The first siege ended hastily. More than 800 Daxia soldiers who stormed the city wall were killed and 500 injured.
This number made Liu Mo feel distressed.
Immediately after withdrawing, he called an emergency meeting.
"What the hell!" Zhu Min tore off his helmet with both hands and threw it to the ground. The ferocious helmet was charred and deformed, with half of it dented. He himself was bleeding above one eye, covering half his face from an old burn scar.
"Why are there so many defenders in Yongxing City?" Zhu Min breathed heavily, "Do your people have eyes?"
"Sun Kan, what's going on? How could the information your scouts detected be so skewed?" Liu Mo asked.
"My lord, my subordinates don't know either." Sun Kan frowned.
A scout stepped forward. "Sir, it's understandable that one person might be mistaken, but my subordinates have checked four times and indeed only saw three thousand people!"
Before Liu Mo's army arrived at Yongxing, he sent out scouts to investigate, and the news they brought back was consistent.
The blood on Zhu Min's face was shining red, and his eyes were full of anger. "Then the enemy troops in Yongxing City came out of the ground?"
"Stop saying these meaningless words!" Liu Mo interrupted Zhu Min.
There may be more than 10,000 defenders in Yongxing City. What is Yang Yizhi thinking? Why would such a deployment be made!
"Sir, let's be practical!" Zhu Min spoke again, "Let's launch a strong attack tomorrow!"
"No, no!" said a general, "There is a personal guard of the enemy emperor in Yongxing City!"
Liu Mo looked at the man in shock, "What did you say?"
"The Royal Guards of the Zhou Dynasty!" The general explained and looked at Zhu Min, "General Zhu, the last time you fought against them, you taught me how to identify the armor of the Royal Guards of the Zhou Dynasty."
The Royal Guards of the Zhou Dynasty are equivalent to the Yulin Guards of Daxia?
Liu Mo couldn't believe his ears, what the hell was going on. In Xiaoyongxing, the prince of the Zhou Dynasty was stationed with his personal guards?
"Sun Kan, are there any ambushes around?" Liu Mo asked immediately. He was very worried that Yang Yizhi would follow his example and ambush him, just like the last battle in Rongcheng!
The latter shook his head, "I didn't find it!"
"Expand the scope and conduct reconnaissance within thirty miles!" Liu Mo said with a frown, "Also, don't lose contact with the Sixth Prince, and report military information at any time!"
"As you command!"
"Sir, where is Yongxing City? Do you want to attack the city tomorrow?" Zhu Min asked.
"Not yet, our army has enough food and grass, there is no need to rush!"
"But even Xiao Yongxing can't win it. Let alone the Sixth Prince who will blame him, do we still need this face?" Zhu Min said impatiently.
"Is face more important or the lives of the soldiers?" Liu Mo said loudly. "The enemy had nearly 10,000 defenders and forced their way into Yongxing. How many casualties did our army suffer?"
When the time comes, what will you use to fight Wei Deng and Wei Changjun?
"Then just wait and see?"
"I will write to the Sixth Prince. Hetu City has been destroyed. I believe His Highness will be able to provide support." Liu Mo said, "Before that, I have other clever plans!"
Of course, the effect of a strong attack on Yongxing by 30,000 people is different from that by a strong attack by an army of 100,000 people, and the casualties will be much smaller.
At this point, Zhu Min said no more.
On the next day, under Liu Mo's order, the Daxia army began to be busy outside Yongxing City.
do what? Collect fire starters!
Under Liu Mo's order, the soldiers tied the hay and firewood they found into bundles, as long as they could be carried by manpower, and then moved to the east of Yongxing City to the windward.
Purpose? One of the siege techniques: smoke.
After preparations were completed, Liu Mo ordered that dry grass should be placed in the center to make the firewood flammable, and wet grass should be placed around it to make it smoke.
Since the place where the fire and smoke are generated cannot be too far away from the city, care must be taken to prepare a leather fence or shield to prevent the enemy from attacking with arrows and stones. Because these forages contain moisture, they will emit thick smoke and kill the tortoise inside!
When the firewood was lit and real gray smoke came out, Zhu Min and others couldn't help but smile, "Damn stinky bastards, I hope they can't hold it back and go out to fight, haha!"
Liu Mo was silent, listening to the firewood burning, screaming and booming like thunder.
Thick smoke rolled up and hit Yongxing City.
The Daxia soldiers standing above could even clearly hear the coughs and curses of the defenders, and the reprimands of the non-commissioned officers.
"Come out, you bastard! Come out and die!"
Under Liu Mo's order, Daxia soldiers also began to shout in unison, laughing at the cowardice of the defenders.
Will the other party be stupid enough to go out of the city to fight in the field? The probability is so small that it can be ignored, but the impact on morale is huge!
In the era of cold weapons, morale is the most critical factor in determining victory or defeat.
Sun Tzu said in the Art of War, "The bottom line is to attack the city, and the top side is to attack the heart!"
As expected, the defenders of Yongxing City took the turtle for granted.
And Liu Mo's siege methods are not just the same.
After smoking the Zhou Dynasty for a full day, he ordered again to implement the next item: smoke balls and poison smoke balls.
Both weapons were projected into Yongxing City using catapults (gun carriages).
The smoke ball is made of three pounds of gunpowder coated with one pound of mugwort. When the bomb is to be dropped, a red-hot awl is inserted into the thick paper wrapped around the gunpowder to ignite it. It is placed on a gun carriage and launched. Calculate the distance and burning speed. When he arrived at the enemy's camp, he happened to light the ball of gunpowder and cause an explosion.
The composition of the poison smoke ball is a little more complicated. Use 15 liang of sulfur, 5 liang of aconite, 14 liang of flame salt, 5 liang of croton, 5 liang of wolfsbane, 2 and a half tung oil, 2 and a half small oil, and charcoal. The last five taels.
Two and a half bits of asphalt, two and a half pi frost, one tael of yellow wax, one tael of bamboo and one half of maru, pound into a ball weighing five kilograms.
A piece of hemp rope, one or two feet long and half a catty in weight, is used as a string. Take twelve halves of ancient paper, twelve halves of hemp leather, two halves of asphalt, two halves of yellow wax, one liang of yellow elixir, and half a pound of charcoal powder. Pound them together and apply them on the outside.
When using it, first burn the outer shell with a fire cone and then release it with a catapult. When it explodes on the enemy side, its fumes will suffocate people and cause bleeding from the mouth and nose.
Do these things exist? I am very sure of that!
Before setting off, he knew that there would be a siege. Liu Mo had already prepared these siege methods and siege items.
It's just that the materials are relatively precious, so he didn't plan to use them in Yongxing City at first.
But now that the war has reached a bottleneck, we can no longer control it so much.
The poison smoke balls are manufactured and loaded into the catapult.
Liu Mo gave the order, "Bang, bang, bang!" and threw the poisonous smoke ball into Yongxing City.
Soon after, bursts of screams began to ring out in the city.
Seeing this scene, Liu Mo couldn't help but sigh. If Yang Yizhi had used these moves to attack the city, he would have been unable to resist.
"Brother Zhu, is this too cruel?" Liu Mo asked in a low voice when Zhu Min walked up to him.
"No! This is war!" Zhu Min replied.
"Then be more cruel!" Liu Mo grinned. "You can dig less in the toilet and add some aniseed to the throwing objects!"
