stubborn thief

Chapter 206 Zhenyuan
In the Ru River Valley to the east of Longshan Mountain in Pingliang Prefecture, there is a strong city named Zhenyuan.

Liu Chengzong took a few book offices and explored the way with Yang Yao, Wei Qian'er and others. Standing on a high mountain, he looked towards Zhenyuan County in the distance. Be strict.

The city is surrounded by mountains in the north and Ru River in the south, across the river valley. There is only one road, entering from the east gate and exiting from the west gate, passing through the city.

The entire city is shaped like a terrain with a high north and a low south.

There are three high walls in the east, west, and north. The wall is more than two feet high. The Ru River and the Pu River in the east of the city meet and flow along the south of the city. The river bed is very low and serves as a natural moat for Zhenyuan City.

In the south of the city there is a gate for water intake, outside the east gate there is an urn city, and the gate of the urn opens to the north; Nankai.

There is also a north gate on the mountain, which leads to the large plateau in the northeast of the city, and there is also an urn city.

There is the Ru River in the south of the city, and there are moats on the east and west sides that draw in the water of the Ru River as moats. The moat is nine feet wide.

From the mountain, you can see that the city is full of irregular streets that are not connected.

Outside the moat, in the southeast, southwest, and northwest, there are three small forts and several piers.

Rather than saying that this is a city, it is better to say that it is a fortress that exists for war.

In the Northern Song Dynasty, this area was an important town for the Ruhe River to defend Xixia. Fan Zhongyan built many fortifications, and later called Zhenyuan Prefecture, where the state government is located.

Fortunately, there is Yang Yao in the team who knows the way. After the Guyuan mutiny, he escaped from the mountains with the team and lost his way for several days. He has already paid the tuition in advance.

Yang Yao pointed to Dayuan Road in the northeast of the city: "The Qingpingyuan Office of the Guyuan Pastoral Supervisor is in this city. In summer and autumn, horses are herded outside."

"Isn't it just for the horses to take this road?" Liu Chengzong said with a smile: "Then attack the city a little later, first block the original road with horse soldiers, and snatch all the horses."

The road in Zhenyuan is not easy to walk. It has to go northwest along the river valley against the Ru River, and the road is winding and winding.

The reason why Liu Chengzong took this road was to supply war horses.

In the early days, because they couldn't afford to support them, the lion camp had mule infantry per capita, and the number of horses was less than one-third of the number of soldiers. Later, the number of people increased, but the number of horses did not increase.

Now that we are going to fight, the imaginary enemy is Cao Wenzhao's Guan Ning Army. The Lion Camp may not have any disadvantages in terms of soldiers, but there is really a shortage of war horses.

What's more, there is such a good horse grazing land in Ningzhou. He wants to go to Guyuan to find the vassal king, the army, and the supervisory office to seek some support in defeating the official army.

Yang Yao said: "Commander, I still can't figure it out. The horses have crossed the Longshan Mountains. There are pastures in the north and south of Guyuan Prefecture. The road to Pingliang Fucheng is much easier than this."

"It's easy to go, can you restrain soldiers in the past?"

Liu Chengzong raised his hand and broke off a tree branch on the top of the hill to sweep the withered grass in front of him, saying: "Now that Yang He has summoned Cao Wenzhao, it is not the right time to plunder Pingliang Prefecture. Let us continue westward. At this time, we will plunder Han Palace, but it will only increase our hatred."

"Then..." Yang Yao choked his words, looked at Wei Qian'er again and again, and then said: "Then Pingliangfu City will not be robbed? Commander, a Hanwangfu, half of Pingliang City!"

"Why are you in a hurry, King Han has the ability to tie four rings on the city wall and walk away."

Liu Chengzong glanced at him: "I can't carry it away. He is just the warehouse ambassador of the Lion Camp. He can grab it whenever he wants. We are facing a big battle right now, so why rush?"

"In other words, can you tie four rings to the city wall and carry it away? Take half of the city, where do you put it, and bring a lot of property, isn't that sending meat to Cao Wenzhao?"

In fact, the luggage they carry now has no place to put it. Money, food, and goods cannot be transported by a luggage post prepared for war.

Even if mules are counted, the transportation capacity of the transportation post is only 90 catties.

But now the Lion Camp has brought 160 million catties of grain alone, not to mention weapons and equipment, and this is not counting the luggage of the Yuzi Camp.

Every time Liu Chengzong thinks about it, his head gets dizzy.

Sun Tzu's Art of War says to fight the enemy with food, but there is a country behind the army. When they burn the food that they can't eat and take away in the enemy's country, they still have enough food when they go back.

The Lion Camp does not have this condition. They burn the food, so they will never be able to consider the long-term, and will always be led by their stomachs to go wherever there is food.

Liu Chengzong swept out a clearing with a branch, and sat on a rock to worry. He needed a base where people would have no worries.

But that's a long-term thing, right now they need to attack the city.

After passing through this city, there are only a few small castles in Longshan, and the westward march to Guyuan is unimpeded.

Secondly, they also need to occupy this city as a transit station for robbing horses and food in Guyuan Prefecture.

Otherwise, the main defense direction of this city is the west. If it is not in your hands, it may not be difficult to go there, but it will be very troublesome to come back.

A mule team of more than ten people has wandered from the valley to the west. It is the Ningzhou rice and grain caravan organized by Yuziying. Tradition.

Liu Xiangyu took advantage of this and organized a team to carry a few stones of millet, firstly to obtain information at close range, to observe the number of fortifications and defenders on the city, and secondly, to try to see if he could arrange soldiers to sneak into the city.

"Did you draw it?"

Liu Chengzong turned his head, and the book office, including Song Shouzhen, was drawing on paper, drawing the outline of Zhenyuan City on the paper.

Liu Chengzong went over to look at them one by one. There were no professional painters in the team, so the effect was not good.

He reminded: "Make the moat wider. You can see that the river is clearly nine feet and ten feet wide. Your line will pass. Can the soldiers raise their legs and cross it?"

"Don't draw the pier of the outer castle? I'll put you there when I start the siege. Can you see if the castle that can't be painted will shoot you with arrows?"

"There are three bends on the east wall, so you just draw a straight line for me?"

The book offices in Lion Camp were all former bandit soldiers, and there were even old Huihui pawns who became book offices after studying at Zhuantianmao Academy. There was basically no painting skills.

Song Shouzhen, who is the most educated among them, was only taught to read by his mother, and did not learn cultural knowledge systematically.

In fact, there is no need to draw pictures for this battle. Liu Chengzong has already visited the city in person, and he is ready to give orders immediately when he returns.

But he didn't want to take the lead in exploring the way all the time, especially in this kind of mountainous and river environment, where the danger of exploring the way was very high.

What's more, in his impression, Huang Wa brother Li Zicheng and Tutu brother Zhang Xianzhong, who had become successful more than ten years later, all died of exploring the road.

So he wants to train a group of courageous pond soldiers, scouts, and book offices who can draw the terrain, so that the future road conditions and information can be seen at a glance.

At least to a certain extent, the number of times to personally explore the enemy's situation can be avoided.

It is one thing to have martial arts on your body, but it is another thing to have martial arts with guns and artillery.

However, among several book offices, he really found a book office that was more suitable for him.

The book office looked to be in his thirties, with a medium build and a solid build, with a pair of slanted eyes, a big beard with high cheekbones, and a face full of flesh.

Just by looking at his appearance, people would believe that he eats children.

But the painting is very serious. Although the skill is a lot worse, I really understand Liu Chengzong's request.

This person drew the mountains, rivers, and even the terraced fields in the mountains with lines, and marked the location of the urn city and the gate tower.

Liu Shizi looked behind him for a long time before asking, "What's your name?"

The book office with a swollen face suddenly heard a voice from behind, and was startled. Even the hairs on his neck stood on end. When he turned around and saw that it was Liu Chengzong, he heaved a sigh of relief with lingering fears, and hurriedly said: "Marshal, the frontier book office Hu Shizhong."

Liu Chengzong pondered: "Hu Shizhong? What did you do before?"

This name is much more serious than [-]. Could it be that he has read books before?

Hu Shizhong got up and said: "Commander, I am from Huanglong County. I was the first to graze cattle. In the second year of the Apocalypse, I failed to pay the food and died in prison. I went to Huanglong Mountain and voted for Ma Guangyu. ran and entered the camp of lions."

"Then your name?"

"Oh, three generations of our family have been herding cattle. I am illiterate, so the landlord's family gave me the cattle."

Liu Chengzong nodded, understood, he said: "Don't be at the outpost, go to the Tang team and Captain Wei, and do this in the future."

Naturally, Hu Shizhong had nothing to say, Yang Yao was standing beside him, and hurriedly said, "Then the commander-in-chief must make up for me another book office."

"I'll make it up for you, look how good this picture is."

Not long after, they returned to the mountain camp twenty miles away from the city. The chief officers of the two battalions surrounded the drawn city defense map and arranged for the siege.

"The weak point of this city is obviously in the south of the city. When the city was built, it was blocked by a big river, but now there is a severe drought, and the water in the river has just reached the calf. The female wall can be jumped over by a child."

Liu Chengzong pointed to the map and said: "The biggest problem in the south is that the river ditch is too deep, and several slopes need to be piled up with soil, and one side must be attacked. There are too many defenders, so it is not easy to capture the city. It is necessary to attack two or even three sides."

Liu Chengzu said: "Then attack the east city together. There are many dead trees in the forest on the mountain. Make wooden curtains for ladder carts, and send a team in the north city to contain them."

Liu Chengzong added: "The cavalry team should also be sent to the west of the city to block its way of spreading letters to the west."

On that day, all the ministries went out in the mountains to cut forests and collect wood.

In the evening, Liu Xiangyu, who had gone deep into the city, returned with a grain sales team.

Bring back data such as the height of the city, the depth of the trench, and the width of the city, as well as the population and number of defenders of Zhenyuan City.

At the same time, Mr. Liu calculated the length of the siege ladder by using Pythagoras to calculate the length of the siege ladder based on the height of the city. He also drew the design of the siege vehicle and the wooden mantle to cover the arrows, and handed it over to the two battalion workers to make it.

In addition, Mr. Liu also discovered that there are more than [-] households in the city, more than [-] people in Dingkou, and more than [-] soldiers from the Qingpingyuan Horse Supervisor.

Yang Yao was very surprised when he heard this: "Grandpa, how come there are so many guards? I remember that there were only more than 500 soldiers in Qingpingyuan. Those who escaped should be only one or two hundred!"

"Jianzheng's surname is Cui is a capable man. He heard that Yang He went to Ningzhou, so he quickly recruited refugees to serve as benefactors." Master Liu took away his cigarette holder and said with a smile: "He even wanted to recruit the old man as benefactors, and told him to eat horses. grain."

Liu Xiangyu's face was ridiculed and ridiculed.

Liu Chengzong felt in his heart that the supervisor was really powerful.

The old man is the kind of person who studies hard in a poor window and gets a high school, and lives a good life, just like an official in the world, even if he is in prison, he eats differently from others.

Father had never eaten horse food.

He ate it, his eldest brother ate it, and everyone who was born in a horse soldier ate it. Even Xiao Shiliu, who was a book boy by his father's side, came to Yuhebao every night to mix some beans with him.

A handful of beans can save a life.

But he didn't say anything, everyone's understanding of the world is different.

He just said: "This prison is not bad. After I go down to the city, I will take him away."

Calculated in this way, the number of defenders that can be assembled in this city is about [-] to [-]. If the En army is out and the horses are captured, the number of defenders during the siege can be minimized.

In general, this force is not enough at all.

That night, Liu Chengzong worked with Shi Chengwo, Lin Wei and others in the work post camp to refine the siege vehicles they were going to make.

When attacking Huojiabao, they made long ladders, but that kind of thing is okay for attacking a small fort, and the main force for attacking the city has to be a siege engine.

Unless it is to increase the width of the siege, directly using long ladders to attack the city is basically cannon fodder, as long as there is a bumper car on the city, it can be knocked down in a row.

The chassis of the siege vehicle is [-] feet long and [-] feet wide. In fact, it would be better to be wider, but the bridge over the moat only allows this width.

The bottom is made of round wheels six feet wide, and there are two layers inside. The front of the lower layer is sealed with wooden boards, and soldiers push carts inside; shooting holes are set on three sides of the upper layer for five or six soldiers to shoot with guns.

There is a triangular guard plate on the side of the cart, with a height of [-] feet. There are two long ladders on it, one of which is [-] feet long.

A rope is connected to the top, and the soldiers in the car drag the long ladder up.

Of course, you can also use several large wooden bars and large wheels as winches, which is more secure and durable, but it will increase the working hours and the probability of failure.

At this time, there are not many defenders in the city, and there are no veterans. The defenders may have never seen a siege in their life, so Liu Chengzong didn't care about that much.

The wooden mantle is a large square plank, connected by long wooden beams and ropes, and hoisted by the principle of leverage. Soldiers used it to block the ladders when they ascended the city, shielding lead arrows, and also preventing the defenders from destroying the siege ladders.

Fortunately, the materials are easy to obtain. Zhenyuan County used to have more than [-] registered residents during the Jiajing period, but now there are only abandoned villages in terraced mountains, reminding Liu Chengzong that these people once lived here.

The three door panels are connected to form a wooden curtain.

Relatively speaking, the siege engine is more difficult to make, but there are many craftsmen in the two battalions, and the process is not slow if they work together.

Until nightfall on the fifth day, the soldiers of the Lion Camp drove the mule team back from the mountainous area in the south to the south of the city, and filled the river with bags of soil on the back of the mules.

Yang Yao's horsemen waded lightly, bypassed the small fort and piers in the southeast, crossed the city, and went to the west of the city for repairs, so as to cut off the road and capture deserters.

The Bailiuxi tribe moved to the mountain plateau in the north of the city, carrying a few long ladders, and waited for the day to assume a siege posture to contain the defenders. Zhang Tianlin's tribe followed and snatched the nomadic benefactors scattered outside the city.

On the morning of the sixth day, the bell of the North City Tower rang.

The endless army came upstream in the valley, captured the small fort in the southeast in an instant, and then six siege vehicles and thousands of infantry rolled over the valley, raising the dust that obscured the view, and advanced to the east of the city. The gate towers face each other.

When Zhixian, who disturbed the dream, ascended the city, the artillery had already set up artillery positions across the river bank. He was greeted by 24 bronze cannons, filled with scattered pieces and showing a ferocious smile.

　Good morning!Happy Winter Clothes Day!
　　
　
(End of this chapter)