The Happy Life of Small Officials in Northern Song Dynasty

The city wall outside the north gate has already been filled with smoke and dust. The Xixia army launched a full-scale attack not long ago. More than a thousand trebuchets began to throw a large number of stones inside and outside the city wall. The scattered stones were like rain, smashing the entire north gate wall. Can't get a foothold at all.

The range of the trebuchet is nearly [-] steps, and the stones thrown are high and far away. Although the stones thrown are not too large in order to pursue the long-distance effect, the power is still amazing when they fall from the sky like a celestial maiden. , especially to the nearly ten thousand defenders inside and outside the north gate wall. After a few rounds, they killed and injured hundreds of Song soldiers, and destroyed many newly raised and weak wall stacks. .

The soldiers of the Song Army had to curl up behind the wall, using shields to cover their bodies from the falling stones from the sky, and many of them were buried alive by the stones.

The most violent blow was at the entrance of the newly built Wengcheng, which was not very high in the first place. The towers of the Wengcheng were all within the bombardment range of the rocks. Not a lot.

Su Jin rode his horse and rushed to the gate of Beicheng, seeing a vast expanse of white dust in front of him, he was so choked that he couldn't breathe.In the smoke and dust, some people ran back and forth to avoid the stones, making a mess.

Chao Chao grabbed a soldier running away with his head in his arms and angrily said, "Why are you running? Where are Lord Pan and Lord Jing?"

The soldier's head was covered with blood, he pointed to the back and said, "I don't know, I really can't stand being smashed, that's not a place for people to stay."

Chao Chao yelled angrily: "Running away? You are looking for death. Someone here will tie him up and take him to the top of the wall. If he dies, he will be the first to die." Two horse guards stepped forward and pushed the soldier to the city wall. up.

Su Jin frowned, got off his horse and climbed up the city wall with flying stones. After hearing the news, Jingtai and Pan Jiang held up large shields to block the falling rocks and took Su Jin into the strong tower at the north main gate.

Su Jin asked, "How is the situation?"

Pan Jiang wiped the dust from his face and cursed: "Damn it, the Xixia dog seems to be crazy, and the smashing lasted for nearly a quarter of an hour. It seems that this posture is about to end, and the next step is to charge. "

Su Jin squinted his eyes and looked down the city. The smoke and dust were dissipating, and the Xixia army could be seen in the distance preparing to charge.

"How about the casualties on the city?"

Jing Tai said: "I'm afraid that there are not many deaths, and there must be a lot of injuries, but I can only bear it. The officials think that the casualties are insignificant, as long as the city wall is not damaged."

Su Jin nodded. The city wall should be fine. The three-foot-high and two-foot-wide city wall will not collapse after being bombarded with stones for three to five months. It seems that Jingtai and Panjiang have seen big battles before, and they are familiar with such bombardment scenes. Too flustered, Su Jin calmed down a bit.

"Fortunately, I ordered someone to lift the bed crossbow down in advance, otherwise it would definitely be smashed into a pile of rotten wood. Later, I will let the thief taste the feeling of crossbow arrows piercing the heart." Pan Jiang licked his lips and showed his snow-white teeth.

The attack of the trebuchets gradually stopped, and the moment the smoke and dust cleared, the soldiers of the Song army who had just climbed out of the rocks suddenly found that the cavalry of the Xia army had reached [-] paces below the city. Under the cover of the enemy, Xia Jun quietly charged without even blowing the horn.

The first batch of Xia's army was the [-]-thousand Right Army of Ye Li Yuqi. This was a new recruit team composed of ordinary herdsmen Latin. It was placed at the front to charge as cannon fodder. The arrows of the Song army must have been dense and ruthless. These recruits were going to fill in the pits and be beaten. The three ten-thousand-thousand teams immediately behind were the elite. Stepping on the corpses of cannon fodder recruits officially began to ascend the city.

Not surprisingly, the team of 1 recruits was hit mercilessly, and they kept falling into the pit with their horses on the way and became goods to fill the pit. When they entered within a hundred steps, there were only 7000 left of the 7000 people. , and the rest are struggling in the pit; and these more than 7000 people were immediately shot by the bows and arrows of the Song soldiers on the top of the city. It became a restricted area for strangers, and more than [-] horses fell continuously. After paying a lot of casualties, they finally rushed to the dead end of the bow and arrow on the other side of the moat that had been filled with stones.

Before they could rejoice in their narrow escape, the stones on the top of the city rained down. These were stones thrown on the top of the city by trebuchets, and now they have all been returned to the cannon fodder.

Fortunately, the Song army on the top of the city quickly shifted its attention. The second echelon of [-] people had already arrived on flying horses. With the cannon fodder in front filling the hole, the Xia army's second charge was much smoother. The advantage of the cavalry attack was vividly reflected. The soldiers of the Song army only had time to shoot two rounds of arrows, and the second wave of Xia troops had already arrived under the city wall.

The short ladders were quickly spliced ​​together, braving the arrows and stones on the top of the city, soldiers of the Xia army erected thousands of high ladders, and slowly climbed up to the top of the city.

At the same time, the third and fourth batches of tens of thousands of people also swarmed in with all kinds of ladder hooks and carts. Thousands of ladders with iron hooks hooked to the top of the city wall, embedded in the rammed earth, and let the people on top No matter how much the Song army kicked and pushed, they did not move, but the soldiers of the Xia army screamed and climbed up the top of the city with their thick armor and helmets on.

More than a dozen giant wooden chariots were also pulled by more than a dozen horses to the gate of the Wengcheng, braving the rain of arrows and stones from the towers and began to ram the gate of the Wengcheng.

The Xixia Army launched a full-scale attack on Weizhou in this simple and rude way with no technical content.

This kind of simple ladder has long been abandoned in this year. There is a more advanced lifting ladder in the arsenal of the Song Dynasty. There are wooden wheels that can be pushed underneath, and the top of the ladder is covered by iron armor. It is also flexible and flexible against arrows, fire and stones. After seven or eight soldiers boarded the ladder, a dozen soldiers below shook the shaft to automatically raise the soldiers on the ladder to the same height as the city wall, and then stepped on the wall as if they were walking on the ground to start hand-to-hand combat.

But it is clear that Xixia is too confident in their cavalry, and this new type of ladder is also a top secret, so the Xixia people can only use the original long ladder as a tool for climbing the city. Soldiers can shoot arrows at his face, smash big rocks at his head, and even push them down the ladder with long spears. Although the simple and rough tactics are very frightening, they bring The disadvantages are naturally enormous.

However, the soldiers of the Xia Army have their unique secrets. They often climb into the air and don't go up. Instead, they take out their unique hidden weapon 'Flying Hook' and throw it on the city wall. The top of the city is full of Song soldiers. Just grab it and you will be killed. People were hooked upside down from the top of the city. It turned out that the 'smart' Xixia soldiers chose to use ladders as a springboard because the height of the city wall was too high for them to throw a flying hook. This trick really paid off. While the soldiers of the Xia army fell down the ladder like dumplings, hundreds of soldiers of the Song army were caught by flying hooks and forcibly pulled down to the city.

As soon as the battle started, there was a fierce stalemate, and the casualties of both sides continued to rise. In the short half an hour of the battle between the city and the city, the Xia army suffered over ten thousand casualties, and the Song army also suffered nearly three thousand casualties. Most of the Song soldiers were caught by Feigou and fell into the city wall or fell to death or were dismembered by knives.

Pan Jiang hurriedly ran from the city wall into the city tower, and said to Su Jin, "Master Su, I request the use of fire oil tanks. If this continues, our casualties will be too great."

Su Jin looked at the Xia army formation that was not very dense under the city and shook his head: "It can only be used at critical times. The power must be in a dense formation to have the greatest effect."

Pan Jiangdao: "That's right, it's just that it's a bit tight now. Some export walls have already been attacked by Western thieves. Fortunately, we are fast enough to support."

Su Jindao: "Ask Li Chong to summon the folks to bring the huge rocks and wood we prepared to the city. Let them taste the big ones first. Now bows and arrows and small stones are useless."

Pan Jiang slapped his head and said, "How could I forget those big guys, the big mace carefully designed by Mr. Su just comes in handy now."

Su Jin said with a smile: "Save it, throw one at each ladder, and keep it bloody."

Pan Jiang hurriedly yelled and ordered someone to pass the order. After a while, Li Chong personally led the team. Five or six people from thousands of people carried one, and moved three to four hundred big tree trunks covered with thorns to the top of the city. A wooden mace with a brocade design.