The Jin army besieged the city, and the Song emperor’s daughter died

Chapter 175 Touring the City Defense
In July of the first year of Jingkang, Wanyan Zonghan's West Route Army had gathered troops in Datong, and Wanyan Zongwang's East Route Army had also arrived in Baozhou.

The Kingdom of Jin sent someone to inform the Song Dynasty court: Don’t get me wrong, deploy your defenses normally.

Although Datong and Baozhou were indeed the territories of the fallen Liao Dynasty, they are now the territory of the Jin Kingdom. There is really nothing to say about the deployment of troops and defenses on their own land.

But with 15 troops hoarded on the border, it was abnormal for the Song court not to panic.

Especially the Song armies that had previously deployed defenses in Wenshui on the West Road and Xiongzhou on the East Road had already withdrawn to the surrounding areas of Kaifeng and Taiyuan. If the Jin army wanted to cross the border, there was no one to stop them.

Yelu Yuliyan found this very strange, because even though the Liao Kingdom knew that it could not defeat the Jin army, it stationed troops to resist along the way, but the Song Dynasty was better...

"The door of my house is always open, and I am waiting for you with an open embrace. Once you embrace me, you will have a tacit understanding. You will fall in love with this place..."

Zhao Fujin was in a good mood, humming a little tune while letting Chun Xia dress up.

Yelu Yuliyan was waiting aside and asked cautiously: "Aren't the officials panicking?"

Zhao Fujin smiled and said: "Are you panicking? It's just a matter of hoarding troops now. If you panic now, when the troops come to the city in the future, will you still be alive?"

Seeing Zhao Fujin so calm and composed, Yelu Yuliyan swallowed back what he originally wanted to say.

After Zhao Fujin finished packing, he left the palace and went straight to the Jujube Gate.

Outside the Suanzao Gate, the Privy Council, the Ministry of War, the City Defense Department and various governors had been waiting for a long time. When they saw Zhao Fujin driving out of the city, they all came to greet him.

Gao Qiu bowed and introduced: "To inform the officials, the reinforcement of the city wall eighty miles away from Kaifeng City has been completed as scheduled. I would like to ask the officials to inspect it."

Zhao Fujin got out of the car and nodded slightly to everyone: "Let's get started."

On the city wall, several government officials took the vertical line and threw it down from the city wall. When the awl fell to the ground, the scale on the vertical line was level with the city wall. The government officials shouted loudly: "The height of the city here is five feet and nine feet."

Based on the fact that one zhang in the Song Dynasty was approximately equal to 3.1 meters, the city wall here is about 18 meters high.

Gao Qiu introduced it next to Zhao Fujin: "The wall of Guanjia, Zizao Gate, used to be four feet and three feet high, but now it has been raised to one foot and six feet."

Zhao Fujin turned to look at Yelu Yuliyan beside him and asked, "How does it compare to Liao Shangjing?"

Yelu Yuliyan sighed: "It's more than two feet high. It makes people sigh when looking at the city."

Zhao Fujin smiled and said: "It can't just be tall, it has to be thick, otherwise it won't be able to withstand the cannons and rocks."

As he spoke, he looked at the city defense officials who were hanging in the middle of the city wall and working at high altitude and shouted: "How?"

The official who was hanging in the air loudly replied: "Back to the official's house, the outer layer of blue bricks has clay, followed by sand and gravel, followed by clay. The innermost layer is the original city wall, and the thickness of each layer is the same as that of the city defense department." The design is consistent.”

Zhao Fujin patted Gao Qiu on the shoulder with satisfaction: "Good job. Let's go up and have a look with me."

Climbing up the city wall, the city wall is two feet wide. Not only can it accommodate city defense guns and crossbows, but it is also extremely spacious for horse racing.

In this way, the efficiency of mutual reinforcement between various sections of the city wall will be greatly improved.

On each section of the city wall, a garrison station was built, and the defense materials used to defend the city, such as wood, kerosene, masonry, bows and arrows, etc., were all stored here.Moreover, according to the requirements of the Academy of Sciences of the Song Dynasty, moisture-proof quicklime was spread.Zhao Fujin seemed a little worried: "If the Jin army destroys the garrison with a cannon stone, wouldn't it mean that there will be no supplies?"

Han Shizhong stepped forward and explained: "Guan family, look at the location of this guard station."

Zhao Fujin looked in the direction pointed by Han Shizhong and saw that the guard posts were basically behind the urn city.

The Wengcheng is an independent small city wall that protrudes several feet from the city wall. In order to protect the city gate, a small city was built outside the city gate to wrap the city gate. In this way, the city wall extended several feet. If the Jin Army's gunners had the range If you can cross the urn city and hit the garrison directly, then there is no need to fight this battle.

After inspecting the Jujube Gate, everyone went around the outer city wall to inspect other gates.

Every time he walked for a while, Zhao Fujin stopped his car and ordered people to measure the height of the city wall, and peeled off the outer layer of blue bricks to check the internal filling.

After such random inspection, I found no corners-cutting.

This made Zhao Fujin feel at ease.

During the random inspection, we sometimes saw that on the inner bank of the moat, on the side close to the urn city, two high walls about nine feet high were built, with two side doors opening on the side of the wall, called the Sheep and Horse Wall.

This is the first line of defense across the moat in a siege, and it is extremely important to both the offensive and defensive sides.

Gao Qiu explained: "Most of the places where the sheep and horse walls were built were in places where the moats were narrow. If the Jin army crossed the river, the defenders could hide within the sheep and horse walls to repel enemies crossing the river."

Speaking of moats, Zhao Fujin felt that he had to take a look at the water gates in Kaifeng City.

Unlike land, Watergate has always been a weak point in defense. In the first defense battle, Wanyan Zongwang chose West Watergate for the first battle. If Medical Master Guo had not informed Li Gang in advance, Li Gang blocked the waterway in advance with the Cai Mansion boulder. Coupled with Han Shizhong's bravery in rushing to kill the enemy, there is a high chance that Xishui Gate will be breached.

There are six water gates in Kaifeng City.

Most of the previous water gates were anti-corrosion and waterproof wooden sluices. It would not be a problem to block ships from entering or exiting on weekdays. However, if the Jin army attacked it with fire ships, it would be extremely risky.

We cannot block all the rivers of the six water gates. By then, before the Jin army attacks, the four major rivers will have flooded Kaifeng.

When we arrived at Xishui Gate, we found that the previous gate had been completely renovated. It was wrapped in thick iron sheets with rivets on the iron sheets. From a distance, it looked as solid as a city wall gate.

In addition to the brand-new gate, small walls similar to urn cities were also built on both sides of the water gate. The bottom is made of bricks and the upper part is made of wood. Archers can array directly on the upper platform.

"This is called Guaizi City." Gao Qiu pointed at the water gate defense on the river bank and said: "If the Jin army used fire boats to attack the gate like last time, they should not be able to burn the gate. But on the two sides of Guaizi City, The bows and crossbows were arrayed, no matter how many people ordered him to die, there was no chance for them to rush through the gate."

Although Zhao Fujin felt that this defensive arrangement was very good, it was slightly different from what she had imagined.

In Zhao Fujin's opinion, if the Jin army came to the city and wanted to break the city by water, they must be allowed to see the power of the Song navy.

After patrolling the eighty-mile city wall, it was getting late. Although everyone had been running all day, they did not feel tired when they saw that the city's defenses were impregnable and every offensive and defensive detail had been considered so properly. Han Shizhong even clamored for help. Go to Akihito Palace to have a hot pot meal.

Zhao Fujin seemed to have other plans: "Everyone, you should rest early. There are still important things to do in the next two days. Jin Mingchi Navy, Song Academy of Sciences Dongfeng Cannon, I have to go and take a look in these two days."

Gao Qiu was quick-thinking. Hearing what the official said, he thought that the official was still dissatisfied with the city defense. He quickly stepped forward and bowed. Before he could speak, Zhao Fujin waved his hand to him: "Captain Gao, don't think too much about the city defense." I am very satisfied with the matter, but city defense is only defense, and when it is time to attack, we still have to attack."

(End of this chapter)