Wanyan Benjian began to carry out the emperor's orders.
Arrange the army to set up camp in a safe and suitable location, then mobilize the army to start clearing the obstacles around the city that hinder the army's attack, and further send rangers to explore around the Hejian City to see if there is any contact inside and outside the city.
He wanted to cut off all external communications in Hejian City, so that Hejian City would not receive any assistance from the outside world until it was breached.
On November 13, preparations for the siege were successfully completed. While Wan Yanliang ordered the army to prepare for the siege, he also received a military intelligence report from Heshi Lieliangbi.
Heshi Lieliangbi led 40,000 right-wing troops southward from Xiongzhou, occupying the undefended Gecheng County and Gaoyang County in Anzhou, and then divided his troops to occupy Baozhou.
He fought several victorious battles without enemies, and did not encounter any resistance from the Liberation Army along the way. Then he continued to march to Boye County in Lizhou, and finally encountered the defenders of the Liberation Army.
While Heshi Lieliangbi was arranging his troops to attack Boye, he also told Wan Yanliang some of his ideas.
He found that the Liberation Army had carried out very resolute clearings in several states along the border. No trace of anyone could be found, and there were no supplies such as food, cloth, ordnance that could be used in the war. It could be said that these states were completely occupied. Empty.
This kind of intensity of clearing the country is very rare, and it is enough to prove that the Liberation Army is well prepared and has a tenacious will to fight. It cannot be ruled out that it is very likely that they will continue to face this level of clearing the country along the way.
Heshi Lieliangbi hoped that the emperor would pay attention to protecting the logistics, and that he must not go too far into Hebei alone before figuring out the marching formation of the Liberation Army. Once there was a problem with the logistics, big trouble would really happen.
After Wan Yanliang heard the news, he thought about it seriously and felt that what He Shi Lieliangbi said made sense.
The Liberation Army's tactics of strengthening the walls and clearing the country were carried out very resolutely, which surprised him a little. He could not find any food along the way. If he wanted to improve the food for the soldiers, he had to rely on woodcutting, fishing and hunting.
But now it is winter, the wild animals are hiding in their holes and cannot come out, the rivers are frozen and fishing is not convenient, and firewood collectors cannot collect anything edible, so they must rely on logistics to replenish food during the march, which is difficult to obtain locally.
This made Wan Yanliang very angry.
The Liberation Army's war preparations were too complete, so the Jin Army encountered this kind of unusual disincentive as soon as they set off for the campaign.
But this only made Wan Yanliang more motivated.
When he went on an expedition, he had no hope of being able to rely on a place without much food supply. This level of solid walls and clearing of the country was not unimaginable to him. Moreover, the key point was that if the army could not control the logistics of an expedition, then what war would be fought?
Su Yonglin gave him a warning, and he was going to slap Su Yonglin in a more determined way, letting him know that it was impossible for this level of strong walls and clear fields to stop his attack!
Wan Yanliang gave the order and the offensive and defensive battle in Hejian officially began.
Hejian City is a fortified city and a large city. It is a war fortress that Su Yonglin has high hopes for. Therefore, the defender Jiang Liangping is the deputy general of the Tianxing Army. The main force of the city defenders is the two regiments of the Tianxing Army, which are very elite.
In addition, in order to increase the number of troops defending the city, Su Yonglin also assigned a local armed independent battalion to Hejian City, with the number of regular city defense troops reaching 6,000.
In Jiang Liangping's opinion, only 6,000 troops defending the city were certainly not enough.
So after stationing in Hejian City and taking over the power, he entrusted his deputy and senior instructor Wu Anxiang to lead some capable officers to organize the strong men in the city, select 20,000 strong men, distribute them weapons and equipment, and lead them to start emergency military operations train.
These trainings are not focused on fighting, but on ideological education and technical training.
In addition to the ideological education of protecting the family behind them, the main purpose is to teach them how to use city defense weapons, such as crossbows, crossbows, trebuchets, firearms, etc., so that they can support the battle on the city wall as quickly as possible.
Fighting, a skill that requires long-term training, will be ineffective no matter how you attack. As long as they learn to use city defense weapons, they can fight on the city and provide support to the main army.
Although this kind of quick technical arms is not as good as the regular army technical arms that have undergone rigorous training, it can still play a huge role as long as the number is sufficient.
Su Yonglin told Jiang Liangping that once the Jin army realized that the entire Hebei Province had implemented the strategy of strengthening the walls and clearing the wilderness, they would go crazy, but before that, they would definitely regard Hejian and Zhending as targets that must be captured and besiege them with all their strength.
Whether Zhending and Hejian can hold on in the initial period is of great significance to the entire battle.
If they can dampen the vigor of the Jin Army and defend Hejian City and Zhending City so that the Jin Army cannot capture these two cities, then for the Jin Army, half of the battle will have been lost.
If they want to go south, they must divide their forces to surround these two cities. The soldiers in these two cities can contain at least 20,000 to 30,000 Jin troops without even taking a step outside.
However, the strength of the Jin Army must not be underestimated. This is what Su Yonglin warned the generals many times. The elite of the Jin Army have strong combat effectiveness in both siege operations and field battles.
Not to mention that when they are deployed with all their strength, there are probably hundreds of siege equipment. If they are arranged in a row, they can surround the entire Hejian City two or three times.
In order to increase their chances of successfully defending the city, Su Yonglin gave each of them a city defense manual, which detailed the siege methods that the Jin army might use.
Knowing that the Jin army was ready to attack the city, Jiang Liang climbed up the city wall with a flat-top helmet and a whip to observe the Jin army's formation from a distance. He found that the Jin army had a huge lineup, the army was so dark that it was impossible to see the edge, and there were so many large siege equipment. , it’s scary to look at.
If I had to make a comparison, it would be like being surrounded by a pack of hungry man-eating wolves in the wilderness. There is no way out on all sides, only the green wolf's eyes.
These hungry wild wolves stare at their prey with their eyes wide open and their teeth bared, ready to swarm up and bite the throat of their prey at any time.
It's that sense of déjà vu.
Jiang Liangping didn't feel scared, but he also felt numb. For the first time, he felt how weak the weaker side was in the face of absolute military superiority.
It feels like they are the only city in the entire world that is still resisting. The outer perimeter of the city extends to the horizon, filled with endless enemy troops.
Without such a solid war fortress, their six thousand regular troops would have been easily overwhelmed by the sea of people brought by Wan Yanliang.
Jiang Liangping swallowed and took several deep breaths to gradually ease his nervousness.
Jiang Liangping was an old man from the Su family. He was the first to follow Su Yonglin to the north to rebel. He was born on the seaside to a family of fishermen. His earliest name was Jiang Xiaoyu.
Before Su Yonglin led them to rebel, he concentrated on changing the names of those with less pleasant names among them. Jiang Xiaoyu changed his name to Jiang Liangping at that time.
Fighting all the way, he changed from a simple and kind-hearted fisherman's boy Jiang Xiaoyu to a private salt dealer who licked blood with his knife, and then became Jiang Liangping, a soldier of the Liberation Army under Su Yonglin's teachings.
As a rising star with the best military merit and the best grasp of military theory among mid-level officers, Su Yonglin entrusted him with the task of guarding Hejian City and expressed his ardent expectations for him.
So no matter what, he couldn't fall behind others and let this war fortress fall in his hands.
After calming down, Jiang Liangping took out a small wooden tube-shaped thing from his pocket, then stretched the small thing, lifted it up, and looked at it with his eyes.
Before the battle, Su Yonglin gave each of their thirty guards a piece of this thing called clairvoyance.
It is said that it is the latest product of the Ordnance Department. It can see things very clearly from far away, just like a magic trick. However, it has just been made and can be used. The output is not high, and everyone can only use one.
When Jiang Liangping first got this thing, he thought it was a good thing. He really never thought that the transparent glass film could have such a function.
Of course, he doesn't care how this thing achieves this effect, as long as he has this effect.
He stood high on the city wall and used his clairvoyance to look around at the Jin army's lineup. He saw many things that could not be seen by simply climbing up and looking far away.
