"In this case, Han will give it a try with all his strength!" Han Qing couldn't bear to refuse anymore and solemnly returned the favor to everyone.
"Sit in the enemy tower, sit in the enemy tower. This is your Chinese army tent. From me on down, all the officers, servants, and servants are at your disposal." Liu Chenggui was immediately relieved and stepped forward to hold Han Qing's arm again.
, and gave way to the watch tower on Xihua Gate.
Since he agreed to stay, Han Qing was no longer polite. Following Liu Chenggui's wishes, he took over the defense of the imperial city as quickly as possible.
As a result, it was exactly as the saying goes: If you don’t become a householder, you don’t know how expensive firewood and rice are. Once you become a householder, you immediately start to frown.
The seemingly small imperial city has nine city gates alone. And most of the city gates do not have urns. The rebels can just smash the city gates and rush directly into the inner palace.
On the city wall, except for the two sides of Xuande Gate due south, there are no horse faces that were common in this era. As long as the rebels can rush to the city gate, they can enter the blind spot for arrow shooting.
The equipment for defending the city that he had seen when he was in Dengzhou, such as nail rackets, oil pans, gold juice (dung), rolling logs, thunder stones, etc., were also seriously insufficient. In some areas, they were even just placed on the city wall.
Just put it on for a look, use it once and then run out of refills.
"Bianliang still has an inner city and an outer city. There are defensive equipment on the imperial city, but they are of no use at all. Who would have thought that the outer city and the inner city are intact, but rebels have attacked the imperial city?" See Han
Qing's face became increasingly ugly, and Liu Chenggui explained sarcastically.
"Junior understands. If not, there won't be any." Han Qing sighed and nodded with a wry smile.
The number of soldiers and horses is less than 20% of the rebels, and more than half of them are eunuchs who were brought in temporarily to fill up the numbers. There is a serious shortage of defense facilities and equipment, and the weapons reserves on hand cannot withstand repeated consumption. I am afraid that Sun Wuzi will not come to this battle in person.
Too tired to save the day.
The only thing that gave him some comfort was that his military spirit was still useful.
It had not been more than sixty years since the last time the Khitans invaded Bianliang and burned, killed, and looted. Whether it was the palace guards or the eunuchs and servants, they all heard from their elders about the bloodshed during the last fall of Bianliang.
The tragic situation of flowing into a river.
Therefore, most of the palace guards and eunuchs were deeply disgusted by King Yong's behavior of taking advantage of the officials' royal chariots to conquer his own country, rebelling against his own people. As long as someone was willing to take the lead, they were willing to resist to the end at all costs.
Since only the military spirit was still useful, Han Qing could no longer defend the city according to the conventional method. After some deliberation, he simply ordered through Liu Chenggui that a guard surnamed Li would lead the eunuchs and servants to demolish the city.
Several warehouses of the Ordnance Bureau and the Chariot and Horse Supervision Bureau used the dismantled waste materials to completely block the six city gates including Zuoye, Youye, Fengqiu, and Jujube.
Only the Donghua Gate, Xihua Gate, the main gate of the imperial city (Xuande Gate) and the Jinshui Gate for water transportation and supplies were left. And on top of the four gates, a towering watchtower was erected.
No matter which city gate the rebels attack, the sentries on the watchtower can detect it in time due to their height. Then they can use colorful flags, horns and lanterns to warn the Chinese army in time.
"Clear out a passage between the four remaining city gates. Demolish what needs to be demolished and move what needs to be moved. If a bridge is needed, build it with the beams that were just removed." Han Qing thought for a while and then
Quick instructions.
"Go, go, Zhou Yaban, you will lead the team this time. No matter which nobleman stops her, tell her that if the rebels come in, everyone will lose their lives, and there is no need to worry about the scenery!" Liu Chenggui continued.
Don't talk too much and quickly implement tasks to people.
They were very busy in the imperial city, and the rebels outside the city did not stop to rest. They speeded up, demolished the houses near Xihua Gate, cleared the site, and built siege equipment.
For a time, everyone in the city seemed to have reached a tacit understanding. No one was in a hurry to attack the other side, and everyone focused on preparations for the battle.
A full two hours passed like this, and as the sky began to brighten, the rebels were finally ready outside Xihua Gate. The leader of the army gave an order, and more than two thousand well-rested rebels raised the ladder.
, pushed up the ram and the manhole railings, and under the cover of the archers, fiercely rushed towards the city gate and the city walls on both sides of the gate.
"Release the fire and thunder crossbows to blow up their vehicles and manholes. The archers wet the arrow shafts of the rockets and shoot downwards to interfere with the rebels' offensive rhythm!" Han Qing frowned and gave the general order decisively.
The bed crossbows that had been prepared for a long time were fired one after another, shooting the precious fire and thunder crossbows one after another at the heavy rams and manholes.
Although the accuracy is severely lacking, the power far exceeds the crossbows used in the past. As long as it lands near the target, it can explode the area around the target, causing mud to fly and blood and flesh to fly everywhere.
"Whoosh whoosh whoosh..." Hundreds of rockets were fired at the rebels outside the city according to Han Qing's instructions. With the help of their superiority, the rebels' attack rhythm was stopped in an instant.
Because the arrow shafts were wetted in advance, after the rockets fell, they did not burn as fiercely as before. Instead, one after another, green smoke rose up like mosquito coils.
A rocket emitting smoke will not have much impact on the battlefield. However, if hundreds of rockets turn into mosquito coils, it will cause serious trouble.
In the blink of an eye, outside the Xihua Gate, one could not clearly see the outline of the person facing each other. Unfortunately, there was no wind in the early morning. After the thick smoke rose, it would neither disperse easily nor move at all. The people shrouded in the smoke would not move at all.
The rebel soldiers were so smoked that they kept coughing and had tears and runny noses.
Most of the palace guards on the city were very skilled, but they had never been on the battlefield. Previously, they all felt nervous when they saw the rebels launching an attack. Now they saw the rebels being engulfed in thick smoke, and they were still coughing.
, morale was immediately boosted. He fired more arrows one row after another. Where the cough was the loudest, he would give priority to that place.
Soon, some of the rebels couldn't hold on any longer. They dropped the rams, pit rails, ladders and other important siege weapons they were pushing in their hands, and retreated hastily.
Han Qing saw it on the enemy tower and did not take the opportunity to send people out of the city to pursue him. Instead, he ordered his brothers to stop shooting, prepare gunpowder arrows, and wait for his orders.
After about seventy or eighty breaths, the thick smoke began to fade. The towering manholes and ladders first revealed their outlines outside the city.
Han Qing immediately gave an order, asking the archers to concentrate their efforts and wave towards the well railings and ladders. For a moment, rockets rained down from the top of the city like meteors.
This time, the arrow shaft was not sprinkled with water, but was covered with grease. In the blink of an eye, the well railing and the vicinity of the ladder were burned into a lake of flames.
When the rebel general saw it, he immediately drove his soldiers away and rushed up to pull away the manhole railing and ladder at the risk of being choked by the smoke.
How to make it in time?
The well railings and ladders were originally heavy and made of wood. After being hit by more than a dozen rockets, they were quickly ignited, one after another, and burned into huge candles. With the morning glow, the Xihua Gate was
Outside, it shines brilliantly.
"Wonderful, wonderful, rockets can actually be used like this. I have been fighting for half my life, but today my eyes have been opened!" Liu Chenggui was so excited that he leaned against the wall of the watchtower and clapped his hands vigorously.
"I'm afraid it's not that simple. The rebels retreated too quickly before, and they were trying to hide it!" Han Qing thought for a moment and shook his head slightly.
As soon as he finished speaking, a huge colorful flag had already been raised in the watchtower above Xuande Gate. Immediately afterwards, the warning horn sounded like a cold wind blowing through the eaves, "Wooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooaw."
"Sound, sound to the west and strike to the south!" Liu Chenggui immediately jumped up and rushed towards the south gate of the imperial city in three or two steps.
