Chapter three hundred and thirty fifth dark crossing
At night, a hundred-foot-long sandbag wall appeared on the side. The one-foot-high sandbag wall also blocked the sight of the defenders at the top of the city, so that the soldiers at the top of the city could not see what the Song army was doing from the easternmost side.
Thousands of Song troops dug the river channel under the cover of night. Since three deep and wide tunnels had been dug in advance, 70% of the work on the river channel had actually been completed. Now they only needed to lift the ground and merge the three tunnels into one single tunnel.
, a river channel hundreds of feet long was dug.
This new river channel is actually a straightening of the original river channel so that the new river channel is facing the Shuicheng Gate. This is crucial for attacking the Shuicheng Gate. The collision ship must run hundreds of feet at high speed and then collide with the Shuicheng Gate with its strong inertia.
Therefore, there must be a river directly facing the Shuicheng Gate in order to hit the gate at high speed.
Without this straight river channel, after entering the moat, the ramming boat would have to make a 90-degree turn before entering the water gate. When turning, it would have to slow down to zero, and then rely on bamboo poles to punt the boat. Without any power, what power would be used to ram the water gate?
Iron fence?
At the fourth watch, the river channel has been completely excavated. Only the baffles at both ends need to be removed, and the river water will flow into the river channel.
At this time, the soldiers on the top of the city had already discovered a clue. A river appeared on the side of the barrier close to the city wall. The port was filled with sandbags. As long as the sandbags were lifted, the moat would burst.
The soldiers were all confused. No one knew when this river appeared, as if it appeared suddenly.
Just when the soldiers were hesitating to report to the marshal, someone suddenly shouted, "Sound the alarm, the enemy warships are coming!"
‘Dang! Dang! Dang!’ The alarm bell sounded loudly on the city top, and then the alarm bell rang in the military camp. The soldiers woke up from their dreams and rushed towards the city head.
Dong Xian was also woken up. He put on his coat and rushed to the city. Twenty three-thousand-stone warships sailed toward the moat. Needless to say, he could guess that Chen Qing had begun to attack the city with warships.
.
But he couldn't figure out why Chen Qing attacked the city at the fourth watch?
The North City was heavily guarded. Even at night, three thousand soldiers were deployed at the head of the North City.
Without waiting for the commander's order, more than thirty small trebuchets deployed at the head of the northern city began to fire pyrotechnics balls at the fleet, and if they failed, they shot arrows at the ships.
One after another, bright red kerosene balls rose into the sky, piercing the dark night sky, and flew across the moat towards the fleet of ships sailing close to the river. The kerosene balls kept hitting the big ships, and the soldiers on the ships were already prepared.
, each ship prepared hundreds of water-soaked quilts.
"Boom!" A ball of fire oil hit the deck. The clay pot shattered and scattered into a puddle. The fire burned rapidly. Three soldiers rushed forward. Two of them held up a large shield to cover, and the other soldier carried a wet
quilt.
He threw the quilt directly on a pool of burning fire, cutting off the oxygen. The fire was extinguished. The soldier wiped the kerosene with the quilt and threw it into the moat together with the quilt. The three people quickly returned to the cabin, and then three more people rushed into the moat.
Got out.
As the fleet sailed along the moat toward the West City, the outer walls of more than a dozen large ships were hit one after another, setting off blazing fires, which was particularly shocking in the dark night.
Dong rushed to the city head first. After observing for a moment, he realized that the opponent was going to attack from the west city, where Chen Qing's camp was stationed.
He immediately shouted: "The Divine Arm Crossbow Army rushed to the West City immediately, and the bed crossbows and trebuchets were transferred to the West City!"
The focus of the war quickly turned to the West City, and all the war resources in Xiangyang City also quickly tilted towards the West City. The North City soon became quiet, and at this time the new river channel dug by the Song Army was opened silently.
Li Guojian, the commander guarding the North City, received the news and hurried over to check. The enemy's baffles had been removed, revealing five heavy trebuchets and a newly dug river channel, which opened up the moat.
A commander whispered to Li Guojian: "I feel that the other party dug this river to transport trebuchet parts!"
"It doesn't make sense! They brought it from the Caohe River and it's very close. They don't need to dig the river at all. And when they dug it, we didn't find out at all."
"Commander, do you want to report to the marshal?"
Li Guojian thought for a moment and said, "Let's go ahead and talk! Maybe the marshal knows why the other party dug this river."
"I'll go and report now!"
The commander hurriedly ran towards the West City...
The siege of Xicheng has broken out. Huge wooden rafts were erected on the ships and city walls. The defenders directly poured kerosene barrels on them, igniting a raging fire. However, the fire could not stop the Song soldiers, thousands of soldiers
Wrapped in wet quilts, they rushed onto the wooden raft and ran towards the city. The real lethality was the bed crossbow. The bed crossbow was fired at the wooden raft from both sides. Song soldiers were constantly being shot by iron arrows and screaming.
Let's go down to the city.
Not only the bed crossbows, the Puppet Qi Army also deployed a thousand divine arm crossbowmen. On average, every fifty divine arm crossbowmen can deal with a large ship. The puppet Qi army is also experienced, and they will never fire the bed crossbows together with the bed crossbows.
The moment the crossbow stops is their shooting time.
Dong Xian was indeed telling the truth. He was as clear as a mirror. What they really had to deal with was Chen Qing's siege, especially Chen Qing's use of warships to siege the city. That was the biggest threat to Xiangyang City.
He deployed four layers of defense for this purpose, using fire oil balls to burn the ship from a distance, then using bed crossbows and divine arm crossbows to deal with the ten-foot-long overpass, and finally using wolf pack tactics.
Although it was only a short distance of about ten feet, it was not easy to rush to the top of the city. Arrows kept falling into the city by Song soldiers. They managed to avoid the arrows and rushed to the end of the raft, but they encountered the enemy's wolf pack tactics.
There were hundreds of spear soldiers standing in front of each wooden row. Hundreds of spears formed a spear wall, completely blocking the way to the city. Even if you jumped on it, you would be assassinated by the spears.
At almost the end of every wooden raft, there were more than a dozen Song soldiers fighting with the enemy.
Chen Qing's use of warships to attack the city was not a false attack. He used a two-pronged approach. Capturing Xiangyang was his goal no matter which method he used. He also spent a lot of money on the warship siege. At least 5,000 elite soldiers participated in the attack.
The casualties on both sides continued to increase, and they were in a state of stalemate.
At this moment, the commander reported to Dong Xian the news that a river had appeared outside Beicheng.
Dong Xian was stunned. It was simply unbelievable to him. There was no news at all in advance, and he was suddenly told that there was an extra hundred-foot-long river. Could it be that Chen Qing’s real purpose was not to install a large trebuchet, but to dig a river? The large trebuchet was just
A cover-up?
He is very aware of Chen Qing's style of doing things. The more important the decision, the more secretive he will be. If even the super trebuchet is just a cover-up, then the importance of this river can be imagined.
Dong thought for a moment but couldn't figure it out. Suddenly he had a flash of inspiration and asked urgently: "Where is our city wall on the other side of the river?"
"It seems...it seems to be facing the Water City Gate!"
"Waicheng Gate?"
Dong Xian felt something bad. Could it be that Chen Qing was going to attack Shuicheng Gate?
At this moment, his mind suddenly recalled something Jiang Yanxian had told him: the iron fence of Shuicheng Gate had not been replaced for fifty years, and many of the iron bars were like rotten wood.
"not good!"
Dong Xian suddenly understood Chen Qing's intention. Chen Qing must have wanted to break open the water city gate and dig a river channel to speed up the collision.
"Pass my order, the fifth reserve army immediately rushes to Shuicheng Gate to defend!"
Dong Xian couldn't care about the battle at the head of the west city for the time being. He handed over the command to his subordinates and ran directly to the corridor...
In the newly dug river channel, a two-thousand-stone collision ship was speeding up. The sails above the ship were bulging, and the strong northern blow was blowing the collision ship. However, in order to speed up, there were dozens of soldiers on both sides of the shore pulling hard.
vessel.
The speed of the ship became faster and faster, rushing into the moat and rushing straight towards the water city gate twenty feet away.
