heng questions.

Li Heng boasted to everyone for a while before leaving the front camp and returning to the central army tent.

Arriving at the central army tent, Li Siye stepped forward and said, "Your Highness, I would like to fight in Lianyun Fort."

After hearing this, An Sishun said without waiting for Li Heng to speak, "General Li belongs to the left army. I should lead the vanguard to fight Lianyun Fort first. If I cannot take it, General Li can go later."

The soldiers' scramble for credit that Gao Xianzhi had predicted began.

Li Heng looked at the two men and did not answer. Instead, he asked Gao Xianzhi, "What is the situation of the enemy troops in Lianyun Fort?"

Gao Xianzhi said, "Your Highness, according to the report from the inside in Xiaobolü, there are a thousand soldiers in Lianyun Fort, but there are nine thousand soldiers guarding the mountain barrier more than twenty miles south of the city."

Li Ying asked, "Is this news credible?"

"It should be credible." Gao Xianzhi nodded. "Lianyun Fort is not big. It can only hold a thousand soldiers. But there are cliffs on both sides and the front is the Bolerchuan River. The terrain is dangerous and we can't surround the fort. If we can't take it down in a short time, and the 9,000 defenders behind come to support us, we will be trapped in a long battle." Li Heng nodded, calculated, and said, "In this case, we only have half a day to take it down."

An Sishun had previously promised one day, but now it’s half a day, and the time is tighter than before.

"That should be the case." Gao Xianzhi replied.

Li Heng thought for a while and said, "General An Sishun will be the vanguard, as the first echelon, and General Li Siye will be the second echelon. If the first echelon cannot take it within two hours, the second echelon will be replaced, and they will not stop halfway. General Gao Shi will lead the right detour to the south to contain the southern city defenders, and General Gao Xianzhi will wait in the battle formation. Once the city is broken, they will charge directly at the enemy's southern city defenders."

"Yes." Everyone said in unison.

……

That night, it was midnight.

An Sishun, Fu Menglingcha and Cheng Qianli led the vanguard team to cross the river first and then headed straight for Lianyun Fort.

When it was almost dawn, the three men led their team to Lianyun Fort and immediately launched a fierce attack on the defenders of Lianyun Fort.

When the commander of Lianyun Fort heard the arrival of the enemy, he immediately beat the drum. In an instant, people crowded into the fort and boulders weighing dozens or hundreds of pounds rolled down.

An Sishun and his men attacked head-on, and countless boulders swooped down with inertia. The soldiers who were hit had their bones broken instantly, vomited blood, and were either dead or injured.

In just a moment, dozens of people were killed or injured.

Faced with such a situation, the Tang army soldiers did not dare to move forward.

Seeing this, An Sishun immediately led the charge, but the enemy's rolling stones were too powerful, and he was beaten back several times after rushing to the fort.

An Sishun was also stumped for a moment.

Fu Menglingcha said: "General, such a strong attack can only be carried out by a brave and invincible man."

Before An Sishun could reply, Li Siye said, "I'll do it! General An, please take a break, and I will attack first!"

After saying that, without waiting for An Sishun to reply, he led the second echelon and rushed forward.

Li Siye rushed to the front. The two-meter-tall man dodged the huge rocks flexibly and soon rushed to Lianyun Fort.

Just before arriving at the fort, a Tibetan soldier was pushing down a rolling stone weighing more than 200 kilograms.

The stone rolled about two meters and arrived in front of Li Siye.

But this time Li Siye did not dodge. Instead, he immediately picked up the huge rock and smashed it at the Tibetan soldier.

The stone fell on the Tubo soldier's head, and his brain burst instantly, and he died.

The other Tibetan soldiers were shocked to see Li Siye's bravery, while the Tang army was greatly encouraged and followed him.

The other Tibetan soldiers were frightened and immediately surrounded Li Siye, trying to kill him on the spot.

But Li Siye was holding a Mo Dao, and he killed all the enemies who came close to him one by one, just like chopping melons and vegetables.

Li Siye attracted the attention of the Tibetan soldiers, and the rest of the Tang army felt less pressure. They rushed up in a moment, each holding a Mo Dao, and soon killed half of the Tibetan soldiers who were rolling stones.

An Sishun and others who were watching the battle below saw Li Siye succeed, and took the opportunity to follow.

The two teams worked together and killed nearly half of the more than 1,000 defenders of Lianyun Fort in a short period of time. The rest of the defenders either fell off the cliff and died, or fled south.

Lianyun Fort was thus captured.

Gao Xianzhi then led the left army across Lianyun Fort and attacked the Tubo defenders in the south of the city.

The defenders in the south of the Tubo city were being pinned down by Gao Shi's right army. Gao Xianzhi suddenly arrived and attacked from both sides, killing more than 4,000 Tubo soldiers in the south of the city, capturing more than 1,000 people, and obtaining more than 1,000 horses. The rest fled.

(End of this chapter)