Dawn of the Empire

Chapter 330 Returning to Xianyang with full rank (15)

The east gradually showed a fishy belly, and a sleepy Han army watchman looked outside the battlement, his face suddenly turned pale.Not far from Nanshan City, the Liao army is out of camp.Under the shining of the rising sun, the boundless armor is dazzling, and the swords and guns are shining on the sun.The front of the Liao army was extremely wide. The area to the east of Nanshan City was only more than ten miles wide. Looking around, it seemed that the other places were filled by the Liao army except that there were no Liao troops for more than three miles by the sea.The barracks and cavalry formations were layered on top of each other, and there were countless soldiers and horses moving back and forth between the battalions.

Against the backdrop of the narrow battlefield and the small Nanshan City, the formation of the Liao Army appeared boundless and extremely strong.The banners of various ministries are flying in the formation, and the front formation is Xi Jun's infantry wearing iron armor, forming a solid formation.Cannon fortresses loomed in the middle of the formation, and the black muzzles of iron barrel guns were aimed at the head of the city. A large number of Khitan soldiers had already dismounted, surrounded by various siege equipment, waiting for the order to attack.

Although the Liao army has not yet attacked the city, such a strong force has put great pressure on the Han army invisibly.From the large formation of the Liao army, loud shouts of soldiers and peasants pushing catapults and siege vehicles, shouts of officers' protracted orders, and the sound of horseshoes sometimes approaching and sometimes far away, could be heard from time to time. The Han army on the top of the city could hear these movements clearly, but every time they stood on tiptoe to look around, they only saw the endless barracks and formation.

The artillery barracks of the Liao army tried to fire shells from time to time. Accompanied by the roar of the cannons, the iron bullets drew arcs of different heights and passed over the top of Nanshan City.Seeing the artillery shells coming, the Han soldiers crouched on the ground with their necks curled up, while the Liao troops below the city laughed loudly. Even the howling north wind seemed to be cheering the Liao troops.

In the horse-faced fort in the north of Nanshan City, everyone's face was covered with a dignified atmosphere.Tong Yunjie looked at the seemingly endless enemy troops through the long and narrow embrasures, and said in a low voice: "General Zhao is responsible for the overall situation of Liaodong, so he can supervise the battle from behind, and there is no need to come in person." He has a plan to live and die with Nanshan.In the Han army defending the city, there were only more than 500 artillerymen, plus more than a thousand gunners, more than a thousand archers, and five hundred shieldmen.In front of the powerful Liao army, this little strength is really not worth mentioning.

In front of the menacing Liao army, Nanshan City, which was defended by a mere three thousand Han troops, was like a stone standing in front of the wheel. As long as the wheel rolled forward, it could be crushed to pieces at any time.Nanshan City is not even as good as a stone, because it is almost entirely made of clay, to be precise, it is just a slightly larger piece of dirt, under the wheels, maybe it is only worthy of being crushed and turned into dust.

Liu Zhijian glanced at Zhao Xingde, hesitant to speak, in his heart, he was not optimistic about Nanshan City, even fortified cities like Huanglong and Liaoyang, under the attack of the army, it is hard to say that they are impenetrable, although Nanshan City can be said to be Zhao Xiaowei personally Planning and building, but whether such a small city can be defended really makes people feel a little bit unsure.

Zhao Xingde also squinted his eyes and observed the Liao army in the distance.The embrasures of the enemy towers are long and narrow rectangles, but the field of view is sufficient.Unlike Bianliang City, which erected iron barrel cannons on the city wall, Nanshan City erected the artillery in a fort about five feet above the ground, supported by thick wooden piles, and there was more than three feet of rammed earth on the top. Fired from the fort, you can not be afraid of the enemy's arrows.

"Liu Dutou and I stayed in this city, Captain Zhao should supervise the battle from behind." Jian Cheng also said in a deep voice.Du Chuijiao's face turned pale, and he echoed, "Captain Zhao."

Before Du Chuijiao finished speaking, Zhao Xingde spoke up and asked, "Why should I leave?"

All the generals looked at each other, not knowing how to answer, so they went to listen to him and said slowly, "Is this city as small as a pile of eggs? Why, in my opinion, it is as stable as Mount Tai." Between the two enemy towers, on the front of the city wall that is most likely to be attacked by the enemy, he asked in a deep voice: "Zhijian, if the Liao army ants attack the city, how many people can survive in this place?"

Liu Zhijian looked out along his fingers, hesitated for a moment, and replied: "About 2000 people." Because Nanshan City is small, the area under the city wall is extremely narrow. Equipment, that small piece of land, can only accommodate more than 2000 people.

Zhao Xingde nodded, and asked again: "Assuming that he has 2000 people fighting to the death, and the enemy platforms on both sides are firing shotgun shells at full speed, how long will it take to kill them all?" There was a slight chill in his words.Liu Zhijian couldn't help shivering, repeating the question "How long will it take to kill 2000 people?" In his mind, he was familiar with artillery and soon discovered that it really didn't take long.Five iron barrel cannons were arranged on the enemy platforms on both sides, and each iron shell contained more than a hundred shotguns.Ten iron barrel guns fired at full speed and fired a rain of bullets across the city, but the Liao army rushed to the city huddled together, with nowhere to hide. When there were many casualties, could they really not retreat?

"There are only so many people under Nanshan City. No matter how many Liao troops there are, there will be no room for extra space. Iron barrel cannons can kill them to the maximum, and the killing speed is faster than the speed at which the enemy can replenish them. As long as there are enough shells and enough food and grass, Nanshan City will be as stable as Mount Tai." Zhao Xingde said expressionlessly, "Why should I leave?"

"Really, really?" Du Chuijiao was a little dizzy. He felt that Captain Zhao's words made sense, but he still hesitated when he looked at the boundless enemy army in the distance.

Zhao Xingde didn't scold him, but asked: "Blowing the horn, there are twelve hours in a day, the water flows downhill, and the four seasons alternate cold and heat, just like when people are hungry, they have to eat, when they are sleepy, they have to sleep, and when they eat the wrong food, they have diarrhea. Same. These can’t be wrong, right?” Du Chuijiao thought for a while and replied, “It’s natural.”

Zhao Xingde nodded and said: "Naturally, it is the way of heaven. The way of heaven is permanent, no matter wise or foolish, strong or weak, it treats everyone the same. If the people of Liao Kingdom only know how to attack the city with ants, they will definitely not be able to conquer Nanshan City." His words carried With an unquestionable tone, Du Chuijiao nodded vigorously again.It has to be said that when the generals felt strange about this language similar to a magic stick, they actually felt his inexplicable confidence from "Tao", which to some extent alleviated the fear of the Liao army.

"The way of heaven is permanent, it does not exist for Yao, and does not perish for Jie." Zhao Xingde said in a low voice, as if talking to himself, but also as if he was cheering up the generals.Within his field of vision, the Liao army had begun to speed up the bombardment. Huge stone bullets flew over the top of Nanshan City in an arc, and occasionally a few directly hit the wall of Nanshan City. The sound of "bang" and "bang" was very dull.The Liao army's bombardment continued. Zhao Xingde estimated that the Liao army fired at least hundreds of various stone bullets ranging from a few kilograms to tens of kilograms, and some stone bullets thrown by trebuchets were also mixed in.

However, the Liao army did not carry a giant iron barrel cannon that could fire hundreds of catties of stone bullets. These stone bullets could not destroy the thickened rammed earth city walls, and many of them even bounced off the sloped walls.The shells that happened to fall on the top of the city wall and inside the city caused very little damage, because there was almost nothing on the city wall except for a few soldiers, and there was only bare ground in the city.Except that the barracks of the Han army were built against the reverse slope of the city wall, and ammunition and water were stored in cellars several feet deep. The Han army could even pass through short tunnels to reach the city walls without going through the ground.

On the other hand, because Nanshan City occupies a condescending advantage, the range of the artillery shells is farther than that of the Liao army, and with the help of Chai Yi, Zhao Xingde has already pre-calibrated and test-fired the various places where the Liao army may erect artillery fortifications. gist.The artillery barracks of the Liao army were continuously hit by the heavy artillery in Nanshan City. The artillery battalion suffered heavy casualties. Not only did they lose dozens of artillery pieces, but the remaining shells became bigger and more inaccurate. Many of them flew over the top of Nanshan City. , I don't know where the call went.

About an hour later, Yelu Yanshan, the commander of the Liao army, also saw that something was wrong, and he couldn't think of any other way except calling Wu Chun, the supervisor of the Artillery Battalion, and whipping him a few times.Seeing that he could not expect to be able to open Nanshan City with artillery alone, he ordered to attack the city wall, and the more than ten thousand Xi troops in the front line immediately pressed up.

The hills where Nanshan City is located are gentle, and Xi Jun's movements are not fast. Among the more than [-] troops, there are various siege equipment mixed with cattle and horses. Although the speed is not fast, they come all over the mountains and plains.The artillery at the top of the city seemed to be dumb. The lookout post of the Han army watched Xi Jun advance from the foot of the mountain to the front of the first ditch, and was about to build the Hao Bridge, but found that although the ditch was very shallow, it was very deep It is so wide that the ordinary Hao bridge can't reach the opposite side at all.Xi Jun could only temporarily stop in front of the trench, and first used the original Hao bridge and soil to fill in a road that could allow other siege equipment to pass through. This delay was another half an hour.Such a slow speed made Yelu Yanshan, who was watching the battle from a distance, very angry.

Under the urging of the generals, when the oxen and horses pulled the chariots and ladders through the ditch, the Xi army infantry jumped down the ditch one by one, raised their shields and continued to move forward.The trench dug by the Han army is quite strange. The side facing the bottom of the mountain is extremely shallow, but the bottom of the trench is deliberately dug into an inverted slope, so that the side facing the mountain goes deeper, so the Xi army in front has not yet climbed. Going up the ditch, the one behind jumped down easily, and for a while, the whole ditch was almost crowded with Xi soldiers and horses pushing and shoving.

At the bottom of the ditch, a window was opened by an earth barrier, revealing the black muzzle of the gun. More than a dozen artillerymen stayed in it for a long time, and finally saw the light of day, and some people took a deep breath. , looked at the Liao army huddled together, and asked suspiciously: "Here, do you still need to aim?" The back of the forehead was slapped immediately, and the people behind cursed: "Get out of the way, fire! Fire!"