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

Chapter 502 Attack
On the morning of the next day, a desolate trumpet sound was heard in Huizhou City, and then as if a torrent started, flags were waved, people shouted and horses neighed, swords and guns were dazzling, and a large group of Xixia soldiers rushed out of the city.

Li Yanxian stood on the arrow tower, holding the telescope tube in both hands and looking into the distance. He did not have such a clairvoyant object, but Zhao Tong lent him his own.

There are more than a dozen arrow towers in the camp, all of which are fixed in position. Although this kind of arrow tower cannot be moved to avoid attacks, fortunately it can be built stronger and wider.

These dozen arrow towers are at least one foot square in thickness. The main tower in the middle is even nearly two feet long and wide. It is thick and strong and looks more majestic than the real tower.

At the top of the arrow tower is the tower, which has four beams and eight columns, and is covered. It is made of thick logs and will not be easily damaged even if it is hit by flying cannons.

Li Yanxian was standing on the top of the main tower, surrounded by a spacious house, with shield piles covering the front. Rows of soldiers holding bows and arrows stared outside the camp, and there were two light ballistas placed among the soldiers.

There are flag soldiers behind and on both sides of him. Even if there are people on top, orders can be transmitted accurately through flag language.

At this time, he couldn't help but take a deep breath. Although he had boasted about Haikou before, saying that he would definitely be able to block today's wave of attacks, after all, he had few soldiers. Zhao Tong only gave him 500 men, and [-] men were against tens of thousands. , even though there were dense fortifications in front of the camp, he felt huge pressure and still felt nervous in his heart.

At this time, the shouts of killing from the front gradually approached, and you could see clearly even without a telescope. The densely packed Xixia soldiers rushed over like ants. At the head were the cavalry, which numbered at least five or six thousand, followed by the cavalry behind them. The infantry, with no end in sight, seemed endless.

The cavalry suddenly dispersed before they could reach an arrow. The infantry pushed the shield cart forward, followed by the short sword and shield soldiers, and then the archers, broadsword and spear soldiers followed closely behind.

Li Yanxian's eyelids twitched when he saw this, and a stern look appeared on his face. Although there were many people in Xixia, there was no shortage of arrows and weapons on his side. As long as the offensive could keep up, it was not impossible to stop the opponent.

Watching the shield chariot soldiers about to reach the first trench, Li Yanxian stretched out his hand to take the flag and personally handed down the order. He saw a sudden "swish, swish" sound in the camp below, and countless arrows flew out quickly, covering the clouds in an instant. The sun was blocked, and almost half of the sky was dark.

These arrows were so dense that they were shot almost indiscriminately without any aiming after leaving the camp. Although the shield chariot soldiers in the head could hide behind the chariot, they could dodge the direct arrows, while the projectile arrows still had to be swung. Fighting, especially the cavalry transformed into two wings, were also covered within the attack range.

But this situation only lasted for less than a quarter of an hour. The Xixia army's formation changed. The cavalry began to retreat, and the shield and short sword soldiers came up. These soldiers did not need to push the vehicles, but just kept approaching from both sides. Li Yanxian immediately moved forward again. The second order was to hit with flying cannons and stones.

This flying cannon cannot hit close. The cannon carriage has a lever that determines how far the stone will fly. There are no short-barreled cannon carriages in the army, but anything fired can get close to the arrow site.

Just watch the bluestones flying in the sky and smashing into the Xixia army. This wave was stronger than the arrow rain just now, and the Xixia soldiers fell to the ground immediately.

Xixia also had artillery carts, but they were kept at the rear because the artillery carts had to use stones as ammunition. The stones were heavy and needed to be pulled by carriages, so they couldn't go in front, so they suffered some losses.

But there is nothing that can be done about it. Generally speaking, flying cannons are only suitable for defending or attacking cities, and are not suitable for mobile attacks. The reason is that stones are difficult to carry. Cannons stationed attacks are okay, but they do not have mobile raids. mobility.

After the two waves of defense were over, Li Yanxian ordered the soldiers to rest for a while, and the Xixia army took the opportunity to rush to the edge of the first trench.

This first trench was dug extremely wide, and there were wooden thorns, fallen stakes, thorns and other objects underneath. No matter whether people or horses fell in, they would not be safe.

The latter ones are irregularly narrow and wide. This is designed to block the attack of cavalry, prevent the opponent from easily building planks, and prevent some well-trained war horses from simply crossing over.

The soldiers in the Xixia army stopped when they reached the trench. The formation at the rear changed again. The engineers began to carry wooden boards and stakes forward. The artillery car also slowly followed at this time, intending to cover the engineers to build the bridge.

Seeing this, Li Yanxian raised his flag at the top of the arrow tower, and immediately countless migratory locusts and rocks flew out of the camp again.

At this moment, the Xixia side began to station and formally attack. Arrows were also flying randomly, and stones were hitting the camp.The current camp was not simply surrounded by a wooden fence. The soil dug from the trenches was compacted and piled along the fence, wrapping the camp like a small earthen city.

Behind the arrow tower of the camp, there was even a hill built out of the remaining soil from the dug trench. Although it was not as high as the arrow tower, you could still see the scene outside the camp from this hill.

Zhao Tong was sitting on top of the mountain at the moment, watching the scene outside with an expressionless face.

The opponent's stone cannons had already smashed into the camp, several arrow towers were damaged, and the soldiers began to suffer casualties.

However, the counterattack commanded by Li Yanxian was even more fierce. In almost an instant, arrows, flying stones, and crossbows started to move together, and they were simply fired away without regard to loss.

Although Xixia had more troops, they did not have a better response strategy in this situation. After all, they had to focus on destroying the fortifications in front of the camp and were unable to fight back wholeheartedly. For a while, the two sides fell into a long-range stalemate.

Zhao Tong was sitting on a small hill, with Bai Ba and Bai Zhan behind him. He picked up the tea bowl next to him and took a sip. He shook his head and said, "If we can't win Huizhou this time, we will suffer huge losses."

Bai Ba said: "Sir, didn't Zhang Xiaolang say that he can practice the formation completely in one day today, so that he can easily defeat the enemy tomorrow?"

Zhao Tong sneered: "What he said is simple. I'm just giving it a try. As for success or failure, it's only a [-]-[-] number."

Bai Zhan said: "Sir, I think it can be done."

Zhao Tong asked in confusion: "Where did you expect it to happen?"

Bai Zhan scratched his head: "Young Master has always tried his best. If he was really unsure, he would have withdrawn his troops long ago. Why would he still be delayed here..."

The corner of Zhao Tong's mouth twitched, and he shook his head and said: "That may have been the case in the past, but it is not the case this time. After all, the formation was controlled by Zhang Xian. I don't know how powerful it is. I just saw him asking for a tassel, and I thought it would be a good idea to give it a try. Otherwise, everything would be wrong." I am cautious and sincere, but my subordinates cannot be trained, so I will just take a gamble."

Just as he finished speaking, a large stone fell at the foot of Xiaotu Mountain, making a loud "bang" sound.

Bai Ba's expression immediately changed: "My lord, you'd better go to the rear camp and rest."

Zhao Tong shook his head and said, "Don't make such a fuss, just keep watching."

As time passed little by little, although the shouts of killing continued outside the camp, they never came closer.

There were still stones and even flying feathers falling at the foot of the small mountain, but that was it, no further progress was made.

In the afternoon, there was a fierce attack outside, which lasted for about half an hour, but the opponent did not cross the dozens of trenches and fight to the front of the camp.

By evening, the Xixia army had ceased its activities and slowly retreated into Huizhou City. They attacked in one day but did not break the camp.

(End of this chapter)