Three thousand soldiers walked cautiously towards the mountain with large shields and swords in hand. There was also a thick battering ram in the team.
The mountain is not very steep, with an inclination of about 45 degrees, and the mountain road is very wide. A large vehicle can go directly up the mountain, bypass the mountain ridge, and then go down the mountain from the other side.
The soldiers at the front raised their large shields high, forming a shield wall, and approached Guancheng step by step.
"ah!"
Suddenly someone in the team screamed and squatted down to cover his feet. But he was not the only one to be hit. Many people screamed and squatted down to take off their shoes.
"What's going on?" the leading general asked anxiously.
"General, there are poisonous thorns on the ground!"
The soldier who was attacked used his dagger to pick out a blue caltrop from the sole of his shoe and shouted in horror.
The leading general shouted: "Everyone, be careful where you step, there are poisonous thorns!"
The soldiers were so frightened that they stared at the ground, but the poisonous caltrops spread by the Song army were still too dense, making it difficult for people to guard against them. They kept stepping on them. In just a few dozen steps, more than two hundred soldiers stepped on the poisonous caltrops.
Although it can be easily picked off with a dagger, the soldier cannot pretend to be bitten by a mosquito. This is poisonous tribulus. Who knows what kind of poison it is? In the least case, the leg cannot be saved, in the worst case, it may kill him.
The soldiers' hearts were filled with fear.
However, even if they stepped on ten caltrops, the soldiers could not go back, let alone lie down and pretend to be injured, otherwise they would be killed by an ax from the Jurchen soldiers supervising the battle behind them.
At this time, more and more soldiers stepped on the caltrops. The soldiers kept groaning and picked them off with their knives before moving on. They could only treat them as mosquito bites.
The poison will usually take effect after a quarter of an hour, but if you step on it too much, it will be different. Three hundred steps away from the city wall, some soldiers begin to fall down, twitching all over, foaming at the mouth, and the poison begins to take effect.
.
As soon as they turned the corner, Guancheng was 300 steps ahead. The leading general shouted, "Brothers, charge forward!"
"Kill!"
Three thousand soldiers shouted together and rushed forward, including battering rams.
The bed crossbow was fired at the top of the city, and two hundred and fifty jackdaw arrows were shot out one after another. Although the soldiers running at the front held their shields high, the shields could not block the penetration of the bed crossbow, and the soldiers fell down row after row.
Immediately afterwards, fifty bed crossbows were pulled up behind to load arrows, and fifty more bed crossbows were pulled up and fired rapidly at the running enemy troops, hitting nearly a hundred people with arrows and knocking them down.
There are one hundred and fifty people in the back who are responsible for loading the crossbows in turn. After firing the fifty crossbows, pull them down, push up the fifty crossbows that have just been loaded with iron arrows, and fire them again, just like three stages.
Shooting, taking turns, after two rounds of arrows, five or six hundred people were shot down, and the dead bodies were piled up on the mountain road.
The soldiers retreated one after another, but they did not dare to retreat downwards. They could only crawl on the ground and did not dare to move.
Only then did they see clearly what the pass looked like. It turned out to be a double-layered pass, with a blue brick wall as the bottom and a brick wall two feet high. Crossbow beds were laid on the crenellations of the brick wall. A wooden building was built on the brick wall.
There are countless soldiers and trebuchets on it. The entire pass is three to five feet high and looks very majestic and solid.
At this time, the sound of attack drums sounded at the foot of the mountain. This was a drum urging war. If the drums are played for two rounds and the general does not go out to fight, the leader will be beheaded. If the leader is killed in battle, the deputy general will be beheaded.
The leading general had to shout: "Brothers, charge forward and hit the city!"
Many soldiers began to feel dizzy and their legs were weak. This was the onset of the poisonous tribulus. However, under the urging of the general, they had no choice but to pick up their shields and swords and continue charging forward. As soon as they stood up and ran twenty or thirty steps,
Another storm of jackdaw arrows came, and all the more than 300 people running in front were shot down.
"Climb up from the ground!" the general shouted.
The soldiers lay on the ground one after another and crawled up like snakes. This trick was indeed effective, and the Song Army's crossbows had to stop shooting.
Wang Duo stood on the city stairs, watching groups of enemy soldiers crawling up slowly like ghosts lying on the ground. These soldiers covered their heads and vital parts with shields, like headless frogs.
"The trebuchet is ready to throw kerosene!"
"Bed crossbow ready!"
The Song soldiers waited patiently. When the enemy climbed into the fifty-step line, Wang Duo gave the order, "Project!"
Five trebuchets were launched at the same time, projecting five thin-skinned clay pots filled with kerosene. The pots were burning with fire. Each pot contained 80 kilograms of kerosene and could be projected fifty or sixty steps away.
At the same time, dozens of soldiers also struggled to throw dozens of thin clay pots filled with kerosene downwards. The pots shattered, and black fire oil splashed out, which was immediately ignited by several thrown torches.
.
In an instant, the hillside was covered in a sea of fire, and the soldiers covered in fire got up one after another, running down the mountain howling like ghosts and wolves.
The bed crossbow chased and fired from behind. Without the obstruction of the shield, its lethality was extremely sharp. One iron arrow could kill two to three people. A round of gurney crossbow iron arrows was shot out powerfully, dense as a rapid rain, and soldiers were running one after another.
Countless soldiers were shot through their bodies by iron arrows, fell down one after another, were shot to death, and burned to death.
On the city wall, two fierce iron cabinets also sprayed kerosene downwards. The kerosene sprayed out like rain, and the burning kerosene dripped on the soldiers' heads and necks.
Although it will not kill the soldiers, it will burn the soldiers, causing unbearable pain and completely losing their will to fight.
In this round, more than a thousand people were shot and killed by the Song army, including the attacking generals who were also burned to death by fire. Including the soldiers killed before, the number of dead soldiers was more than 1,600, and there were countless wounded. The attacking 3,000 soldiers
Among them, there were less than 400 soldiers who were not burned by kerosene or stepped on poisonous caltrops.
When Wanyan Helisa saw the attacking soldiers running frantically down the mountain, he became furious and ordered: "Behead them all from the head on up!"
More than two dozen heads and commanders who managed to escape the death and killing of the Song army could not escape severe punishment under military law, and were all hacked to death by Jurchen cavalry with sharp axes.
Wanyan drank Lisa and did not care about the life or death of the injured soldiers, so he ordered Wang Zheng, the commander-in-chief, to lead the second batch of 3,000 signed soldiers up the mountain to attack Guancheng.
At this time, in front of the pass, hundreds of soldiers were carrying out the simplest battlefield cleanup, executing injured soldiers who were not dead, collecting jackdaw arrows and enemy weapons, pushing the corpses of enemy soldiers down the hill with large iron forks, and throwing a group of soldiers into the mountain.
A thick battering ram was dragged back to Guancheng.
At this time, a soldier shouted: "New troops are coming up the mountain!"
‘Dang! Dang! Dang!’ The bells on Guancheng rang loudly, and hundreds of Song soldiers retreated into Guancheng.
At this time, Wang Duo stood on the side of Guancheng and looked at the situation down the mountain. The road up the mountain was in a zigzag shape, spiraling upwards. There was a road up the mountain just below the side.
The Song army deployed two pure copper fire cabinets on the side. They could spray burning kerosene downwards like fire rain. They were very effective in dealing with the fleeing soldiers just now.
Although the burning oil in the fire cabinet cannot kill the enemy, the fire rain, like poisonous caltrops, and the severe pain caused by the burning oil on the skin can destroy the enemy's morale.
Wang Duo could see clearly just now that the wind was not too strong and the fire droplets sprayed basically floated downwards. If the wind was strong, it would not work and the fire droplets would fly around and burn his soldiers and towers.
"Get ready! The enemy is coming. Remember, stop if the wind is strong!"
At this time, the second batch of 3,000 soldiers rushed up the mountain along the mountain road. They soon arrived at the penultimate turning point of the zigzag shape, which was at the bottom of the side of Guancheng.
"start!"
There are four soldiers operating the fierce oil fire cabinet. One soldier holds a long copper pipe, and the other soldier is responsible for igniting the fire, which is also a very long ignition rod. He ignites the kerosene at the moment the kerosene spurts out.
There are also two soldiers who are responsible for pushing the oil. Just like pulling the bellows, they push the rod forward to spray the kerosene out of the push tube, and pull the rod backward to lift the strong kerosene from the fire cabinet below.
The two soldiers pushed the rod forward at the same time, and the kerosene spurted out from the copper pipe instantly. The igniting soldier ignited the sprayed kerosene in time. Fire rain began to fall from the sky, and a burst of burning kerosene dropped towards the soldiers below.