Under the full attack of the Xixia army, the three special military units of the Song army, the axe team, the long rope team and the sharpshooters, all lost their effect.
The divine arm crossbow soldiers who originally squatted on the horse-faced wall to shoot at the sides and backs of the enemy generals were unable to function. The horse-faced wall became the focus of the Xixia army's attack.
Thousands of Xixia soldiers launched an offensive against the four horse-faced walls from three directions at the same time. Three siege ladders were hooked on the horse-faced walls. The fierce soldiers climbed desperately to the top of the city. The top of the horse-faced wall was limited by the terrain and could not accommodate too many.
The soldiers of the Song Army made the horse-faced wall a place where the Xixia Army repeatedly broke through.
The second horse-faced wall in the central part was lost, and dozens of Xixia elite soldiers rushed forward in an instant. Nearly twenty Song soldiers refused to retreat, using their bodies to block the Xixia soldiers from advancing outside the horse wall.
When the battle reached the last two Song soldiers, two hundred reinforcements led by Liu Qiong arrived. Liu Qiong swung his spear and killed three people in a row. He took the lead in blocking the outside of the horse wall. Hundreds of divine arm crossbowmen fired into the horse wall.
Arrows, more than 30 Xixia soldiers' armors were pierced by arrows, and they fell down screaming. The Song soldiers swarmed up and recaptured the horse wall.
The fierce fighting lasted until the afternoon of the second day, and throughout the whole day and night, both sides suffered heavy casualties. The Xixia army suffered more than 17,000 casualties, and the Song army suffered more than 4,000 casualties.
The Xixia Army's five-foot-high observation deck has been built. It is made of pine wood, which is relatively rough. Basically, the bark has not been peeled off and is very strong. Li Liangfu and more than 20 generals stood on the high platform.
He could overlook Ganquan Castle, and half of the city fell into his sight.
Li Liangfu stared fiercely at the changes on the battlefield. The Song army had sufficient strength, a group of soldiers were killed, and a group of soldiers quickly came up behind. The morale was always high. On the contrary, he felt that the morale of the Xixia army on the battlefield was getting lower and lower, and he might not be able to hold on.
How long.
Li Liangfu's heart was as clear as a mirror. He must find a way to boost the morale of the army, otherwise he would definitely lose this siege battle.
At this time, Li Liangfu's eyes fell on the observation tower. The observation tower was about to collapse. He waved his sword and said, "The trebuchets concentrated on attacking the observation tower!"
‘Bang! Bang! Bang!’ Five trebuchets were launched at the same time.
Five boulders rose into the air and roared towards the observation tower in the southwest corner. One boulder passed by the tower, and the other four boulders hit the tower. The five-foot-five-foot-high observation tower finally could no longer hold up, and there was a crash.
collapsed.
But to Li Liangfu's expectation, the collapse of the observation tower did not trigger cheers from the soldiers, as if nothing happened.
Li Liangfu was stunned for a long time. He finally realized that the soldiers' patience had reached its limit. The level of bloodshed far exceeded the collapse of the observation tower. I am afraid that only by attacking the city can we truly effectively boost morale.
"Ask Murong Tao, how long will it take for his plan to succeed?"
The cavalry galloped away and came back shortly to report, "General Murong said, it will probably take another hour!"
"It will take another hour and it will be dark. Order him to speed up. We must get through before dark!"
The messenger galloped away again.
Chen Qing was not at the top of the city where the battle was fierce, nor at the side of the observation tower that had just collapsed. He was at the west city wall. The observation tower collapsed two hundred steps away from him. He turned a deaf ear and stared at the base of the city wall with a stern gaze.
.
Hundreds of soldiers from the Song Army dug a straight pit two feet deep. Under the pit, three soldiers were digging a hole. Just at noon today, some soldiers discovered that the enemy was digging a hole outside the West City. Although the enemy was very secretive,
He used the baffle of the trebuchet to cover it up, but despite trying to hide it, he was still discovered by the soldiers of the Song Army.
Chen Qing immediately realized that this was a two-pronged attack by the Xixia Army. On the one hand, they attacked the city in a large scale, and on the other hand, they secretly dug tunnels. I am afraid that their real siege direction is still the secret tunnel. They used the night siege to cover the Xixia Army's secret tunnel at night.
come out.
"The control is about to be dug out!" a captain reminded in a low voice with a very nervous tone.
Chen Qing also heard the sound of digging on the opposite side. The distance between the two armies was probably less than five feet.
"Order the brothers to come out, prepare the crossbowmen, and prepare the poisonous smoke balls!"
The soldiers of the Song Army brought dozens of poison balloons, which were poison balloons invented in the Northern Song Dynasty. They were spherical with wooden shells and contained five kilograms of gunpowder. They were also mixed with a large amount of highly toxic substances such as grass black, croton, wolfsbane, arsenic, etc.
In a sealed environment, it can cause the enemy's mouth and nose to bleed to death quickly.
The three soldiers of the Song Army who dug the hole climbed up on the rope. Several divine arm crossbowmen aimed their crossbows at the entrance of the hole. The entrance of the hole was one foot and five feet below the city wall. The Song Army dug three holes to find the direction. The third hole
Only then did we determine the location of the enemy's cave.
The sky was getting dark, and the battle outside the city had reached its end. The morale of the Xixia army was low, and they could no longer attack the city. The two sides switched to shooting at each other with crossbows, and the casualties continued to increase.
Chen Qing stared at the deep pit, only to hear a "boom!" sound, and a low exclamation from below. The Xixia soldiers dug through, which may have been a bit beyond their expectations. For a while, the Xixia soldiers did not dare to act rashly.
Chen Qing immediately changed his plan of shooting with a crossbow and ordered: "Throw in the smoke balls!"
The soldier lit the match, dropped five smoke balls in succession, and then covered the pit with a huge wooden board to prevent the poisonous smoke from escaping from the pit. For a moment, someone in the pit exclaimed, and then there was a violent cough.
It was Murong Tao's idea to dig holes and attack. He was the commander of the Huanqing Army in the Song Dynasty and had rich experience. He knew that the loess in this area was thick and dense, which was very conducive to digging holes. They started digging last night. The two of them started digging.
Hundreds of soldiers dug in relays for a whole day and night, digging out a long hole fifty feet long, equivalent to one hundred and fifty meters.
There were still fifty digging soldiers in the long cave. Li Liangfu was already impatient and rushed to the entrance of the cave to urge them. At this time, news came from inside the cave that they had dug through and it seemed that a well in the city had been dug.
Li Liangfu was overjoyed. He couldn't wait for the soldiers who dug the hole to slowly withdraw, and immediately ordered: "Let them go out directly from the front!"
With a wave of his hand, three hundred heavily armed Xixia soldiers got into the narrow cave. The entrance was two and a half feet wide and five feet high. They could only lower their heads and walk forward slowly. Wearing heavy armor, they could not even turn around.
difficulty.
The team entered for a while, and Li Liangfu was about to send 500 more soldiers to join in. Right here, there was a faint scream of fear in the cave, followed by a violent cough.
Outside the cave, Li Liangfu and Murong Tao looked at each other. Neither of them knew what happened?
At this moment, dozens of people at the entrance of the cave suddenly coughed violently, and a thick smoke was seen spraying out from the cave.
"Poison smoke!" someone yelled, and everyone panicked and ran away. The five soldiers closest to the cave entrance were unable to escape and were choked to the ground. They fell unconscious and soon died of bleeding from their mouths and noses.
The screams in the cave had disappeared, and Li Liangfu's hair stood on end. Three hundred and fifty soldiers were suffocated to death underground.
...........
After attacking for a day and a night, Ganquan Fort could not be captured, and the sneak attack failed. Xixia suffered heavy casualties. No matter how unwilling it was, Li Liangfu had to order the withdrawal. This was the fiercest battle with the heaviest casualties for the Xixia army in the past twenty years. One day
One night, the Xixia army suffered 20,000 casualties, including 17,000 killed in action, while the Song army defending the city also paid a heavy price of nearly 5,000 casualties.
In less than half a month, Li Liangfu's 70,000-strong army had suffered more than half casualties. The confidence of the Xixia army officers, including the commander-in-chief Li Liangfu, was severely dampened, and their morale began to decline and gradually became sluggish.
When it was getting dark, the Eagle Tower of the Song Army received a letter from Liu Cui. Liu Cui told Chen Qing in the letter that he would send someone to deliver an important item at two o'clock, and hoped that Chen Qing would open the city to welcome him.
The letter did not specify what it was, but it aroused Chen Qing's sense of expectation. He immediately ordered Zheng Ping to prepare to receive the soldiers sent by Liu Cui.
The time gradually reached two o'clock, when a group of Jurchen cavalry came up the official road in the south. The leader was a Jurchen official, wearing a Jurchen brocade official uniform, a Jurchen white foxtail hat with a beard, followed by a hundred
Jurchen cavalry, surrounded by a large chariot.
Li Liangfu deployed 8,000 patrol cavalry on the outside of Ganquan Fort, including about 2,000 on the south side.
It was midnight, and there were not many Xixia soldiers on the checkpoint, less than two hundred. The Xixia centurion at the head rushed forward and asked loudly: "Who are you?"
The Jurchen official picked up a silver wolf head order and muttered a few words. A soldier next to him translated: "This is Meng An Wanyan Huli of the Jin Kingdom. He is the envoy sent by Marshal Talandu. I have urgent matters to see you."
General Li Liangfu, please lead the way!"
The centurion of Xixia was frightened by the opponent's silver wolf-headed order. It was a real wolf-headed order, and it was normal for the Jurchens to come over. There were more than a dozen Jurchen soldiers on the top of the mountain!
A soldier asked in a low voice: "Boss, do you want to report this to the general?"
The Centurion of Xixia hesitated for a moment. The other party was passing by here on his way to the camp. He could report this situation or not. He thought that the general did not dare to close his eyes all day and night yesterday. He must be sleeping soundly. If he disturbed him now, he would probably be scolded.
The Jurchen official's face sank and he muttered something unhappily. The Xixia centurion did not dare to neglect him and waved his hand quickly, "Please come with me!"
He led a dozen of his men and led the Jurchen envoys south...
