The Happy Life of Small Officials in Northern Song Dynasty

The sneak attack led by Zhao Hu that night was not considered a success, nor was it a failure. The Xixia Army really turned on the lights and fought at night. The bonfire and thousands of torches illuminated the surroundings brightly, and dozens of patrol horses shuttled around to guard.

It can be seen that the Xixia Army was not afraid of the Song Army's insight into its attempt to build a trebuchet to attack the city, and carefully protected the safety of hundreds of craftsmen, basically eliminating the possibility of the Song Army's nighttime sneak attack.

Zhao Hu and others were afraid that opening the city gate would attract the attention of the enemy sentries, so they led seven or eight soldiers down from the corner of the northwest city wall and quietly approached the front of the enemy camp. As the opportunity approached, he scolded Zhao Hu angrily.

But Zhao Hu didn't want to go back empty-handed. Although the corners of the craftsmen's clothes don't want to be stained, according to Su Jin's explanation beforehand, if people can't kill them, they can destroy the raw materials. There are piles of trees felled from Longshan Heaped on the edge of the open space, there is no special protection except that there are hundreds of patrolling soldiers holding torches around the edge of the field every few minutes.

So Zhao Hu led seven or eight experts to move patiently little by little. After waiting patiently for nearly an hour, he finally succeeded in coming to the side of dozens of piles of logs on the west side of the camp. With the help of fire oil, seven or eight piles of logs like hills were quickly set on fire.

The fire ignited and immediately alarmed the soldiers of the Xia Army who were patrolling in all directions. They came from all directions one after another. The figures of Zhao Hu and others walking through the fire were also spotted by the soldiers of the Xia Army who arrived first. He led people to slaughter more than a dozen Xixia horsemen, took their horses and fled back. The soldiers of the Xia army shot arrows behind them and bluffed, but they didn't really chase after them. No one dared to chase them in this dark night. The opponent ran wildly, and Song Jun dug a lot of traps in the open ground of the north gate. Chasing people in such a place in the middle of the night is simply a joke with his own life.

Zhao Hu's return in vain made everyone a little frustrated, but Su Jin was very happy that Zhao Hu returned safely. He didn't give any hope to this sneak attack method at all. The craftsmen of the Song Dynasty have given great protection, if you are allowed to easily succeed in front of their army, wouldn’t it be a joke for the Xixia army to come to attack the city with great fanfare; the Western thieves in the Song population are not mobs, and their IQs are not as high as they think they are. Under the Song people, otherwise, how could the small country in a barren land beat up the shit of the Song people. If it wasn't for the geographical limitation that prevented Xixia from becoming stronger and richer, the Song country would have already become Xixia's possession.

In Su Jin's view, the biggest gain of Zhao Hu's move is not the burning of Xia Jun's piles of wood. Ju made him suddenly have a bold plan. This plan was so bold that even he himself was a little afraid. Su Jin didn't dare to tell everyone about the plan he thought of. Unanimously opposed, Su Jin decided not to mention this matter for the time being, and will throw out this plan at an appropriate time. It all depends on how the war develops.

The practice of Song people attacking and burning wood at night not only did not anger Li Yuanhao, but made Li Yuanhao understand one thing.

When convening a meeting with the generals of the various armies, Li Yuanhao laughed when he talked about what happened last night: "The Song people are afraid! The night attack and burning of wood is proof. The Song people are afraid of the catapults we are building to attack the city. Otherwise, why would they How about sending someone to obstruct it? In the eyes of Song people, we Daxia warriors can only charge and kill on horseback, but are incapable of attacking cities and villages, because our Daxia Iron Army has never bothered to use these siege equipment. They did not expect that we would change our usual practice Building siege equipment hits their weakness, and I want to reward General Qu Lie, the leader of the Daier tribe, who made Liao craftsmen come to help."

The generals of the Xia Army deeply believed that although Li Yuanhao was tyrannical and ruthless, his vision was unique and precise, and he could see through the key points at a glance. Not to mention, in fact, these craftsmen are not here to help at all, but the masterpiece of Qu Lie, the leader of the Daier tribe on the border of Liao Kingdom who recently surrendered to Daxia, and the envoy of the Five Divisions of Shanxi Province.

After Qu Lie surrendered to Daxia, relying on the support of Li Yuanhao, he continued to harass the border of Liao State. These hundreds of Liao State craftsmen were plundered from Liao State and dedicated to Li Yuanhao. Li Yuanhao

At the beginning, he didn't pay much attention to it, but now he realizes that what Qu Lie offered is all treasures. These people are Liao army artisans who are good at making siege equipment. Without these artisans in this battle, Xia Jun will have nowhere to go.

As for the extreme dissatisfaction of Qu Lie's move, Liao Xingzong even sent envoys to severely reprimand Xia Guo for what he did, and issued an ultimatum to Li Yuanhao to hand over Qu Lie to Liao for disposal. The State of Song is not afraid, let alone the State of Liao.

Li Yuanhao understands the psychology of the Liao people very well, and he has a clear understanding of the current situation. In today's situation, the Liao and Song Dynasties seem to be at peace on the surface, but in fact they are two donkeys on the same slot. Sooner or later, the two countries will be torn apart. It was a shameless day, and although his Great Xia seemed to be the weakest, it could influence the balance of power between the two countries. In comparison, the Liao Kingdom was more willing to join forces with him against the Song people, as long as he didn't do too much. If it's too much, it's impossible for Liao Xingzong to do anything to him if he is a little bit cheap.

Li Yuanhao connived Qu Lie to harass the Liao Kingdom, which seemed unwise. It would make people think that it was stupid to offend the Liao Kingdom during the war between Song and Xia, but in fact, this was Li Yuanhao's shrewdness.

Li Yuanhao is very clear that because he is at war with the Song State, the Liao people will tolerate this. Once he negotiates a peace and truce with the Song people, if he wants to take advantage of the Liao people, he will incur a hundredfold retaliation; Before venting his anger to the Liao people, not long ago, the Liao people rejected their proposal to jointly send troops to attack the Song people. After staying for two months, he withdrew, which made Li Yuanhao very angry, so he not only condoned Qu Lie's plundering in the Liao territory, but also ordered the national garrison on the Xialiao border to turn into bandits to plunder the Liao people. A punishment for the Liao people's back-and-forth.

It was built day and night for five consecutive days. The craftsmen were almost exhausted. The results are indeed obvious to all. One after another trebuchets were erected in front of the formation, and thousands of trebuchets were erected in the left, middle and right positions. A simple trebuchet; the soldiers of the Xia Kingdom have not been idle in the past five days. Loggers are logging, stone transporters are transporting stones, and thousands of soldiers hold up shields and slowly search for the pit in the open space at the north gate. Immediately, soldiers carrying sandbags came to fill up the pit.

The defenders on the top of the city cursed angrily, but there was nothing they could do. They could only watch the Xia army move around the city, but they had nothing to do with them. Fortunately, the Xixia soldiers were quite afraid of being able to shoot four hundred paces away. The bed crossbows on the top of the city, although the Song army only had about 20 bed crossbows, these bed crossbows cannot be blocked by shields, and when they hit the Xixia soldiers holding the shields, blood and flesh flew everywhere, and they were shot Naturally, the people who were killed were bombarded to the brim, and even the three or four people next to them would be affected and injured; so when more than [-] bed crossbows joined forces to shoot, teams of Xia soldiers who searched for the pit paid a heavy price. Dozens of people were blasted into meat paste after a row of crossbow arrows went down. This deterrent force forced Xia Jun to stop searching within [-] steps below the city; Song Jun was a little relieved.

In the early morning of the [-]th day of August, when Xia Siling and Xiao Sui'er were helping Su Jinzhengguan dress up one after the other, Chao Chao rushed into the inner house like a gust of wind, shouting loudly: "Master, the western thieves have begun to attack the city."

Su Jin was startled, bit her lower lip tightly, and finally started, it's been six days, and it's time to start.

Su Jin hurriedly said: "Notify the two adults, Jingtai and Panjiang, to gather at my north gate."

Wang Chao said: "They are already at the top of the city."

Su Jin nodded and said: "Prepare the horse, let's go right away."

Wang Chao turned and ran out, Su Jin stood up, took the iron helmet handed over by Xia Siling, put it on his head straightly, touched the scabbard hanging around his waist, and walked away.

Xia Siling grabbed his hand, looked at Su Jin and said, "Be careful, I'm waiting for you to come back."

Su Jin smiled, patted her on the face and said, "Don't worry, I'll be fine, and Weizhou will be fine, you can go find Brother Zhao Ting and help him with some logistical matters. From now on, everyone will be fine." Do your best for Weizhou."

Xia Siling nodded firmly and said, "My family will."

Su Jin glanced at Xiao Sui'er and said: "Sui'er's cooking skills are good, you will cook the meals for me and the adults at noon today, this battle will be fought by all the people, and we are role models for the people of Weizhou, do you want to You do this every day, but let the people see that the people around me, Su Jin, are also contributing to the defense of the city."

Xia Siling and Xiao Sui'er nodded repeatedly, Su Jin smiled and waved, turned around and walked away