The guards were afraid that Li Yuanji would think they were useless, and they were also afraid that Li Yuanji would be injured by the impact of the falling boulder.
"No need to say more. I don't mean to blame you. I just want to help."
Li Yuanji could guess what the guards were thinking, so he spoke to comfort them.
The guards breathed a sigh of relief and felt warm in their hearts.
Li Yuanji was obviously worried that someone among them would be injured, so he stepped forward. How could they not feel warm in their hearts?
But even though they feel warm in their hearts, they are very clear about their responsibilities.
They straightened their backs almost at the same time and tried to raise their shields higher so that Li Yuanji wouldn't have to exert any effort.
They can be injured or die, but Li Yuanji cannot be hurt in any way, not even a scratch.
They died for Li Yuanji, they will be buried with honor, and their families will also be treated well by Li Yuanji and Li Yuan.
If Li Yuanji died for them, they and their families would have to be buried with him.
They felt Li Yuanji's intentions, but they could not let Li Yuanji take risks.
Li Yuanji felt the pressure on the shield eased and understood what the guards were thinking, but he said nothing.
When the second round of boulders came roaring down, he suddenly took a step forward and held on to the shield tightly.
“Bang…Bang…Bang…”
The boulder hit the shield violently, and Li Yuanji's arm trembled slightly, but there was no damage, and his body did not sink down due to the boulder.
The guards looked at Li Yuanji in shock.
Li Yuanji did not look at them, but gave the order in a deep voice: "Retreat to a place where you can hide from the boulders."
According to the memory of my predecessor, such a fierce boulder attack would usually last for three to five rounds.
The purpose is to put pressure on the enemy and force them to temporarily withdraw their forces.
It’s just that the Turks seemed to have too many catapults, and the huge rocks thrown down covered a lot of Weize Pass.
The Turks were not only suppressing the Tang soldiers inside Weize Pass, but also weakening the combat effectiveness inside Weize Pass.
With such an attack, you can probably use a shield to withstand one or two rounds.
Li Yuanji was fine after four or five rounds, but the guards holding shields were scared to death.
The reason why the guards did not retreat before was not because they could not retreat, but because Li Yuanji did not give the order.
Now that Li Yuanji has given the order, the guards can naturally retreat.
The guards held up their shields and led Li Yuanji back step by step to the cave at the pass.
The Turks' stone-throwing attack lasted for four rounds.
A large number of buildings inside Weize Pass were smashed and had holes in them, and some people inside the buildings were killed or injured.
But no one dared to run out to rescue.
Because not long after the four huge rocks fell, there was another round of powerful rain of arrows.
Although the rain of arrows covered a wider area than the boulder, the pressure it brought to Li Yuanji and his group was not as great as that brought by the boulder.
Li Yuanji ordered his guards to hold up their shields and charge towards the city gate under the hail of arrows.
Li Yuanji's men were at the pass and were forced to hide under a hole at the pass by the Turks' offensive. The Tang soldiers on the pass who faced the Turks head-on were probably in an even worse situation.
Li Yuanji climbed up to the top of the city wall and saw that the city wall was broken into pieces by huge rocks.
There were soldiers of the Tang Dynasty lying beside many of the gaps.
Some were smashed to death, with blood and flesh flying everywhere.
Some had their arms and legs smashed, and they rolled on the ground growling.
Xie Shufang and Li Zhongwen ran on the city wall under the rain of arrows from the Turks . When they came across a place that was short of people, they first led their troops to block it, and then sent people to dispatch troops.
When he encountered reckless soldiers, he loudly instructed them on how to defend against the Turkic attacks while counterattacking the Turks.
The Turks' attack was fierce and very ferocious.
Looking around, there were Turks everywhere outside the city, as far as the eye could see, and they rushed towards every corner of the city ferociously.
Li Yuanji felt that at this moment, Guancheng was like a dam facing the sea, welcoming the impact of huge waves again and again.
Faced with this trend, a timid person would probably only feel fear in his heart.
Even a brave person would feel nervous in the face of this trend.
"Your Highness, why are you here?!"
After seeing Li Yuanji showing up at the city gate, Xie Shufang hurried over.
After rushing to Li Yuanji, he asked questions breathlessly.
Li Yuanji saw from a distance that there was an unusual arrow stuck in his arm, but he himself seemed not to feel it.
When he approached, Li Yuanji stared at his arm and frowned subconsciously.
Xie Shufang keenly noticed Li Yuanji's gaze and hurriedly explained, "Just now when I was patrolling on the top of the city, I was bitten by the enemy's sharpshooter."
Li Yuanji opened his mouth and was about to speak, but Xie Shufang hurriedly said, "Your Highness, please go back to the city and wait. I will guard Weize Pass to the death and will never let the Turks go south."
Li Yuanji asked solemnly: "How much damage was done?"
Xie Shufang wanted to persuade him again, but when he saw Li Yuanji staring at him, he did not dare to persuade him anymore. He quickly replied: "When the Turks made their first feint attack, we suffered almost no casualties, but after the Turks officially began to attack the city, our soldiers were decreasing every moment.
So far, more than 600 people have been killed in the battle, and over 1,000 have been seriously injured."
Xie Shufang did not mention the lightly injured ones, because those who were lightly injured were still capable of fighting and could still fight on the city wall.
Li Yuanji frowned and ordered, "Just continue doing your work and don't worry about me."
Xie Shufang was anxious, "Your Highness is a precious person, how can you put yourself in danger?!"
Li Yuanji also knew that staying in the safest place at this time would be the greatest help to Xie Shufang and others.
But he could not sit still as he watched the Turks, relying on their large numbers and raining down huge rocks, smashing Weize Pass into pieces and annihilating the soldiers there.
"Don't worry, I will hide in a safe place and will never cause any trouble for you."
After saying this, without waiting for Xie Shufang to speak again, Li Yuanji took the initiative to walk to a relatively safe position on the city wall.
Seeing this, Xie Shufang gritted his teeth and tried to persuade him again.
But when he heard a scream not far away, he immediately followed the sound and saw that the Turks had filled up the trench in front of the gate of the city. A group of Turks were pushing siege hammers and rushing into the gate frantically.
Weize Pass has two gates, one leading inside the pass and the other leading outside the pass.
The pass where Li Yuanji was before was the gateway to the interior of the country.
Now the Turks are preparing to attack the gateway leading outside the Great Wall.
Seeing this, Xie Shufang no longer cared about Li Yuanji's safety, and ran to order the soldiers to release rolling logs, stones, and Yaksha pestles.
After Li Yuanji climbed up the city wall, he did not cause him any trouble, nor did he say that he would take over his command of the troops and fight. He even took the initiative to run to a relatively safe position after he showed his concern, so he could barely feel at ease.
When Xie Shufang arrived at the gate, the soldiers guarding the gate had already put down the rolling logs and stones.
When the log falls, it will hit a large number of Turks.
The moment the net bag fell off, the rocks fell on the heads of the Turks like raindrops, and the round shields held by the Turks were smashed with holes one after another.
After Xie Shufang went over, he worked with the soldiers to put down the Yaksha Ring.
The Yaksha Ring is an iron pillar with iron chains tied at both ends and a huge spike in the middle.
After lowering the city wall, many enemies can be killed or injured.
The Turkic people's round shields could not withstand weapons like the Yaksha Rai.
As the Yaksha hammers fell one after another, the Turks under the doorway were smashed to death and had to temporarily suspend their offensive and retreat from the doorway.
Although the Turks lost a lot of people under the gate, the Tang Dynasty also suffered a lot of casualties.
When the Turks pushed the siege chisel towards the gate, many of their crossbowmen and sharpshooters aimed at the Tang soldiers in the gate.
Many Tang soldiers were shot and killed by them.
Li Yuanji stood in a relatively safe place, watching the Tang Dynasty soldiers fall one after another in front of him, his teeth gritting more and more tightly.
He saw clearly that the Tang soldiers were calling on their companions to deal with the Turks the moment before, and the next moment they were pierced through the neck by Turkish arrows, with hot blood spilling all over the ground, and fell to the ground with a thud.
"Go find a battlement with fewer Turks and set up a heavy crossbow!"
Li Yuanji gave instructions to the guards beside him in a deep voice.
The guards were slightly hesitant, but still did as they were told.
Not long after, a large crossbow was set up in front of a remote battlement where there were fewer Turks.
With the support of his guards, Li Yuanji pulled the crossbow string with one arm, which required a noose to pull, and ordered the guards to install a crossbow gun on the large crossbow machine.
The reason why large crossbows have poor accuracy and cannot shoot wherever they are pointed is because they are too bulky and require the cooperation of multiple people to operate. Therefore, they cannot flexibly follow the enemy's position and adjust their position like a hand crossbow.
In addition, large crossbows have a longer range and can target targets that are farther away.
It is difficult to accurately lock onto the target's position with just the human eye.
However, this point can be almost ignored on the current battlefield because the Turks have already rushed to the city wall.
Li Yuanji was strong enough to operate a large crossbow by himself , and he could also flexibly adjust the position of the large crossbow, so the large crossbow was just a hand crossbow in his hand.
“Smash!”
Li Yuanji aimed at an enemy and gave a quick order.
The guard holding the gavel slammed it down almost as soon as Li Yuanji's voice fell.
The crossbow trigger shook and the crossbow shot out.
Outside the pass, a man sitting astride a horse, waving a scimitar and driving the Turks towards Weize Pass was suddenly pierced by a crossbow.
When the surrounding Turks saw this, they were just stunned for a moment but did not react much.
They just thought that the guy on the horse was unlucky and was shot by the Tang army on the city wall by chance.
"Crossbow!"
Li Yuanji greeted.