Prince of Song Dynasty

Chapter 536 Breaking the City in Three Days

Today, Huang Louping entered the city and issued an order to these Xifu spies and killers. The content of this order is also what they have repeatedly prepared to do these days.However, before entering the city, Huang Louping got some of the latest research results from the Weapons Department of the Huaxia Weifu headquarters from Lian Jicheng. There are several kinds of poisons developed by Boring himself, and it is also like a burning substance that is difficult to extinguish.

Under Ye Chen's order, the Northwest Frontier Army and the Fuzhou and Linzhou armies maintained a consistent offensive and defensive pace, coordinated with the pace of operations, and continued to attack the city normally. Except for some adjustments to the tight city defense, there was nothing too big. The changes, and the Xiazhou defenders will not be able to see Ye Chen's arrival from these changes.

In the past two years, Ye Chen has participated in or commanded many large and small wars. Except for field battles, most of them were sieges. Especially last year when he attacked the Southern Han Dynasty, he personally led an army, which accumulated a wealth of experience for him. and experience.

Therefore, he was not very proficient in defending the city when he was besieged in Shilibao two days ago, but now he is an expert in attacking the city.Coupled with the confidence in their hearts, the confidence in their hearts, and the orderliness of command and dispatch, the three commanders of the Northwest Frontier Army, Zhe Yuxun and Yang Chongxun, admired them very much, but they also became more and more puzzled.They secretly speculated how Ye Chen broke the city?
The huge stones fired by the trebuchet smashed the top of Xiazhou city into ruins, and the defenders took refuge in the Tibetan cave.It was not until the trebuchet stopped firing that it regained control of the city.At this time, the Song army did not hesitate to consume arrows, and the overwhelming rain of arrows fell on the city wall of Xiazhou.However, Han Chengju, who was in charge of defending the city, is well-known for defending the city. There are many movable square-shaped sheds on the top of the city. These are shelters made of giant wood and cowhide. The cowhide is soft and tough. After the arrow is shot at a parabolic angle, it can no longer pose a threat to the soldiers hidden in the curtain, but the soldiers hidden in it can observe the movement of the army outside the city in time, and then deploy to the meeting point.

This way of fighting consumes arrows and siege equipment extremely quickly for the attacking side, but the losses of soldiers on the side are greatly reduced.However, since Ye Chen wanted to prevent the defenders of Xiazhou from being suspicious because of the obvious change in the attack rhythm of the Song army, which would affect the subsequent plan, the normal siege would still have to continue, but some losses could not be avoided.

"Let go of the arrows and prepare to attack the city!"

The flag fluttered on the watchtower, rows of crossbows aimed at the city wall, hammers hit the teeth, and short crossbows with thick forearms screamed at the city wall with a roar that pierced the eardrums, and rows of nails were nailed into the thick Walls, when soldiers rush to the city walls, they can use them to climb and climb.

Teams of soldiers stood behind the cowhide curtains, pushing the folding bridge with wooden wheels, and the trench filling trucks rushed forward under the cover of arrows. The moat of Xiazhou City had been widened and deepened, but the water flow Ye Chen sent people to go upstream to cut it off, leaving only about a foot of accumulated water in the moat, and a giant pole with a sharply cut tip was exposed in the water.

"crunch"

Although the cutting shaft and the pulley had already been oiled, they still made the sound of toothache when they turned quickly. The skillful craftsmen of the Song Dynasty Army Supervisor followed the research and invention of the Huaxia Weifu Weapons Department. Go up, then turn the noose, extend the other half of the folded bridge forward, and put it on the opposite river bank.Ten moat bridges form a bridge deck with a width of fifteen feet, which has turned the entire moat into a flat ground.

This kind of flying bridge was one of the inventions of Huaxia Weifu Weapons Department last year. At that time, according to Ye Chen's order, he directly handed over the drawings to the Privy Council. At that time, Song Emperor Zhao Kuangyin had issued a decree to reward the Weapons Department, and according to Ye Chen's request, the craftsman who invented this flying bridge was directly rewarded with the rank of eighth rank official.

At that time, this incident caused a small sensation in the Weapons Department. For countless years, in all dynasties, no ordinary craftsman has ever been able to obtain an official in this way.The Weapons Department tried to recruit skilled craftsmen from all walks of life from all over the world, and they began to rack their brains and carry out various inventions, researches and creations as if they had been beaten with chicken blood.So much so that even without Yu Qingyan's hosting, they invented a lot of good things under the inspiration of some theoretical basis and some ideas provided by Ye Chen.For example, the stone mine that Ye Chen used in the Southern Tang Dynasty; the explosive power is extremely impressive, and it can already be made into granular gunpowder; the accuracy and long-distance have been greatly improved, but there is no catapult for the troops; the research progress is a bit slow The hot air balloon; Ye Chen has been looking forward to but has not yet invented and researched weapons like grenades in later generations, and so on.

Because Cao Bin, deputy envoy of the Privy Council, presided over it personally, the flying bridge produced by the Weapons Department of the Huaxia Weifu has been equipped with troops after being produced by the Military Weapons Supervisor.

The arrows at the head of the "Tuk Tuk Tuk" city were replaced with rockets, and instead of shooting people, they shot at the bridge deck. However, at that time, the researchers of the Huaxia Weifu Weapons Department had already considered these conventional attacks. Most of the bridge decks were wrapped in iron sheets. Arrows are hard to hurt unless they are baked by a big fire. Like the flame on the arrow, it cannot shoot through the bridge deck, so it is difficult to play a role.

"Kill, kill, kill!" A large group of soldiers ran across the trench bridge holding their shields, carrying carbine guns and antlers.

The crossbowmen stood far away, relying on their superior crossbows to carry out the final suppression to the top of the city. Apart from the giant crossbows on the city, even if ordinary bows and arrows could be shot in front of them, it was very difficult to happen. The killing effect has been achieved, so they have no scruples at all, and carry out suppressive attacks wantonly.

The soldiers quickly set up horse-repelling guns and antler formations near the city gate, because during the siege, even if the attacker had cavalry, it would be difficult for the attacker to get close to the city, but the city and the urn outside the city gate could send out light cavalry at any time Soldiers, so obstacles should be placed near the city gates to prevent them from being attacked.Due to the suppression and cover of the rear crossbow arrows, the defenders on the city did not dare to stand up and shoot arrows at will. The scattered arrows only injured a few soldiers. These soldiers set up obstacles, and a large number of ladders were pushed through the trench. bridge.

The siege equipment of Zhejia in Fuzhou and Yangjia in Linzhou is much simpler than that of the Northwest Frontier Army. The trench bridge bridge deck they cross the moat is narrow, and the whole wooden structure is vulnerable to fire. Like the ladders of the Northwest Frontier Army, there are handrails on both sides and parapets on the top, which can protect the siege soldiers to the greatest extent.This kind of ladder is also the research result of the Huaxia Weifu Weapons Department. According to Ye Chen's intention, the Weapons Department researched large-scale siege or defense equipment without building it by itself, and directly dedicated the drawings and methods to the Privy Council. After verification by the Privy Council, it is indeed useful After that, the Privy Council will give credit to the Weapons Department from the court and the emperor.On the one hand, this is because there is no need to build large-scale equipment in the Huaxia Weifu itself, and on the other hand, it is also to prevent Ye Chen's enemies in Yushitai and some courts from using this as an excuse to reflect on the aspect of "rebellion and loyalty", thus making the emperor treat Ye Chen Chen and Huaxia Weifu became suspicious.

If an ordinary ladder is placed on the city wall, countless rams with a length of several feet will be protruded from the city. If the ladder is not stable, many of them will be pushed down by the rams, and many soldiers with ants attached to it will crash to the ground. .For example, this kind of situation often happened when the Zhe family in Fuzhou and the Yang family in Linzhou attacked the city in the past few days.

On the wall where the Northwest Frontier Army is mainly attacking, although the Northwest Frontier Army has limited troops and horses, their advanced weapons have enabled their attack to exert a powerful effect. When the hook on the top of the ladder hits the wall, it bites firmly. When the city wall was tightened, the ram could not break it at all, and the siege soldiers could climb at full speed without taking care of the ladders. Many soldiers also climbed up with their long knives in their mouths with the help of stepping arrows shot at the city wall.

However, once the defenders found that the opponent's ladder could not be knocked away, the flag in the city flashed, and suddenly many black long barrels were pushed out. Ye Chen stood on the nest car and watched from a distance, only seeing the black long barrels Long tongues of flame suddenly spewed out from the front end, and the flames landed on the ladder and immediately attached a piece, burning violently. I couldn't help but be speechless. I didn't expect Xiazhou to even have a flamethrower?He had learned from Wu Batian, the Sixth Elder of the Holy Church who had escaped, that there was also a research institute for weapons and equipment inside the Holy Church.At this moment, he couldn't help thinking that this kind of flamethrower was probably provided by the Holy Church to Li Guangrui in Xiazhou.

Ye Chen has the scientific experience of later generations, and he can tell at a glance that this weapon is really like a clumsy flamethrower, and it is indeed a weapon for defending the city.And he can also think that the so-called fierce fire is actually the burning of oil in later generations, but in this era it is still called fierce fire oil. The cylinder can compress the air, and the people in it will rot, and the water can't be extinguished, so it has great lethality.

After confirming the efficacy of this object, Ye Chen said to Feng Zhiyuan, the envoy of the Intelligence Department of the Intelligence Department who followed him in charge of uploading and distributing information these days because Hu Sanguang stayed in Hengshan: "Write this thing down. After breaking the city, find it." The real thing, take it back to Kaifeng and hand it over to the Weapons Department for research."

Feng Zhiyuan respectfully said yes, and quickly took out a pamphlet and the charcoal pencil invented by Yefu Workshop to quickly write down Ye Chen's instructions.Every spy in the intelligence department will carry a charcoal pencil with him. This is their habit and requirement.

Immediately afterwards, Ye Chen ordered more than a dozen watchtowers to approach the enemy's formation. This watchtower is much higher than the city wall. Its main function is that the general can stand in the distance and look down on the city. to shoot specific groups of people.

(End of this chapter)