Fenghou

Chapter 1000 Xuchang

Chen Qing once again appointed Li Qiong as the deputy capital commander and Xu Su's military envoy to know Xuzhou's affairs. Let them return to Yancheng to rest for two days, then return to Xuzhou, and sit in Xuzhou, Pizhou, Suzhou, Haizhou and Lianshui Army.

Chen Qing immediately deployed another [-] troops, divided into four armies, led by four commanders, each carrying a large amount of fire oil for defending the city, and went to occupy Chenzhou, Caizhou, Yingzhou, and Bozhou.

In this blocking battle, Chen Qing also achieved his goal. From Dengzhou to the west to Haizhou, all the state capitals that faced the imperial army had been captured by him. This was mainly to prevent the imperial army from picking peaches.

It seems not now, the emperor and the imperial court still have a deep-seated fear of Jin Guo, but once they defeat Wanyan Wushu and regain Bianliang, it will be hard to say, the imperial court's mentality will definitely change, even if their finances It is temporarily unable to support the restoration of prosperity in the Central Plains, but the idea of ​​picking peaches will definitely exist.

Li Qiong led another [-] troops to the south, Liu Qiong worried: "Your Highness, after all, Li Qiong surrendered to the Kingdom of Jin. Even if His Highness trusts him, he should send a supervising army!"

Chen Qing shook his head and said: "What's the use of sending a supervising army? Either I will replace the general, or I will completely trust him and choose a good branch to live in. I am betting that Li Qiong is a smart person, and he knows who his future lies in." ?”

"If Li Qiong was a smart person, what would he do?"

Chen Qing said lightly: "If he is a smart person, he will definitely send his wife and children to live in Jingzhao. If he can't do this, then sooner or later I will let Pan Gui replace him."

Liu Qiong suddenly realized that the heart of the superior is really beyond his ability to guess.

On the second day after Chen Qing returned to Xuchang, the Song army turned to attack Xuchang. The attack on Yingchang Mansion was not a false attack, but a real attempt to capture it. The most important thing is to take Yingchang Mansion, Chen Qing's army will directly face Kaifeng Mansion and Yingtian Mansion, Liu Cui and Yang Zaixing's troops will also send troops to Zhengzhou, forming a double-teaming trend against Kaifeng Mansion.

Of course, if the attack on Yingchang Mansion fails, not only the Western Army will retreat to Ruzhou, but Chenzhou, Yingzhou and Caizhou may not be able to survive, and the pressure on Li Qiong will be great.

So this time, Chen Qing will take Xuchang County at any cost and wipe out Li Cheng's army.

"Boom! Boom! Boom!"

Just before dawn, the Song Army's camp rang the dull sound of war drums, the gate of the Song Army's camp opened, and the mighty army rushed out of the camp.

Suddenly, the alarm bell sounded loudly above Xuchang City, resounding throughout the city. Li Cheng was still writing a letter to Wanyan Wushu to urge reinforcements, when the alarm bell sounded suddenly startled him, his hand trembled, and the entire letter was wasted.

Li Cheng threw away his pen, rushed out of the lobby, and asked sharply, "What happened?"

At this time, a soldier ran in to report, "Report to the Jiedu envoy, the Song army has crossed the river!"

Li Cheng felt dizzy for a while, and shouted: "Order all the left army to go to the city!"

The left army is the army of Zuo Daying, a total of [-] people, and another [-] people from the right army, and the entire regular army has a total of [-] people. In addition, Li Cheng also recruited [-] civilians in the city. As a logistical support operation, it transports supplies, treats the wounded, provides food for the army, and so on.

The entire Xuchang city was mobilized, and groups of soldiers rushed to the top of the city. Eight thousand troops stood on the top of the west city, and seven thousand troops were distributed in the other three cities.

Li Cheng shouted to the deputy general Cao Jing'an: "Push all the bed crossbows to the west city!"

There are a total of [-] bed crossbows in the city, of which [-] have been deployed at the head of the west city. There are only fifty medium-sized trebuchets, which are useful against siege soldiers, but they are still a bit powerless against heavy trebuchets [-] paces away. Now they can only use bed crossbows.

A general suggested: "Jiedushi, we seem to have a lot of fire crows in stock in our warehouse, and they can also be used!"

Li Cheng suddenly remembered that they still had hundreds of fire crows made during the Xuanhe period, which had been useless and piled up in the warehouse. After twenty years, they did not know whether they could be used again.

He quickly ordered: "Command the warehouse to send fifty fire crows!"

Soon, several boxes of Fire Crows were delivered from the warehouse. After opening the boxes, Li Chengxin suddenly became cold. The Fire Crows had been stored for [-] years, and they were so damp that they could not be ignited at all, which made Li Chengbai very happy.

At this time, Deputy General Cao Jing'an found Li Cheng, pointed to a craftsman behind him and said, "Jiedushi, this craftsman may have a way to make the trebuchet project three hundred steps away!"

Li Cheng was overjoyed and quickly asked, "What can I do?"

The craftsman said: "Reporting to the Jiedushi, our trebuchets are actually medium and large, and the medium-sized ones should be larger. Under normal circumstances, we can throw [-] catties of stones to about [-] steps. If it is changed to [-] catties of stones , you can throw about [-] steps, if it is further reduced, and you can throw [-] catties of stones, you can throw [-] steps, we have all tried it."

"Twenty catties of stones are too light!"

The craftsman smiled slightly: "If you don't use stones, how about changing it to a [-]-jin kerosene tank? It is still effective against enemy trebuchets."

"good idea!"

Li Cheng was so excited that he clenched his fists. It was true that the east wind did not come and the west wind came. The fire crow disappointed him, but the trebuchet had a workaround.

At this time, the [-] infantry of the Western Army had already entered the position. They crossed the bridge and lined up about two miles away from the western city wall, setting up five army formations.

One of the army formations was the [-] Black Armored Army, holding short spears and shields, and wearing heavy armor, which was obviously prepared to participate in street fighting.

In the army formation, there is a large platform with a height of four feet. It is made of giant wood and covers an area of ​​three acres. It was just completed yesterday. It is guarded by the army, and the enemy cannot come and destroy it.

This is the battle viewing command platform. Chen Qing and the generals are all watching the battle on the platform, and they can clearly see the enemy's situation on the top of the city.

At this time, thirty heavy trebuchets were pulled by strong bulls, rumbled across Pingqiao, and headed towards the city. plate.

The artisans of the Western Army have made precise calibrations for each trebuchet, and they can accurately throw a [-]-jin fire oil tank to [-] steps away. Of course, this also involves other influences, such as wind direction, wind speed, and Whether the operation of the soldiers is standardized, so craftsmen are required to make on-site adjustments.

The first thing to do is to place huge baffles. This is also the lesson that the soldiers of the Western Army learned from Luoyang. If the baffles are not put down in time, they will be attacked by the enemy.

After a baffle was placed in place, a trebuchet was slowly pushed forward by the soldiers, which was very methodical.

Sure enough, just as the trebuchets were in place, there was a strange noise in the air, and hundreds of jackdaw arrows were whistling and shot towards them.

"Get down!"

The chief commander shouted, and the soldiers got down one after another.

'Snapped!Snapped!Snapped! There was a sound like fried beans, and the baffle and the trebuchet were nailed full of jackdaw iron arrows, most of which were blocked by the baffle.

Without any loss, the craftsmen began to adjust quickly, and the soldiers continued to place the twenty catapults behind.

On the top of the wall, Li Cheng frowned. He didn't expect that the powerful bed crossbow had no effect, not even hitting a single soldier.

A craftsman said: "Jiedushi, the opponent's trebuchets are all connected by iron chains, not the old belts, jackdaw arrows can't damage them."

"Remove all bed crossbows and prepare trebuchets!"

The bed crossbows take up too much space, and unless the opponent uses a sea of ​​people to attack, it will be effective, otherwise it will not work. Hundreds of bed crossbows and other bed crossbows that have not been installed have all been withdrawn from the city.

Thirty trebuchets were ready to show their power. A thin-skinned clay pot weighing twenty kilograms was put into the throwing pocket. The pot was filled with kerosene, and the outside was also coated with kerosene. The soldiers lit the pot with torches.

Li Cheng shouted, "Shoot!"

Thirty catapults were launched suddenly, and thirty flaming clay pots rose into the air, shooting at the Western Army's catapults [-] paces away.

(End of this chapter)