The Xixia army opened two battlefields, a northern battlefield and an eastern battlefield. The northern battlefield was led by deputy general Tuoba Chengqing, while the commander-in-chief Xia Company was responsible for the eastern battlefield. The commander-in-chief, Cao Baozong, decided the progress of the war. He would not stop the war.
Never stop.
Of course, Cao Baozong was very confident. He believed that today's lunch would be settled in the city.
"Trebuchets go first!"
Cao Baozong gave an order, and thirty large trebuchets began to advance slowly...
Eight thousand troops were arranged at the top of the city, four thousand each at the north and east cities. Liu Cui and Niu Gao were each in charge of the north and east cities, and Gao Ding led two thousand soldiers to support them.
The Song Army also ambushed 5,000 men each at the head of the west city and the head of the south city, waiting for orders to attack. Li Muqing, Wang Lun, Chen Dayu, Su Ping and a number of outstanding generals will also play their roles.
At the same time, five thousand crossbowmen were deployed under the city. They stood close to the city wall, waiting for orders to start deploying counterattacks.
In addition, there are 6,000 logistics civilians responsible for transporting supplies to the two cities, as well as carrying and rescuing wounded soldiers.
The Song Army is also ready and will do its best to eliminate the enemy's effective forces. This time the Song Army does not need prisoners of war, they will completely destroy the enemy physically.
Chen Qing stood on the turret connecting the North City and the East City. The turret was made of large rocks and was very strong and could withstand the impact of large rocks. It was also the command center of the entire Song Army.
Chen Qing watched the enemy trebuchet slowly advance forward. He was rich in experience and could tell at a glance that the enemy's trebuchet was not capable of throwing. It was a large trebuchet. It usually threw a heavy object of fifty or sixty kilograms. The distance from the city wall was two hundred and fifty.
Steps or so.
In two hundred and fifty steps, an ordinary divine arm crossbow can penetrate the enemy's armor. In terms of large trebuchets, the Xixia people are obviously inferior to the Jin soldiers.
"Pass my order, North City and East City each deploy a thousand divine arm crossbow soldiers to attack the enemy's trebuchets!"
Two thousand god-armed crossbow troops marched to the North City and East City. They raised their crossbows and waited for the trebuchets to come forward...
The fifteen trebuchets outside the North City were first in position, and they also prepared baffles to prevent the Song army's crossbows from firing.
The trebuchet was not ready yet, and dense black dots appeared in the sky. Then a thousand crossbow arrows fell from the sky, hitting the trebuchet like raindrops. Dozens of Xixia soldiers were unable to dodge and were killed by random arrows. Two of them were killed on the spot.
The belt holding the trebuchet was broken by the shot, and the trebuchet collapsed suddenly.
"Prepare to launch!"
In a hurry, thirteen trebuchets began to launch towards the city. The first round was all fifty kilograms of boulders, and the fifty kilograms of kerosene balls were not ready yet.
More than a dozen large rocks rose into the air and roared toward the city. The soldiers on the city shouted and squatted down one after another, "Boom!" With a loud noise, a huge stone hit the battlements, then bounced high and crossed the city.
Fly towards the city.
Another huge boulder hit a trebuchet on the city wall. The trebuchet was smashed into pieces and pieces of wood flew everywhere.
The angle of projection was too small, so it was very difficult for the boulders to land on the city wall. Of the thirteen boulders, only four hit the city wall. The remaining nine boulders were either not strong enough to hit the city wall, or were too powerful and flew away.
After passing the city head, we flew towards the city.
The east city is weaker, with only nine trebuchets left. All nine boulders failed to project, and none of the boulders hit the city head.
Cao Baozong was annoyed and shouted: "Change the kerosene ball!"
As soon as he finished speaking, two huge fires suddenly appeared in the sky, scattering in the sky like a goddess scattering flowers. These were the fire clay balls of the Song Army, fired by the Thousand-Step Cannon. Its biggest feature was its wide impact area.
Spreading out in the air, a ball of burning clay dispersed into hundreds of small burning fireballs, which were scattered towards the trebuchet position. The soldiers were so frightened that they dodge, as if hail fell from the sky, crackling to the ground and falling on the trebuchet.
Fires were burning everywhere and thick smoke was billowing, which greatly hindered the movement of the Xixia army.
Cao Baozong became angry. He originally wanted to use a trebuchet to demoralize the Song army, but he did not expect that the Song army's kerosene weapons were so sharp that it affected the morale of his own army.
He waved his sword and shouted: "Attack the siege army!"
"Woo——"
A deep horn sounded, and 40,000 troops carried 300 heavy siege ladders and attacked the North City and the East City simultaneously.
On the first day, they launched a large-scale siege. This was something the Song Army had never experienced before in countless siege battles. It was also an extremely severe test for the Song Army. The opponent's tactics were very clear and clear, which was to crush them with an absolutely superior force.
Soldiers guarding the city.
If Chen Qing's main force did not arrive in time, this tactic was very correct. With only a few thousand Song troops in the city, they might be able to defeat the enemy's small-scale attacks again and again, but they would not be able to withstand the simultaneous attack of tens of thousands of enemy troops.
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In fact, this is also the tradition of the Xixia army, which is good at concentrating superior forces to attack the castles of the Song army.
But Cao Baozong never dreamed that there would be 28,000 people in the city. Chen Qing himself was in the city. According to the exact information he received, Chen Qing would lead his army from Chengji County tomorrow.
A wrong intelligence will plunge the Xixia army into a complete nightmare.
Chen Qing calmly looked at the Xixia army's attack and ordered: "Launch the trebuchet!"
The trebuchets on the top of the city raised their arms and threw eight-pound barrels of gunpowder into the rushing crowd. At the same time, random arrows were fired from the top of the city, raining down on the rushing enemy troops.
The gunpowder barrels have a double-layer structure and will not break when dropped. Each gunpowder barrel contains hundreds of poison-quenched iron nails. This is also a characteristic of Song Dynasty firearms. The firearm itself is not very powerful, and it is all ejected from the inside.
Use poisonous thorns and poisonous spikes to kill the enemy.
"Boom! Boom! Boom!"
Gunpowder barrels exploded in the crowd. The impact was not great. Only a few nearby soldiers were killed and injured. However, the hundreds of poison-quenched iron nails it shot out were extremely powerful, killing hundreds of people within a few feet.
None of the ten people were spared, and were shot with iron nails one after another.
But it didn't affect the soldiers at first. It was just a small injury on the flesh. The soldiers wiped the blood on their faces and legs and continued running. It would take a quarter of an hour before the poison would show up.
Arrows were shot into the crowd, and soldiers continued to fall down due to arrows, but compared to the black and overwhelming 40,000 attacking army, these casualties were nothing.
"Attack! Attack!"
Cao Baozong watched the turbulent army rushing towards the city wall. He was so excited that he couldn't control himself. He picked up the drumsticks and beat the battle drum. One hundred drums sounded at the same time.
"Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!"
The sound of the drums was earth-shattering, and the morale of the Xixia army was like a rainbow. They were getting closer and closer to the city wall. Gunpowder barrels were still exploding in the crowd, without affecting the opponent's offensive morale at all.
Chen Qing calmly looked at the surging troops on both sides, and ordered: "The number of people on each side of the city will be increased to 7,000, and the commoners will be on board!"
The so-called Commoner Army is the Song Army, but in order to confuse the Xixia Army, the Song Army wore a commoner over their armor and looked like civilians in the city, so they called it the Commoner Army.
Four thousand civilian troops received the order and quickly rushed to Beicheng and Dongcheng.
At this time, siege ladders were hung up on the city head. Xixia soldiers rushed up in large numbers, and huge rocks and rolling logs were smashed down...
Chen Qing issued the order again, "Fire with a large array of bows and arrows in the city!"
The 10,000 crossbowmen in the city were divided into two large formations, shooting arrows outside the east city and the north city respectively. They used city-defending bows and arrows, and the dark cloud-like arrows passed over the city and fell into the enemy soldiers outside the city.
among.
This made Cao Baozong, the commander-in-chief of the Xixia Army, startled. All the Song troops had already entered the city. Why were there still arrows being fired from the city? Moreover, there seemed to be more soldiers on the city. Could it be that the Song troops still had an ambush?
Tuoba Chengqing pointed to the Song army at the top of the city and said: "General, many Song soldiers are wearing civilian clothes. They must have mobilized the young men in the city to participate in the defense of the city."
This explanation is very reasonable. If the defenders of the city do not have enough troops, they will definitely mobilize the men, women and children in the city to join the battle.
Cao Baozong gritted his teeth and said: "After capturing the city, I have to kill these bastards!"