Survival countdown

In spring, the ice and snow melt.

That night.

At the Xiongzhou Fortress in Hedong, a flash of fire suddenly pierced the night sky. The veteran night watchman's eyes widened, and the arrows with fire in his pupils shot from far to near, instantly killing his comrades around him.

With one breath in his chest, he suddenly erupted: "Enemy attack!!" With hands and feet together, he rushed to the war drum, grabbed the drumstick and beat it dozens of times, and the sound of the drum representing the enemy's attack spread throughout the camp in an instant.

With a sound, the iron arrow pierced through the chest of the night watch veteran beating the drum at an unstoppable speed, boom——!The last drum beat reverberated, and fell into silence for less than a second. The war drums in all directions were beating like raindrops, and the soldiers moved in full force.

The same situation happened on Yanyan Road, Huanqing Road, and Jingyuan Road almost at the same time. An urgent report was sent to the imperial court for [-] li. , it would not cause confusion due to the surprise attack.

It's just a surprise attack in Daxia, so how come the Turks also launched an attack at the same time?

Weird.

***

Jingyuan Road, Jingzhou Mansion.

At dawn, the summoner got off his horse in a state of embarrassment, pushed away the soldiers who came to block the way, and rushed into Jingzhou Jingfu, yelling: "Enemy attack—Tiandu Village was attacked the night before!"

Zhao Baiyu walked out quickly, followed by Dou Hong, the new magistrate of Jingzhou, and Ren Feiyuan, the former deputy general of Jingyuan Road. Hearing the news from a distance, he couldn't help sighing: "Sang Liangyu really sent troops to attack!"

Dou Hong: "Since Keshan was beheaded, the generals in charge of Jingyuan Road have been changed almost all over the place, and since the last battle at Tiandu Village, they suffered heavy losses. After that, we should pay special attention to the two defense lines of Tiandu Village and Ning'an Village, as well as Lord Zhao. Specially instructed to take precautions in advance, it should be able to withstand Daxia's surprise attack."

Sure enough, the messenger said: "Ning'an Village has sent [-] soldiers overnight to support Tiandu Village. At present, the supply of food, weapons and other military supplies is sufficient, and the Daxia raid failed."

Zhao Baiyu: "Do you know how many Daxia soldiers and horses are there in the raid?"

The messenger: "There were [-] heavy cavalry during the raid. According to reports from frontline spies, there are still [-] soldiers approaching Tiandu Village in several routes."

Ren Feiyuan: "It seems that Da Xia still chose Tiandu Village as a breakthrough point, and sent a thousand cavalry to make a surprise attack first. It should be a test. The general is familiar with the Xia army's combat style. Because he lacks siege weapons and is good at field warfare, he likes to suppress the army. This time Just sent 3000 soldiers and horses to approach Tiandu Village...I'm afraid it's not enough, there should be support behind. If Sang Liangyu personally commanded the war, then the [-] cavalry sent is probably the most powerful cavalry in Daxia, the iron kite , a total of [-] people, and it is also a frightening existence in the Northwest."

Dou Hong: "The total number of soldiers in Tiandu Village and Ning'an Village is only [-]. Although there is a natural barrier to help, if Daxia really sends iron kites, and there are still [-] troops to besiege, I'm afraid it won't last long. We have to send troops as soon as possible. For support...the Huaiyuan city guard led [-] cavalry to set up an ambush in a dangerous place, the Desheng village guard led [-] cavalry to Tiandu village to support, and the Huanqing Road Metropolitan Office also rushed to support, and other places temporarily stood still. "

In terms of command ability in combat, Zhao Baiyu was not as good as Ren Feiyuan and Dou Hong, so he listened carefully to and adopted their arrangements.

Zhao Baiyu: "I have a question. If the iron kite lives up to its reputation, how long will it take to capture Tiandu Village with three thousand heavy cavalry?"

Dou Hong hesitated for a moment: "Tiandu Village is located in a dangerous position, even the iron kite will take four or five days to capture it."

Zhao Baiyu was thoughtful: "It stands to reason that if a fortress is breached, additional troops will be added to support it next time. After all, there are lessons learned from the past, and the difficulty of the attack will be doubled. The way of fighting is always the same. As far as we can think, the enemy It can also be expected, so under normal circumstances, you will not repeatedly choose the same stronghold to attack."

Ren Feiyuan had a thought: "Your Excellency, do you mean a feint attack?"

Zhao Baiyu is not too sure: "This is just my guess, there is no strong basis."

The two armies confronted each other with blood and blood. After all, it was not like a political battle in the officialdom or there was room for a comeback. If there was a slight carelessness, someone would die from a wrong command or a wrong guess.

Zhao Baiyu had to admit that he was timid and didn't have the confidence to face the enemy's attack.

"No." Ren Feiyuan: "Your Excellency's guess is not unreasonable. Jingyuan Road has replaced a group of generals. The defense is tight and visible to the naked eye. There are hundreds if not thousands of spies and spies sneaking into the Northwest every year in Daxia. It is impossible not to find them. What's more, the person who launched the war this time was Sang Liangyu. He commanded three wars when he was young, and he was defeated miserably. If you are familiar with the Northwest Defense Line, you will not make such low-level mistakes—"

He and Dou Hong immediately unfolded the map, guessed the strongholds that might be attacked through the direction of travel of the Daxia soldiers and horses, and re-arranged the troops.

"If it is a feint attack, the intention is to divert the tiger away from the mountain and choose a stronghold with insufficient troops to attack in one fell swoop. I am afraid that the fortresses near Tiandu Village are all his targets, but we don't know which one is the real target. We need to clarify the real intention of the Xia army before we can attack." Take the lead."

Zhao Baiyu just listened from the side, but didn't ask any more questions, and only nodded in agreement with the arrangement of the two.

***

In mid-January, Tiandu, Ning'an, Desheng and other Jingyuan Road frontier fortresses were raided one by one, and they were attacked for three or four days, and they retreated quickly when the reinforcements from Dajing arrived.

Dou Hong and Ren Feiyuan were a little afraid, "Xia Junsheng has a large number of horses and is handsome, with strong endurance, can cross plains and climb mountains, can retreat at any time, and can also travel long distances to the next fortress for a surprise attack. On the contrary, we are facing War horses are scarce, and there are very few war horses that can withstand running back and forth without getting tired. Most of them travel on two legs day and night. "

There are too many fortresses on the northwestern border defense line, and the troops are extremely scattered. If a fort is attacked, the troops from the nearest fortress will be dispatched to support it. However, the Xia army will disperse their attacks and try to feign attacks many times. down.

At the same time, reports of raids on the three frontier defense lines from Hedong, Quyan, and Huanqing made Dou Hong and the others panic and confused even more.

Dou Hong: "The Turkic raid on Hedong may have joined forces with Daxia."

Ren Feiyuan: "Five years ago, Daxia and Nanjiang joined forces to raid Yanzhou, and there was also news of joining forces with the Turks. At that time, the imperial court, Northwest, and Hedong were tense. Fortunately, it was a false alarm at the end, but I didn't expect that at this time, suddenly Attack. Turkic troops are sent out from unknown divisions, and it is still a sensitive period. It is very likely that it will join forces with Daxia. But the bigger problem at present is that Xia's army is setting fire everywhere. Almost all the border defenses have invaded by Xia's army, but where do they get so many soldiers? ?”

Zhao Baiyu: "Last year, I heard that Sang Liangyu was forced to recruit soldiers after he ascended the throne... If all the people are soldiers, the army may be more than [-]. The problem is that the northwest defense line is so vast. Even if a small team breaks through a certain stronghold, it will be quickly killed by the Northwest Forbidden Army."

Originally thought that Daxia's goal was the Jingyuan Road, and all the troops gathered here were no more than [-], and the total number of the Jingyuan Imperial Army plus the Fan soldiers, rural soldiers, and Xiang troops was only [-], which was comparable to it, let alone There are two reinforcements from Huanqing and Xihe who can rush over.But in the current situation, Daxia's troops are so scattered, and against Dajing's troops who are also scattered but have five or six times the total number of troops, it is completely hitting a stone with an egg.

"Because the military strength is far weaker than that of our dynasty, the Xia Kingdom will choose to go all out every time it goes out, trying to win by numbers and speed. The current combat method is not conducive to Great Xia at all. It is impossible for Sang Liangyu to make a foolish move. Is he planning something?"

Ren Feiyuan, Dou Hong and other generals were reminded by him, and they all shuddered suddenly. They carefully analyzed the situation of various battles and the situation on the front line, and their hearts sank quickly.

"Is it possible that this is still a feint attack?" A general at the bottom speculated, "The fundamental purpose is to confuse the generals from all walks of life, so that they dare not easily transfer troops and horses, and then at this time the whole army will press down on a certain road and wave troops. Straight down, attacking the city and plundering the land?”

The question goes back to the original point, what is Xia Jun's intention?

Zhao Baiyu: "The strength of the whole country, counting it has 30 Xia soldiers, and there may be Turks and southern Xinjiang among them, but these two countries dare not fight their best, and at most [-] to [-] troops. Sang Liangyu will definitely send the elite troops All focused on the target," he pointed to the Jingyuan Road on the map, "the iron kites of the elite frontline commando are haunting the fortresses on Jingyuan Road—"

Looking up, he said with a stern face: "Sang Liangyu's goal is still Jingyuan Road!"

Dou Hong was terrified: "The final general immediately ordered the messengers to inform the other three parties of this news, and be ready for support at any time."

Zhao Baiyu was still flustered. Xia Jun once haunted the fortresses around Tianduzhai, only probing but not attacking by force. The generals had to seize the opportunity to send out troops quickly before they could react, instead of hitting the hammer here and there, as if Jingyuan Road was not their goal.

"Perhaps..." Zhao Baiyu muttered to himself, "The forts near Tiandu Village are not their target?"

***

In Shenniao County, Xiliang Prefecture, suddenly a row of cavalry passed by in a hurry, stopped at the door of an inn, got off their horses and rushed in, dragging out all the passengers and shopkeepers inside.

The cavalry in light armor asked in a muffled voice whether there was a group of people staying in the store these few days, and the storekeeper responded with trepidation that there was, but he just left this morning.

The cavalry who entered the store to search came out and shook their heads slightly.

The leader of the cavalry raised his hand: "Everyone in this store is suspected of collaborating with the enemy and treason, and they will be killed on the spot."

In an instant, the ground was covered with blood, but in a short while, the flames soared into the sky, and no one was spared.

The light cavalry continued to search on the road, and on the mountain road around Shenniao County, there was a row of people in black uniforms riding on tall horses, looking down at the burning inn.

Someone on the side said: "Fortunately, we left one step ahead of time and exchanged the craftsmen and weapons for a caravan to go to Lanzhou. However, Xia Jun is really ruthless, and innocent people can be killed as they please."

Another person on the right said: "Big Xia learned a secret technique of finding people from Nanjiang, and can quickly track them through the scent we left behind. Although we were careful to cover up when we left, it's better to start as soon as possible just in case. .”

Huo Jingtang grabbed the reins, turned the horse's head, and left a sentence when he whipped the horse: "Avoid towns, go on mountain roads, and don't stay overnight."

The others looked at each other when they heard the words, but they all knew that it meant that they would rather take the risk and travel a longer distance than hurt innocent people.

***

In late January, due to the visible increase in the strength of the Xia troops on the front line, the generals of Jingyuan Road almost focused on the fortresses around Tiandu Village. In this cautious and tense atmosphere, Jingyuan Road approached Huanqing Road A large number of Daxia soldiers and horses suddenly appeared in the fortress group. The troops were divided into two groups, and they took Gaoping and Pengyang with lightning speed. The generals stationed in Weizhou heard the news and led their troops to Zhenrong between the two places The ambush was carried out, but it was in the arms of Xia's army. He was ambushed by two groups, trapped in the city, cut off food, grass and water sources, and cut off the back road.

All the way down, attacking Weizhou.

Ren Feiyuan immediately led [-] troops to Weizhou, the Huanqing Road Metropolitan Administration also led [-] troops to support Weizhou, and the generals stationed at Jingyuan Road also led a small half of their troops to Weizhou at the same time to fight against the sudden emergence of Daxia. This army of soldiers.

At the same time, the Xihe and Huanqing troops stationed in Weizhou also attracted attention, but no one noticed Jingzhou in the rear.

At this time, there were only [-] Tibetan soldiers, [-] forbidden troops, and less than [-] township soldiers and Xiang troops left in Jingzhou, guarding a population of about [-].

This afternoon, the clouds were thick and the wind was strong.

The guarding soldier couldn't help but yawned, and almost ate a mouthful of yellow sand. When he rubbed his hands, he suddenly found a row of faint black shadows in the yellow sand blown up by the strong wind.

When the wind and sand stopped, three thousand heavily armored cavalrymen appeared at the gate of Jingzhou city in unison.

A gust of wind blew, and the air seemed to be filled with a strong smell of blood. The heavy armored cavalry split to both sides, slowly pushed out three huge catapults, and placed the burning black ball on the catapults. Twelve soldiers pulled the ropes at the same time. , the black ball was thrown towards the gate of the city in a parabola, only to hear the long sound of piercing the air passing through the ears, the next moment it exploded and shook the ground, and then scattered gray smoke, the guarding soldiers who inhaled the smoke suddenly showed pain color, choked his neck and died shortly after.

"Dead, dead?" The young soldier was at a loss.

"It's poisonous gas. Bomb, cover your mouth and nose!!" The experienced city defender quickly soaked his clothes, covered his mouth and nose and shouted: "Enemy attack! Enemy attack——!"

The veterans of the city turned around and rushed to the Drum Tower, which was an early warning of enemy attacks, to beat the big drum. The bell tower in the city rang the big bell, and the sound of the bell and drum instantly spread throughout Jingzhou City. Respond to the incoming enemy troops against the walls.

Dou Hong walked quickly, and happened to meet Zhao Baiyu who ran out while putting on his coat.

Zhao Baiyu: "Have you checked the city gates? What about the other two gates? Is there still time for the people to retreat? How many soldiers and horses are besieging them? Why did they suddenly appear? Didn't the surrounding garrison points be found or notified?" ?”

Dou Hong: "The officer just came back from the gate of the city. The soldiers approached the city. There was no time to retreat. The other two gates were also surrounded by Xia soldiers. There were [-] cavalry at the east gate. Judging from the armor and horses, it should be the original fortress group near Tiandu Village. Iron kites haunting the city. Tens of thousands of soldiers and horses attacked the city at the west gate and the north gate at the same time. , The power is huge. The poisonous gas. The bomb is unheard of before, and it is highly toxic and strange. The officials suspected that it was made by the people of southern Xinjiang. Why did it suddenly appear... Maybe it was to attract the attention of the garrison everywhere by attacking Zhen Rong, and quietly bypassed it Other places with weak defenses have arrived in Jingzhou. Because the army of the Xia State is pressing down on the border, all the garrison points near Jingzhou have gone to support, the defense is extremely weak, and they cannot withstand the ravages of iron hooves.

The soldiers approached the city, but they didn't hear any news in advance. There is only one possibility. All the surrounding garrison points, including the cottages, were killed, and no survivors were left to report the news.

Wherever it passes, chickens and dogs will not stay.

It is not surprising that the enemy invaded, burned, killed, and looted, but it is obviously not normal to leave no one alive.

Once the city of Jingzhou is broken, even if he takes the lead in surrendering, the lives of the [-] people in the city may be in danger.

Zhao Baiyu: "I came prepared, and I came here with a plan. It seems that Sang Liangyu's goal is Jingzhou."

Dou Hongdao: "There are nearly [-] soldiers and horses in the city, but the strongest cavalry in Daxia is here, and there are at least [-] to [-] soldiers and horses besieging the city. I don't know if there will be reinforcements in the future... If there are no siege weapons Fortunately, they took out powerful siege weapons! Obviously Great Xia is famous for its lack of siege weapons! Now they use poison and gas bombs to attack, but they dare not open the city gates to fight. The opponent seems to have taken the antidote pills in advance and is not afraid Du, Yan, is attacking the city like crazy right now, we can’t do without people at the gate of the city! But at this time, going to the gate of the city is to die!”

He turned around in a hurry.

Zhao Baiyu: "The elite soldiers are gathered here, and they can't wait to attack the city. They even took out siege weapons that they didn't have before... Sang Liangyu is bound to win Jingzhou. I'm afraid there will be Xia army coming later! We must mobilize the people in the city. All soldiers and civilians: the enemy raids, defend Jingzhou to the death!"

Sang Liangyu first feigned an attack in the northwest area, and then used the fortresses in the Tianduzhai area and the Zhenrong area to make a feint attack, mobilized a large number of troops and smoothly went around to Jingzhou, besieged Jingzhou, and spent a lot of troops with great fanfare. False and real actions, just for Jingzhou?

Even if Jingzhou is captured, they will not be able to hold it, and they will gain the upper hand in a short time. Once the generals in the northwest react, 40 to [-] troops will surround them from all directions, and they will surely wipe out all the soldiers and horses in Daxia.

At that time, although Dajing will suffer heavy losses, Daxia will definitely end in subjugation.

The battle sweeping across the northwest is not like just coming to plunder and then retreat——

"Sang Liangyu is a lunatic, and Keshan's evaluation is like this. If the family's words are not to be believed, but Wang Yueming's evaluation is also the same, it means that he is really a lunatic. A lunatic is frightening, smart and innocent. A moral lunatic is a time bomb, and his thinking cannot be speculated by common sense."

Zhao Baiyu faced Dou Hong with his hands behind his back, his lips moved, his voice was like a mosquito, and he changed his thinking. If he is a lunatic who is greedy for fame, betrays his promise, and deceives the world, if he is Sang Liangyu, his purpose for doing this is What?

"Sang Liangyu traveled thousands of miles away, left his hometown, was infamous for treason, and conscientiously planned for Daxia, but the emperors and ministers of Daxia didn't remember his kindness, and instead kept on guard. There is no doubt that Sang Liangyu resented Dajing. When I took refuge in the Xia Kingdom, I couldn’t wait to plan a few wars to defeat our dynasty, and all political means after that were not so much for the Great Xia court, but as targeting our court.”

"...He still resents Dajing, resents Emperor Yuanfeng for ruining his future because of his personal affair, causing him to wander alone in a foreign country, and now Daxia has betrayed him—Sang Liangyu, a conceited person, will definitely not be in his own eyes. Find the reason on his body. He usurped the throne, leaving his name in the history, he can only blame the Emperor Daxia and his courtiers, so after usurping the throne, he beheaded the nobles who opposed him wantonly, and after venting his revenge wantonly, when his mentality was out of balance, the next target of revenge was Dajing. If the problems of Datong Bank and Arsenal are still exposed at this time, and the clues are traced to Jingzhou...it's not good."

"Sang Liangyu's position is not right, and there are potential threats such as Tuoba Mingzhu and nobles who refuse to accept him in the country. Launching a large-scale war at this juncture, hollowing out the domestic defense force, and mobilizing all the forces, always makes me feel like he is ready to delay at any time. Leading a country to die, leaving a painful lesson for Da Jingjun and his ministers before death."

too crazy.

His guesses were crazy.

If she guessed right, Sang Liangyu was even crazier.

"Jingzhou City must not be broken."

Once the city is broken, based on what Sang Liangyu thinks he is thinking at the moment, the opponent is likely to massacre the city.

"When night falls, let the soldiers go out of the city gates to fight, and pick a few smarter soldiers to mix in and run from each city gate to Huanqing and Yuanzhou to move reinforcements." After a pause, Zhao Baiyu said awkwardly: "Tell them , This trip is close to death, but the imperial court will properly arrange their families! There are [-] civilian lives behind us, and all of them are tied to them. We hope that we will sail smoothly, and there will be no disadvantages!"

Dou Hong: "Decree."

"Great siege weapons such as poisonous, gas bombs, incendiary bombs, etc. are generally not easy to make. They are limited in number and will not attack for a long time. However, the defenders should conserve their energy and change a group of people to the city gate every half an hour. , Gather all the doctors in the city, gather all the medicinal herbs in one place, and research out the detoxification prescription as soon as possible. Especially the water sources and granaries in the city must be guarded carefully, but anyone who is sneaky, don’t ask why, take them all!"

There is no need for Zhao Baiyu to say these things, Dou Hong also knows how to arrange them.

Bai Yu closed his eyes, crossed his fingers, and tried his best to recall the tactics of breaking the cannon that he had read in the history books in his previous life.

"The fence rope."

Dou Hong: "My lord, what did you say?"

Zhao Baiyu opened his eyes, "Call some ingenious people to find the straw in the whole city to weave strong ropes. I will draw the pattern, and you will have people follow suit. Then let a group of people stir the mud. Bind the strong ropes Mud is poured on the roof of the city wall, which can block fire, guns, burning bombs and all other artillery stones."

I don't know if it can be made, but I will try it first.

***

As dusk fell, the trebuchets stopped operating, Jingzhou opened the city gates, and Dou Hong took the lead: "Kill—" Suddenly, the momentum was like a rainbow, and the fight shook the sky.On the gate of the city, Zhao Baiyu made people bring out artillery, trebuchets and rockets, and threw incendiary bombs at the enemy in the distance, and then ordered the soldiers to line up and fire arrows downward. Soaring down.

The gunpowder package bound to the arrow will ignite immediately after hitting the target, and its power cannot be underestimated.

The smell of gunpowder smoke and blood was pungent, and Zhao Baiyu was inevitably dizzy. He took out the refreshing medicine bag he brought from the doctor in advance, covered his mouth and nose, raised his hand and shouted: "Pull the heavy crossbow!"

The city gate was pulled up heavily. The crossbow replaced the original rocket formation, and Sen Leng's arrow pointed at the rear of the iron cavalry. When they were ready to go, they heard Zhao Baiyu's order: "Let go!"

The crossbow and the arrow broke through the boundless night and the smoke that filled the air like a shower, pierced through the thick armor of the Daxia heavy armored cavalry with a whistling sound, and dragged the man off the horse's back for several meters, nailed to death on the ground, and was trampled by the horse's hoof the next moment Not human.The sword has no eyes, and the crossbow and arrows falling from the sky penetrated the bodies of several of the horses in an instant, causing the other horses to panic.After all, it was the most elite heavy armored cavalry in Daxia, and it took a while to control the panicked horses and continue to attack.

Dou Hong led [-] troops, and with the assistance of the city gate fire, cannon, crossbow, and arrows, he was unable to gain the upper hand under the [-] cavalry. At this time, the city gate on the ground trembled, and the rumbling sound came one after another. Zhao Baiyu's heart suddenly shuddered. As soon as it sank, after receiving the arrow, it fired a rocket into the air, and the fire illuminated the distance, but it could be seen clearly that it was a dense army in an instant.

Xia army reinforcements!

"Withdraw the troops!" Zhao Baiyu yelled in a broken voice: "Withdraw the troops immediately and close the city gate!! Throw all the fire, artillery and bombs—quick!!"

There seemed to be blood foam gushing out of his throat, Zhao Baiyu ignored the pain, took the rocket and fired it into the distance while commanding, his arm was so painful that he was numb and did not dare to relax at all, until Dou Hong led all his troops back into the city, And the city gate was closed in time to stop the iron cavalry, and everyone looked at the dark Xia army reinforcements with lingering fear.

Zhao Baiyu maintained his archery posture and stared at the middle position below looking for the general. He could only see a military chariot appearing abruptly in the middle of Xia's army, surrounded by heavy infantry.

Intuition told him that the person in the military vehicle was the enemy general.

Dou Hong climbed up the city gate, looking at the dense soldiers and horses below, he felt chills in his heart: "As you expected, there are indeed reinforcements, but I don't know how many soldiers and horses will be sent to besiege Jingzhou."

Zhao Baiyu didn't dare to blink, and his voice was hoarse: "First look at how many soldiers and horses are besieging other city gates, and then guess whether the enemy will continue to encircle with firepower or retreat to the three houses, and recharge your batteries."

Swallowing his saliva, he said, "I guess it's to continue the firepower attack."

--------------------

The author has something to say:

Combat map:

Northwest Fifth Road is lined up, from left to right: Xihe, Jingyuan, Huanqing, Yanyan, Hedong. (The first four roads belong to Shaanxi Province.)

Jingzhou, Yuanzhou, and Weizhou are adjacent, and Weizhou is adjacent to Zhenrong.Jingzhou, Yuanzhou and Huanqing Road are adjacent, so if you encounter a surprise attack on Jingyuan Road, you can go to the Huanqing Road Garrison Point for help, which is quite close.

The border defense line on Jingyuan Road, my setting is similar to a 'V' shape, with many forts,

The Xia army made a feint attack on the forts on both sides of the 'v', first left and then right, Tianduzhai and other fortresses were on the left, Zhenrong and other fortresses were on the right, defeated Zhenrong and entered Weizhou, the army attracted firepower here , Another group of troops sneaked around to the besieged city of Jingzhou behind.

Combat weapons: trebuchets, ancient siege weapons.

Weapons such as poisonous gas bombs, incendiary bombs, rockets, artillery, etc., are available in Song Dynasty.

Fence protection ropes: use rice straw to make strong cables, four inches in circumference and 34 feet in length, and every twenty wires are bundled. Don’t use hemp rope to tie one end to the post at the back of the building, cross the building, hang down to the ground, and the beam hangs down Four or five stories, surrounded by buildings, fertilized with mud, rockets and artillery cannot invade, even if the artillery stone is hundreds of weights, it will do nothing.And it is light and cost-effective, so it is named "protecting fence rope".

——"Song History"