Guide to traveling through the Northern Song Dynasty

In winter, the soil is hard, making it difficult to dig trenches.

There were not many civilians who followed the army outside the city, and they didn't dig much in half an afternoon.

Towards evening, smoke began to rise in the camp. This was the Ming army setting up pots to cook rice.

Wanyan Zongwang launched a sudden attack, not allowing the Ming army to eat in peace, nor allowing the Ming army to dig trenches and build forts calmly.

The Jin cavalry were still in a team of fifty, cruising back and forth and shooting arrows outside the Ming army's chariot formation. The Ming army's archers and crossbowmen also relied on car formations and fences to fight back against the golden cavalry.

Apart from stalling the trench-digging activities of the civilians, neither side achieved much.

In the afternoon, the Jin infantry and the Hebei Han army came from Zhaozhou and set up camp on the west bank of the bed water, diagonally opposite the Ming army camp for several miles across the river.

Wanyan Zongwang stood on the city wall, looking at the Ming army camp in the distance and said: "Prince Zhu dared to set up the camp outside the city, but he was afraid that our army would rob the camp, so he asked the soldiers guarding the outside to sit in formation overnight without taking off their armor. . Fighting like this will make the soldiers exhausted in a day or two."

Wanyan's mother said, "I always feel that Prince Zhu is hiding something."

"What else can he hide? It's just firearms." Wanyan Zongwang said.

At night, Wanyan Zongwang still sent cavalry to harass, making it impossible for the Ming army soldiers to rest normally.

"Boom boom boom!"

In the middle of the night, there was a sudden loud sound of artillery fire on the east bank of Beishui.

Of the 210 iron cannons brought by Ju Ming, two-thirds were less powerful squatting cannons, but one-third were field cannons with a range of more than two miles.

The Jin infantry and the Han army from Hebei came from Zhaozhou and set up camp on the west bank of Qianshui River. Not long after they fell asleep, they were shot by Ming army artillery on the other side of the river.

Not to mention killing, because the distance was too far, no artillery shells even penetrated the camp, but it caused great chaos to the Jinbing camp.

The Han troops in Hebei, who were nervous and unwilling to fight, only heard bursts of artillery, and then woke up and roared.

"Prince Zhu is coming, run away!"

Wanyan Zongwang, who had already crossed the river from Gaocheng and returned to the camp, was so angry that his lungs were about to explode. Fortunately, the enemy's and our camps are very close to each other. Both sides are on top of each other tonight, so the Jin soldiers can immediately pick up their weapons to maintain order.

Braziers were lit throughout the Jin camp. The Jin cavalry mounted their horses everywhere in the camp and ordered the Han troops in Hebei to return to their camps. Those who disobeyed were immediately executed on the spot.

Before the two sides fought fiercely, the Jin soldiers killed hundreds of Han troops by themselves, and the Jin soldiers' camp was still in partial chaos.

"The camps are still too close."

Wanyan's mother came back to maintain order and despaired of the low morale of the Han army in Hebei.

Wanyan Zongwang asked: "Have all the camps been pacified?"

Wanyan's mother said: "I have killed many frantic Han troops, and some Han troops have escaped from the camp. I have sent cavalry to chase them back. When the two armies are fighting for a decisive battle, we should not bring these Han troops to fight. There is no other use in consuming food and grass.”

Wanyan Zongwang felt uneasy and personally led a group of cavalry to the shore of Beishui to investigate the situation.

"Bang bang bang bang!"

Just after running not far, another burst of gunfire came.

Several Qingqi rushed to report: "Marshal, the Ming army is destroying our pontoon bridge, and Pucha Wanhu was injured when he sent troops to stop it!"

The pontoon bridge and camp of the Jin soldiers were not facing the Ming army camp, but were located further south.

Pucha Hubalu is Wanyan Talan's son-in-law. He leads the cavalry across the river tonight and is responsible for harassing the exhausted Ming army. While running to shoot arrows, I received a report from Qingqi that Ming troops were attacking the pontoon defenders.

The man immediately blew his trumpet and gathered all the scattered cavalry.

Before I even ran back to the pontoon, I saw stars on the riverside - the musketeers' ramie matches were shining brightly.

Pucha Falcon Balu didn't think much, and rushed over with his cavalry, leading the way with extremely bravery.

When they were dozens of steps closer, two thousand muskets fired.

Another volley of two thousand muskets.

Another volley of two thousand muskets.

After three rounds of volleys, the pikemen who were squatting on the ground stood up and erected a gun array to protect the musketeers who were loading ammunition.

In the darkness to the north, more than 3,000 Ming Army cavalry suddenly burst out under the leadership of Li Yanxian.

The Jin cavalry, who was caught off guard by three rounds of musketry, was attacked from the side by the Ming cavalry and was so frightened that they fled further south.

The formation of the Jin cavalry was very scattered at night, and neither wing was attacked. More than 6,000 rounds of bullets were fired, and only less than 200 cavalry were killed and wounded.

Instead, Li Yanxian led the cavalry in pursuit and killed over a hundred of the Jin cavalry who were unable to escape.

Not long after, Pucha Falcon Balu led his troops to escape from the pontoon farther south. Not far after crossing the river, he fell off his horse with a thud.

He was carried back.

Wanyan Zongwang held up a torch to check and found that Pucha Falcon Balu's chest armor had been penetrated, and the wound was a small hole with bloody flesh.

The projectile is not big, but the wound caused by it is so big that it can almost fit a table tennis ball into it.

The army doctor came and checked the patient's pulse first, and then cleaned the wound. One of the ribs was broken, and the bullet stuck in the rib was removed, and then bandaged with ointment.

Pucha Falcon Balu woke up in pain once while taking out the bullets. He groaned in pain for two hours and finally fell asleep. He started to have a fever in the afternoon of the next day.

Wanyan Zongwang checked the situation after dawn and found that the pontoon bridge built by the Jin soldiers had been destroyed by the Ming army at night.

The Jin soldiers guarding the bridge did not even dare to stand on the west bank, because the water was only forty meters wide, and the Ming army's musketeers could shoot across the river.

In the evening of the same day, Wanyan Talan led his army to arrive, and the Jin Kingdom's military strength increased again.

Wanyan Talan said: "I have ordered the abandonment of Qianmin Town, Nanxinzhai, Shijiadian, Yangjiaguan, and Taohua Island, and moved all the people in these places to nearby cities. I have also transferred people from the cities along the Banghai Road All the cavalry were brought here for a decisive battle, leaving only the infantry to defend the fortified city. The army supplies no longer took the seaside road, but instead took the old road."

"Can't we defend Nan Xinzhai?" Wanyan Zongwang asked in shock.

Wanyan Talan explained: "The enemy general who crossed the sea is called Li Bao. This man ranked first in terms of military merit in the Ming Dynasty. The Ming army used boats to harass everywhere. Our soldiers were exhausted and the grain transport team was robbed for two days." Support. After the attack, Li Bao intensified his efforts. He actually established a stronghold on Juehua Island and even recruited the Jiangnan naval forces who had taken refuge in the Liao Kingdom to surrender!"

Wanyan Zongwang: "..."

The Liaoxi Corridor had been destroyed by Li Bao, and the Jin soldiers did not dare to leave the city at all.

Two salt fields and many fortresses and small towns were all abandoned by Wanyan Talan on his own initiative. Jin Bing could only retreat into the city and defend.

The only Jiangnan naval forces there were all Khitan and Han people. Seeing that they could not defeat Li Bao's fleet, Yeluyu came forward to surrender, and the entire navy surrendered.

After a while of silence, Wanyan Zongwang said, "Your son-in-law may be dying."

Wanyan Talan immediately ran to visit Pucha Hubalu, and found that his son-in-law was suffering from a high fever, talking nonsense in a daze, and there were Jurchen wizards practicing magic beside him.

After asking in detail about the recent battle situation, Wanyan asked lazily: "How do you plan to fight?"

Wanyan Zongwang said: "Build more pontoon bridges next to Gaocheng, so that you can quickly cross the river to rescue the defenders in the city. There are also pontoon bridges further downstream to facilitate the Dajin cavalry to go around to the rear of the Ming army. Prince Zhu should be attacking the city. We First use the defensive battle to consume the Ming army, and when the enemy's morale is low and the soldiers are tired, then attack from both sides and launch a general attack."

Two days later, Ju Ming used more than 20,000 troops to guard the camp in place, and then pulled out 20,000 troops to officially begin the attack on the city.

This time, there were a large number of upgraded versions of nest vehicles - watchtower vehicles. Song Jun used these vehicles as watchtowers, but Ju Ming built them even bigger. Each watchtower car can hold five musketeers inside, which is slightly higher than the enemy's city wall.

Three thousand heavy armored infantry, three thousand medium armored infantry, and four thousand musketeers were placed on both sides to cover the advance of the siege troops.

All artillery was deployed in the direction facing the city wall and on both sides of the siege troops.

The Jin cavalry rushed across the river from the north and south, and hundreds of cavalry first charged towards the advancing siege troops.

These hundreds of gold cavalry rushed from west to east along the city wall. To the north is the city wall, to the south is the Ming army camp, and to the east is the Ming army siege force.

"Boom boom boom!"

"Bang bang bang!"

Dozens of squatting tiger cannons on this side of the camp fired shotgun shells from the south. The two thousand musketeers covering the siege troops also fired volleys from the east.

Artillery guns, cross fire.

Although the formation of hundreds of golden cavalry was very scattered, most of them fell on the spot.

Wanyan Talan stood at the top of the city and saw it clearly. His face instantly turned pale and he said to Wanyan Zongwang: "Except for the troops guarding the city, everyone else went around to the south and east to attack the enemy camp. When the Ming army sent troops to attack the city, from Defeat their camp from behind!"

Group after group of Jin soldiers crossed the river on the pontoon bridge several miles away in the south, and even the Han soldiers from Hebei were brought with them.

The Ming army in the camp took the initiative to shrink.

The Ming army's camp, which was several miles away, had all been abandoned on the outside. Only then did Wanyan Zongwang realize that all the Ming army carriages outside the camp had been taken into the camp last night.

Not only that, the Ming army digging trenches and building fortifications on the outside was just a cover. After digging casually for a long time, he gave up. Wanyan Zongwang thought that the harassment by his own troops was effective. In fact, the Ming army was within the camp, using the cover of military tents to secretly dig ditches and build forts. After shrinking the defensive circle, the amount of work was greatly reduced.

The east and south are the main attack directions of the Jin soldiers. A trench two meters wide and three meters deep has been dug inside the Ming army camp on these two sides.

The excavated soil formed a rampart, which had previously been covered with grass. Because the distance was too far to see clearly, Wanyan Zongwang looked at the city wall and thought that those were fodder for the Ming army's cavalry - if the Jin people had telescopes, the Ming army would have exposed their secrets long ago.

The Jin soldiers attacked the camp on a large scale, breaking through the perimeter like a rainbow. Only when they entered did they find trenches and barriers.

Twenty thousand Ming troops and thousands of civilians guarded the shrinking defense line. If the Jin soldiers wanted to break through, they would have to sacrifice their lives.

Outside the southern wall of the city, large watchtower carts carried musketeers and pushed forward. There are also siege equipment such as ladders, parapets, and chariots nearby.

The golden soldiers guarding the city were already shooting rockets, and their targets were the ladders and the female wall.

The watchtower cart stopped twenty meters away from the city wall, and the musketeers standing inside began to prepare to shoot freely towards the city head.

Hua Rong went out to fight in person. From such a short distance, let alone hitting anyone, even a flying eagle could hit him!

He had already observed through the telescope and learned the location of Saliho, and ordered the soldiers to push him closer.

Saliho was commanding the troops to defend the city, standing behind the parapet, protected by his own soldiers holding shields, but his head was completely exposed.

Under normal circumstances, this position cannot be dangerous.

"boom!"

There was a gunshot, and Salihe fell down.

The future Prime Minister and Marshal of the Left of the Jin Kingdom died under a bullet in a confused manner.

"Bang bang bang bang!"

Following Hua Rong's gunfire, the other musketeers also fired one after another.

The golden soldiers who were defending the city began to fall in large numbers.

Wanyan Zongwang was also on the city, but he avoided the siege area, otherwise this guy might also capsize.

Hearing the gunshots and screams, Wanyan Zongwang turned his head and saw that no one was standing on the golden soldiers on the wall in the distance. Not to mention those who were shot, those who were not shot also crouched down and hid behind the parapet out of fear.

Several golden soldiers came running up and down: "Marshal, they are all gone!"

Wanyan Zongwang was stunned.