Just when Wanyan Agu led the army to escape the difficulties and left Helongshan and galloped southward, a fierce siege battle had just ended under the city of Xijinfu in Nanjing, Liao Dynasty, thousands of miles away.
This was already the fourth siege launched by the Zhou army. The siege that started at the second watch last night lasted for six or seven hours and did not come to an end until three o'clock in the morning. Above and below the city, there was already a tragic scene.
The strong southern city wall of Xijin Mansion has been changed beyond recognition. The enemy towers and archer towers on the city head have all collapsed and flattened. There are black flesh and corpses everywhere. All of this is the masterpiece of the Zhou Dynasty's siege troops.
From the beginning of the siege a few days ago, eight hundred catapults poured stones at the city head day and night. All the defense systems at the city head were smashed beyond recognition in the rain of stones.
The solid defense and counterattack fortifications constructed were all collapsed and rendered useless.
Of course, Dazhou also lost more than half of its catapults. Of the more than 800 catapults, only about 320 were still operational when they attacked the city last night. The rest collapsed under the city and turned into piles of rotten wood.
.That is the masterpiece of the bed crossbow at the head of the city. The Liao people's city defense equipment has already been developed on a large scale, and the bed crossbow is one of the weapons for defending the city. Although this weapon originated from the Zhou Dynasty is not in the hands of the Liao people
It is in the most perfect state, because the imitations made by the Liao people are always not as sophisticated and perfect as those made by the Zhou Dynasty. But this does not prevent them from being effective when dealing with catapults.
The attack range of both the catapult and the Liao's bed-shaped crossbow is about 300 steps. The catapult can throw stones onto the city head, and the bed-shaped crossbow can also shoot thick crossbow arrows onto the catapult. In this case, the big
Han De, the Privy Councilor of Liaonan Privy Council, issued an order to destroy the opponent's catapult at all costs. Even though the large number of crossbows at the city head and more than two hundred crossbows in the warehouse were exhausted, he also successfully destroyed the opponent's catapult.
The scale is halved. This is very meaningful. It means that the power of the opponent's tactics of large-scale suppression and cover attack relying on catapults is reduced by half. The Liao army at the city head that was originally unable to gain a foothold can now stand on it and fight without using it.
Too worried about catapults covering the entire city wall.
Of course, the threat posed by the catapult was far lower than the siege weapon of the Zhou Dynasty, the Yunxiao chariot. In the eyes of the Liao people, it was an unstoppable artifact for building a passage from the city to the city. They had to accept the situation of the opponent approaching the city.
Afterwards, Han Desui held a special meeting before the war to discuss how to solve the problem of siege by aerial vehicles. Finally, after brainstorming, Han Desui adopted two methods to deal with it.
The first method was to carry out a major transformation of the ground under the city wall. Originally, there was a slightly sloping ground of more than ten feet wide between the moat and city walls. In order to prevent the roller coaster from gaining a foothold here, Han De ordered the people and soldiers in the city to
A steeper slope was temporarily built under the city. The elevation angle of the slope was at least sixty or seventy degrees, making it difficult for people to stand upright.
It is not enough, let alone a roller coaster. The roller coaster is tall and bulky, and has a high center of gravity. The slope of the ground must be kept stable and not too steep, otherwise the roller coaster will fall over. This method is actually very clumsy and may not work, because the opponent's soldiers
Of course, you can also dig the ground and lay pile foundations to fix the roller coaster and maintain balance. However, this will take more time on the battlefield, and this creates time for Han Desui to use the second method to attack the roller coaster.
and timing.
The second method is the real attack on the Yunxiao vehicle itself. The collected intelligence shows that the Yunxiao vehicle is covered with an iron coat and is made of heavy logs inside. It is not afraid of attacks from bows and arrows and ordinary crossbows. Even if your arrow pierces the iron skin, it will
The roller coaster shot into a giant porcupine that towered over the sky, but it could not be destroyed in a short period of time. Once the tunnel for the roller coaster was built, it entered into a hand-to-hand siege battle, and there was no time to take care of the roller coaster itself.
.
Therefore, in order to destroy the aerial vehicle before the opponent's attack channel was established, Han Desui adopted the advice of military craftsmen and created a huge rotating wooden drill with a sharp diamond drill bit. The principle is actually very simple. When the aerial vehicle enters
When the city is within a few feet of the city, this huge cross-shaped drill sticks out from the top of the city and rotates into the gap in the iron sheet of the roller coaster. The iron outer shell of the roller coaster is actually not too thick, only less than half an inch.
, strong arrows can penetrate iron clothing. Even if the interior is made of solid logs, it is still wood. A dozen people used the wheel axle to drive the motor shaft to drill through the outer shell of the roller coaster, leaving a hole as thick as a bowl. Continue
After coming down, a large number of kerosene bombs were thrown directly inside, causing a huge fire inside the roller coaster and burning it down.
Yang Jun did not expect that the opponent would have such a countermeasure. When the first attack was launched and the army was suppressed by 800 catapults, the army advanced to the bottom of the city, and 30 skycarts also successfully advanced to the bottom of the city wall. Yang Jun
At one time, it was thought that the Xijin Mansion was already in the bag. However, while the roller coaster was busy fixing itself and the soldiers were carrying the bows, arrows and rocks at the top of the city, they were excavating the earth and rocks on the slope and laying the pile foundation.
The fine iron drill bit successfully penetrated the solid shell of the roller coaster. What happened next was a human tragedy. A fire broke out inside the roller coaster. The soldiers of the Zhou Dynasty who were crowded on the platform and wooden ladders in the car and were preparing to attack the city at the moment when the suspension bridge was opened were immediately stunned.
It became a pot of braised pork. After the fire oil burned, it quickly evacuated the air inside, releasing black poisonous smoke. The passage opened below sucked in air upwards like the air inlet of a stove, letting the flames and black smoke billow inside.
, all the Zhou soldiers inside died in a very short time.
More than thirty roller coasters were all scrapped in this way, and the city's billowing beacon tower was burning on one side of the city wall. This scene made Yang Jun cursed and heartbroken.
The originally smooth siege operation ended in failure. Yang Jun's dream of capturing Xijin Mansion that day was shattered.
It can be said that both sides
In this battle, the battle of wits and courage showed a very high level of combat quality. Although Yang Jun was a famous general of the Great Zhou Dynasty, Han Desui was not a vegetarian. Although siege warfare was the strength of the Great Zhou soldiers and horses, Han Desui was very good at defending the city.
The actions on the city were no less impressive. In fact, both sides held firm beliefs. One was determined to capture Xijin Mansion, and the other was determined to defend Xijin Mansion.
For both sides, the Xijin Mansion is the key focus of the battle. If the Zhou soldiers and horses capture the Xijin Mansion, it will mean that the southern land with the richest resources in the Liao Kingdom will be included in the bag, cutting off Datong Mansion in Xijing and the Liao Dynasty.
The next step is to capture Datong and completely push the front to Central Beijing and even Shangjing.
For the Liao people, the loss of the Jin Prefecture opened the door wide. Xijing was in danger, and Zhongjing was forced to face a complete collapse. The only way may be to retreat to the Gobi grassland on the Shangjing Road. But in that case,
This means that four of the five capitals of the Liao were lost, and the important land for money, grain, and taxation was lost, and the Liao was actually destroyed in name only. This was a battle of life and death.
Because of this, the offensive and defensive battles between the two sides in Jijin Mansion were extremely fierce. In the past few days, Yang Jun launched several long-term siege operations day and night. Hundreds of thousands of soldiers and horses took turns to fight, and all the siege equipment
The entire city of Xijin was riddled with holes and was almost flattened by several feet. There were countless dead and wounded soldiers and horses on both sides. After several fierce attacks, the siege side suffered more than 60,000 dead and wounded soldiers and horses.
The number of casualties on the defending side also exceeded 40,000. Among them were thousands of soldiers and horses killed by both sides. Regardless of whether the attacking side or the defending side, there will always be someone in such a tragic battle.
They collapsed and fled because of fear. These people were killed mercilessly by the commanders of both sides. This was to tell all the soldiers participating in the battle that they could not escape until the moment of victory. Without victory, there would be only death.
The sun was rising, and the weather became scorching hot. The battle was about to end, and both sides finally took a short break in the morning.
Looking at the battlefield, corpses were strewn all over the city. A few days ago, Yang Jun ordered to collect the corpses of the soldiers who died in the battle, but he soon discovered that it was too energy-consuming work. There were too many people who died, and it was necessary to clean up and identify them.
It takes more time to bury the corpses. Therefore, Yang Jun gave up the idea of ​​collecting the corpses of the soldiers who died in the battle, and instead counted the names in teams as a unit before going to war, and then counted them again after the war. Those who were not counted after the war
His name obviously means he died on the battlefield. This is also done so that he can provide compensation for the fallen soldiers after the war.
However, the corpses everywhere have begun to rot and emit a foul smell. The flesh and blood on the battlefield has begun to change in the hot early summer weather. There are flies flying everywhere, covering the corpses. Every time there is a break in the battle, countless flies appear in the sky.
The vultures came down and pecked at the corpses on the ground. The entire battlefield below the city was actually as terrifying as hell on earth.
