Fenghou

At this moment, the two burning ships suddenly exploded violently, the ground shook, the huge shock wave overturned hundreds of soldiers on the shore, the two ships were blown to pieces, and sawdust scattered everywhere.

The huge explosion woke up the [-] puppet Qi troops ten miles away. The soldiers stood up one after another, looked at the distant fire point, and talked a lot.

Even the people in Chengji County were woken up by the loud explosion in their sleep. Many people were terrified and didn't know what happened.

Chen Qing stood on the top of the city and looked at the flames more than a dozen miles away. There was a rumbling explosion and the city shook slightly.

Yang Zaixing asked in surprise, "Is the power of gunpowder so powerful?"

Chen Qing nodded, "If you use a huge wooden box with several thousand catties of gunpowder to blow up the city, the city wall will definitely be blown down, but we don't have such a strong capital. If we squander a few thousand catties of gunpowder, we can only spend a year. It only produces a few thousand catties."

"But if you encounter a particularly difficult city, such as Pingliang City, can you still have a luxury once in a while?"

Chen Qing said with a smile: "That's okay. In fact, I wanted to create an iron-shelled fire mine. It must be very powerful, but it has never been successful. Fortunately, we have fierce fire oil, which is as powerful as we captured Pingliang City." , the army cooperated tacitly, didn't they all succeed?"

Yang Zaixing nodded, "You are right. The key is to be practical. I also think it is more practical to shoot poisonous nails from gunpowder barrels to deal with the Jurchen horses."

Chen Qing said with a smile: "In any case, after destroying 35 large ships, Li Cheng's idea of ​​using ships to attack the city has come to naught. I guess he will organize the delivery of kerosene and gunpowder. The next step depends on how Liu Qiong intercepts the city." .”

……

At this moment, Li Cheng and Guan Shigu rushed to the pier. Li Cheng looked at the ship that was almost burnt to the skeleton, his eyes burst into flames with anger, and he whipped at a general, "Why didn't you unload the cargo last night?"

The general knelt on the ground and cried: "I am worried that the cargo will be attacked by the enemy when it is unloaded on the dock. It is safer to put it in the ship."

"You idiot! Are you safe now?"

Li Cheng's teeth were itching with hatred, and he whipped the whip at the general across his head and face.

Guan Shigu hurriedly stopped Li Cheng, "Du Tong, the matter has come to this point, it is useless to blame him, we can only try our best to make it up!"

Li Cheng said angrily: "How do you save it? Our kerosene and gunpowder have all been burned, and the warships are gone. I still want to use warships to help attack the city, but it is impossible now. What should I do?"

"I can only ask Wan Yanchang for help, and ask him to continue to allocate kerosene and gunpowder. There are still some in the spare warehouse of Jingzhao City, which can be sent out. I remember that there are still [-] large ships on the Weishui River, so I will use them to transport them." Goods, just to be strictly protected by the army, so that they cannot be attacked by the Song army again."

Although Li Cheng didn't want to beg Yan Chang again, he had no choice but to nod, "That's the only way, let Luo Ying lead the army to guard!"

……

At dawn, the Song Army's Nancheng city began to launch fire kites, dozens of them were covered with kerosene, and the burning fire kites were ejected out of the city and flew to the huge observation deck two miles away.

The fire kite is the weapon with the longest range of the Song army. The maximum range can reach three miles. It is no problem to deal with the observation deck with only two miles. The large fire kite of the Song army is already very stable. It is divided into two types, one is kerosene Kites, one is a gunpowder kite.

Today, the kerosene kite was fired. The belly of the kerosene kite was filled with kerosene mud. One by one, the kerosene slammed into the observation platform head-on with precision. On the back and back of the platform, fire sludge was scattered and began to burn inside.

Not long after, a puff of thick smoke emerged from the observation deck, getting bigger and bigger, and flames also appeared. Dozens of soldiers on the observation deck were terrified and rushed down to flee.

A quarter of an hour later, the flames grew bigger and thicker, and the smoke billowed, engulfing the entire viewing platform.

Half an hour later, the blazing observation deck collapsed, and the defenders on the top of the city cheered.

Overnight, the puppet Qi army suffered two setbacks in a row, and their morale was hit. The soldiers were especially worried about another sneak attack at night.

For this reason, Li Cheng had to change his plan, abandoning the construction of a slab-style barracks, and changed it to a fence-style barracks. In this way, the barracks were successfully installed in one day. Thousands of large tents, all food and supplies were carried into the camp.

Craftsmen began to assemble large siege weapons, including large trebuchets, heavy siege ladders and nest cars.

In the northwest corner of the barracks, hundreds of torches were burned on wooden stakes, illuminating the operating workshop covering an area of ​​tens of acres like daylight. Hundreds of craftsmen were busy assembling, and blacksmiths wielded hammers to forge iron chains, clanging and clanging. .

In another corner, dozens of craftsmen are assembling heavy-duty trebuchets. The principle is similar to that of Song Jun's heavy-duty trebuchets, but the pseudo-Qi army is a traditional trebuchet, that is, a soft rod. A boulder weighing a hundred catties was thrown 350 steps away.

The projection ability of the hard rod is weaker, but the accuracy is very high, especially suitable for siege. It is a patented invention of the craftsmen of Xihe Road.

At that time, Jingzhao City was the base camp of the Song Army and the Xixia Army, and a large amount of military supplies were stored in the city. After the Jin soldiers occupied Jingzhao City, these heavy weapons that were difficult to transport became the trophies of the Jin soldiers.

But these years have basically been exhausted by various wars. The large-scale siege weapons brought by the Puppet Qi Army this time are the last batch of inventory in Jingzhao City, a total of [-] heavy-duty trebuchets.

"When will these heavy trebuchets be assembled?" Li Cheng asked the lead craftsman.

The lead craftsman quickly bowed and said: "General Qi, we have assembled the siege ladder and the trebuchet at the same time according to the general's request. It will take about three days to complete the assembly."

"Twenty trebuchets took three days, I thought you could finish them in one night!" Li Cheng was really dissatisfied.

"No! No! No!"

The lead craftsman quickly explained: "Not only are there trebuchets, but there are also heavy siege ladders and pontoon bridges. The number is huge. We have already rushed to work overnight after we completed it in three days."

Li Cheng walked to the pontoon bridge. They had to use the pontoon bridge to cross the wide moat. The pontoon bridge was made of large wooden boxes, fastened together with iron chains, and covered with planks.

Li Cheng originally planned to fill the river, but the amount of work was relatively large, so he considered filling the river later and crossing the river with floating bridges first.

Seeing that each of the large wooden boxes had been completed, Li Cheng's face softened a lot, and he nodded, "Then I'll give you three days to complete the big rewards and delay the heavy punishment!"

The leading craftsman said bitterly: "We must finish it on time!"

5 Forty Chapters Siege

Although they lived in the barracks, the soldiers still had no peace. There were gunpowder arrows shooting into the sky all around. In one night, the alarm bell rang three times, and the soldiers kept escaping from the camp. Armor and shoes to sleep.

But there were still constant harassments, and it didn't quiet down until dawn, so that every soldier of the Puppet Qi Army had dark circles under their eyes, and everyone stayed up all night.

Li Cheng also has a big head. Their big tents are not expensive leather tents. That kind of tents are not afraid of fire. Their tents are all ordinary hemp tents, not even wool. He decided to build a board-wall barracks, but the current situation does not allow his plan to be implemented.

In fact, this is also the aspect that caused the generals the most headaches in previous wars. The harassment from the enemy made the soldiers sleepless at night and seriously affected the fighting spirit of the next day.

Especially after the Song Army used a large number of firearms, the harassment caused by the burning of gunpowder appeared endlessly, but fortunately, the Song Army did not use fire kites, otherwise the situation would be even more chaotic.

Guan Shigu found Li Cheng early in the morning, and he suggested to Li Cheng: "We have 1 troops, and it is impossible for everyone to attack the city. I suggest that [-] troops be responsible for attacking the city, and [-] troops be responsible for attacking the city." Stay behind, the [-] troops send [-] people to guard around the barracks every night, within three miles, anyone who comes close will be killed, so even if you use fire kites, you can't attack the camp, what does the general think?"

Li Cheng nodded, "You are right. 3000 guards are indeed too small. It is necessary to increase it to 1. In addition, I am considering continuing to build a board-wall barracks and building them around the fence without affecting the current barracks." .”

Li Cheng immediately divided the work with Guan Shigu and divided the army into two. Li Cheng commanded [-] troops to attack the city, and Guan Shigu commanded [-] troops to build camps and guard. The [-] troops carried out external vigilance. This method was indeed effective. That night, the Song Army stopped harassing the barracks of the Puppet Qi Army, and the soldiers of the Puppet Qi Army finally had a good night's sleep.

By the third night, all the siege weapons had been assembled, and the time for the siege was ripe.

……

"Boom! Boom! Boom!"

It was just dawn, and the earth-shattering sound of war drums sounded in the enemy's camp. The north gate of the camp opened, and groups of soldiers came out, with banners unfurled, full of murderous aura.

A huge trebuchet appeared in the team. It was pulled by more than a dozen bulls, and it was three feet high. The throwing pole was about five feet long. There was not just one heavy-duty catapult, but twenty heavy-duty catapults came out one after another. Each catapult was surrounded by hundreds of soldiers, as well as matching baffles, and iron lumps weighing several thousand catties.

The heavy-duty catapults of the puppet Qi army belonged to the old-style catapults, which required 50 people to pull them together, so each catapult was equipped with [-] soldiers.

Behind the catapult is a mighty army, with a total of 3 people. The army has countless cattle carts, pulling the pontoon bridge and heavy siege ladders. The soldiers lined up and kept shouting slogans.

Ten thousand Song troops have been deployed on the top of the city, and there are still ten thousand archers under the city wall waiting for orders from the upper city.

Fifty heavy-duty trebuchets were deployed on the fifty-step line near the city wall. They were too bulky to stand on the top of the city, so a special high platform could only be built in the city to place such heavy-duty trebuchets.

There are fifty commanding soldiers on the top of the city, each corresponding to a catapult, they are the eyes of the catapult, and each commanding soldier is staring at the slowly approaching enemy catapult, which is a bit like the In the battle of tanks, it depends on who seizes the opportunity and who throws more accurately.

At this time, twenty heavy trebuchets of the puppet Qi army stopped at the [-]-pace line, and the soldiers had placed huge and thick wooden boards in front of them to resist the shooting of the city head bed crossbow and the god arm crossbow.

After the trebuchet arrived at the position, it immediately entered the launching state. Fifty soldiers shouted and struggled to pull down the tall throwing pole. Several soldiers had just put a boulder weighing more than 100 kilograms on the throwing pocket. At this moment , Fifty huge fire oil balls roared out from the top of the city.

The soldiers let go of the rope with a shout, and the trebuchet bounced up, throwing a huge boulder weighing more than 100 kilograms high. The 20-yuan boulder passed the opponent's kerosene ball and flew towards the top of the city and into the city. go.

'boom!boom!boom! '

Fifty flaming kerosene balls hit the enemy's position one after another, some hit the baffle, some missed, but there were also twelve kerosene balls that hit the target, the kerosene ball shattered, and the fierce kerosene inside was splashed After going out, a radius of more than ten feet became a sea of ​​flames, and many soldiers turned into burning men, screaming and running, fell over after running a dozen steps, and never got up again.

At the same time, some 20-yuan boulders hit the city wall, and most of them passed over the top of the city and flew towards the city roaring. The soldiers of the Song Army yelled and fell down. The machine was hit by a boulder and collapsed.

"Get ready to shoot again!" General Song shouted.

48 kerosene balls were ignited again and thrown out. They flew over the city and flew towards the enemy's trebuchet array. At this time, the trebuchet array was also in chaos, full of flames and thick smoke. Cancellation order.

The soldiers tried their best to push the heavy trebuchet back, but within a few steps, the second round of Song Army's 48 huge fire oil balls roared in. This time a slight adjustment was made, and the accuracy was much higher. All eight trebuchets were concentrated by fire oil balls, and a fire was ignited.

The entire trebuchet formation turned into a sea of ​​flames.

Li Cheng sighed. These twenty heavy trebuchets were originally used to deal with the large bow and arrow array in the city, but he did not expect that the Song Army's trebuchets were sharper and more numerous. They were no match at all.

It's a pity that his fire oil was burned, and he had to use boulders instead, but the effect of boulders was far inferior to fire oil balls.

At this time, Li Cheng could only count on the shields carried by the soldiers to play a role.

Li Cheng drew his sword and shouted: "Siege the city!"

"Ugh-"

The siege horn sounded, and the [-] troops shouted and rushed towards the city wall. In the front, carts carrying pontoon bridges rushed towards the moat.

Chen Qing saw it clearly from the top of the city, and ordered coldly: "Continue trebuchet, tens of thousands of bows and arrows will go to the city to prepare, bed crossbow and god arm crossbow are ready!"

The Song army's tens of thousands of bows and arrows have been upgraded and are no longer deployed in the city. Heavy trebuchets are deployed in the city. Ten thousand archers rushed to the south of the city. The position of the archers was taken into account when the outer city was built. Squat against the wall and shoot, this arrangement can avoid a large number of casualties.

At the same time, the medium-sized trebuchets and thousands of bed crossbows on the top of the city were ready. Looking at the overwhelming puppet Qi army, the heavy-duty trebuchets in the city took the lead in showing their power, and fireballs flew across the sky. The crowd smashed away.

The soldiers of the puppet Qi army dodged one after another, but many soldiers were still rolling on the ground screaming after being splashed with burning oil.

The bed crossbows still hadn't been fired. Their targets were not ordinary soldiers, but the crossbowmen of the puppet Qi army. At this time, five thousand crossbowmen appeared in the crowd. They ran two hundred steps away and erected their shields on the ground. The soldiers used their shields to cover and shot arrows at the top of the city together. The arrows shot into the city like normal. Many soldiers of the Song Army manipulating the trebuchet were shot by the arrows and fell to the ground screaming.

"The bed crossbow launches!"

The red flag waved down from the top of the city, a thousand bed crossbows were fired suddenly, and five thousand jackdaw arrows shot at the enemy's crossbow soldiers like a storm.

The shields erected by the crossbow soldiers had no defensive effect. Within two hundred steps, the iron arrows of the jackdaws could shoot through the bodies of two war horses. In an instant, the crossbow soldiers screamed and fell down, and 500 people were shot dead on the spot.

"Retreat! Retreat!"

The general yelled anxiously, and the remaining 3000 crossbow soldiers didn't even bother to hold their shields, so they ran as fast as they could, lest the second gurney crossbow would hit them.

The [-] army was getting closer and closer to the city wall, [-] archers and hundreds of medium-sized trebuchets broke out, densely packed arrows intertwined in the sky, forming a black cloud of arrows, overwhelmingly fell into the running enemy crowd among.

The puppet Qi army held up their shields to meet them. The shields did effectively resist the arrows falling from the sky, but there were still puppet Qi soldiers who were shot by the arrows and fell down. A hundred gunpowder barrels also exploded in the crowd, black smoke Flying into the air, the poisonous nails were shot everywhere. Many soldiers were unable to get down and were shot by the poisonous nails, yelling in fear.

The turbulent Puppet Qi Army soldiers finally rushed to the moat. Thousands of soldiers quickly built pontoon bridges. In just a moment, thirteen pontoon bridges were built. The heavy siege hung on the top of the city and began to swarm up.

On the top of the city, rolling logs and rocks fell like hailstones, and arrows rained down from above and below the city. The two sides launched a fierce offensive and defensive battle.

Chapter 541 Siege

The fierce siege battle between the two sides lasted for more than an hour, but the Song army never used fire oil to deal with the soldiers of the puppet Qi army. Far inferior to Xixia soldiers and Jurchen soldiers.

But there is another reason that Li Cheng could not have imagined in his dreams, that is, the heavy siege ladders caused the soldiers to refuse to work hard.

The previous siege ladder was very narrow and could only accommodate one soldier. The attacking soldiers either rushed up to the city desperately, or jumped down half dead. There was no third way to go.

But now the heavy-duty siege ladder can accommodate three people side by side. The siege soldiers found that the Song army on the top of the city was too sharp and powerful. I worked my ass off.

As a result, although the two sides fought fiercely, the casualties were not heavy enough. There were two hundred heavy siege ladders, and none of the soldiers could rush to the top of the city. This is also understandable. In many cases, the soldiers had no way to retreat. Fighting with one's back against the wall can, on the contrary, stimulate one's potential and fight to the top of the wall.

On the contrary, if there is a retreat, there will be a life-saving thought, and the fighting power will naturally not explode.

Li Cheng, who was watching the battle from a distance, also saw the clues. He was really annoyed. These fights were meaningless and would demoralize him instead.

"Order to stop the siege, and the army will withdraw!"

"Dang! Dang! Dang!"

The bell for withdrawing troops rang, and if the army retreated like a tide, Chen Qingling said: "Stop shooting and let them retreat!"

Liu Cui stepped forward and said anxiously: "Dutong, the crossbowman can kill the enemy army in a large area by shooting from behind!"

Chen Qing said lightly: "If you want to kill the enemy in a large area, I have already ordered the use of kerosene!"

Liu Cui was a little discouraged. This battle was not enjoyable, far less than the joyful fight with the Xixia people.

Chen Qing smiled slightly and said: "I said it before, after this battle, we will really stand up, how can we stand up? Of course, it is more than [-] troops. If we kill them hard, where will my source of troops come from?" Add it."

"Humble and dull!" Liu Cui stepped back with her fists clasped.

Tens of thousands of enemy troops retreated like an ebbing tide, leaving more than 5000 corpses on the battlefield, and the Song Army also suffered more than 600 casualties.

At this time, Yang Zaixing stepped forward and said, "Humble job has some ideas!"

"you say!"

"The humble officer feels that in order to capture a large number of enemy troops, he still has to use positional warfare to defeat the enemy army. The humble officer is willing to lead another cavalry to increase the attack and harassment of the enemy army and disrupt the morale of the enemy army."

Chen Qing thought for a while and said: "Your idea is right. Sooner or later we must use positional warfare to defeat each other. This is actually my idea, but now the time has not come, and you don't have to go out anymore. With Liu Qiong's five It is enough for Qianjun to harass outside."

"In today's battle, Li Cheng will definitely realize the importance of kerosene and gunpowder. I'm afraid he will strengthen the protection of the second batch of kerosene. We must also deal with it."

Chen Qing nodded, "I have deployed Liu Qiong a long time ago, and I have thought of all the possibilities. I believe he will not let me down. All we have to do is wait patiently."

……

The puppet Qi army temporarily stopped attacking the city, but Li Cheng was very depressed. He already understood that he could not attack Chengji County with conventional warfare. At least 1 or more.

But even so, they all attacked very hard, and the soldiers simply refused to work hard to attack the city.