Prince of Song Dynasty

Chapter 890 Heavy Catapult

Hu Sanguang came out of the class and said: "Your Majesty, according to reports from the spies, the Song Dynasty court secretly sent envoys to most of the Tubo tribes in the Hehuang area, and secretly sent weapons and armor to these Tubo tribes in the name of merchants. The Ministry has recently spread the word that the day when Xiang Fuguo takes the Hexi Corridor is the day to send troops to them. In the past few days, the Ministry of Security has captured dozens of Tibetans secretly in various military sites in the southwest centered on Lanzhou Spy. According to the analysis of the Ministry of Security, most of the Tubo tribes have secretly reached an offensive and defensive alliance against our Xiangfu country, and they may send troops to attack Lanzhou at any time."

All the ministers looked solemn, but they didn't panic at all.Ye Chen thought for a while and said, "Decree Han Hu of the White Tiger Legion to move the regiment's headquarters to Lanzhou, and the main force will be stationed in Lanzhou."

Zeng Shangfei, the chief of the general staff who is fully in charge of the work of the military pivot, immediately respectfully said yes.

Ye Chen said again: "The Tubo people are nothing, they are mainly Song and Liao countries. The Ministry of Security has watched them to death. If there is any trouble, you must report it to me as soon as possible and notify the corresponding army. garrison."

Hu Sanguang said solemnly: "I will follow His Majesty's will."

Ye Chen recovered his smile and said, "Is there anything else Zhuqing needs to do? If there is nothing else, then retreat!"

Xu Xuan, dean of Jian Xiangfu College, Shangshu of the Ministry of Industry, came out of the class and said: "Your Majesty, I have a happy event to report to Your Majesty."

Ye Chen looked surprised, and said with a smile: "Is there any happy event for Xu Xuan to tell me?"

Xu Xuan said: "Reporting to Your Majesty, the Civil Research Department under the Ministry of Industry has finally developed the glass your Majesty mentioned."

Ye Chen was overjoyed when he heard the words, and said, "Okay, hahaha... With glass, my Xiangfu country's financial revenue should increase by more than 300 million taels a year."

Jia Xian, Minister of the Ministry of Household Affairs, who has been having a headache these days because of the tight finances in the Hexi Corridor, was also ecstatic, and said, "Your Majesty, I will send someone to arrange for the construction of a glass factory."

Ye Chen nodded and said: "Where to build a factory and how to build a factory? It is necessary to listen to the opinions of the craftsmen who are mainly involved in the development of glass. According to the relevant regulations of the Ministry of Industry, for the relevant craftsmen, those who should be awarded official positions should not be stingy, and those who should reward money and materials should also be rewarded." Be generous."

Xu Xuan and Jia Xian bowed and said yes at the same time.

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In three days, reinforcements from various tribes of the Yellow-headed Uighur came to rescue their Khan and Wangcheng one after another. Yang Jiye used the same method to kill half of them and let the other half enter.Unknowingly, [-] troops have gathered in Ganzhou City.It is almost the same as the army of Xiangfu Kingdom outside the city in terms of strength alone.And the yellow-headed Uighur Khan Pang Teqin also changed from fear and worry at the beginning, and became more and more confident. After all, under normal circumstances, the attacking party's troops are ten times stronger than the defending city's in order to break through the city. Even if Xiangfu's army is now There are too many siege weapons, and the army is strong, but at least twice as many!

"Report to Commander-in-Chief and Deputy Commander-in-Chief, according to reports from our Security Department's spies lurking near the various tribes of the Yellow-headed Uyghurs, reinforcements have been dispatched to 27 tribes in Pang Teqin's Uyghur Khanate." In the evening, the day's interception battle ended After the bombing with the catapult gunpowder kits, a routine combat meeting was being held in the Chinese army tent, and Tang Xingwu first reported the most important information at present.

Huang Dongqiu, who presided over the combat meeting, frowned and said, "The Uyghur reinforcements intercepted by us in the past three days were only thirteen. Could there be fourteen Uyghur reinforcements that haven't arrived yet?"

Sun Lixing, the battalion commander of the special warfare battalion, said: "According to reports from the scouts of our special brigade who sneaked deep into the reinforcements, [-] Uyghur reinforcements with a number of less than [-] came to our camp after joining forces with other reinforcements. They were put into the city of Ganzhou."

When everyone heard the words, they all lifted their spirits, their eyes flickered, and they all looked at Yang Jiye in unison.

Yang Jiye said: "The fish has already entered the net, but it is not yet time to collect the net."

As he spoke, Yang Jiye looked at Zhu Jingping, commander of the First Brigade of Infantry of the Suzaku Legion.The latter immediately stood up and said, "Reporting to the commander, it will take three more days for the subordinates. And the further you go to the back, the easier it is for the Uyghur defenders to find out, and the more you need to attack the city to attract the defenders' attention and cover up the noise. "

Yang Jiye nodded and said: "Three days is just right. Although it is not difficult to capture Ganzhou City with the advantages of our army's siege equipment, the siege battle is the most likely to lose soldiers. It stands to reason that three days should be enough time. Continue to feign the attack and close the net in one fell swoop after three days. In this way, the loss of Xiangfu Kingdom will be the least. However, since Xiangfu Kingdom was founded, although there have been wars with Song and Liao, most of them were field battles or our army was defending the city. As a result, our army has very little siege experience. In the future, our Xiangfu state will conquer the world, and siege will be indispensable. Regardless of whether it is the Liao state or the Song state, the walls of any state city are more difficult to capture than Ganzhou, and the defenders They are better at defending cities than the Uyghurs. What's more, although the siege equipment is easy to use, if the soldiers are not skilled enough to operate the soldiers and the siege army is inexperienced, it is difficult to capture the strong city. It is rare that the Uyghurs are not very good at defending the city, so Attacking Ganzhou City is also an opportunity for our army to practice."

Speaking of this, Yang Jiye paused for a moment, and continued: "The commander-in-chief's order, starting tomorrow, the infantry brigade, the more than 2 former Liao troops attached to each brigade, and the [-] Liangzhou brigade will attack the city in turn. Three In the future, we will destroy the city in one fell swoop and destroy the Yellow-headed Uighur Khanate."

The generals said yes with a bang.

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On the second day, the army of Xiangfu Kingdom officially began to attack Ganzhou City.From the very beginning, the war seemed extremely fierce.In order to avoid the protracted chasing battle with the Uyghurs, Yang Jiye chose to introduce all his opponents into Ganzhou City, so that Uyghur City would give up the riding battle that he was good at, and instead do the city defense battle that he was not good at.This kind of strategic play certainly saves time and effort, but it also forced the Uyghurs into a situation similar to a "last stand". Even though the Uyghurs are not good at closing cities, they are good at fighting and killing people.In fact, if Xiangfu Kingdom had unimaginable siege weapons for the Uyghurs, it would be almost impossible to attack Ganzhou City, which is stationed by more than 6 troops, with [-] troops, and it is not even enough to describe it as death.Therefore, this siege battle is not destined to be so easy.

Holding a shield higher than his body, Liu Zhiping's eyes were swollen red, shouting meaningless syllables loudly, stepping over the corpses of friendly soldiers lying in disorder below the city, and rushed to the corner of the city for the third time.At this moment, there seemed to be a berserk rain of arrows falling in the sky above the east of Ganzhou City. The densely packed feathered arrows almost made the sun lose its light.At the foot of the city wall, there were raging fires swaying everywhere, and the scalding boiling water poured down by the Uyghurs was still steaming on the ground.There were corpses of the Xiangfu Kingdom army in black armor everywhere, the remains of cloud chariots smashed by stones, and bloodstains everywhere.Screams, roars, war drums, the squeaking of ladder wheels passing over trenches and bridges, the vibration of bow strings, the sound of feathered arrows passing through the air, the crunching sound of catapults firing, gunpowder packets hitting the city wall, the city wall The sound of booming explosions outside... All these sounds are intertwined to form a scene of hell on earth.

At this time, Liu Zhiping completely lost the ability to think. He just instinctively followed the more than [-] robes of the White Tiger Army Infantry Brigade, and the attached [-] Liao troops, and obeyed the brigade commander's order, clustered around the ladder. , Charged again and again towards the city wall of Ganzhou.Behind each ladder truck, hundreds of soldiers followed.And behind them, beyond the range of the Uyghur army, the eight catapult companies of the Xiangfu Army, a total of two hundred wheeled catapults, were divided into four groups, and they continuously threw stones and mud balls towards Ganzhou. The irregular ones were suddenly replaced with gunpowder bags, suppressing the Uighur army on the city wall.

For three days in a row, half of the gunpowder packs attached to the Western Expedition were used, which cost 20 taels of silver in exchange for money, which was a huge waste, so the gunpowder packs today can no longer be used as casually as they were at the beginning.And the stone bullets weighing five to eight catties hit the solid and high walls of Ganzhou City without leaving a mark and turned into dust; it is also difficult for them to cause much damage to important fortifications, but if If it falls on a person, no matter how good the armor is, they will surely die.The corpses of the Uighur troops who fell under the city were almost not complete.

Yang Jiye and Huang Dongqiu both stood on the commanding platform with tense faces and watched the battle with binoculars.

During the Xiangfu Kingdom's western expedition, the marching speed of the army along the way was relatively slow.Naturally, there is a reason for slowness. The attack on Ganzhou siege equipment at this time cannot be conjured out of thin air.In this era, transportation capacity, road conditions, roads from Shunzhou to Liangzhou in Xiangfu State, and then to Ganzhou are closed to traffic in many places, and many heavy equipment cannot be transported here at all. Local manufacturing is also limited by materials and craftsmen. It was disassembled and delivered in parts.Any general knows that there is nothing to complain about in this regard.After all, no army of any country or force can be as happy as Xiangfu's army when attacking a city, with so many sharp weapons to help.

But even so, Yang Jiye, who is good at defense, still couldn't help feeling secretly regretful.

It would be great if a heavy trebuchet could be brought in.Before sending troops to the Hexi Corridor this time, Wang Heshan, dean of the School of Physics of Xiangfu College, invented a super-giant trebuchet for this era, which can easily launch stones weighing tens of catties or even hundreds of catties to three A hundred paces away.As long as there are such one or two trebuchets, any fortifications in Ganzhou City will be smashed to pieces as long as they are hit.Just imagine again, if a huge gunpowder package weighing hundreds of catties is fired and smashed on the city wall, a section of the city wall can be blown down in one blow, and a few times can directly destroy the city.

But this kind of trebuchet itself weighs several thousand catties. Even if the parts are disassembled, the important parts of a few people must exceed one thousand catties. In this era, the load of a carriage can reach the limit. , The camel can walk, but the carriage is very difficult, not to mention that several important and large parts of this trebuchet require several carriages to pull at the same time.

(End of this chapter)