Guide to traveling through the Northern Song Dynasty

When Han Xin attacked Zhao, he gathered troops at Yuguan to gather grain.

In the same year that the Northern Song Dynasty destroyed the Northern Han Dynasty, a pacification military city was built on the original site of Yuguan to prevent anyone in Shanxi from daring to cause rebellion again.

Around the military city, there were many copycat fortresses, which were all pulled down one after another by Zhang Guangdao.

For example, Baijing City in the east, also known as Baijing Village, Baijing Village, and Xitianmen, was forcibly captured by Zhang Guangdao last year, cutting off the southern passage between Pingding Military City and Jingxing.

There is a Zhaibao in Heisha Ridge in the northwest, commonly known as Nantianmen, which was also demolished this year.

The Pingding Army is now an isolated city. Because the city wall is too strong, Huihui Paoqi smashed it in the face for a month, and only a few cracks were made.

The real reward was to smash down the city tower and arrow tower!

Zhang Guangdao tried a variety of methods, but finally relied on his large number of troops to fill in the moat and advance little by little. Use siege equipment to cover the advance of the infantry, build two lines of defense tens of meters away from the city, and then let the soldiers and civilians build a high platform.

During the process of building the fort, the defenders in the city found that archery was ineffective, and they fought out many times at night to destroy the fortifications.

However, behind the vehicle array and the high platform, there were always troops taking turns to defend, and the defenders were unable to break through the defense.

More than sixty 10-meter-high platforms were built little by little outside the city.

On top of each high platform, two wooden cannons were set up, aiming at the top of the city wall dozens of meters away. This tactic has existed since ancient times, but in the past, catapults were set up and archers were deployed, which could only suppress the defenders with limited firepower.

The guard general of Pingding was called Wanyan Saba, the son of Wanyan Oru and the nephew of Wanyan Sagai.

Seeing that the earth platform outside the city was getting higher and higher, he had already ordered the entire city door panels to be demolished, and trees were planted behind the parapet to prevent arrows. He also moved a lot of furniture to hold the door panels in place for fixation.

"You personally lead the troops to defend this side!" Wanyan Saba said to a Han general.

The man immediately knelt down and accepted the order: "Even if I die, I will die here!"

"Very good." Wanyan Saba nodded and smiled.

The Han general was born in the Han Dynasty of Liao Dynasty, and his name was Dong Cai.

He first led the refugee uprising in Yizhou. After repeated defeats, he fled from Hebei to Shanxi and turned the Shanxi territory of the Liao Kingdom into a pot of porridge.

He then surrendered to the Song Dynasty and was given the name Zhao Xu by Song Huizong, who instigated Song Huizong to conquer the Liao Dynasty.

Song Huizong placed Dong Cai in Shanxi and let him continue to lead his old army.

However, Dong Cai's military rations were withheld for a long time, and he himself was discriminated against by Song officials. Because the soldiers and their families were granted land by the court and occupied a large amount of Shanxi's grain tax, they also had a bad relationship with the locals in Shanxi.

In fact, most of these grains were stolen by civil servants and generals in the Song Dynasty. However, the people of Shanxi were heavily taxed, and they all blamed Dong Cai. After all, they were outsiders, and the soldiers had poor military discipline because of hunger.

From generals to soldiers to family members, Dong Cai's troops were humiliated in Shanxi.

When the Jin army came to attack, Dong Cai's troops were short of food and clothing. Ma Liu turned to Wanyan Zonghan and helped the Jin soldiers capture the city and territory along the way.

In Dong Cai's view, Wanyan Zonghan was the master of the Ming Dynasty, and he had never treated him badly, and he also used him highly. The Liao and Song dynasties were both bastards, and the Han people in Shanxi were also bastards, so the Ming Dynasty and the New Dynasty must also be bastards.

Groups of former Liao Han soldiers followed Dong Cai to garrison the city wall, preparing for another fierce battle with the Ming army.

They were all poor people, who were forced to rebel by the Liao Kingdom until they could no longer survive. They refused to surrender after being defeated every time, and they only pretended to surrender when they were recruited by the Liao. They hated the Liao court, and later they hated the Song court.

From beginning to end, they are just trying to survive!

"Boom boom boom!"

Sixty wooden cannons fired stone bullets at the city head from a high platform dozens of meters away.

Instead of shotguns, they used stone bullets slightly smaller than their fists.

A large number of door panels used to protect against arrows were knocked down, and some door panels were even shattered, splattering wood fragments onto the soldiers behind.

"Ah, my eyes!"

"Dad, dad...your neck is bleeding!"

"..."

On the city wall, Dong Cai's soldiers screamed.

In order to hide his strength, Zhang Guangdao built more than 300 wooden cannons but never used them in battle.

The enemy is defenseless!

Dong Cai's cheek was also splashed with sawdust, and a narrow bloody gash appeared. He shouted hoarsely: "Hide behind the female wall and don't move!"

"Boom boom boom!"

Another sixty wooden cannons were fired together, this time filled with small pebble shot.

Some defenders who were running around in panic were shot inexplicably. Some were killed on the spot, but many others suffered only fractures and injuries. The power of the shotgun fired by the wooden cannon was still too small.

After two consecutive rounds of shooting, the wooden cannon was reloading rapidly, and Dong Cai actually took advantage of this gap to pacify his soldiers.

Although they were still panicking, no one was running around soon. They all carefully hid behind the parapet, waiting for the next city defense battle.

These guys, like Yaoshi Guo's old team, are all veterans of many battles who have narrowly escaped death.

Yao Pingzhong stood on a high platform and saw clearly with a telescope. He couldn't understand it at all. He muttered: "We are all Han, how can we work for the Jin Kingdom like this? Only after surrendering to the Ming Dynasty can we have a future."

Two more rounds of shelling had little effect.

Even if the stone bullets fired by the wooden cannon hit the female wall, it would be difficult to collapse the thin female wall. The defenders were hiding behind the parapet and had no fear of shells as long as they did not stand up.

One after another, siege equipment was rolled out, including ladders, nest cars, ram cars, and parapets... slowly advancing from behind the earthen platform. With the cover of wooden cannons, the soldiers moved away from the vehicle formation defense lines they had set up, and marched toward the city unhurriedly. Let's go to the city wall.

The defenders were suppressed by wooden cannons and could not raise their heads and could not fire rockets to attack these instruments.

When the wooden cannon fire stopped, the nest car was gradually approaching.

As the name suggests, the nest car is a small wooden cabin like a bird's nest. It was hung on a wooden pole higher than the city wall. Archers hid in the wooden house and suppressed the defenders at the top of the city at close range.

For fear of accidentally injuring friendly troops, the wooden cannon no longer dared to fire, and now relied on the nest car to shoot arrows.

"Send the order, fire rockets!"

Dong Cai gave an order, and the archers guarding the city began to look for the brazier.

Most of the braziers were knocked over by shells or knocked over by falling boards, and only a few were dragged behind the parapet.

Sporadic rockets were fired, but they were unable to ignite the nest car because it was still covered with a layer of skin and the number of rockets was too few.

"Elevator!"

The ladder also looks like a chariot, with carriages and wheels underneath.

The soldiers were hidden in the carriage, with a baffle in front, and were pushed by the auxiliary soldiers. The auxiliary soldiers and the auxiliary soldiers also had anti-arrow facilities.

Before reaching the city wall, the auxiliary soldiers began to turn the winch.

The folded long ladder, with the rotation of the winch, was buckled towards the city wall bit by bit, and the iron hook was firmly grasped on the top of the wall.

This kind of ladder has a very small slope and is not afraid of boiling oil and gold juice. There are also erected logs on both sides to prevent the logs from rolling down.

Once such a ladder catches the city wall, there is a great chance of attacking it. It just depends on whether the first climbers can gain a firm foothold.

Under normal circumstances, the ladder is often attacked with priority by rockets from the defenders while still halfway up the ladder. But this time the Ming army was covered by wooden cannons, and then by chariots, and they pushed the ladder over very smoothly.

The soldiers came out of the carriage of the ladder, put on their armor and began to climb.

The Chaoche archers tried their best to kill the defenders, but there were still many defenders who used their three- to four-meter long spears to poke down the siege Ming army.

There was a ladder that organized two groups of attacks and were repelled. A dark-skinned strong man roared: "Everyone is following me. We must climb first today!"

This strong man is called Wang De. In another time and space, he is also nicknamed "Wang Yaksha".

Wang De was seen climbing quickly while wearing strong armor, and two pieces of wood rolled down in succession, both of which were blocked by the ladder's impact avoidance device.

When he was about three meters close to the city, several spears were stabbed at him, and three arrows were inserted into his body one after another.

Two spears were pressed against his body at the same time, and the defenders desperately pushed Wang De down. Wang De grabbed the ladder with one hand and grabbed the spear with the other hand. He grabbed the barrel of the gun and dragged it down.

After seizing one spear, he went to seize another. The defender held on tightly, but Wang Delian and his men with guns towed him off the city wall.

Another defender came to take over his position and shot Wang De in the face. He lowered his head to block it with his helmet, climbed up with both hands, and pounced in from the crenel.

At this time, Wang De didn't even have time to draw his weapon, so he grabbed the defender in front of him, swung it horizontally, twisted and smashed it.

After knocking over three people in a row, Wang Decai threw away the unconscious enemy, took off the mace from his waist and rushed forward.

The Ming army's chariots completely stopped shooting arrows. The defenders of this section of the city wall were finally able to move freely, and a reserve team was also mobilized to supplement the defense.

Four spears came at him at the same time. Wang De only avoided one and split another, leaving the remaining two spears to stab him hard.

"Crack!"

Wang De smashed a spear in front of him and rushed into the crowd without fear of death, killing the defenders and causing them to retreat.

The second Ming army followed Wang De to the city, followed by the third, fourth, and fifth...

Dong Cai saw that he could not defend himself even if he put in the reserve team, so he had no choice but to come with his own soldiers.

He was arrogant about his bravery, so he raised his spear and stabbed Wang De's armor hard.

Wang De felt a sharp pain in his chest. Although the armor was not broken, the force was still uncomfortable. When Dong Cai fired his second shot, Wang De grabbed the barrel of the gun before he could put it back.

Dong Cai used both hands, while Wang De only used his left hand.

In the flash of lightning, Wang De dragged his spear back. Dong Cai was brought forward and staggered forward. He quickly let go of his spear, drew his sword and attacked Wang De.

"Well done!"

Wang De did not dodge, but he was hit by the waist knife and hit Dong Cai's head with an iron mace.

Dong Cai hurriedly avoided, feeling that he could not completely avoid it, so he subconsciously closed his sword and blocked it horizontally.

"when!"

The sword and mace met each other, and due to the excessive force, the waist sword was directly broken.

Wang De stepped forward, ignoring the spear thrust from the side, and swung his mace fiercely.

"when!"

The iron mace hit Dong Cai's helmet. The veteran leader of the Liao-Han Army had his brain protected by the helmet, and his brain was smashed into a ball of paste.

Wang De was excited to fight, but was stabbed painfully by the spear again. He grabbed Dong Cai who was about to fall, picked him up with one hand and threw him towards the enemy.

Zhang Guangdao's men are also attacking, but no one can get there first.

He stood on a high platform and looked around with a telescope. He witnessed Wang De's climb to the city and said to himself in amazement: "This man is brave enough to conquer all three armies. Yao Pingzhong actually has such a fierce general under his command!"