Chapter 247 This is the technological generation gap!

Fourth watch time.

There was originally silence in Youzhou City.

Zhao Xin’s army was less than twenty miles away from Youzhou City at this time.

But twenty miles is actually very close.

At least……

At this distance, the military and civilians in Youzhou City had already known about it in advance, and they thought that a war would probably break out next.

For example, many civilians have been restricted from leaving the city.

In this battle, Zhao Xin also sent out many scouts to keep an eye on the Liao Kingdom’s every move.

According to the intelligence collected and analyzed, the general standing military force of Nanjing Xijin Prefecture of the entire Liao Dynasty was no more than 30,000, or possibly 40,000, or at most 50,000, and there were quite a few Han people among them.

However, the standing and mobilized military forces cannot be completely compared.

After all, the Liao Kingdom was a nomadic people. If they were really mobilized, or even fought a war to annihilate the country, the Liao Kingdom might be able to mobilize at least hundreds of thousands of troops.

Moreover, once they knew that Nanjing Xijin Prefecture was under siege, they would immediately mobilize their vassal troops in Shangjing Linhuang Prefecture, Dongjing Liaoyang Prefecture, Zhongjing Dading Prefecture, Xijing Datong Prefecture, and other affiliated tribes to come south to support.

What Zhao Xin is pursuing now is the word “fast”.

We must take advantage of the time when the enemy’s troops have not yet been fully assembled and catch them off guard.

but……

It was just the fourth watch of the day, almost the fifth watch, when the scout came back to report to Zhao Xin that there seemed to be some disturbance in Youzhou City.

The specific reason is unknown.

Zhao Xin didn’t take this matter seriously at first.

After all, the information we have learned so far is still relatively limited.

It was not until dawn that good news came again. One can only say that Yelu Chongyuan was really a smart man.

He actually sent someone to bring Yelu Renxian’s head to Zhao Xin.

But let me be frank!

Zhao Xin also didn’t know who this Yelu Renxian was?
It was not until someone told him that the other party was a rare person in the Liao Kingdom who was seen off by the people crying along the streets after leaving the prefecture or county he governed, and that he was also quite knowledgeable in military strategy. When Yelu Zongzhen personally led an expedition to Western Xia, he specially appointed him as the vanguard. At that time, he was the closest person to the Liao Kingdom Emperor Yelu Hongji. Only then did Zhao Xin understand the value of this person.

Moreover, Yelu Chongyuan’s envoy also brought a message to Zhao Xin.

That is, the 50,000 troops that Yelu Renxian had brought with him had all been under their control.

The envoy said to Zhao Xin: “We have said that Youzhou City is high and strong. You will not be able to attack it in a short time. Not to mention that there are at least 100,000 soldiers in Youzhou City. Why don’t you sit down and talk about cooperation. We have said that Nanjing Xijin Prefecture will not be given to you.”

Zhao Xin also asked: “How to cooperate?”

The envoy said: “We can give Xijing Datong Prefecture to the Southern Dynasty, but the Southern Dynasty cannot attack us again.”

Zhao Xin also replied: “Do you think I will retreat so easily now that I am here? Besides, Xijing Datong Prefecture is at least 500 miles away from here.”

The messenger said, “If His Royal Highness the Crown Prince of the Southern Dynasty insists on having his own way, then we will have no choice but to go to war. To show our sincerity, we can give you all the military intelligence of Datong Prefecture in Xijing.”

Then…

The other party presented all the information about the distribution of troops and garrison commanders in Xijing Datong Prefecture.

Zhao Xin then said, “How do I know if this is fake? Besides, we can know this information ourselves.”

The messenger said: “If the Southern Dynasty disagrees, then we can only meet on the battlefield.”

Zhao Xin immediately ordered someone to take down the other party first.

Everyone looked at Zhao Xin.

Zhao Xin also looked at them.

Then he said to everyone: “Proceed as planned! Youzhou City must be captured before dark tomorrow!”

It’s only twenty miles away.

The Song army arrived after marching for about two hours that day.

After arriving.

Set up camp immediately, then build and assemble siege engines.

Yelu Chongyuan could already see the army of the Southern Dynasty through the city wall.

A rough estimate is that there are at least 40,000 to 50,000 people.

However, they have at least 100,000 people in the city, a ratio of two to one, and they are defending the city, so they have the advantage.

After seeing the Southern Dynasty’s army, Yelu Chongyuan also scolded his son Yelu Nerugu, saying: “You! What should I say to you! You are too impulsive!”

“Tell me! What should we do now? To the south, the Southern Dynasty wants to attack us, and to the north, there is Yelu Hongji.”

Yelu Nerug also said: “Dad, if we don’t take action now, it will be too late! Besides, Dad, aren’t you very close to Yelu Tiebu, the governor of Zhongjing?”

Yelu Chongyuan said: “You mean…”

Yelu Nerugu acted a bit like Li Shimin who persuaded Li Yuan to start a rebellion and said, “We can take advantage of the fact that Yelu Hongji doesn’t know the current situation in Xijin Prefecture and tell him that you and I have been defeated and captured at the front line, and Xijin Prefecture is in danger and needs reinforcements. Then let Yelu Hongji lead the army to fight in person. At that time… let Yelu Tiebu sneak attack Yelu Hongji from behind!”

Yelu Chongyuan was also puzzled and asked: “Will this work?”

Yelu Nerug said: “This is the only way for us to survive. Just think about it, if we can join forces with Yelu Tiebu and successfully launch a surprise attack on Yelu Hongji, then we can return to Zhongjing or even Shangjing.”

When the others heard what Yelu Nerugu said, their eyes suddenly lit up.

Why didn’t they think of this?
However, Yelu Chongyuan still asked: “But what about the Southern Dynasty troops outside the city?”

Yelu Nerugu said: “Youzhou City is high and strong. Even if their Emperor Taizong used 300,000 people, he couldn’t take it. The most important thing for us now is to quickly get rid of Yelu Hongji. That way, we can have a way out!”

Yelu Chongyuan thought so too, and suddenly changed his expression and said, “Fortunately, my son is here! Let’s do this!”

At that moment, Yelu Chongyuan asked Yelu Nerugu to act according to the plan.

However, Yelu Nerugu still overlooked one thing, that is, Zhao Xin might send someone to deliver Yelu Renxian’s head to Yelu Hongji first.

of course!

Since Zhao Xin was in the southwest of Youzhou City, and had to find a suitable person to deliver the message, the other party could just go out of the north gate, which was of course much faster than Zhao Xin’s people.

In fact, Zhao Xin did not expect that Yelu Chongyuan would actually chop someone to death just because of a tiny rumor.

but……

None of this matters anymore.

After building the siege equipment, he would then launch an attack on Youzhou City.

Offensive weapons include but are not limited to counterweight trebuchets, siege towers, trench bridges, and ladders.

It was time to test how effective they would be in attacking a city of a million people, with firearms to suppress the defenders on the walls.

Although there had been a fight with Western Xia before.

But the situation in Western Xia was obviously not so good. For example, some of the city defense equipment was basically not well prepared.

On the first day of arriving at the city of Youzhou, we set up camp, built siege equipment, and, most importantly, informed all the people in the city that Han people do not fight against Han people. After the city is captured, the taxes will remain the same as before and they will not be asked to pay more. Moreover, after the Song army enters the city, the girls in your families will not have to worry about putting on makeup. You can make them as beautiful as you want.

Because the Liao people often went to the streets to look for some Han women they liked, and once they saw one, they would use threats and bribes to take her as concubines. This was especially true for the upper-class nobles of the Liao, such as those with the surname Xiao or something like that, who loved to do this the most. As a result, some women did not dare to put on too much makeup when they went out, for fear that they would be noticed by others when they went out one day.

In fact, the people in the city certainly couldn’t hear it, but the Han Chinese guards on the city walls and the Han Chinese guards on the towers could hear it.

There are probably at least 20,000 Han soldiers in Nanjing Xijin Prefecture.

At this moment, it is time to restore the dignity of the Han people!

When Wang Shao and the others saw Zhao Xin asking people to shout like this, they also said to the others: “I don’t know how effective this will be.”

Zhang Qie and Zhang Dun also looked at the reactions of the soldiers on the city wall seriously.

The day.

Yelu Chongyuan did not send anyone to attack Zhao Xin.

Zhao Xin can also use the hot air balloon to see everything within a radius of at least twenty miles.

The hot air balloons took off one after another continuously.

But think about it!

Since I have the city to defend, why should I come out and fight you?
In one day, everything was prepared.

That night.

Let the soldiers who will be responsible for attacking the city the next day have a good rest.

The next morning, it was just dawn.

Zhao Xin immediately ordered his men to attack the city.

The time cannot be delayed too long to prevent any variables from occurring.

soon……

Devices such as catapults and siege towers were deployed in front of a city wall to the south of the enemy.

There were dozens of catapults and rafts with cannons and musketeers placed on top.

Together they attacked the city walls, as well as the catapults and soldiers in the city.

Just the first round.

The defenders at the South Gate were so frightened that they nearly lost half their lives.

Because the first round of artillery fire destroyed all the defensive facilities on their city walls, including bamboo curtains, which were originally used to defend against stones thrown by catapults, but they were no match for the artillery.

In fact, at least several armored soldiers on the city wall died at once.

Some of them had their armor pierced through.

The power is terrifying.

The key point is not the worst. The worst thing is that after the artillery destroyed the defensive facilities on the city wall, the bottles and jars thrown by the enemy’s catapults would immediately catch fire as soon as they hit the ground of the city wall.

You tried to put it out with water, but it didn’t work.

Once the burning starts, it will take at least twenty breaths to stop.

Some people were hit directly in the face, their whole bodies on fire, and the fire could not be put out, so they could only roll on the ground alive.

In addition, siege weapons in the past often required a large number of people to operate. Even the single-barreled cannon with the least number of people required required forty people to fire at a time.

And those larger ones will require a hundred, or even a hundred and fifty, or even two hundred and fifty people, so just occupying the land will require a lot of people.

The Song army did not know where they got the new catapults from, but they only needed about ten people to operate them at a time.

Not only does it not occupy space, but the key is that the catapult has a very accurate hit rate.

They fired bottles and cans at the same time, which directly made the ground on the wall of the city wall so hot that people standing on it even found it difficult to breathe. Therefore, it took less than two quarters of an hour before no one dared to stand on the wall of the city wall anymore.

Some people were rushed by their superiors to defend the city. As soon as the superior showed his head, he was hit in the face by something flying from nowhere. It was a tragic death.

With this kind of fighting, who would dare to go up and die?

Even if a superior said that if you didn’t go up, you would be killed, no one would be willing to go up.

Zhao Xin, seeing that the other side didn’t dare to show up, immediately sent out his vanguard to prepare to climb the city.

Artillery, muskets, and catapults continued to provide cover.

However, the original attack targets were mainly concentrated on the walls and towers of the city wall, but now they are slowly expanding to the two wings.

As more and more people climbed up the city wall without any hindrance.

Wang Shao felt it was okay, because they did the same thing when they attacked Western Xia, and the Western Xia army was beaten and surrendered directly.

However, newcomers like Zhang Yu, Zhang Dun, Kumamoto and others had never seen such a perverted way of siege.

The roar of the artillery shook the eardrums of everyone present.

Yelu Chongyuan and others also watched the Song army’s siege at the beginning.

The first round of shotgun shells, solid bullets, matchlock and Minié bullets from rifles seemed to have hit three or five people.

Anyway…

Zhao Xin could see through the telescope that after the first round of attacks, the only commanders left on the city wall were some low- and middle-level Khitan officers.

Seeing that more and more Li Yuan troops had climbed up the city wall, and the defense on the city wall was almost gone, Zhao Xin also drew the sword at his waist, “Kill!”

Then, a large number of troops climbed into the city.

Someone was responsible for opening the gate of the city wall, and someone was responsible for providing cover for the follow-up troops on top of the city wall.

However, the defenders in the city had already been defeated at this time.

In fact, if Zhao Xin had people shout “Yelü Chongyuan has died in battle”, the defenders in the city might have been defeated even faster.

only……

After all, that would not be enough of a deterrent. Now they should let the soldiers in the city know how strong they are. Then, when they surrender in the future, the other side will be more resolute.

After chasing for a while, Zhao Xin then ordered people to shout that they would not be killed if they surrendered.

Some Han soldiers decisively dropped their weapons.

Some Liao soldiers planned to escape through the north gate.

As for what you said about Yelu Chongyuan.

It can only be said that he was seriously injured. The iron ball grazed the right side of his body and his lungs were bleeding profusely.

But he was fine, but one of his brother-in-law was in a miserable situation. He was hit directly in the helmet by a shotgun, and his head was crushed on the spot.

Even if this is cured, I’m afraid I’ll develop aphasia or something like that.

at the same time……

North of Youzhou City.

Zhao Xun, with 5,000 cavalrymen, was also waiting for the defeated soldiers to escape from Youzhou City.

It would be better to persuade them to surrender. After all, Zhao Xin still needs a large number of laborers to dig coal and smelt iron for him.

If we can’t persuade them to surrender, we can just kill as many as we can.

Those who fled northward from the north gate of Youzhou City were basically Khitans.

(End of this chapter)