Dawn of the Empire

Chapter 65 The Abandoned Sea (4)

On the ninth day of February, the north wind blew strongly all night, and the weather seemed to suddenly become a lot colder. The Yellow River water that had just thawed seemed to be freezing again.On February [-]th, except for the four that were blasted during the attack on Gaoyang Pass, all the eleven [-]-jin cannons of the Liao soldiers were moved into the fortress, and they bombarded Hejian City almost day and night.On February [-]th, Han Shizhong led the second army in the north of Zhenbei to attack from the back of the city, and attacked the Liao artillery barracks to the west, planning to destroy the giant artillery of the Liao people with thunderstorms.

Wang Yan allowed the Zhenbei Second Army to choose armor and weapons from the armory.The iron barrel guns at the top of Hejian City were inconvenient to move, and their shooting range was not as good as the Liao soldiers' giant cannons. Wang Yan ordered the bed crossbows in the supply camp to be moved as much as possible to the west wall to suppress the Liao people.The Song Army's bed crossbow's shooting range can reach 750 steps, which can just extend to the Liao Army's artillery barracks, covering the battle route of Han Shizhong's troops all the way.The Song Dynasty also had bed crossbows with a range of a thousand steps, but it was a pity that they were only available in the city defense of Bianjing, and the outer towns were not allowed to violate the regulations.

For the dispatch of the marching Sima Wang Yan, all deployed Tong Guandu to approve it.He seems to have great expectations for Han Shizhong, who is known for his bravery. Such a sensational giant cannon may be worth close to ten thousand guan. If it can be destroyed, the Liao soldiers will not be able to take it away after the war. The officials flaunted their military feats. I am afraid that the housekeeper will not care about the guilt of the collapse of the Hebei camp.

The next day just after dawn, Zhao Xingde went to the city to watch the battle with all the generals.

The infantry of the Song Army were all in armor, and the fifty-jin infantry armor was the heaviest. The spears, knives, shields, and hands of the trapped camp were all wrapped in the armor, and only two of them were exposed under the pockets with masks. Eyes, [-] troops passed through the streets of the city and filed out from the west gate to form an array, and the armor plates made a neat clanging sound.The people in Hejian City sent these warriors out of the city with awe-inspiring eyes. The Liao people's bombardment yesterday evening made everyone worry. This army with the best equipment in the city has more or less placed great hopes on people.

After the infantry formation was completed, four thousand cavalry slowly passed through the city gate and formed a cavalry formation on the left and right of the infantry formation.The regular cavalry of the Song Army was similar to the Tielin Army of the Liao State. Most of them were heavily armored, but when the Hejian camp collapsed, most of the armor was discarded, and there was no horse armor in the city. It is a real heavy armored cavalry, and the other two thousand cavalry are only armored by cavalry, and the horses can only wear thick sackcloth to avoid arrows.

Not far away, the Liao people had already noticed that the Song army who had left the city had also set up an army formation in front of the artillery barracks, and the same cavalry lined up on two wings.Between the two tributaries of the Yellow River flowing into the sea, there is not much room for horses to gallop, and both armies deployed cavalry to protect their flanks. In this way, there was no room for roundabout sneak attacks, and they could only fight head-to-head. .The distance between the Song and Liao armies in front of the formation was no more than two hundred steps.

Han Shizhong looked back at the flag on the tower, and ordered in a deep voice with no expression on his face: "Twenty steps forward." He took twenty steps forward, and then stopped. At the same time, the two-winged cavalry also slowly urged the horses, maintaining coordination with the cavalry.

Seeing that Han Shizhong had adjusted the rapidly expanded Zhenbei Second Army so neatly in a short period of time, Wang Yan nodded secretly, "Orders and prohibitions are like the style of ancient famous generals." Shen Sheng ordered: "Fire crossbow arrows!" Soldiers of the Song army raised their hammers to knock on the machine teeth, only to hear dozens of sounds, and hundreds of bed crossbow arrows were shot out. There was chaos in the Liao army camp opposite, and many soldiers raised their shields in a panic. To dodge, but the bed crossbow made of pure iron is as thick as an arm, how can manpower be able to stop it, I saw that more than [-] paces away, 'shot' at the cavalry, penetrated the heavy armor, turned people on their backs, 'shot' When the infantry raised their shields, the shields shattered, and more than a dozen shots hit the artillery barracks of the Liao soldiers, hitting the huge shield with a huge momentum, and their tail wings kept shaking.

The bed crossbows of the Song army fired back and forth without stopping for a moment, and the iron barrel guns at the head of the city also fired at the forwards of the Liao soldiers outside Lixu.The Liao army did not show weakness. More than a dozen huge iron barrel guns opened fire one after another, and more than a hundred small iron barrel guns also bombarded the city. The marble bed crossbow arrows fly randomly.

This battle is of great importance. Even if a thousand catties of stone bullets fly over the head from time to time, every time the city wall is hit, there will be a sense of shaking. Inside, no one went down to hide.

Zhao Xingde's official rank was low, and he didn't have a telescope to use. He could only watch the Song army marching slowly from a distance. The arc fell into the crowd of Liao soldiers and horses. The bows and arrows of the Liao people were weak, and the time for firing the iron barrel cannon was extremely long. Just now, a round of stone bullets was fired at the city's hair until The vanguard and the Song army fought together, and few stone bullets hit the Song army's cavalry formation. Zhao Xingde secretly called it a fluke, but he didn't know that the artillery used by the Liao army was very troublesome to adjust the elevation angle, and it would take a long time. They are for siege, not for field battles.

After the Song and Liao armies fought together, the Zhenbei Army immediately rushed the Liao people's formation into a depression. Most of the Liao army used Han people from Youyan and other lower clans as infantry. The cavalry originally wanted to break through the Song people's formation. After the horse formation on the two wings of the Song Army, they roundabout outflanked the central formation of the Song Army. The Song Army's two wings of more than [-] cavalry all fought to the death, and even slowly rushed in with the infantry.

Seeing that the Song army's forward was getting closer and closer to the Liao people's artillery barracks, Zhao Xingde's tightly clenched fists were already sweating.

"Kill!" "Kill forward!" Bi Sheng, the commander of the Zhenbei Third Army next to him, couldn't hold back anymore, and waved his hands loudly.All deployed Tong Guan and rarely reprimanded him, while Feng Mei of the Zhenbei Fourth Army secretly regretted why he hadn't invited Ying to fight. Such a huge firearm must be dedicated to the Holy One. Jane is in the heart of the emperor!

"It is said that the southerners are cowardly, but now it seems that they are as brave as my Khitan athletes." Xiao Dabu, the commander of the Liao Army, also saw with his own eyes several wounded soldiers of the Song Dynasty holding on to the horseshoes trampled from the side. , and the Liao army who rushed into the Song Dynasty's central army was often like falling into a flesh and blood mill, and they couldn't get out after entering.He shook his head, "It's a pity..." He turned his head and ordered: "The Iron Wall Battalion goes out to intercept the Song army."

The military order was like a mountain, and with the sound of chains clanging, Xu Ding stood up vigorously. He was six feet three inches tall, and his torso with broad arms and round waist was wrapped in iron armor, like an iron tower. There was another elite soldier like this in Liaodong. The name resounding in all directions, "Iron Buddha".An iron chain made of fine iron was tied around Xu Ding's waist, and connected to two equally tall soldiers on the left and right. A group of five walked with well-trained steps, pounding, pounding, like a copper wall and an iron wall.

Xu Ding stared viciously at the Khitan soldiers five feet away.If it wasn't for the restriction of the iron chain around his waist that prevented him from walking two feet away alone, even if he died, he would have to use the heavy ax in his hand to split these condescending Khitans into two pieces, both man and horse.

Khitan prides itself on riding and shooting, and the tribesmen did not want to be lowly infantry, so they selected tall and strong captives from the defeated Five Kingdoms, Jurchen, Han and other tribes to form an iron wall battalion. Commanded by military officers of the Xi clan.Most of the soldiers in the Iron Wall Camp were slaves.The ancestor of the Xu family was the general of Han Chang who died in the battle of Duanax Mountain. After the defeat, he gathered in the mountains and forests and became an enemy of the Liao court.Xu Ding was captured because of a sneak attack by the Liao army, and was selected into the Iron Wall Camp because of his tall body and extraordinary physical strength. The other hundred people who were captured together were quartered by the Liao people.

"I just want to kill the Khitan people." Xie Ye, a captive from the tribes of the Five Kingdoms, scolded. "I want to too." Xu Ding gritted his teeth. "I also want to kill the Khitan people." Zhang Zhou, another prisoner, said.The Khitan cavalry standing in front of the Iron Wall Battalion slowly dispersed to both sides, and the infantry of the Song Army rushed to the front, but the soldiers of the Iron Wall Camp who were connected by iron chains hardly moved at all.The swords of the soldiers of the Song Army couldn't pierce the heavy armor of Tiefutu, and the ping-pong-pong of Pu Dao's long spear hit Xu Ding's armor without blinking his eyes. "Swipe!" Following the military order behind him, Tiefutu in the front row raised his weapon, heavy axe, sword, and mace at the same time, and just this one move forced Song Jun in front of him back half a step. "Kill! The Hercules swung his blade, and blood and flesh flew across the front of the formation.

Looking from the top of the city, Zhao Xingde saw a dazzling and reflective copper wall and iron wall suddenly appeared in the rear of the Liao army. With the sword swung, the infantry of the Song army could no longer move forward. Arrows were released in the center, causing heavy casualties to the Song army, and they began to retreat steadily.Fortunately, Han Shizhong managed the army well. Although the Second Army in Zhenbei was defeated but not in chaos, it slowly retreated to the city gate. The giant cannons of gunpowder and stone bombs bombarded even harder.

Han Shizhong was invincible in a hard battle, and was wounded more than ten times. After bleeding and fainting, he was carried back by his generals.All the generals looked at each other in blank dismay, no one volunteered to destroy the artillery barracks of the Liao army, and they all deployed Tong Guan with a pale face. That night, the Liao Kingdom sent another envoy to send a letter of persuasion.At the same time, more than 2000 heads of Hebei soldiers were used to build a Jingguan next to the artillery fortress.