Henanjunsi city wall is entirely built of red earth.
Therefore, in the Ming and Qing dynasties, this place was called the "Red Castle" and later also called the "Red Town".
It is the eastern gateway of the Hexi Corridor and the only place that the Silk Road must pass through. It is known as the "throat of the Golden City and an important town on the Silk Road".
Moreover, the two hundred-mile-long river valley can be used for farming. Agriculture is self-sufficient, and there is no need to transfer too much military rations from the rear to maintain it.
Military, commerce, agriculture, and status conditions are all fulfilled!
The city is not large enough to accommodate tens of thousands of troops. Therefore, there is a sub-castle at the foot of the mountain on the east side, and part of the defenders are stationed in the sub-city, which is at odds with the mother city of the Henan Army.
There is no moat built in this city, but the Kalo River flowing to the east and the tributary of Kalo River flowing to the south of the city are two natural moats.
The west side is full of mountains.
Facing water on two sides and backing on the mountain on one side, it is difficult to attack under normal circumstances.
Therefore, after the Song Dynasty captured Lanzhou, Lanzhou City was only more than a hundred miles away from this city, and Jingyuguan (an ancient town at the mouth of the river in Xigu District, Lanzhou) was only 60 miles away. However, no matter how much troops were sent, they were unable to capture it.
Yang Zhi detached 6,000 infantrymen and formed a formation at the intersection of Kalo River and its tributaries, facing off against the city defenders across the tributaries.
The rest of the troops were all arrayed on the east bank of the Kalachuan River, and the artillery was also dragged out to aim at the castle.
Li Yuchang stood on the tower of the mother city and observed the movements of the Ming army from a distance.
He ordered thousands of infantry and all cavalry to withdraw several miles to the north and cross the river, thus dividing the force into three.
In the narrow terrain, it is difficult for the Ming army to have redundant tactical operations, and it is difficult to deploy no matter how many troops there are.
As the defender of the city occupies a favorable geographical location, dividing the troops into three locations will not only not dilute the force, but will allow the Ming army to suddenly launch a three-sided siege when the Ming army attacks the city.
Li Yuchang was looking for an opportunity. If the Ming army dared to attack the city wall, it would be the best opportunity for a flanking attack!
Twelve pig-iron cannons were arranged in a staggered manner facing the castle.
Eight wrought-iron field guns are aimed at the direction of the Mother City and the Kala River, ready to attack the enemy troops crossing the river from the Mother City.
Forty tiger crouching cannons were aimed at the flat valley in the north, which was the direction of the enemy troops that had separated and crossed the river.
Grain trucks were rolled out one after another to build a defensive barrier, and Ming soldiers stood behind the grain trucks. Once the enemy attacked, the artillery fired as many times as possible, and then the artillery retreated to be protected by the infantry.
Li Yuchang kept observing and watching, and saw that the Ming army had set up a defensive formation, but never attacked the castle.
While he was wondering, he suddenly heard several loud "boom" sounds.
That was the Ming army testing artillery!
The sudden loud noise made the Xixia soldiers startled and confused. The Xixia soldiers guarding the sides and back, because they could not see the situation clearly, thought it was thundering in broad daylight.
"Boom boom boom boom..."
A series of cannon fire rang out, not only twelve pig iron cannons fired at the sub-city, but eight wrought iron field cannons also fired at the mother city across the river.
Two of the shells hit the red clay city wall at Li Yuchang's feet, and he felt as if there was an earthquake.
"What kind of cannon is this? Why don't people pull the rope?" Li Yuchang said in horror.
Xixia also had catapults and formed a special unit - the Poxi Army.
The Poxi Army is a small catapult unit carried by camels, with a full strength of 300 catapults. It can march long distances in the desert, and can also move quickly in mountainous areas.
Especially on the Hengshan side, climbing up to the middle of the mountain to assemble a catapult and throwing fist-sized stone bombs at the Song army at the foot of the mountain really made the Song army feel a lot of head pain.
Skull pain in a physical sense.
"This is undoubtedly a new weapon of the Han people," Han Huaizhong said, "just like the bed crossbow of the Song Dynasty, the Han people are always good at making weapons."
Li Yuchang asked: "How to deal with it?"
Han Huaizhong shook his head: "I don't know."
The Han family is a prominent Dangxiang family that followed Li Yuanhao in his military expedition. They have been responsible for compiling the history of Xixia for generations, and also have the right to interpret the Dangxiang epic.
The most famous person is undoubtedly Han Daochong in the early Southern Song Dynasty, who translated the Analects of Confucius, the Book of Changes and their annotations into Xixia script.
One of the Han family later surrendered to Mongolia, changed its name to Duo and spread its branches in Yunnan. It was still a major family in Yunnan until the late Qing Dynasty and the Republic of China.
The prime ministers of the Xixia state could command their troops here, so naturally the Han family, who were in charge of compiling the history of the state, could also fight wars!
Li Yuchang had never encountered such a weapon before, and he didn't know what to do for a while.
Because the Ming army had set up a vehicle formation with grain trucks and the infantry was hiding behind the grain trucks, it was not the right time to attack from three sides.
But what should we do if the Ming army keeps bombarding us with that kind of artillery?
What if the city wall collapses?
"Shoot those gunners!" Li Yuchang could only mobilize his troops to shoot with bows and arrows.
The Kalo River is not a big river. The river surface is only forty to fifty meters wide, and the distance for a bow and arrow is more than enough.
Thousands of soldiers armed with bows and arrows stood directly at the city gate to shoot. There was a distance of about sixty or seventy meters from the city wall of the mother city to the artillery position on the other side of the river.
A hail of arrows flew in, but had no effect.
The cane players and the long player have been protecting the artillery, and the artillery itself is also wearing light armor.
When the Ming army first built artillery positions and vehicle formations, the Xixia army had already fired several rounds, but so far they had only injured twenty or thirty unlucky men.
The mother city is shooting arrows, and the sub-city is shooting arrows as well.
Hua Rong led more than a thousand Shenji battalions, crossed the car formation and moved forward under the rain of arrows, aiming at the archers on the city and shooting freely.
"Bang bang bang bang!"
Gunshots rang out one after another, and more than a thousand bullets were fired, hitting only a few enemies.
The guard general of Zicheng is called Zhang Chuo. There are two famous Zhang families in Xixia. He is a descendant of Zhang Yuan, the founding military advisor and prime minister of Xixia.
Well, my ancestral home is Huayin.
Another round of artillery shells came. Zhang Chuo moved behind the female wall and dragged the body of a shot soldier in front of him.
The bullet hit his cheek and penetrated deeply into his brain. The place where it was hit has expanded into a bloody hole.
Zhang Chuo was horrified. This thing was more powerful than a bow and arrow!
After several rounds of shelling, cracks appeared in the wall of Zicheng. Zhang Chuo quickly asked the soldiers to raise flags and ask for help.
Han Huaizhong saw the movement of the flag clearly and said worriedly: "The wall on the opposite side can no longer hold up. If we don't send troops now, the sub-city will definitely fall, and the mother city will be unable to support itself."
Li Yuchang shook his head and said: "The enemy is protected by car formations and the infantry formations are tight. How can there be any benefit in sending troops forcibly at this time? We can wait a little longer. The walls of Zicheng will collapse. Han soldiers will definitely rush into the city in order to compete for credit.
Go. By that time, the formation of the Han army will be in chaos. Our army will send troops from two sides to attack, and the soldiers in Zicheng can also fight in the streets to defend against the enemy."
"That makes sense." Han Huaizhong nodded.
This kind of thing often happens. When the Song soldiers fought against Xixia, they were cautious and formed a tight formation. However, after the victory, the soldiers themselves caused chaos in the military formation in order to seize military glory.
The two of them decided on their plan and just sat back and watched the artillery bombard the city.
The shelling continued until the afternoon, when suddenly a section of the city wall collapsed in Zicheng.
"Wan Sheng, Wan Sheng!"
The Ming army burst into violent cheers, while the Xixia army in the city looked horrified. Zhang Chuo hurriedly mobilized his troops to defend the gap.
However, the Ming army did not make any big moves.
Yang Zhi, who was so cautious that he could be described as cowardly, issued a military order: "Continue the bombardment and blast all the city walls to pieces!"
Zicheng was too far away to see clearly. Li Yuchang heard the shouts of the Ming army and vaguely saw that the city wall in the distance seemed to have collapsed. He was surprised and said: "Why don't these Han soldiers attack the city?"
"They have been attacking the city." Han Huaizhong said.
Li Yuchang said: "I mean to send troops to attack the city!"
Han Huaizhong said: "The Han people are cowardly. Since they have powerful siege weapons, they will knock down more walls before attacking."
After several more rounds of shelling, the city wall collapsed again.
Facing the Zicheng wall in the direction of the artillery, the Xixia soldiers no longer dared to stand at the top of the city. They had to face not only the bombardment of artillery shells, but also more than a thousand muskets.
But the military orders were overwhelming, and they did not dare to leave, so they crouched down behind the parapet wall one by one, and stood up to shoot arrows during the intervals between artillery bombardments. They did not dare to aim carefully, for fear of being shot coldly, so they just fired casually to complete the mission.
After demolishing three city walls in a row, Yang Zhi finally raised his command flag.
Li Jinyi received the military order and divided out 3,000 infantrymen and advanced towards three gaps.
Half of the Shenji battalion under Hua Rong was also divided to cooperate with the attack. They dispersed and hid in the Yuanyang team, following behind the swordsmen, shieldmen and spearmen, and fired cold shots at close range at critical moments.
When approaching, the squad leader fired arrows and the musketeers fired, trying to suppress the enemy's firepower at the top of the city.
There were also some soldiers carrying wooden planks. Because the collapsed city wall was irregular and rugged, it was necessary to build planks to rush up.
Another three thousand infantry are on standby, ready to respond to friendly forces attacking the city at any time.
Another thousand infantrymen carried flying ladders around to the other side of the city. Firstly, they could contain and disperse the enemy troops, and secondly, if they found a good opportunity, they could take advantage of the situation and attack the city.
"The Han army has attacked the city, but the military formation is not in chaos!" Han Huaizhong was shocked.
Li Yuchang said in shock: "This must be the elite of the elite Han army. Even the Western Army of the Song Dynasty cannot be so disciplined!"
Han Huaizhong said: "Send troops quickly, otherwise the city will be destroyed!"
"Raise the flag, beat the drums, and blow the trumpets!"
The sound of drums and horns sounded, and the Xixia cavalry who retreated to cross the river received the order and immediately formed a formation to fight south.
On the mother city side, two thousand soldiers were left to be defended by Han Huaizhong, and Li Yuchang personally led the rest of the troops out of the city.
On the other side of Zicheng, Zhang Chuo heard the horn sound and shouted: "The reinforcements are coming soon, guard the gap and the city wall!"
Li Yuchang tried to cross the river with his main force, and Gong Xiu on the south bank of the tributary followed suit, clearly intending to attack the mother city wall from the south.
Gong Xiu, the leader of illegal gold mining in Yangzhou, took several sons and hundreds of miners to join the army. Now his military rank is second only to Zhang Guangdao, Li Bao, Yang Zhi and Li Jinyi, and he is regarded as the fifth highest figure in the Ming army.
When Han Huaizhong saw this, he quickly sent someone to spread the news.
Li Yuchang learned of the situation and had to divide his troops to deal with it.
But from the north, the Xixia general Yeli Fulu came with his infantry and cavalry. A large number of Han people attacked the son and charged as cannon fodder, while the captured soldiers followed on foot and cavalry to suppress the formation.
This is a common routine between Xixia and Northern Song Dynasty. Xixia used Han people to kill their sons as cannon fodder, and Northern Song Dynasty used Western army soldiers as cannon fodder.
Both types of cannon fodder are extremely capable in combat, no less than their own regular army, and sometimes they are even braver!
The artillery commander Deng Xia held the waist knife and said: "Put it closer and then fire!"
The forty squatting tiger cannons were all loaded with shotgun shells. When the Xixia army approached forty or fifty meters away, Deng Xia suddenly waved his sword and ordered to fire.
Countless shotguns the size of pigeon eggs were sprayed overwhelmingly towards the Xixia army.
The troops in front were stunned. The dead ones were fine, the injured ones were rolling on the ground screaming, and the rest were stunned in place, not knowing whether to advance or retreat.
The narrow valley flatland was divided into two by the river, leaving only a small amount of terrain. Soldiers from both sides were lined up very densely.
The shotgun shells of forty tiger squatting cannons covered almost all the front troops of the Xixia Army.
"kill!"
The infantry of the Ming Army received the flag order and only dispatched 3,000 troops. They were afraid that too many troops would be crowded together and cause chaos.
Han Huaizhong on the top of the mother city looked frightened. Even at this point in the battle, the Ming army's formation was still tight.
And, what the hell is that?
How come one piece is one piece after a dozen?
As the Ming army infantry charged across the vehicle formation, the confused soldiers finally came to their senses, turned around and ran away. It was not that they were not brave, but that they suffered too many casualties and were too afraid of the unknown.
"The last general calls for battle!" Li Yanxian rode up to Yang Zhi.
Yang Zhi handed over his hand and said, "Thank you, General."
The Ming army's formation had a channel for troop deployment, which could only accommodate two or three cavalry abreast. Li Yanxian led four thousand miscellaneous cavalry, whizzed past along the channel, and rushed towards the Xixia soldiers who had completely collapsed in the front army.
(Thanks to the leader of Xuanyuan Qinghuan for the reward, O(∩_∩)O~)
