back to ancient times to be emperor

Chapter 75 You Have Zhang Liangji

Yelu Zhongyuan did not expect that the land filling tactic he thought of with all his heart would cause so many casualties.Even though the Han army died the most on this day, the soldiers of other tribes also lost a lot.On the contrary, the horse bows of the Khitan cavalry rarely caused damage to the frontier troops on the city wall.Because they didn't bring the siege weapon - the catapult - this time, it's really not enough to see the bridges and ladders alone.Coupled with the experience of the frontier army, they erected wooden plaques, grate fences, leather bamboo fences, and city shields early on to prevent arrows from Khitan cavalry.Therefore, even if the Khitan cavalry fired all their arrows, they would do very little damage to the frontier troops on the city wall.

Consuming soldiers in this way, not to mention the three-foot-high Youzhou city on the mound, even if they rushed back and forth under the city wall, they would lose a lot of soldiers and horses.Although Yelu Zhongyuan was not good at leading troops, he could still see this obvious problem.

In desperation, Yelu Zhongyuan began to adjust his tactics, and did not intend to use that stupid method. If he fought like this, it would be tantamount to sending the soldiers under the arrows of the frontier army.No matter how stupid Yelu Chongyuan is to send him to his death like this, he would never do it.

While ordering people to go back to the Liao Kingdom to transport more siege equipment, he asked the Han army to cut down trees a hundred miles away to make ladders for the next wave of siege.At this time, Xiao Feng saw the problem, that is, the Khitan army's food and grass were not enough.

It is not a simple matter to feed and drink a hundred thousand troops.Even if the Khitan army has never had any logistical pressure, it is based on the means of "strike the grass valley" to replenish military supplies during wartime.Khitan soldiers were originally both warriors and herdsmen, and generally did not need special military supplies.But that was decades ago. Are the current Khitan cavalry still the same?No, the military supplies of the current Khitan army are gradually increasing. Although they only account for two or three out of ten, they should not be underestimated.

This time, Yelu Zhongyuan was eager to make contributions, and didn't even ask for supplies, so he hurriedly gathered troops and set off.Even if the Khitan cavalry can drink horse milk and eat cheese (that is, cheese) to maintain food sources, there are not many mares in the army, which is just a drop in the bucket.

Although the Khitan cavalry prepared their own food, they did not bring much.There are too many things they need to bring to the expedition: four bows, four hundred arrows, long and short spears, bones, axes, small flags, hammer cones, flint stones, horse bowls, fried buckets, sandbags, hook felts One for each umbrella, two hundred feet of rope for the horse... With so many things, they have to be placed on top of the horses. Even if each person has almost three or four horses, the consumption of horsepower is still very high.With another month's worth of food, the burden will be even greater.In addition, although there are aquatic plants outside Youzhou City, they are not abundant, and the horsepower is rapidly reduced.

Coupled with Dashun's strategy of fortifying the wall and clearing the wilderness, and the principle of not letting the Khitan people get a grain of food, the Khitan people have to go deep into the border of Youzhou even to forage the grass. I am afraid that they will not be interested in this work in front of the steep mountains. interest.

Xiao Feng noticed this problem, but he also thought it was nothing.The Khitan people are used to preparing their own military food, usually enough for a month, as long as they capture Youzhou City within a month.No matter how bad it is, wait until about 20 days before retreating, and the remaining food will be squeezed, and you can insist on returning to the border of Liao.If you go hunting or something along the way, you can always find something to eat.They never worry about food and grass.

This is also one of the fundamental reasons why the Han people have been unable to defeat the nomads.There are countless battle examples in the military books, which talk about how to cut off food and force the enemy to confuse themselves.But the Khitan people don't have a special grain team, so how can they cut off their grain roads and destroy their grain?Without this big killer, the Han people would fall into a hard battle, and it was a tough battle to defend the city, and they dared not attack easily.

In the early morning of the next day, the Khitans launched another siege.This time it was not the Han army, because the Han army was almost completely lost, Yelu Zhongyuan ordered them to cut down trees to make siege equipment, and did not go into battle again.

Most of these siege soldiers are composed of soldiers from the Bohai, Xi, Shiwei, Jurchen and other tribes. Of course, there are also many Khitans.

It has to be said that the bravery of these nomads is many times more fierce than the Han army a few days ago.Even the frontier soldiers were shocked by their fearless appearance.Especially when I saw a Jurchen soldier with no less than seven or eight arrow feathers stuck in his body, he rushed up the ladder desperately, and finally bled too much and died of exhaustion.But his bravery greatly boosted the morale of the siege army, and the momentum of the frontier army declined for a while.

The Khitan army doesn't have many ladders left, only a dozen or so.Zhu Daguang didn't dare to hide it anymore, and ordered someone to push out the fierce fire oil tank and burn the ladder with fire.

The fierce fire oil tank is indeed a big killer. The clever Han people applied the principle of pyrotechnics to siege equipment.It uses fierce fire oil (that is, petroleum) as fuel, and uses cooked copper as the cabinet. There are four legs on the bottom and four or four copper tubes on the top.The front of the pump is equipped with a "fire building", which contains gunpowder.When launching, ignite the primer in the "fire building" with a red-hot burning cone, and then pull the pump vigorously to compress the air into the oil tank, so that when the fierce fire hole is ejected through the "fire building", it will ignite when heated and become a raging flame. , used to burn the enemy and incinerate war equipment.The fierce fire oil tanks used by Zhu Daguang's orders are small flamethrowers, and copper gourds are used instead of oil tanks to facilitate portability and movement.

The Chinese discovered oil a long time ago, and its indestructible property has aroused great interest in the Chinese people.The clever Chinese quickly combined the principle of pyrotechnics, used oil as a weapon, and produced a "fierce fire oil tank" whose principle is very similar to today's flamethrowers.

As soon as this big weapon came out, it immediately reversed the situation on the battlefield, the Khitan army was furious, and the morale of the border troops was greatly boosted.Especially after some siege soldiers were stained with oil, they couldn't put it out, and fell to the ground screaming, tossing and turning in pain, until they were burned to ashes and carbon.Seeing this tragedy, the siege soldiers could no longer gather morale and retreated.Seven or eight ladders were also burned down, and only three or four were retreated.

Even if the Khitan warlord killed a lot of frightened soldiers from other tribes, they couldn't stop the tide of defeated soldiers. Yelu Zhongyuan was so angry that he was about to attack the city wall, but the fire ruined his good deed.

But the army was defeated like a mountain, so he had to rein in the troops, gather the defeated soldiers, and take a rest.

This battle lasted only one morning, and Youzhou City was in danger, and Zhu Daguang felt a little palpitated.If it weren't for the fact that the Khitan people had never seen a fierce oil tank, it might not be easy to repel such brave soldiers.

He inspected the frontier troops on the city wall, ordered the defense to be replaced, the reserve team was replaced, and the exhausted frontier troops were replaced to rest.With many years of combat experience, he knew that the Khitan's offensive would be even more violent in the afternoon.

(End of this chapter)