People in the Song Dynasty were lawless

Chapter 376 Defensive Counterattack
"Kill!"

The loud shouts resounded through the sky.

The fighting lasted from early morning until dawn, without stopping for a moment.

Fan Zhongyan sat in the rear camp, frowning slightly as he listened to the noisy sounds outside.

Among the sounds were the roar of artillery, the sound of gunfire, and the continued explosion of grenades.

The Liao people finally chose to start a night battle at night, using grenades to blast at close range, which really caught the Song army off guard.

This is actually one of the drawbacks of the firearms era. Although firearms are powerful, even in the era of mercury-fired rifles, the hit rate is not very high during the day, let alone at night.

To complete fire coverage, if there are no machine guns and missiles, you can only rely on the fire network formed by submachine guns and automatic rifles.

But the Song Dynasty does not even have submachine guns and automatic rifles. It is still in the era of rear-mounted flintlock muskets. Even if it has developed a striker-type musket, it has not yet been equipped with the entire army.

So when was the same period in the West?

If the Liao Kingdom transported cannons into the wild, their walls would not be able to withstand the bombardment.

Everyone is puzzled.

The sound of gunfire and grenades outside the camp gradually subsided.

"Yes."

But in general, because the Liao army lacked the equipment to attack the camps, it was almost impossible to break through the Song army's camps everywhere.

Wei Huanzhi wondered: "Mr. Sir, the Liao people can't advance even an inch, so what's the problem? If the city is besieged for a long time, they will be able to win."

"Yes."

In addition to Fan Zhongyan, there were also important officials such as Wei Huanzhi, the transfer envoy of Hebei Road, Tianyou, the director of Changping, Wang Ding, the prison director, and Han Fang, the censor.

But why does Zhao Jun admire Fan Zhongyan, who likes to play defensive tactics, instead of Han Qi, who likes to play reckless tactics?
Isn't it because Fan Zhongyan plays good defensive tactics and is experienced?

Fan Zhongyan asked back.

Everyone agreed again.

"Did he chase him out?"

"After all, our village wall cannot be compared with the Liao people's city wall. It is nothing during the day. What if they secretly transport artillery near the camp at night?"

Fan Zhongyan then said: "Pass my military order. After driving away the nearby Liao army, each battalion must immediately send out scouts to investigate. Be careful of the enemy moving artillery at night."

Although it is not as good as the Song Dynasty, this number is enough to cope with the national level war with the Song Dynasty.

Torches were lit everywhere outside the surrounding wall, and the lighting was not very far away. Within a radius of about ten feet, some Liao soldiers reached under the wall and threw grenades inside, but they were quickly shot to death.

The messenger hurried into the tent and reported to Fan Zhongyan: "Report, sir, the enemies in the right camp have been repulsed, and General Zhou wants to come out of camp to pursue them."

Once there is a war, the Song troops in the camp will fire their guns first, whether they can hit them accurately or not, and they can scare the Liao troops who are attacking.

"Yes."

"Now you know why I put the camp here instead of outside Liangxiang City."

So when the Liao army rushed into the Song army's camp, they discovered that the Song army was too stupid.

This sentence immediately made everyone feel cold.

"If only it were this easy."

"what is the problem?"

Seeing the solemn expressions on everyone's face, Fan Zhongyan said: "Fortunately, the Liao people do not have field artillery. Otherwise, we cannot imagine the consequences. Now that we are surrounding the Liao city, we need to be relaxed and relaxed. We must not take chances or be careless."

Everyone responded quickly.

"Report!"

There are several continuous and deep trenches on the outside. A wooden parapet is built above the inner wall like a city wall. There are also a large number of watchtowers, fortresses and artillery in various large and small camps, all connected together.

Therefore, it is difficult for firearms to exert their power during night battles - there is no vision at all, no fire coverage, and no one can be hit, making it easy for the enemy to get close.

Fan Zhongyan asked.

It was probably around the time of the Paris Commune and the establishment of the Third French Republic. At this time, Western firearms tactics were still in the era of line infantry tactics, which is commonly known as the era of queuing to kill.

After he arrived at Youyan, he had no intention of attacking Xijin Mansion. He directly started to build a stable camp on the outside, dug trenches and built walls, pressed forward step by step, and steadily advanced the defense line.

As a large country with strong national power, the Liao Kingdom has a very large number of artillery in the land of Youyan, at least one or two thousand.

"Not yet."

Fan Zhongyan smiled, brushed away the white hair from his shoulders, then pointed to the map on the table and said: "The dark night will reduce our advantage in field battles with the Liao people. In addition, there is another serious problem."

There were also some Liao troops cleaning up the Song troops on patrol in the periphery. The two sides fought fiercely, causing casualties on each other.

After Fan Zhongyan issued the military order, he once again leaned on the case and began to write something.

The Liao Kingdom was not like Xixia, where the entire country only had a few hundred cannons.

"Let him go to support the front camp first."

After the others left, Fan Zhongyan put down the brush in his hand, lowered his head and saw a white hair falling on his shoulder, and sighed: "This battle is not easy to fight."

The messenger went out to reply.

When it was close to dawn, the Song army discovered the Liao State's artillery transport team about three kilometers outside the camp.

Fortunately, the Song army discovered it early. If the Liao army had successfully deployed the artillery, the camp would have been in danger.

In the early morning, Fan Zhongyan, who had not slept all night, finally walked out of the camp. Just in time to lift Chang Ping Si Tianyou came over from outside and said to him: "Mr., the new batch of food and grass has arrived."

"Well, send this letter to Daizhou and ask Zhang Yaozuo, the transshipment envoy of Hedong Road, to handle it immediately."

"Yes."

Tian You agreed, then looked at the sky and said: "The weather has become gloomy recently, I'm afraid it will rain heavily."

Fan Zhongyan also raised his head and looked at the sky. It was winter in the land of Youyan in late October, everything was dry and silent, and the Yanshan Mountains in the distance were shrouded in dark clouds.

Although it didn't snow, it didn't rain either. But the earth was withered and yellow, and in the fierce and howling north wind, military flags were fluttering, and grass clippings and fallen leaves were flying everywhere, seeming to tell the people on the ground that winter is coming.

"The rain is really bad for us, so we have to deal with it quickly."

Fan Zhongyan looked to the east, looking past Xijin, past Jizhou, past Yingzhou, and finally towards Yuguan.

That is the direction of Di Qing's army.

If the fight continues like this, the victory of the Song Army will definitely be inevitable.

Because the Liao army only has these three axes. As long as they handle their night attacks, press forward step by step, and surround Liangxiang, the Liao army in the city will be lambs to be slaughtered.

But doing so would be a siege and would take a long time. During the late Han Dynasty, Yuan Shao besieged Dongwuyang for a full year before killing Zang Hong. In the Battle of Suiyang in the mid-Tang Dynasty, the rebels surrounded Suiyang for ten months before finally breaking the city.

If the Liao army holds on and refuses to come out to fight with them, no one knows how much food the Liao army has in the city, and no one knows how long this war will last.

So if you want to win quickly, you can only use strange tricks.

This strange move was made by Di Qing.

In mid-October, after the roaring artillery fire on Yuguan City subsided, the only sound left was the heavy breathing of the Song army on the city.

This is the sixth day after Di Qing arrived at Yuguan.

In this early winter season, Song Jun was wearing thick cotton clothes, with sweat pouring down his face.

Many people felt chilly on their bodies, and the sweat cooled and solidified not long after it fell, sticking to the cotton clothes and exuding an unpleasant odor.

But no one took a bath, and there was no time to take a bath.

Even when eating, many people only hurriedly take a few mouthfuls, fill a sip of the water bottle they carry with them, and then continue to fight.

The Song army dispatched 10,000 people, but in fact, less than three or four thousand were actually fighting. Some people need to operate boats to navigate on the river, some people need to carry various gunpowder, shells and equipment, and some people do logistics work on the boats.

Otherwise, the soldiers in front will have no food, no water, no gunpowder, and no cannonballs, and naturally the battle will not be able to continue.

"call!"

Hu Yanshouyong felt that he was almost paralyzed from exhaustion and wiped the sweat from his forehead.

Just now, the large Liao army actually succeeded in reaching the bottom of the city and almost climbed up the wall with ladders.

Fortunately, although the Song army trained with firearms for a long time, their fighting skills did not improve, and they killed the Liao army with bayonets.

Otherwise, Yuguan City would have been destroyed by now.

But the biggest problem is that the soldiers below can change defenses, but they generals can only stay at their posts for a long time.

The Liao army charged in wave after wave, with almost no time to rest, which made them exhausted.

'It would be great if we could counterattack them once and delay their attack. '

This thought flashed through Hu Yanshou's mind.

Before he could take a closer look, he heard someone shouting: "Huyan Shouyong, Huyan Shouyong, where did he die?"

That was the voice of his vice-admiral, Ping Haiyang, deputy commander of the navy, Liu Du.

Hu Yanshou was furious and said, "Liu Du, no matter what, I am still your superior. Why do you call me that?"

When Liu Du heard what he said, he turned around and found him next to the corpses of several Liao soldiers. He hurried over and laughed with him and said, "How can that be possible? This is what Di Shuai asked me to say. Hurry up. Di Shuai is here." Call you."

When Huyan Shouyong heard that it was Di Qing calling him, he didn't dare to lose his temper anymore. He tried to stand up, but almost fell down.

Liu Du pulled him up, and Hu Yanshouyong felt that his legs were shaking. After all, he had been fighting for several days without much time to rest. There were corpses of Liao soldiers everywhere under the city.

When he walked to Di Qing, he saw Di Qing still standing on top of the city like an iron tower, looking into the distance with a telescope.

Recently, the Liao army has always attacked the city at night, so they were beaten to the city every time.

Even the city walls were covered with cannonballs.

The Liao army had a batch of firearms and equipment arrived yesterday and secretly deployed artillery fire outside the city.

If it weren't for the Song Army's powerful artillery fire, and even more powerful gunners, who could judge the location of the enemy's artillery positions through the firelight emitted by the enemy's artillery in the middle of the night, and carry out counterattack bombing, Yuguan would be in danger now.

"Shuai Di."

Hu Yanshouyong came over and said.

"injured?"

Di Qing turned around and saw the blood on Hu Yanshouyong's body.

"A small injury, just a shock from the tiger's mouth. All the blood belongs to the Liao people."

Hu Yanshou grinned, showing his yellow teeth.

"Can we still fight?"

Di Qing asked.

"Rong Mo will rest for an hour."

Hu Yanshou said with a straight color.

"You are allowed to rest for four hours."

Di Qing pointed to the mountains to the north and said, "Did you see that mountain?"

Huyan Shouyong turned his head and looked.

The sky was slightly bright at this moment, and with the sunrise in the east, he could see the mountains in the distance.

That mountain was the Jiaoshan Mountain to the north of Shanhaiguan in later generations, 5 kilometers away from Yuguan.

The Liao army also tried to set up artillery on Jiaoshan Mountain, but they struggled to transport the artillery up only to find that it could not be hit at all.

Too far.

The highest altitude of Jiaoshan is 512 meters, but the terrain is steep and there is little flat land, making it difficult to place large-scale artillery positions.

Even if the artillery is set up at the highest point, the range that can be increased is less than 5 kilometers, and the accuracy is terrible, so it has to be given up.

"I saw it."

Huyan Shouyong said.

"Just now our scouts came to report that the enemy has a camp about ten miles away from the foot of the mountain on the west side of the mountain. I suspect that it is the enemy's camp used to attack Guangning. When you have a rest, take someone to remove it. Wang Kui will Cooperate with you."

Di Qing said.

Wang Kui was the commander of the Ding Navy. This time, the Song Navy only dispatched three units. Two units came to Yuguan and the other unit went to Goryeo.

After all, four of the seven navies of the Song Dynasty are now in the south. Not only are they stationed in Annan, but they are also continuing to explore places like Luzon in the south. The southern fleet will definitely not be transferred here in a short time.

So now Di Qing's military strength is actually somewhat stretched.

However, the Song Army still has a navy in Huainan, the Taizhou Town Navy. It is already on its way, and reinforcements will be coming from Yuguan soon.

"Yes."

Huyan Shouyong responded.

Then Di Qing saw that his legs were still weak and said with a smile: "What, are you scared?"

"It's impossible to be afraid. The Huyan family has been going through life and death since they followed Taizu Taizong. I cannot afford to lose the honor of my ancestors."

Hu Yanshou patted his thigh and said with a smile: "It's just that I haven't fought close to each other for a few days. I was suddenly killed by the Liao army on the city just now. My subordinate was also shocked. He was almost stabbed to death. Now I still feel a little scared." ”

"Hahahahaha."

Di Qing also laughed and said: "It's a good thing not to be afraid of death, but don't be too reckless. If you can solve it with a gun, don't fight in close combat. Our family is still waiting for us to go back, so don't let them cry."

"The official knows."

Huyan Shouyong responded, but then his expression returned to normal.

Having said that, how can a military general not know the dangers involved when fighting on the battlefield, but he just has to sacrifice his life.

What's more, compared to some of his dead brothers, he was already very lucky. He blocked with his weapon in time and saved his life. Otherwise, he would be just a corpse now.

The smell of blood under the city came to my nostrils, the sky was dim and bright, and the Liao army retreated like a tide.

It’s not just Yuguan.

Guangning was also relieved.

The Liao army was attacking from two sides. It must have at least 50,000 to 60,000 troops, camping in various places and harassing them from time to time.

Although the Song army blocked Yushui in advance, preventing the east and west Liao armies from gathering and concentrating their efforts to conquer a city, the huge disparity in numbers still made it very difficult for the Song army to deal with.

After all, the tactic of queuing to kill must be that the more people, the better. The Song army's troops were too dispersed. They had to guard the ships, watch the rivers, and defend two cities. The pressure was not ordinary.

But perhaps it was this contempt that made the Liao army slack off.

In the afternoon, under the cover of ships, Hu Yanshou successfully raided a camp of the Liao army with a series of small field artillery such as the Weiyuan gun, buying Guangning a lot of time.

And during the day, Di Qing even personally led hundreds of people out of the city, raided another camp of the Liao army, and killed more than a hundred enemies before returning.

This attack dealt a certain blow to the Liao army, and they actually stopped a lot that night.

But everyone knows that it is impossible for the Liao army to abandon Yuguan.

Therefore, the subsequent battles became more and more fierce.

(End of this chapter)