Prince of Song Dynasty

Chapter 532 Xiazhou Prepares for War
Although Han Chengju is a Han, but before the founding of the Song Dynasty, he had a deadly feud with the current Emperor Zhao Kuangyin of the Song Dynasty, so even if he wanted to surrender to the Song Dynasty, it was difficult.It is precisely because of this that he chose to hide his name and seek refuge with Li Guangrui in the Northwest. In the past two years, although he has been left out in the cold, his ambition has not diminished. Chance.

There was a burst of hearty laughter outside the hall, and Li Jiyun strode in.

Han Chengju hurriedly stood up, took a step forward, crossed his hands and saluted, "The last general Han Chengju has seen the young master."

Without waiting for Han Cheng to hold the ceremony, Li Jiyun hurriedly stepped forward to help him, with a happy face, and said straight to the point: "General Han is free of the ceremony. I, Li Shi, have been negligent before. Please forgive me. Now General Han only needs to help me guard Xiazhou , I guarantee that General Han will enter the center in Xiazhou."

What Han Chengju was waiting for was his words, and he immediately showed the excitement of a soldier dying for his confidant, and said: "Master Jiedushi and the young master are both heroes on the northwest grassland. The skill of attack and defense, and the general has some experience in defending the city, and the Song army is besieging the city, and the general will go all out to help the young master defend the city of Xiazhou."

Upon hearing this, Li Jiyun nodded happily, stared at Han Chengju, and asked solemnly, "Is General Han sure?"

Han Chengju answered the wrong question: "The same force and the same military equipment, if commanded and dispatched by different people, the effect will be completely different. The last general is good at defending the city. If the last general assists the young master in deploying Xiazhou defense, Xiazhou will not be able to defend Xiazhou. It will be turned into an iron wall, even if the Song Dynasty dispatches a hundred thousand troops, it will be difficult for him to capture Xiazhou City in a year. What's more, if the Song Dynasty dispatches a hundred thousand troops, can it last for a year?"

Li Jiyun's eyes were piercing, staring at Han Chengju closely, his eyes gradually glowed.He knew in his heart that the Han Chengju in front of him was not someone who made a name for himself.

What was there in the Northern Han Dynasty?Without the danger of geographical advantage, and without a mighty teacher, the national power of the Northern Han Dynasty was far inferior to the Shu Kingdom that was first captured by the Song Dynasty. How could it be supported by Zhao Kuangyin's imperial whip?

The heroes of Zhao Kuangyin's generation went to the Northern Han Dynasty in person, came several times, and returned in defeat. Apart from the reason why the Khitan sent troops to help, it was because the Northern Han Dynasty had two famous generals, one was good at attacking and the other was good at defending.The one who is good at attacking is Yang Jiye, who is now known as Yang Wudi, who has defected to Song State, and the one who is good at defending is Han Chengju in front of him.

After a long night of talks between Han Chengju and Li Jiyun, it was finally decided that the full power of Xiazhou City Defense would be handed over to Han Chengju for specific deployment and command.

No one knew that in the past two years, Han Chengju, a famous general in the Northern Han Dynasty who was almost comparable to Yang Jiye, went to Xiazhou incognito. This matter has been listed as the top secret by Li Jiyun, and only his confidant generals know.Others only know that a famous young Han general who fled here in the Northern Han Dynasty the year before last took refuge in Xiazhou.But now this young general is fully in charge of Xiazhou's military defense deployment, and preparations for each order are under his deployment.

Building enemy towers, hanging altars, installing artillery seats, setting up crossbow beds, transporting bricks and stones, weeping wood, preparing fire oil, and all defensive tools were collected from the city for preparation.Under the management of the Li family for three years, and with the secret support of the Holy Church, Xiazhou has stored a large amount of military equipment that has never been used. Now all of them have been removed from the dusty arsenal and placed on the walls of the four cities. There are as many as 110 and three crossbows, with a distance of [-] steps. The arrows are like spears, which can penetrate the human body. If you use ordinary arrows, you can shoot dozens of arrows with one crossbow. The lethality is very terrifying.

Han Chengju never expected that Xiazhou would have such a wealthy family background. Thinking of the shabby state of the Han Kingdom with only a few counties and less than twenty chariots and crossbows nearly two years ago, he was filled with emotion.He patrolled the top of the city, and a large number of craftsmen came to accompany him. The city walls, city gates, urns, horse faces, bell towers, drum towers, watchtowers, crossbow towers, enemy towers... Everywhere Han Chengju pointed out, there was a craftsman. Respectfully, he went up to ask about the details, and immediately started to repair it overnight.

Yaksha rings are being placed on the top of the city, and the installed Yaksha rings are being thrown out of the city, and then retracted with a cable winch for the final test. Under the city, trenches are being dug in the same direction as the city wall, and large urns are placed every [-] steps. , half-buried upside down on the ground, used to listen to underground movements, and to defend the city's army from digging in.

Outside the city, the crude urn city is being repaired with rammed earth and stones. The craftsmen who widened the moat and built the Yangma City are in constant communication with Xiazhou's strong men. The person in charge of building this urn city is a Xiazhou army that was transferred back to take charge of the project. .

The Xiazhou army was originally some domineering old-fashioned soldiers, and they were not descendants when they went to battle to fight, but they have always been the supervisors of this kind of hard work of carrying soil and hammers and building city walls, urging the people to work Well, now, Han Chengju is forced to do this vulgar and lowly work because of the huge amount of work and the insufficient resources of the people. The time is only a few days, and they are forced to do this vulgar work. I can't lift my spirits.

Han Chengju had just explained to a craftsman leader where to place thorns and staghorn wood on the open ground outside the city; Putting a cloth antler gun and a bamboo stick in it, he couldn't help frowning when he saw this scene.

A confidant next to him who followed him to Xiazhou from the Northern Han Dynasty looked back at the group of craftsmen leaders, and whispered to Han Chengju: "General, the Xiazhou defenders can't strictly implement the general's orders now. I'm worried that even if the general arranges the city of Xiazhou like an iron wall, water can't get in, and needles can't be inserted, I'm afraid there will be serious troubles."

Han Chengju smiled bitterly and said: "I told Li Jiyun about this, but Li's subordinates have their own clans. If Li Guangrui was here, these people would dare not listen, but Li Jiyun is only the young master of Xiazhou after all, and he has a lot of scruples , and want to win people's hearts, so we have to treat them favorably, although he has given orders, but the people below are obedient and obedient, so what can we do?"

He gently stroked his beard, looked up at the sky, and said confidently: "You don't have to worry too much. Although Song people are good at attacking and defending cities, even if this Xiazhou is not perfect, the current situation does not need to be defended for long. I just need to easily guard for 20 days, and when Li Guangrui returns from Hengshan with [-] Xiazhou cavalry, the Song army will also return in defeat!"

However, Xiazhou's main force, the [-] iron cavalry, is not there now. Facing the Song army, which is good at attacking the city and has a superior number, the military villages outside Xiazhou city can't hold for long before being attacked one by one.As a result, in just five days, the Song Army's [-] troops had already appeared under Xiazhou City.

As Li Guangrui's old nest, Xiazhou's city walls are extremely strong and tall. It can be said that the city is steep, easy to defend and difficult to attack. There are [-] troops defending the city, and there are people like Han Chengju who are good at defending the city to coordinate secretly. Naturally, it is not so easy breached.

"These despicable Han pigs came to attack us while my father was leading [-] cavalry to attack Hengshan. It's really despicable and shameless." On the city wall of Xiazhou, a man had a bald head, braids hanging from his temples, and a band on each ear. With a huge golden ring, a short gown decorated with fur, leather boots and a scimitar, the Dangxiang Qiang, who was as majestic as a man and a bear, cursed fiercely.This person was Li Jiyun, but he didn't think about whether it was not despicable and shameless for Xiazhou to take advantage of the emptiness behind the Seventh Department of the Party to sneak attack on his lair.After Li Guangrui surrendered to the Song Dynasty three years ago, he was appointed by the Song Dynasty court to be the Jiedu Envoy of the National Dingjun Army. His eldest son, Li Jiyun, was also granted the title of Commander of the Yamen Capital and Minister of the Ministry of Education. Although it is a false title, it can be It is also a real third-rank official position.

Li Guangrui personally led 1 cavalry to sneak attack on the old nest of the Seven Departments of the Dangxiang, leaving [-] infantry led by his eldest son Li Jiyun to sit in Xiazhou.Li Jiyun is cautious in doing things, and he is brave and resourceful. Therefore, facing the loss of more than a dozen military villages outside, he resolutely did not send a single person, and directly ordered the last five military villages with a total of [-] troops to retreat, and voluntarily abandoned the five villages. , Concentrate its forces in Xiazhou.

Therefore, Xiazhou has [-] troops, and more than [-] tribesmen who can carry weapons are also in the city. Now that Han Chengju is helping, Li Jiyun is actually not very worried that Xiazhou will be breached.He had already sent a team to Hengzhou to report to Li Guangrui when the Song army broke through the three military strongholds on the front line. He believed that as long as he persisted for more than half a month, his father Li Guangrui would definitely come back with a big victory. Team up to defeat the Song army and take back the lost military territory. At the same time, maybe they can take the opportunity to seize a few small towns and villages of the Song army.

There was a bird whistle in the sky, and Hai Dongqing came out through the clouds, circled in the sky, recognized Ye Chen among the three thousand cavalry, and suddenly folded his wings and projected it down.The horseshoes ticked, and the three thousand cavalry were still walking in single file. Ye Chen took off the bamboo tube tied to Haidong Qing's feet, unplugged it, and poured out a roll of paper from it, unfolded it and read it carefully. He took a piece of charcoal from Huang Louping's hand, replied a few words on the note, stuffed it into the bamboo tube again, tied it to Haidongqing's feet, waved his arms, and Haidongqing spread his wings and flew away.

Only then did Ye Chen wave his hand to stop the army, took out the map and glanced at it, turned his head and said to the left and right: "Hei Yue, take four hundred black cavalry to the southeast of the canyon and wait, Xiazhou sent a team About 200 people, the cavalry who reported to Li Guangrui will pass by after a stick of incense, you lead people to kill most of them, and then capture about [-] people alive and bring them to me, I will be of great use."

Hei Yue led the order and left quickly with four hundred black cavalry.Ye Chen looked up and watched Hai Dongqing gradually disappear from his field of vision, then looked down at the map carefully, and began to determine the exact location of the next target based on the information that Hu Sanguang had just asked Hai Dongqing to send.

(End of this chapter)