The cavalry passed by, and the autumn waves touched the mountains and returned.
In the late twelfth month of the twelfth lunar month, the Song army suddenly changed from slowness to urgency, and became more numerous. The speed of its advance and the scale of its troops shocked all the Jin defenders in the Taiyuan Basin, so that they had no time to make a systematic response and were easily defeated by the Song army. It was divided and surrounded by various cities, and it took only eight days and nights for the Zhao Song official's own Long Huang to reach Taiyuan City, the heart of the Taiyuan Basin.
Suddenly a large army came to the city, and the Jin army in the city could not help but panic.
At this time, the defender Wanyan turned to the brave general and led hundreds of cavalry to stand out and return from the formation, greatly stabilizing the morale of the army in the city.
There is no doubt about the victory of this surprise battle... The Jin army only had more than 700 cavalry. They seized the gap between the Song army's cavalry and the infantry formation's foothold before it was stable, and carried out a surprise attack. They killed more than 400 to 500 people, but suffered no loss of their own. Just more than seventy riders.
What's more, before most of them retreated, they were once pushed to a distance of two to three hundred steps in front of Long Yan, the official of Zhao Song Dynasty.
This is not a big victory. What is a big victory?
However, the Song Army did not have a very disheartening view of this battle... First of all, it means that in such a big scene, a battle of this scale is not of much significance. These losses are compared with the attrition caused by forced marches in the middle of winter. Secondly, most of the casualties caused by the Jurchen cavalry were Japanese samurai who had just arrived. It is difficult for any sergeant in any system to have any sense of identity with these samurai. Even the imperial guards are the most common. Just shout 'a good man who doesn't care about his life', and then let it go.
In the end, isn't this a gain of seventy or eighty cavalry? In the eyes of quite a few middle-level officers, this is not a loss.
However, these are considerations for the middle and lower levels. For the highest level of the Song Army, this battle revealed some other information.
First of all, under the attack of such a large scale and speed by the Song army, Wanyan's attitude was clearly revealed by this powerful attack, which was completely different from Wanyan's Salihe on the west bank of Fen River.
Secondly, Taiyuan City, especially the three gates outside Taiyuan City, is really difficult... At that time, although the Japanese samurai's raid failed, it undoubtedly gave the scattered Song Army cavalry time to assemble. The more than seventy cavalry The victory was also achieved by these Song Army cavalry.
However, when these Jurchen cavalry realized the problem and struggled to escape immediately, and followed the passage reserved by the sheep and horses wall to the corner of Guancheng and the city wall, the hunting had to stop. The Song army even It was impossible to kill the enemy with the help of the divine arm bow... because the Jurchen cavalry entered directly from the passage between Guancheng and the city gate, which was a dead spot for shooting. However, the powerful crossbows on Guancheng threatened the pursuers.
In the end, the Song army could only watch the Jin army turn back to the city, but there was nothing they could do.
"The most terrible thing is to close the city. It covers the city gate and turns weakness into strength."
"Furthermore, Guancheng is so big that it covers half of the city wall. I just guessed that the giant crossbows on the corners of Guancheng should be intertwined with the giant crossbows on the corners. No matter where you attack, you can't escape. …”
In the evening of that day, in the hurriedly set up camp of the Song Army, Zhao Guanjia, who had already put on his armor, was holding an exaggerated Japanese longbow and playing with it with great interest in the open space next to the Chinese army's tent. At the same time, Some military officers who had backgrounds in martial arts and Ban Zhi were summoned at this time, and they were arguing slightly nervously and seriously. Han and Li were not there, but Wang Yan was in charge of the ceremony, and many close ministers were watching and participating.
Moreover, these people, including Zhao Guanjia himself, were not idle all afternoon before. After the situation was under control, basic investigation was indispensable. Although Zhao Guanjia himself rejected Han Shizhong's proposal to carry the Wei army to escort him, he still tried to comfort him.
After defeating the Japanese warriors, he took his dragon robe and circled the city far away, only to turn back just now as a gesture.
With the official family being like this, the officers of the various ministries in the city could not help but be a little attentive. However, no one expected that the Zhao official family did not immediately summon the commanders and commanders to discuss the military situation. Instead, they suddenly summoned a group of officers from various ministries who had been in the imperial court.
Come and ask about city defense.
"Crossfire."
Zhao Jiu muttered silently in his heart, but just kept silent and went to play with the longbow in his hand. Only when he got it did he realize that the Japanese longbow was not symmetrical, which undoubtedly aroused his interest... Anyway, this guy
The officials are also considered experts in playing with bows, but they are not good at actual combat.
"The Sheep and Horse Wall is also fully installed, basically encircling the city." Someone else said. "But from a distance, it should be newly built by the defenders in the city."
"Not only is the Sheep and Horse Wall, there is a moat across the Sheep and Horse Wall, and there is also an outer trench and a deer village." Another person mentioned. "And the passages are also more complicated. I saw with my own eyes today that the Jin Army was in Guancheng
I touched it in under the guidance of the flag."
"There are also artillery carriages." Another person spoke. "Previously, the Prince of Anhua County (who was named after Wang Zhen) used to make artillery for the first time in this city... Wanyan took over the city defense for more than forty days, and there was no reason not to follow suit.
Therefore, I guess that there should already be artillery positions in the east, south, and north triangles of the city at this time, but there is no need to set up a demonstration today. But once we set up artillery positions nearby, we have fallen into his plan...
…”
"If this is the case, although the officials have always taken the risk of arrows, they must not be in front of the battle easily this time."
Just when the discussion was gradually gaining some momentum, Ren Baozhong, who was in charge of military affairs among the close ministers, suddenly turned around and bowed respectfully to Zhao Guan's house in a serious manner. This caught everyone on the side off guard and interrupted the rhythm of the discussion.
Of course, after being caught off guard, everyone below Wang Yan was speechless, but they couldn't help pinching their noses and quickly echoing... But everyone also knows that this Taiyuan City is different from Nanyang City and Tokyo City. Although the city is dangerous, the city wall
Its scale is limited, and the core main city wall is a rammed earth wall, which makes it impossible for artillery carts to climb the wall. Moreover, the Jurchens should also lack the technology of small artillery carts, so as long as the Zhao Guan family is not stupid enough to run against the wall to keep up, they will never do it.
If there is such a thing... Renbao Zhongzhen will find a way to show his loyalty.
The topic was raised, and Zhao Jiu finally smiled and said, but still playing with the bow: "I know, I will just watch you in the camp and wait for the city to be destroyed, and I will never take any risks."
Everyone hurriedly said yes, feeling relieved, but they came back to their senses and continued the discussion, but they couldn't help but get to the point early because of Zhao Guan's words about breaking the city. At this time, the words were very dry.
Because it is really difficult to break the city.
"Therefore, if you want to break the city, you must use artillery and carts to attack each other layer by layer. First, destroy the city wall, then wipe out the deer village, fill in the trenches, and maybe even fill in the moat. Finally, you can use artillery and carts to attack each other, and win by sheer force."
After some discussion, Wang Yan tried to summarize.
"So, does Taiyuan City have no weaknesses?" At this moment, Zhao Jiu suddenly interrupted again while playing with his longbow. "Look, this city has gates on three sides, isn't it missing one side? And if according to your rules According to the statement, the inner city of the city is adjacent to the west and north, and the artillery car cannot be moved to the northwest corner... Why can't the city be attacked from the west?"
Everyone paused for a moment, then looked at each other in confusion.
Afterwards, Wang Yan couldn't hide, so he could only take the initiative to explain: "So that the officials know that there is indeed no Guancheng to the west of Taiyuan City, and it is impossible to set up artillery carts in the northwest corner. Not only that, but there are also guns under the west wall of Taiyuan City." There is only one sheep and horse wall, which does not extend much. Even the forts on the wall are much smaller than the other three walls... But to the west, only a hundred steps outside the city is the Fenshui River. It is freezing cold now. The Fenshui River is safe to pass, but there may be a risk of thawing in at least ten days. By then, the west of Taiyuan City is the safest place in Taiyuan City... It is not impossible for the officials to take the risk and try it from the west, but we don't have it. We have ready-made siege equipment, but I’m afraid it will be too late.”
Zhao Jiu shook his head with a smile, but he didn't know whether it was because he was pretending to be profound, or because he was happy because he finally found the long bow in his hand and pulled it away.
"Could it be that the officials want to cut off the Fen River?" Ren Baozhong thought for a moment and asked seriously. "While the weather is cold, dig a river channel around the outside first. Once the ice melts, the original river channel will be cut off. Can we turn the river into a smooth road, set up a position from the west, and launch artillery to attack the city?"
Wang Yan and others were thoughtful, and after a while, many people seemed to be moved, and they soon started to agree... Obviously, although this method sounds stupid and a waste of manpower, But in front of Taiyuan City, a military fortress with almost no blind spots, it seems to be quite maneuverable.
Zhao Guanjia did not answer the question in a hurry, because after studying for a long time, he finally held the lower third of the Japanese long bow and opened the bow properly. Taira Kiyomori, who had not dared to say anything or interrupt, was even more excited. An arrow was hurriedly handed over.
Then Zhao Guanjia bent his bow and nocked an arrow, and spread the bowstring towards a piece of earth fortress a few dozen steps in front of him. Then he looked thoughtfully at the arrow that penetrated deeply into the earth fortress.
And this shot also attracted a lot of people's attention.
"What do you think of this Japanese bow?" Zhao Jiu turned around and asked a question that was obviously off topic.
But who makes people official?
As for talking about how the bow is, everyone present is an expert, and they can understand the inner meaning at a glance. However, due to their status, it may not be their turn to answer the question.
"I think this bow still has some merits." Wang Yan was already a little anxious, but he could only answer with his hand. "A close shot, in terms of damage alone, is comparable to the Jurchen's hard bow and heavy arrows, but in actual combat But it is far inferior to the Jurchen bow..."
"Is it because the bow is too long, or is it made of bamboo?" Zhao Jiu couldn't ask further.
"Both." Wang Yan said with a slightly depressed expression. "The bow is too long, making it inconvenient to draw the bow. If you want to ejaculate immediately, you will most likely need to hone your bow skills from a young age to make it cheaper. As for the bow made of bamboo and wood, , fighting at close range, the horns and iron tires of the Jurchen's hard bow can block swords, but this sun bow can be cut off easily."
"Not bad." Zhao Jiu sighed and handed the bow to Taira Kiyomori beside him. "This bow is not useless, but it is not used here because it has a hard bow with horns and iron tires for close range shooting. How can we use the divine arm bow? Just like today's warriors, their loyalty and bravery are commendable, but they don't have heavy armor, but here we have Zhajia in power, so their courage can only be idle. But we can’t laugh at others. When the Jurchen heavy armor cavalry came out, we were helpless at first. Finally, we slowly found a way out, using heavy armor against heavy armor, powerful crossbows against heavy bows, and long axes against cavalry... …Whenever something comes out, it will only work very well at first. As time goes by, you will get used to it sooner or later.”
Everyone became more and more confused.
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"Today, the most fundamental thing in attacking a city is artillery, right?" Zhao Jiu continued to ask. "Once the artillery is launched, it is only time for any city, and the countermeasures in the city are mostly to use artillery to make artillery, so that's right." no?"
"right."
"yes."
Wang Yan and Ren Baozhong spoke almost at the same time.
"This is what I mean." Zhao Jiu finally turned around and gave a conclusion. "Taiyuan City is not an ordinary city, it is the center of the entire Hedong. Once it is captured, the land of Hedong will be safe, no matter what the cost. It's worth it. You can try any method... In fact, this is one of the reasons why I rushed to the city so quickly at any cost... Dear Sirs, I want to break the city, and I want to break the city quickly, otherwise , why did I come so quickly?"
Not to mention the young officers, almost everyone around them was hesitant to speak. However, Wang Yan, who had the most awkward temper among them, first frowned and then looked thoughtful.
"There are about 30,000 to 40,000 people in the camp now. Ma Jiedu is supposed to arrive tomorrow. Wu Dutong doesn't know when he will arrive... Let's rely on manpower... Let's fire the artillery first, starting from the south of the city under our feet. , this matter will be left to Wang Qing to handle!" Zhao Jiu ordered.
"Yes!" Wang Yan suddenly became energetic.
"If the manpower exceeds 50,000, set up siege positions at the same time, burn the deer stronghold, fill in the trenches, and destroy the sheep and horse walls...Start from the west and destroy it. When it is time to persuade surrender, when it is time to conduct night attacks and night attacks...Renqing, you will be responsible."
"Here." Ren Baozhong was overjoyed.
"If the manpower exceeds 100,000, we will fire artillery from three sides at the same time...At that time, the north of the city will be given to the Yan'an County Prince, and the east of the city will be given to Li Jiedu."
"yes."
"If we can still have more manpower, we can dig a river channel in the west of the city to prepare for the thaw of the river and attack the city from the west." As he said that, Zhao Guan's family looked at a strange candidate. "When the time comes, Yang Qing, you will take charge of this matter. "
Yang Yizhong was startled for a moment, and then he handed over his hand: "I know."
Wang Yan and Ren Baozhong were both stunned for a moment, and then they each seemed to realize something, but they just didn't say anything.
A strange meeting, from the results point of view, there seems to be no problem, judging from the manpower saturation attack, but it is a bit unreasonable to finalize the organization of the siege without even the participation of several Jiedu and military veterans. It seems that some Zhao Guan family members are too hands-on.
The incident spread that night, and many senior generals below Wang De had complaints and doubts.
There were even bolder Jinshi who accompanied the army and wrote a memorial, urging the Zhao family not to imitate the story of Emperor Taizong of this dynasty, but to trust the generals more and not to use close ministers... This is of course just a scrap.
In fact, there are more and more reliable rumors. A popular saying is that it is not that Zhao Guanjia cannot trust the commanders, but that he is waiting for Wu Jie, the rear army of the imperial camp, to encounter a big scene. In essence, officials still trust Wu Jiedu more. Even Prince Han and Li Jiedu have known this for a long time, so they did not say anything... Before Wu Jiedu arrived, It doesn't matter if these initial preparations are left to the ministers.
But this kind of gossip is not worth mentioning, especially starting from the next day, with the issuance of the imperial edict, artillery and siege of the city really began.
Moreover, as the number of soldiers and horses increased, the movement of siege positions became larger and larger, and everyone became busy.
Zhao Guanjia arrived at the city on the 23rd of the twelfth lunar month. That night there were 40,000 people in the city.
On the 24th of the twelfth lunar month, as Ma Kuo arrived and more and more stragglers and civilians arrived, the number of sergeants and civilians under the city reached 70,000. Therefore, almost at the same time, Wang Yan officially arrived in the north of the city. Workshops were set up, artillery positions were set up, large-scale logging was carried out, and artillery was prepared. Under the command of Ren Baozhong, various ministries also began to try to burn the deer village and destroy the sheep and horse wall... But to be honest, the latter was not effective because Guancheng The crossbows on it are too powerful, and the only effect is on the west side of the city. But as we all know, if the Fen River is not cut off, there will be less of a sheep and horse wall on the west side, which doesn't mean much.
On the twenty-fifth day of the twelfth lunar month, the subsequent main forces arrived one after another. The number of soldiers and auxiliary troops under Taiyuan City definitely exceeded one hundred thousand.
The Zhao Guan family did what they said, regardless of the fact that more than half of the civilians still wanted to focus on logistics and transportation at the rear, and directly began to launch artillery fire from three sides.
On the twenty-sixth day of the twelfth lunar month, the two small villages of Xugou and Tuanbai were successfully breached, which allowed more sergeants and civilians to come to the city in the next two days. From this day on, the river channel in the west of the city was officially excavated. In this case Next, even though the Song Army camp had a logistics base camp behind Yongli Prison, it passively surrounded the entire Taiyuan City because of the scale of the camp.
This caused panic among the Jin army in the city. Some people advised Wanyan Hehe that he should leave the city in time to attack the artillery position, but Wanyan Hehe sternly refused... This veteran knew very well that, to put it bluntly, where did he go? where?
That is to say, Wu Jie has not arrived yet. If Wu Jie leads the Zhao and Song Dynasty imperial camp rear troops and the Dangxiang people and the Khitan people arrive together, it is impossible to imitate the Daming Mansion and build a city to surround Taiyuan.
And even then, we still had to recharge our batteries and prepare to attack again when the artillery carriage was almost ready.
On the twenty-ninth day of the twelfth lunar month, there were only two days before the Chinese New Year. What made Wanyan Zhenhe panic for a moment was that 20,000 troops under the banner of Wu suddenly came from the west.
In the afternoon of the same day, a moderate snowflake fell from the sky.
But these two things caught the mysterious Zhao Guan family off guard.
PS: I have to go to the interview today...I have been so nervous since three days ago that I can't even spell out words...and Xiaoyu's name is Chun these days...I hope you can forgive me.