The Mongols spent several days preparing a large number of other siege equipment before they officially began to siege the city. In the past few days, the Mongols were not idle either. They kept firing trebuchets at Hengyuan Fort, making craters on the walls of the fortress and even breaking the roof above the city wall in many places. Fortunately, no gunners were injured. The top cover on the city wall is much thinner than the wall. Its main purpose is to prevent bows and arrows from harming the gunners and rainwater from invading the artillery. Facing the fist-sized stones fired by the trebuchets, it is okay to take one or two hits, but it is more often. It will definitely be smashed. Cao Ergou was able to keep his composure. Faced with the stones that kept coming, he did not give the order to fire. He was prepared to deliver a fatal blow to the enemy when he attacked the city. Although the direct-aiming fortress guns on the city wall could not hit the trebuchets, the more than ten heavy-duty tiger crouching cannons transferred from Wanjiaping with direct firepower could destroy the trebuchets behind the earthen walls. These squatting tiger cannons were arranged in the inner fort of Yokoyuan Fort, far out of the attack range of the enemy's trebuchets. Cao Ergou had already ordered people to set up the shooting elements, and the enemy's trebuchets could be destroyed in a few rounds of shooting.
The reason why Cao Ergou didn't fire the cannon was because he brought back not only the Crouching Tiger Cannon from Wanjiaping, but also two sentences from Ouyang Xuan: "To make the enemy feel that there is hope of victory; to be kind to the enemy is to Cruelty to one’s own people.” The first sentence is to tell Cao Ergou not to forget to show weakness appropriately and to use the advantage of the fortress to consume the strength of the Mongolian army as much as possible. The latter sentence is to tell him that the civilians who help the enemy are not completely innocent. According to the habits of the Mongols, they will definitely let the civilian husband To be cannon fodder for sieges, one must be mentally prepared for indiscriminate bombardment. In fact, not only Ouyang Xuan, but also ordinary soldiers of the Perak Army knew that the Mongols would definitely let civilians and new auxiliary soldiers die as cannon fodder. On the one hand, they would consume the defenders and make a profit for themselves; on the other hand, they would Killing with a borrowed knife, only by borrowing the hands of the enemy to kill some of the new vassals and civilians, can one's rule become stronger. It would be the most terrible disaster if Yokoyuan Castle was lost because of shrinking back. Ouyang Xuan knew that he needed to give Cao Ergou a clear instruction.
Secret Master Huoli was full of confidence this time and was ready to take down Yokoyuan Fort in one fell swoop. Among the Mongolians, he was also regarded as a capable general who had experienced hundreds of battles. He was appointed by the Mongolian Khan as the military commander stationed in western Sichuan. He also lived up to Meng Gehan's expectations. Since entering Sichuan, he has repeatedly attacked cities and fortified villages without ever losing. This made him more and more arrogant, and even contemptuously called Song people "eating grass seeds." In his eyes, although Hengyuan Fort was strong, the surrounding flat terrain was obviously inferior to other strong fortresses captured by the Mongolian army. In addition to being located on steep mountaintops, these fortresses have been painstakingly built for many years and have complete defense systems to support them. They also have more people than Yokoyuan Fort, so aren't they also conquered? He was confident that he could win a battle, and even showed off to Liu Heima that he could attack the city in the morning and celebrate at night. Of course, although Secret Master Huoli was arrogant and arrogant, he was not incompetent. He was also good at listening to the opinions of Jiagu Longgudai and other subordinates and made careful plans and preparations. This time, in addition to leaving 500 cavalry to guard the camp, he mobilized the rest of the troops to engage in the siege. He also prepared a large number of siege trenches, bridges, ladders, carriages (used to conceal personnel during the siege), hitchhikes, and hungry cavalry. Falcon chariots, hook chariots and other siege equipment. Of course, the new auxiliary army must be leading the battle, and the Mongolian cavalry will naturally supervise the battle from behind.
Since the attack surface of Hengyuan Fort was narrow and the length relative to the earth wall was only a few hundred meters, the Mongolian army divided the new annexes and civilians who attacked the city into three teams: front, middle and back. Naturally, the front team hid behind the earth wall, the middle team hid in the trench, and the rear team stopped in front of the newly attached army camp. These civilians and new auxiliary troops will be packed from the trenches to the new auxiliary army camp, and their power will be extremely strong. The secreter Huoli adopted Jiagu Longgu's siege suggestion, that is, quickly rush to the blind spot of the artillery under the city wall, and swarm them based on their numerical advantage. As long as they attack the top of the city, they will be successful. The secret agent Huoli was convinced by this suggestion. Although the new auxiliary troops attacking the city were divided into three teams, each team still had more than a thousand people. As long as they rushed to the wall with the civilians, they could even borrow long ladders and hook ropes. You can climb up the wall. The scout's intelligence told him that there were only 500 to 800 people in Hengyuan Fort, and the defenders on the wall would never be able to withstand such a dense attack.
Under the intensive firepower launched by trebuchets, hundreds of civilians pushed siege equipment out of the earthen wall and headed towards Yokohara Castle. The siege engines were followed by fifteen hundred newly annexed soldiers. As the siege equipment slowly advanced, Yokoyuan Fort did not fire any cannons or even shoot any arrows. In the Mongols' view, this was because Yokoyuan Fort had been suppressed by trebuchet fire. In the past few days, stones have pummeled the surface of Hengyuan Fort, but the defenders did not fight back. In fact, apart from being damaged in a few places, Yokoyuan Fort did not suffer any serious damage and had no impact on the combat effectiveness of the Perak Army. Cao Ergou was not in a hurry to fire, he was waiting for the best opportunity to deliver a fatal blow to the enemy. Now the artillery in the inner and outer forts of Yokoyuan Fort has been debugged in place, and the ammunition has been transported in place. It can fire rapidly with just one order. The outer fort wall is nine meters high and the inner city is twelve meters high. The height difference between the inner and outer walls allows the artillery to form echelon firepower and form a death zone in front of the fort.
When the siege equipment was almost pushed to the edge of the trench, the trebuchets stopped firing. The New Affiliated Army was originally the surrendered Song Army, and the siege technology naturally came from the Song Army. Although their trebuchets were considered high-tech weapons in this era, due to technical limitations, they could not shoot accurately at all, and their impact points were spread over a wide range. It is large and can only achieve range damage. In ancient times, Jiagulong ordered to stop shooting because he was afraid of accidentally injuring the newly attached soldiers who were swarming up. Since the secret agent issued a reward order in the fire, the first person to climb the city wall will be awarded the position of Yongkang County Magistrate. The first ten people to climb the city wall will also be given official positions and financial rewards respectively. There must be brave men under the heavy reward. The brave ones among the newly attached soldiers have already crossed the trench and rushed to the base of the wall, waiting for the arrival of siege equipment. At this time, two-thirds of the trench has been filled in. Those with good skills can jump up, but most people have to use equipment to successfully cross the trench.
Just as the siege equipment was pushed to the edge of the trench, the artillery of the Perak Army fired intensively. After a series of loud noises, smoke enveloped the entire battlefield. After the explosion stopped, there was a brief and eerie silence on the battlefield, and a moment later the sounds of mourning started to sound. At this time, a chorus of shouts came from the city wall: "The Tatars are cruel, jump into the ditch and go to the mountains to survive." The shouts of the soldiers of the Perak Army made the civilians who were stunned by the bombing wake up from a dream and jumped into the trench one after another. There were more than 500 civilians pushing the siege equipment, and about 300 people followed the bottom of the ditch to the vicinity of the mountain pass. Several long ladders have already been set up at the bottom of the ditch here. To climb up the long ladder, you only need to run a few dozen meters to reach the mountain pass, where soldiers of the Perak Army are waiting. Along with the civilian husbands who fled, there were dozens of newly affiliated soldiers. They were disarmed at the mountain pass and hurriedly ran into the mountains following the civilian husbands. After being searched and screened one by one in Wanjiabao, they will be dispersed and placed in various villages and mines.
