Chapter 601: The Blood Battle of Xiangzhou (5)

The battles around Xiangzhou had been quiet for three days. That morning, Cheng Qianli, as usual, went to inspect the city walls. He paid special attention to the 200 paper thunder bombs crafted by the Hebei Intelligence Bureau. He had witnessed the tests of these legendary weapons firsthand, but their power was far from as astonishing as he had imagined. He had thought that a single blast could reduce an area of ten zhang to dust, but in reality, its effect only covered one zhang—enough to blow off the roof and half of the walls of a small wooden house, as well as killing several pigs inside. That was all. This left Cheng Qianli somewhat disappointed, though he still had to admit that the thunder bombs were quite powerful.

Qi Yuhua was also very frustrated. She had seen the explosion of a true thunder bomb in Suiye, which was truly earth-shattering—its blast reduced an area of twenty zhang to dust, and the sound could be heard a hundred li away. Compared to that, their paper thunder bombs were nothing but child’s toys. Yet she couldn’t complain, as those were made by skilled craftsmen from the Firearm Bureau who had years of experience. Could they, outsiders, create such things on their first try?

Moreover, there was a severe shortage of sulfur, limiting them to making only 200 thunder bombs. Their attempt to compensate for the lack of power by using more bombs also failed.

Despite this, Cheng Qianli still valued those 200 paper thunder bombs. At least their explosions were loud—so loud they could be described as deafening—and could deter An Lushan’s attacks.

The paper thunder bombs were stored in several small rooms on the city walls, which had originally been used to hold arrows. Now that all the arrows had been moved outside, those rooms housed the 200 paper bombs. There were also other rooms storing gunpowder.

Cheng Qianli observed the rooms for a while, checking to see if they were dry, if they were damp, or if there was any leakage of gunpowder. Fortunately, they were stored very carefully—quicklime was spread on the floor, and the soldiers guarding them were diligent. There were no problems. Cheng Qianli nodded in satisfaction and said to the officer in charge of the guards, “Both the thunder bombs and the gunpowder are extremely sensitive to fire. Be careful. If anyone approaches the rooms, warn them first. If the warning fails, kill them without hesitation!”

“Understood!”

Cheng Qianli patted the officer’s shoulder and turned to continue his inspection. After taking a few steps, he suddenly heard someone calling out behind him, “General Cheng, please wait!”

Cheng Qianli turned around and saw Zhou Yuanlang, the commander defending the southern city, riding fast toward him. He stopped. Moments later, Zhou Yuanlang reached him, dismounted from his horse, and said, “General, I have enemy intelligence to report.”

“What is it?”

Seeing his panicked expression, Cheng Qianli felt a sense of foreboding. Zhou Yuanlang stepped forward and said, “General, we’ve noticed that the enemy forces in South City have suddenly decreased.” Cheng Qianli was stunned and immediately replied, “Let’s go! Check it out.” The group mounted their horses and rushed toward South City along the city walls. In moments, they arrived there. Cheng Qianli dismounted and quickly walked to the edge of the wall, leaning over the parapet to look down. Judging by the number of tents, there seemed to be no decrease—they were still densely packed, stretching as far as the eye could see, with flags everywhere. “General Cheng, we’ve been monitoring the enemy forces daily. On the surface, their numbers don’t seem to have decreased, but in reality, many of those are empty tents. We can see clearly that many tents haven’t had anyone enter or exit them in a day. And there’s another detail.” “What detail?” “General Cheng, please look over there!” Zhou Yuanlang pointed to a cluster of tents in the southwest corner. Cheng Qianli peered through the curtain and saw several particularly large tents in the southwest corner, seemingly used by the Yan army to store fodder. “General, every morning and evening, over a hundred carts of dry grass are delivered, but yesterday evening and this morning, only about twenty carts were brought, a reduction of 80%. Doesn’t that indicate a decrease in their troop strength? Moreover, the patrol soldiers last night indeed sensed activity inside the camp.” Cheng Qianli remained silent, thinking. The evidence wasn’t conclusive, but if An Lushan really withdrew his troops, where would they go? Could it be to defend against the Anxi army advancing from the north by the Yellow River? It was very likely—the river must have frozen by now. Just then, loud drumbeats suddenly came from outside the city, “Boom! Boom! Boom…” The thunderous drums broke the silence that had lasted for three days. Bells rang simultaneously in West City, North City, and East City, “Ding! Ding! Ding! Ding!” The shrill ringing was the signal for war. Soldiers inside the city began to run to the city walls in groups. Messengers from the three towers brought urgent reports to Cheng Qianli one after another. “General, there’s activity among the enemy forces in the north—they’re starting to gather!” “The same in the east—ladders and siege vehicles have appeared.” “General Cheng, it’s the west too—the enemy is about to attack the city.” “Immediately pass my orders: all troops must go to the walls and prepare for battle!” Sweat streamed down Cheng Qianli’s forehead. All three city walls were under attack at once—An Lushan had launched a full-scale assault. … After three days of silence, An Lushan’s army launched another fierce attack. He deployed 150,000 troops from the east, west, and north, launching a tidal wave of assaults on Xiangzhou City.

The drums roared like thunder, and the soldiers surged forward like a tidal wave. Ladders, siege engines, and battering rams appeared one after another. Giant stones whizzed through the sky, crashing down on the dense ranks of soldiers. Dust billowed, blood mist filled the air, and soldiers were broken in pieces or crushed to pulp…

Yet the giant stones could not stop the overwhelming tide of soldiers. An Lushan’s promises still echoed in their ears: “Those who first break into the city will be rewarded with 100,000 strings of coins and promoted to general! Those who kill one Tang soldier will receive 20 strings of coins, while those who kill an officer will get 100 or even 1,000 strings of coins.” Driven by such generous rewards, the Yan army fought frantically, fearlessly charging at Xiangzhou City…

An Lushan sat on a platform five miles away, squinting at the battle. But half of his attention was already on Hedong. Last night, he had sent General Li Guiren with 60,000 troops through Fukou Pass into Luzhou in Hedong. After nearly half a month of luring the enemy, Guo Ziyi had already assembled over 100,000 troops to confront Shi Siming. Hedong was left with only a few tens of thousands of newly recruited militia, who were no match at all. Although Li Qingan still had some troops in the Daiyunzhou area, their numbers were small, and An Lushan didn’t take them seriously. The key was to capture Taiyuan. Once Taiyuan fell, Guo Ziyi’s army would be trapped between two fronts. Thinking this, An Lushan grinned triumphantly.

Who would have thought that his attack on Xiangzhou was actually a strategy of “building roads openly while secretly crossing the pass”?

Just then, a loud “boom!” came from afar, pulling An Lushan out of his thoughts about Hedong. He quickly leaned forward and asked, “What was that explosion just now?”

That sound was all too familiar to him. Soon after, more explosions were heard. One of his bodyguards shouted, “General, it’s the sound of thunder bombs!”

“Ah!” An Lushan exclaimed, suddenly standing up and staring intently into the distance, his small eyes wide open.

The Tang soldiers defending the city had finally started using paper thunder bombs—essentially the predecessors of modern firecrackers. They were three feet tall and one foot in diameter. But Li Guangbi had clearly played it safe, not giving Xiangzhou the most powerful gunpowder formula, but instead providing them with the earliest and simplest version of gunpowder and the method to make paper thunder bombs.

Moreover, due to a shortage of sulfur inside the city, each paper thunder bomb contained only a limited amount of gunpowder. As a result, although the noise was loud, their power was insufficient.

The first batch of twenty paper thunder bombs were launched using trebuchets. Due to the inability to control the speed of the fuses, at least eight of them exploded mid-air, producing a sound like dull thunder that boomed above the heads of An Lushan’s soldiers. Although their power was limited, this was still the first time gunpowder weapons were used on the Central Plains battlefield, and the shock was immense. Many warhorses panicked and neighed wildly, lifting their front legs high, while many soldiers were terrified. Recalling the massive explosions outside Youzhou City, they lay on the ground, covering their heads with their hands, and chaos ensued on the battlefield.

One after another, the thunder bombs were thrown from the city walls and continued to explode, disrupting An Lushan’s army’s offensive rhythm. Even the 40,000 troops attacking from the east showed signs of retreating out of fear.

An Lushan watched the explosions of the paper thunder bombs intently, not blinking. This was a golden opportunity for him to understand the power of the Tang army’s thunder bombs—how could he miss such a chance?

Gradually, An Lushan realized that out of more than a hundred thunder bombs, at least half exploded in mid-air. Of course, this was due to the lack of experience among those who launched them; his own paper thunder bombs had been the same at first. But An Lushan, who already had considerable experience with such bombs, saw a difference. Apart from causing panic, these paper thunder bombs had little actual lethal power. Perhaps their main purpose was simply to intimidate.

That must be it. He had heard that Li Qing’an had used thunder bombs several times in Anxi to defeat the Arab and Tibetan armies. The Arab army relied mainly on cavalry, whose horses were not castrated and were prone to panic. Thunder bombs were indeed very effective against cavalry. As for the Tibetans, it was even easier to explain—they regarded any unusual phenomenon as a manifestation of the gods, so they would surely think these thunder bombs were the work of the thunder god.

Watching many Khitan and Xi soldiers kowtowing desperately in the face of the thunder bombs, An Lushan became even more convinced that such earth-shattering bombs were highly effective against foreign tribes.

“General!”

A group of cavalry rushed over. They dismounted and presented two unexploded paper thunder bombs. “General, these are the ones that didn’t explode. The fuses have been removed, so nothing will happen.”

“Bring them to me!”

Two bodyguards took the paper thunder bombs and placed them in front of An Lushan. He squatted down and examined them carefully. They were basically the same as the ones he had made in Youzhou, with no significant differences.

“Cut them open!”

A few bodyguards stepped forward and used sharp knives to cut open the paper thunder bombs. An Lushan grabbed a handful of gunpowder, sniffed it, and twisted it between his fingers—the particles were very rough.

He then asked in a deep voice, “How many of our men were killed by these thunder bombs? What’s the range of their impact?”

“Reporting to the commander-in-chief, the range of an ordinary thunder bomb is about ten feet. A total of over seventy such paper thunder bombs exploded within the army, killing and injuring more than six hundred people. Many soldiers were also injured by being trampled by their own comrades.”
An Lushan couldn’t help but sneer. Was this Li Qing’an’s so-called thunder bomb? All the hype, yet it was nothing special. He shook his hand and discarded the gunpowder he held. These paper thunder bombs disappointed him greatly. Even if Li Qing’an hadn’t given the best thunder bombs to Cheng Qianli, just from these two, it was clear that Li Qing’an’s thunder bombs weren’t much better either.
The desire for thunder bombs that had plagued An Lushan for years now felt like an old woman who held no appeal for him anymore; he found it utterly boring…
In fact, it wasn’t An Lushan’s fault. It was like telling someone who’s never heard of nuclear weapons that an atomic bomb is incredibly powerful. In this person’s imagination, it might only be slightly more powerful than a mortar shell—a sign of the fearlessness of the ignorant.
An Lushan immediately ordered, “Reorganize the troops and launch another attack! Those who try to flee or retreat will be executed without mercy!”
“Boom! Boom! Boom!” The battle drums sounded once again. The Tang army’s two hundred thunder bombs had been used up. The once chaotic Yan army gradually regained order. They began to reorganize their forces and launched another fierce attack on Xiangzhou City. This time, they deployed numerous siege vehicles, and with a relentless onslaught, the massive Yan army surged forward once more.
…
On the city walls, Cheng Qianli sighed secretly. In fact, after the thunder bombs exploded earlier, An Lushan’s army had fallen into chaos, creating a perfect opportunity for an attack. If they could have rushed out of the city at that moment, An Lushan’s army would have been utterly defeated. Unfortunately, the city gates were blocked by huge stones, making it difficult for the enemy to enter and for them to escape. Such a once-in-a-lifetime chance was wasted.
And they only had two hundred thunder bombs, which had already been used up. Cheng Qianli let out a long sigh, bit his lip tightly, and shouted, “The enemy is attacking again! Prepare the catapults and thunder vehicles!”
“Kill them!”
An Lushan’s troops surged forward. The battles in the east and west cities gradually ceased, and the attack shifted to the north city.
The north city was the key point for both attack and defense. An Lushan deployed eighty thousand troops there, while the Tang army sent nearly twenty thousand soldiers to defend it. The city walls, stretching for miles, were packed with soldiers. Arrows rained down, boulders and stones were thrown, and ladders were overturned, resulting in countless casualties.
An Lushan clearly learned from the previous experience—reducing the number of ladders to ten while increasing the number of siege vehicles to fifty. Drawn by strong oxen, they slowly advanced toward the city walls…

But the Tang army also learned its lesson. Guided by Li Guangbi’s letter, the Tang troops in Xiangzhou built 180 large-scale thunder vehicles within three days. These vehicles worked on the same principle as crossbows, but instead of arrows, they fired stones. Each vehicle could shoot stones weighing 30 jin up to 500 steps away, with devastating force within 200 steps.

Though these thunder vehicles were far less lethal to soldiers than the boulders thrown by trebuchets, they were a nemesis to large-scale siege weapons. Fired in a straight line within 200 steps with precise targeting, the stones streaked forward like meteors, tracing a low parabolic path. With a “boom!” several stones struck a siege vehicle from multiple directions at once, instantly breaking its frames. Three such vehicles collapsed in a crash, killing and injuring over a hundred soldiers inside, filled with cries of pain and despair.

The Tang army’s thunder vehicles proved extremely effective. Within 150 steps, all 50 siege vehicles attacking the northern city were destroyed. In just one and a half hours, more than 8,000 of An Lushan’s troops were killed or injured.

“Bang! Bang! Bang!”

Seeing the unfavorable situation, An Lushan ordered his troops to withdraw temporarily. The siege soldiers retreated like a tide, and peace was restored outside Xiangzhou City for the time being.

……

“Bang!” An Lushan slammed his golden helmet onto the ground and cursed at An Shouzhong, pointing at it. “This is what you call a siege vehicle? They were all destroyed before even approaching the city walls! Your ‘eggs’ are shattered too! How could you guarantee success to me last night?”

Kneeling on one knee, An Shouzhong said in shame, “I truly didn’t expect them to use thunder vehicles. I don’t understand why they didn’t use them last time but did this time.”

“You idiot! Do you think others are fools? We were almost captured by those siege vehicles last time—won’t they learn from that?”

“I admit my mistake. Please give me another chance, my general. I’ll use conventional siege methods. If I fail again, please punish me severely!”

“Fine! I’ll give you one more chance.”