Under the Liaoyang Mansion in Tokyo, the autumn wind makes everything become bleak and gloomy. The originally vibrant wilderness with lush vegetation has turned into a gray color at this moment, making it appear that the earth is vast and the mountains and fields are endless. In the lonely frosty sky, everything
They are all heading towards withering and death. How can people be immune to this if the vegetation is like this?
Half a million Liao troops have been gathering in the wilderness outside Liaoyang Prefecture from Zhongjing Road a month ago. Yelu Zongyuan used almost all the troops and horses that the Liao State could mobilize to gather them here. This time his goal
It is to completely eliminate this henchman, this Jurchen tribe that has made it difficult for him to sleep and eat after he came to the throne. This Jurchen tribe that has almost led him to destruction. He wants to capture Wanyan Aguda, the leader of the Jurchen tribe, alive, and he must put this Jurchen tribe into danger.
The rebel who forced himself into a desperate situation was torn into pieces and his bones were scattered to ashes.
In order to ensure victory, Yelu Zongyuan was not in a hurry to attack. He knew Wanyan Agu's great ability. He knew the Jurchens' fighting power. Although the opponent had less than 200,000 troops, Yelu Zongyuan did not feel contempt for him.
In his heart, Yelu Zongyuan knew that he only had this one chance. Daliao could not afford a major defeat. Once such an all-out annihilation battle failed, he, Yelu Zongyuan, would completely lose everything. Don't look at it. Now everyone in Daliao seems to share the same hatred.
, it seemed that the Southern Zhou Dynasty was very high-spirited and high-spirited after surrendering. But in fact, Yelu Zongyuan himself understood that underneath this appearance was an undercurrent, a dangerous shoal, and an extremely dangerous situation.
Those tribal leaders harped on their methods of digging dams to release floods to block the enemy. Yelu Zongyuan knew the dissatisfaction they expressed behind their backs. Moreover, even Prime Minister Han Yanshou did not stand on their side on the matter and expressed it to him face to face.
They were dissatisfied. The tribe's 200,000 cavalry coalition was now the main force at hand. How could Yelu Zongyuan not know about all these dangers? Yelu Zongyuan could only compromise with them. Under the current situation, he could only keep making promises.
Agree to their unreasonable demands to coax them into sharing the same enemy with him. Yelu Zongyuan not only wants to defeat the Jurchens, but also wants to use this battle to severely defeat the tribal coalition and weaken their strength. After annihilating the Jurchens, he will start a war against the Zhou Dynasty without stopping.
, he will never give these guys who are dissatisfied with him a chance to attack, he will drain their troops and make them unable to resist. After the situation is stable, it is time for him to deal with these guys one by one.
Of course, all the prerequisites are based on victory. He must not only win, but also achieve his ulterior goals. This is enough for Yelu Zongyuan to rack his brains and exhaust his efforts.
The army of 500,000 troops was assembled one after another in early September. On the outskirts of Liaoyang Prefecture, the company camp composed of 500,000 troops stretched for more than 20 miles, forming a semicircular encirclement along the wilderness on both sides of the Liao River. It had a radius of more than 20 miles.
The wilderness there was densely packed with tents, with flags covering the sky and sun, bonfires burning all night long, the dust of people and horses rising up, and large areas of the sky turning gray.
Every day, the food, water and firewood consumed by so many soldiers and horses is enough for a logistics force of 3,000 carts and 2,000 pack horses to shuttle between camps day and night to supply the army. Every day
Sunlight consumes materials and the silver taels costs up to 250,000 taels. War is a war, and this saying is absolutely true.
Even under such circumstances, in order to ensure that he could capture Liaoyang Prefecture in one fell swoop, Yelu Zongyuan still did not announce the siege in a hurry. He still gritted his teeth and waited for twenty days.
The arrival of a large number of captured catapults, cloud-carts and other heavy siege equipment. Because of the long distance, these captured siege equipment had to be transported from
The Jin Mansion was transported here by carriage and horse. The road was high and the water was far away, and the equipment was extremely heavy. It was really an extremely difficult task. Yelv Zongyuan wished that they could arrive in a few days, but that was
It was absolutely impossible. It was also the first time that Yelu Zongyuan felt that his land in Daliao was too vast, so vast that he even disliked it.
Some people suggested that these siege equipment should be made locally, and the province would transport them all the way from Xijin Prefecture. It is not that Yelu Zongyuan has never tried it. However, even if there are models in front of you, it is not possible to imitate these siege equipment.
Just talk about it. This is not as simple as cutting a wooden stick of the same shape. These things must be useful when attacking a city. Taking the catapult with a relatively simple structure as an example, just letting these catapults
It is not a simple thing for a cart to throw stones, and it can reach hundreds of steps. The core components of Dazhou's catapults are made of iron, so that they can withstand the huge impact when thrown. Wooden materials are used to throw stones.
It is impossible to make do with axes, and the result of shoddy manufacturing is not only that the manufactured catapult cannot achieve the purpose of siege, but also wastes manpower and material resources.
This is true for catapults, let alone those well-made cloud-climbing vehicles that are not afraid of bows, arrows and rocket attacks. These things cannot be made simply by knocking them out of wood. The army made two imitations, which cost thousands of dollars.
Thousands of people spent two days. However, the thing built was neither fish nor fowl. After pushing for more than ten feet, it fell to the ground due to the unstable center of gravity. And obviously, without the protection of the iron shell, there was a problem whether it could be pushed completely under the city wall of Liaoyang City.
.In view of this, Yelu Zongyuan quickly decided to give up this stupid attempt. These things naturally have to be created, but they cannot be found out in a short time now. It is more serious to build them slowly in the future. At this moment,
We can only use stupid methods to slowly transport a large number of siege equipment captured from far away in Xijin Mansion.
The reason why Yelu Zongyuan made such careful preparations was naturally because he did not want to lose his battle. The ministers and generals all held an extremely optimistic attitude. They believed that if 500,000 people attacked the city and swarmed up, the city would be destroyed.
There is no need for any siege equipment. But Yelu Zongyuan knew the ability of the Jurchens. The Jurchens are invincible if they are less than a hundred. This is a folk nursery rhyme that has been circulating in the Liao Kingdom recently. The reason why these words appeared is precisely
In the past few years, when he led his army to exterminate the Jurchens, he had suffered constant defeats. The Jurchens were victorious everywhere, and finally such a nursery rhyme appeared. In the battle of Liaoyang Prefecture last year, the Jurchens defeated themselves with less than 50,000 troops.
The Liaoyang Mansion was defended by 200,000 troops and horses, forcing him to abandon the Liaoyang Mansion. To this day, Yelv Zongyuan still remembers the terror of the Jurchens' fighting power.
There are 200,000 Jurchen defenders in the Liaoyang Mansion in front of me. Such a large number of Jurchen soldiers and horses. If you don't pay attention to them, you will be asking for death. Not only that, the Liaoyang Mansion in front of you is no longer the Liaoyang Mansion you know.
The first time they rode their horses to observe Liaoyang Mansion on the slope outside the city, they were so shocked that they almost couldn't shut up. After the Jurchens quickly withdrew from Zhongjing Road to Liaoyang Mansion, they began to renovate and strengthen Liaoyang Mansion for a month.
In a short period of time, the entire Liaoyang Mansion has become a city like a wild beast with teeth and claws, and has been completely transformed from beginning to end by the Jurchens.
Not to mention the reinforcement and defense system of the city of Liaoyang Mansion itself, just looking at the periphery of the city, we can already see how much effort the Jurchens have made during this period. The surrounding area of Liaoyang Mansion is originally a vast land, but
Now, for no reason, there are three more ditches more than two feet wide surrounding Liaoyang Mansion. Liaoyang Mansion is like three more moats, surrounded by four ditches including the moat under the city itself.
, forming a concentric circle of protection.
Although Liaoyang Prefecture is not as big as Xijin Prefecture and Dading Prefecture, it is still a large city six or seven miles long and wide. As the capital of Daliao, the significance of its existence is not only as a political office in the eastern part of Daliao, but also as a political office in the eastern part of Daliao.
It existed as a fortress for the Liao Kingdom to strengthen its rule over the Jurchen and other tribes in the east. Through the power radiated by Liaoyang Mansion and the surrounding cities, it was possible to effectively detect and suppress the changes of the eastern tribes. Through the troops and administrative forces stationed in Liaoyang Mansion,
, can effectively control the territory under the jurisdiction of Liaodong at any time, and exist as a base to suppress rebellion when necessary. Because of this, Liaoyang Mansion is the largest city in Liaodong, and the scale of the city is naturally not small.
For such a large city, the Jurchens actually dug three outer moats, and the cost can be imagined. It seems that the Jurchens are determined to defend Liaoyang Mansion.
But in fact, the three protective ditches dug on the outside seem to have little impact on the siege. This point has also been discussed within Daliao. After all, these protective ditches are in addition to the firepower support of the city wall.
, it is obviously unwise to spend a lot of effort to dig these three ditches. Once an attack is launched, the Liao soldiers and horses will quickly set up attack channels on these ditches, which will only take a while at most. Do the Jurchens still dare to rely on these ditches?
Is it possible to refuse to defend? In short, the meaning of what they did seems to be somewhat unclear. Yelu Zongyuan was also very confused about this.
However, compared to the three ditches about two feet wide on the outside, the reinforcement and transformation of the city itself was what Yelu Zongyuan was really worried about.
The Liaoyang Mansion in front of him is no longer the Liaoyang Mansion that Yelu Zongyuan is familiar with. Last year, when Yelu Zongyuan led an army of 200,000 to station in Liaoyang Mansion and fight against Wanyan Agu, he could not be more clear about the layout of Liaoyang Mansion. Although the city
The walls are high, but the scale is limited. However, the current Liaoyang Mansion has changed beyond recognition. When Yelu Zongyuan saw the outline of the city for the first time, he could hardly recognize it.
However, the originally three-foot-wide moat outside the city has now been widened to four feet wide. The water from the tributary of the Liao River can be used as a moat. Now this tributary has almost caught up with the width of the Liao River itself. And because it is running water, so
The water is flowing, unlike the moats of other cities where the water is stationary. This will cause a lot of trouble when attacking the city. I am afraid that ordinary methods will not be effective. Since it has been widened, I am afraid it will also be dug a lot deeper.
, this is definitely a big trouble when attacking a city.
That's all. The walls of the entire city seem to be taller than before. The crenellations of the city wall have also been raised to more than one person's height. There is a towering watchtower every dozens of steps on the city wall, and many more protrude outside the city wall.
The additional platform. This is equivalent to making the defense system of the entire city wall more three-dimensional. The platform allows the city wall to play a role in broadening, allowing more space for the garrison and rotation of the defenders, allowing the opponent to gain more
The defensive materials of the city. The construction of these watchtowers will undoubtedly allow the Jurchen archers to attack unscrupulously without having to worry about the threat of the powerful suppressive power of the siege forces below the city.
In short, when he observed the situation inside and outside the city of Liaoyang Prefecture from the telescope, Yelv Zongyuan no longer had any intention of slacking off. He knew that Wanyan Aguda was ready to defend the Liaoyang Prefecture to the death.
, I must be cautious and careful, and never underestimate the enemy. Although I have an army of 500,000, which is more than double that of my opponent. However, if I am leading 500,000 wolves, the opponent is 200,000.
A tiger, not two hundred thousand lambs. If you are not careful, it will be an irreversible outcome.
