MTL - Poor Family-v2 Chapter 911 Battle in Taiyuan (Part 1)
Chapter 911 The Decisive Battle in Taiyuan (Part 1)
On a high **** outside the northern city, Wanyan Xie was also surrounded by a group of generals and looked at Taiyuan City three miles away. He had read countless battle reports about Taiyuan City and knew the city well. At the scene, he was still shocked by this crystal-like city.
The battlefield is full of the wreckage of various siege weapons, and the big pits are covered with blood. Although the bodies of the dead have been cleaned up, all kinds of shocking scenes can still show how tragic the war broke out here.
"How many people are there in the Song army in the city?"
Wan Yanxie also turned around and asked the generals, "Who can tell me a definite number?"
Everyone lowered their heads one after another. No one had a certain number. Wanyan snorted dissatisfiedly, and finally his eyes fell on Wanyanchang, "Tallan, you have the longest time to attack the city, tell me!"
Wan Yanchang had no choice but to bite the bullet and go out and said: "Qi reports to be handsome, and the humble rank is estimated to be between 50,000 and 60,000, but Li Yanqing's own military strength is not large, at most about 20,000 people, and later recruited a group of recruits, maybe three Ten thousand people, so it is estimated that there are about 50,000 to 60,000 people in humble positions."
"Your estimate is not outrageous, so can you judge how many thunderbolts the Song Army still has?"
This question immediately made Wan Yanchang speechless. How could he know how many thunderbolts Song Jun still had? I can guess one or two."
"Oh? Tell me your reason." Wanyan Xie also asked with interest.
"During the last battle, the Song army on the city threw a very powerful thunderbolt. According to my observation, it should be a thunderbolt used to blow up the city, not a conventional throwing thunderbolt, so my humble official It is judged that there should not be many Zhentianlei in the city."
Yelu Ma Wu's answer was barely acceptable to Wan Yanxie, and he continued to question Wan Yanchang: "How much gunpowder is there in our original warehouse?"
Wan Yanchang was very clear about this, and he immediately replied: "We didn't have any gunpowder in our former Taiyuan warehouse, and all the gunpowder was transported to Yanshan Mansion."
"Has the Song army in the city been replenished during this period of time?"
This question was so sharp that it made all the generals present look ashamed. Wan Yanxie also seemed to understand something, and said angrily, "Could it be that Song Jun was supplemented under your noses?"
Wanyan Xie also glared at Wan Yanchang in particular. Wanyan Zongbi is not here, Wanyanchang is the general with the highest position and the person with the highest responsibility. The current state of the Jinbing in Taiyuan City is extremely poor, morale is low, and the morale of the army is lax. very dissatisfied.
Wan Yanchang hurriedly leaned forward and said, "Please calm down, Dushuai. Although there was an accident, it may not be something Dushuai was worried about. At that time, a group of Song troops hijacked a team that was escorting forage, and pretended to be Han troops. Many patrols were dispatched, but in the end one of our patrols discovered that the interception failed only when the Song army went out of the city to rescue. However, according to the reports of the soldiers who fled back, there were only 200 carts of fodder, and no other goods were found, so Judging from my humble position, this should be an army escorting the imperial envoy to Taiyuan City, maybe the Song Dynasty court wants to reward Li Yanqing or something."
Wan Yanchang explained it very clearly, which reminded Wan Yanxie of the information about Lin'an. The emperor of the Song Dynasty named Li Yanqing the envoy of the Sichuan-Shaanxi Economic Strategy and the envoy of Hedong Road Xuanfu. Could it be that this promotion was sent to Li Yanqing? ?
Wan Yanxie also thought it was unlikely, but Wan Yanchang's words made him unable to find a loophole for a while, so he could only snort and turned back to the camp.
Wan Yanxie also knew a lot about his old opponent Li Yanqing. Several fiascos of Jinbing were at the hands of Li Yanqing, especially the last time, a serious plague appeared in the army, and tens of thousands of people died in the end.
Wan Yanxie was also psychologically afraid of Li Yanqing, so when his army arrived in Taiyuan City, he did not launch a siege for a long time, just wanting to know as much as possible about the situation in the city and find the Song Army's flaws, but so far, he Still can't find a loophole to attack, Li Yanqing built Taiyuan City like an iron barrel, making him invulnerable, Wanyan Xie was really depressed.
As soon as he returned to Daying, patrolling soldiers came to report that the Song army had withdrawn from Yanmen Pass and Loufan Pass, and the troops had gone west without a trace.
"I see!"
Wan Yanxie also waved his hand. He was not interested in this situation anymore. The Song army withdrew from Loufan Pass and Yanmen Pass, which only showed that Li Yanqing was ready and was waiting to attack the city.
Wan Yanxie also stood in front of the wooden map with his hands behind his back. After a long time, he sighed deeply. Escape is not the way to go, the battle that should be fought must be fought.
'咚~咚~' At noon, the drums in the Jinbing camp were loud, the gates of the four camps opened wide, and 40,000 troops walked out of the camp in square formations and marched toward the northern city.
This time the Jin soldiers dispatched 20,000 Jurchen troops, 10,000 Khitan troops, and 10,000 Xi people. Every time they encountered heavy casualties, the Jin soldiers would push other tribes to the front, which had caused strong dissatisfaction among the tribes. In order to appease the other tribes, Wanyan Xie also dispatched 20,000 Jurchen elites this time. This Jurchen army was wearing iron armor made by the Khitans, wearing round helmets, holding large shields and one-handed short spears, and was very well equipped.
They will be responsible for the main attack on the city, another 10,000 Khitan troops will be responsible for the cover of bows and arrows, and Xi Ren will be the vanguard of the siege. In fact, they are the cannon fodder in the war. The next 20,000 Jurchens will launch a formal attack.
The 40,000 army lined up two miles away, with spears like a forest, and the lights of the knives flashing. The 40,000 army was full of murderous intent, waiting for the horn of attack.
Before Jin Bing officially attacked, they launched 80 giant trebuchets, which were siege weapons made by Jin Bing in Daming Mansion. They were originally used to attack Bianliang in Tokyo, but Jin Bing captured Bianliang easily , so that these giant trebuchets lost their use in the Central Plains, and were moved to Taiyuan by Jin Bing.
"Du Shuai, why don't we attack Dongcheng at the same time?" Wan Yanchang asked a little puzzled.
"There is no need for that at the moment!"
Wanyan Xie also said coldly: "Multi-point attack is only used when the opponent's strength is insufficient. Now that the Song army has sufficient strength, no matter which side is attacking, it will encounter the strongest counterattack. Besides, we don't have enough trebuchets, so we must concentrate our forces. If you attack the northern city, you will win if you attack the upper city."
Giant trebuchets rumbled across the wilderness. Each one was pulled by 20 bulls in front, pushed by hundreds of soldiers behind, and the huge wooden wheels rolled slowly.
Eighty giant trebuchets were fixed at the 300-step line, and some soldiers installed huge wooden baffles in front of them. This was to guard against the bed crossbow attacks of the Song army. The wooden baffle was nailed with logs, half a foot thick, and even the most powerful bed crossbow could not penetrate it. In this way, only half of the giant trebuchet was exposed, which greatly weakened the impact of the bed crossbow.
The giant catapults used by Jin Bing were not Zhentianlei. Before that, they had already spent 800 pieces of them to attack the city, but the effect was very bad. Wanyan Xie did not want to repeat the same mistakes.
Moreover, there are not many thunderbolts in the hands of Jin Bing, only less than 500 left. Although Jinbing captured thousands of thunderbolts when they captured Bianjing, it is a pity that they were all exhausted when dealing with Yue Fei's army. Well, Jin Guo couldn't make this sharpest weapon, so Wanyan Xie also kept the Zhentian Lei in his hand as a treasure.
The giant catapults used huge stones. Wanyan Xieye's goal was to destroy the catapults at the top of the city and reduce the casualties of the Jin soldiers when they attacked.
On the top of the city, 20,000 Song troops have been deployed in place. The crossbowmen, guarding archers, mine throwers, mine watchers, spearmen, equipment operators and other arms are all performing their duties. Li Yanqing is watching with solemn eyes. Looking at the giant trebuchet slowly approaching in the distance, he turned his head and shouted: "Send Zhentianlei to the west city and east city!"
The thunderbolts at the top of the city are all placed in a large wooden box. A large box contains nine throwing thunderbolts or four cityshattering minecrafts. There is a cover on the wooden box, and each large wooden box is placed on a wooden trailer. Come on, you can pull it away at any time, Li Yanqing gave an order, and the soldiers immediately sent away 1,500 thunderbolts and 3,000 barrels of kerosene.
At this time, Wang Gui stepped forward and said in a low voice: "I guess the opponent will use boulders, but it is unlikely to use kerosene and thunder."
"Why?" Li Yanqing asked blankly.
"Wanyan Xie has also dealt with us countless times. In Bianliang, Tokyo, he used kerosene to attack, but it failed. Zhentian Lei was even more useless. Besides, they couldn't make it yet, and this kind of giant trebuchet required at least Three hundred paces away, it is unlikely to hit the top of the city, I think Wanyan Xieye's goal should be to hit our trebuchet, and its purpose is to prepare for the 40,000 army behind him to attack the city."
Li Yanqing looked back at the 120 trebuchets on the top of the city. He also felt that Wang Gui's analysis was more correct. After so many dealings and countless failures, Jin Bing should also understand, that kind of flashy trebuchets Things may not be useful, but using boulders is a simple yet effective and reliable siege weapon.
At this moment, eighty giant catapults had been placed, and a commander galloped up to Wanyan Xieye on horseback and shouted loudly, "Master Qi, the catapults are ready!"
Wan Yanxie also nodded, and ordered: "Start projecting!"
(end of this chapter)
