Dawn of the Empire

Chapter 345 A Thousand Miles Away (4)

At the head of Nanshan City, Zhang Pu had just repelled an attack from the Liao army, and Zhang Pu sat down behind the battlements panting.Looking out from the crenel, there were corpses everywhere under the city, tattered flags strewn all over the place, the ground was dark red, and the blood hadn't completely dried up yet, and new blood dripped onto the ground.

"Damn it, Liaogou is really crazy. Why not take your own life?" The soldier next to him scolded.

"It's not worth taking your own life," Zhang Ting shook his head, "but if we continue to do this, we will definitely destroy our cannons." Originally, it was impossible for the Liao army to climb the city, but now, the hot guns are all on board. The head of the city is ready for hand-to-hand combat.He no longer paid attention to the others, and was thinking about things while wiping his gun.

After General Zhao personally bestowed the name last time, Zhang Ting's heart was very hot for a while, but General Zhao didn't do anything special to take care of him, which made Zhang Ting's heart beat again.He thought about it, he never killed the enemy, and he never made any mistakes. The only possibility was that he couldn't control the women sent by Lieutenant Li last time, so he had a good time.Afterwards, I heard that General Zhao was very dissatisfied with this matter.Zhang Tie was full of remorse at the time, and wished to chop off his stuff, and finally carved his name in the general's mind, but now, alas... there is a knife on the word 'se', which is It's the bloody bad luck of eight lifetimes.

In a trance, the soldier next to him shouted: "Run!"

A shadow came from the sky, Zhang Tie subconsciously jumped up from the ground, and almost threw himself into the corridor under the city platform. Before he could catch his breath, he heard a loud "Boom—" The bullet just hit the top of the city wall, smashing the ground into a depression, and the whole Nanshan city seemed to tremble a few times. The stone bullet weighing more than 100 kilograms jumped up under the action of inertia, and was aimed at the gunners. The passageway where he was hiding came crashing down.

"Climb!" Zhang Tie didn't have time to stand up, just lay on the ground, and ran in desperately. The stone bullet hit the top with a "bang", dust was flying everywhere in the corridor, and the gunner inside was coughing, While desperately crawling inside.Zhang Tie spat out the dirt from his mouth with a "puff - puff - puff -" and cursed: "Don't run, don't run, get out, get out! The dog is going to the top of the city!"

While shouting, he rushed out to hide behind the battlements, and looked out from the crenels at the head of the city. Sure enough, the Liao army of the brigade had already rushed out of the advancing fortress ditch.The Liao army ignited a large amount of thick smoke in the upwind direction, and drifted downwind to Nanshan City. The thick smoke was mixed with some unknown dust, which not only had a foul smell, but if the Han army accidentally inhaled it or got it in their eyes, they would immediately die. Choked out tears and snot.

The cannons in the two fortresses fired continuously, and the cannonballs hit the battlements, making the sound of "ping, ping, ping, ping, ping, ping, ping, ping, ping, ping, ping, ping, ping, ping, ping, ping, ping, ping, ping-pong." The other gunmen hid in the corridor and watched him. The pawn has not yet rushed to the front.The longer the musketeers stayed on the city wall, the more danger they would be killed by the Liao army's bullets, so only one or two people were sent to watch behind the battlements, and the others had to wait until the most critical moment before rushing out.

The rough wooden beams were rattled by stone bullets, and dust is still falling down.Fortunately, the accuracy of the giant iron barrel cannon of the Liao army is really limited, and it is impossible to achieve an accurate hit. Otherwise, such a stone bullet weighing several hundred kilograms can also collapse the hollow enemy platform.Buried the gunners of the Han army alive in it.

However, Zhao Xingde no longer cared about how many giant shells the enemy platform could withstand. His eyes were bloodshot, and he stared at the advancing Liao army without blinking.

About [-] steps away from Nanshan City, the Liao army had already built the first artillery fortress, and the cannonballs fired from there could be scattered on the top of Nanshan City.The Han army repeatedly attacked these fortifications with iron barrel cannon rounds, killing many Liao army gunners and damaging many artillery pieces, but the Liao army always quickly rebuilt the fortifications and destroyed them Build stronger.

And about [-] steps behind the first fortress, almost out of the firing range of the artillery at the head of the Han army, is the second artillery fortress of the Liao army. Iron barrel cannons, the largest one fired stone bullets weighing more than [-] catties.Fortunately, Nanshan City was built short and small, and the error of this iron barrel cannon was as huge as its power, like throwing dice. The heavy stone bullets sometimes hit the city wall, sometimes fell inside the city, and sometimes fell on the city wall. Besides, there is always no certainty.Otherwise, even a deliberately thickened city wall would be difficult to withstand its continuous bombardment.

The Liao army that was besieging the city was arranged in a phalanx of four to 500 people, carrying all kinds of siege equipment. After so many days, they have completely 'fumbled' the range of the artillery at the top of the city, including all kinds of ammunition. The 'shot' range of the 'medicine'.As long as they are outside the shooting range of the shotgun, the officers of the Liao army will try their best to restrain the soldiers from marching in the queue.

The two trenches outside Nanshan City have been completely filled, and the Liao army is still trying to pile up soil outside the city wall to form mountains. Every siege soldier carries a bag of soil on his back. Bodies also piled up.The newly arrived Liao army did not collect the corpses of the soldiers who died in battle at all, and even used trebuchets to throw some festering corpses into the city.If it wasn't for the weather where the dripping water turned into ice, the plague would have already broken out in Nanshan City.

In the field of vision of the telescope, the face of the Liao army is still full of fear, but the whole appearance presents a disturbing desperation and numbness. "Could it be that he is numb to death?" Zhao Xingde immediately shouted, "Fire!" just as the Liao army entered the firing range of the round bullets.

The artillery at the top of the city roared immediately, and the round bullets flew across the continuous battlefield with a howling sound. Some passed through the gaps in the Liao army's phalanx, and some penetrated directly into the dense Liao army crowd. Wherever it passed, there were casualties, like a flesh and blood alley. After the shells passed through the crowd, the castration was not complete, and with a "bang", it smashed a deep hole on the ground.

The Liao army next to the formation turned pale and tried not to look aside, but the choking smell of blood permeated the air, and the screams and wailing in the ears made the marching Liao army unbearable. Live turned to look.The shells passed through the marching Liao army from above obliquely, and the few headless corpses were hit in the head by the flying shells.Liao Jun was hit in the waist, abdomen, and chest. His body was almost broken in half, and his internal organs were all over the floor.And those who howled the loudest were those who were grazed by shells and did not hurt these vital parts, but some wounded with missing arms and legs.

The officers of the Liao army with pale faces had soy-sized beads of sweat running down their necks. They held on, pulled out their waist knives and shouted loudly: "Don't mess around—" "Just move forward—" "Don't look—" —” Occasionally, he slammed the handle of the knife on those slow-footed soldiers.

A Liao army who was almost hit by a shell was frightened and stupid. He was trembling as he walked, his teeth were "clucking and clucking", and feces and urine flowed all the way down the trousers.The Liao soldiers in the front, back, left and right turned a blind eye. At this time, everyone just had the courage to regard themselves as fools, deaf and blind, and followed the team in a daze, no one could control the other.This is also the reason why the Liao army still has to march forward despite the powerful artillery of the Han army. If they disperse at the beginning, I am afraid that these soldiers will run back after a short walk.

The battlefield was filled with gunpowder smoke caused by artillery fire from both sides. Every time the besieging Liao army advanced dozens of steps, a few people rushed out from the formation, took off their back pockets, and poured some dry dung and sulfur on the ground. The ground was lit, emitting thick smoke with a pungent smell.As the Liao army approached, there was more and more smoke and dust on the battlefield, and it was getting closer and closer to Nanshan City.When the Liao army entered the range of two hundred steps from Nanshan City, the artillerymen on the top of the city skillfully replaced the cannonballs, leaning one by one in the enemy group.

The formation of the advancing Liao army is getting more and more chaotic. Under the impact of hail-like shotgun shells, the courage of the Liao army is about to bottom out.Every time the artillery at the top of the city fires shotgun shells, it is equivalent to more than 100 musketeers firing at the same time. Although the scattered iron bullets are small, they are enough to penetrate most armors at this distance.Leaves a horribly large hole in the body of the person hit.Amidst the "嗖——嗖——嗖——" shotguns flew across, finally a Liao army could not hold on to its policy. I don't know who led it and shouted Khitan words, and then started to "crash" from the left wing. Running back, this rout caused the two phalanxes next to them to collapse together. "Don't retreat!" "Stop—" "Stop—" an officer shouted loudly, "Aren't you afraid of General Xiao's crime?" It couldn't stop anymore, two officers were killed by the 'rebellion' army on the spot, and the rest dared not stop them, and were coerced by the 'rebellion' army and retreated.

The Han army on the top of the city let out a burst of cheers, turned their cannons, and concentrated on bombarding the Liao army phalanx that was still holding on to the battlefield.Every time the flames flickered on the top of the city, a rain of bullets was poured out, falling on the crumbling formation of the Liao army with a sharp whistling sound.

Behind the first battery of the Liao army, more than 1000 horses were lying on their sides on the ground, and the cavalry squatted beside the horses, waiting for the order to attack.The lieutenant general on duty, Xiao Ping, was chewing the grass stalks in his mouth, listening to the sound of the cannon from the top of the city, but his eyes were looking at a stick of incense placed on the ground. The incense burned slowly and evenly, and there were scales of different lengths on it. , when the last scale is burned, immediately continue to add another one that is just burning the first scale.Xiao Ping waited for the moment when the most artillery fires based on the firing speed of the cannons at the top of the city, as well as the intensity of the current firings.The cavalry rode their horses to sprint at the fastest speed, from [-] steps away to [-] steps below the city, it only took a very short time.

Suddenly, Xiao Ping's eyes lit up, he spit out the grass stalk in his mouth with a "pop", and shouted loudly: "Everyone get on the horse! Go! Go!" He stepped on the horse, and the horse seemed to understand human nature, immediately Standing up from the ground, almost at the same time as the owner raised the rein, he jumped up with his hind hoofs and rushed out.