Fenghou

Chapter 523
Among the many passes of Longshan Pass, Liupan Pass and Longshan Mountain, the only two passes that can be used to carry baggage, among them, Longshan Pass is the main pass, and the road is slightly wider, but it is also a winding mountain road, which needs to circle down the mountain in circles.

The Song Army's baggage consisted of [-] camels and [-] carts.

Loaded with grain, tents, firearms, kerosene, siege weapons and other large luggage, the entire luggage team had to go over Longshan Mountain after walking the Guangshan Road for two days and two nights. Fifteen carts turned over.

The [-] army marched eastward with their luggage. Three days later, the army arrived in Pingliang County again, and the Song Army set up a camp five miles west of the county seat.

The four gates of Pingliang City were closed, and the city was under martial law. No one was allowed to go to the streets, and anyone who disobeyed the order was shot to death. The defenders were afraid that there would be scouts from the Song army lurking in the city, and they should join forces from inside and outside to seize the city.

The chief general of the garrison is called Li Jinrui, he is the younger brother of Li Cheng who controls the capital, and he can be regarded as one of Li Cheng's capable generals.

Of course, Li Jinrui was Song General at the beginning, but he was still the head of a horse army, but the real insight was his brother Li Cheng, who was promoted and reused all the way, and now he has been in charge for three years.

Li Jinrui was tall and strong, but his mind was not simple. When the Song army was still a hundred miles away, he ordered the whole city to be under martial law and the people were not allowed to go to the streets.

The county magistrate also proposed to recruit some civilians to work for the army, but he also flatly rejected it. Li Jinrui knew very well that Chen Qing had been trying to pacify Liangcheng for a long time, so how could there be no scouts from him in the city?
Soldiers moved thousands of barrels of kerosene to the top of the city and deployed them on the north, south, west, and west sides of the city.

Li Jinrui squinted at the Song army camp in the distance. He estimated that the opponent's number was around [-] to [-], which was much smaller than the [-] troops he was worried about. In this way, even if he had only [-] troops, he could still defend it. Pingliang City.

Li Jinrui heaved a sigh of relief, he was very worried these days, his elder brother led an army to attack Hanzhong, and only sent him [-] reinforcements to defend Pingliang City by relying on fire oil, but Chen Qing was an expert at playing with fire, What if he came prepared?
But now, Li Jinrui felt that even without kerosene, relying on the tall and thick walls, he could still withstand the attack of [-] to [-] troops.

"Pass down the order, be careful that the enemy will attack the city tonight, and leave [-] people to defend the city at night!"

Li Jinrui's guess was wrong. After the Song army set up camp, the first thing to do was to assemble the trebuchets. Thirty heavy trebuchets required [-] craftsmen to equip them for a day and a night, including the time for debugging.

Before Chen Qing brought a hundred cavalrymen and a dozen craftsmen to the east city, in a wasteland hundreds of miles away from the city wall, Chen Qing saw a mud pit. Inside the mud pit was a large black stone weighing at least fifty or sixty catties. The description in the scout intelligence is exactly the same, and it is similar in terms of distance. .

Chen Qing pointed at the mud pit with his horsewhip and said: "That mud pit is the sign. It is exactly [-] steps from the mud pit to the city wall. This is the credit left by our scouts."

The craftsmen were overjoyed. With this mud pit as a reference, they began to lay down wooden stakes for positioning. Perhaps this is the technology of the Song Dynasty. If you want to be accurate, you must be meticulous, and you must not be careless in every detail.

In a short while, they laid thirty wooden stakes, ready for the attack tomorrow night.

By the evening of the second day, all thirty heavy-duty trebuchets had been installed and debugged, and their tall, giant-like figures could be clearly seen from the top of the city.

Li Jinrui was secretly startled, he guessed right, Chen Qing had been preparing for so long, and he really came prepared. Thirty heavy trebuchets had a range of at least [-] steps, and the trebuchets at the top of their city only had a range of [-] steps. The range of left and right, the range of the god arm crossbow is not enough, and other ordinary crossbows can't deal with it, only the bed crossbow.

Fortunately, Li Cheng thought carefully and sent them [-] bed crossbows with a lethal range of [-] steps, which were just right for dealing with heavy trebuchets.

"Take all the bed crossbows to the East City!"

Li Jinrui has already realized that the Song army is likely to attack the city tonight, and it must be the east city.

At two o'clock, the Song army started to move. Thirty heavy-duty trebuchets began to line up and drove out of the camp. On average, three bulls pulled a heavy-duty trebuchet. They were all made of metal wheels and walked very smoothly on the muddy ground. Thousands of Song troops have deployed the site in advance, placing huge baffles in front of the wooden piles.

Of course, the Song army had to guard against the attack of the bed crossbow on the top of the city. Fortunately, every heavy trebuchet was made of metal shafts, not Jinren or Xixia trebuchets, which were simply tied with belts.

Thirty heavy trebuchets rumbled slowly in the field, with huge bodies and majestic momentum, like thirty monsters walking in the field.

Behind the trebuchet is an army of [-] troops, lined up to follow behind the heavy trebuchet.

The alarm bell on the top of the city had already sounded, and all the [-] defenders had gone to the top of the city. Chen Qing had no idea of ​​sneak attack at night, he just wanted to use the night to cover the soldiers' outfits and equipment, so that the defenders on the top of the city would not be able to guess. out their intentions.

Otherwise, seeing thousands of people carrying big wet quilts, the guards on the top of the city would guess their purpose.

Five hundred sappers stood behind the baffle, and their task was to lay planks on the moat, so they must be the first to charge, followed by two thousand fire raccoons, then three thousand quilt fire extinguishers, and finally two Whether the main force of the main force can capture Pingliang City depends on tonight.

Thirty heavy-duty trebuchets were in place, each with a length of two miles, and each trebuchet had ten craftsmen in charge of debugging.

At this time, there was a sound of a drum on the top of the city, and three hundred bed crossbows were fired at the same time.Whoosh!Whoosh! Shooting at the catapult, the baffle is very high and thick, covering most of the body of the catapult, only a head is exposed outside, and this head is meaningless even if it is shot by a jackdaw arrow.

Most of the jackdaw arrows were still crackling and shooting at the baffle, and the thirty heavy trebuchets were not affected in any way. The winch rotated, the throwing pole creaked and pulled down, and the heavy iron box at the other end was pulled up.

The principle is very simple, just like a seesaw, one end goes down and the other end goes up.

Several Song soldiers carefully placed the [-]-jin kerosene pot on the huge throwing pocket, and a soldier lit the kerosene with a torch, forming a huge fireball instantly.

"emission!"

With Wang Duo's order, thirty huge fire oil balls rose into the air and flew towards the top of the city.

'boom!boom!boom! 'Twenty-two kerosene pots hit the top of the city with precision, and the other eight flew into the city. This requires fine-tuning, just push back a few steps.

The top of the city was suddenly ablaze, and Li Jinrui immediately realized that the other party was attacking with fire, but there were still [-] barrels of kerosene on the top of the city, so he shouted anxiously: "Take the kerosene and retreat to the north and south walls!"

The [-] troops quickly retreated to the north and south sides, armed with weapons and kerosene, and the fire was so fierce that the catapults and bed crossbows deployed on the top of the city could no longer be taken care of.

At this time, the second and third rounds of kerosene pots were thrown, and the entire city was turned into a sea of ​​flames.

Chen Qing ordered coldly: "Attack!"

In the night, five hundred soldiers rushed out carrying long planks, followed closely by two thousand Huo Huan, followed by three thousand soldiers carrying wet bedding.

In just a moment, a siege ladder was erected, nearly a hundred siege ladders were erected, and two thousand fire raccoon soldiers struggled to climb up. They climbed to the top of the city and rushed into the fire.

Chen Qing could see clearly from behind. When three thousand soldiers carrying bedding began to rush to the top of the city, Chen Qing immediately ordered, "Go to the city with five thousand more!"

Liu Cui shouted: "The third army comes with me!"

Liu Cui charged up with five thousand troops
At this time, Li Jinrui saw that the fire at the head of the west city began to go out, and a large number of Song troops went to the city. He suddenly realized that something was wrong, and shouted: "Rush up, and drive the Song army down from the top of the city!"

But the puppet Qi army had just rushed up, and in the darkness, the arrows shot by the god arm crossbow were like a storm, and the puppet Qi army soldiers fell down one after another.

On the other side of the city wall, a thousand fire raccoons fought fiercely with the enemy with spears in their hands, and they blocked the enemy.

The fire on the top of the city has been completely extinguished, and soldiers of the Song Army began to rush down the city.

"Kill me!" Li Jinrui shouted anxiously.

A soldier suddenly pointed outside the city and shouted: "General! Look quickly."

Li Jinrui looked down the city, his heart suddenly felt cold, he saw that the suspension bridge had been lowered, and countless cavalry rushed across the suspension bridge and entered the city.

(End of this chapter)