The Song Dynasty has been deliberate for 16 years, only to know that it is the Water Margin

Chapter 490 Arrow, Sword, Siege
Just half an hour later, there was a tragic scene on the shore of Dulan Lake. Corpses were scattered everywhere, blood flowed in the water, the waves of the lake were dyed red, and everything that hit the eye was miserable.

Zhao Tong's soldiers were divided into two groups. One group blocked the foot of Lingbo Mountain and continued to intercept and kill the Xixia soldiers who escaped from the mountain. The other group pressed directly toward Fuchuan City.

The team that came out of the city before was almost completely wiped out. Those who were lucky enough to run fast went back to Shikawa Castle and called the gate. Unexpectedly, the city did not dare to put the suspension bridge at all, so they could only flee without knowing where they were going.

Du Bo led his troops to call for battle outside the moat, and arrows were fired at random on the city. He couldn't help but feel furious and said: "Bring the bow!"

Immediately, a soldier next to him held up a large iron bow and three carved feather arrows that were a little longer than ordinary arrows.

This bow and arrows were exclusively used by Du Bo. He had to carry them with him when riding on horseback, but he thought it would hinder his physical flexibility, so he always had his soldiers carry them on his back.

Just look at him setting up the arrow at this moment, clasping the string tightly with both hands, and the large iron bow made a "creep" sound. The bow opened like a full moon, and the arrow shot like a shooting star. With a "swish" sound, it shot directly towards Shikawa City. head.

This distance is not close. After all, Shikigawa is surrounded by a moat. Although it is not enough to shoot an arrow, shooting from the bottom up will often lead to exhaustion and deviation.

But Du Bo's arrow was as fast as a fire chasing the moon. It was impossible to catch him halfway, and it went straight to the top of the city, without leaning to one side, and hit the axis of the flagpole.

The rope string was broken, and then there was a "crack" sound, and the big flag flapped in the wind and fell to the bottom of the city. The Xixia soldiers on the city were suddenly taken aback.

The soldiers around Du Bo cheered loudly, and there was silence in the city.

A Xixia general with a bare head and only a few pigtails left his face suddenly changed. After a moment, he took a deep breath and said, "Since when did the Song Dynasty have such a fierce general?"

The person next to him whispered: "General, this Song general is not only powerful, but also the soldiers below..."

The Xixia general nodded, then frowned: "It is very different from the previous Western Army, especially the cavalry, which is like a divine help. An army with this kind of combat power is the best among the best. Didn't the Song Army send all their best soldiers to conquer Liao?" ? Why are there still such teams?"

The attendant said: "General, the origin of this team is strange. After occupying Zhuoluo, they clearly knew that our army was attacking Lanzhou, but they did not return to aid. Now that our army has already attacked Xizhou, they still did not retreat to put out the fire. Instead, they came It is unbelievable to attack our Xishou Baotai Military Division."

The Xixia general thought: "It is indeed true, especially after so long, but the name of the Song army commander has not yet been discovered. I will personally write a letter to the King of Jin to learn about this matter."

The follower said: "General, then Huizhou City..."

The Xixia officer snorted coldly: "Ye Lide didn't listen to my advice. He insisted on ambushing his troops in Lingbo Mountain, and rushed out of the city, even wiping out the entire army. Just report the truth to the Xishou Military Supervisor. You can do it now." Go back to the Yazhong, write the secret letter and military information, and pass it all on while the Song army is not yet stable. If it's too late, I'm afraid it will be difficult to leave the city."

He followed the order with clasped fists. The Xixia officer glanced at his back. He naturally believed that this man was his brother-in-law. Otherwise, he would never dare to write a letter to King Richard of Jin by someone else.

The Xixia officers were not the defenders of Shikawa City, but inspectors directly sent by the Privy Council to inspect the Xishou Baotai Military Department.

This inspector does not have a permanent position, but a temporarily assigned position. The rank is not particularly high, but he is a member of the Xixia clan and is a direct relative of Brother Richard, so the Xishou Military Supervisory Department naturally cannot neglect it and let him mess around. He left, and at this moment the guard of Shikawa was dead, so he took over the city as an inspector.

This Xixia officer is called Li Changshuo. In terms of seniority, he is actually a generation younger than the current Xixia Emperor Li Qianshun and Brother Richard. He is a descendant of Li Jichong, the younger brother of Xixia Taizu Li Jiqian.

At this time, he looked at the Song army outside the moat and pondered. He was not afraid at all. The city of Shichuan was strong and had sufficient food, grass and weapons. Although 8000 people had been lost outside the city before, there were still a similar number of soldiers in the city. It would be impossible to defend it. Disaster.

What he was really worried about was Huizhou. At this moment, Huizhou was extremely empty. All the troops of the Xishou Baotai Military Division were in Shichuan. He was afraid that the Song Army would send a force to sneak attack Huizhou, so he was anxious to give the troops to Huizhou. Brother Richard wrote a letter.

The Supervisory Army Department along the southeastern edge of Xixia all dispatched troops to cross the Yellow River to attack the Xihe Road of the Song Dynasty. Who would have expected that such a Song army would come unexpectedly and kill them, so he hoped that Brother Richard could coordinate with the Supervisory Army Department and send more troops. Come to defend, or even send heavy troops to directly destroy this Song army to avoid future troubles...

Zhao Tong looked at the soldiers cleaning the battlefield with a smile on his face. This battle had gained a lot.

Not only did they clear out the ambush in Lingbo Mountain, they also wiped out a Xixia army that ventured out of the city.

Among them, there were countless weapons, some armors, and two to three thousand horses that were not seriously injured. As for those who were seriously injured or died directly, their meat was eaten directly and used as military rations.

As for one's own losses, they were less than one-tenth of the opponent's, which can be said to be a great victory.

At this time, the team had set up camp three miles away from the west gate of Fuchuan. Zhao Tong was walking towards the camp on horseback. Next to him, Xu Ning said, "My lord, I didn't expect to get so many things in one battle."

In the previous battles against Gaizhu and Zhuolu, they basically entered the city to encircle and annihilate them, but there were not many soldiers in those two cities, and the total number of soldiers was not as large as this battle.

Moreover, there are not many war horses on both sides. Most of the military resources have been used to support the Yellow River and Lanzhou, so the gains are limited. But it is different now. Just two or three thousand war horses are worth a lot of money. Even during the war, they were rich at all. Nowhere to buy it.

Zhao Tong nodded: "Once the battle situation is advantageous and the battle line is lengthened, we can implement the strategy of supporting war with war!"

Fight to feed war!Representatives can use the human, material and financial resources obtained from the war to continue the war and expand the results of the war.

This strategy is often implemented when the situation is favorable, the prospects are bright, and when preparations for long-term war are made.

As for the small green forest and rebel army, which has no supplies and relies on the things obtained by attacking and plundering to keep the team running, that is not called fighting to support war, but it is called grabbing and running.

After returning to the main tent, after cleaning the battlefield outside, they began to dig and build fortifications again. It was not until late in the evening that Zhao Tong called everyone to come to discuss matters.

This time, it was not just Du Bo, Zhang Xian, Yang Zhi, and Xu Ning, but all the guard commanders from each army were called over.

These guards chiefs are in charge of thousands of soldiers and are considered middle-level generals in the army.

Among them, Zhou Xiao and Xu Nian, the commanders of the first and second guards of the Third Army, were sitting at the head. The two were originally the [-]th commanders of the Dragon Guard Army. They followed Zhao Tan in the southern and northern wars. Logically, they should have been promoted long ago, but Zhao Tan did not. This order has not yet been issued.

Because the men of these two guards were trained according to their role as pro-army troops, although they held the position of chief of guards, their actual status was no less than that of Xu Ning, Yang Zhi and others.

What is a pro-military? It means that when the coach personally goes out to fight, he protects the guards on his left and right. This kind of guard must not only have extremely high combat power and quick response capabilities, but also need extreme loyalty.

Therefore, although Zhou Xiao and Xu Nian did not have higher official positions, their actual status was no lower than that of others.

With the two leaders sitting down, the other guardsmen behind them dared to sit down, but all of them were nervous. After all, it was the first time that Zhao Tao called them into the Chinese army's tent for discussion.

After looking at the crowd, Zhao Tong said: "I have asked you to come here today and I have no excuses. You should all be prepared to attack the city tomorrow."

The guards chiefs were relieved when they heard this. Attacking the city was nothing. After all, if you want to seize the city, whether you attack it hard, besiege it, or use a strategy, you always have to attack it first.

The former really attacks regardless of losses, while the latter is just a feint attack, just pretending.

Zhao Tong looked at everyone's faces and said seriously: "There is no plan to take advantage of Shichuan at the moment, so I probably won't do anything tomorrow. I want to really attack for a round and see how strong Shichuan's defense is!"

As soon as these words came out, even Du Bo, Zhang Xian and others also showed surprised expressions. They knew that Zhao Tao cherished his soldiers. After all, there were few people and could not tolerate too many losses. But at this moment, he actually said that he would attack by force. That means he really didn't come up with a clever plan. .

Zhao Tong squinted his eyes and glanced downward: "The border city is no better than the inner city, and there are very few strategies that can be used. It was a coincidence that Zhu and Zhuo Lu were killed before. Otherwise, over the past hundred years, the Western Army has produced many heroes, and they would have figured out a way long ago. If we break the Hexi line, Xixia will be destroyed."

Everyone nodded, thinking about this, where is the best border city?Otherwise, the predecessors would have broken it long ago.

Zhao Tong continued: "Since Shichuan is a border city, there must be a lot of defense weapons, including crossbows and stone cannons, not to mention stone cannons and other items. If there are few tricks to attack by force, we can only provide maximum cover for the rear. The soldiers in front protect your own home." Zhou Xiao said at this time: "Your Majesty, there is a crossbow in this city?"

Zhao Tong said: "They were all captured from the Song Dynasty. Dangxiang himself can't make them. I don't know how many there will be, but there will definitely be them!"

Yang Zhidao: "There will definitely not be more than those in our army. We have more than twenty!"

Everyone nodded after hearing this, and accompanied the army were more than twenty eight-oxen crossbows, dozens of double-bow crossbows, and dozens of other types.

Some of them were stored in Xining Longyou and Huangzhou for many years, and some of them were secretly found by Zhao Tao among the Tokyo Forbidden Army. It took several years to dismantle and transport them across the Xihe River. In this expedition, almost all of them were collected. Let him be pulled over.

Zhao Tong said: "This thing is just a weapon. It can increase the power of the siege, but it cannot determine the final outcome. Moreover, if you are not completely sure about the siege at the time, you still have to protect yourself first. But if you get the chance, Only if you don’t care about life and death can you definitely win!”

The generals nodded in agreement, Zhao Tong explained some other matters, and left first, leaving Du Bo to explain the rest.

He walked to his sleeping tent. It was already dark by this time. Pine tar torches were lit everywhere, and the soldiers were heavily guarded.

When he came to the door of the tent and was about to go in, he saw a faint light coming from a tent next to him. He thought about it for a few seconds before walking closer and said at the door: "28, have you rested?"

Yuan Ying's slightly panicked voice came from inside: "Master, master, you haven't rested yet."

Zhao Tong stretched out his hand to open the curtain and walked in. He saw Yuan Ying hiding behind a simple wooden table looking sneaky.

He wondered: "What are you doing?"

"Disciple, I'm thinking about the spear technique!" Yuan Ying stood up in a hurry and said.

Zhao Tong glanced at the big gun barrel that was left ten feet away and frowned slightly. He had now passed on all his marksmanship skills to Yuan Ying.

As for those in the nearby places, those obtained in the military arena are not passed on again. After all, sometimes there are too many, which does not mean it is good, unless he is planning to integrate hundreds of schools and create new martial arts.

But Yuanying is just a first-class method, how can he talk about integrating hundreds of schools and creating martial arts?Even if she becomes a master and can create skills, Zhao Tong doesn't think she will be able to create a more powerful marksmanship than the stunning marksmanship.

At this moment, he saw Yuan Ying's eyes twinkling and asked as he walked forward, "What shooting technique are you thinking about?"

"Disciple is thinking about it, thinking about it..." Before Yuan Ying could finish his words, Zhao Tong had already arrived near the table. When he looked over there, he saw a wooden sword thrown on the ground.

He raised his eyebrows, why don't you give up on learning the sword?He was practicing secretly with a wooden sword!

"Ah, I know my mistake!" Yuan Ying hurriedly knelt on the ground when Zhao Tong noticed it, and confessed quietly.

Zhao Tong looked at her for a moment: "Are you thinking about sword skills?"

"Ah... I definitely didn't think about the original martial arts skills of the Yuan family. I just thought about it for myself." Yuan Ying said hurriedly.

Zhao Tong remained silent and sighed softly in his heart. It seemed that it was always better to block things than to open them up. Forcibly prohibiting them seemed to be of little use. He said: "Get up."

Yuan Ying didn't dare to get up, so Zhao Tong said again: "Get up and practice your sword skills for me."

Yuan Ying got up and asked Qiqi Ai Ai: "Master, do you know how to sword?"

Zhao Tong said with a sinister face: "I don't understand!"

Yuan Ying didn't dare to speak anymore, so she hurriedly picked up the wooden sword, and then practiced several moves she had created in the past few days.

Zhao Tong showed no expression after reading it, and Yuan Ying immediately lowered his head: "Master, I, if I don't practice anymore, these moves must be too ordinary."

But in her heart, she thought, Master is pretending to be sophisticated. Since he doesn't understand swords, how can he see the magic?
Zhao Tong was silent for a moment and said: "Since you like swords so much, I can't stop you as a master. But remember, before you reach the level of little master, I don't want to see you touch a sword again, not even a wooden one."

"Ah?" Yuan Ying was surprised when he heard this: "Master, are you serious, if the disciple becomes a junior master, can he continue to practice swordsmanship?"

Zhao Tong said: "That's right, but when the time comes, we still have to focus on gun skills!"

"This is natural, this is natural..." Yuan Ying said hurriedly.

Zhao Tong stretched out his hand: "Bring it here."

Yuan Ying obediently handed over the wooden sword, and Zhao Tong weighed it before dragging the tip of the sword on the floor and walking out of the tent.

Yuan Ying looked at Zhao Tong's back and thought that the master really didn't know how to use a sword. It could be seen from the way he held the sword.

Zhao Tong went back to his sleeping tent. He remembered Yuan Ying's tricks just now and looked a little solemn. Then he raised the wooden sword and looked at it. Not to mention, it was quite delicately cut, and there was actually a blood groove dug in the middle. It looked decent.

He then flicked his wrist, pulled out a big sword flower, and then slashed towards the big butter wax with a sword.

Suddenly a sword shadow appeared, but it disappeared in an instant. The wooden sword still remained in his hand as before, and the tall butter wax seemed to be intact.

Zhao Tong smiled and walked to the wax to look carefully. He saw faint white marks on the wax that was as thick as his arm.

This ring of white marks looks like the candle has been cut off in the middle, but it does not fall over. Counting carefully, there are 12 white marks in total...

On the second day, Du Bo commanded the troops to attack Shichuan.

It didn't take long for the moat to be captured, and the trenches on both sides were also built with logs. Wooden planks cannot be used in this kind of place, because some ordnance must be pulled and the planks will break easily.

After a while, the soldiers began to set up ladders to attack the city. The Chinese army under the city beat their war drums, the sound was loud, and the shouts were earth-shattering.

The Xixia soldiers put down rolling logs and rocks at the top of the city to hit the ladders. Most of the ladders were damaged and destroyed. Hundreds of soldiers were killed and injured by the siege troops, and they were all carried back from the pontoon across the city river by the responders below.

The Xixia army on the city put down their scratching hooks, took the damaged ladder up to the city, smashed it into pieces, and apparently planned to light up the city by lighting it up at night.

When Du Bo saw this scene, his thick eyebrows suddenly stood up. He felt in his heart that this ordinary bamboo ladder was not enough, and he had to build some solid iron ladders later. The more the better.

But he couldn't let it go now. He directed the attack again, but unexpectedly, flying cannons were suddenly fired from the top of the city, and rocks of different sizes fell down like rain.

The siege soldiers hid behind the shield car, and it took a long time for the artillery to stop. Just when Du Bo was about to continue the attack, the sound of golden gongs was heard from behind. It turned out that it was Zhao Tuo who ordered the withdrawal.

(End of this chapter)