Song Dynasty Cannon Fodder Counterattack Record

Chapter 281 Earth Walls and Ditches

Since the founding of the Liao Kingdom, because the territory is too large and there are too many remote places, rebellions have occurred from time to time, and the monarchs and ministers of the Liao Kingdom have become accustomed to it.But this rebellion in Suzhou really surprised everyone.

They were not surprised that the remote town of Suzhou was taken down by rebels - this was a common thing in the past, after all, the territory of Liao Kingdom is too large, there are only three million men of service age, and it is difficult to recruit all of them. There are enough troops to ensure control of some tribal areas - the real surprise is that this time the Bohai tribe and the Song pirates have joined forces, and the Song pirates also have a very powerful weapon in their hands.

The ability of the Bohai tribe and the pirates of the Song Dynasty to join forces is a bit strong. Yeluda really led 4000 people to counter the rebellion, and they were defeated in the first battle.Although more than 1000 people escaped in the end, they lost their horses, weapons and armor because they fled over the mountains.

The defenders of Ningzhou easily recaptured Fuzhou five days later when they heard the news that Fuzhou had been captured by pirates. However, they were lured into the narrow road in the forest by the pirates, and were attacked by several weapons that could emit a huge roar. The blow caused hundreds of casualties, and the soldiers were all frightened by it, so they had to retreat to Huizhou.Unexpectedly, the pirates of the Song Dynasty and the cavalry of the Bohai Tribe chased down to the city of Fuzhou that night, and destroyed the south gate of Fuzhou with the earth-shattering roar by using demon methods.Now the reinforcements in Ningzhou had no fighting spirit, and they ran for their lives, and were hunted down and fled all the way back to Ningzhou.Unexpectedly, the coalition forces of the pirates and the Bohai tribe chased Ningzhou city from the sea again, and threw a large number of gourds that could burst, injure people and set fire to the city. Unable to hold on, the defenders abandoned the city and fled.Then, the coalition forces of pirates and Bohai tribes abducted thousands of people from Ningzhou, and relocated all the people in Fuzhou, making Fuzhou an empty city.

Gaizhou, Fuzhou, and Ningzhou, placed in the densely populated areas of the Song Dynasty, could barely be regarded as towns, or even larger villages, but they were great fulcrums in the sparsely populated Liao Kingdom at that time. .Without these three towns, the Liao Kingdom lost control of the Liaodong Peninsula.Although the Liaodong Peninsula is still a desolate place at this time, it is still a large area, so it is necessary to regain these three states and put down the rebellion.

However, in view of the powerful weapons in the hands of the Song people, the Liao Kingdom stayed behind in Tokyo and decided to send [-] troops to quell the rebellion for the sake of caution.

3 troops is not a small number. Although Liao's military system determines the efficiency of its war mobilization, it will take ten days and half a month to gather [-] troops.Furthermore, in view of the powerful weapons of the Song people, the Liao army must prepare enough food to fight in the Liaodong Peninsula, which is sparsely populated and has little arable land.Although the summer grain has just been levied, it is still necessary to collect carts to transport the grain.So, when the [-] troops set off from Tokyo, Haizhou, and Tiezhou respectively, nearly a month had passed.

What they didn't expect was that during this month, 1 warriors from Tamna Island had arrived in Suzhou with 2000 primitive matchlock guns, [-] muzzle guns, and [-] kilograms of primitive granular gunpowder. , Tao Lin also urgently recruited more than [-] strong men from Shandong and Hebei, and the strength of Tao Lin's troops has doubled.

Due to the terrain restrictions of the Liaodong Peninsula, after passing Chenzhou, the army could only march along the narrow flat land about ten miles between the seaside and the mountains, forming a long snake formation.This situation is not conducive to the deployment of the Liao army, but it is conducive to the harassment and interception of the rebels and Song pirates. In addition, the roads and bridges have been destroyed. The 3 people stop and go, but they cannot get up quickly.

When the Liao army arrived at the foot of Suzhou City in mid-October after overcoming difficulties including the Song pirates landing from behind and burning the convoy, they were surprised to find that in the narrowest place in the Liaodong Peninsula, from the foot of Suzhou City to the other side In one direction, there appeared a large ditch more than one foot deep and more than one foot wide on the seashore.There are deer villages all over the edge of the ditch. In addition to water, there are sharpened wooden stakes and bamboo thorns in the big ditch.All the soil and rocks excavated from this big ditch were piled up on the south side of the ditch, forming a high earth wall with an arrow tower on the earth wall.When the forward of the Liao army arrived at the north side of the ditch, they could still see someone carrying stones on top of the earthen wall to build the abutment.

For the Liao army, which is not good at attacking cities, how to break through this big ditch is a difficult problem.But it’s not enough to attack as soon as possible. Once winter has come, the morale of the city will be greatly affected by the sudden reinforcement of the troops; moreover, the pirates of the Song Dynasty continue to land behind the army, cutting off the food roads and destroying the roads. Lost, but panic-stricken.

So on October 3000th, 300 Liao troops launched an offensive on a front with a total length of five to six kilometers.The result was very sad, because the front line was only five or six kilometers in total, and the Liao army could not take advantage of the large number of people, let alone the advantage of the fast penetration of cavalry, so they could only be tough.The Liao army lost more than [-] people in only three hours of fighting. Although they once broke through the earth wall, no one dared to say that this was not a trap, because the Liao army who rushed up the earth wall was sprayed in the middle of Africa like the Song people. The weapons of death and injury were unable to expand the breakthrough, and more than [-] people who rushed to the south of the earth wall were hacked and killed by the cavalry, and most of them did not escape.

The general of the Liao army lost confidence in breaking through the line of defense formed by the trench and the earthen wall in the short term, and wrote a letter to report to Tokyo staying behind. What he did not expect was that the messenger he sent encountered the Song people who landed from behind the Liao army on the road. In an ambush, his letter was also in Tao Lin's hands.

In this letter, it can be seen that the Liao general has a deep understanding of the strength of this line of defense, saying that this ten-mile-long earthen wall is well-defended and covered with various weapons, and there are not enough offensive forces. City equipment can't attack at all.

According to his description, before the attacking troops approached the earth wall, they would be hit by javelins fired by ballistas and stones fired by trebuchets, and then hit by a wave of strong crossbows before the Liao army could enter the range of bows and arrows.However, the Song people not only wore armor and shields, but also used movable wooden frames to hang raw cowhide. Bows and arrows had no lethality against such a complete defense.Instead, it was the Song people who fired with firecrackers, causing heavy casualties to the Liao army.Especially the kind of big fire gun that can make a huge roar, a dozen will be a large piece of lead, and it is difficult to keep a whole body of the one that is swept.

Soldiers of the Liao army used ladders to go down to the bottom of the ditch, and the Song people on the earth wall would throw ash bottles and kerosene into the ditch, but these were relatively nothing compared to the "gourd bombs" thrown by the Song people. up.This kind of gourd bomb is made of dry gourds filled with gunpowder and small iron pellets, ignited and thrown, and the gunpowder explodes and the iron pellets fly around. In addition to direct killing and wounding, the psychological shock is even more serious. The Liao army attacked in several areas. It completely collapsed under the bombardment of gourd bombs.

This kind of "gourd bomb" is so powerful that the soldiers of the Liao army naturally paid serious attention.Many of these "gourd bombs" could not explode, and they were picked up by soldiers of the Liao army. Some people wanted to use cloth or grass as a fuze and throw them back to bomb the Song people.But the effect is very poor, because it is impossible to grasp the burning time of the fuze, and some people often blow themselves up.

But at the beginning, the Liao general thought he had the upper hand. The entire trench was more than ten miles long. It seemed that the Song people did not have enough troops to defend each section of the earth wall. The north-facing side of the earth wall was also sloped and easy to climb. There is no chance.Therefore, the Liao army still had a chance to attack the earth wall despite heavy casualties, but attacking the earth wall did not mean breaking the enemy's defense line.The Song people would stick to both sides of the breakthrough, and use firecrackers and strong crossbows to prevent the Liao army from expanding the breakthrough to both sides.On the narrow wall, the dense firecrackers are the iron brooms for harvesting life, and the two layers of armor of the Liao army will be pierced by the close-range bombardment of the firecrackers.It was only after paying a heavy price that the Liao army realized that it was impossible to break through from the earth wall to both sides.

Facts have proved that it is not a good idea to cross the earth wall and rush directly behind the earth wall, because there is a brave cavalry behind the earth wall.When the Liao army crossed the earthen wall, it would repeat the tragedy of infantry against cavalry. The Khitan obviously did not have the experience of the Song army's rigorous formation and heavy armored infantry against cavalry. .

The straight-line width of the entire line of defense is only a little over five kilometers, which is within a blink of an eye for the cavalry.So even if the rebels had only a few hundred cavalry, it would be an insoluble problem for the attackers.

Considering all kinds of difficulties, the Liao general asked the rear to send more food and grass, so that he could have time to build siege equipment and attack slowly.But Tao Lin learned that the Liao army was short of food, so it was naturally impossible for the food to be delivered to them easily. People who kept landing from all over the rear of the Liao army destroyed the only way for the Liao army to transport food.A few days later, the Liao army was irretrievably short of food, so they had to withdraw their camp and return to the north. They were intercepted and killed by Song people and chased by tribal cavalry along the way, causing heavy losses.

After that, it entered winter.This season, no one wants to fight in the Liaodong Peninsula, where the rabbits don’t shit and supplies are difficult. Naturally, the Liao Kingdom’s conquest of the rebels can only be postponed until the next year.Tao Lin won another winter's rectification time.

The Liaodong Peninsula was fiercely fought, but the Song Dynasty did not respond at all, because at this time the attention of the Song Dynasty court was attracted by one thing.

(End of this chapter)