Boom!
With an earth-shattering sound, the cannon muzzle on the city wall suddenly burst into flames.
The next second, a huge iron ball shot towards the sky like a meteor.
I saw that it was very fast, flying two or three miles almost in the blink of an eye, drawing a gorgeous arc in the air, and then passed over the head of Yelu Di Lugu, and fell directly into the Liao army outside the city. in a crowd of people.
"boom!"
The huge sound then exploded like thunder. Since the fire was fired in a parabola from the city wall, rather than in a straight line on the ground, it did not have the effect of piercing the candied haws.
But even so, the huge solid bullet was hit straight down, killing two people on the spot, and then penetrated into the ground, causing dust to fly.
Many people didn't even know what happened. They only knew that the dense formation of people suddenly became a mess. The blood and brains of the two people who died on the spot burst out everywhere, dust flew up, and there were faint traces of people. Screams.
The cannonball hit the ground, splashing earth and rocks, injuring people around them.
The entire battlefield fell silent for an instant.
Everyone stayed in place, looking around blankly, unaware of the explosion just now and what exactly fell in their formation.
"Zhuzi, you straight bitch, you hit it crookedly!"
Instead, an angry scolding broke out from the top of the city. It was a middle-aged officer who was cursing at the artillerymen.
However, just a moment later, the second cannon fired again.
Boom!
After another loud noise, Yelu Dilugu opened his eyes wide because he saw the black iron ball falling straight in his direction, and he didn't even have time to urge his horse to escape.
The next moment, there was another "bang" without a trace of scream. Even the man, his horse, and Yelu Dilugu's strong body were directly turned into a puddle of flesh. There was still only flying dust left in the place. As well as the remains of men and horses buried under the dust and smashed into pieces.
"kill!"
Almost the moment he saw the death of the enemy general, the north gate of Baosai City opened wide, and a middle-aged officer wearing armor galloped out, followed by thousands of cavalry.
This middle-aged officer is called Yang Wenguang, a member of the Zuoban Dianzhi. He is just a junior officer of the ninth rank, not even a general.
Since during the Bianliang period, after the artillery was built, artillery test firing was needed, so Zhao Zhen transferred Yang Wenguang, who was a bodyguard at the time, to be the squad leader of the artillery crew. Anyway, there were only a few cannons, and there were only a dozen gunners in total.
This time when the Liao Kingdom invaded, the imperial court mobilized 100,000 forbidden troops from the rear to the front line. Naturally, Yang Wenguang's artillery team was also among them. Moreover, his father, Yang Yanzhao, once served as the governor of Baozhou and was very familiar with this place. As a general, Yang Wenguang , and came to Baosai to defend the Liao Kingdom, which can be regarded as a son inheriting his father's legacy.
The lethality caused by the two artillery pieces is actually very small. Due to the difficulty of manufacturing grenades, before the industrial level reaches that premise, almost only solid bullets can be used. So so far, two cannonballs have killed three people. a horse.
But almost at the moment when the gates of Baosai City were opened, the infantry phalanx of the Liao Kingdom first burst into commotion, and then the first soldier let out a strange cry of "ah", threw down his weapon and turned around to run away. The national infantry phalanx collapsed in an instant, and the troops were defeated like a mountain and poured towards the rear.
In the era of front-loading smoothbore guns, solid bullets were indeed not as powerful as exploding grenades. However, whether it is a naval battle or a land battle, it is recognized that the most effective weapon is solid ammunition.
Because in the black powder era, spherical grenades were basically decorations, and there were too few fragments to deal with infantry. The 12-pound Napoleon shell has just over 20 shrapnel fragments. Considering that the fragments are scattered in a spherical shape, and the effective fragments above the ground are almost halved, the probability of hitting a person within a radius of 15 meters is very low.
On the other hand, solid bullets, if fired from a plane, can have the effect of piercing the enemy's formation. One shot will penetrate the row of people standing upright on the opposite side, no matter how many people you have, it will penetrate all the way to the end.
According to records in "The Science of Victory" and "On War", during the Napoleonic era, a solid bullet penetrated 26 infantry squares and directly killed more than 40 people. Moreover, these people's bodies were shot through, torn apart, and died in horrible conditions, which had a huge impact on the enemy's morale and morale.
It can be seen from this that although the cannonballs fired from the city wall are parabolic and cannot have the effect of a single shot piercing the ground like a direct shot on the ground, this solid thing that can smash people into pieces from a few miles away has given the soldiers of the Liao Kingdom What a psychological damage!
In this case, the Liao soldiers around the deceased first began to collapse, and then they followed others. Like dominoes, they were defeated before the war started.
Even the Liao cavalry who supervised the battle no longer killed the fleeing soldiers, but reined up their horses and ran away, running very fast.
One is that their master is dying.
Second, they were also afraid after seeing the fate of Yelu's enemy Lugu!
Yang Wenguang led thousands of cavalry prepared in the city to pursue them all the way. He chased the Liao soldiers and horses for several miles and killed hundreds of enemies before returning.
If Yelu Zongzhen hadn't concentrated all his troops to attack outside the North Gate, in addition to the North City, there were still undefeated Liao troops in the West City and East City, who immediately rushed to the rescue after hearing the news, I'm afraid this would have directly allowed the Liao Kingdom to invade. The army collapsed completely.
But even so, Yelu Zongzhen was shocked when he learned that the Song Army had a super long-range killer weapon. The Song army was too powerful. There were catapults throwing thunderbolts about a mile away, crossbows a hundred steps away, and grenades under the city.
Now three miles away, there are iron bullets shooting out and hitting people. Do you want their Daliao cavalry to survive?
Seeing that the attack on the North City Gate was frustrated, Yelu Zongzhen had to retreat more than ten miles, reorganize his troops and set up camp. Even if the entire Liao army suffered few casualties, there were still hundreds of casualties, but the morale of the army fell to the bottom.
In this case, it is obviously impossible to attack the city again.
Yelu Zongzhen discussed with the ministers again, and now there were only three choices before them.
One is to withdraw the troops immediately, taking advantage of the fact that there are not many casualties, and go back in despair.
The second was peace talks with the Song State. Although their attack was frustrated this time, they also destroyed a large number of fortresses and military strongholds of the Song Army. However, they had not yet broken through the Song Army's cities and achieved the purpose of deterring the Song State.
But at least they won in terms of momentum. They are still in a situation where the Liao State is attacking and the Song Army is defending. As long as the Song Army gives in, both sides will still have room for maneuver in peace talks.
The third is to continue the attack.
Although the attack range of the new weapon is indeed very long, its lethality is limited. As long as the cavalry supervisor force the infantry to continue the attack despite the Song army's artillery fire, and as long as they rush to the city and set up a ladder, they may still have a chance to break through the fortress. .
The problem is that the Song Army only displayed two cannons today. Who knows how many more cannons they have? And is there a more terrifying weapon hidden that could threaten the Liao emperor in the rear?
These are all things to consider.
And more importantly, the Song army can attack two or three miles away. When the Liao infantry runs to the bottom of the city, the distance of two to three miles is enough for the Song army to fire several more rounds of artillery fire.
Then there are catapults on the top of the city to throw thunder, and crossbows to shoot. Nearby, there are crossbows and grenades.
Just if the infantry ran under the city wall, how many people would die.
Moreover, under the powerful firepower of the Song army, the infantry might not be able to reach the bottom of the city and would collapse.
This is not a drill or a fantasy. In ancient wars, there were many examples where only a few casualties would cause the entire army to collapse.
In later generations, people often say that the ratio of this small number of casualties is 10%. Although the 10% data has no exact source, it is normal for an ancient army to collapse when only a few soldiers died, even if it had hundreds of thousands of troops.
For example, in the Battle of Lize during the Spring and Autumn Period, the Yue army had 50,000 troops and the Wu army had 60,000 troops. The Vietnamese army learned first that the three armies of Wu were equally divided in strength, with each army having 20,000 troops.
So the Vietnamese army weakened the left and right wings to 6,000 men each, and crossed over first to divert the Wu army's left and right wings of 20,000 men each. Then the Chinese army, with an absolute advantage of 40,000, attacked the Wu army's 20,000-strong center army, and the Wu army's central army collapsed. Later, Wu's army collapsed across the board.
At the end of the Qin Dynasty, at the Battle of Jingxing, where the idiom "The Last Stand" comes from, Han Xin, the commander-in-chief of the Han army, first ambushed two thousand cavalry, and then led a main force of 10,000 people to fight the Zhao army of 200,000. He retreated while fighting, pretending to be defeated and fleeing.
After running to the Mianman River, Zhao Jun's formation had been stretched extremely long by the pursuit and could not form a formation. When Han Xin reached the river, he reorganized his formation and withstood the enemy's fierce attack.
At this time, two thousand cavalry in ambush were dispatched and captured the Zhao army's camp. Although they did not cause too many casualties to Zhao Jun, Zhao Jun also collapsed across the board.
Therefore, although the proportion of dead soldiers on the whole is only a very small proportion of the entire army, this usually means that a certain front of the army has collapsed. The enemy at the collapse will expand its advantage through encirclement and outflanking, collapse, and continue to encircle and encircle. Leading to the complete collapse of the entire army.
As the emperor of the Liao Kingdom, Yelu Zongzhen was good at riding and shooting since he was a child, so he was naturally not a fool. Therefore, when he thought of the strength of the Song Army's city, which was like a tortoise shell with thorns on it, his head hurt. Now he really couldn't think of a way to break through the enemy's city.
If the confrontation continues, the Liao Kingdom cannot afford it.
Bypass these cities and go directly south. The problem is that the cities, fortresses and strongholds of the Song Army are all there. The logistics line cannot keep up. If you rely on the strong walls and clear fields of Hebei to fight in the field, how many can be captured to support an army of 300,000 people? forage?
Even if he could rob so much food and grass, what would happen to the Yellow River? Could he still build a boat on the river, cross the Yellow River, and rush to Kaifeng Mansion in Bianliang?
Unless all the Liao cavalry have wings!
Therefore, Yelu Zong is really going crazy. It doesn't matter whether he withdraws now or not. If he had known it, he would have pretended to be deaf and dumb. As long as the Song Dynasty does not take the initiative to break the covenant, it can still earn hundreds of thousands of dollars every year, so why bother asking for trouble? What about eating?
But when Yelu Zongzhen was in a dilemma when he was riding a tiger, the guard general Wang Deyong was also a veteran guarding the city. Through scout investigation, he immediately contacted Fan Zhongyan when the morale of the Liao Kingdom declined.
At this time, Fan Zhongyan actually already knew that the Liao Kingdom was attacking in the east and in the west. He was attacking Gaoyang on the surface, but in fact he was attacking Baosai in order to capture Baosai first and then gnaw on other bones.
So Lao Fan immediately redeployed his troops, reorganized the army of more than 100,000, and sent his troops north to rescue.
But his march was slow.
The main reasons are that firstly, we must first defeat the Liao infantry outside Gaoyang City, and secondly, we must guard against Liao's cavalry archery. Therefore, during the march, we must maintain the infantry formation.
However, "marching formation" and "combat formation" are completely different concepts.
The infantry of the Song Army in the "combat formation" formation were actually not afraid of cavalry charges, because the main infantry units of the Song Dynasty all had heavy armored infantry. Once the Liao cavalry fell into it and lost their mobility, even the heavy cavalry would have to fight. Become a lamb to be slaughtered.
The fear is that the infantry are in the "marching formation" before they enter the "combat formation" state. The Liao cavalry launches a surprise attack. They first fly kites and shoot from a distance of dozens of steps to prevent the infantry from forming a formation, and then launch a surprise attack. This can easily cause the entire military formation to collapse in an instant.
So to put it simply, if he encounters Liao cavalry in the wild, Fan Zhongyan will not be afraid at all when the military formation has been set up. However, he had to march to Baosai. If he was attacked on the way, the problem would be serious.
If Yue Fei was here, he would definitely be able to handle these problems, but after all, there was only one Yue Fei in the Northern and Southern Song Dynasties. It was not easy for Fan Zhongyan as a civil servant to coordinate the overall situation. If he wanted to command an army of more than 100,000 to prepare a defensive posture and adjust the formation at any time, naturally there was no way So quickly.
This caused his marching speed to be quite slow. On December 17, scouts had discovered the movement of the main force of the Liao army. On the 18th, he received Wang Deyong's letter requesting for help, and then adjusted his team to set off.
He walked for four days from Gaoyang to Baosai, a distance of forty or fifty kilometers. He could only march ten kilometers almost every day, which can be said to be quite difficult.
no way.
The army was bloated, and Lao Fan's strategy was excellent, but his actual command was not that strong. In addition, the Song army's unique generals did not know the soldiers, the soldiers did not know the generals, and the soldiers and generals were not familiar with each other, resulting in a serious separation between superiors and subordinates, and often the same It is difficult for a famous general to adjust his formation quickly.
Unless Han Xin or Yue Fei comes, they can only maintain a half-combat and half-marching posture. As soon as there is any sign of trouble, they must immediately form a formation. It can be said that it is still Lao Fan's classic tactics, step by step, one step at a time.
Facing Lao Fan's tactics like a tortoise crawling, if the Liao army retreated immediately at this time, there would obviously be no problem.
But Yelvzong really hesitated.
It's still the same problem. If we withdraw our troops now and go back in despair, we won't get any benefits and cause so many casualties. Obviously, we can't give an explanation to the nobles in the country.
Therefore, after thinking over and over again, even though the scouts had reported to him that Fan Zhongyan's main force was heading towards the fort, Yelu Zongzhen still had not made up his mind.
He even naively thought at that moment that Fan Zhongyan's main force would definitely have to engage in a field battle without the protection of the city.
He didn't dare to fight with Fan Zhongyan in the field before because Fan Zhongyan's main army at that time was 170,000 to 80,000 men, while his army only had 80,000 men. Moreover, Lao Fan still had grenades, so there was a small gap of 100 million points in terms of military strength and technology.
Now after joining Xiao Hui, the Guangliao cavalry has 130,000, plus the infantry recruited from other ethnic groups, the total force is not much different from Fan Zhongyan. Even if the Song army mobilizes support from other places, he still has a The power of war!
Thinking of this, Yelu Zongzhen finally decided to try a field battle with the Song army. It was really not possible. He had so many cavalry, and if he couldn't defeat them, he could always run away!
So on December 22, the second year of Baoyuan of Song Dynasty, the main force of Liao State ushered in the main force of Song State.
The two sides fell into a confrontation in Baosai.
(End of chapter)
