This battle between the two partial divisions of Song and Liao has completely deviated from the planning and willingness of their respective generals.

From the beginning of the sneak attack and ambush, it became a later battle between bows and crossbows, arrows and stones, and now, it has become a frontal offensive and defensive duel, and its intensity has risen rapidly, in full swing.

After all, the Liao people are different from the nomadic enemies in the north faced by the Central Plains Dynasty in the past, they have already established a political state, and the Guozuo is even decades longer than the Great Song Dynasty, and in the process of its development, it is constantly absorbing the Central Plains culture for its own use, which is not only reflected in the political system and other cultural and political aspects, but also in their use of troops and war.

They are no longer like the nomadic tribes of the past, who only know about invasion and attack, but they are unfamiliar with siege battles. Today's Liao people are extremely familiar with attacking and breaking cities, and can also build a variety of siege equipment that has been spread in the Central Plains, including the simplest catapults.

When he saw that the Liao people had begun to build catapults in front of the mountain, Sun Tu's heart quickly sank, which was completely unexpected. He really didn't expect that such a light cavalry of the Liao army would actually make such a weapon, and he also had such a mind, and dared to build a defense line against himself when the Song army's reinforcements would soon arrive.

However, the Song army on the mountain could not come up with a means of defense against this, this hill was not high, and it was easy to enter the range of catapults. However, their crossbows were clearly not a threat to the catapults that were about 500 paces away. Moreover, the mountain did not have walls to cover like the city, which exposed the thousands of people on the mountain to the enemy's projection.

The only thing that could be done was to quickly build a simple earth and stone wall on the hill while the enemy was busy building catapults, but it was hard to say that this thing would be able to block a few bombardments. If it was in the extremely cold deep winter, and there was enough water source, Sun Tu could still use the effect of water and ice to make the wall stronger, but now, this is just a pipe dream.

So now it seems that there is only one option left, and that is to take the initiative to go down the mountain and destroy the enemy's catapults. But this is not much of a success, because the Liao people have already made arrangements, and the cavalry three hundred steps down the mountain have already gathered momentum, and once the Song army dares to go down the mountain to attack, it will immediately fall into their encirclement......

"General, how is this good? Otherwise, let the last general and others rush to the first game and see if it works! Cao Yan was a little anxious to ask for his life, and Pan Songwei Cheng and other generals on the side also showed similar eyes, they also felt the threat approaching, and they also wanted to fight.

But Sun Tu immediately stopped their adventurous thoughts: "It's not time to fight hard, don't forget, what is the real purpose of our here." Are we here to annihilate the elite of this Liao army with our own hands? No, we are here to lure them out, and then wait for the arrival of the army at Yanmen Pass to exterminate them with absolute strength! So what we have to do now is to procrastinate, not fight them to the death.

"Now that we are in the mountains, we still occupy a good position, and the damage of this simple catapult is limited, as long as we hold on, we have a chance to win!"

After listening to Sun Tu's words, these generals finally made up their minds, and stopped shouting that they were going to venture down the mountain, and at the same time, with an order, the shields that were not too many were quickly mobilized and planted in front of everyone. At the same time, the wooden carts that were originally used to hide their identities were also dismantled into wooden planks and used as a substitute for shields.

Song Jun's actions above naturally fell in Xiao Yanping's eyes, which made him unconsciously flash a trace of disappointment in his eyes. He was indeed thinking that he could force the Song army down the mountain, so that his cavalry could easily annihilate it completely. But now, I really have to rely on the might of the catapult to decide the victory or defeat.

After half a day and a night of hard work, by dawn on the third day, more than a dozen catapults were all ready. In fact, this can't be called a catapult, but a trebuchet, there are no wheels and other things that can advance and retreat freely, just a machine fixed in place, and its structure is much simpler than the common siege equipment in the Song army. But this was enough to cause a powerful deterrent and blow to the Song army on the mountain, especially under Xiao Yanping's order, as the front end of the lever fell suddenly, the net pocket behind it was thrown high, and then the stones contained in it flew towards the hill, and the Liao army under the mountain was cheering for a while.

At this time, all the Song army on the mountain could do was hide behind the bunker and pray for God's blessing. This time, God was still on the side of the Song army, and when this batch of seemingly amazing stones came to the front of the mountain, most of them fell early due to insufficient strength, and only a few small pieces of stones fell on the mountain, but they were also blocked by the Song army's shield and earthen wall, causing only minimal damage.

Although the trebuchet is simple, it cannot be completely manufactured in a hurry, and the strength of this batch of the Liao army is obviously not enough. This made the Song army feel very excited, and the ridicule continued to spread down the mountain, which also made the Liao army discouraged.

But soon, Song Jun couldn't laugh. Xiao Yanping ordered the catapult to move forward fifty paces again, and then loaded it with fewer stones. As the net bounced up again, hundreds of stones suddenly fell up the mountain like raindrops, even though many Song troops were carrying shields and wooden blocks, they still complained bitterly, and the casualties were not small.

Even worse was the earthen wall at the forefront, which had only been thrown in two rounds, and the wall had been crumbling and was about to crumble and collapse. This frightened the Song army so much that they could only retreat in order to reduce casualties. But in front of the catapult, which had already moved forward fifty paces, this distance was of no use at all, and after half a day, more than 500 Song troops were wounded and killed.

This is a great blow to the Song army, you must know that this is a casualty when the enemy army has no damage at all, and his own family has no chance to fight back at all, just passively beaten. If this were to happen in another day or two, it would be possible for 5,000 people to be smashed alive.

It wasn't until the sunset that the Liao army finally stopped temporarily, and then Xiao Yanping once again sent a cavalry to suddenly attack the front of the hill, intending to take advantage of the low morale of the Song army and the lack of troops in front of him to rush up the mountain in one fell swoop.

Fortunately, Sun Tu's reaction was fast enough, and he immediately decided to personally lead people forward to resist, and after a period of fighting, he could be regarded as repelling the enemy, but he also paid a lot of price, and three hundred soldiers were killed or wounded.

It can be said that in just one day, the casualties of the Song army have reached a terrible number of 1,000, and most of the wounded are no longer able to fight, and the number of those who can still fight is less than 4,000.

When night fell and the fighting stopped, the hill was covered with gloomy clouds. Although the soldiers didn't say much, there was a little more despair and helplessness in their eyes when they looked at Sun Tu, and some people whispered: "Where are the reinforcements?" Why haven't they arrived yet? It stands to reason that the soldiers and horses at Yanmen Pass should have arrived before dark today, why haven't they disappeared until now? ”

This is also where Sun Tu's doubts lie. He had dared to prevent his subordinates from taking risks and defending the hill because he thought that reinforcements would arrive by tonight. But now, looking to the south from afar, there is not even the slightest shadow of reinforcements. What went wrong in the middle?

Also puzzled by this is Xiao Yanping, he has already seen the intentions of the Song army, so he dares to do so, just because he has already sent spies to the south dozens of miles away to keep an eye on it, as long as the Song army's reinforcements appear, he will withdraw the army as soon as possible. But judging from the current situation, there may not be a Song army coming tomorrow, and at that time, the soldiers and horses under his command will be enough to set foot on the small hill in front of him.

Don't look at it, the Song army seems to have only folded a small half of the soldiers and horses, but in fact, the loss of strength on the battlefield is not a simple calculation. Once the casualty figure exceeds a certain line, even the most elite army will collapse in an instant. As far as Xiao Yanping's understanding of the Song army is concerned, forty percent of the casualties are enough to make the Song army on the mountain lose the courage to continue to hold on, and as long as he leads the army to rush again, the battle will be over.

Almost at the same time, the commanders of the two armies on and off the mountain subconsciously looked in the direction of Yanmen Pass, guessing when the soldiers and horses there would arrive......

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In Yanmen Pass, until this time, not a single soldier has been moved! The reinforcements that Sun Tu was looking forward to did not set off from the beginning, even at this time, they could still clearly see the billowing smoke rushing into the sky dozens of miles away!

In fact, just two days ago, when he saw the wolf smoke rising, Tian Boyuan had already ordered troops to go north to rescue. But at this moment, one person stopped his order - Du Changguo, the supervising army.

"Du Jianjun, why did you stop me from rescuing me in this matter?" Tian Boyuan shouted with some eagerness.

"General Tian, this official asked you, what is your current position?" Du Changguo seemed quite calm, and even asked with a smile.

"Yanmen Pass is guarded, what's wrong?"

"That's it. Your duty is only to guard the pass, as for the war outside the pass, it is not up to you to call the shots, and you have no right to take risks with your troops to fight against the Liao army that may not exist. ”

"But, didn't we make an appointment with General Sun early in the morning?"

"This official doesn't care." Looking at the other party's anxious look, Du Changguo smiled even more: "I, the prison army, have the right to be subordinate to you, if you dare to act recklessly, resulting in the emptiness of the Yanmen Pass guards, this official should exercise his power and veto everything!" So you can just give me peace of mind to stay here, and as for everything outside the customs, I won't bother you. ”

"But......" Tian Boyuan had to say anything more, but soon, he understood. This is Du Changguo's intention, just to avenge Sun Tu's pressure that day, he can only submit to the soft arrow. This person is so narrow-minded that he will repay him, and he even does not hesitate to bury the lives of thousands of soldiers in the north, and he wants to kill Sun Tu......