The heavy artillery fire lasted for half an hour before it gradually stopped, and the wind blew away the gunsmoke, and at this time the majestic East City Tower had collapsed, braving the raging fire, and it was difficult to escape the fate of becoming a ruin; The defensive measures such as the war tent built on the city wall are almost intact, and the ashes after the curtain is burned like black butterflies flying in the sky under the impetus of wind and smoke; As for the trebuchets and bed crossbows, they were destroyed on the ground almost without firing, and did not exert their due combat power; The corpses of the soldiers defending the city were scattered all over the city, with shock and despair on their faces.

The drums of 'Knock, Knock, Knock...... suddenly sounded, and so did the shouts of the soldiers, and the soldiers who were ready to attack the city began to assemble and move down the city. Then Meng Yuan soldiers emerged on the city, and while they were busy putting out the fire, they hid behind the city walls and bent their bows and arrows to block the soldiers besieging the city. At the same time, a large number of Ding Zhuang, who assisted in the defense, also went to the city one after another to rescue the wounded and clean up the bodies of the dead. At the same time, the destroyed defensive equipment was repaired, the rolling wood and stones were moved, and the bombed war materials were replenished.

'Boom, boom, ......boom' Just as the Mengyuan soldiers and civilians in the city were methodically cleaning up the battlefield and preparing to resist the Song army's siege, the Song soldiers assembled under the city stopped their tracks, and the cannon suddenly sounded again. Suddenly, the overwhelming artillery fire had arrived, exploding above and below the city, and the people in the city were instantly engulfed in flames and gunsmoke. At this time, they understood that the Song army was deceiving, pretending to besiege the city to attract them to the city, and then suddenly launched a rapid artillery attack. But it was too late to understand that most of the soldiers and civilians in the upper city were killed and wounded, and the people who fled down the city were also injured, but there was a loud laugh of the Song army outside the city.

Liu Zhixue understood very well that the purpose of the war was to consume the opponent's vital forces and logistical supplies, and whoever could hold out to the end would be the victor. Therefore, he devised a strategy to lure the enemy army to defend the city with the sound of marching drums after the artillery bombardment, and then carry out another artillery strike, killing and wounding the enemy soldiers, and depleting the strength of the defenders, so as to reduce the resistance to the siege.

In this shelling, not only the mortars participated in the bombardment, but also the front-line infantry and the Ben Lei guns, which fired small guns with small guns, although they were less powerful, but they had a large area of damage, but they could achieve greater results. The Weiyuan artillery also changed its position, firing horizontally on a few platforms that had been temporarily stacked at level with the city wall, and was equipped with shotguns. The small projectiles that fly out can easily penetrate shields and armor, and there is almost no chance that the middle of them will survive.

Next, the Song army repeated the old trick and booby-trapped the enemy troops defending the city. It's like a dead end, if you don't go to the city, the enemy may attack and take the city. But if it is to go to the city, who can guarantee that Song Jun is not a fake this time, and he will not be able to come back if he goes up, which is no different from sending him to death. After all, the taste of death may not be uncomfortable, but if you know that it is death but still want to go, it will definitely be worse than death, and morale will drop greatly.

After several repetitions, the defenders of Mengyuan also learned wisely, and no longer drilled into the trap, but whenever the Song army's shelling stopped, they only sent a few enemy soldiers to the city to inspect the reality, and most of the troops were lying behind the city wall to standby, but they no longer rushed to the city like a swarm. The changes in the city were seen by the lookouts, and they bombarded a person with artillery, and the Song army had not been so extravagant.

But the artillery bombardment of the Song army did not stop because of this, but became more intense. Liu Zhixue knew that attacking the city by climbing the city wall would not only require repeated battles, pay great casualties, but also delay time. The city gate has always been the weakest point in the city, so he decided to concentrate his forces on breaking through the city gate, so while comprehensively suppressing the enemy troops on the city wall, he concentrated several mighty cannons to bombard the east city gate, and ordered rocket artillery to fire into the city, so as to further damage the morale of the enemy army, cause chaos, and win the opportunity to break through the city gate.

Since the gates of each city are the weakest link in defense, the siege will also focus on the gates, and the defense of the city will also focus on the gates. Therefore, strengthening the defense of the city gate has become a problem that needs to be solved, the ancients built the city wall on the left and right sides of the city tower and the corresponding city tower and the city wall as one of the auxiliary buildings, formed a small city in the closed area that protrudes outward at the city gate, called "urn city", plays the role of moving the defense line of the city tower outward, and enhances the dual role of protecting the safety of the city tower.

The gate of the Urn City will not be opposite the main gate, but will need to go around a bend to enter the main gate to reduce the impact of the enemy army. Personnel and materials entering the city must enter the city through the urn gate, and then enter the city through the city gate, otherwise through the city gate, the urn gate out of the city. When the enemy enters the urn city, it will close the city gate, trap the enemy in the urn city, and then kill himself. Therefore, the city gate of the urn city is also different from the conventional door-leaf open gate.

The gate of the urn city is vertical take-off and landing, shaped like a gate, which is commonly known as the 'jack gate', which is equivalent to the anti-theft door in today's family. In the place of two or three meters behind the city gate, there is a stone trough about half a foot wide, this stone trough is the track of the jack gate taking off and landing, straight to the top of the city wall, when the city gate is opened during the day, the jack gate is received to the top of the city wall. In this way, when the war comes, you can put down the jack gate and close the passage of the urn city gate, which is used to defend and block the invasion of the enemy, and is not afraid of the enemy attacking by means of fire attack and impact. It can be hoisted at ordinary times, and the passage of the urn city gate can be opened, which is convenient for the transportation of materials and personnel inside and outside the city.

The jack gate is mostly made of solid wood wrapped in iron sheet, and it is covered with reinforced iron nails, so it is very heavy and weighs more than a thousand catties. In the legendary story, there is Confucius's father, Liang Su, who was very brave and fierce, and once lifted a thousand catties to let the soldiers escape; In "Romance of the Sui and Tang Dynasties", the majestic sea struggled to hold up the jack gate, allowing all the heroes to pass through quickly, while he was exhausted and died under the jack gate.

The jack gate has made many heroes and heroes and become a well-known cultural symbol, but it is a legend after all. In fact, it takes at least a few people to activate the jack gate synchronously, and the soldiers defending the city need to turn the winch on the two wooden pillars on the city platform to control the take-off and landing of the gate with simple machinery, which cannot be done by manpower. In order to protect the gate, there is a gate tower built on the urn city wall, which is shaped like a smaller arrow tower, and there are arrow windows on three sides, which can also be used as a fortification.

It is precisely because of the special structure of the gate, the top and bottom are integrated, and there are no weak parts such as the gate pivot, so to destroy the gate, in the past, the gate could only be destroyed with a siege cone. The city defense measures of Shouzhou are complete, the city tower and the arrow tower were destroyed by the first round of artillery fire, and the take-off and landing machinery were naturally destroyed. To break this obstacle, of course, it is easier to use more powerful artillery than to charge with manpower, and at the same time to reduce casualties.

After several volleys of artillery, the gate was shattered, but the defenders seemed to be ready to defend it, the gate hole had been filled with sand and gravel, and it was difficult to pass through the gate alone, and to get close to the gate had to cross the moat, and the bridge had already been demolished. At this time, the soldiers on standby began to fill in the trenches under the cover of artillery fire, and Fu Jian claimed that he could 'throw the whip to cut off the flow', although there was an element of bragging, but he could not underestimate the saying that there are many people and great power.

At this time, the enemy army in the city had been completely suppressed by artillery fire, and tens of thousands of Song troops carried firewood and grass and carried dirt to step forward in turn and throw themselves into the trenches. The assembly line worked, and the moat was gradually filled at a speed visible to the naked eye, paving a road. The sappers first stepped forward to clean the filling in the city gate, and those that could be moved were quickly cleared out, and those that could not be moved were put on gunpowder and exploded before cleaning, and finally a passage was dredged.

While the sappers cleared the way, the artillery continued to fire at the enemy forces above and below the city, and the rocket artillery poured out its anger as fast as possible. Anyone who knows a little knows that the biggest feature of rocket artillery is that it is not sure, and after leaving the orbit, it becomes very willful, and often deviates from the intended target; The second is the terrifying lethality, the large-charge ceramic warhead exploded and shattered into countless small shrapnel, and produced a huge flame, so that there were no living beings within a radius of more than ten zhang.

Then there is the characteristics of the rocket artillery itself, which makes its ballistic trajectory very high, and in the process of falling, it produces a high penetration force because of the power effect, which can easily penetrate the top of the building dominated by bricks and tiles in this era. This, combined with the heart-pounding whistling sound of the rockets in flight, makes it a terrifying weapon.

Of course, in the eyes of the soldiers and civilians of Shouzhou, who had seen the terrifying power of artillery and rocket artillery for the first time, they soon turned from curiosity to fear. And the range of rocket artillery is long enough to fly from the east of the city to the west of the city, which makes people think that there is no way to avoid it. The rockets flying indiscriminately bombed the entire city, whether you are a wealthy family or a poor house.

While the rocket artillery caused casualties and panic among the soldiers and civilians in the city, it also created fires everywhere. You must know that the current houses are still mainly wooden structures, and when things are dry in early spring, a little spark may cause a fire, and the houses in the city are adjacent, and once the fire starts, it is difficult to contain. For a time, thick smoke billowed in the city, covering the sky and the sun, as if a canopy had been added over the city, and even the sentries on the watchtower could hardly see the situation in the city.

However, at this time, the Song army outside the city did not know the specific situation in the city, after the sappers opened the gate of the urn city, and then the following commandos carefully held the shield made of the door panel into the urn city, but they were surprised to find that they did not wait for the rain of arrows and hail like locusts, only heard the explosion mixed with the mournful shouts.

Since there was no one to stop them, the accompanying sappers did not stop and blew open the main gate of the east city with a sufficient amount of gunpowder. Unexpectedly, instead of counterattacking the enemy, a scorching wave of heat drove them out of the newly captured Urn City...... 2k reading web