Zhang Zhongxiong was furious. Not one of the hundred siege ladders they had worked so hard to build was brought back. In anger, he ordered the siege commander Sun Ping to be beaten with a hundred military sticks as a severe punishment for his dereliction of duty.
Sun Ping shouted that he was wronged and attacked the city and withdrew his troops. There was no time to bring back the siege weapons. The enemy fired arrows at them. It would be a good thing if they could escape with their lives.
Zhang Zhongxiong was extremely angry. If he couldn't get the siege ladder back, he didn't know what went wrong and how to improve it next.
He asked dozens more soldiers, and finally an archer told him the answer.
"It must have been chopped off by an axe. When I was shooting arrows under the city, I saw an enemy soldier on the top of the city swinging an ax to chop him down. He moved very quickly. I saw him chop him three times in a row, but unfortunately I didn't hit him."
Zhang Zhongxiong asked other archers again, and got dozens of the same answers one after another. None of the siege soldiers saw it, but the archers could see it clearly.
Only then did Zhang Zhongxiong suddenly realize that the soldiers of the Song Army had chopped off the rungs with an axe. Even Chen Qing could think of such an unethical method!
Zhang Zhongxiong returned to the main tent gloomily and sent someone to find the leader of the craftsmen to ask for countermeasures.
The leader of the craftsmen thought for a while and said: "The only way is to replace the top rungs with iron or copper rods, so that the opponent can't stop cutting them. But in this case, we need pig iron and a blacksmith. There is no ready-made iron in the army."
stick!"
"We have a blacksmith and we can solve it with pig iron. Don't worry about the iron rods. The key is, I want to build 300 siege ladders in three days. Can you do it?"
"As long as there are enough materials, we can do it."
"Well, if you can build it, I will reward each of you with a hundred coins. I hope you can build a hundred siege ladders before noon tomorrow!"
Zhang Zhongxiong then ordered the marching commander to find a soldier blacksmith and make iron bars.
Although he failed today, he found that the soldiers on the top of the city were not very brave in fighting, and were a little timid, just like new recruits fighting. Tomorrow, as long as he invests heavily in troops and attacks the city continuously day and night, he will definitely be able to capture Ganquan Fort.
Zhang Zhongxiong drank a few glasses of wine and began to get excited again. He stood at the door of the big tent with a wine bottle. The tall city wall seemed to have become fragile and vulnerable. In his drunken eyes, he felt that high officials and heavy rewards were waving to him.
.
.........
The night is getting darker, and the northeast corner of the Puppet Qi Army camp is still brightly lit. More than twenty craftsmen and hundreds of soldiers are busy building siege ladders. A fire is burning brightly, and several soldiers are clanging hammers.
Forge an iron rod.
Except for the northeast corner, the rest of the camp was dark. The soldiers who had been tired all day went to bed early. Even the lights in the Chinese army's tent were turned off. The commander-in-chief, Zhang Zhongxiong, drank a few more glasses and fell into a drowsy sleep.
It was the second watch at this time, and the camp was completely silent, except for the figures of sentry guards on the outside moving back and forth.
Dozens of figures appeared on the top of the mountain behind the camp. The two sentry towers had been easily pulled out, and the entire top of the mountain was completely controlled by the Song army.
The secret weapon brought by the Song army this time was the ancestor of firearms, the fire kite. This was also the first time gunpowder was used in military affairs. It was mainly used for fire attacks. More than a hundred years have passed, although its function has not changed.
, is still used for fire attacks, but the technical content has been greatly improved.
The specific performance is that the range can be controlled by increasing or decreasing the amount of powder. Unlike the original Fire Kites, which could not control the heat, many of them flew past the target.
Naturally, these batches of fire kites were discovered in the Baochuan warehouse, along with two thousand kilograms of gunpowder. The Xixia army focused on fire attacks, so they produced a large number of fire kites. The quality was also very high, and they could compete with the fire kites made by the Song Dynasty's weapons supervisor.
Comparable.
Five hundred fire kites were brought to the top of the mountain. Their range was between half a mile and one mile, and they landed right in the camp.
The attack time is scheduled for the third watch. Two cavalry teams have been assembled at the foot of the mountain on the back of the hill. One is led by Chen Qing personally and has about 3,000 people. They will detour to the west to attack the camp, while the other has 2,000 people.
Zheng Ping will handle the cavalry, and they will take a detour to the east and enter the camp.
This is a loophole in the patrol deployment of the Puppet Qi Army. They deployed sentries on the east, west, and south sides, but left out the back of the hill. Perhaps they believed that the hill was a natural barrier and there was no need to spend more patrol posts, but the Puppet Qi Army did not.
Realizing that after going around the hill, we were only one mile away from the main camp.
In short, they would definitely be discovered by the patrol, but they were only one mile away from the main camp when they were discovered.
Three thousand cavalry were waiting patiently in a mountain col, using the short slopes on both sides to hide themselves. At this time, as long as a patrol ran up the short slope, they would be able to spot the Song Army. However, there was no point in discovering it now. They could not escape the Song Army.
of hunting.
The time gradually reached the third watch. Zhao Xiaoyi on the top of the mountain gave an order and dozens of soldiers began to fire fire kites. Each wooden fire kite rose into the sky and flew towards the camp one mile away. This kind of fire kite
If you use ejection, you can fly up to three miles, but you don't need it now.
The fire kites burned in the air and turned into balls of fire, flying into the camp of the puppet Qi army and igniting the tents. Bright spots of fire appeared in the camp.
The fire took advantage of the wind, and the tent began to burn rapidly. Thick smoke billowed, and the fire was blazing. The alarm bell sounded in the camp, 'Dang! Dang! Dang!'
The sleeping soldiers were woken up by the fireworks one after another. Their eyes were filled with flames and thick smoke. They screamed in fear and rushed out of the tent desperately. Many soldiers were barefoot, still wearing underwear, and bare-handed, terrified.
At this time, low muffled thunder could be heard faintly from the west and east, and gunpowder arrows were constantly launched from the periphery to warn, but it was meaningless now.
Zhang Zhongxiong, who was sleeping soundly, was awakened by soldiers pouring cold water on him. When he heard shouts outside, he realized something was wrong. He sat up in shock and asked, "What happened?"
"The tent was on fire. Someone set a fire on the mountain. The whole camp was set on fire."
As soon as the soldier finished speaking, there was a 'Boom!' and a ball of fire fell in front of Zhang Zhongxiong. It was a still burning fire kite.
Zhang Zhongxiong was startled, and when he looked up, he found that his tent had also been set on fire. A big hole was burnt on the top of the tent, and the flames were rapidly spreading to all sides.
"Captain, please leave quickly!"
Several soldiers did not bother to put on his shoes and rushed out of the tent with Zhang Zhongxiong on their backs. As soon as they got out of the tent, there was a loud "Boom!" and the burning tent collapsed.
Zhang Zhongxiong looked around with bare feet and saw fierce fire engulfing the camp from all directions. The fire was raging, thick smoke was filling the sky, and fire kites were flying in the sky, and the soldiers were running away in all directions.
At this moment, the sound of horse hooves from the west suddenly sounded, like a mountain collapsing and the earth cracking. A cavalry rushed into the camp from the west. With galloping horses, cold spears, and sharp swords, they killed everyone they saw.
, mercilessly, killing the soldiers of the puppet Qi army until they were crying and screaming. On one side were raging fires, and on the other were demons being killed from hell.
Zhang Zhongxiong was stunned. He had clearly monitored several city gates closely. How could the enemy still come out?
His brain was short-circuited for a moment, and he never thought that this was the Song army coming from outside. But at this time, he had no time to think about it anymore. The soldiers put him on the horse and fled eastward in panic...
...
Zheng Ping's army was in charge of the east side. According to the plan, Zheng Ping would lead his army into the camp from the east. The two cavalry groups would meet in the middle of the camp. However, the plan did not change. The official road to the east was crowded with thousands of fleeing troops.
Most of the puppet Qi soldiers who came out were bare-handed and barefoot.
Suddenly a large group of Song cavalry came and killed thousands of soldiers. Thousands of soldiers knelt on the ground in fear, begging for their lives. Chen Qing massacred the puppet Qi army in Guanzhong and was called a human demon. The soldiers were particularly afraid of him.
At this moment, tens of thousands of soldiers lost their fighting spirit and no longer dared to resist, so they knelt down and surrendered.
This time Chen Qing did not issue a killing order. He needed prisoners of war in exchange for benefits. Zheng Ping saw that there were too many surrendered soldiers and blocked the official road. They could not kill them. He had no choice but to order the soldiers to accept the surrender.
Groups of soldiers were escorted away by the Song army with their bare hands. At this time, dozens of soldiers surrounded Zhang Zhongxiong and fled quickly. Zhang Zhongxiong was not very good at other things, but he was very good at escaping. He suddenly found that there was a Song army blocking him in front of him.
He was so frightened that he quickly reined in his horse.
"Capital, there are enemy troops coming from behind!" the soldiers shouted nervously.
Zhang Zhongxiong rolled his eyes, turned around and ran towards the foot of the mountain to the south. They and the Song army marched in the opposite direction. The Song army came from the west to the east and killed them. They fled from the east to the west. They were one mile apart, and there were fire and shouts everywhere.
The army may not be able to detect them.
Dozens of people ran along the foot of the mountain. Under the cover of night, they passed by the Song army in the camp a mile away. But as soon as they reached the end of the hill, hundreds of soldiers suddenly came out and surrounded them.
Countless cold crossbow arrows were aimed at them.
...........
In this battle, the nearly 20,000 puppet Qi troops were almost completely destroyed. More than 3,000 of them were burned to death by the fire alone. The remaining soldiers fled to death. Including the leader, Zhang Zhongxiong, about 14,000 people died.
Became a prisoner of war.
Zhang Zhongxiong's dream of becoming a high-ranking official and getting rich was completely shattered in this battle.