Poor Family

  Chapter 955 The Battle of Destroying the Nation (9)

This Yang Zhaofang is a doctor of the Xixia Ministry of Industry, who is responsible for the construction and maintenance of Xixia city bridges. He was dismissed from office last year due to a bridge collapse incident, and he is idle in his hometown in Shunzhou. Li Yanqing got it from an official in Xiazhou. With this news, he ordered the scout battalion to invite this official to the Song Army camp.

  Li Yanqing sized him up and smiled, "Are you Han?"

   "My grandfather is Song Min, and now the villain is from Xixia."

  Li Yanqing nodded, it seems that this person still has a strong sense of belonging to Xixia, but Li Yanqing didn't care, he smiled again: "I came to you because I want to ask you something."

   "Don't dare, just ask Li Jinglue, and the villain will answer everything."

"It's like this. When we were repairing Xiazhou City, we found that the mortar between the big stones on the city wall had been weathered. The entire city wall was built on top of each other, which was very unstable. However, the city walls of the Song Dynasty did not have this situation. This is the case. what happened?"

Yang Zhaohe sighed, "I am very clear about the situation that the envoy said. I was dismissed because of the collapse of a bridge, and the reason for the collapse of the bridge was the weathering of the mortar you mentioned. In Xixia, this situation It's very common."

   "But according to my army craftsmen, you didn't use rice milk when you built the city, but directly mixed lime with sand as mud, is that true?"

Yang Zhaohe gave a wry smile, "Xixia doesn't produce rice, they use batter, but the batter's adhesion is not enough, this is not the main reason, but Xixia is windy and sandy, and the climate is dry, so the buildings are easy to weather, so the city walls are not as good. It needs to be rebuilt every 30 years, but due to financial constraints, only the city wall of Xingqing Mansion can do this. Other cities may be rebuilt every 50 years, or even never rebuilt. For example, Xiazhou City, the last time it was rebuilt was in Sixty years ago."

   "What about Lingzhou and Jingzhou?"

  Yang Zhaohe was silent for a moment and said, "Is the envoy Jinglue looking for the weakness of the city wall?"

  Li Yanqing stared at him sharply, "I won't force you if you don't want to say it, but this is your chance. After the demise of Xixia, we will definitely reuse a group of local Han officials. You can think about it yourself!"

After a long silence, Yang Zhaohe sighed and said, "The middle of the Lingzhou city wall is filled with sand. Even if the outer layer of boulders collapses, the sand will pour down, but the city wall at the city gate is hollow, and the inside is supported by wood. , It has been more than 50 years, almost 60 years, it is very corrupt, and Jingzhou is the same, I wrote a report last year, asking for the reconstruction of Lingzhou and Jingzhou, but I was dismissed before I got a response."

   "Is there any weakness in the city wall of Xingqing Mansion?" Li Yanqing looked at him again and asked.

  Yang Zhaohe nodded, "There are also weaknesses. If you can really attack the city of Xingqing Prefecture, I will tell you everything."

   "Okay! Mr. Yang, please go down and rest first."

  The guards took Yang Zhaofang down, and Liu Kai smiled and said, "Dutong really doesn't plan to use siege ladders?"

  Li Yanqing smiled lightly, "If Jin Bing had our Thunderbolt, I don't think they would use siege ladders anymore!"

At night, dozens of black shadows appeared one mile outside Lingzhou City. They moved quickly and vigorously, carrying a few huge thunderstorms and approaching the south gate of Lingzhou step by step. Two miles away, 50,000 infantry and 5,000 cavalry are ready. The Jingzhao army has practiced night combat skills hard for a year. Almost every soldier can fight at night, and night combat is precisely the weakness of the northern nomads.

  Li Yanqing was also riding on a war horse, watching Xiping City from a distance. Once they entered the city, the two sides would mainly fight in the street, and the cavalry was very inconvenient in the street battle, but the infantry had the upper hand.

For this Northern Expedition, Li Yanqing also made full preparations. The soldiers not only trained for night combat for a long time, but also conducted intensive training for street combat, including short-shot crossbow arrows specially used for street combat. The killing distance of this kind of crossbow arrows is only fifty steps. It is small and convenient, and can be quickly wound and shot. In addition, the iron fire thunder is also a sharp weapon in street fighting, and there is also a poisonous smoke bomb. This poisonous smoke bomb was invented in the early Northern Song Dynasty. It is only the size of a teacup. Toxic fumes are produced.

It’s just that the early gunpowder was not good enough, so the effect of the poisonous smoke bomb was not good. This time, the Song Army mixed the improved high-efficiency burning gunpowder with the chamaejasma arsenic that was ground into fine powder, and when it burned, it would produce a lot of poisonous smoke. The enemy here would be a catastrophe, an early chemical weapon.

  In addition to 50,000 infantry, Li Yanqing also deployed 20,000 cavalry on the outskirts. Their task was to kill the escaped Xixia soldiers and prevent them from fleeing back to Xingqing Mansion.

Thirty soldiers were carrying two city-exploding thunderbolts, and they were moving quickly towards the city gate. Compared with the cities of the Song Dynasty, the biggest difference between the Xixia city and the Song Dynasty city was that there was no moat in the Xixia city, and some cities would dig a trench , where spikes and stakes are placed, and some cities do not even have ditches.

Lingzhou and the Jingzhou behind belong to the latter. It is not an important border city like Weizhou and Xiazhou, nor is it like a capital city like Xingqing Prefecture, so there are no trenches dug in front of their cities, and even the gates are relatively old. In the old days, what the Xixia army could do was to block the city gate with boulders. Even if the city gate was blown to pieces, there were still stronger boulders behind it.

   Thirty soldiers have entered within 50 steps from the city wall. The moonlight is good tonight, and the defenders at this distance from the city wall can already spot the Song army.

  There are about 5,000 defenders on the city wall at night, and the main general in the city is still Jin Wang Li Cha. Originally, Li Cha's defeat in Xiazhou had already affected Li Qianshun's trust in him.

  Li Qianshun originally planned to appoint Wei Wang Li Zhizhong to guard Lingzhou. Li Zhizhong and his brother Pu Wang Li Renzong have become the most trusted right-hand men of the emperor Li Qianshun, and they have faintly surpassed Richard.

  Unfortunately, Li Zhizhong is currently coordinating the dispatch of troops from various tribes and cannot rush to Lingzhou, and Brother Li Cha is also playing a role in Lingzhou.

Within fifty steps, the thirty soldiers became more careful. They wore cloaks that were exactly the same color as the land, and they could not be seen lying on the ground even in daylight. Thirty soldiers moved slowly. The soldiers were standing in front of the battlements, but they did not notice the soldiers of the Song Army who were gradually approaching the city wall.

After climbing the distance of fifty steps for a full quarter of an hour, the last two soldiers jumped up, rushed to the gate of the city, and stood close to the gate, when two thunderbolts rolled over, and they took the two eighty The heavy Zhentianlei was propped against the city walls on both sides of the city gate with a tripod. This is what Yang Zhaohe called the hollow city. It looks solid, but it is actually in danger.

  Two soldiers were nervously operating by the city wall, while eighteen soldiers from a dozen or so away were holding crossbow arrows and guarding them vigilantly, fearing that if they were discovered, a sentry would slide down the rope from the top of the city.

  At this time, the fire under the city wall was bright. It was the soldiers who lit the fire pockets. They were immediately discovered by the soldiers on the top of the city, and the top of the city immediately shouted.

The two soldiers lit the match, turned around and ran against the city wall. This is an effective way to use the city wall to block the shock wave of the thunder. It is not very convenient to shoot arrows from the top of the city. Eighteen soldiers also jumped up. , also sprinting against the city wall.

  At this time, arrows began to be released from the top of the city, and a soldier fell to the ground with a scream. He was shot in the back by an arrow, and two soldiers quickly picked him up and ran wildly.

Just as the soldiers at the top of the city were rushing towards the gate tower from all directions, two extremely dull explosions exploded, the flames shot into the sky, thick smoke billowed, countless bricks and stones flew into the air, and the entire city wall shook, as if it had happened once. Small earthquake.

  Twenty soldiers of the Song Army lay on the ground in a hurry, holding their heads with their hands. No one cared about them on the top of the city.

  When the gunpowder smoke dissipated, the entire city wall at the city gate disappeared, leaving only a small section of the city wall in the middle, which was supported by the boulder behind it, and a gap of more than ten feet long appeared on each side, and there were ruins everywhere.

At this time, the sound of war drums suddenly sounded in the distance, and the Song army, which had been waiting for a long time, rushed out to Lingzhou City. Five thousand cavalry galloped in front, and they rushed to the front in just a moment. Hundreds of Xixia soldiers They were carrying sandbags in an attempt to block the gap, but it was too late, the cavalry came first and charged directly into the gap.

  Xiping Mansion has fallen

  (end of this chapter)