Fenghou

Chapter 912 Accident
Tang Qian led [-] cavalry all the way, and finally arrived at Datong City in the afternoon of the next day. There were still more than ten miles away from the city. Suddenly, thick smoke billowed from a high mountain in the east. have found them.

Tang Qian originally wanted to take advantage of the enemy's city gate and rush into the city, but now it seems that he thought too much. The defense of Datong City is very complete, and they will not be given a chance to make a surprise attack.

The burning beacon smoke on the top of the mountain made Tang Qian feel a little regretful. If he had known earlier, he would not have carried out a surprise attack. He carried out a surprise attack at night and seized Datong City at night.

But now it's too late, the other party found them, they must close the city gates and strengthen their defenses.

Two miles away from the city, Tang Qian stopped the army. He urged his horse to rush up a small hill and looked at Datong City two miles away. Datong City was once the Xijing of the Liao Kingdom. At least forty miles above, the city wall is about two feet five feet high, all made of large blue bricks, strong and tall, and the towers are magnificent.

As expected of being a scout, Tang Qian had very sharp eyes. He noticed that the south gate was shaking slightly. There was only one reason why such a thick gate was shaking, and that was that the other side was blocking the gate with boulders.

But this kind of blocking gate is meaningless. There are nine gates in Datong City. In addition to the four main gates, there are two auxiliary gates in the north, south, east, and west. In addition, there is a water gate in the south.

Tang Qian looked at the top of the city again, and suddenly many soldiers appeared on the top of the city, but not many, about a few thousand people, Tang Qian can basically judge that there are about four to five thousand soldiers in the city.

He looked at the sky, the sun was setting, and the sky was filled with sunset clouds. It was already dusk, and Tang Qian immediately ordered: "Rest on the spot, and act when it gets dark!"

It is not that there is no army in Datong City, there are still [-] Khitan Congregation Army left to guard. The chief general is called Yelu Cibao, who was originally the deputy general left behind in Xijing. .

But his commander of soldiers and horses can only command [-] Khitan Xie Congjun troops, and must also obey orders from the governor of the West Route Army, Wanyan Helisa.

At this time, he already knew the news that the Song Army's [-] troops were heading north, and he also sent someone to inform Wanyan and Lisa.

It's just that he never thought that the Song army would come so quickly. When the beacon on the top of the mountain outside the city was lit, Yelu Cibao was stunned, and he immediately ordered the city to be blocked with huge stones.

Of course, there are so many gates in Datong City, it is impossible for him to block all of them with boulders, and they don’t have so many boulders, so he can only block two gates at most, one south gate and one north gate, and the other gates He doesn't care about the door, which is actually a bit of self-deception.

But it’s different for Yelucibao, an old official in the officialdom. He knows that many things are actually a matter of attitude. The result is not important, the key is whether you do it or not. If you don't do it, then the responsibility for losing the city gate will be heavy.

At the same moment when Tang Qian was looking at the city, Yelu Cibao was also looking at the official road in the distance. He faintly saw the figure of the cavalry of the Song Army, but it was blocked by a small mound.

"Master Wan, it seems that the other side doesn't have a hundred thousand troops!" Xiao Huaisheng, the magistrate of Datong, whispered.

Of course Yelu Cibao knew that the other party did not have a hundred thousand people, if there were a hundred thousand people, how could a small mound stop it?
"There are about [-] people who are the vanguard of the Song army. We must be careful of the other party attacking the city at night."

After pondering for a while, Yelu Cibao said again: "Prefect Xiao, it is best not to rest tonight, and be prepared to retreat at any time."

"Ah! Will the city fall?" Xiao Huaisheng was taken aback.

Yelucibao glanced at him, "We only have [-] soldiers, it's not easy to defend the forty-mile city wall, not to mention that the other party has a chance tonight, they will definitely go all out, of course, I will go all out Defense, but we have to be prepared for danger in times of peace!"

"I get it, I'll be ready!"

As night fell quickly, Tang Qian divided his troops into two groups. He ordered [-] cavalry to gather near the water gate of the city wall and shoot arrows at the top of the city together. Three hundred steps.

The reason why Tang Qian put the breakthrough point at the auxiliary gate of the west city was because he found that the defenders on the west city were the least. This shows that the enemy army did not attach importance to the west city. The gates must be the South City and the North City. These two places have the most enemy troops, with more than a thousand people. At most, the main entrances of the east and west will be blocked, but the auxiliary gates will definitely not be blocked.

Another important point is that according to information, there are urn cities at the north and south gates, but not at the east and west gates.

Yelucibao also misjudged the Song army. Seeing that the Song army was gathered near the Shuicheng gate, he believed that the Song army was about to break through the Shuicheng gate. For this reason, he deployed [-] troops above the Shuicheng gate and inside the city. Soldier.

As a result, his military strength was stretched thin, and only [-] soldiers were deployed on each of the two ten-mile-long cities in the east and west.

Under the city, arrows from the Song army rained down like raindrops, and the gunpowder arrows and spiked arrows shot towards the city, overwhelming the Khitan army soldiers.

On the Datongshui River in the south, two medium-sized ships were slowly approaching the moat. Yelucibao saw it clearly and shouted: "The opposing ship is coming to attack the water city gate. The whole army is ready to fight back!"

Thousands of soldiers tensed up, ready to fight to the death with the soldiers of the Song Army
On the moat outside the deputy gate of the west city, a large black wooden basin drifted soundlessly towards the city gate. Inside the wooden basin was an iron fire thunder. This iron fire thunder looked like a big wax gourd and weighed about five About ten catties.

This kind of iron fire mine is called iron dog in the firearms camp. It is filled with [-] catties of gunpowder, and its explosive power is equivalent to the box-type wood fire mine with [-] catties of gunpowder in the past.

Although Chen Qing asked Tang Qian to use the iron rhinoceros, Tang Qian had seen the power of the iron dog before, and it was enough to blow up the city gate. If he used the iron rhinoceros, it would most likely blow up the entire city wall. Once the Jurchen cavalry came back, they would not be able to defend it either. Datong City.

This is the flexibility of the generals. They must strictly implement Chen Qing's orders strategically, such as attacking Datong City after the beginning of spring, but in terms of specific tactics, they must be handled flexibly according to the situation and cannot be rigid.

Chen Qing gave him two hundred and fifty catties of iron rhinoceros, not for him to use it. Chen Qing gave him an order that he must take down the city. In order to prevent insufficient explosive power, he gave him the iron rhinoceros. This was just a means of guarantee , but by no means necessary.

Tang Qian also understood. According to his experience, an iron dog weighing fifty catties is enough.

Three scout soldiers pushed the big wooden basin to the bottom of the suspension bridge. They jumped ashore and quickly dragged the wooden basin ashore. The wooden basin was rectangular. Only then did the man carefully place the iron fire thunder on the wooden basin.

"There is an ambush over there!" Someone shouted from the top of the city.

The [-] Song troops ambushing [-] steps outside the city were discovered by the defenders on the top of the city, and there was chaos on the top of the city, 'Dang!when!when!when! 'A rapid alarm bell sounded.

At the same time, the three Song soldiers lit the matchlocks and jumped into the water, only to be spotted by the top of the city immediately.

"There are also people in the city, shoot arrows!"

Arrows were fired from the top of the city, but three Song army scouts hid under the suspension bridge, quietly waiting for the explosion to come.

Three thousand soldiers simply got up and ran towards the city gate. Now that they were discovered, they stopped ambush, but just after running fifty steps, they heard only an earth-shattering explosion.

"boom!"

The flames shot out, and the huge shock wave blew the city gate to pieces, sawdust flew across, and thick smoke filled the air. Dozens of Khitan soldiers on the top of the city were basically stunned to death.

Three thousand soldiers of the Song army shouted and ran quickly. They boarded the planks, ran across the moat, and rushed into the city waving spears and swords.

(End of this chapter)