Chapter 132: A Hundred Years Still Remember Shuofang Town (4)
Zhao Si, Yao Lin and others stood on an earth platform in a section of the earth wall, watching the scene in the city with binoculars.
Sixty trebuchets were still throwing flaming bombs, and fireballs would rise from time to time in the city. But there was no longer the panic as before, and the fire could not burn for long, and soon went out, leaving only a slow blackness.
cigarette.
"The effect is not good! After ten days of fighting, this is the effect. Xia Jun seems to be well prepared." After watching for a while, Yao Lin put down the telescope and sighed.
Zhao Si also put down his telescope, turned around and said to the generals and staff: "Everyone, tell me, our trebuchets have increased from twenty to sixty, but why are the effects not as good as those in Liangzhou City?"
Everyone looked at each other, and Bai Chonghu spoke first.
"Your Majesty, colleagues, I think the reason is that Liangzhou City is unprepared, while Xingqing City is; Liangzhou City is short of water, but Xingqing City is not; Liangzhou City is an ancient city, and Xingqing City is a new city...
.”
Zhong Pu couldn't help but ask: "Bohu, I can understand the first two reasons you mentioned. What do you mean by the ancient city and the new city?"
Bai Chonghu laughed, turned around and said to the staff officers standing nearby: "You are all staff officers, who is going to answer General Zhong's questions?"
Li Miao raised his hand unceremoniously and said: "I'll do it!"
Bai Chonghu pointed at him and said, "Okay, you say."
"General Bai means that Liangzhou City is a thousand-year-old city, just like Chang'an. The houses are densely packed and stacked one on top of another. If a few flame bombs are dropped, the fire will definitely ignite and spread in all directions."
Everyone couldn't help but nod. Some people who knew the inside story thought of the incident in the first year of Tianqi that a traitor wanted to light kerosene in Kaifeng City. Kaifeng City, like Xi'an City and Liangzhou City, is an ancient city, and the houses are even denser.
Of.
"Xingqing City was built just a few decades ago, in the fourth year of Emperor Zhenmiao's Tianxi reign, and the former leader of the Xixia Kingdom, Li Mingde, ordered the construction to begin. After that, his son Li Yuanhao continued to build it aggressively."
"According to the information, the roads in the city are in a grid shape and the streets are very wide. There are more than 20 neighborhoods such as Chongyi. There are mainly handicraft workshops and temples such as Chengtian Temple, Jietan Temple, and Buddha Temple. The palaces and gardens in the city occupy one-third.
First, there are also the mansions of various dignitaries. Therefore, there are not many ordinary residents, and they are distributed in several neighborhoods in the south of the city. They are all low-rise mud houses or mud-slab houses."
Seeing Li Miao, Yao Lin and Zhong Pu talking freely, Liu Zhongwu couldn't help but look at each other quietly.
Previously, everyone thought that the military academy and staff officer system established by the government were just a means to strengthen control over the military. But now it seems that while strengthening control over the military, it also promoted a new military ideology and system.
By now they can also see that the battle to destroy Xia may be the last battle for the older generation of generals. When it comes to the battle to regain the Yanyun Sixteenth Prefecture, it should be the military academies and staff trained by the officials themselves.
Generals with official background played the leading role.
Fortunately, everyone has juniors who entered the military academy and became staff officers... Several of them suddenly thought that their children and nephews all entered the military academy at the request of the officials. At that time, they were still a little reluctant, thinking that it was...
Officials have the feeling of holding hostages.
Now that I think about it, the officials have far-reaching intentions. Involuntarily, the moods of several people became a little complicated.
Li Miao is still talking.
"Ten days of flaming bombs burned down the houses in the southern area of Xingqing City. However, overall, Xingqing City is still sparsely populated. Judging from the construction sketch of Xingqing City, the entire city covers an area of 15,000 square meters."
About square kilometers.”
Some of the new words Li Miao said, such as meters, kilometers, kilograms, square kilometers, hours, etc., must be known in the Secretariat Province, various academies, including the military academy, the Institute of Gewu, various research institutes and factories. All civil and military officials who come out of these systems are familiar with it. In recent years, it has also led the Catholic, military and police personnel in the three provinces, one hospital and local yamen to follow suit.
Therefore, these terms are not unfamiliar to everyone present, and they all understand what they mean.
"In such a large area, no matter how powerful the trebuchets and flame bombs are, they cannot cover everything due to range issues." Li Miao pointed to the two trenches in front and the heavily filled moat under the city wall, "Everyone, From the city wall to our earth wall, there are two trenches and a moat in the middle, a distance of two hundred meters. The trebuchet was set up close to the earth wall, and it also consumed most of the range..."
"It is reported that in the past two years, Xia Guo Li Qianshun asked Wei Ming Anhui to preside over the renovation of Xingqing City, taking advantage of the wide streets and sparse houses in the city to build targeted fire prevention facilities... With various measures, it can It can be seen that the fire attack is not very effective and cannot burn the entire city and force the soldiers and civilians in the city to surrender. It can only provide fire cover when launching an ant attack on the city wall."
After Li Miao finished speaking, Zhao Si took the lead in applauding, and everyone else followed suit.
After the applause ended, Liu Zhongwu said with some emotion: "The fire attack has no effect, the water attack is not advisable, and now the earth attack has failed halfway... It seems that in order to conquer this city, in the end we have to rely on the soldiers to fight with swords and spears."
The people present at the scene knew the truth about the burning of Liangzhou City.
The most critical thing about that battle was that the Xia Army guard Li Yanqing and his generals were on the South Gate Tower to observe the Song Army's offensive. They were caught off guard and were annihilated by a trebuchet with a fire bomb, leaving the Xia Army with countless dragons. .
The subsequent continuous bombings burned down most of Nancheng District and affected some streets in other urban areas. The main reason was that no one took the lead to put out the fire, which caused it to spread widely. To say that the whole city was burned to the ground, it was far from that point.
Liangzhou City fell, mainly due to the Cao family and other local powerful factions. Taking advantage of the death of Li Yanqing and other Xia army leaders, there was chaos in the city, and they colluded to surrender.
If the situation in Liangzhou City is described as tragic, it would seem logical for them to surrender.
The Song Dynasty was also happy to see the rumors of the lethality of the trebuchet becoming more and more popular, creating a large enough deterrent effect. If the Xia army's defeated generals and deserters did not make the situation more miserable, how could it appear that they were loyal and tried their best, but were unable to resist God's will.
Therefore, the news that Liangzhou City was burned by trebuchets spread more and more violently and became more outrageous.
Everyone cast their eyes on Zhao Si and listened to his voice quietly.
"Any victory must involve sacrifices! Over the past hundred years, hundreds of thousands of soldiers and civilians in the northwest states and counties have been killed or injured because of Xixia. Enough blood has been shed." Zhao Si said in a deep voice.
At this time, an officer came over and shouted: "Report! There is an urgent report from the deputy battalion of the Artillery Battalion of the General Reserve!"
Yao Lin's face darkened. Didn't you see that the officials were lecturing? You barged in and interrupted without a clue, how unbecoming it is! What do you ask me, the commander-in-chief, to tell you?
Just as he was about to reprimand him, Zhao Si raised his hand: "Yao Gong, it's okay. The military situation is extremely urgent. Let Ye Zuowei say something."
"It's your Majesty," Yao Lin stared at Ye Pang and said, "Say it!"
"Your Majesty, generals, the artillery battalion is preparing to test the artillery nearby. The artillery is making a lot of noise, and my subordinates are here to report it. Please be prepared."
"Artillery Battalion! Yes, we still have an artillery battalion! Look at the power of the new artillery. Su Fuzi (Su Xie) and Xu Fuzi (Xu Lin) boasted them to perfection and praised them as powerful siege weapons. Your Majesty, let's take a look
Effect?"
Yao Lin said excitedly.
"Okay! Let's see the effect."
On another earthen platform not far away, there are four mortars. On an earthen platform further away, there are two long cannons. The artillerymen have all been loaded and are ready to fire at any time.
After Ye Pang came back after receiving the order, he reported to the artillery commander.
The artillery commander blew the brass whistle and waved a triangular red flag to signal the attention of all troops that the artillery battalion was about to begin testing the artillery.
There were four dull loud sounds of "Tong", and four dark balls, as big as a washbasin, flew towards the city with a sharp whistling sound.
There were four loud noises in succession, and a cloud of black smoke rose up in the city, with gravel and dust flying everywhere, and then it was gone.
The lethality of black powder is still very average.
Zhao Si was murmuring in his heart, and turned the telescope to the two long cannons.
I saw two cannons emitting flames and spitting out green smoke, and then two iron pellets roared towards the city wall and hit it hard. The entire city wall seemed to shake a few times.
But when the dust settled, the city wall made of rammed earth only showed two circular pits surrounded by a network of cracks.
Everyone held up the binoculars and looked at it for a while, feeling a little discouraged.
It is true that it can hit farther than a trebuchet, and it is much more powerful. But if you rely on one shot after another to knock down the city wall, you will have to wait until the end of the year of the monkey.
Everyone knew in their hearts that in the end they would have to rely on the soldiers to rush to the city wall and fight bloody battles with the Xia army in order to capture the city. But how many lives of soldiers would this cost?
Thinking of this, everyone's hearts felt extremely heavy.
Looking at the expressions on everyone's faces, Zhao Si said coldly: "For the sake of future generations, no matter how great the sacrifice, we must grit our teeth and persevere! The hundreds of thousands of heroic souls today will save the tears of millions of soldiers and civilians tomorrow. Former enemy headquarters!
"
"Here!" Yao Lin, Liu Zhongwu, Zhong Pu, Bai Chonghu and others responded quickly.
"Make arrangements for the siege. Allocate warriors who dare to die to form the first team and the second echelon to respond. Prepare siege equipment and formulate siege plans... In order to prevent the soldiers and civilians of the northwest states and counties from bleeding in the future, we are here
Let’s fight to the death in Xingqing City!”
"yes!"
Zhao Si said to his eldest grandson, Moli: "Xuan Ming, draft two letters for me. One is to announce to the soldiers and civilians in the city, advising them to be aware of current affairs and surrender as soon as possible...the other is written to Princess Helan of Xixia, telling her not to
You made a mistake, lest you end the bloodline of Xixia and Weiming. Please persuade Li Qianshun to let the old, weak, women and children out. No matter how hard-hearted I am, I will not bother to kill these defenseless women and children!"