The struggle of the reborn prince

Gao Chong and Zhao Li were a little worried about the tortoise shell of Gaochang City. It is said that the Song Army has traveled from Xiazhou City and Lingzhou City in Xixia to Datong City in Liao State, Yanjing, Dading and Linzhou in Jin State over the years. Huangfu, which is one of the best strong cities, has accumulated a lot of experience.And Zhao Li is now the chief military theorist in the Song Army. He has intensively studied ancient and modern battles and is familiar with various siege tactics, but now he still has some headaches.

With a surprise attack, the city gates of Gaochang are closed tightly so that no fly can fly in; with a surprise attack, the city is built with tamping, but the walls are slippery and there is no point of strength, unless the emperor arrives and uses the "immortal method" to fly in; Not to mention heavy casualties, the geography here is somewhat similar to Lingzhou. There are no tall trees around to make siege equipment, and you have to go to the Tianshan Mountains hundreds of miles away to cut down; There is a lot of food in the oil city, and it is not a problem to eat for a year or two, and it will definitely consume more energy than them; it is not Beiting, there are only a dozen or so spies from the intelligence department in the city, and they are powerless!

At this moment, Zhao Li knew how true the emperor's saying 'every battle cannot be completely duplicated' was true.The two discussed for a long time and realized that the "shock and awe" tactics mentioned by the emperor, the core of which is psychological warfare. Through the attack on the enemy's important targets, the enemy will panic, shake their determination to continue to resist, and achieve the goal of ending the war.

The two thought about it, and felt that they still had their own advantages, and their most powerful weapons were firearms. Although light artillery could not blow open the city gate, it was powerful enough to shock the enemy, especially those who hadn't really The local tyrants who have seen the power of firearms can still stay in the city calmly after seeing the fierce artillery fire attacking the city.Can you withstand the pressure inside and outside...

The second-generation light artillery equipped by the Song army included rapid-fire guns and mortars.Rapid-fire guns can fire solid bullets and shotguns, and the longest range of ten-pound solid bullets can reach four hundred steps.The effective range is about [-] paces.Shotguns have an effective range of two hundred paces, and they cannot penetrate iron armor any farther; mortars can fire solid bullets, flowering bullets, and incendiary bullets.The fifteen-pound solid bullet has an effective range of [-] paces, while incendiary bombs and blooming bullets are much lighter, and the range also increases accordingly, reaching [-] paces.

Now, due to the shelter of the city wall, the impact on the mortar is less, but the ballistic of the rapid-fire gun is low in front of the city wall, and there is nothing it can do.In order to be able to exert the power of the two types of artillery, Gao Chong and Zhao Li thought of a way to build a fort, which is to use sand and soil to build artillery positions at the same height as the city wall.Even exceeding the height of the city wall, the range of the artillery can be effectively increased, and at the same time, the high earth barrier can be used to observe the situation in the city, so that it can be targeted.

After calculation, Zhao Li concluded that this plan is completely feasible. The circumference of Gaochang City is twelve miles, the city is square, and each side is about three miles long. The artillery they equipped can cover the inner city when it is advanced a hundred steps away from the city. If the position is set in Beicheng, it can reach Miyagi.In order to achieve the maximum range of the artillery.The artillery position should be moved forward as close as possible to the city wall, but this would face the threat of being attacked by the enemy. Therefore, they dug trenches while taking soil to prevent the enemy cavalry from being harassed.Got enough sand again.

In order to give full play to the combat effectiveness of the artillery, Zhao Li made careful planning in terms of the timing of the use of the artillery, the attack target and the use of tactics.For best results, he uses gradual steps.Step by step approach to gradually exert pressure on the enemy.Set the artillery position two hundred steps in front of the city to prevent enemy interference.Send out cavalry to patrol outside the range of the enemy's bow and arrow to guard, and set up artillery positions to cover the construction of the army.

What everyone didn't expect was that Bi Lege rushed to the city to inspect at this time. The artillerymen of the Song Army found a large number of enemy troops suddenly appearing at the top of the city, and they were holding golden umbrellas. They judged that there was a big boss among them, so they faced the crowd. A shot was fired, and it turned out that Bi Lege escaped cleverly, and Heli should have his head collapsed.However, Song Jun didn't know that there were so many big figures in the city, otherwise he would be able to kill the leader of Gaochang with a single shell, and the battle would probably be over.

But war is war, and there are not so many flukes.But this shot was not in vain, not only killed the deputy commander of the Gaochang military, but also eliminated a main combat faction, which frightened Bi Lege, who dared not go to the city again, let alone send troops out of the city to fight.There was no interference from the Song army, and tens of thousands of people fought for two days and nights. Outside the city, a five-foot-high earth barrier was built, and a ten-foot-high watchtower was erected.

After the artillery positions were built, the Song army began to bombard them. Their targets were the barracks built close to the city wall. In order to make the enemy feel oppressed, they did not concentrate their artillery fire to attack, but harassed and attacked them with sporadic and continuous bombardment. morale.The effect was good on the first day. The soldiers of Gaochang watched the sky in fear all day long, in case they didn’t know when and where the shells would fall. The riots, although the soldiers and civilians in the city were terrified, they were still able to maintain a normal life order.

It would be a waste of ammunition to fight like this. At this time, the second artillery position has been built, and the range can reach the center of the inner city.So Gao Chong and Zhao Li ordered the artillery positions to be moved overnight and to choose new targets for shelling, but this time they chose the government offices and mansion gathering areas.How to judge this is not difficult. In addition to the tall and majestic temples and palaces in Gaochang City, the government offices and official residences are next in line. They are all built in the inner city like the cities in the Central Plains, and most of them are within the range of the Song Army's artillery fire. .

At dawn, the Song Army's shelling began, and after a round of test firing, the shelling began!If the previous bombardment was mild and rainy, then this round of shelling was a squall.Zhao Li learned the lesson from the last time. He realized that attacking a city is like the way of fighting in it. It is necessary to carry out high-intensity, destructive and decisive strikes against the enemy. All the artillery of an artillery brigade fired almost at the same time. Continuous bombardment, solid bullets destroyed houses, explosive bullets killed fleeing personnel, and incendiary bombs reduced everything to ashes.

This time is the time when people seem to be asleep but have not yet woken up. They are suddenly hit and have no time to react. Difficult to escape.The violent shelling only lasted for an hour and ended, but the fire caused by it was only extinguished when it was dark, and the government office was turned into ruins, and it was hard to see where the door was open.

Almost all the official residences that were the focus of shelling were burned to the ground. Even those who were not bombarded were also homeless because of the fire, and their houses and money were wiped out.Even those who were lucky enough not to be injured were all bruised and bruised, especially mentally, they were greatly stimulated and became in a trance, panicking all day long.

Although the bombardment didn't last long, the effect was several times higher than that of the previous few days. Bi Lege knew this best.When he went to court the next day, he found that the number of people was less than half. According to statistics, the envoy of the Privy Council was killed, Yu Erqi (minister) killed eight people, and injured more than a dozen people; Dozens of Burkes were killed or injured; fortunately, the prime minister's residence was in Beicheng, so he survived.Because during the Zhengzhi War, most of the generals were on duty in the camp, and the casualties were the least, but they will have to stay in the barracks temporarily in the future.

Although the shelling caused few casualties, it dealt a huge blow to Gaochang's military and political system. With so many officials lost, it was difficult to replenish them completely in a short time, and the successor also needed to be familiar with the situation.And some people also retreated at this time. They knew that the Song army's bombardment was obviously targeting military and political officials, and being an official had become a high-risk industry.

What's more serious is that some people began to be skeptical about whether they could hold the city, and asked the king to negotiate with the Song army and seek peace.But this was rejected by Bi Lege. He was not stupid to know that the Song army came all the way. It must not be idle. They came to take their own heads. Even if they surrendered, they might not be able to keep their position as the king, so they must persist to the end , Besides, the Song Army has not yet been able to break through the city!

One day after the truce, the Song army started the second round of bombardment. This time, they chose the handicraft workshop area all over Nancheng, especially the weapon and armor workshops, and metal smelting sites as the key targets. These are all potential war value Target.Then the bombardment turned to the trading places in the city, which was the foundation of Gaochang's continued prosperity and a key economic target supporting the war. Destroying them would have a long-lasting impact on Gaochang, and it also touched the most sensitive places of the powerful.

Fortunately, after the Song army blew up two large trading markets, they turned their targets to the roads and bridges in the city. Two days later, there was no smooth road in Nancheng. Let alone riding a car, even walking was full of ups and downs. , If you are not careful, you will fall to the ground.This not only makes it difficult for residents to travel, but also makes the army lose its mobility, making material transportation very difficult.

And then the most worrying thing happened. The Song Army turned its target to ordinary people and bombarded the gathering area of ​​the people with artillery, but the Song Army seemed to be merciful. They did not use incendiary bombs and more lethal fire. Instead, they bombarded the residential areas row upon row in the city with solid bullets.Although the damage caused was not large, panic was inevitable. Think about how terrifying it would be when a big iron ball suddenly fell from the sky and smashed a big hole in the roof. People began to flee to the temporarily safe North City. A petition in front of Miyagi, asking for peace with the Song Dynasty... (to be continued...)