At noon, twenty-six kerosene trucks loaded with kerosene finally slowly arrived in front of the battle. The kerosene trucks did not play a big role in this siege operation, because the range was relatively long, and they faced
The city walls were nothing more than rammed earth and stones, and kerosene could not have the effect of burning everything. After the first siege failed, Yang Jun tried to use several kerosene trucks to participate in the second siege.
The city was destroyed, but the result was not ideal. Although a fire was lit at the top of the city, the siege team was unable to attack the city even though the fire was raging. After the flames were extinguished, the city wall was safe and sound, and the rammed earth became even stronger after being burned by the fire.
Yang Jun completely abandoned the idea of fuel trucks participating in the siege. This east-west attack on the mountain and the attack area is small, or the wooden fortress is still effective. It is of little use in the offensive operations of this big city.
.
So this time when Ma Qingshan proposed to use fire to attack the city gate, Yang Jun was actually quite confused. But seeing that Ma Qingshan was resolute and that he had to encourage generals like Ma Qingshan at this time, he decided
Let him have a try.
The war drums sounded, and accompanied by the passionate drumbeats, six thousand shield-bearing soldiers of the Zhou Dynasty lined up in five horizontal lines and advanced towards the city gate. Behind them, hundreds of flat carts loaded with logs were surrounded by twenty-six
Fuel trucks slowly followed.
The city's head reacted quickly. After entering within a hundred and fifty steps of shooting range, the city's feather arrows struck like locusts all over the sky with a buzzing sound. For a time, the entire formation was completely enveloped in this dense
in the rain of arrows.
The soldiers' large shields withstood most of the arrow rain, but the carts and fuel trucks behind them were unstoppable. The cart loaded with logs was instantly filled with arrows. The soldiers pushing the carts huddled under the logs to avoid the arrows.
Rain did not suffer much damage. Those fuel trucks were originally made of thick iron cans, which ordinary bows and arrows could not penetrate at all. At this moment, the arrows hit their shells, clanking like a blacksmith.
The shop is generally lively, but it does not cause any real harm.
The most powerful one is the bed crossbow imitated by the Liao people. Although there are not many in number, there are only a dozen near the city tower. But when the crossbow is as thick as an arm, it will explode the large shields in the hands of the soldiers into sawdust.
Penetrating into the formation, it will shoot wood chips from the cart and leave deep, deformed grooves on the iron tank shell of the kerosene truck.
But overall, the opponent's Zhou soldiers and horses suffered little damage, and they successfully advanced to the city gate and moat.
The formation of soldiers and horses spread out, and more than a hundred carts loaded with logs advanced to the front. The Liao army at the head of the city thought that the opponent was going to use these logs to build bridges, and they were all puzzled. It was clear that many moats on the city walls on both sides had been filled in by them.
, why did they waste such efforts at the city gate? But the next moment they were confused by the behavior of the Zhou soldiers and horses.
Ma Qingshan gave an order, and more than a dozen soldiers held iron hooks and hooked a log about ten feet long and rushed towards the moat. When they reached the river, they shouted and raised their hands, and threw the log about ten feet long across the river from a distance.
The river rolled down the city gate entrance which no longer had a city gate but was completely blocked by sand and gravel.
The soldiers of the Liao army even forgot to release their arrows. They were shocked to guess the opponent's intention, and soon they seemed to understand something.
"Is this... a fire attack? Use these wood to burn the city gates? Are the Zhou people crazy? They tried it once, but they only burned two city gates. Now do this
What's the point?" Everyone in the Liao army was confused. Even Han Desui, who was supervising the battle, was confused.
If it is just a fire attack, then what is there to be afraid of? I am afraid that the other party has some intention that I don't know about. Han Desui couldn't guess, so he could only order the archers to shoot arrows wildly, and the crossbowmen fired one powerful crossbow after another. Shoot towards the city.
Braving the fierce rain of arrows and paying the price of more than 2,000 casualties, thousands of logs were thrown across the river and piled up near the city gate, forming several tall hills.
Twenty-six kerosene trucks came on stage, and water dragons sprayed large amounts of kerosene onto these log hills across the moat. All the kerosene in each truck was emptied until all the kerosene trucks were drained of their last flame. Oil, and then quickly retreated. In the process, more than 2,000 Zhou soldiers were injured or killed.
In more than an hour of launching the attack, no one from the Liao people was injured or killed, but Ma Qingshan had already lost nearly 4,000 people in vain. Many generals in the rear began to curse and began to scold in front of Yang Jun. Yang Jun's face became dark. Ru Shui, although he was very unhappy in his heart, he still wanted to know what would happen if Ma Qingshan paid such a high price. He was not so impatient. The casualties of thousands of soldiers and horses were simply expected.
"Shoot rockets!" Ma Qingshan finally issued the order. A row of archers rushed forward, lit more than a hundred rockets, and fired the first round of arrows from the Zhou soldiers and horses since the attack. The burning arrows were filled with fireworks. The trajectory fell on the logs piled up like a hill. The next moment, raging flames broke out, and the flames rose to form a fire curtain that was more than fifty steps wide, quickly engulfing the area dozens of steps near the city gate.
It can be imagined that kerosene burns violently, and extremely pure kerosene can even cause explosions. Although the refining technology at this time is average, the purity of kerosene is already quite high. This kerosene can even burn on water , let alone attached to a large pile of wood. The fire shot up into the sky, and the highest point of the flames was even more than ten feet high. The height of the entire city wall and the tower was only eight feet high, so the entire tower was completely swallowed up by the flames.
The city tower and the Liao troops on both sides evacuated immediately, because the fire was so fierce that the skin would be burnt and the meat would be crispy within a few dozen steps, making it impossible to stand. Therefore, they had to leave immediately, otherwise they would be melted in the fire.
Until the fire broke out, Han Desui did not understand the other party's intention. Although such a fire was fierce, what could it do? At most, it would burn down the city tower, but would it burn down the city wall? This is probably impossible. The entire city wall is It is made of glutinous rice soup mixed with Sanhe soil and rammed. This is the strongest rammed earth method. It is waterproof and fireproof, and it is difficult to shake. Other parts of the city wall were also burned with kerosene before, but the more they were burned, the stronger they became. The burned ones became stronger. On the contrary, the ground became more solid. The generals of the Zhou Dynasty wanted to use this method, but they were probably wishful thinking.
The soldiers and horses on both sides of the city, both attacking and defending, stayed away from the raging fire. Ma Qingshan had already ordered the soldiers and horses to withdraw out of the opponent's bow and arrow range. Hundreds of thousands of people above and below the city just stared blankly at the sky at the city gate. The fire was in a daze, not knowing what would happen in the end.
Logs that are completely wet with kerosene take a long time to burn. The logs are piled into a hill and take a long time to burn out. What's more, kerosene is added to them, which increases the burning time. This
The fire burned from late noon to sunset. Smoke and dust billowed above the south gate of the entire Xijin Prefecture, and the birds were extinct.
, the unbearable scorching heat can be felt within a hundred steps. The half-collapsed tower above the south gate of the entire Xijin Mansion was completely unable to withstand the burning and baking of the fire. Half an hour after the fire started,
It had already collapsed. All the wooden pillars, doors and windows inside had long been turned into fly ash. The stone pillars were burned and collapsed.
But as the flames gradually became smaller and extinguished, when people saw the dark city wall near the city gate again, they found that except for being burnt black, the city gate wall was still standing and seemed undamaged.
Han Desui breathed a long sigh of relief. Although he had known for a long time that burning the city wall with fire would be useless, he was still a little worried after all. Until the results came out, it was clear that the entire city wall had withstood the test of fire for several hours and was still standing. Han Desui felt very happy in his heart.
Forget it.
On the side of the Zhou soldiers and horses, doubts continued. When the flames were almost extinguished and nothing happened, the generals finally started to criticize Ma Qingshan for his misfortune. Some people were gloating about his misfortune and thought: You
This officer-in-command was promoted very quickly and was probably dismissed very quickly. He was afraid that he would soon have to meet Han Gang in the Zhuozhou prison cell.
Even Yang Jun lost his temper and sent the generals of the Guards Camp to inquire. Ma Qingshan only said a few words to the generals of the Guards Camp.
"Please go back and report to the marshal, general, and ask the marshal to order the cavalry to prepare for the charge. As for the general and your three thousand brothers in the guard battalion, it is time for you to show off your skills. Soon you will be the first echelon to attack the city.
"My advice to you is that everyone should put on wet clothes, the horses must be sprayed with water, and the horses' hooves must be wrapped in thick leather pads to be prepared to protect them from the high temperature."
The general was stunned and speechless, and quickly went back to report. Yang Jun was confused, but ordered him to follow Ma Qingshan's words. Because Yang Jun heard it, the real show started now.
As the sun sets over the mountains, the sky takes on a solemn color. In the twilight, the embers of the fire at the city gate are particularly bright in the night wind. Just when the Liao people thought that the Zhou people's burning strategy was in vain, they would surely die out.
At this moment, the thundering drums of the war drums sounded suddenly outside the city.
The Liao army guarding the city was crying without tears. Even the eighteen generations of ancestors of the Zhou soldiers and horses were scolded in their hearts. Why don't you let people stop? After spending an afternoon, they still want to attack the city? Have you done anything?
Wrong? The Liao army almost went crazy.
The kerosene truck appeared again. This time, there was no kerosene in the kerosene truck. It was filled with dozens of trucks full of water. There was no need to provide special cover because the hot people near the city gate could not get close, and the Liao archers could not get close.
It was impossible to get close enough to fire arrows. A few scattered arrows were shot from the side, but they no longer posed much of a threat. Everyone watched helplessly as the oil trucks approached the moat, and then dozens of water dragons began to shoot towards them.
Water began to accumulate near the city gate.
"What are you doing? Are the Zhou people really crazy? They set fires in the morning, and now they put out the fires? Haha, it's really interesting. If you can't capture the city, you don't have to work so hard." The Liao soldiers looked at each other and thought, feeling strange and
And funny.
However, what happened in front of them soon stunned them. Dozens of water jets from water dragons fell into the city gate opening, and the city walls hissed, and white mist rose into the sky. At first, everyone did not take it seriously.
, thinking that this was just the mist caused by cold water meeting the hot wall, which was also a normal phenomenon. But soon, they realized that things were not that simple.
