Song Dynasty

Chapter 140 Siege Warfare ([-])

Explosives seem to be impossible to get out, but the tactic of attacking the city in the hole can be used.

Wang Shen also knew that he had been a bit aggressive at the beginning, and it was different from opening and closing in field battles. This kind of tough battle required patience and relied on the cooperation of small groups and teams.

At the moment, he organized manpower to build pontoon bridges and manufacture siege equipment.

Before the equipment was finished, some troops had already dug tunnels, preparing to dig into the city in one go.Then let the soldiers who had already ambushed inside jump out, open the city gate, and enlarge the army to enter the city.

However, it is not easy.The tunnel was discovered by the enemy just after halfway dug.The Sizhou army was digging here, Kong Yanzhou was digging there, and in the end, they met together underground.The inside was too narrow, and they stabbed each other a few times with their spears, and the Kong family's army retreated.

At this moment, suddenly, a gust of water burst out from the other end of the tunnel, instantly filling the entire underground space.The poor Sizhou soldiers who entered the tunnel had no time to escape and were drowned alive in it.

In just one night, more than thirty soldiers were lost, and they were all elite veterans. The officers were so angry that they couldn't help crying.

Wang Shen was surprised that the matter of him digging the tunnel was not secret.In order to prevent being discovered by the enemy, the construction is usually carried out at night, and it is also far away from the city wall. How could it be exposed?
When a prisoner was captured later, it was only found out during the first interrogation that Kong Yanzhou had buried dozens of large urns behind the city wall. Using the acoustic principle of later generations of amplifiers, he sent people to monitor them day and night.Once you hear something is wrong, call people and horses to dig.

The terrain of Qichun City is high, and there is a river beside it, so the groundwater is abundant.Kong thief didn't know why, so he found out the water vein and led it into the tunnel.

In this way, it is no longer possible to siege the city in the hole, and it can only be fought hard.

The siege of ants attached to the city is the cruelest battle in the cold weapon war, especially for the attacker, it is simply a waste of human life!
When it came time to send so many Paoze brothers to their deaths, no matter how hard Wang Shen was, he couldn't make up his mind.

There was also a cloud of evil fire in his chest: Damn Kong Yanzhou, he was clearly invincible, why didn't he break through and escape.I still understand the principle of encircling three and one, and I will definitely let your remnants go out of the city, and then chase after them.Annoyed that the hole thief wants to defend to the death, I don't know what he is waiting for?
Probably seeing the hesitation in Wang Shen's heart, Chen Da suggested: "You might as well attack the young and strong in Qi and Huang prefectures, and send them weapons to drive them to fight forward."

Wang Shen felt a chill in his heart, and shouted: "How is that possible? I don't know how many people will die in this battle. As the defense envoy of Huangzhou, how can he harm the people? You are trying to make the people regard me as an enemy!" , can't stand here?"

Chen Da: "My lord is benevolent and righteous. I respect you. Since you don't have the heart to force the common people to go to the battle first, the prisoners of the Kong Yanzhou army who were captured by our army can be used. Let them fight themselves."

He also said: "If the lord is worried about their riots, you can transfer officers from the old army to control them, and impose severe punishments and laws to restrain them."

Hearing what he said, Wang Shen was greatly moved.In the last decisive battle, he captured more than 1 Kong Yanzhou horses.Later, after screening, four or five thousand were selected and used as healthy soldiers to be incorporated into each army.The rest of the nearly 6000 men and horses, he plans to send to the local area to farm and use as auxiliary troops.

This is an abundance of human resources!
Immediately, Wang Shen ordered that all these troops be dispatched, and each of them was given a simple short knife.The weapons were really not enough, so I used sharpened wooden sticks to make up.

At the same time, after many days of preparation, dozens of siege equipment such as ladders, catapults, punching carts, and goose carts were also manufactured.

At dawn on the second day, ten catapults were launched with a bang, shooting boulders one by one towards the city wall on the opposite side of the river.On the slightly trembling city wall, the people who were driven up by Kong Yanzhou screamed loudly and ran wildly, and some people were beaten into meat paste constantly, the power and power were astonishing.

Amidst the roar of the catapult, the ladder and the rushing cart swayed and drove up the pontoon bridge, approaching the Qichun city gate little by little.

Behind them were the captive soldiers who were screaming and screaming like ants. Chen Da stood on the bank of the river with a knife in his hand and shouted, "Go up, go up, kill all the rebels! If you are afraid of those who don't move forward, you must follow the military law." Wang Junshi said , those who bravely kill the enemy will be rewarded!"

"Here you are, here you are!" People from the Military Judicial Office had already lined up a row of bamboo baskets by the river, and when they saw a soldier coming up, they grabbed a handful of copper coins and stuffed them into his arms: "Soldiers eat food. , Eat food as a soldier, Zhiniang thief, don’t you want money?”

Seeing the money, the eyes of the captured soldiers were all red.

The fierce city offensive and defensive battle has begun.

But at this time, the catapults in the city also began to fight back.Unlike the previous series, which only had a few planes, the artillery stones thrown this time were extremely dense, and they were extremely accurate.

The entire sky is a whistling millstone, falling down, and the entire river surface is covered by splashing water.

The captured soldiers howled and fell one by one.

A cannon stone hit the car, sawdust flying, and the wheel axle installed below broke.The thick and long log came across and swept the four soldiers down in one breath, directly pressing them into the water.

Now the river is only a foot deep.It was this shallow current that drowned dozens of people.

"Why is it so powerful... Could it be that the enemy's impact point has already been measured, and there are experts in the city!" Wang Shen gasped.

Another boulder flew over, and an arrow cart was pushed right in the middle of the river.There was an archer standing on it, and he couldn't help but shoot towards the city wall with his crossbow, and got a lot of results.But at this moment, the arrow cart was collapsed by a boulder, and the archer fell into the water with a scream, and was never seen again.

Everyone pushing the cart uttered a cry at the same time, dodged one after another, and sprinkled cleanly.

Fortunately, the Sizhou army prepared a lot of equipment, and within a short while, one long ladder after another was hooked on the crenel.The red-eyed captive soldiers, led by the officers, climbed up with daggers in their mouths and hands and feet.

Seeing that the first soldier was about to climb over the battlements, suddenly, long bamboo poles swept over one after another, like whips, and swept the soldiers down.

It turned out that Kong Yanzhou had already installed many thick and long bamboo poles on the city wall and stretched them beforehand.When the attacking soldiers climbed up, they put them on the ropes.

In an instant, the black captive soldiers on the city wall disappeared.Under the wall, there are all wounded with broken tendons and broken bones, groaning loudly.

The officers of the Sizhou Army shouted at the same time: "Climb up, climb up, hurry up!" After the enemy's bent bamboo pole is released, it will take a while to rewind, and this opportunity should not be missed.

But at this moment, an unimaginable scene appeared.I don't know when, a row of shelves was pushed over the city wall, like a crane, extending the long cantilever out of the crenel.A large board full of long nails was hung on the long arm. When the captive soldiers climbed halfway, the nail board fell down with a bang and fell on their heads, nailing out their brains.

At the same time, the people on the city wall were replaced by archers of the regular army, and the feathered arrows were shot down like splashing water.

Thousands of captive soldiers were piled up on the city wall, it was so dense that each arrow could easily hit one person.

Wang Shen: "The catapult continues to fire, suppress it. Don't shoot indiscriminately, focus on one place to fight! Just that place, the location of the tower."

In an instant, more than ten cannon stones fell on the tower.

Only one dilapidated mud house was built on the city tower, which finally collapsed tremblingly after being hit by artillery stones for a while.A large strand of yellow dust spread out, covering the entire world.

In an instant, neither the enemy nor the enemy could see anything, and even the catapults in the city stopped.

Taking advantage of this opportunity, the two building carts finally swayed against the city wall.The soldiers who had already squatted on it and were shaken and vomited were greatly surprised. They shouted and waved their weapons and jumped up the city wall under the leadership of the officers.

"Qichun City can be regarded as broken." Under the banner of the Chinese Army, the officers all showed joy.The Qichun offensive and defensive battle has been delayed for so many days, and today it can finally end.

But the smiles on their faces froze instantly.

I saw that in the smoke and dust, the enemy suddenly had a new trick.A row of trolley-like instruments pushed up, and when they hit, they easily knocked the soldiers who had just climbed up the city down the city.

"Saimen knife cart?" Gu Lie, an old soldier of the Western Army, gritted his teeth.

As the gate knife car, it is a defensive device used to block the city when the city gate is breached.There are 24 steel knives installed on the front wall of the knife. When in use, push the cart to the gap of the city gate, which can not only kill the enemy, but also block the enemy's arrows and stones.In this way, it is difficult for the other party to climb, forming a barrier to activity.It is a very strong two-wheeled vehicle, because it is small in size and very flexible, it was taken up the city wall by the enemy.

Such tragic casualties, but in less than half an hour, the captured soldiers paid more than 500 casualties.If the fight continues like this, it will be exhausted in just a few days.

The combat effectiveness of the captive soldiers is naturally not as good as that of the Sizhou regular army, and they also lack tenacity in their bones.Seeing that the casualties were about to exceed [-]%, I was immediately terrified.I don't know who started it, everyone uttered a cry, and retreated like a tide, throwing away their armor and armor.

The people from the Military Judicial Department were shocked, raised their knives and slashed wildly, and finally chased the soldiers forward again.

So, repeated several times, the sky gradually darkened, and the whole day passed.

It can be said that Wang Shen tried his best and used all the siege equipment. He also knocked down the Qichun city tower, exposing the yellow rammed earth inside, but still failed to enter the city.

On this day, the captive soldiers left [-] dead bodies under the city wall and in the river, and over a thousand wounded.Fortunately, it was not a field battle, otherwise the army would have completely collapsed.

"Withdraw, that's it for today, and we haven't suffered much." Wang Shen ordered: "Although he is a prisoner, since he joined our Sizhou Army, he should be given a penny of compensation. If you are seriously injured, you can't fight. Going back to Huanggang is good for healing. The enemy is also having a hard time, let's work harder tomorrow and we must take Qichun."

According to the visual estimation of the enemy on the opposite side, at least one or two thousand died under the sword, arrow and artillery stone, and the wounded were countless.After all, they used to be ordinary people, and they were driven to the city by Kong Yanzhou to fight, but they were still not as good as regular troops.Even the captive soldiers who couldn't be more rotten.

"Yes!"

Immediately, more than 1000 archers advanced several hundred steps forward, shooting up the rain of arrows, and covering the attacking troops to withdraw step by step.

On the city wall, more than a hundred Qichun people who were turning down the long ladders with poles were shot into hedgehogs.

In a blink of an eye, the shouts and screams gradually subsided.In the evening light, there are shocking black traces on the sandstone city walls, which are human blood.

Although it was easy to say verbally, Wang Shen couldn't help feeling suspicious.The tactics of the Kong Yan Zhou army today are remarkable, and the defense equipment is also full of tricks, so someone must have pointed it out.

This is difficult.

Should I send elites to take the lead?

(End of this chapter)