Li Liangfu stayed up all night. He had been observing the movements of Ganquan Fort in the camp. From the gunpowder arrows over Ganquan Fort, to the alarm bells ringing throughout the city, until dawn, there was never any fireworks in the castle.
Li Liangfu was basically certain that Liang Gui and his men had failed and probably none of them would survive.
These Heijintang warriors are overestimating their abilities. This is a war, a military camp, not the mansions of princes and nobles where they can just come and go to assassinate.
It's a pity that I wasted two thousand five hundred taels of silver in vain, and I don't know where they put it?
Li Liangfu returned to the main tent and took out the map of Ganquan Fort to study it carefully. He now realized that it was not the best strategy for soldiers to attack the city directly and it was not their advantage. They should still use large siege weapons to attack Ganquan Fort.
But the current number of trebuchets is far from enough. They only carry twenty heavy trebuchets with the army, and they should transport all the remaining eighty heavy trebuchets.
Li Liangfu thought of doing it, so he immediately ordered: "Notify the Baochuan garrison and transport all eighty heavy trebuchets to the camp immediately!"
After a pause, he added the order: "A heavy battering ram and three giant trebuchets are also coming!"
.........
At dusk, the dull sound of war drums sounded in the Xixia Army camp. This was different from the sound of drums for dispatching troops, but at the same time there was the low sound of horns for dispatching troops.
Chen Qing and his generals rushed to the north city wall to look at the enemy camp. They saw the camp gate opened on the northeast side of the enemy camp. A huge trebuchet was slowly pulled from the camp by twenty healthy oxen.
When we came out of the camp, there were hundreds of soldiers pushing behind us. It seemed that the enemy was going to use trebuchets again.
Through the sneak attack last night, Chen Qing already knew that the other party had obtained the map of Ganquan Fort, otherwise they would not have known that the warehouse was located in the middle of the city.
Now that they have obtained the map, they still need to use heavy trebuchets, and the target of the attack is clear, and it must be to attack the Xicheng Military Camp.
"Pass my order to gather all the bed crossbows in the West City, and also mobilize the divine arm crossbow army!"
There are three ravines outside the West City. The ground is undulating and rugged, making it inconvenient to walk, let alone using heavy trebuchets. If you want to launch an offensive outside the West City, you must first dispatch a large number of troops to fill in the ravines and level the land.
How can there be such a good thing in the world if we want to fill up the land at no cost?
On the west city wall, a thousand divine arm crossbowmen quickly gathered, and a bed-mounted crossbow was moved over by the soldiers.
As expected by Chen Qing, before nightfall, thousands of Xixia soldiers rushed out of the military camp carrying shovels, baskets and sacks, and rushed to the outside of the West City, where they began to dig high, fill in low, and level the land.
As they gradually approached the city wall, suddenly a volley of arrows were fired from the top of the city. Arrows were shot at the dense crowd like a rainstorm. The Xixia soldiers were caught off guard and screamed. They fell down one after another after being hit by arrows. Thousands of Xixia soldiers dropped their tools and ran away in panic.
The range of trebuchets throwing fireballs is 300 steps, so they must be launched around 200 steps before they can throw the fireballs into the city. However, 200 steps is a dangerous zone. Bed crossbows, divine arm crossbows and military crossbows all have lethality.
.
Seeing that the soldiers could not level the land, Li Liangfu felt helpless. At this time, Murong Tao suggested: "If the land cannot be leveled, then simply lay wooden planks or rafts so that the trebuchets can pass over."
This is a good idea. There are a large number of spare camp fences in their military camp, which can be laid on the ground.
Li Liangfu immediately sent soldiers to get the camp fence and lay it on the ground. Thousands of soldiers held shields in hand and carefully laid out the camp fence. Although hundreds of people were shot down by a burst of arrows when they approached the two hundred paces line, the ground became smooth at least.
The twenty heavy trebuchets began to advance slowly, and the huge protective shield also advanced. This time they blocked the Song army's strong bows and crossbows, and placed the twenty heavy trebuchets two hundred steps away.
Each trebuchet was manned by fifty soldiers and prepared for launch.
At the same time, the Song army in the city was also actively responding. They demolished all the large tents, the warehouses in the south were also demolished, and armor, weapons and other materials were also transferred to the main warehouse in the city.
An open space three miles long and one mile wide appeared in the west city. Niu Gao led a group of 6,000 militiamen to dig thousands of circular pits in the ground and prepared a large amount of soil, waiting for the enemy's attack.
'Bang! Bang! Bang!'
The trebuchet made a series of huge noises, and twenty large fireballs roared towards the city.
"Get ready!" Niu Gao shouted, staring at the fireball.
Fireballs landed on the ground one after another. The fireballs shattered and large amounts of gunpowder, sulfur, fire cloth and other flammable materials poured out, instantly forming twenty seas of fire.
"dash forward--"
Niu Gao shouted, and dozens of soldiers rushed forward, pushing balls, shoveling fire, and filling soil. The soldiers of the militia were extremely skilled in their movements and cooperated with each other tacitly. In the blink of an eye, twenty pools of fire were completely dealt with. At this time, stones were thrown
The aircraft has not yet started its second round of launches.
But the soldiers knew very well that what was thrown in the second round must be fire oil cans. Sure enough, twenty dark objects suddenly appeared in the sky, and the militia soldiers shouted: "The Xixia people are sending oil."
The clay pot filled with kerosene hit the ground heavily. The pot shattered and the kerosene splashed all over the ground. The already impatient militia soldiers rushed forward, covered the earth, mixed it, shoveled the earth into the car, and almost finished it in one go. Twenty
The altar fire oil didn't even burn a single spark.
In the imagination of the Xixia army, the city must have been filled with raging fire and thick smoke, but in fact nothing happened.
At this time, Chen Qing smiled on the top of the city and said: "Let General Niu light the fire oil and soil in one of the pits to create a little thick smoke to comfort the Xixia people."
"Follow the order!"
The soldiers ran away, and not long after, a large pit used to place fire oil and soil was ignited, and black smoke gradually filled the sky over the West City, as if a fire was burning the city.
The Xixia soldiers suddenly cheered, but Li Liangfu's expression was not very good. He had experience, and the smoke was coming from the wrong place. At this moment, he wanted to grow wings and fly to the sky, but he couldn't see what was going on inside the city.
Li Liangfu looked around, but there was really no place where he could see the inside of the city. The crescent-shaped hill in the south was a little too far away from the city, and he couldn't see what was going on inside the city.
In fact, Li Liangfu vaguely guessed that the Song army could not just sit back and die, and must have dismantled the big tent, but he did not see it with his own eyes, and he was always so disappointed.
It seems that a large observation deck needs to be built to keep abreast of the situation in the city.
"General Murong!"
"The humble position is here!"
"I'm asking you, are there any trees near here?"
"Reporting to the Commander-in-Chief, there are trees fifty miles upstream of the Baishui River. They are all pine forests, but most of them have been cut down."
"It doesn't matter, I won't use it much. You immediately arrange an army to cut down the trees. I need to build a five-foot-tall observation tower."
"I humbly obey orders!"
Murong Tao hurriedly went to make arrangements.
Li Liangfu looked at Ganquan Castle and said to himself: "I don't believe that I can't take your castle!"
.......
In Baochuan County, a baggage team escorted by 3,000 people slowly drove out of the county. This baggage team was pulled by camels. On average, each cart was pulled by five camels. A siege machine was placed on the cart.
The parts of the cart, a hundred carts in total, stretched for five miles.
Generally, this kind of heavy baggage is transported by water, but this is a desert with no rivers, so it can only be transported by land.
The team moved very slowly, taking at least three days to cover the 150 miles.
As soon as the convoy left Baochuan County, it was spotted by Song army scouts in the distance. The three scouts observed for a moment and then immediately hit the horse and ran south.
The five hundred cavalry led by Liu Cui were stationed in a mountain col about fifty miles away from Baochuan County. After they canceled the mission of sneak attack on the enemy's camp, they turned all their energy to intercepting the enemy's logistics supply team.
It's just that they still haven't achieved anything yet, also because no supply team has come out, which really makes Liu Cui feel deeply depressed.
The soldiers had just finished breakfast and were packing their luggage. At this time, three cavalrymen rushed into the col and shouted: "General, business is coming!"
Not only Liu Cui was overjoyed, all the soldiers cheered together, and finally waited until the enemy supply team came out.
