The Song Dynasty on the Sand Table

Chapter 448 We Need Cannons
At this time, there were not many Jurchens near Shenzhou. Most of the Jurchen soldiers were stationed in cities such as Yanjing or Taiyuan. There were also a large number of Jin soldiers who followed Wanyan Wuzhu to fight in Sichuan. After suffering a defeat, they were still licking their wounds in the northwest border region and had not returned.

Bali Yuanshan could only muster the Khitan troops and summon his old friend, Tieli Renlu Yuantiao, to rush towards the Great Wall at Zhendongguan.

Lu Yuan asked, "I heard that the soldiers coming are from the Northern Song Dynasty?"

Bali Yuanshan looked helpless: "Yes!"

Lu Yuantiao: "Then running directly to reinforce them will be completely useless. We will definitely be blocked by a large number of firearms outside the Zhendongguan Great Wall."

After thinking it over carefully, Bali Yuanshan realized that Lu Yuantiao was right. Going directly to reinforce them would be a dead end, as they wouldn't be able to get past the firearms barrier.

Lu Yuan jumped up: "Torpedoes! We need to bring a lot of trebuchets."

"Ah, yes, that makes sense."

Bali Yuanshan snapped out of his daze and took all the catapults, ballistae, and other equipment from Shenzhou with him.

When he led a large number of Khitans and Tieli people, with countless catapults, to the Zhendongguan Great Wall, Li Bao's troops had just conquered the entire twelve-mile section of the Great Wall and had not yet had time to perfectly deploy their defenses.

The soldiers around Li Bao were getting tired when they heard horns sounding outside the Great Wall at Zhendongguan. Countless Khitans and Tieli people appeared. Without uttering a single word, Bali Yuanshan ordered, "Torpedoes, start hurling!"

A large number of catapults were deployed more than 200 meters outside the Great Wall. The craftsmen nailed huge auxiliary supports to the ground to fix them in place, and then collected stones from all around the battlefield and put them into large ladles.

By this time, the catapults used by the Jin army were all counterweight catapults, which were very advanced and could be operated by just a few soldiers, who could hurl large stones at the Zhendongguan Great Wall.

In an instant, countless boulders flew through the air.

Li Bao was also startled and shouted, "Where are our cannons?"

"General, our cannons haven't arrived yet."

Li Baobu charged along the Great Wall and within a few hours he had cut through twelve miles of the Great Wall. There was no time to bring the cannons over.

One of his men shouted, "Our cannons should still be in Gao Jin's logistics ship's hold!"

Li Bao: "Holy crap! What do we do now?"

In the short time it took to exchange just two sentences, a large number of flying stones crashed onto the Great Wall. With deafening roars, the Great Wall suffered considerable damage, and sand and stones flew everywhere, filling the air with dust. Although Li Bao's troops were brave, they could only temporarily avoid the onslaught under such circumstances. Many people fled the section of the Great Wall that was under concentrated fire and hid far away, trembling in fear.

Li Bao roared, "Scattered soldiers!"

"Bang bang bang!"

After a round of skirmishing, the skirmishers reported: "It's too far. The enemy's catapults are set up more than 200 meters away. The soldiers are shaking and the horses are neighing. There's sand and dust everywhere. Our rifled guns can't hit them accurately."

Li Bao: "Damn it! We can only wait for the cannon. Hurry up and urge the cannon to come."

Li Baobu was forced to abandon a small section of the Great Wall due to the trebuchet attacks and take cover on both sides...

Looking out from the outside, Baliyuanshan noticed that a small section of the Great Wall in front of him seemed to be undefended. He immediately ordered the catapults to cease their attack and allowed the soldiers to advance...

However, as soon as the catapults stopped firing, Li Bao's troops, who had been hiding far away, immediately ran back along the Great Wall and once again took up their posts on that small section of the Great Wall. The muskets fired wildly, and the Baliyuan Mountain troops, who had only taken a few steps forward, were driven back again.

He could only roar, "Come back, all of you come back, keep pounding with the catapults!"

……

At the southernmost watchtower of the Zhendongguan Great Wall, a messenger rushed over and shouted at the fleet still anchored at the seaside: "Has the logistics team arrived? Cannons! The front line needs cannons."

The young officer who stayed behind looked up and said, "The logistics team just came by and delivered various supplies to the friendly forces that occupied Dalian City before returning to Lushun."

The messenger cried out in alarm, "He just left? Damn it, we need artillery!" The young officer left behind cried out, "What do we do then? I'll go after Gao Jin!"

Messenger: "It's too late. The situation at the front is critical. The enemy has a large number of catapults that are hitting our troops so hard they can't even lift their heads. We must send the artillery over immediately."

As the two were talking, their eyes suddenly darted around and locked onto the cannons of Li Bao's flagship.

"Dismantle! Dismantle the naval guns!"

The sailors who remained behind immediately got to work, and in the blink of an eye, they had dismantled ten ship cannons.

If it's an army cannon, it usually has wheels and can be pushed around.

However, the naval guns did not have wheels, so the soldiers had to use thick ropes to hoist the guns up the Great Wall, then place them on small carts, and pull the carts forward at breakneck speed.

The Great Wall, stretching for twelve miles, is quite difficult to traverse. The wall is steep and undulating, and the ground is uneven, with frequent protruding stones or other obstacles. The small cart bounces back and forth, making it extremely difficult to pull. Moreover, every so often there is a small watchtower blocking the way, and the passage through these watchtowers is very narrow, requiring considerable effort for the small cart to pass.

The soldiers transporting the artillery were extremely anxious...
-
The northernmost point of the Zhendongguan Great Wall.

"Boom! Boom!"

Huge stones were smashed onto the Great Wall, one after another.

This short section of the Great Wall endured a series of heavy blows in a short period of time, blows that its slender shoulders could not bear.

The wall finally gave way under the strain, and with a loud crash, a large section of the wall collapsed and slid down, leaving only half of that section of the Great Wall standing.

Bali Yuanshan was overjoyed and quickly shouted, "Khitan brothers, there are a lot of Khitan people living in Jinzhou and Shizikou. They are all our brothers and sisters. We must go and save them now. The Great Wall in front of us is about to fall. Follow me and charge!"

The Khitan soldiers roared and their morale soared.

Previously, when they attacked the Jiaodong Peninsula, they lacked morale and were unwilling to fight to the death because they were "not fighting on their own soil." But once they were fighting on their own soil, it was a different story. History has long proven that soldiers are most effective when they are "defending their homeland."

The Khitan soldiers, fearless of death, launched a charge.

Li Bao felt a little panicked. Damn it...

Just as I was feeling a bit down, I suddenly heard cheers coming from the Great Wall not far away. A soldier shouted, "Our cannons are here!"

"The artillery is coming!"

"Hahaha!"

Li Bao turned around and saw a group of soldiers pulling a ship's gun on a small cart, rushing towards them.

"Hahahaha, heaven is on my side!"

Li Bao's men didn't even need orders; they immediately sprang into action, smashing a hole in the low part of the parapet, a great distance away from the catapults, and extending the cannon barrel through the hole. For the time being, they didn't even have a gun mount to hold the barrel in place, so they had to move a few stones that the enemy catapults had thrown up onto the city wall and weigh them down on the cannon barrel.

"ignition!"

"Aim... aim at your mother, stop shooting randomly!"

"Let's hear the sound first."

"boom!"

As soon as the cannons fired, several Khitan soldiers charging towards the collapsing Great Wall fell instantly. The cannonballs tumbled forward through the crowd, carving a bloody path through the army...

(End of this chapter)