With a golden roar, Zhao Mengqi suddenly opened his eyes, jumped up from the ground, and looked out from the crenel.
At this time, the sky was getting brighter, and although the sun had not yet risen above the horizon, the outlines of things in the distance could already be vaguely seen.
About a mile away from the city, the rebels were forming a formation, indicating that the attack was about to begin.
This is Beicheng, and just as Zhao Mengqi expected, the rebels' main attack direction is here.
It is not complicated to make such a judgment. Due to the geography of Wujiang City, Wusong River is to the south, the canal is less than fifty feet to the east, and the west is barely wide enough, but there are corpses everywhere, making it difficult to move, and it has to be exposed to direct sunlight.
Liu Xiuli placed one or two hundred men on the south and east sides, five or six hundred men on the west side for containment, and the remaining three thousand or so were all concentrated on the north side.
Corresponding arrangements were also made at the top of Wujiang City. All the Fenghua Army troops were arranged on the north wall. There were more than a thousand strong civilians, wearing extra leather and paper armor from the arsenal. They were busy assisting the sergeants. Defend the city.
Using paper as protective gear sounds very unreliable. In fact, paper armor is a standard equipment of the Song Dynasty. It can not only resist bows and arrows, but its defense against cutting is not much inferior to that of iron armor, but it is not as durable as iron armor.
Paper armor is usually used to equip light infantry and crossbowmen. Especially for second-line troops, the proportion of paper armor is relatively high.
Liu Xiuli's four thousand soldiers were all wearing armor, of which two thousand were iron armor and the rest were leather and paper armor.
When the first ray of golden light shot out from the eastern sky, the vision gradually became clearer.
A huge and neat military formation lay flat on the field, shining with the light of armor, reflecting in the eyes of the defenders.
At the front of the military formation, there are more than a dozen huge platoon vehicles. They look very crude and rough, but the thick wooden sign nearly one foot long and wide can effectively defend against arrows.
Behind the platoon of vehicles are groups of soldiers carrying long ladders. They will follow the platoon of vehicles and slowly approach the city wall with the help of cover.
At the back is a square formation with the capital as the unit, 30% of which are sword and shield bearers, standing in the front row, and the rest are crossbowmen.
At the end of the military formation, there were eight artillery carriages arrayed horizontally, each of which required thirty or forty people to move and use. There were also a dozen ballistae carriages, each of which required six or seven people.
Soldiers in this era have no right to know about military operations. Most of them don't know where they are going, who they are going to fight, and why they are fighting. They can only do what the generals say. This is why mutinies were prone to occur in ancient times. reason.
At present, it was obvious that he was going to attack the Song Dynasty's own city, but Liu Xiuli only said that there were rebels in the city and that he was ordered to quell the rebellion. These soldiers did not dare not believe it. After all, all the key officers in the army obeyed his orders. .
Liu Xiuli was riding a horse, hanging behind the military formation, surrounded by more than two hundred of the most elite heavy infantry.
The morning sun rises, illuminating the space between heaven and earth, dispelling the last trace of fog.
Liu Xiuli stood up from his horse, pointed his sword at the top of Wujiang City, "Attack!"
The long and desolate horn sound was blown continuously, the flags were waved, and the murderous aura soared into the sky.
On the drum cart, a shirtless and sturdy man picked up the drumstick and hit the big cowhide drum with all his strength.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
The sound of the drums is like muffled thunder, slow in rhythm, but powerful and vibrating in all directions.
The entire military formation moved slowly, like a huge wave, rolling forward to press.
The sword and shield bearers followed the rhythm of the war drums, slapping the shield with their blades, and shouting loudly at the same time. Thousands of people stepped on the drums, their footsteps thundering, as if they were one person.
The momentum was overwhelming and pressing towards the city, making people's scalp numb and their spirits even more tense.
Looking at the rebels with bright armor, fluttering flags, and maintaining an orderly formation while moving, Zhao Mengqi couldn't help but look solemn, "They are indeed a strong army."
Chen Xiaokun was now wearing heavy armor, holding a saber in his hand, staring at the rebels, and said in a calm tone, "Back then, the two people that General Chen valued the most were Brother Jiang and Liu Xiuli. Nang Xiangzhi, if we only talk about generals’ talents, Liu Xiuli is actually still above Brother Jiang, but if Zhimiang hadn’t chosen..."
At this point, Chen Xiaokun suddenly stopped talking, as if something private was involved.
thing.
Zhao Mengqi had no intention of gossiping and continued, "Although the rebels' siege equipment is a bit crude, looking at their posture, do they plan to fight to the end?"
Chen Xiaokun judged, "Both the armies from Lin'an and Zhenjiang can reach here in three or four days at most, so Liu Xiuli doesn't have much time. His only choice is to fight quickly and decide the outcome."
"You mean, he only plans to attack once? Make a wave?" Zhao Mengqi frowned slightly.
Chen Xiaokun nodded, "Yes, so the next offensive will be extremely fierce."
Since last night, Zhao Mengqi has been personally in charge of the highest command, but he knows that he still needs to learn a lot about military affairs and is not suitable to command the current city defense battle, so he thought for a while and said, "If you take command, How sure are you of holding the city?"
You want me to take command! ?
We met less than half a day ago. How could King Yan be so trusting and trust me with his own safety?
Chen Xiaokun was startled, and after thinking quickly, he replied carefully, "Your Highness, there is no certainty of victory in the end, only the belief in death!" Junqu Pavilion
Zhao Mengqi looked at him seriously, then patted his shoulder, "From now on, you have full authority to take over battlefield command!"
"Here!" Chen Xiaokun clasped his fists and suddenly felt that he was carrying a huge burden. At the same time, he immediately entered the state and began to clarify his combat ideas.
Although changing generals on the spot seems a bit hasty, Zhao Mengqi understands the dangers of laymen commanding experts. Professional matters should be left to professionals.
Perhaps because the trains were too heavy, the rebels did not move very fast. It took them a quarter of an hour to cover half a mile.
At this time, the sound of war drums suddenly became louder, and the chants from behind the row of vehicles began to accelerate. The speed of the entire military formation began to increase, and soon it was approaching seventy feet.
Chen Xiaokun was waiting for this moment. He waved his hand and said coldly, "Send the order, fire the stone cannon!"
After a moment, the tip of the trebuchet was raised high, and four stone bombs weighing more than ten kilograms were thrown at the platoon of vehicles that had already been aimed at.
Liu Xiuli looked at the black dots flying in the sky and thought of the "new type of sky-shattering thunder". His heart tightened and he instantly increased his concentration.
The target of the stone bullets was the platoon car, but the trebuchets of the Song Dynasty were pulled by manpower, and their accuracy was actually very poor. Only one stone bullet grazed the top of a platoon car, and the other sides were not touched.
But it doesn't matter much. Even if the impact of these stone bullets is inaccurate, they still crash into the crowd after bouncing on the ground. They ignore shields and armors and plow out alleys of flesh and blood. The casualties caused by each one are as few as three or four people, and as many as Then there are more than a dozen people.
There was no expected explosion, so Liu Xiuli breathed a sigh of relief. The dozens of casualties in this round were far from what he could bear.
The quality of the rebels was several times higher than that of the water pirates. They recovered after just a slight confusion and continued to move forward.
The advantage of a human-pulled trebuchet is that it can be reloaded very quickly, so the second round of stone bombs fell quickly and hit a platoon car, destroying most of it and causing sawdust to fly everywhere.
However, the rebels all had armor, and as long as they were not hit by stone bullets, sawdust would not do much harm to them.
When the rebels advanced another dozen feet, the third round of stone bullets hit three platoon vehicles.
Seeing this, Chen Xiaokun immediately ordered, "Fire the bed crossbow!"
More than 20 sergeants raised their mallets at the same time and knocked hard on the machine brackets. The thick crossbow bolts were shot out in response. They deliberately avoided the row of cars and got into the military formation. Suddenly blood splattered everywhere and miserable howls were heard. There was a sound, and hundreds of people fell to the ground in an instant.
Under such casualties, the rebels were no longer so calm. The soldiers at the front were in panic and could no longer maintain their formation. Officers at all levels shouted wildly and barely managed to maintain their formation.
At this moment, the war drums became more intensive, urging the military formation to launch a final charge. At the same time, our own artillery carriages and ballistae vehicles also stopped and were fixed, preparing to launch a counterattack against the city.
When Chen Xiaokun saw it, he quickly shouted, "Your Highness, please leave the city immediately!"
Seeing that Zhao Mengqi just shook his head, Chen Xiaokun had no choice but to focus on command first and ordered the trebuchet that had been waiting for a while to launch again.
This time, the target of the trebuchet was no longer the platoon of vehicles, but the rebel artillery vehicles.
, although it was still not ready to hit the car body, it exploded after falling.
Amidst the four loud noises, one artillery carriage fell apart on the spot, another one burst into flames, three other ballistae carriages were also destroyed, and there were dozens of casualties.
Although this power was very powerful, because it was an old formula of gunpowder, its flammability was much greater than its explosiveness, so it was still within the awareness of these rebels and did not cause a particularly big panic.
Liu Xiuli saw that this was no different from the Sky Thunder that he knew, and he couldn't help but began to doubt the authenticity of the so-called "New Sky Thunder", but he felt more at ease in his heart.
He then ordered the ballistae to disperse and move forward, and the artillery carriage immediately counterattacked, also throwing thunderbolts.
Unfortunately, the accuracy of his cannon truck was even more impressive. There were six thunderbolts in total. One of them was five or six feet away from the city wall and exploded. Three of them hit the city wall and bounced back, also blowing up Lonely. There were several pools of flames left on the ground, one of which was still a misfire, but two flew over the city, exploded in the city, and ignited several houses.
Then the Thunderbolt at the top of the city came again, burning another rebel artillery truck, and triggering a suicide bombing, causing double the damage.
Seeing this, Liu Xiuli jumped in anger, but he did not dare to use the artillery carriage, let alone the thunder, because the rebels had already rushed to less than 20 feet away from the city wall.
The dark crowd rushed towards the city wall crazily. More than a dozen rows of vehicles grew larger and larger in sight, and even the faces of the soldiers were clearly visible.
Chen Xiaokun shouted coldly, "Cum!"
More than a dozen giant crossbow arrows shot out in response, all targeting the row of vehicles. Naturally, they all hit at such a distance.
The hit parts are different, and the quality of the platoon car is different, so some crossbow arrows just penetrate the wooden sign and kill the people behind the platoon car, while some crossbow arrows cause relatively large damage to the platoon car.
Immediately, more than five hundred crossbow arrows came one after another, causing large waves of blood in the crowd.
The rebels had armor that could withstand arrows to a large extent, so Chen Xiaokun endured it until the distance where the armor-piercing arrowheads could work best, killing three to four hundred rebels in one fell swoop.
Seeing that the defenders on the city finally showed up, the rebel crossbowmen who had been waiting for a long time immediately fired. Suddenly more than a thousand crossbow arrows swooped on the city like locusts.
The rebels' crossbows also immediately started firing, trying to suppress the city.
The rebels took advantage of this opportunity and became even more crazy. They even abandoned the row of cars, held their shields high, and ran towards the city wall with all their strength.
