Chivalrous Song Dynasty

Chapter 566

The black cloud overwhelms the city and wants to destroy it.

At the head of Yanzhou City, Zhong Shidao stood beside the arrow stack, his expression seemed more dignified than the dark clouds in the sky, his white eyebrows were tightly furrowed, and the wrinkles on his face were much deeper than before.

He stared at the Xixia military camp outside the city for a long time before he put down the piece of paper in his hand, smiled and said nothing.

That piece of paper was a letter of war, which was shot onto the top of the city with a bow and arrow by a Xixia archer outside the city.

The sculptor shot from [-] steps away, and the arrow hit the commander-in-chief flag on the top of the city impartially, making Shangguan Jiannan, who was standing beside Zhong Shidao, shudder. , No one in Yanzhou City can stand shoulder to shoulder with this Xixia eagle shooter.

But of course he couldn't boost the enemy's morale and lower his own prestige, so he just turned a blind eye to the amazing archery skills of the eagle archer and asked, "Master, what is written in this letter of war?"

Zhong Shidao didn't seem to hear this question, and thoughtfully said: "Who is this archery archer? He is very good at archery. Why didn't they see this person when they attacked the city before? I have to guard against it. "

The so-called archery hand originally refers to the Huns who are the best archers of the Huns.

Birds in the sky are hard to shoot.Grassland eagles generally have a wingspan of two to three meters. They like to stay at a height of more than [-] steps in search of prey, and then dive and pounce. They can hunt larger animals such as sheep and deer. They are extremely ferocious birds.

Ordinary archers simply cannot shoot their arrows so high, and the grassland eagle's feathers are shiny and smooth. If the bow and arrow do not enter the eagle's body perpendicularly, it will slip on its feathers, making it difficult to shoot directly.

Therefore, shooting the eagle must not only be accurate, but only those who can pull a strong bow can shoot the eagle.Condor archers have outstanding abilities, just like snipers in the modern army.

There are such good archers in Xixia, but Yanzhou City has no corresponding archers to deal with it, and the danger of Yanzhou City is even more.

Zhong Shidao said what Shangguan Jiannan wanted to say, and the latter stopped responding, secretly regretting that he had only devoted his life to studying iron palms and light kung fu, and had not worked hard on the way of bow and arrow.

After a while, Zhong Shidao handed the letter of arrows to Shangguan Jiannan, and said: "What the hell are the Xixia people doing? They actually want to compete in martial arts to determine the outcome of a war. How can a martial arts competition determine the outcome of a war? This is a child's play! "

Shangguan Jiannan took the arrow book and read it, only to see that it was written in Chinese characters. It basically means that since you have recruited martial arts masters from the Song Dynasty to help defend Yanzhou, why not compare yourself with us Western Xia warriors, as long as you can Winning in the competition, our Xixia army is willing to withdraw from Yunyun.The inscription is Master Songba, the national teacher of Xixia.

As early as the beginning of the five-way campaign against Xia, Zhong Shidao was about to attack Hengshan according to the plan formulated by Marshal Tong. Before the generals and troops started, the Xixia people had already come and surrounded the city of Yanzhou. And began to attack the city frantically, causing the first of the five routes to attack and defend instantly reversed.

At first, by observing the strength of the enemy troops who attacked the city, Zhong Shidao felt that the strength of the besieged city had almost reached the sum of the Xixia elite soldiers, so he was very puzzled.

Regardless of the other cities, let the four soldiers of the Song Dynasty attack Xingqing Mansion, but pour all the soldiers from all over the country to attack Yanzhou, what is the reason?Is it to exchange territories?

The way the Xixia people played in this way can only be explained by exchanging territories.

Give up the land of Xixia, and my Xixia elite soldiers will occupy your Song Dynasty's territory.

Because Yanzhou, Huanzhou, Weizhou, and Qingzhou are the last line of defense in the west, once one of these fortresses is breached, the Song Dynasty's defense line will collapse immediately.

The consequences of this are very serious. First of all, Jingzhao Mansion will be exposed to the iron hooves of the Xixia people like a naked girl surrounded by a group of strong men, and its fall is certain.

Although there were Tongguan and Hangu Pass, which were easy to defend and difficult to attack, the Song Dynasty did not arrange heavy troops to garrison them, and the Xixia army had the possibility to drive straight into the Central Plains.

Other than that, there is no explanation.

Regardless of the intentions of the Xixia people, Yanzhou, a city that has been firmly nailed to the border since the era of Fan Zhongyan and Di Qing, must not be lost!

It is not safe to resist the siege of 30 troops with less than [-] troops in Yanzhou City. Therefore, while leading the Zhong family army to guard against death, he also widely distributed martial arts posters, and summoned people in the Song Dynasty as the Zhong family in the martial arts. The righteous warriors came to help defend the city.

The relationship between the Zhong family and the martial arts is not close. Although the Zhong family is a disciple of the Luoyang Wang family and is also a well-known martial artist, he has devoted himself to the military since Zhong Shiheng started, and has little to do with the turmoil in the rivers and lakes. .

Therefore, the Zhong family does not have enough appeal to the entire martial arts world. He distributed martial arts posts this time through two indirect channels, one channel is the beggar gang, and the other channel is Zhou Tong.

Zhou Tong was also a member of the generals of the Song Dynasty in his early years, just because he was determined to destroy the Liao Dynasty, but the Emperor of the Song Dynasty was always willing to pay tribute to the Emperor of the Liao Kingdom as his nephew. Command, so disheartened and quit the military.

In the past, Zhou Tong and Chong Er had a very good relationship. Zhong Er was the son of Zhong Shiheng and the father of Zhong Shidao, so when Zhong Shidao sent a fast horse to the capital to ask for help, he gave Zhong Shidao the title In order to save face, he directly named and appointed the eldest disciple Lu Junyi to come to help.

The dispatch of Lu Junyi, who is known as the unparalleled boxing stick in the world, is not over. He even published martial arts posts in the name of himself and the Yuquan Gym, inviting fellow martial artists from all over the world to join in the charitable deed.

As for the relationship between the Beggars' Gang and the Western Army, there is also a long history. In the early years, the Beggars' Gang had great national integrity and had always fought desperately against foreign armed forces. He once tried his best to stop the masters of Xixia in Yingshou Gorge, so that Yipintang's plan to attack and assassinate Yang Wenguang failed.

Although the beggar gang at this time has no leader, it has lost the prestige of the world's largest gang, and it has taken over a mine from Baisheng in Bianjing to become rich. The faction responded immediately, and in addition to bringing the seven sub-helm disciples, they also invited many heroes who were old with the beggar gang.

Perhaps it was precisely because of the influx of many Central Plains martial artists into Yanzhou that Xixia sent out such a letter of challenge requesting a contest. The letter of challenge also agreed on a time for the contest, half a month later.

Zhong Shidao still couldn't understand the Xixia people's attack.According to his previous understanding of Xixia, it seems that Xixia people shouldn't be so crazy.

It is not impossible to break through Yanzhou and attack the Central Plains based on Yanzhou, but there is a very important prerequisite, that is, the military rations must keep up, otherwise it is tantamount to nonsense.

That is to say, if the Xixia people can break through Yanzhou in a short period of time, then their strategic intention is expected to be realized, otherwise they can only return to Xingqing Mansion in despair.

It's not that the Xixia people have never fought against Yanzhou. The Queen Mother Liang of Xixia had once besieged Yanzhou with a large army, but that time it was a siege of reinforcements. The purpose was to eliminate the reinforcements sent by the Song Dynasty to Yanzhou. The purpose of one time is not the same.

However, this time, Xixia's hundreds of thousands of troops have been besieging the city for more than a month, and they have no intention of retreating at all, which makes him very puzzled.

With the support of Zhou Tong and the beggar gang, he who has been in the west for decades is not afraid of the siege of the Xixia army, but he just can't figure out how these Xixia people provide food and grass well?

That's right, the western part of the Hengshan area does have grain production areas, but with the ability of this grain production area, apart from being self-sufficient, it is beyond its power to provide food and grass for hundreds of thousands of troops for more than a month.

And if it is said that the food and grass of the Xixia army were transported from Xingqing Mansion, he would not believe it if he was killed. No matter how stupid the Xixia people are, they would not do such unreliable things.

The Xixia people, whose ancestors are nomadic people, are most particular about feeding on the enemy in the war of aggression, and feeding war with war.Fight wherever you want to eat, continue to fight when you have something to eat, and retreat when you are full or have nothing to eat, without exception.

However, Yanzhou City and the surrounding villages will never provide food to these brazen invaders. This is a long-standing habit of the soldiers and civilians of the Song Dynasty on the Song Xia border.

It is not only the Western Xia people who know how to fortify the wall and clear the field. In fact, both sides who have been at war for decades will play this trick.Can't beat you?I starve you to death!

So at the beginning of this battle, when the Xixia people attacked Yanzhou violently for seven days without any results, he once thought that the Xixia people could return to Hengshan with their tails between their legs.

And he also saw this when he observed the dispatch of the enemy troops from the top of the city.He saw a part of the enemy retreat to Hengshan.

However, after that suspected withdrawal of troops, what followed was not a full-scale withdrawal of the army, but an even more frenzied siege. After the initial seven-day siege, the frenzied attack took another half a month.

Of course, the Xixia people failed to capture Yanzhou after a total of more than 20 days of attacking. The only result was that the soldiers on both sides suffered more casualties.

He thought the Xixia people should withdraw their troops now, right?But I didn't expect that the Xixia people still didn't withdraw. Not only did they not withdraw, but there were signs of a long-term siege, and they started to surround instead of fighting. What's the reason for this?

Could it be that they can eat and drink with Yanzhou soldiers and civilians to the limit?How can this be?

The various unreasonable actions of the Xixia people plunged him, a senior military strategist, into a lot of fog.

But today I received such a letter of challenge, what's the use of fighting?Even if the warriors in my city can't beat your Xixia warriors, will I abandon my defense and surrender if I am a teacher?What's more, with a master like Lu Junyi in my city, how can you be afraid of your Xixia Yipintang in the martial arts competition?

Thinking of this, he immediately ordered someone to set up a book table on the top of the city, and wrote a letter of reply in his own hand. The reply was very simple, with one sentence: "You can compete in martial arts, it doesn't matter whether you win or lose!"

This means that no matter whether we win or lose the contest, how to fight this battle, you attack and I defend, has nothing to do with the result of the contest.

After the reply is finished, Yang Keshi is ordered to shoot back as it is.Yang Keshi is the number one warrior under the Taoist tent, and according to him, he is also a descendant of Yang Wudi, the king of the golden sword. If it is about archery, he can be called the number one among the Western Army.

But even Yang Keshi, who is known as the number one archer in the Western Army, can't compare with the archer who came up from below. Regardless of the accuracy of the archery, the difference in shooting distance between the two is nearly a hundred steps. .

Let Yang Keshi shoot back the arrow book is a helpless move, I just hope that it will not be too embarrassing, because others can't shoot at the gate of the Xixia military camp. If the arrow falls on the bank after passing through the moat, wouldn't it make the Xixia people laugh? Big teeth?

After returning the letter, Zhong Shidao and his party went down to the city to host a banquet in honor of Lu Junyi and others who had come from afar. When they went down the tower, they saw Wang Jin walking towards him in a hurry and said, "Report to Mr. Han Shizhong that Han Shizhong is missing." .”