When Han Xin attacked Zhao, he gathered troops at Yuguan to gather grain.
In the same year that the Northern Song Dynasty destroyed the Northern Han Dynasty, a pacification military city was built on the original site of Yuguan to guard against anyone in Shanxi who dared to cause rebellion again.
Around the military city, there were many copycat fortresses, all of which were removed one after another by Zhang Guangdao.
For example, Baijing City in the east, also known as Baijing Village, Baijing Village, and Xitianmen, was forcibly captured by Zhang Guangdao last year, cutting off the southern passage between Pingding Military City and Jingxing.
There is a Zhaibao in Heisha Ridge in the northwest, commonly known as Nantianmen, which was also demolished this year.
The Pingding Army is now an isolated city. Because the city wall is too strong, Huihui Paoqi smashed it in the face for a month, and only a few cracks were made.
The real reward was to smash down the city tower and the arrow tower!
Zhang Guangdao tried a variety of methods, but in the end he relied on his large number of soldiers to fill in the moat and advance little by little. He used siege equipment to cover the infantry advance, and built two lines of vehicle formations dozens of meters away from the city, and then let the soldiers and The people built high towers.
During the process of building the fort, the defenders in the city found that archery was ineffective, and they repeatedly came out at night to destroy the fortifications.
However, behind the vehicle formation and the high platform, there were always troops taking turns to defend, and the defenders were unable to break through the defense.
More than sixty 10-meter-high platforms were built little by little outside the city.
On top of each high platform, two wooden cannons were set up, aiming at the top of the city wall dozens of meters away. This tactic has been around since ancient times, but in the past, catapults were set up and archers were deployed, which could only carry out limited attacks on the defenders. Suppressive fire.
The general who guarded Pingding was called Wanyan Saba, the son of Wanyan Oru and the nephew of Wanyan Sagai.
Seeing that the earth platform outside the city was getting higher and higher, he had already ordered the entire city door panels to be dismantled, and trees were planted behind the parapet to prevent arrows. He also moved a lot of furniture to hold the door panels in place for fixation.
"You personally lead the troops to defend this side!" Wanyan Saba said to a Han general.
The man immediately knelt down and accepted the order: "Even if I die, I will die here!"
"Very good." Wanyan Saba nodded and smiled.
The Han general was a Haner from the Liao Kingdom, and his name was Dong Cai.
He first led the refugee uprising in Yizhou, and after repeated defeats, he fled from Hebei to Shanxi, turning the Shanxi territory of the Liao Kingdom into a pot of porridge.
He then surrendered to the Song Dynasty and was given the name Zhao Xu by Song Huizong, who instigated Song Huizong to conquer the Liao Dynasty.
Song Huizong placed Dong Cai in Shanxi and let him continue to lead his old army.
However, Dong Cai's military rations were withheld for a long time, and he himself was discriminated against by officials of the Song Dynasty. Because the soldiers and their families were granted land by the court and occupied a large amount of Shanxi grain taxes, they also had a bad relationship with the locals in Shanxi.
In fact, most of these grains were embezzled by the civil and military officials of the Song Dynasty. However, the people of Shanxi were heavily taxed, and all their grievances were directed at Dong Cai. After all, they were outsiders, and the soldiers had poor military discipline because they were hungry.
From generals to soldiers to family members, Dong Cai's men were humiliated in Shanxi.
When the Jin army came to attack, Dong Cai's troops were short of food and clothing. Ma Liu turned to Wanyan Zonghan and helped the Jin soldiers attack the city and seize territory.
In Dong Cai's view, Wanyan Zonghan was the master of the Ming Dynasty. He never treated him badly, and he used him more. But the Liao and Song states were bastards, and the Han people in Shanxi were also bastards, so the new Ming dynasty must also be bastards.
Groups of former Liao Han soldiers followed Dong Cai to garrison the city wall, preparing for another fierce battle with the Ming army.
They were all pitiful people, who were forced to rebel by the Liao State. They refused to surrender after being defeated every time, and they only pretended to surrender when they were recruited by the Liao State. They hated the Liao State Court, and later they hated the Song State Court.
From beginning to end, they are just trying to survive!
"Boom boom boom boom!"
Sixty wooden cannons, on a high platform dozens of meters away, fired stone bullets at the city head one after another.
Instead of using shotgun shells, I used stone bullets that were slightly smaller than my fist.
A large number of door panels used to protect against arrows were knocked down, and some door panels were even shattered, with wood fragments splattering on the soldiers behind.
"Ah, my eyes!"
"Dad, dad... your neck is bleeding!"
"..."
On the city wall, Dong Cai's soldiers screamed.
In order to hide his strength, Zhang Guangdao built more than 300 wooden cannons but never used them in battle.
The enemy is defenseless!
Dong Cai's cheek was also splashed with sawdust, and a narrow bloody gash appeared. He shouted hoarsely: "Hide behind the parapet and don't move!"
"Boom boom boom!"
Another sixty wooden cannons were fired immediately afterward, this time filled with small pebble shot.
Some of the defenders who were running around in panic were accidentally shot. Some were killed on the spot, but many others suffered only fractures and injuries. The power of the wooden cannon's shotgun shells was still too small.
After two consecutive rounds of shooting, the wooden cannon was reloading rapidly, and Dong Cai actually took advantage of this gap to pacify his soldiers.
Although they were still panicking, no one was running around soon. They all carefully hid behind the parapet, waiting for the next city defense battle.
These guys, like Yaoshi Guo's old team, are all veterans of many battles who have narrowly escaped death.
Yao Pingzhong stood on the high platform and saw clearly with a telescope. He couldn't understand it at all. He muttered: "We are all Han, how can we work for the Jin Kingdom like this? Only after surrendering to the Ming Dynasty can we have a future."
Two more rounds of shelling had little effect.
Even if the stone bullets fired by the wooden cannon hit the parapet, it would be difficult to destroy the thin parapet. The defenders were hiding behind the parapet and were not afraid of the shells as long as they did not stand up.
Siege equipment was rolled out one after another, ladders, chariots, rams, parapets... slowly advancing from behind the earthen platform, the soldiers used the cover of wooden cannons to move away from the vehicle formation defense line they had set up, and moved towards the city at a leisurely pace.
Let's go to the city wall.
The defenders were suppressed by wooden cannons and could not raise their heads and could not fire rockets to attack these instruments.
When the wooden cannon fire stopped, the nest car was gradually approaching.
As the name suggests, the nest car is a small wooden house like a bird's nest. It is hung on a wooden pole higher than the city wall. Archers hide in the wooden house to suppress the defenders at the top of the city at close range.
For fear of accidentally injuring friendly troops, the wooden cannon no longer dared to fire, and now relied on the nest car to shoot arrows.
"Send the order, fire rockets!"
Dong Cai gave an order, and the archers guarding the city began to look for the brazier.
Most of the braziers were knocked over by cannonballs or fallen boards, and only a few were dragged behind the parapet.
Sporadic rockets were fired, but they were unable to ignite the nest car because it was still covered with a layer of skin and the number of rockets was too few.
"Elevator!"
The ladder is also like a chariot, with a carriage and wheels underneath.
The soldiers were hidden in the carriage, with a barrier in front, and were pushed by the auxiliary soldiers. The auxiliary soldiers and the auxiliary soldiers also had anti-arrow facilities.
Before reaching the city wall, the auxiliary soldiers began to turn the winch.
The folded long ladder, with the rotation of the winch, was buckled towards the city wall bit by bit, and the iron hook was firmly grasped on the top of the wall.
This kind of cloud ladder has a very small slope and is not afraid of boiling oil and gold juice. There are also erected logs on both sides to prevent the logs from rolling down.
Once such a ladder catches the city wall, there is a great chance of attacking it. It only depends on whether the first climber can gain a firm foothold.
Under normal circumstances, the ladder was often attacked by rockets from the defenders when it was still halfway. But this time, the Ming army had wooden cannons to cover it, and then chariots to cover it, and they pushed the ladder over smoothly.
The soldiers came out of the carriage of the ladder, put on their armor and began to climb.
The Chaoche archers tried their best to kill the defenders, but there were still many defenders who used three- to four-meter long spears to poke down the Ming siege troops.
There was a ladder that organized two groups of attacks and were repelled. A dark-skinned strong man roared: "Everyone is following me. We must climb first today!"
This strong man is called Wang De. In another time and space, he is also nicknamed "Wang Yaksha".
Wang De was seen climbing quickly while wearing strong armor, and two pieces of wood rolled down in succession, both of which were blocked by the impact avoidance device of the ladder.
When he was about three meters away from the city, several spears were stabbed at him, and three arrows were inserted into his body one after another.
Two spears were pressed against his body at the same time, and the defenders pushed Wang De down desperately. Wang De grabbed the ladder with one hand, grabbed the spear with the other hand, held the barrel of the gun, and dragged it down.
After seizing one spear, he went to seize another. The defender held on tightly, but Wang Delian and his men with guns towed him off the city wall.
Another defender came to take over and shot Wang De in the face. He lowered his head to block it with his helmet, climbed up with both hands, and pounced in from the crenel.
At this time, Wang De didn't even have time to draw his weapon, so he grabbed the defender in front of him, swung it horizontally, twisted and smashed it.
After knocking over three people in a row, Wang Decai threw away the unconscious enemy, took off the mace from his waist and rushed forward.
The Ming army's chariots completely stopped shooting arrows. The defenders of this section of the city wall were finally able to move freely, and a reserve team was also mobilized to supplement the defense.
Four spears came at him at the same time. Wang De only avoided one, split one, and the remaining two spears stabbed him hard.
"Crack!"
Wang De smashed a spear in front of him and rushed into the crowd without fear of death, killing the defenders so much that they retreated.
The second Ming army followed Wang De to the city, followed by the third, fourth, and fifth...
Dong Cai saw that he could not defend himself even if he put in the reserve team, so he had no choice but to come over with his own soldiers.
He was arrogant about his bravery, so he raised his spear and stabbed Wang De's armor hard.
Wang De felt severe pain in his chest. Although the armor was not broken, the force was still uncomfortable. When Dong Cai's second shot came, Wang De grabbed the barrel of the gun before he could close it.
Dong Cai used both hands, while Wang De only used his left hand.
In the flash of lightning and flint, Wang De dragged back his spear. Dong Cai was brought forward and staggered forward. He quickly let go of the spear and pulled out his sword to kill Wang De.
"Well done!"
Wang De did not dodge, but he was hit by a waist knife, and an iron mace hit Dong Cai's head.
Dong Cai hurriedly avoided, feeling that he couldn't completely avoid it, so he subconsciously closed his sword and blocked it horizontally.
"when!"
The sword and mace met each other, and due to the excessive force, the waist sword was directly broken.
Wang De stepped forward, ignoring the spear thrust from the side, and swung his mace fiercely.
"when!"
The iron mace hit Dong Cai's helmet. The veteran leader of the old Liao and Han armies, his brain, protected by the helmet, was smashed into a ball of paste.
Wang De was excited to fight, but was stabbed painfully by the spear again. He grabbed Dong Cai who was about to fall, picked him up with one hand and threw him towards the enemy.
Zhang Guangdao's men are also attacking, but no one can get there first.
He stood on a high platform and looked around with a telescope. He witnessed Wang De's ascension to the city and said to himself in amazement: "This man is the bravest of all three armies. Yao Pingzhong actually has such a fierce general under his command!"