The struggle of the reborn prince

Although it was late at night, Zhao Tun still couldn't fall asleep. In a large room that was used as a study, the floor was covered with thick felt blankets, and braziers were lit all around. It is full of maps and drawings, which are obtained by scouts and visiting locals these days, including not only the defense facilities of the city, but also the layout of the streets, the functions and directions of various places.He sat cross-legged in the midst of no pop-up window update soon, thinking hard. He knew very well that siege warfare was the one with the most casualties in all wars, and it was also the most difficult one. He wanted to find the most suitable tactic.

Lingzhou City was governed by Shuofang Jiedushi in the Tang Dynasty. At this time, it was already quite large. After Xixia seized it in the early Song Dynasty, it was changed into the capital city, expanded and built palaces, making Lingzhou City a strong city. The outline is thousands of miles wide, and the 36 forts are dotted with arches within thousands of miles.There are many schools and academies in the city, and there are many poetry forums and temples. It is said that there are eight major landscapes: Shenglan of Ninghe River, Yanhu Lake, Niu Feixia, Longquan Jade, Takahashi Spring Willow, Dripping Water Autumn Wu, Qingxia Xiaoying, and Huangsha Sunset.

The whole city is roughly square, consisting of the outer city and the inner city. The outer city wall is more than three feet high. The main body is made of rammed earth, and the outside is covered with bricks. There is a natural moat of the Yellow River in the north, and the south city has become the focus of defense. There are more than ten solid enemy towers of various sizes along the city wall.There are six large and small city gates, with towers on the gates, urns built outside the gates, archery towers on the urns, and turrets at the corners to strengthen defense. The turrets are five feet high.The inner city is also the former palace city, located in the central area of ​​Lingzhou City. The structure of various facilities is similar to that of the outer city, but it is not as complete as the outer city, and the strength of the city wall is slightly lower than that of the outer city.

The fact that the city wall is strong does not mean that the city is impenetrable. There are many ways to attack the city, such as facing, hooking, ladders, mounds, water, holes, suddens, moths, xuanche, siege carts, hollows, rushing, etc. Method.

"The city gate is a weak point!" Zhao Tong took a blueprint and said to himself, the city gate is also a defensive weakness on the stretching city wall, most of the city gates are made of thick wood.The outside is covered with iron sheets for reinforcement, and it can generally be destroyed with a punching car and a door-breaking cone, and live ammunition is fired with a rapid-fire gun.Can break through after a few rounds.

"Impossible!" Zhao Tuo thought for a while and denied this plan. There are two urns at the city gate of Lingzhou.After entering the first gate, Xia Jun will wait for the forward to enter, close the city gate again, and kill the soldiers who entered from the city wall. The price paid is too high.

"What if we dig a tunnel?" Zhao Tong thought of this method.I am still more advanced than the current method. I don’t need to set fire to support it. I just need to put in some explosives to do it, but I quickly rejected it. Lingzhou City was built on the ancient island of the Yellow River, with abundant groundwater, and the rainy season has just passed , Digging a tunnel is worse than digging a well.It's not easy to say about explosives.

"The only option is to attack!" Zhao Tong made up his mind.Although it is necessary to brave the rain of arrows and set up a ladder to climb the city wall when attacking the city, once the attack reaches the bottom of the city, the situation of the defending side will be passive, or even precarious. Faced with people climbing up everywhere, once the defending side cannot reasonably allocate troops .The limited space on the city wall also limits the number of troops defending the city wall, as long as they go up the city wall.Along the long road connecting the city walls, you can control the entire outer city wall.Open the gate of Wengcheng to welcome the army into the city.

"To get up the city wall, you have to pass the Yangma City and the moat..." Zhao Tun picked out one of the many blueprints on the ground and looked at it carefully, "The moat is about five feet wide and four feet deep; the sheep and horse wall is fifty feet long. The wall is one foot high and three feet thick, and there are two trenches in front, two feet wide and one foot five deep..."

Zhao Tong flipped through the blueprints and sketched on the paper, thinking about how he could use the resources he had now to solve the problem, avoid a large number of casualties, and reduce the damage to Lingzhou City.He had already thought that the main force to attack Lingzhou City had to be his Hedong Army, and his loyal and brave army should bear the brunt.And Lingzhou City also has an important position in the northwest. In the future, it will not only be an important border town, the first line of defense against the Xixia attack, but also an important trade channel and trading center connecting the East and the West. If the damage is too great, it will cause great damage to the future rule It has a great influence, so Zhao Tun wants to keep its prosperity as much as possible.

But it is impossible for him to take advantage of all the good things. Thinking about the possible casualties in the siege, Zhao Tian felt distressed. These people were carefully selected, trained strictly, and experienced the war. For the capital of this world, I can imagine that in a few years, maybe I will lead this team to a wider world, follow him to conquer cities and lands, and conquer the world. The taller and stronger city of Lingzhou City lay across their path. . .

On the seventh day of the siege deadline announced by the Song Army, Xia Jun discovered that the Song Army's camp surrounding the southern city moved forward. After the grass bundles, cover the soil again and compact it again.Due to the large number of participants, the progress of the project was very fast. At sunset, more than [-] earthen platforms with a height of two feet had been built in front of the city, but it seemed that the work had not yet been completed. After dinner, countless bonfires were lit outside the city , The peasants began to build fortifications again.

Looking at the scattered earthen platforms, Xia Jun gradually understood that this was the Song army building earthen mountains. When the height of the earthen mountains reached or exceeded the height of the city wall, as long as archers were placed on them, they could compete with the guards on the city. Army against her, suppress their archers, cover the siege troops.At the same time, it can also play the role of a watchtower to scout the situation on and inside the city.

Of course, Xia Jun didn't want Song Jun to repair the earth platform so peacefully to attack him, but he wanted to send troops out of the city, but found that Song Jun's rangers were cruising outside the city. It was true to lure them out of the city, so that they could take the opportunity to seize the city gate, so they gave up.Now I can only shoot those civilian husbands with arrows, but after shooting for a while, their bow strength is too weak to shoot at all. I can't touch it for more than ten steps.

On the ninth day, it was a disaster. The Song army began to encircle Lingzhou City from all sides, and approached within two miles. The peasants had already begun to clear the road leading to the city and move the siege equipment. The siege battle was imminent.The Song Army outside the South City had already moved the artillery to the earth platform, and began to name the defensive facilities on the city. The first unlucky thing was of course the tall and large city tower. After two rounds of trials, more than 20 cannons fired at the same time. The city tower collapsed, followed by those archery towers, turrets, and battle sheds erected on the city wall.

After a few rounds of artillery fire, the Song army seemed not to be enjoying themselves. They replaced those big iron balls with earthen jars, smashed them on the city wall, and then a few flower bombs. The city wall instantly turned into a fire dragon, and the buildings on the city Most of the objects were made of civil structures, and the arrows, rolling logs, clappers and grease that were piled up on the city wall to set fire to the Song army, and even the felt blankets that had been poured on the city wall to prevent the Song army from setting fire to it all burned. At that time, all the soldiers of the Xia Army who were hidden in the city and had no time to go down the city were all cremated on the city wall.

"Start the timer!" Zhao Tun, who was sitting on a high earthen platform, said to the artillery commander Zhao Xiao.

"Yes, my lord!" Zhao Xiao immediately flipped an hourglass over to start timing.

"Have you recorded all the shootings?" Zhao Tang asked looking at the top of the city with a telescope.

"Don't worry, my lord, everything is recorded!" Zhao Xiao nodded.

"Okay, order the Second Pao Battalion to destroy Yangma City to the extent that Xia's army can't repair it within two days!" Zhao Tun turned his target to Yangma City outside the city gate. The last section of the road leading to the moat began to be repaired, the potholes were filled, the high ridges were shoveled, and the soft places were paved with wooden planks.

"Zhao Ren, how is the pre-battle training of the siege troops going?" Zhao Tang turned his face and asked Zhao Ren.

"My lord, now the entire army has completed the pre-war mobilization and basic tactical training. Everyone has mastered the troubleshooting of firearms, the observation of targets, and shot with live ammunition; Ditches and outer moats have been drilled, and now they are proficient in the techniques of destroying obstacles, the methods of erecting trench bridges, and the skills of releasing smoke; The battalion is ready to be put into use at any time; the Ascending Commando has selected and pre-screened the commandos and support troops, carried out training in handling, suspension, climbing and fighting after climbing, and all the required weapons and tools are in place!" Zhao said. Ren replied.

"Zhao Ren, I'm going to divide the siege troops into two groups. One is to pretend to attack the city gate, and the other is to be the main force. The assault team's ascent point will be in the southeast corner. The siege troops must prepare before the artillery fire, and use the artillery fire to attack the city. It is time to complete the tasks of erecting trench bridges and transporting equipment. When the commando transports climbing tools to the city wall, it should make full use of the terrain and ground cover, and use support troops to suppress the enemy's firepower..."

"My lord, the Xia army has returned to the city, and started to put out the fire and repair the defense equipment!" Zhao Xiao reminded the lord at this time.

"Well, it took less than a quarter of an hour, and it seems that Xia Jun has also put in a lot of effort!" Zhao Tang glanced at the hourglass, then raised his binoculars to look at the top of the city, "Zhao Xiao, at this time, the artillery battalion is about to start its first round. The second round of artillery fire surprise attack, cover the siege troops to enter the city, pay attention to when the siege troops are about to climb, the artillery fire starts to extend, and shoots shells into the city, preventing the Xia army from going up the city, buying time for the commando to climb the city; Zhao Ren, assault What the team has to do at this time is to quickly ascend the city, establish a solid support point, move to the two sides and cover the large troops going to the city..."