Fenghou

Chapter 216 First Attack
Chen Qing's supplies, army and people stayed in Yelanggou for a few days. They found that Yelanggou was like a maze. The people got lost in it, and soldiers were specially sent to stand guard at the mouth of the gully to prevent the people from entering. It took Zhao Xiaoyi and his men two days to make a map of Yelanggou.

Liu Cui led his men into the Wild Wolf Ditch, looked at the map and searched all the way, walked a few forks, and went twenty miles deep before arriving at a ravine. There are seven or eight cave dwellings on the innermost mountainside. There are two secret sentries of the Song Army, and it is also a supply point for grain and grass supplies.

"General Liu!"

A soldier shouted at the entrance of the cave: "There is a letter from the eagle, and it came at noon today!"

"Take it down and give it to me, and I won't go up."

Liu Cui ordered the soldiers to rest on the spot, and the soldiers threw down a roll of ladders and climbed down.

"General, I have a letter for you!"

Liu Cui took the letter tube, took out the eagle letter and looked at it. It was indeed a letter from the commander, and the content was just one sentence, ordering him to give up the sneak attack on the enemy camp.

Of course Liu Cui knew the risk of this kind of sneak attack on the camp. Once the sneak attack failed and his subordinates were arrested, a lot of important information would be leaked, so the commander sent an eagle letter to notify him.

Of course, this is an order, and the order must be strictly implemented.

Liu Cui received the letter and said to the two soldiers: "The supplies will not be used for the time being. We will come over in eight days. Prepare dry food."

The two soldiers hurriedly bowed and agreed, "obey the order!"

Liu Cui turned around and gave another order, and five hundred of his men got on their horses one after another. After a short while, they rushed out of the wild wolf ditch like lightning and headed north
Two days later, the battle drums in the Xixia army camp were rumbling, and the [-] Xixia army rushed up the long slope.

"Ugh-"

The low-pitched horn blew, and monster-shaped trebuchets appeared. Each heavy-duty trebuchet was as high as one foot and five feet, and the throwing pole was three feet long and weighed several thousand catties.

There are six huge wooden wheels under the heavy trebuchet, and each trebuchet is pulled by [-] strong oxen, and dozens of soldiers are struggling to push behind.

This kind of heavy-duty trebuchet can throw [-] catties of stones three hundred steps away. It is the most commonly used trebuchet for siege. If it is bigger, it will be difficult to carry.

Ten heavy trebuchets came out of the promise one after another, one after another slowly moving, with great momentum.

On the top of the city, Chen Qing stared at the trebuchet moving slowly in the distance. In the past two days, the enemy camp was brightly lit day and night. It is estimated that they were assembling this kind of giant.

"Prepare the crossbow!"

To deal with this kind of heavy trebuchet, they can only use the bed crossbow, which has not had a good effect yet.

Chen Qing secretly sighed in his heart, they will face the most severe test today.

There are countless siege ladders among the ranks of [-] troops, Yang Yuanqing whispered to Chen Qing: "Control, the enemy's siege ladders shine in the sun!"

Chen Qing saw that there was indeed a metallic flash on the top of the siege ladder. There were two possibilities, either the luster of the large iron hook at the front, or the metal rods on the front rungs. After passing the castle, they tasted the power of the long-handled axe, and they must have dared not to report it. They did not attack the city in the past two days, and they should be modifying the siege ladder and assembling the trebuchet.

Chen Qing guessed right. Li Liangfu had already asked Murong Tao about the situation of the probing attack in detail. He especially valued that the Song army used a long handle to chop off the top rung of the siege ladder. He had experienced a lot and knew that this was a vicious move, no matter how powerful it was Soldiers, without the rungs to climb and step on, can't grow wings and fly up!
He immediately ordered to replace the top three rungs of all five hundred siege ladders with iron bars, and assembled ten heavy trebuchets, which took a full two days.

Li Liangfu stood in front of the team, squinted at the tall city wall and shouted: "The trebuchet is in place!"

The location of the trebuchets has already been determined. Today they will attack the south city, about [-] steps away from the city wall. This distance is still lethal, but if the trebuchets are farther away, it is not impossible, they can only throw a few dozen Twenty catties of small stones are of little significance.

Therefore, the front and sides of the trebuchet must have thick baffles one foot high, like a large shield. This is the method first introduced by the Song army, but the Song, Liao, and Xixia families have fought for hundreds of years, and they all compete with each other. Learned.

Of course, it was also because the Song Army's divine arm crossbows and bed crossbows were too powerful. A burst of arrows shot at them, and none of the surrounding soldiers were spared.

"Control, the enemy army used shields, and our bed crossbows may not be effective." A deputy commander said loudly to Chen Qing.

"Shoot the top of the catapult!" Chen Qing calmly gave the order.

The top of the trebuchet is tied with a lot of belts, including the throwing pole, which is also fixed on the beam with belts. Those belts will crack only if one arrow is shot. The trebuchet will fall apart after two or three times, but the premise is to hit the belt. only valid.

One thousand jackdaw arrows at a time, if one can be hit, it will be considered a winner.

"Bed crossbow ready, shoot!"

The command flag was waved down, two hundred bed crossbows were fired at the same time, and a thousand jackdaw arrows whizzed towards the catapult.

Someone shouted next to the trebuchet, and hundreds of soldiers squatted down one after another. The powerful and sharp jackdaw arrows hit the trebuchet, and then there was another scream, and the Xixia soldiers who were a hundred steps away behind fell one by one. .

The killing range of the bed crossbow reached six or seven hundred steps, and the Xixia soldiers standing four hundred steps away could not escape the fate of being shot through their bodies even if they held shields in their hands. Nearly three hundred soldiers fell to the ground in a burst of random arrows.

Li Liangfu also noticed this problem, and immediately ordered: "The army retreats three hundred steps!"

The [-] troops retreated quickly, out of the killing range of the bed crossbow. At this moment, the trebuchets began to show their power.

Ten trebuchets swung their throwing poles at the same time, and threw ten boulders weighing fifty catties. The boulders rolled in the air and were thrown towards the top of the city.

"Dodge!" The commander on the top of the city shouted.

The soldiers squatted down one after another, and Chen Qing was also dragged down by several soldiers, 'Bang! There was a loud noise, a huge boulder fell on the battlements, and immediately the gravel splashed, a finger rubbed against Chen Qing's face,

'boom! 'The city tower was hit, pieces of wood flew around, and a big hole was smashed through the roof.

A few stones hit the archers behind, and more than a dozen soldiers died tragically on the spot with their bones broken and their brains burst.

Chen Qing saw a soldier being thrown into the city by a boulder, and he was furious immediately, and ordered: "Shoot again with the bed crossbow!"

Two hundred bed crossbows were launched again, and the iron arrows of the jackdaws with fury shot at the catapult densely. The arrows came so fast that dozens of Xixia soldiers who were operating the catapult had no time to dodge, and were shot through by the iron arrows one after another. nailed to the ground.

At this time, the belt tied on the left side of a trebuchet was pierced by an iron arrow, 'Collapse! ' broke with a bang, and the left shoulder of the catapult collapsed.

Li Liangfu didn't expect the opponent's bed crossbow to be so powerful, he was really annoyed, it was only the first round of shooting!The belt was shot off.

He immediately shouted: "Change the fireball!"

'Boom!Boom!Boom! Huge burning fireballs soared into the sky and flew towards the city. The fireballs weighed about [-] jin, and their range far exceeded [-] steps. They flew over the top of the city and flew into the city.

When Chen Qing saw the fireball, his heart immediately relaxed, which meant that the opponent's general hadn't got the Xixia spy's city defense diagram, and he didn't know that he was prepared to defend against the fire attack.

In the city, all the houses within [-] steps of the city wall were demolished, exposing a large open space. The open space to the south was [-] steps wide and four miles long. It is necessary, otherwise the enemy's fire attack will turn the houses in the whole city into a sea of ​​flames.

The [-] militia soldiers are currently responding to the enemy's fire attack. They are divided into groups of [-], divided into [-] groups, and distributed above and below the city. Some carry shields, some carry long forks, some hold shovels, and more The soldiers picked up the soil and dug big holes in the ground.

"I'm coming!"

Several huge fireballs flew over the top of the city first and flew towards the city, and the militia soldiers immediately shouted.

These fireballs are made of thin bamboo slices like lanterns, filled with fire cloth, gunpowder, sulfur and other inflammable materials, and then wrapped with fire cloth for several layers, and then filled with kerosene. emission.

This kind of fireball shatters after landing, and all kinds of inflammable materials are scattered all over the ground, which will cause a large area to burn. It is a very powerful firearm. The Xixia Army also aims to cause a fire in the barracks or the whole city.

Nine huge fireballs hit the ground fiercely, the fireballs shattered, and the open space suddenly turned into a sea of ​​flames.

(End of this chapter)