The wailing became louder as the smoke gradually dissipated. The casualties and destroyed siege equipment all over the ground declared the disastrous failure of the new auxiliary army's attack.
According to Cao Ergou's order, the heavy and medium cannons were loaded with solid shells to bombard the siege equipment, while the light cannons were loaded with shotgun shells to deal with personnel.
This arrangement was obviously reasonable. After three rounds of bombardment, the enemy's hard-built siege equipment was basically restored to the state of parts. The 1,500 new auxiliary troops who attacked suffered more than 400 casualties, and one civilian husband was also killed and injured. More than a hundred people.
The civilians walking in front actually suffered less casualties than the new annexed troops. In addition to the larger number of new annexed troops, the main reason was that although the heavy artillery that bombarded the siege equipment was extremely powerful, it had a linear damage effect, while the shotgun shells of the light cannon had a wider range of damage. Face killing.
It was the hot summer season, and the sun's exposure made the bleeding wounded soldiers even thirstier. The wailing sound made people have goosebumps all over their bodies. Cao Ergou couldn't bear it, so he ordered someone to shout for the Mongolian army to clean up the battlefield. .
Not long after, the newly attached soldiers escorted the civilian husbands to carry the wounded soldiers and collect the corpses. In fact, if the corpse is not taken away, it will quickly become rotten and spread diseases, which is also a threat to the Perak Army.
Taking care of wounded soldiers will occupy more manpower of the Mongolian army. Mi Zhe Huoli and other Mongolian generals naturally understand this truth, but if they ignore the dead and wounded soldiers, their new auxiliary troops will definitely be demoralized and may even run away or mutiny.
Shortly after clearing the battlefield, the Mongolian army began to attack again. This time there were more people in the attack than the last time, but there were no large siege equipment.
A large group of newly affiliated soldiers, accompanied by migrant workers carrying long ladders, hooks, ropes, and planks of wood, poured out from behind the earthen wall and rushed toward the fortress quickly.
It can be said that the Mongolian army has a strong ability to learn from wars. Just because most of the casualties were in the rear ranks, Jiagu Longgu was keenly aware of the weaknesses of Hengyuan Fort's artillery - far and short.
From the mouths of the newly escaped soldiers, he deduced that the area near the wall was the blind spot for artillery fire. In addition, because heavy siege equipment advances slowly, it is not only easy to be destroyed but also slows down the soldiers.
At that moment, he suggested to Secret Master Huoli that instead of waiting to build new siege equipment, he quickly rushed to the fortress wall and attacked the city.
Secret Master Huoli knew that this method would cause heavy casualties, so he hesitated for a long time before agreeing. After all, the cannon fodder troops and talking animals are also the property of the Mongolian army, and it would hurt anyone's heart to suffer such heavy losses.
It's just that the Great Khan Mengge will set off for war when the autumn weather is clear. If Xichuan is not razed by then, he will definitely be despised by other Mongolian generals and will lose face in front of the Great Khan.
In order to ensure that the city was broken in one battle this time, the secret agent threw 2,000 new auxiliary troops and 500 civilians into the fire. In order to suppress the Perak artillery, he ordered the trebuchets not to cease fire.
He observed that the Perak troops did not fire the last time the trebuchets were fired, but the artillery opened fire as soon as the trebuchets stopped.
In addition, he increased the reward - the first person to stand on the city wall could be awarded the position of governor, and the other rewards were also greatly increased.
In addition, he also ordered 200 soldiers to dismount and sneak behind the earth wall to act as supervising troops and kill anyone who dared to retreat.
To say that Secret Master Huoli's plan went smoothly, at least the first half went smoothly. The distance of two hundred meters is really not that far, and you can reach it in a matter of seconds with a quick charge.
During this period, the Perak Army only had time to fire one round of artillery, and most of the new attached troops rushed to the trench, losing only more than a hundred people.
And many of the more than 100 people were hit in the back - injured by trebuchet projectiles. Some of the newly attached soldiers passed through the short bridge built by wooden planks, and some simply jumped into the trench and climbed to the wall. They climbed up the city wall along the long ladders and hook ropes.
For these big-headed soldiers, there is an opportunity before them to become a local emperor as a magistrate. Not only can they honor their ancestors, but they can also benefit future generations. It is worth risking their lives.
Cao Ergou was also stunned by the desperate fighting style of the Mongolian army. He was not intimidated by the dark formation under the city wall, but was really surprised by this behavior of giving away people's lives.
The soldiers of the new annex who climbed the wall held a knife in their mouths, a shield in one hand and a ladder in the other. It was really difficult to avoid the spears thrust from the wall, and they all screamed and fell to the bottom of the wall.
It's just that the reward offered by the Mongols is really tempting, and there is a team of supervisors behind them. It means death anyway, so why not give it a try?
These red-eyed desperadoes were climbing up the wall in an endless stream. In addition, the new auxiliary soldiers rushing in front were mostly elite and brave people, and most of them were wearing leather armor or even iron armor. They were very difficult to deal with. But the killing made the soldiers of the Perak Army relent.
Upon seeing this, Cao Ergou ordered the grenades to be thrown. In order to prepare for war, Yokoyuan Fort has prepared a sufficient number of grenades. However, due to the lack of raw materials such as mercury and thunder, there are not many new grenades, and most of them are still old grenades.
However, this old grenade is more than enough for defending the city. The soldiers of the newly affiliated army under the city wall saw a large number of iron lumps thrown on the city, and they raised their shields to block them. However, the city wall was already crowded, and no matter what they blocked, they would always fall into the crowd, and they would explode into a large area. .
Before attacking the city, the soldiers of the newly affiliated army were told that they would not be bombarded by artillery under the city wall, so they felt lucky that they could gain wealth in danger.
Now that they saw that the iron lumps falling from their heads were no less powerful than artillery and there was no way to hide, they had no intention of trying to get the position of Zhizhou anymore, and all of them dispersed in a hurry.
Seeing that the people who had fled earlier had eaten another round of artillery fire on the city wall on their way back, and had been shot and killed by the Mongols who were supervising the battle behind the wall, many of the newly attached soldiers threatened the civilians and ran towards the mountain pass along the bottom of the trench. , and the defenders on the city wall believed that they were all willing surrenderers, so they did not attack.
There were about five hundred people who fled into the mountain pass. Most of them were unwilling to work for the Mongols anymore, but there were also dozens of stubborn people who were unwilling to surrender to the new annexed army.
They did not listen to the orders of the Yamaguchi Perak Army soldiers to put down their weapons, but instead came to kill the Perak Army soldiers.
There was only one squad of Perak Army soldiers led at the mountain pass, and they had to withdraw to Wanjiabao. These stubborn people chased for a while into the mountains and then turned back. They tried to bypass Hengyuan Fort from the mountain pass and return to the Mongolian army camp. However, they encountered intensive artillery fire and had to continue to the mountains with the brigade.
After the second attack failed, the Mongolian army retreated behind the earthen wall, and it was already noon. Cao Ergou ordered his men to rest and eat.
The soldiers of the Perak Army, like people of this era, only eat two meals on weekdays, namely breakfast and dinner. If there is a combat mission, you can eat an extra meal at noon, which is not only to ensure physical strength but also to boost morale.
The underground warehouse of Hengyuan Fort not only has sufficient food, but also some bacon and even extremely precious sugar.
Since the Mongolian army could not cut off the connection between Hengyuan Fort and the mountains, the Perak Army guarding the fort could even have mushrooms and other fresh wild vegetables to eat every day, and as for drinks, they had tea and pine needle water.
In contrast, the food of the Mongolian army is much poorer. To be precise, the food of the new attached army is poor. Although Liu Heima, who was in charge of logistics, had collected a lot of food and grass for this battle, after giving priority to the 2,000 Mongolian cavalry and thousands of war horses, he could not keep all the 5,000 newly attached soldiers well fed.
What to do? The bosses, big and small, were naturally full of fat and had no choice but to let the ordinary soldiers suffer.
As for the common people, they are just like animals in the eyes of the Mongols, as long as they don't starve to death.
