Dawn of the Empire

Chapter 64 The Abandoned Sea (3)

"During the Lantern Festival, the two sides of Bianjing Imperial Street are the busiest time. It's a pity that my good friend, I don't know which scoundrel is entangled." Mentioning the Lantern Festival not long ago, Su Wenyu had a longing look on his face ’, paused, and laughed again, “Fuhai Bookstore’s ‘The Hidden Snow Fairy’ has been discontinued at the 25th volume, and it hasn’t been updated when it came out. I don’t know if anyone will see it. What a supernatural power to reach the ninth heaven." He half-jokingly said to his friend Ouyang Shan beside him, "If anything happens, burn the sequel to me."

Ouyang Shan replied: "Then the 'bald pen man' will not be the same as our commander." All the horse archers laughed together. Respectful, but also able to observe words and expressions, knowing that Wang Yan is not Tong Guan's confidant, but the two of them have a faint tendency to check and balance, so there is no taboo to joke around.After laughing for a while, a man named Wu Jian said, "The Khitan dogs outside the city haven't moved much for so many days. Could it be that they ran out after looting enough?"

Zhao Xingde moved the charcoal fire with a stick in his hand, and the darkened coal burned up again, reflecting the warmth and brightness in the cave, and the young faces around the stove were full of hope.After witnessing the bloody war with his own eyes, no one does not miss the peaceful years.The Liao people besieged and did not attack, and only focused on looting in the countryside, which made many people feel lucky. This time, the Liao soldiers may have just plundered as they did in previous years when they raided Caogu, but the scale was much larger.As time went by, the soldiers and civilians in Hejian City were not as nervous as they were when they first entered the city.

Wang Yan recalled the first business trip in Jinyan Mansion, when he went to the Liao Kingdom to contact Han'er for rebellion, five robes went out of the fortress, and only he came back alone.His throat moved, and he didn't say anything to reprimand these young people for not wanting to kill the enemy and coveting comfort, but he said lightly: "But there is a Liao dog on the ground of Song Dynasty, and he will swear against us."

Everyone fell silent. This day is the fifth day of February. A round of moon hangs high in the sky, illuminating the land of Hebei. Compared with the millions of displaced people living in fear in the countryside of Hebei, the city of Hejian There are more than [-] soldiers and civilians in China, and there is still a little solid, even a little bit of extravagant hope.

"When this military disaster is over, I'll go back and find my mother-in-law." Liu Mazi from Xian County huddled beside a pile of rocks under the city wall, resting his head on the rocks, and murmured while looking at the sky full of stars. "I don't know if the old house at home was burned down by the damn Khitan people. The land deeds are buried in the ground, so it should be fine." Zhu Juren from Baozhou secretly pulled more than a dozen pieces of hay on himself, and fell asleep all over the room. A dozen country gentlemen who had fled had to sleep at night with hay on their bodies to keep out the cold.He really has never suffered such a serious crime in his life, "I heard that Zhao Canjun who is next to Wang Sima is the number one imperial scholar handpicked by the sage. If there is a chance, I would like to get to know him. This is a big disaster Immortal, the ancestors of the Zhu family, bless me as a Jinshi in high school." Zhu said with a faint smile and fell asleep drowsily.Also to keep out the cold, the tenant farmer Wang Shisan buried his whole body in the dry sand and snored. In the dream, his son was still calling him father, and Wang Shisan burst into tears.

A fish-belly white appeared in the east, and dawn broke. Meng Ping, the guard at the top of the city, rubbed his hands and feet that had been frozen all night, and took a look at the Liao people's camp. Suddenly, his eyes widened and his tongue was open. Pointing to the distance, he shouted: "Iron barrel cannon, such a big iron barrel cannon!"

"What are you yelling about!" Gao Ze, the head of Zhenbei Army, came out of the battle shed with his head down. He followed Meng Ping's gaze and looked out of the city, and was speechless immediately.

Two miles away from the city wall, a huge iron barrel cannon had been placed in the empty barracks originally built by the Liao army.Everyone is familiar with artillery, and there is one in the war shed where Gao Ze is, but the one installed by the Liao people is really too big, almost as huge as the pillars of the main hall of the temple.The cavalry of the Liao Kingdom, which used to be scattered in the past, had already lined up in two ten thousand troops, monitoring the movement of the Song Army in Hejian City outside the artillery fortress.

Farther away, four or five iron barrel guns were being transported, each of which had a huge gun cart driven by nearly a hundred oxen and horses. Around each giant gun, the Han army surrounded by thousands of gun camps was busy, In addition to controlling the cattle and horses, it is necessary to ram the earth from time to time to strengthen the road, fill the potholes, and prevent the dozens of huge cast iron wheels of the cannon cart from sinking into the mud.In addition, there are countless carriages carrying explosives, cannons, cleaning tools and other things.

The giant artillery of the Liao people advanced extremely slowly, but whether it was the tens of thousands of gun battalion Han troops who were constantly busy in the fortresses and sports cars, or the [-] fine cavalry arrays watching the guards, they were still moving slowly. The giant cannons themselves carried an unstoppable momentum to crush everything, bringing an indescribable sense of oppression to the Song army at the top of the city.

Even the deployment of Tong Guan was alarmed. He took many of his staff and scribes to the tower to look at the enemy's situation, and he was stunned. "This...the Liao people are too barbaric, reckless, simply reckless, rude, how can an iron barrel cannon be cast so huge, if such a huge thing can be fired, wouldn't it shake the earth and shake the mountains? "

"According to common sense, as long as there is enough copper and iron, no matter how big an iron barrel cannon can be made, it's just that it's inconvenient to transport." Zhou Dingchen, the secretary in charge, explained. Secretly said, "Even if there are so many horses in this dynasty, it is more beneficial to form cavalry."

Tong Guan has been looking at the binoculars, and seems to have completely ignored Zhou Dingchen's explanation. He watched the giant cannons of the Liao people slowly moving towards the already built artillery fortress. He could hardly believe his eyes, and only murmured: "Iron bucket How can a cannon be made so huge? This... The wheel is taller than a horse, and the muzzle is bigger than a millstone. Can a cannon be fired? How is this possible? Absolutely impossible! I, the richest man in the Song Dynasty, have never cast something like this Huge artillery...impossible."

All the generals on the tower looked stern. Wang Yan, the marching commander, and Han Shizhong, the commander of the Zhenbei Second Army, repeatedly observed the Liao army's cannons, and finally understood the reason why the Liao people did not move these days. Waiting for these sharp weapons to attack the city, Wang Yan even used binoculars to see the confident and arrogant expression of the Liao general, and the Liao cavalry in formation showed a relaxed expression and made curse gestures at the tower.

In the evening, Yelu Dashi answered Tong Guan's question in his own way.

"No matter what else, let the three artillery pieces prepared in the artillery barracks fire to deter the enemy!" Yelu Dashi put down the binoculars, which was a warning, and then he would ask the Han army to send another letter of persuasion to Hejian City. Doesn't Yan like to cut off people's ears? Let him do it.China's ancestral temple artifacts were moved to Shangjing as early as the Five Dynasties. The Great Khitan was a state of etiquette. These Song people often regarded themselves as a kingdom of heaven and regarded Khitan as a barbarian. It was time to use cannons to wake them up.

"Ready" Following the military order of the gunner of the Han army camp, "ignite!" The gunner with a torch ignited the artillery that had already been aimed at the tower.

"boom!"

"boom!"

"boom!"

Three loud noises shattered the luck of all the soldiers and civilians in Hejian City.A stone bullet weighing more than a thousand catties was thrown out by the giant cannon. One stone bullet deviated from the direction, and the amount of ammunition seemed insufficient. It rubbed against the east wall of the city and fell outside the city, smashing the soft ground. There was a big hole a few feet deep.Yelu Dashi frowned slightly, and the artillery commander of the Han army battalion who was in charge of adjusting the direction of the muzzle was immediately taken down, and after a few breaths, the bloody head hung out.

The other two stone bombs landed in the city one by one, smashing down several houses and injuring more than a dozen people.

A bomb hit the city wall, accompanied by a huge roar, the soldiers on the top of the city couldn't stand firmly, and they covered their ears and hid under the crenel.The stone bomb smashed the bricks covered on the outside of the Hejian city wall into powder, and then smashed the rammed earth inside to create deep holes. The crooked cracks on the masonry wall several feet long spread from the bomb crater, which was shocking. .

"The so-called one who knows the current affairs is a hero. If you don't return, all the guns will be fired, and the whole city of Hejian will be reduced to ashes, and all jade and stone will be burned!"

Hearing Zhou Dingchen finish reading the persuasion letter brought by the Liao envoy, Tong Guan murmured with no expression on his face: "What should I do? What should I do?"

Marching Wang Yan said in a deep voice: "The Liao people have powerful firearms. We can't sit still and wait for death. We have to destroy their firearms first." The army is tenacious and good at fighting hard. Usually when fighting with the Liao Kingdom, I am afraid that other cavalry will not come to meet the battle, and they will just blindly harass them. They will only attack when our army is exhausted. This time, the Liao Kingdom has used this inconvenient firearm But it is something that must be defended. In this way, the Liao army gained the advantage of firearms, but lost the advantage of the swiftness and erratic cavalry. If we invite the Liao army to fight against the Liao army's artillery barracks, the Liao people will have to give up the erratic cavalry Come and fight with our army!"

All the generals' eyes lit up when they heard his words.Speaking of it, the Song army emphasized fighting in formation, and was not afraid of fighting the Liao people, but the Liao army often would not simply fight the Song army, but harassed and attacked everywhere. Win by surprise.Now the Liao people have something they must protect, the giant cannon moves slower than a snail, as long as the Song army in the city attacks, the Liao soldiers will have to accept the invitation to fight, it is really a good opportunity.

While the generals were muttering to themselves, Han Shizhong said loudly: "Commander, I am willing to lead the army out to destroy the firearms of the Liao soldiers!" The Second Army took over the defeated army, and now there are more than 4000 cavalry and more than 8000 infantry.Although the Liao army cannot be defeated, everyone knows that the Liao people are good at attacking but not good at defending. This simple field fortification is even more rudimentary. Han Shizhong expected to slowly meet the enemy with a large formation of infantry and cavalry, destroying the artillery that was only two miles away from the city wall Base, but also somewhat sure.