Su Jin pointed at the model and said: "Look, the moat surrounding Linhuang Mansion is not artificially dug, but a natural river. The river is more than five feet wide, which is the first obstacle; the cold city wall is two feet high, as high as the emperor's.
Although the city ratio is a little lower, it is still relatively high compared to ordinary cities. The same question is, what should we use to attack the city? Where did the ladder come from? Where did the trebuchet come from? Are we going to hit the wall with bare hands?"
The generals were all talking about it. Some said they would climb into the city at night and join forces inside and outside, some said they would quickly search around and cut down trees to build ladders, and some said they would dig tunnels leading into the city. In short, they all had their own whimsical ideas.
Su Jin dismissed them one by one: "Now both sides are watching each other's movements with wide eyes. There is no difference between night and day, and there is no chance to sneak into the city; it is too late to build the ladder, and there are no craftsmen in the army. In addition,
The delay is too long. This is the last thing we should do at the moment. Digging tunnels is even more unfeasible. The ground is frozen as hard as iron and there is a moat in the middle. This is a more time-consuming and labor-intensive method. You said
None of them will work.”
Jingtai saw that Su Jin seemed to be smiling when he said these words and was not anxious at all, so he asked doubtfully: "Has the commander already found a solution? Don't be pretentious."
Su Jin laughed and said: "General Jing's ability to observe people's emotions has improved a lot, and you can see it all."
The generals were overjoyed and asked one after another: "Commander, does he really have a solution? Come and tell me."
Su Jin put away his smile and said slowly: "I don't know if it will work, but it doesn't hurt to discuss it with everyone. How to cross the moat is the first problem, but I am 100% sure that it can be done.
The solution is very simple, just collect a lot of weeds."
"Chaos? What's the solution?" Everyone was confused.
Su Jin smiled slightly, turned around and ordered the bodyguard: "Bring a basin of water."
The guards hurriedly brought a basin of melted snow water over. Su Jin grabbed a handful of hay that had been placed on the tent floor, rolled it into a ball, spread it flat on the water, and ordered the guards to take it out of the tent and place it on the snow.
About a quarter of an hour later, the guards brought the copper basin in. They saw that the water in the basin had turned into ice, freezing all the straw together. Su Jin stretched out his feet and stepped on it, standing on the frozen ice grass in the basin with one foot.
On top, the ice surface did not break.
"Did you see? A handful of withered grass can turn thin ice into solid ice. Just now we went to the south to investigate and saw that the river water had frozen a few inches of thin ice. Originally, there should not have been such a thick ice in this weather. It can be seen that the defense in the city was
The task that the army must do every day is to break the ice to prevent us from crossing the ice. But as long as we spread a thick layer of dry grass and use floating poles to prevent it from drifting away, we can even cross the thin ice overnight.
"
There was a thunderous thunder in the tent, and all the generals looked at each other with laughter. This principle is experienced every day, but no one can remember to apply it here. The principle is a bit like the principle of concrete. The cement is not strong enough to set, so it is wrapped with a few iron frames.
When it solidifies again, its strength doubles.
"As for the method of siege, I want to try a new method. I'm not sure it will work, but I want to give it a try. Burning the city gate with fire was originally a method, but in the morning, we all saw the only city gate.
There are piles of mud bags reaching up to the top of the city tower, and they are still being reinforced. It can be seen that the city gate is already the strongest defensive place, but it is not as easy to attack as other places."
Everyone nodded, because they also saw dense crowds of civilians carrying mud bags and blocking the city gate tightly.
"I don't know if you have noticed, but the color of the city wall in the southeast corner seems to be different from other places. It is gray-black everywhere else. There are small withered vines growing in the cracks in the city wall. This shows that it is an old city wall, built with rammed earth and sticky juice.
Although it is mottled and ugly, the longer it goes, the more solid the city wall becomes. The outside may have peeled off a lot, but the inside is absolutely indestructible and as solid as a rock. The southeast corner of the city wall is gray-white, which is newly rammed.
The color of the Sanhe soil shows that this section of the city wall has collapsed for some unknown reason. We don’t care about the reason. I should be able to try my new method here."
The generals stretched their necks and asked: "What can we do?"
Su Jin said: "Thermal expansion and contraction method."
Everyone's head was covered with black lines and they didn't know what to say.
"No matter how well the old and new city walls are built, they are not as integrated as when they were built at the same time. This method may be able to open a gap. I have to carry the eight thousand barrels of kerosene anyway just because I am afraid it will come in handy. We
Let’s test it again.”
Su Jin dug up the dead grass in the tent and found a fist-sized stone in the ground. He ordered someone to burn it on a pot of fire oil until it was red. Then Su Jin personally took a ladle of ice water and poured it on the stone. It stung.
There was a sound of white air rising, and then Su Jin tapped it lightly with the handle of the knife. With a click, the stone broke into several pieces, just like an ordinary lump of mud.
The generals watched all this eagerly, but they didn't know what trick Su Jin was playing.
"If it is overheated and then invaded by cold water, the hard stone can easily fall apart. I don't know if the city wall can do this in a group fight, but I want to give it a try, General Pan. I will immediately make dozens of water dragons for backup, and collect dead wood roots, etc.
There are fire starters and a lot of dead grass. Let the river freeze tonight first, and we will burn the city wall early tomorrow morning. If successful, we may spend the night in a warm house in Seoul tomorrow night. If not, we need to hurry up
Escape for your life, I don't want you to risk your life here." Su Jin said with a smile.
Everyone witnessed the stone shattering with their own eyes, but they were still doubtful about such a method. However, the military orders were like mountains, and the commander-in-chief's orders must be carried out vigorously and resolutely. Pan Jiang immediately took people to prepare things. In the ice and snow, the soldiers of the Song Army braved the wind and snow to collect materials and hug grass.
They were so busy that the Liao troops on the top of the city laughed so much that they all laughed and cursed: "I'll freeze you bastards to death. Let's see how long you can last."
After dark, more than a thousand Song troops rowed dozens of simple bamboo rafts down the Huangshui River. When the Liao troops guarding the city heard the noise, they fired arrows at random on the river. However, the Song troops did not fight back and only stayed under the cover of shields.
Next, I spread the straw curtain woven into a grid on the river, and spent half a night tossing it back and forth.
The Liao army on the top of the city didn't know what the Song army was doing, so they just kept shooting arrows down, killing hundreds of Song soldiers.
In the second half of the night, hail and snowflakes fell crazily. Seeing that there was no movement from the Song army, the defenders braved the severe cold and sent a dozen people to the city to come down to the river to see what was going on. However, they were blocked by the Song army ambushing across the river with crossbows.
They were all shot and killed on the shore, and then no one went to the city to check.
After dawn, Su Jin came to the river early, but saw that the river was completely white with snow, and the snow covered the river tightly. On the southeast corner of the river, the withered grass stalks emerging from under the snow were frozen like
Spikes protrude from the river.
Su Jin held the shield and went down to the river to test its strength. When he stepped up with one foot, there was a loud cracking sound. Mahan beside him quickly tried to pull Su Jin up, but Su Jin also stepped on it with his other foot, only to see ice.
Although there are cracks on the surface, it is not broken. The tension of the straw mat can fully bear the weight of a person. The only problem is that I am afraid that many people cannot stand on it at the same time, but this is enough.
The Song army launched an attack at Chenshi. They did not charge, but used bows and arrows to suppress the defenders on the city head. They did not care about accuracy. Since there was no enemy tower to block the city, the Liao people did not dare to show their heads easily. They only used bows and arrows to suppress the defenders.
Counterattack with bows and arrows. Comparatively speaking, the effect of shooting arrows from a high position is much better. The Song people suffered much more casualties than the Liao army at the top of the city. But the Song people didn't seem to care about this. One person used a shield to block it, and the other shot towards the city head. They were busy
of enthusiasm.
Yelu Kanrong had already come to the city of Seoul to check the situation. Regarding the Song people's stupid behavior, he understood that the Song people were out of their minds. Not only were the archers stupid, but the soldiers were carrying big firewood and carrying
The act of stepping across the ice with a big wooden barrel was even more stupid. The various strange behaviors left Yelu Kanrong with no time to investigate why the Song people were able to cross the river on thin ice.
"Shoot, shoot hard, shoot these idiots to death." Yelu Kanrong shouted.
Bows and arrows were raining like rain, and the Song army on the river also had countermeasures. They tied their shields to their heads with straw ropes in pairs, and ran desperately to the base of the city wall holding barrels or firewood. Many people were still shot.
Some people fell down, and some people stepped through the ice and fell into the icy river water. After a while, they were frozen to death, but they still carried things back and forth like ants.
Su Jin's heart twitched. It looked like there would be at least thousands of casualties today. If the method didn't work, it would be a huge loss.
An hour later, more than a dozen mountain-sized piles of firewood were piled up within thirty steps of the junction of the old and new city walls. The soldiers of the Song Army poured all the light yellow liquid in the barrels on the pile of firewood, and lit a fire with a bang.
After a while, the lower part of the city wall was engulfed in flames. The beeping flames shot up to a height of ten feet, making the defenders at the top of the city unable to stand and scattered to both sides.
"Damn, what are you doing? What kind of brains do these Song pigs have? I have seen people attacking the city, but I have never seen them attacking like this. They are useless." Yelu Kanrong laughed and cursed, standing aside and watching.
It’s lively, let’s see what tricks people in the Song Dynasty are playing.