After hearing this, Xu Wei frowned and said cautiously: "General, don't be careless. The terrain of Guangyuan Prefecture is difficult, easy to defend and difficult to attack. It faces mountains to the east and west, and the roads are narrow, which is not conducive to the deployment of formations, let alone siege.
, although the north-south road is wide, for us, we can only attack from the north gate. If we want to go around the south gate, it will take a lot of trouble. And General Li is not an ordinary person. He has recently strengthened the city wall and dug deeper.
We built a moat in front of the north gate, diverted water from the Yi River to protect the city, and prepared a large number of trees and boulders."
"Yeah?"
Niu Gao frowned slightly and said, "What about inside the city?"
Xu Wei frowned and said: "General Li is also afraid that after the war breaks out, Zhudong will cause chaos in the city, so the city is also heavily guarded, and it is difficult for the brothers in the city to find opportunities to take action."
Niu Gao pondered for a while and said: "So, General Li will arrange the main force at the North City Gate now?"
"Exactly." Xu Wei added: "And there is enough food in Guangyuan Prefecture, so supporting it for a month or two is not a problem."
Niu Gao suddenly laughed.
Xu Wei asked curiously: "Why is the general laughing?"
Niu Gao said confidently: "As soon as the fleet arrives, I will destroy Guangyuan City."
"Has the general already thought of a plan to break the city?"
Xu Wei said in surprise.
Niu Gao waved, and Xu Wei immediately came over. Niu Gao talked in his ear for a long time, and he nodded.
After saying this, Niu Gao patted him on the shoulder and said: "Raise an army for a thousand days and use it for a while."
"General, please rest assured, your humble position will definitely fulfill your mission."
"very good."
"Go back quickly and be careful."
"yes."
……．
……．
Because those siege engines are huge, the fleet will not be able to arrive for a while, and it will take at least three days.
But on the second day, General Li suddenly sent an envoy to Taiping Village to question why the Song Dynasty sent troops to attack them. What he said was justified. Although Jiaozhi had become independent, the King of Jiaozhi still accepted the canonization of the Song Dynasty, but this was not the case.
It's superficial. In fact, Jiaozhi has nothing to do with the Song Dynasty.
General Li used this as an excuse to accuse the Song Dynasty of betraying its trust and falsely claiming to be a country of gentlemen.
Li Qi had already prepared for this. He compiled the stories of Jiaozhi's border rebellions in the past twenty years and asked Niu Gao to take them with him.
Niu Gao didn't bother to talk nonsense with the envoy and directly gave him a pile of accusations and asked him to take them back to General Li to read slowly. Did the Song Dynasty wrongfully accuse you? He also advised General Li to leave the city quickly to plead guilty in order to avoid
Life is in ruins.
Of course, General Li knew that the other party was well prepared. How could he retreat just because you said something? This move was just to slow down Niu Gao's attack, but he didn't know that Niu Gao ignored him at all. On the third day, the fleet
Upon arrival, Niu Gao immediately ordered the three armies to break out and advance.
Since General Li suffered a setback in the first battle and lost his troops, he would not dare to take the initiative to attack. If thousands more people died, there would be no need to fight. After all, he only had a few thousand soldiers under his command. It was said that it was over 10,000, but they were all made up of civilians.
, so he was very thorough in clearing the wall. He just retreated into the city and defended the city wall. He waited for his reinforcements to arrive before launching a massive counterattack.
Therefore, Niu Gao's army did not encounter any obstacles on its way forward. However, it took two or three days to reach Guangyuan Prefecture because it had to transport siege equipment. By the evening of the third day, Niu Gao's army had already reached the city. However, Niu Gao did not
Instead of letting the soldiers set up camp, they went to an empty village to stay overnight.
It can also be seen from this aspect that Niu Gao did not intend to turn this war into a protracted war, but was preparing for a quick victory.
This night was particularly quiet, but it could definitely be said to be the calm before the storm, because both sides knew that there would be a hard battle tomorrow. Therefore, they both ordered the soldiers to recharge their batteries.
And because General Li did not like Li Qi, who had his soldiers stationed in the wild, he was not worried that Niu Gao would choose to attack at night. Throughout history, no second force went to attack the city in the middle of the night, either in the evening or
It's dawn.
The reason why both parties value Guangyuan Prefecture so much is because Guangyuan Prefecture has a very important geographical location. The current generation has not yet developed it like later generations. The roads are very rare and are usually mountain roads. In addition to waterways, if you want to
If you send troops from Yizhou to Jiaozhi, then this is the only road.
And this Guangyuan City is not like Bianliang City, which is very wide on all sides. If you look at it from a distance, this Guangyuan City is like a gate. There are mountains on the east and west sides, and it is very narrow. This is also the unique geographical advantage of Guangyuan Prefecture.
.
In the early morning of the next day, before the sun came up, Niu Gao's army was already in formation in Guangyuan City. Because Niu Gao was sure that General Li would not dare to go out of the city to fight, he moved his army very far forward.
General Li also came to the city wall in person, and the naughty autumn wind swept between the two armies, sweeping away a few innocent and lucky leaves.
The war is about to break out.
"Then---what is that?"
A burly general in his thirties with a resolute face stood on the city wall, pointing at the opponent's formation and asked, with a hint of fear in his tone.
This man is really General Li.
But in front of Niugao's formation, there were three behemoths, towering like mountains, which made people intimidated.
This thing is called a goose chariot, which is the heaviest weapon among the siege weapons. The chariot is several feet high, and there is a shin extension in front of the chariot that is more than ten feet high. There is a ladder on it. The highest point is as high as the city wall and two feet wide.
It is two feet long and three feet long. There are eight giant iron wheels under the cart, with huge wooden iron rods on top. It looks like a house. The inner layer is covered with rawhide curtains and the outer layer is wrapped with iron leaves. Hundreds of people can hide inside.
, push it and do it.
It can't help but be said that this goose cart is the latest one built by the Ordnance Supervisor. It not only contains the launching platform for the Divine Fire Flying Crow and the Bed Crossbow, but it is also equipped with the latest firearm--the Heavy Rain Pear Blossom Arrow.
Each goose car is equipped with three launch ports.
Unfortunately, we have not yet entered the mechanized era. This cart has to be pushed by people. Niu Gao simply let the entire army fight around these three goose carts. Taking the goose cart as a unit, each goose cart has 3,000 people, or a chariot.
, or heavy infantry, or archers.
No one on the city wall knew what this behemoth was.
General Li didn't know what to ask, and he was even more worried. His face was full of sorrow and he said: "If this huge car is close to the city wall, the enemy troops in the car will be as if they are walking on flat ground."
One of his staff said: "General, there is no need to worry. Although this thing is huge, it is still unknown whether it can cross the moat in front of the city gate. If it cannot cross the moat, what is the use of this thing."
When General Li heard this, he felt that this statement made sense. He couldn't help but turn his worries into joy, and secretly rejoiced. Fortunately, I had deepened the moat in the past few days. Otherwise, our army would have been unable to resist this behemoth.
Buzz buzz!
Suddenly, horns sounded from the opposite side.
Is it finally coming? General Li hurriedly said: "The enemy is about to attack, prepare to meet the enemy."
Trumpets also sounded from the city walls.
War drums suddenly roared into the sky!
Niu Gao gave the order and the whole army advanced.
With each goose cart as the center, the 10,000-strong army was divided into three large formations, with more than 3,000 men in each formation, including crossbows, spears, swords, shields, broadswords, and axes, mainly heavy infantry. The chariots in front cleared the way.
Since the goose chariot was the main force, the speed of the advance was definitely not fast, but it gave the Jiaozhi soldiers on the city wall an aura of black clouds pressing over the city and threatening to destroy it.
Standing on the city wall, General Li looked at the formation of the Song army, and saw the mystery hidden in its formation. He thought to himself, these should be the elite of the Song Dynasty, not just a mob. No. Why is there no cavalry?
He suddenly discovered that there was only a very small amount of cavalry in the enemy formation, which was almost negligible. Generally, this formation would be guarded by cavalry on both wings or behind, but the Song army was mainly infantry, with only a small number of chariots in front.
Clear the way.
Is it because this behemoth is too slow to take advantage of the cavalry's timing advantage?
General Li had no time to think about it because the enemy army had already attacked.
On the battlefield, time always passes so wonderfully. When you want to go slow, it goes fast. When you want to go fast, it goes slow. In a blink of an eye, the Song Army has entered the opponent's range.
Inside.
Arrows rained down from the top of the city wall.
Dang Dang Dang!
A crisp metallic sound sounded.
I saw that the chariot drivers and heavy infantrymen of the Song Army were all wearing heavy helmets and strong armor. They were not afraid of ordinary arrows and moved forward resolutely. Under the city wall, there was indeed a force that could be moved at will, and no sword could stop it.
The Song Army was not to be outdone. The Song Army's crossbowmen were hidden in goose carts, and they kept pulling their bows to shoot at the city wall, covering the walking route with firepower to cover the advance of their infantry. Gradually, people began to fall off the city wall.
, smashed into a ball of meat.
The shield soldiers in front used large shields to cover their archers. Although the arrows were flying down, the Song army's formation was not chaotic at all, as solid as a rock, indestructible, and advanced in an orderly manner.
The arrows flew across each other, making a sound that pierced the air.
"Prepare."
A guard general on the city wall gave the command, but dozens of small catapults were seen ready, just waiting for the Song army to enter the firing range.
Unfortunately, the Song Army's catapult was more than ten times larger than theirs, and it also had a pulley system installed on it, giving it a farther and more precise strike capability.
Seeing that his army had advanced to the moat, Niu Gao put down his telescope, gave an order, and a flying cavalry galloped past the formation with the green flag held high.
"put!"
"put!"
"put."
……．
The thick hemp rope on the baby's wrist flows like electricity between the pulleys.
Bang bang bang bang!
The huge fireball was like a cannonball, flying towards the city wall with billowing black smoke.
Seeing this huge fireball flying towards them, the soldiers on the city wall instinctively dodge in panic.
Bang bang bang!
When the fireball fell, it was full of flames, and figures shook their heads. People and vehicles were smashed into bloody pieces, and sawdust flew everywhere. In this round of bombing, more than ten or twenty catapults were destroyed.
Under the cover of the fireball, thousands of people pushing goose carts continued to approach the moat.
"Let it go, let it go!"
As the saying goes, it is disrespectful to come back but not to reciprocate. General Li could no longer calm down and quickly ordered his soldiers to use catapults to snipe the enemy.
But just as he said these words, a shower of arrows and lightning came over him. The long arrow came extremely fast and it was exactly the crossbow.
Nowadays, the Song Army's bed crossbows are equipped with air cushions and are placed on the chariot, making them lighter and more flexible.
Bang bang bang!
There was a sudden explosion on the city wall, and white smoke filled the city wall.
"Hurry up."
There were bursts of urgent urging sounds under the city wall.
Wow! Wow!
But under the cover of white smoke and fireballs, hundreds of meters of Song troops were seen swarming up and rushing into the moat with their chariots. They saw heads of people in the river shaking. In a blink of an eye, they saw bridge-like objects erected in the moat.
, this object is exactly the chariot that was pushed into the river just now.
Then I saw hundreds of soldiers rushing forward carrying wooden boards covered with iron sheets.
General Li was also choked by the white smoke. Hearing the commotion below the city, he was shocked and surprised. Regardless of other things, he rushed forward, waved his hand violently, pushed away the smoke in front of him, and looked down the city. He couldn't help but
He was shocked and shouted: "No, they are going to cross the bridge."