Shao Song - Vol 2.2 Chapter 71

Chapter 398 Soldiers approach the city

The cavalry swept past, Qiu Tao touched the mountain back.

In the second half of the twelfth lunar month, the Song army suddenly became more urgent, and became less crowded. The speed of its advance and the size of the troops made the Golden State’s defenders in the Taiyuan Basin all shake, so that the Song army did not have time to make a systematic response. It was divided and surrounded by various walls, and it took only eight days and nights for the Zhao Song official family’s dragon to reach the city of Taiyuan, the heart of the Taiyuan Basin.

For a time, a large army of soldiers approached the city, and the golden army in the city could not help but panic.

At this time, the defending general Wanyan folded with the brave generals to supervise hundreds of horses, and returned by swept the formation, which greatly stabilized the military’s heart in the city.

There is no doubt about the victory of this raid… The Golden Army only had more than 700 cavalry, and seized the large group of cavalry of the Song Army to march north and the infantry formation based on the unstable gap to carry out a surprise attack, killing and injuring more than four to five hundred people. More than seventy rides.

What’s more, before most of them retreated, they were forced to reach the distance of two or three hundred steps in front of Zhao Song’s official house.

This is not a big win, what is a big win?

However, the Song Army didn’t have much frustrated views on this battle… Firstly, it means that under such a big scene, a battle of this scale does not make much sense. These losses are compared with the attrition caused by the forced march in the winter It’s not proportional; secondly, most of the deaths and injuries caused by the Jurchen cavalry were newly arrived Japanese samurai. It’s hard to have any system of sergeants who would identify with these samurai. Even the imperial squad had the most. Shouting, “A good man who spares no effort”, and then it’s gone.

Finally, isn’t this still seventy or eighty rides? In the eyes of a considerable number of middle-level officers, this is not at a loss.

However, these are the considerations of the middle and lower levels. For the highest level of the Song Army, this battle revealed some other information.

First of all, under the size and speed of the Song Army’s strong attack, Wanyan’s attitude is undoubtedly revealed through this dismissal. This is completely different from the Wanyan Sali drink on the west bank of Fenshui.

Secondly, that is Taiyuan City, especially the three Guancheng outside Taiyuan City. It is really tricky… At that time, although the Japanese samurai’s raid failed, it undoubtedly gave the scattered Song army cavalry time to assemble. The capture was also achieved by these Song Army cavalry.

However, when these Jurchen cavalry realized the problem, they tried their best to escape and reached the corner between Guancheng and the city wall along the passage reserved by the Sheep Horse Wall. However, the hunting had to stop, and the Song army even stopped. Unable to kill the enemy with the God Arm Bow…Because the Jurchen Cavalry was directly transferred from the road between Guancheng and the city gate, it was basically shooting at a dead corner, but the crossbow on Guancheng in turn threatened the chasing soldiers.

In the end, Song Jun could only watch Jin Jun turn back into the city, but he was helpless.

“The most terrible thing is Guancheng, which conceals the gates and turns weak into strong.”

“Moreover, Guancheng is too big. It covers half of the wall. It’s just a guess. The giant crossbow on the corner of Guancheng should be intertwined with the giant crossbow on the corner. No matter where you attack, you can’t hide. …”

In the evening of the same day, in the Song Army camp that was hurriedly erected, Zhao Guan’s, who had already gone to the armor, was holding an exaggerated Japanese longbow, and happily fiddled with it in the open space next to the Chinese Army’s camp. At the same time, some military officers who had been in martial arts and squad Zhi were summoned at this time, and they were a little nervous and serious arguing about something. Han and Li were not there, but Wang Yan was in charge. The ministers close to attend the meeting

Moreover, these people, including the Zhao Guanjia himself, were not idle the previous afternoon. After the situation is under control, basic investigations are indispensable. Although Zhao Guanjia himself rejected Han Shizhong’s proposal to carry Wei Jun’s guard, he was still pacifying. After passing the Japanese warriors, he took his dragon bun to go around the city a long way, until he just turned back, as a gesture.

Officials are like this, the officers of the various ministries under the city can’t help but be a little careful. However, no one thought that the Zhao officials did not immediately summon the commanders and the commanders to discuss the military situation. Instead, they suddenly summoned a group of officers from various ministries who had been born in the imperial front to ask about the city defense.

“Cross firepower.”

Zhao Jiu said silently in his heart, but only silently, he went to play with the longbow in his hand, and he realized that the Japanese longbow is not symmetrical, which undoubtedly aroused his interest…In any case, this one Officials can be regarded as experts at bows, but they are not good at actual combat.

“The sheep and horse walls are all set up, basically going around the city.” Someone said again. “But from a distance, it should have been newly trained by the city’s defenders.”

“Not only the sheep-horse wall, but beyond the sheep-horse wall, separated by a moat, there are also outer trenches and deer villages.” Another person mentioned. “And the passage is also more complicated. I saw with my own eyes today that Jin Jun only touched in under the guidance of the banner on Guancheng.”

“There is also a gun cart.” One more person spoke. “Before, the king of Anhua County (Wang Jifeng) used to make artillery in this city… Wanyan took over the city defense for more than 40 days. There is no reason not to imitate. Therefore, I guess, at this time, the inner east of the city, There should already be artillery positions in the southern and northern triangles, but there is no need to protest today, but once we set up artillery positions nearby, we will have his plan…”

“If this is the case, although the officials have always taken arrows, they must not be in front of the battle easily this time.”

As the discussion gradually gained momentum, Nibozhong, who was in charge of military affairs in the nearby minister, suddenly turned to salute the Zhao official’s house respectfully and seriously, but it caught everyone on the side by surprise and interrupted the rhythm of the discussion.

Of course, after being caught flat-footed, everyone below Wang Yan was speechless, but they inevitably pinched their noses and quickly agreed…but everyone knows that Taiyuan City is different from Nanyang City and Tokyo City. Although the city is dangerous, the city wall The scale itself is limited, and the core main city wall is a rammed earth city wall, which makes it impossible for the artillery cart to go on the wall at all, and the Jurchen should also lack the technology of small artillery carts, so as long as the Zhao Guanjia is not stupid enough to run the wall to keep up, it will never If there is such a thing… Ninbo Tadashi really looks for a way to show his loyalty.

The topic was stabbed to the front, Zhao Jiu finally smiled and spoke, but still tugging the bow: “I know, I will wait for the destruction of the city in the camp, and never take risks.”

Everyone hurriedly said yes, both in a relieved state, but they came back to their senses and continued to discuss, but they inevitably entered the topic ahead of time because of the Zhao official’s sentence that broke the city. At this time, the words were very dry.

Because it is really difficult to break the city.

“Therefore, if you want to break the city, you have to smash into the city by layers of cannon carts, first smash through the city, then erase the Luzhai, fill in the trenches, and possibly fill in the moat. Finally, the cannon carts can smash each other to win by quantity.” After some discussion, Wang Yan tried to summarize.

“So, does Taiyuan City have no weaknesses?” At this moment, Zhao Jiu suddenly interrupted his long bow. “Look, this city is related to the city on three sides, isn’t it missing one side? And if according to your statement, the inner city in the city is next to the west and north, and the artillery cart cannot be placed in the northwest corner… Siege to the west?”

Everyone stagnated, and then looked at each other.

Later, Wang Yan couldn’t escape, so he could only take the initiative to explain: “So that the officials know that there is indeed no Guancheng in the west of Taiyuan City, and it is impossible to set up artillery cars in the northwest corner. Not only that, but also under the western wall of Taiyuan City. There is only one sheep and horse wall, and there is not much extension. Even the fort on the wall is much less than the other three sides… But just over a hundred steps outside the city to the west is the Fenshui River, and now it’s freezing cold. The passage of Fenshui is proper. It can take up to ten days, and there may be a danger of freezing. By then, the west of Taiyuan City will be the safest place in Taiyuan City… Officials, it’s not that you can’t try it from the west, but we don’t have it. The ready-made siege equipment is too late.”

Zhao Jiu smiled and shook his head, but he didn’t know if it was pretending to be profound, or he was happy because he finally touched the longbow in his hand and pulled it open.

“Does the official mean to cut off Fenshui?” Nin Baozhong thought for a while, and inquired sternly. “Take advantage of the cold weather, first dig a river in the periphery. Once the ice melts, the original river will be cut off to turn the river into a smooth path. Set up a position from the west to attack the city?”

Wang Yan and the others were thoughtful, but after a while, many people were moved, and soon they echoed… Obviously, although this method sounds stupid, it sounds a bit wasteful of manpower. But in front of the military fortress in Taiyuan City, which has almost no dead ends, it seems to have a certain degree of maneuverability.

Zhao Guan’s family did not rush to answer, because after studying for a long time, he finally grasped one-third of the lower arc of the Japanese-style longbow, and pulled the bow properly, and Ping Kiyomori, who had not dared to say anything or interrupted, was even more so. An arrow was handed hurriedly.

Then Zhao Guanjia bowed his bow and set an arrow, slashing the bowstrings towards a piece of soil dozens of steps away in front of him, and then looked thoughtfully at the arrow that pierced into the soil.

And this shot also attracted the attention of many people.

“What do you think of this Japanese bow?” Zhao Jiu looked back and asked a question that was obviously off the subject.

But, who will let people be officials?

As for how the bow is, everyone present is expert, and you can see it at a glance, but because of your identity, it may not be your turn to take the call.

“The minister thought that this bow still had some merits.” Wang Yan was already a little anxious, but he could only answer with his hands. “Shooting at close range, just on killing, it is comparable to Jurchen’s hard bow and heavy arrow, but in actual combat it is far inferior to Jurchen’s hard bow…”

“Because the bow is too long, or because the bow is made of bamboo and wood?” Zhao Jiu couldn’t ask.

“Both.” Wang Yan said, a little dull. “The bow is too long, which makes it inconvenient to draw the bow. If you want to shoot straight away, you still need to polish the bow technique from an early age to make it cheaper. As for the bamboo and wood, it is a hard bow with horns and iron. It can block swords, but the bow can be easily cut off today.”

“Not bad.” Zhao Jiu screamed, and handed the bow to Ping Qingsheng beside him. “This bow is not useless, but it is not our turn to play, because close shots have horns and iron-feeted hard bows, and long shots have magical arm bows. Where can I use it? Just like those samurai today, the heart of loyalty and bravery is It’s commendable, but they don’t have heavy armor, but we are here in Zajia, so their courage can only be vacant. But we can’t make fun of others. When Jurchen’s heavy armor was released, we were helpless at the beginning. In the end, I slowly touched the doorway, using heavy armor against heavy armor, heavy crossbow against heavy bow, long axe against iron cavalry…everything came out, it was only effective at the beginning, and after a long time, it will be adapted .”

Everyone became more and more confused.

“Now the most fundamental thing in siege is the artillery cart, right?” Zhao Jiu continued to ask. “Once the gun is fired, all cities are just time, and most of the countermeasures in the city are made of cannons, isn’t it?”

“Correct.”

“Yes.”

Wang Yan and Ninbo Tada spoke almost at the same time.

“This is what I mean.” Zhao Jiu finally turned around and gave a final conclusion. “Taiyuan City is not an ordinary city. It is the center of the entire Hedong. Once it is taken, the land of Hedong will be intact. It is worth any price, and any method can be tried… In fact, this is also the case. One reason why I rushed to the city so quickly at any cost… Zhu Qing, I want to break through the city, and I want to break through the city quickly, otherwise, why should I come so quickly?”

Those young officers did not mention that almost everyone around these close ministers was hesitant to speak, but among them, Wang Yan, who had the most awkward temper, had his brows first and then thoughtful.

“There are about 30,000 or 40,000 people in the camp, and the horse festival will arrive tomorrow. Wu Dutong doesn’t know when it will arrive… Let’s use manpower as the basis… Start the artillery first, starting from the southern part of the city under our feet. , This aspect will be handed over to Wang Qing for your disposal!” Zhao Jiu instructed.

“Yes!” Wang Yan suddenly lifted his spirits.

“If the manpower exceeds 50,000, siege positions will be set up at the same time, burning the deer village, filling the trenches, destroying the sheep and horse walls… from the west, you should persuade the surrender and persuade you to surrender, you should attack by night… You are responsible for Renqing.

“Here.” Ninbo Tada was overjoyed.

“If the manpower is more than 100,000, the guns will be fired on three sides at the same time…At that time, the north of the city will be given to the king of Yan’an, and the east of the city will be given to Li Jiedu.”

“Yes.”

“If there is more manpower, I will dig a river in the west of the city to prepare for the defrosting of the river, and attack the city from the west.” As he said, Zhao Guanjia looked at a strange candidate. “At that time, Yang Qing, you will take care of this.”

Yang Yizhong was startled for a moment, and then gave his hand: “The minister knows.”

Wang Yan and Nippon Tada were equally stunned, and then the two seemed to realize something, but they just didn’t say anything.

A strange meeting, in terms of the results, seems to be no problem. Look at the manpower saturation attack. However, even a few Jiedu and lieutenant generals did not participate, so the organization of the siege was finalized, but it was inevitable. It seems that some Zhao officials are too personally involved.

The incident spread that night, and below Wang De, many veterans have complaints and doubts.

More boldly advancing with the army, wrote memoirs, and advised Zhao officials not to imitate the story of Emperor Taizong of this dynasty. They should trust the general Yunyun more and not use the close ministers… Of course, this is just a scrap.

In fact, there are more reliable rumors. A deeply rooted view is that the official Zhao’s family did not believe in the handsome officials, but that he was waiting for the army to rule Wu Jie after the imperial camp. In essence, the official still believed in this Wu Jiedu a little bit more. This is because the king of Han Jun and Li Jiedu had already known it well, so they didn’t say anything… And before Wu Jiedu arrived, It doesn’t matter if these preparatory tasks are handed over to the nearby ministers.

But this kind of gossip is not enough, especially since the next day, with the imperial decree, it really started to besieged by guns.

Moreover, with more and more soldiers and horses, the action of siege positions is getting bigger and bigger, and everyone gets busy.

The Zhaoguan’s family arrived in the city on the 23rd of the twelfth lunar month, and there were 40,000 people under the city that night.

On the twenty-fourth of the twelfth lunar month, with Ma Kuo’s subsequent arrival, and more and more left-behind soldiers and civilians arrived, the number of sergeants and civilians in the city reached 70,000. Therefore, at almost the same time, Wang Yan officially set up a workshop in the north of the city, delineated a gun cart position, cut wood in a large scale, and prepared to fire the cannon. Under the command of Ninbaozhong, the various ministries also began to try to burn the deer village and destroy the sheep and horse wall… But to be honest, the latter effect is not good, because the crossbow on Guancheng is too strong, the only effect is on the side of Xicheng, but as we all know, if Fenshui is not cut off, there will be a layer of sheep and horses wall in Xicheng. It doesn’t make much sense.

On the twenty-fifth of the twelfth lunar month, the follow-up main force arrived one after another, and the number of soldiers and auxiliary soldiers under the city of Taiyuan absolutely exceeded one hundred thousand.

And Zhao Guanjia did what he said, despite the fact that more than half of the people still had to focus their energy on the rear logistics transfer, and directly started shooting on three sides.

On the twenty-sixth day of the twelfth lunar month, the two small villages of Xugou and Tuanbai were successfully breached, which made more sergeants and civilians come to the city in the next two days, and the river was officially dug in the west of the city from this day~www.mtlnovel. com~ In this case, even if Song Jun camp still has a logistics base camp behind Wynn Supervisor, it also passively surrounded the entire Taiyuan City because of the size of the camp.

This caused panic among the Golden Army in the city. Someone suggested that Wanyan should go out of the city to attack the artillery position in time, but was rejected by Wanyan…. This veteran is very clear, and it’s not easy to say it. Where can I get there? where?

That is, Wu Jie hasn’t arrived yet. If Wu Jie invites Zhao Song’s imperial army to come with Dangxiang people and Khitan people, he might not be able to learn from the famous mansion, and then build another city to encircle Taiyuan.

Even at that time, you still have to recharge your energy and prepare to wait for the gun truck to be completed before attacking.

On the twenty-ninth of the twelfth lunar month, only two days have passed since the Chinese New Year. The Song army under the city cheered for joy, and Wanyan Zhehe felt a momentary panic that the 20,000 troops under the banner of Wu suddenly came from the west… Up.

In the afternoon of the same day, a small snowflake fell from the sky.

And these two things made the Zhao official family, who “has been waiting for Wu Dutong”, all feel a little caught off guard.

PS: I’m going to Mianji today…I’ve been so nervous three days ago that I can’t write a word…and Xiaoyu is calling Chun in the past few days…I hope to forgive me.

(End of this chapter)