Fenghou

Chapter 224 The Secret Path
Under the full attack of the Xixia army, the three special branches of the Song army, the flying ax team, the long cable team and the marksman, all lost their effect.

The god-armed crossbow soldiers who squatted on the horse-faced wall and shot at the side and back of the enemy general were also useless. The horse-faced wall became the key target of the Xixia army.

Thousands of Xixia soldiers attacked the four horse-faced walls from three directions at the same time. Three siege ladders were hooked on the horse-faced walls. Soldiers of the Song Army, so that the horse-faced wall became a place where the Xixia Army repeatedly broke through.

The second horse-faced wall in the middle was lost, and dozens of Xixia elite soldiers rushed up in an instant. Nearly [-] Song soldiers fought to the death and blocked the Xixia soldiers from expanding outside the horse wall with their bodies.

When the battle reached the last two soldiers of the Song Army, two hundred reinforcements led by Liu Qiong arrived. Liu Qiong swung his spear and killed three people in a row. Arrows, the iron armor of more than [-] Xixia soldiers were shot through by the arrows, and they all fell down screaming. The soldiers of the Song Army rushed forward and regained the horse face wall.

The fierce battle lasted until the afternoon of the second day, and for a whole day and night, both sides suffered heavy casualties. The Xixia Army suffered more than [-] casualties, and the Song Army also died more than [-].

The five-foot-tall observation deck of the Xixia Army has been built. They are all made of pine wood, which is relatively rough. Basically, the bark has not been peeled off, and it is very strong. He could look down on Oasis Fort, and half of the city fell into his sight.

Li Liangfu stared ferociously at the changes on the battlefield. The Song army had enough troops, a group of soldiers were killed, and a group of soldiers quickly added up from behind. Their morale was always high. On the contrary, he felt that the morale of the Xixia army on the battlefield was getting lower and lower, and he might not be able to hold on. How long.

Li Liangfu's heart is like a mirror, he must find a way to boost the morale of the army, otherwise he will undoubtedly lose this siege battle.

At this time, Li Liangfu's eyes fell on the observation tower, which was about to collapse. He swung his saber, "The trebuchets concentrated on attacking the observation tower!"

'Boom!Boom!Boom! 'The five trebuchets were fired together.

Five huge boulders soared into the sky, whistling and smashing towards the tower at the southwest corner, one boulder passed by the tower, and the other four boulders all hit the tower, the five-foot-five-foot-high tower finally couldn't hold on, and crashed collapsed.

But to Li Liangfu's surprise, the collapse of the observation tower did not attract cheers from the soldiers, as if nothing had happened.

Li Liangfu was stunned for a while, and he finally realized that the soldiers' patience had reached the limit, and the level of bloodshed far surpassed the collapse of the observation tower. I am afraid that only by attacking the city can the morale be effectively stimulated.

"Ask Murong Tao, how long will it take for his plan to succeed?"

The cavalry rushed away, and came back to report after a while, "General Murong said, it will take another hour!"

"It will take another hour, it will be dark, order him to speed up, we must get through before dark!"

The cavalry was ordered to gallop away again.

Chen Qing was not on the top of the city where the battle was fierce, nor was he by the tower that had just collapsed. He was by the city wall of the west city. The tower collapsed just two hundred steps away from him. .

Hundreds of soldiers of the Song Army dug a straight pit with a depth of two feet. Under the straight pit, three soldiers were digging a hole. Just at noon today, some soldiers discovered that the enemy was digging a hole outside the west city. Although the opponent was very secretive, It was covered by the baffle of the trebuchet, but it was still discovered by soldiers of the Song Army.

Chen Qing immediately realized that this was a two-pronged approach by the Xixia army. On the one hand, they were aggressively attacking the city, and on the other hand, they were secretly digging tunnels. I am afraid that their real attack direction is still the secret road. come out.

"Controlling, we're about to dig through!" A head reminded in a low voice, with a very nervous tone.

Chen Qing also heard the sound of digging on the opposite side, and the distance between the two armies was probably less than five feet.

"Order the brothers to come out, the crossbowmen are ready, the poisonous smoke ball is ready!"

Soldiers of the Song Army brought dozens of poisonous balloons. These are poisonous smoke balls invented in the Northern Song Dynasty. They are spherical in wooden shell and contain five catties of gunpowder. In a sealed environment, it can cause the enemy to bleed to death quickly from the mouth and nose.

The three soldiers of the Song army who were digging the hole climbed up the rope, and several crossbowmen with god arms aimed their crossbows at the entrance of the cave, which was one foot and five feet below the city wall. Only then did the location of the enemy's cave be determined.

The sky was getting dark, and the battle outside the city had come to an end. The morale of the Xixia army was low, and it was impossible to attack the city. The two sides switched to crossbow shooting, and the casualties continued to increase.

Chen Qing stared at the deep pit, only listening to 'Boom! ', and a low exclamation came from below, the soldiers of the Xixia army dug through, and it may have been a bit unexpected, for a while, the soldiers of the Xixia army did not dare to act rashly.

Chen Qing immediately changed his plan of shooting with a bow and crossbow, and ordered: "Throw in the smoke ball!"

The soldier lit the matchlock, threw five smoke balls in a row, and then covered the deep pit with a huge wooden plank to prevent the poisonous smoke from overflowing from the pit.

It was Murong Tao's idea to dig a hole to attack. He used to be the commander of the Huanqing Army in the Song Dynasty, and he had a lot of experience. He knew that the loess in this area is thick and dense, which is very good for digging holes. They started digging last night. Hundreds of soldiers dug in relay, digging for a whole day and night, and dug a long hole with a length of [-] feet, which is equivalent to [-] meters.

There were still fifty digging soldiers in the long cave. Li Liangfu was already impatient and rushed to the entrance of the cave to urge him. At this time, news came from the cave that the digging had been completed, and it seemed that a well in the city had been dug.

Li Liangfu was overjoyed. He couldn't wait for the soldiers digging the hole to retreat slowly, and immediately ordered: "Let them go out from the front!"

With a wave of his hand, three hundred heavily armed Xixia soldiers entered the narrow cave. The entrance of the cave was two and a half feet wide and five feet high. They could only walk forward slowly with their heads down. difficulty.

After the team went in for a while, Li Liangfu was about to send another [-] soldiers to join in. Right here, there was a faint scream of fear in the cave, followed by a severe cough.

Outside the cave, Li Liangfu and Murong Tao looked at each other, neither of them knew what happened?

At this moment, dozens of people at the entrance of the cave suddenly coughed violently, and saw a puff of thick smoke coming out of the cave.

"Poisonous smoke!" Someone shouted, and the crowd panicked and fled in all directions. The five soldiers who were closest to the entrance of the cave were unable to escape, and were choked to the ground, unconscious, and soon died of bleeding from their mouths and noses.

The screams in the cave were gone, Li Liangfu was terrified, and [-] soldiers were smothered to death in the ground.

After attacking for a day and a night, Ganquan Fort was still unable to be captured, and the sneak attack also failed. Xixia suffered heavy casualties. No matter how unwilling Li Liangfu was, he had to order his troops to withdraw. In one night, the Xixia Army suffered [-] casualties, of which [-] were killed, while the defending Song Army also paid a heavy price with nearly [-] casualties.

In less than half a month, more than half of Li Liangfu's [-] troops had suffered casualties. The confidence of the soldiers of the Xixia Army, including the chief general Li Liangfu, was severely thwarted, and their morale began to decline, gradually becoming depressed.

When it was getting dark, Song Junying Tower received an eagle letter from Liu Cui, who was outside. Liu Cui told Chen Qing in the letter that he would send someone to deliver an important item during the second watch, and hoped that Chen Qing would greet him in the city.

The letter did not specify what it was, but it aroused Chen Qing's sense of anticipation. He immediately ordered Zheng Ping to prepare for the soldiers sent by Liu Cui.

Time gradually approached two o'clock, and a group of Jurchen cavalry came up the official road to the south. The leader was a Jurchen official, wearing a Jurchen brocade official uniform, a Jurchen white foxtail cap, and a beard. Jurchen cavalry surrounded a large cart.

Li Liangfu deployed [-] sentry cavalry on the outskirts of Ganquan Fort, including about [-] in the south.

It was midnight at this time, there were not many Xixia soldiers on the checkpoint, there were less than two hundred people, the head of the Xixia Centurion rushed forward and asked loudly: "Who are you?"

The Jurchen official picked up a silver wolf head order and murmured a few words. A soldier next to him translated, "This is Jin Guomeng'an Wanyan Huli, the envoy sent by Marshal Talandu. I have something very urgent to see you." General Li Liangfu, please lead the way!"

The centurion of Xixia was bluffed by the opponent's silver wolf head order. It looked like a real wolf head order, and it was normal for the Jurchens to come over. There were more than a dozen Jurchen soldiers on the top of the mountain!

A soldier asked in a low voice, "Boss, do you want to report to the general?"

The centurion of Xixia hesitated for a moment. The other party was passing through here on his way to Daying. It is fine to report this situation or not. Thinking that the general did not dare to close his eyes all day and night yesterday, he must have slept soundly. If he disturbed him now, he might be scolded.

The Jurchen official's face darkened, and he muttered a few words unhappily. The Xixia centurion didn't dare to neglect, and quickly waved his hand, "Please come with me!"

He led a dozen of his men to lead the Jurchen envoys to the south
(End of this chapter)