When Zhao Ji heard Han Shizhong's question, he smiled slightly and said:
"Our army has carried out nine rounds of artillery bombardment on Xia Enemy Dongcheng;
"Of course, our army still has enough ammunition, so we don't need another round of artillery bombardment."
"It just makes up a whole number, perfect."
Han Shizhong happily accepted the order.
"Boom boom boom..."
Rows of powerful red-coated cannons fired the highly lethal shells developed by Zhao Ji, flying towards the east city guarded by the enemy...
This tenth round of shelling seemed to be the straw that broke the camel's back.
There were originally more than 3,000 defenders on the east city of Xijing, but under the first nine rounds of shelling, nearly 2,000 people had been killed or injured;
The remaining more than a thousand defeated soldiers heard the deafening sound of artillery from the Song army's position outside the city, and they were frightened to death.
In the blink of an eye, a new round of artillery shells flew to the east city they were guarding, killing and wounding another two to three hundred Xia troops.
The more than 900 Xia army soldiers who survived had their hearts broken to the extreme.
In order to survive, they no longer obeyed the military orders of Li Renzhong, the seriously injured King of Pu.
They abandoned the city one after another, trying to escape...
Li Renzhong, who was sitting at the entrance of the main battlement of the east city, asked his men to move the Taishi's chair to the 'parapet' behind him.
His only remaining right eye was wide and round with anger;
He looked at the Xia army that had abandoned the city and fled, and was facing a tense confrontation with the 300 supervising team members in the city below...
The captain of the guard beside Li Renzhong asked with a trembling and sad voice:
"King Pu, do you still want the supervising team to kill these deserters who abandoned the city?"
Li Renzhong shed tears from the corner of his right eye and said sadly:
"It has been more than a hundred years since the founding of our country, Daxia, and our country's fortunes have been booming! Now, I, the Emperor of Daxia, work diligently and love the people, and I am the master of the ZTE!"
"I originally thought that with the prosperous national destiny of our Daxia Kingdom, Xijing, the land of dragon prosperity under our feet, would still be the companion capital of our Daxia Kingdom in another hundred or two hundred years."
"Alas!" Li Renzhong looked up to the sky and sighed, saying:
"How come the originally ignorant and unprincipled Emperor of the Song Dynasty suddenly became a powerful leader like the Qin Emperor and the Han Dynasty?"
"Even so, if I ordered to defend Xijing City to the death, and the soldiers and civilians worked wholeheartedly, I should have been able to defend Xijing City for a year and a half."
"But why did Song Enemy suddenly have a weapon as powerful as thunder?"
At this time, the sky in the east had already turned white.
Li Renzhong looked up at the sky and said sadly:
"The fall of Xijing, what's Gu's fault?!"
"The long sky, how can you be so inferior to Gu?!"
The hundreds of guards and generals around Li Renzhong all burst into tears when they heard King Pu's extremely sad words.
Li Renzhong took another look at the city below the parapet. The defeated deserters were confronting the war supervising team. It was possible that in the next breath there would be a bloody battle involving fellow tribesmen fighting against each other.
He raised his right hand, waved his sleeve slightly in mid-air, and said in a sad voice:
"Pass this king's military order: The war team will get out of the way and let them live!"
"If any of your bodyguards or generals who want to join the king in repaying their country by dying should immediately go to the city and hold on. If you want to find a way out, please disperse on your own!"
"Woooooooo..."
Those who heard it choked up.
Even those deserters who defended the city, many were moved to tears by the words of Pu Wang Li Renzhong.
However, when they were on the city, they had already seen the shells fired by the Song army, how lethal they were, how terrifying and perverted they were, and with a heavy heart, they ran away from the road that the supervising team left...
More than half of the generals who were supervising the battle team also followed the deserters and fled into the city in order to survive...
The remaining few and a half of the supervising troops were all confidants that Li Renzhong had cultivated over the years. They were moved by King Pu's loyalty and resolutely boarded the dilapidated East City with their weapons in hand.
At this time, Li Renzhong and all the soldiers guarding the main city of East City had less than 300 people.
Outside the east city of Xijing, Zhao Ji, who was in the Song army's formation, was riding majestically on a tall horse and saw that there were not many defenders left on the east city.
He then issued an order: "Our army will enter the city in batches as originally planned to eliminate the remaining Xia enemies!"
"Follow the order!"
Han Shizhong commanded his vanguard army and entered the city in batches according to the tactics formulated by Zhao Guan's family in advance.
The first batch to go out were more than thirty wooden curtain cars.
This kind of wooden curtain car has a large wooden board as a cover, which can block the enemy's arrows and thrown stones.
Following the wooden curtain car were more than a dozen trench bridge cars (i.e. flying bridges).
The Song army pushed the moat bridge cart and quickly arrived at the deep moat outside the east city of Xijing, and quickly built more than ten short bridges.
From the Song army's formation, more than fifty fén, yun (fén, yun) chariots covered with cowhide to withstand arrows rushed out;
Ten soldiers can hide in each churron.
Annui's convoy rushed across the other side from the newly built pontoon bridge and reached the bottom of the enemy city.
More than 500 Song army generals quickly got out of the chariot.
Han Shizhong, who was commanding behind them, was riding on a war horse, holding a spear, and shouted loudly:
"After the front of our army crosses the river, we must first clear away the bricks and rubble blocking the enemy's city gate so that our subsequent cavalry and infantry can pass through."
"Follow orders..."
The leading troops of the Song Army began to move according to the order...
At this time, in order to avoid artillery fire, more than 200 Xia army generals were hiding in various bunkers on the east wall of Xijing. They knew that the battle would be defeated and they would die, but they still chose to follow Li Renzhong, the king of Pu, who was loved by the army and the people.
Live and die with Xijing City.
Finally, they no longer heard the Song army’s artillery fire.
Only now did they dare to poke their heads out and launch a retaliatory sneak attack...
"Whoosh whoosh whoosh..."
"Whoosh whoosh whoosh..."
Suddenly, more than two hundred arrows were shot from the city.
Many arrows hit the Song soldiers who were cleaning up the scattered bricks and rubble at the city gate...
"Ahhhh..."
"Ahhhh..."
More than twenty soldiers of the Song Army fell to the ground after being hit by arrows, and their blood stained the pile of rocks outside the east gate of Xijing...
Han Shizhong, who was commanding the siege from the rear, saw this scene and became furious and shouted:
"Musketeers and grenade-throwing teams, cross the river quickly and clean up the remaining enemy troops in the city!"
"Follow the order!"
"Follow orders..."
A musketry team consisting of a hundred people and thirty grenade throwers crossed the moat under the cover of a wooden curtain car.
After they approached the east city, they all raised their long muskets and shot at the enemies who poked their heads out from the crenellations of the east city...
"Bang bang bang..."
"Ahhhh..."
The Xia army defending the city, who originally thought they would not be bombarded again, was shot as soon as many of them poked their heads out of the crenellations...
The grenade throwers of the Song Army used the spring-tube grenades previously developed by Zhao Guan's family to easily throw grenades one after another onto the enemy city several feet high.
"Boom boom boom..."
On the east city, many fires shot into the sky again, and shrapnel flew across the sky, killing and injuring dozens of Xia troops...
The resistance of the remnants of the Xia army guarding the city is gradually weakening...
At this time, the Song army who was clearing the roadblocks had already moved aside the scattered bricks and large pieces of gravel at the entrance to the east city, and had cleared a wide road.
Zhao Ji, who was in the Song army's formation outside the city, saw this scene and said to Han Shizhong beside him:
"Good minister, your troops will enter the city first and destroy the remaining enemy forces on the east city!"
"The humble minister is loyal and obeys the decree."
Han Shizhong led the troops and crossed the temporary pontoon bridge on the moat...
The Song army shouted, brandished their swords and guns, rushed into the east city gate, then quickly climbed onto the city, killing the remaining enemies on the city...
"Click, click..."
"Ah ah ah ah ah……"
"Kill!"
"Come on!"
"The one-eyed dragon wearing a python robe on the main city is Li Renzhong, the Pu King of Xixia.
"Capture Li Renzhong alive, there will be a heavy reward!"
"Capture Li Renzhong alive, there will be a heavy reward!"
"Come on! Capture Li Renzhong alive!"
Han Shizhong led his troops to rush to the east city. More than ten guards around Li Renzhong had been shot to death by the Song army.
When Li Renzhong saw this, he was heartbroken with grief.
He knew that he could no longer reverse the defeat, but he did not want to be captured by the Song army.
He knew very well that the reason why he was alive until now must be because the Song army deliberately wanted to keep him alive and wanted to take him as a prisoner to threaten Daxia...
Li Renzhong was sitting on the imperial chair, staring angrily, seeing that the situation was over, feeling sad and helpless.
Before, when he saw the Song army entering the city, he was ready to kill himself.
He endured the pain of multiple serious injuries on his body. He held the sword in his right hand, and the sharp blade was pressed tightly against his neck...
When Han Shizhong was more than twenty steps away from Li Renzhong who was holding his sword to his throat, he ordered and shouted:
"Our troops stop!"
"King Pu, don't seek death!"
"I am Han Shizhong. As long as King Pu surrenders, I can intercede for you in front of Zhao Guan's family. Not only can I protect you from death, but I can also protect your prosperity and wealth!"
"Hahaha..." Li Renzhong said with a bitter smile:
"Enemy general Han Shizhong, do you think I am a person who is greedy for life and afraid of death?"
Han Shizhong frowned and stared at Li Renzhong. He knew that it would be difficult for him to persuade the other party to surrender. He wanted to find an opportunity to capture Li Renzhong alive.
However, there was no good chance to capture Li Renzhong alive who had already put his sword to his throat.
In order to delay time, Han Shizhong looked for a good opportunity to seize the sword in Li Renzhong's hand. He shouted:
"Even if King Pu wants to commit suicide, before you commit suicide, don't you want to pay a visit to the Zhao Guan's house outside the city where I, the imperial commander of the Song Dynasty, am personally conquering? Don't you leave some last words before you die?"
As he spoke, he moved forward slowly.
Li Renzhong glared angrily and shouted: "Han Shizhong, don't take another half step!"
"Huh?!" Han Shizhong stopped immediately and smiled awkwardly.
"hehe……"
Li Renzhong may have seen what he was thinking.
"Alas! I can't see your Emperor of the Song Dynasty anymore!" Li Renzhong said lonelyly:
"Please General Han, please pass on my words and inform the Emperor of the Song Dynasty."
Han Shizhong hurriedly said: "King Pu, please speak. If it is not an insult, I will definitely report it to Zhao Guan's family."
Li Renzhong said sadly: "I sincerely ask Zhao Guanjia to remember that Xijing City, the capital of our Great Xia Kingdom, was also the Lingzhou City of the Song Dynasty more than a hundred years ago. After the Song army invaded this city, I begged you not to massacre the city.
!”
"Haha..." Han Shizhong laughed, took another step forward, and said to Li Renzhong:
"I, Emperor Zhao Guanjia of the Song Dynasty, are not only extraordinary in military prowess, but also saintly and benevolent. I will definitely not massacre this city."
"King Pu, you used your villain's heart to save a gentleman's heart!"
"King Pu, do you have any last words left?"
Han Shizhong said while moving forward.
At this time, he was only about ten steps away from Li Renzhong who had a sword on his neck.
Li Renzhong raised his head and looked at the sky where the sun was about to rise. His face was filled with sadness and unwillingness, and his voice was sonorous:
"The fall of Xijing, what's Gu's fault?!"
"The long sky, how can you be so inferior to Gu?!"
With a "hiss" sound, Li Renzhong used the sharp sword that had been placed on his neck for a long time and cut his own neck severely, causing blood to splash on the city wall...
…
[PS: Thanks to Fengqi Wutong 626, Fuping Hou Yixiao, Little Rabbit Guaiguaomeng, and Feng Xiaotang Liuwei Dihuang Pills for the reward!