At noon, 14,000 Jurchen cavalry arrived at Songcheng County. Alu ordered two thousand cavalry to search for food and livestock. The only thing they could find was fodder for their horses. They could find piles of wheat straw everywhere, although it was
It is rough feed, but after it is chopped up, the war horse can still barely eat it.
But the human problem is bigger. The Jurchen army only has one day of dry food left. If they cannot get food supplies before dawn tomorrow, or cannot capture Songcheng County, they will have no choice but to retreat.
This is the power of fortifying the wall and clearing the country, which is especially effective against nomadic armies. The nomadic army invades the Central Plains and never carries food. They rely on looting along the way to support the war. However, if the wall is cleared for hundreds of miles, the nomadic army will not be able to plunder food.
Finally had to retreat.
Arubu squinted his eyes as he looked at the city. He had led his army to stationed in Guide Mansion for two years and knew Songcheng County well. He knew that the defense of Songcheng County was flawed. The city wall about one mile long in the northeast section was very unstable. Not only
It can be broken down with a heavy trebuchet, and it can be easily broken down with a battering ram.
This is also the reason why Arubu did not carry any siege weapons and only prepared a heavy siege ram.
Fortunately, the Song Army did not carry out repairs in Songcheng County, and the defects in the northeastern section remained as before, which made Arubu breathed a sigh of relief.
"The whole army rests where it is!"
After running all morning, the cavalry were a little tired. Arubu ordered them to rest where they were and sent soldiers to check the freezing condition of the moat.
On the top of the city, Hu Yanlei watched the situation of the enemy cavalry. The number of enemy cavalry was less than he expected, only about 10,000. He had received intelligence from Licheng County before, and the enemy had sent 20,000 cavalry. Could it be that
The information is wrong?
Zhou Ping, the deputy general next to him, smiled and said: "The enemy must have divided their forces and went to Xuzhou, so the number is smaller than we expected."
Hu Yanlei nodded, it must be for this reason. Lieutenant General Zhou Ping added: "Actually, our troops are no less than the opponent's. Even if the enemy invades the city, we can annihilate them all in street fighting!"
"No!"
Hu Yanlei categorically denied this idea, "Whether we allow the enemy to invade the city or engage in street fighting, it will be a disaster for the people. We can't explain it to His Highness King Yong."
Zhou Ping felt ashamed and said: "The general is right, I know my fault even though I am humbled by my position!"
Hu Yanlei said in a deep voice: "The enemy troops are resting in the northeast, which means they know the flaws of the city. They will definitely attack the northeast section. General Zhou, go quickly and gather the kerosene!"
Zhou Ping hurried away. At this time, a soldier shouted: "There are enemy cavalry coming to investigate."
I saw a cavalry of about 20 people running towards the moat. Hu Yanlei immediately said: "Fire with crossbows!"
On the top of the city, hundreds of soldiers raised their crossbows and fired at the enemy cavalry. The Jurchen cavalry raised their shields to resist, but some of the horses were still shot, neighing and fell to the ground, knocking the cavalry to the ground.
He was hit by a crossbow arrow and was killed on the spot.
However, a dozen cavalrymen rushed to the moat despite missing arrows, stabbed the ice of the moat several times with their spears, turned around and fled. The missing arrows followed them, and several more cavalrymen were shot down.
, the rest of the cavalry fought hard to escape back.
Half of the twenty cavalrymen were shot and killed. Hu Yanlei discovered a clue. They were not using divine arm crossbows, but ordinary military crossbows. The opponent had already run a hundred steps away and was still killed by the crossbow arrows. If it was the former iron armor
, this situation cannot happen. Now you can actually kill the enemy a hundred steps away with ordinary weapons. What does this mean? The enemy's equipment has declined.
Hu Yanlei immediately said to a commander: "General Wang, lead a hundred brothers down to the city and drag the enemy corpses back with ropes. I want to take a look!"
"Follow the order!"
More than a dozen ladders were thrown down, and Commander Wang Miao led a hundred soldiers to climb the rope ladder and descend into the city.
Not long after, more than a dozen corpses were hoisted to the top of the city. A dozen Western generals gathered around the corpses to take a closer look. Sure enough, there were no iron armors, only leather armors. They looked like Donghu people, and their waistbands were also Jurchen waistbands. But this
It doesn't explain the problem, it's hard to tell that they are real Jurchens, and they refer to Jurchens in general.
"They should be Donghu people, not real Jurchens!"
Hu Yanlei said to everyone: "His Royal Highness King Yong said that there are not many real Jurchens left. In order to win over the Donghu people, a large number of Donghu people were also granted the status of Jurchens. But in fact, there are differences in all aspects. From
It can be seen from the equipment that real Jurchen cavalry do not use leather armor, they must use iron armor."
"Control, this is important information!"
Hu Yanlei nodded, "We must inform Yang Dutong immediately!"
.........
At dusk, Arubu received the worst news. Within a radius of fifty miles, the two thousand cavalry could not find a single grain of food, not to mention livestock, not even a dog. All the trees had been cut down, completely.
The strong walls and clear fields.
Now it was impossible for them to go to other counties. The nearest county to Songcheng County was Gushu County, which was fifty miles away to the south. When they arrived at Gushu County, it was already dark. If there was a population, they could still get some food.
But what if it’s an empty city again?
Moreover, the possibility of an empty city is very high. If it is an empty city again, they will have no time to delay and will have no choice but to withdraw their troops.
"Captain, why don't you ask the east coast to send some supplies?" a captain suggested cautiously.
Aru made up his face and said, "Do you think Marshal Du couldn't think of it? Use your own brain and think about it, why Marshal Du didn't let us carry supplies?"
"Bad job and stupidity!"
Seeing confusion in the eyes of several thousand captains, Alu could only explain: "If we have supplies, once we can't attack Songcheng County, we will go deep into Kaifeng Prefecture. We don't have many troops. Nine times out of ten, we will
The Western Army would be completely wiped out, and it would be too late to regret it. Marshal Du only gave us dry food for a few days. The purpose was to restrict us and prevent us from staying on the west bank of the Yellow River for too long. Otherwise, why not give us six days?
Can’t we get dry food?”
Only then did everyone understand Marshal Du's good intentions in restricting dry food, and they all bowed together and said: "We understand!"
Alubu nodded and said to everyone: "If we cannot attack Songcheng County before dawn tomorrow, withdraw our troops immediately!"
........
As night fell, the attack began. Five hundred Jurchen soldiers held their large shields high, forming a shield of 30% inside and outside, covering the battering ram as they marched towards the northeastern section of the city wall. The core of the shield was fifty soldiers holding the attacking ram.
The city hammer, their heads and surroundings are covered by layers of large shields. Looking from the top of the city, it looks like a giant centipede approaching the city wall. There are two thousand Jurchen soldiers following behind with shields raised, and they will rush to replenish them at any time.
"The first team of bed crossbows is ready!"
Two hundred mobile bed crossbows were deployed on the top of the city, divided into four teams. After one team finished shooting, the second team fired. The principle was the same as the three-stage shooting, except that the bed crossbows took a little longer to change arrows, so they were divided into
Four paragraphs.
The centipede appeared two hundred steps away, and Hu Yanlei shouted, "Shoot!"
Fifty bed crossbows were fired at the same time, and two hundred and fifty jackdaw iron arrows were shot out with great force. The iron arrows penetrated the shields and leather armor, and nearly fifty soldiers guarding the shields screamed and fell to the ground.
"Fill!"
The commander shouted, and dozens of soldiers immediately rushed forward to fill the vacancy.
Hu Yanlei was so angry that he cursed, "Why don't you shoot the divine arm crossbow and just watch the fun?"
Zhou Ping hurriedly shouted: "The first team of divine arm crossbows are ready to shoot!"
The God's Arm Crossbow on the top of the city is a heavy-duty God's Arm Crossbow. It fires six stones and is powerful. It cannot be operated by one person. Therefore, a God's Arm Crossbow is equipped with three soldiers. One person is responsible for shooting, and the other two soldiers assist in winding. A total of one thousand weapons.
Heavy-duty divine crossbow, three thousand soldiers perform three-stage shooting.
At this time, the second round of crossbows was fired, and more than sixty Jurchen soldiers on the periphery fell to the ground. Before the additional soldiers could rush up, three hundred divine arm crossbows were fired at once, and powerful arrows were shot at the enemy like raindrops.
.
More than seventy shield-holding soldiers in the middle layer were pierced by arrows and fell to the ground screaming. Jurchen soldiers began to quickly add more, and more than a hundred Jurchen soldiers holding shields rushed forward.
In this way, Jurchen heavy shield soldiers were shot down one after another, and more were added. In just over a hundred steps, thousands of soldiers were shot dead.
But the battering ram gradually came closer to the city wall...
