The struggle of the reborn prince

In the early morning of this day, the morning fog had just dissipated. Zhao Yong climbed to the north gate of Xijing City and found that a wall about ten feet high and five feet thick had been built overnight in front of the camp of the Jin Army. The section ends at the bank of the Datong River, and under the driving of the Jurchen soldiers, there are still peasants who continue to increase the height and thickness of the earth wall. Every time a layer is piled up, someone will irrigate it with river water, and the mud and water will soon freeze into one under the severe cold.The sound of the soldiers' trumpets and axes chiseling could be clearly heard, and the outside of the city turned into a large construction site overnight.

"Commander, the walls of the Golden Army's camp are also being strengthened!" said Jiang Wei, the lion general who accompanied Zhao Yong, pointing to the distance.

"Yeah!" Zhao Yong looked into the distance with his binoculars. There were a lot of giant logs piled up in front of the wall of the Jinjun camp. Farther away, more newly felled trees were brought in. The larger logs were used to strengthen the camp. The thinner wall was transported between the village wall and the earth barrier to form short walls, and the back was filled with soil, leaving only a narrow road in the middle that could accommodate two horses.

"Marshal, what does the Jurchen want to do?" Jiang Wei asked in confusion.

"You don't need to ask, the Jin army wants to surround Xijing City to prevent us from breaking through!" Leopard General Commander Zhang Pu said with a sigh of relief in the palm of his hand.

"I'm not blind, of course I know they want to besiege the city!" Jiang Wei rolled his eyes at Zhang Pu and said, "I mean the Jurchens should know that we have captured Bochuan and Baozhou, blocking their retreat and the Jin army coming to help Logically, they should withdraw their troops as soon as possible, or at least open the way back to the country, so as not to fall into siege, but they obviously don't want to go like this!"

"That's right, aren't they afraid that we will cut off our escape route, and instead want to trap us together in Xijing City?" Zhang Pu also felt that something was wrong.said doubtfully.

"Order the artillery to fire two shots and bombard the earth barrier!" Zhao Yong ignored the two subordinates.He put down the binoculars and said.

"fire!"

'Boom, boom', the artillery erected on the city head fired two shots at the Jin army's fortification.One shot missed, and the shell fell over the earth barrier and fell into the group of laborers who were piling up the soil. It bounced on the frozen ground and broke the bones and tendons of several people. A cannonball hit the earth barrier, but the effect was unexpected. Only a few fist-sized clods fell, and it did not collapse as expected.

"Hey! How did this happen?" Zhang Pu exclaimed in amazement, it was hard to believe that the hastily built earth barrier was so strong.

"Cao Yi. Are your soldiers being lazy and reducing the charge?" Jiang Wei asked Cao Yi, commander of the artillery brigade, pointing to the rapid-fire guns on the top of the wall.

"No, the distance from the city head to the earth barrier is [-] steps. This is the maximum range of the rapid-fire gun, and the gun is erected on the city head and fired condescendingly. Otherwise, it will not be able to hit the earth barrier. It is by no means that the charge is insufficient. The reason!" Cao Yi put down the binoculars and shook his head, denying that it was the reason for his artillery.

"So it's not like a five-jin iron bullet can't even make a hole?" Jiang Wei still suspected that Cao Yi was hiding something, and asked him, pulling him.

"This is nothing new. When Concubine De was guarding Yuanzhou, she used the method of freezing the city with water to resist the Jurchen's attack. Tens of thousands of Jin troops continued to attack for ten days and failed to break through the city. After watering, the earth city became solid. Like iron, rapid-fire cannons are used for long-distance shooting and their power is reduced. The result of combining the two can be seen!" Zhuge Hong, the capital of the Gaojun Army, said with a smile.

"Yes, we are equipped with light rapid-fire guns for easy loading this time. Even close-up shooting requires several rounds of shelling to knock them down. If they are bombarded with heavy naval guns from the Navy, a salvo can Jiangong, unfortunately..." Cao Yi said with a wry smile.

"Hmm. What Zhuge said makes sense, what else do you see?" Zhao Yong asked the generals on the wall with a smile.

"The meaning of the Jurchens is obvious. They built this tortoise shell to stop our attack and continue to siege the city." Zhang Pu said.

"I don't think so. All the Jin troops south of the Datong River were expelled. There is no problem with the communication between Xijing and the rear. Wouldn't it be a waste of effort for the Jurchens to build a fortress to besiege the city!" Jiang Wei disagreed with Zhang Pu's statement.

"The emperor often said that 'abnormality is a demon'. Knowing that the way back was cut off, the Jurchen mobilized so many people to waste time building a fortress instead of withdrawing as soon as possible. There may be some conspiracy hidden in it, commander What do you think?" Zhuge Hong said.

"What Jin Jun did was abnormal, and I couldn't tell their purpose at the moment, but you found that none of the Jurchens have become smarter!" Zhao Yong said, pointing to Jin Jun who was busy transporting soil and mud under the city like ants.

"Why did the commander-in-chief say that?!" Several people looked around the city for a while, but they didn't see anything, and asked curiously.

"The Jurchens have fought against us for more than ten years with little success. Except that the emperor is superior to them in strategy and tactics, what we rely on is sharp firearms. In field battles, the 'stone wall' charge of our cavalry often makes the Jin army Being defeated can be said to be the magic weapon for our army to win!" Seeing everyone nodding in agreement, Zhao Yong continued, "The reason why the Jurchens were able to destroy Khitan and attack the Central Plains is because they are best at field battles and rely on their own cavalry to defeat their opponents. But now you Seeing the Jin army building high earth barriers and arranging low walls among them, it is obviously a defensive posture with all their strength, it seems that we have given up the field battle we are best at because of fear, but it also limits our advantages!"

"Well, the commander's analysis is incisive!" Zhang Pu said deeply, "The Jin army built earth barriers, which can prevent our artillery from killing, and it can hide troops behind its back, blocking our attack with archers and giving a lot of damage. Killing and forcing us to dismount and fight, attack and break through obstacles on foot, give full play to the melee power of their knives and guns and their individual combat skills are superior to ours!"

"Yeah, even if we break through the earth barrier, the Jin army can still rely on the low walls and earth barriers all over it to hide and block the approaching soldiers of our army. However, due to the narrow roads and numerous obstacles, we can't use the 'stone wall' that we are good at." 'The impact has greatly reduced the impact of our cavalry, although their use of cavalry has also been restricted, but in general, the advantages outweigh the disadvantages, at least they can guarantee that they will not be defeated by us!" Jiang Wei also found out The mystery of it.

"The gold army's earthen barriers are also very particular. As you have seen just now, the earthen barriers are about [-] steps away from the head of Xijing City, which is the limit of the range of our artillery. The power is greatly weakened, and it is even more difficult to destroy the earthen barriers. It is difficult to cause greater casualties to the soldiers inside; and if we want to use artillery to destroy the earth barrier, we must move forward to shoot within [-] steps. This distance is within the range of the Jin Army's trebuchet. They can use our forward movement Opportunity to intercept and shoot, but we cannot directly aim and shoot to effectively suppress them because we are blocked by solid earth barriers. This will greatly limit the use of artillery and weaken its effect.” Cao Yi then analyzed it from the perspective of artillery pros and cons.

"The battle between the two armies is all about going all out. Even if our army successfully breaks through the earth barrier and passes through obstacles, there is still a more heavily fortified camp ahead. Can we still have the strength to continue attacking after we have suffered huge casualties? And once we Weak enough to attack, the Golden Army brigade recharging their energy in the camp can take advantage of the momentum to attack, and our army will be in crisis!" Zhuge Hong added.

"Everyone's analysis is reasonable. The Golden Army is also constantly looking for our weaknesses in failure. It seems like a stupid way for them to work hard to build a fortress, but they all hit our fate. They restrain our advantages and weaken our combat effectiveness. In the future, it will be impossible to rely on your laurels!" Zhao Yong sighed, the emperor said in the early days of the establishment of the army that he wanted to learn warfare in the war, it seems that it is not only applicable to his own side, but also to the enemy, they are not stupid, and they are also making progress.

"The commander-in-chief is right. A strong spear will make the shield strong, and a strong shield will make the spear strong. Only by constantly improving can we remain invincible!" Zhuge Hong agreed with Zhao Yong's opinion very much, and the others also nodded in agreement...

"Could it be that the Jin army really doesn't plan to retreat and is going to confront us here, then they will definitely be the ones who will die in the end!" Zhang Pu said. He still couldn't understand the behavior of the Jin army. If both sides are on the defensive now, then It has become a confrontation between the two sides. As long as the passage of the Jin army is blocked, they will undoubtedly lose. Could it be that this is just a tactic of the Jin army to slow down the troops.

"Looking at the current situation, there are two possibilities: one is that the Jin army is standing here waiting for reinforcements, consuming our strength, and wants to wait for domestic reinforcements to re-open the road to Xijing, replenish troops and supplies, defeat us and continue going south; The second is that the Jin army uses defense instead of offense, using a force that sticks to the camp to contain Xijing to block our pursuit, cover the retreat of the brigade, and sacrifice a small part in exchange for the brigade's safe withdrawal!" Zhuge Hong analyzed.

"No matter what, we can't let the Jin army build the earth barrier, otherwise it will cause endless harm to our future operations. We should stop them now!" Jiang Wei said anxiously.

"Well, Lao Jiang is right. This task is left to the artillerymen. You should find a way to make trouble for them. In addition, the two of you will send scouts to find out the purpose of the Jin army, whether you want to leave or stay!" Zhao Yong thought. He wanted to give orders, and then went down to the city to go back to the mansion. He had a headache just thinking about facing that difficult old man Jin Fushi again...

After Zhao Yong received the reply from the Privy Council, he was convinced, because it would take time for Ah Shu to mobilize manpower to prepare, so he was in a hurry to launch an attack.As for Jin Fushi's request to attack Xijing as soon as possible, and to expel the Jurchens from the country, he has been perfunctory in the name of the uncompleted blocking line of Bochuan and Baozhou. The question was urgent, and he asked the Korean army to take over the control of Baozhou as soon as possible. Defense, so that the Song army can concentrate its forces.

But now the situation has changed again, Wu Shu's actions seem to be covered in a layer of fog, making it hard to figure out what he wants to do?What is even more worrying is that Jin Fushi couldn't hold his breath, and couldn't withstand the pressure of the eager king of Goryeo, so he rashly launched an attack, destroying the emperor's plan! (To be continued..)