The official road from the south passes through the west side of Ganquan Fort. The closest point is only a few hundred steps away from Ganquan Fort.
But they walked a full five miles before reaching the Ganquanbao battlefield.
At this time, the battlefield was very quiet. Both the Xixia Army and the Song Army had cleared the battlefield. All the corpses of the Xixia soldiers had been removed. The Song Army soldiers sent people from the top of the city to clean up. There were also a large number of arrows and rolling wood and stones.
They were transported back to the city together.
This is a tacit understanding between the two sides. When the Xixia soldiers carry corpses, they will not shoot arrows on the city. When the Song army clears the battlefield, the Xixia soldiers will not take the opportunity to attack. In fact, as long as the Song army's city gates are not opened, the Xixia army will not attack too much.
great meaning.
There was no one on the battlefield, and there were no trebuchets. Even the five-foot-high observation tower of the Xixia Army was dismantled and brought back. Everything became so quiet.
The group of people walked slowly in the darkness and heard the rumble of the cart. The Xixia centurion who was guiding the Jurchen envoys turned back to look at the cart curiously from time to time. The cart was very long, with six huge wooden wheels, and moved slowly.
There was a particularly long wooden pole on the cart, as well as a large pile of iron chains, weighing several thousand kilograms. I wonder what kind of secret weapon this was.
Gradually arriving at the closest point to Ganquan Fort, the Jurchen official looked back at the crowd. The hundreds of soldiers understood and raised their crossbows at the same time. The Jurchen official waved his hand and fired a hundred arrows. Unfortunately, the Xixia centurion and a dozen soldiers who led the way were what?
They didn't know it, so they all died together under random arrows.
The Jurchen official took off his hat and fake beard, took off his coat, and suddenly he was a Song Army cavalry. His name was Li Ling, a deputy capital official. He had deep eyes and high eyebrows, quite like a Jurchen.
Clothing and a fake beard can completely look fake.
This was an adventure arranged by Liu Cui. Liu Cui was betting that the Xixia people would not dare to offend the Jurchens. Of course, he also took advantage of the fact that he had to pass through Ganquan Fort when going to the Xixia camp from the south. Hundreds of soldiers guarded a Jurchen official, especially
Their Silver Wolf Head Order is a real guy, even if the other party's master comes, they won't see through it.
The Silver Wolf Head Order was captured by Chen Qing when he ambushed Wan Yanchang in Zhongnan County. It was regarded as Wan Yanchang's token. Wan Yanchang got another Silver Wolf Head Order. The previous Silver Wolf Head Order was invalid, but the Xixia people did not know it.
The cart immediately turned around and drove straight to the south gate of Ganquan Fort. At this time, the south gate of Ganquan Fort also opened and the suspension bridge was slowly lowered.
Not long after, everyone arrived at the South City Gate. Zheng Ping came out with hundreds of soldiers. Li Ling held up his command arrow and said, "This humble post is Li Ling, the deputy head of Commander Liu's subordinates. I was sent by Commander Liu to come to Ganquan Fort to deliver goods. I hereby deliver this order."
!”
Zheng Ping took the order arrow, looked at it, waved his hand, and the cart, pulled by ten horses, slowly drove towards the city...
Chen Qing also rushed to the south gate. Liu Cui's letter really whetted his appetite. What did Liu Cui send?
The cart slowly entered the city, and countless soldiers gathered around it. Everyone was very surprised. It looked like a trebuchet, but it shouldn't be as long!
Liu Qiong exclaimed, "This is a super giant trebuchet!"
"Have you seen it?" Chen Qing turned around and asked.
Liu Qiong nodded, "There is this course in martial arts. You are familiar with various heavy offensive and defensive weapons. We saw it when we went to the Lin'an Ordnance Supervision class. It can throw a hundred kilograms of stone five hundred steps. It is usually used to deal with crossings.
The boats on the river.”
"How come I didn't know this course existed in martial arts?"
Liu Qiong suddenly remembered that Chen Qing had graduated early, and he said with some embarrassment: "This is a course offered not long after the commander left Lin'an."
"This is deliberately targeting me!"
Chen Qing laughed and cursed, then asked: "What is the use of this throwing pole?"
"The commander didn't know something. At that time, the Military Supervisor Shaoqing told us that this kind of throwing pole was extremely difficult to make. During the Zhenghe period, it took fifteen years to make twelve poles. It took three years to select the materials. In addition to
Outside of the Song Dynasty, Liao and Xixia could not create it."
"Then why is this throwing pole in the hands of Xixia people?"
"this....."
Liu Qiong scratched her head, "I don't know why Xixia has such a throwing pole."
"I know this throwing rod!"
A middle-aged military craftsman came out. His name was Hu Zhen. He was originally the master craftsman of the Shaanxi Road Arms Supervision. Later he followed Wang Yan. When Wang Yan left office, he entrusted him to Chen Qing. He is now the commander of the Qinzhou Army.
Yuhou, chief military craftsman.
"This should have been captured by the Xixia army when Tong Guan attacked Xixia. He took three of them with him but never used them. After Tong Guan's defeat, millions of grain and grass supplies were obtained by the Xixia army, and this throw pole was one of the spoils.
"
"With this throwing rod alone, could Hu Yuhou possibly make a trebuchet?"
"It should be possible to add this pile of iron chains. The key to this super giant trebuchet is the throwing rod. Other shelves and the like can be built with thick wood, so it won't be a big problem."
"How long will it take you to make it?"
Hu Zhen thought for a while and said: "If the commander can give me five hundred people to help me, I can build it in three days."
Chen Qing said happily: "Okay, I will help you!"
After delivering the supplies, Chen Qing gave Li Ling a few more instructions, and Li Ling immediately led a hundred cavalrymen to rush north at full speed. Without the drag of the carts, ordinary Xixia army patrol posts could not stop them at all.
...........
For two days in a row, Li Liangfu did not launch an offensive against Ganquan Fort. The morale of his army was always low. In this state, it could only give the Song army casualties, and there was no point in attacking Ganquan Fort.
Li Liangfu thought hard for a long time before finally thinking of a new strategy for attacking the city, which was to attack the city gate. Perhaps the city gate was the weak spot of Ganquan Fort.
Unfortunately, the large battering ram he requested to be sent from Baochuan was burned, leaving him with no strategy to attack the city but no means to implement it, which really made Li Liangfu's teeth itch with hatred.
Li Liangfu sent another five hundred soldiers to Songlin Mountain to see if he could find a pine tree that was over a hundred years old and could build him a large battering ram.
There are indeed more than twenty pine trees on the mountain that Li Liangfu has never forgotten. Unfortunately, all of them were felled by the Song army. Now they are lying in the open space next to the east city wall. After being built by skilled craftsmen, they gradually changed into another look.
.
The shape of a super giant trebuchet has been revealed. The frame of the trebuchet is three feet high. It is not easy to fix the base alone. When launching, the four legs need to be firmly fixed.
Chen Qing and more than a dozen generals were surrounding the trebuchet. This type of trebuchet is called a self-loading trebuchet. A huge wooden box is hung on the top of the thick end of the throwing rod, and a three thousand kilogram iron chain is placed inside.
Usually the wooden box is placed on the ground. When it is necessary to launch, dozens of people pull the rope on the throwing rod at the other end. The long throwing rod pries up the heavy wooden box. Dozens of people let go at the same time, and the wooden box falls down.
The throwing rod will throw out boulders or fireballs.
Because the throwing pole is long enough, it can throw a hundred kilogram boulder five hundred steps.
"What do you want to do with it?" Yang Yuanqing asked with a smile.
Since Chen Qing knew that it could be made into a super giant trebuchet, he had an idea in his mind. He smiled slightly and said: "Let's go and see!"
Everyone climbed up the city wall and came to the northeast corner. From here, they could see the Xixia Army camp stretching for more than ten miles.
Everyone understood the coach's intention. Yang Zaixing looked at it for a while and said, "It seems the distance is not enough!"
Among all the generals, Yang Zaixing had the strongest sense of distance. He usually saw things accurately. He smiled and said, "It's about 800 steps from us to the enemy's camp fence. There's still a few hundred steps left."
"wrong!"
Liu Qiong came to his senses and said quickly: "It's about shooting a hundred kilogram boulder five hundred steps away. If it's a fifty kilogram fireball, it should be about the same."
Chen Qing smiled slightly and said: "A fireball usually weighs thirty kilograms. I think a thirty kilogram fireball should be able to shoot about a thousand steps."
"The control is absolutely right."
Hu Zhen stepped forward and said with a smile: "I am confident that if this super giant trebuchet throws a weight of thirty kilograms, it can indeed be thrown a thousand steps away."
Chen Qing thought for a while and said: "The fireball may not break when it falls on the tent, which will affect the effect. If the fireball can explode over the military camp, the burning gunpowder and kerosene will spray out, so the ignition range will be larger."
, can a master craftsman do it?"
Hu Zhen raised his head and thought for a while and said: "I can give it a try. This idea is not difficult. The key is to control the burning speed of the gunpowder blocks and kerosene inside so that they cannot burn out in mid-air. If I try it a few times, I will not be able to do it."
I believe it will be successful!”
At noon the next day, after more than twenty repeated trials, the craftsmen successfully created the fireball Chen Qing wanted. Twenty huge fireballs coated with kerosene were placed in the tent.