The Jurchen army's attack began in the early morning of the next day. The original Jurchen plan was to wait for the arrival of the next batch of black oil bombs, bombard and burn the four cities of Bianliang City for multiple rounds, destroy all the defenses of Bianliang city walls, and further
It will destroy the opponent's confidence in defending the city and destroy the will of the opponent's soldiers and civilians to defend the city. However, to reach that level, it is probably necessary to wait for at least half a month for the additional ammunition to be transported to the battlefield. It may even take longer.
As the weather gets warmer, the snow after the New Year will melt quickly. At this time, there is no telling when the glacier will freeze, and supplies will not be able to pass through the ice at Baima Ferry. By then, pontoons or bridges will have to be built.
Crossing the river by boat is extremely troublesome.
In addition, the Liao army in Taiyuan Prefecture has lost contact for two days. Since the Jurchen army arrived in Gyeonggi, the Liao city defenders have been sending messages almost every day to urge the Jurchen army to speed up their actions, saying that they can no longer withstand it.
The Northwestern Army of the Zhou Dynasty attacked. But in the past two days, they suddenly lost news, which made Wanyan Agu very worried. Wanyan Agu believed that there was a high possibility that Taiyuan Prefecture had been lost and the Liao army had been destroyed.
, so no news came. If that is the case, it means that the northwest army of the Zhou Dynasty will soon arrive in Bianliang for reinforcements. This view of Wanyan Agu was also supported by many generals.
In view of the above situation, Wanyan Agu and his military advisor Li Guoqiu discussed it and decided to launch a formal siege immediately to avoid changes. In fact, the time to attack the city was ripe. The entire defensive system on the walls of the North City was basically destroyed. Now only
The tall and bare city wall is left. Now the attack has fewer threats and obstacles than the siege at the beginning. The opponent has also suffered a major blow in terms of morale and confidence. It is time to fight with real swords and guns.
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The Zhou soldiers and horses who were left behind at the head of Fengqiu Gate saw the Jurchen army fully mobilized in the cold wind at dawn. The Jurchen soldiers and horses, as dark as the tide, did not send out any horns or shouts of death. They kept their heads down and shrank.
shoulder, rushing towards the city without a sound. The warning horn sound from the city head quickly spread throughout the entire North City, and they were stationed outside Lixu to prevent the large number of Zhou soldiers and horses who would attack with black oil bombs from quickly making a move.
React, immediately rush to the city wall to fight.
Fortunately, the moat of Bianliang City is almost the deepest and widest moat among all the cities in the Zhou Dynasty. The Jurchens cannot fly over the moat and reach the city wall with their wings, so the reaction time of the Zhou city defenders to board the city is still enough.
In this way, when nearly 60,000 imperial troops ascended to the top of the city, the Jurchens' siege troops had already begun to build a passage on the other side of the moat.
The defenders at the top of the city were raining down arrows, and the Jurchen archers who were building tunnels under the city showed no signs of weakness and shot countless arrows at the top of the city. After losing the protection of the battlements and the firepower of a large number of arrow towers and crossbows,
, the defenders of the Great Zhou Dynasty can use
The only way to resist the enemy was to use bows and arrows. Less than sixty or seventy bed crossbows were brought to the city again, but compared with the fierce firepower of as many as seven to eight hundred bed crossbows before, they were nothing to mention.
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The casualties on both sides were heavy. There were no bunkers on the bare city wall, and the only advantage was the condescending terrain. Generally speaking, with the obstruction of the moat, the Jurchen soldiers and horses still became living targets for the defenders at the top of the city. A large number of them were used along the river.
The people who built the wooden raft passage were shot and killed in large numbers. But the soldiers and horses at the head of the city also saw the clues. Those who were carrying mud bags and wood to fill the river were not Jurchens. Some of them were young and strong men, and some were
There were old men with gray beards and some even grown women. They were all dressed in rags and looked very embarrassed. They seemed to be the people of the Zhou Dynasty who had been forced to the front line by the Jurchens.
This is indeed the case. These people are all refugees from the Zhou Dynasty captured by Wanyan Agu. A large number of northern refugees gathered in Gyeonggi, but they were not allowed to enter Bianliang City. A large number of people gathered in Bianliang City before.
Near Liangcheng, many of them had defected to the Jurchen army. Wanyan Agu sent people to drive away these refugees and imprisoned them. He selected 30,000 of them as cannon fodder during the siege, and his main responsibilities were
It is to fill in the passage on the moat. Of course these people do not want to go to the battlefield, but they have no choice. They are now desperate and there is no way to survive at all. If they refuse to work for the Jurchens, they will be killed immediately, and they
Their families, parents, wives, and children will all be killed. When the despicable Jurchens choose these people, they always select one or two people from a family, so that the lives of their parents, wives, and children can be used as a reason to force them.
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Wanyan Agu swore to the sky that they would complete their mission as long as the army built a passage on the moat. If they died on the battlefield, he would take good care of their families and would never let them
Their families are suffering from cold and starvation. If they can come back alive, everyone will be happy. I will give them freedom, give them money, food and clothing, and let them leave on their own, wherever they want. Although such a promise seems very false, but for the sake of
In this last slim hope of life, in order for their parents, wives, and children to survive, these people have to choose to believe in this and take a chance on this slim chance. If they die, at least their death will allow their families to live. Otherwise,
, in fact, there is no way for the family to survive. If they are lucky enough to return alive, they can be reunited with their families, and they can also get help to escape from here. For this last hope, many people are still willing to take a chance. Of course, they have no other choice.
, because in front of them, a dozen Dazhou people who were unwilling to be cannon fodder were chopped to death, as well as their entire family, and even a two-year-old child was chopped into two pieces. The Jurchens were not so cruel.
Just what you say.
More than 30,000 people rushed to the most dangerous front line carrying mud bags, logs, and carts piled with rocks and mud bags. They had no armor or any protection, and some only had flesh and blood to meet the city.
Killed by a hail of arrows. The defenders at the head of the city did not show mercy because they were common people of the Zhou Dynasty, but because their action of filling the river was the most critical node in the siege, and they were the group of people who attracted the most hatred. Therefore,
Most of the arrows were directed at these people. Thirty percent of the 30,000 people were killed in less than half an hour. These people will never be able to be reunited with their families and parents. As the Great Zhou
The common people used to be the luckiest group of people, but now they are the most miserable group of people.
At the cost of the death of cannon fodder, the process of filling in the embankments in the moat was not slow. An hour into the siege, the first channel filled with sandbags, stones and wooden rafts had taken shape. It was seven feet wide.
The moat of Bianliang City, which is 1.8 feet deep, had to be filled up with mud-packed rocks and cartloads of stones by the people of the Zhou Dynasty, driven by the Jurchens. Most of the other twenty passages were completed. The moat was
The breakthrough was already unstoppable. But by this time, 30,000 cannon fodder had died and less than 8,000 people remained.
But this was nothing to Wanyan Aguda. The second batch of 20,000 Zhou people were driven in as reinforcements. These people were even some of the parents, brothers, wives and children of the 30,000 cannon fodder. Complete
How could Yan Agu keep his promise? Even if all the Zhou people died, they would still fill the moat with their corpses.
As noon approached, the first stage of the siege finally came to an end after the ebbing retreat of the Jurchens. Because all the siege passages on the twenty-three moats had been built. The purpose of the first stage of the attack had been achieved. Under the city wall,
In the moat, corpses covered the water like duckweeds. On the embankments and along the river banks, there were dead corpses everywhere. Most of them were cannon fodder who were forced to go to the battlefield. A total of 50,000 people were forced to go to the battlefield. They were still alive.
Less than 12,000 people returned. The rest all died on the battlefield. In fact, these people died very sadly. They did not even belong to any party in this battle. They were abandoned by the Zhou court, and now they were
The Jurchens forced them to die in an unclear manner, without any dignity or integrity, but this is the tragedy of ordinary people in troubled times. They just want to live, and they want themselves and their families to survive, but it is obvious
, this is the most extravagant idea.
The Zhou city guards suffered more than 4,000 casualties, and the Jurchen army suffered more than 6,000 casualties. If calculated based on the number of casualties, the Forbidden Army of the Zhou Dynasty seemed to have won. But in terms of strategic goals, the Jurchens were actually the victors.
The moat has been breached, and the next round of attack will be a fierce siege of the city.
Bianliang City was finally about to face its first real attack in a century.
