Fenghou

Chapter 225
The official road coming from the south passes through the west of Ganquan Fort, and the nearest point is only a few hundred steps away from Ganquan Fort.

But they walked a full five miles before reaching the battlefield of Ganquanbao.

At this time, the battlefield was very quiet. Both the Xixia Army and the Song Army had cleared the battlefield. All the corpses of the Xixia soldiers had been transported away. The Song Army soldiers sent people from the city to clean up. They were shipped back to the city together.

This is a tacit understanding between the two sides. When Xixia soldiers carry corpses, they will not put arrows on the city. When the Song army clears the battlefield, Xixia soldiers will not take the opportunity to attack. In fact, as long as the Song army does not open the city gate, the Xixia army will not attack too much. big meaning.

There was no one on the battlefield, and there were no trebuchets. Even the five-foot-high observation tower of the Xixia Army was dismantled and brought back. Everything became so quiet.

A group of people walked slowly in the dark, and heard the rumbling sound of the cart. The centurion of Xixia who guided the Jurchen envoy looked back at the cart curiously from time to time. The cart was very long, with six huge wooden wheels, and it walked slowly.

There is a very long wooden pole on the cart, and there are a lot of iron chains, which weigh thousands of catties. I don't know what kind of secret weapon this is.

Gradually reaching the nearest place to Ganquan Fort, the Jurchen officials looked back at the crowd. A hundred soldiers understood and raised their crossbow arrows at the same time. They didn't know, so they died together under the random arrows.

The Jurchen officials tore off their hats and fake beards, took off their coats, and suddenly it was a cavalry soldier of the Song Army. His name was Li Ling, and he was a vice-captain. He had deep eyes and high eyebrows. Clothes and fake beards can be completely confused with real ones.

This was an adventure arranged by Liu Cui. Liu Cui was betting that the Xixia people would not dare to offend the Jurchens. Of course, he also took advantage of the fact that going to the Xixia camp from the south must pass through Ganquan Fort. Hundreds of soldiers guarded a Jurchen official, especially Their Yinlangtouling is a real guy, even if the opponent's master is coming, they won't see through it.

The Silver Wolf Head Token was seized by Chen Qing when he ambushed Wan Yanchang in Zhongnan County. It was regarded as Wan Yanchang's token. Wan Yanchang got another Silver Wolf Head Token. The previous Silver Wolf Head Token was invalidated, but the Xixia people didn't know it.

The cart immediately turned around and drove straight to the south gate of Ganquan Fort. At this time, the south gate of Ganquan Fort also opened, and the suspension bridge was slowly lowered.

Not long after, everyone arrived at the south gate. Zheng Ping came out with hundreds of soldiers. Li Ling held up the command arrow, "The humble post is Li Ling, the deputy capital of Commander Liu. !"

Zheng Ping took a look at the command arrow, waved his hand, and the cart drove slowly towards the city under the pull of ten horses.
Chen Qing also rushed to the South City Gate. Liu Cui's letter really whetted his appetite. What exactly did Liu Cui send?
The cart slowly entered the city, and countless soldiers surrounded it. Everyone was very surprised. It was like throwing a pole from a trebuchet, but it should not be so long!

But Liu Qiong exclaimed, "This is a super giant trebuchet!"

"Have you seen it?" Chen Qing turned around and asked.

Liu Qiong nodded, "There is this class in martial arts, and I am familiar with all kinds of heavy offensive and defensive weapons. We have seen it when we went to the Lin'an Military Supervision class. It can throw a hundred catties of heavy stones five hundred steps, and it is usually used to deal with Du River boats."

"Why didn't I know that there is such a class in martial arts?"

Liu Qiong suddenly remembered that Chen Qing had graduated early, and he was a little embarrassed and said, "This is a course that Tong Zhi opened not long after he left Lin'an."

"This is deliberately targeting me!"

Chen Qing scolded with a smile, and then asked: "What's the use of this throwing rod?"

"The commander didn't know something. At that time, Shaoqing, the military inspector, introduced to us that this kind of throwing pole was extremely difficult to manufacture. During the Zhenghe period, it took fifteen years to make twelve poles. It took three years to select the materials. Except for the Great Song Dynasty, neither the Liao Kingdom nor the Xixia Kingdom could be created."

"Then why is this throwing rod in the hands of Xixia people?"

"this."

Liu Qiong scratched her head, "I don't know why Xixia has such a throw."

"I know this throw!"

A middle-aged military craftsman came out. His name was Hu Zhen. He was originally a master craftsman of the Shaanxi Road Military Weapons Supervisor, and later followed Wang Yan. When Wang Yan left office, he entrusted him to Chen Qing. He is now the Qinzhou Army Marquis Yu, Chief Military Craftsman.

"This should be captured by the Xixia army when Tong Guan attacked Xixia. At that time, he took three sticks and didn't use them at all. After Tongguan was defeated, millions of food and grass materials were obtained by the Xixia army. This throwing pole is one of the spoils. "

"With this throwing rod alone, could Hu Yuhou make a trebuchet?"

"With the addition of this pile of iron chains, it should be fine. The key to this super-giant trebuchet is the throwing rod. Other shelves and the like can be built with thick wood, so it's not a big problem."

"Then how much time do you need to make it?"

Hu Zhen thought for a while and said, "If the control can give me five hundred people to help me, I can build it in three days."

Chen Qing said happily: "That's good, I will help you!"

After delivering the supplies, Chen Qing gave Li Ling a few more instructions, and Li Ling immediately led a hundred cavalrymen to gallop to the north. Without the drag of carts, ordinary Xixia army patrols could not stop them at all.

For two days in a row, Li Liangfu did not launch an offensive against Ganquan Fort, and the morale of his army was always low. This state can only give away the heads of the Song army, and there is no point in attacking Ganquan Fort.

Li Liangfu thought hard for a long time before he finally came up with a new siege strategy, that is to attack the city gate, perhaps the city gate is the weakness of Ganquan Fort.

It's a pity that the large battering ram he asked to send from Baochuan was burned, leaving him with no strategy for attacking the city, but no means of implementation, which really made Li Liangfu's teeth itch with hatred.

Li Liangfu sent another five hundred soldiers to Pine Forest Mountain to see if he could find a pine tree more than a century old that could make him a large battering ram.

The hundred-year-old pine trees that Li Liangfu never forgets, there are indeed more than [-] trees on the mountain, but unfortunately all of them were felled by the Song army. At this time, they were lying on the open space next to the east city wall. They were built by skilled craftsmen, and they gradually changed into another appearance. .

The shape of a super-giant trebuchet has come out. The trebuchet's frame is as high as three feet. It is not easy to fix the base alone. When launching, the four legs need to be firmly fixed.

Chen Qing and more than a dozen generals surrounded the trebuchet. This kind of trebuchet was called a self-unloading trebuchet. A huge wooden box was hung on the top of the thick head of the throwing rod, and an iron chain weighing three thousand catties was placed inside.

Usually the wooden box is placed on the ground. When it needs to be launched, dozens of people will pull the rope together on the throwing rod at the other end. The long throwing rod will pry up the heavy wooden box. Dozens of people let go at the same time. The throwing rod will throw the boulder or fireball.

Because the throwing rod is long enough, it is enough to throw a [-]-jin boulder five hundred steps away.

"What do you want to use it for?" Yang Yuanqing asked with a smile.

Ever since Chen Qing knew that it could be made into a super giant trebuchet, he had an idea in his mind. He smiled slightly and said, "Let's go and see!"

Everyone went up the city wall and came to the northeast corner. From here, they could see the Xixia army camp stretching for more than ten miles.

Everyone understood the coach's intention, Yang Zaixing looked at it for a while and said, "It seems that the distance is not enough!"

Among all the generals, Yang Zaixing has the strongest sense of distance, and he usually sees very accurately. He smiled: "It's about [-] steps from us to the enemy camp, and it's still a few hundred steps away."

"wrong!"

Liu Qiong came to his senses, and quickly said: "It's about shooting a hundred-jin boulder five hundred steps away. If it's a fifty-jin fireball, it should be almost the same."

Chen Qing smiled slightly and said, "The fireball is generally [-] catties, and I think a fireball of [-] catties should be able to reach about a thousand steps."

"Regulations are right."

Hu Zhen stepped forward and said with a smile: "I'm sure, this kind of super giant trebuchet, if it throws a weight of [-] jin, it can indeed be thrown a thousand steps away."

Chen Qing thought for a while and said: "The fireball may not break when it falls on the tent, but it will affect the effect. If the fireball can explode over the barracks, the burning powder and kerosene inside will spray out, and the range of ignition will be larger. , Master can do it?"

Hu Zhen raised his head and thought for a while, "You can try it. The idea is not difficult. The key is to control the burning speed of the gunpowder and kerosene inside, so that it can't be burned up in mid-air. If you try a few more times, the humble job will be better." Believe it will be a success!"

At noon of the next day, after more than [-] times of trial and error, the craftsmen successfully created the fireball that Chen Qing wanted. Twenty huge fireballs coated with kerosene were placed in the big tent.

(End of this chapter)