If Zhao Xingde's wants to attack Baozhou, he must first attack Laiyuan County on the west bank of the Yalu River. Laiyuan County and Baozhou face each other across the river, if you ignore it and rush across the river, you will be cut off by the Goryeo people at any time. Although Sun Wuzi and Han Xin, the two major soldiers, have had battles with their backs to the water, Zhao Xingde can only admire them. The unscrupulous shelling of the warships of the 4th Battalion completely attracted the attention of the Goryeo troops on both sides of the Yalu River. Taking advantage of this rare opportunity, under the leadership of Ma Rui, Zhao Xingde personally surveyed the terrain of Laiyuan County.

This city is quite distinctive. On the one hand, in order to control the estuary of the Yalu River, the walled city was extended to the bank of the river as much as possible and connected with the wharf water village. On the other hand, the riverside terrain is low-lying, which is not conducive to holding on, so a strong city was built on the hill a little farther away, and the riverside water village and the mountain city were connected together with a string of pearl-like seven small villages, and then the city wall was built on the north and south sides, and the open space in the middle was enclosed, forming a chain of villages and a narrow strip of city that were extremely rare in the Central Plains. On the opposite side of the Yalu River, the shape of Baozhou City is also roughly similar. It's just that the city of Baozhou is large and strong, the city wall is made of rammed earth and gravel, and the far city is small, and the rammed earth is under the foundation of the city wall, and there are only wooden buttresses on it. This is because Baozhou is an important town in eastern Liao, in addition to blocking the Yalu River, it is also an important stronghold for the Liao State to control the Jurchen homeland in the east of the Yalu River. Laiyuan County is just a small town attached to Baozhou.

"The design of the far city of Liao Guo was quite painstaking, but it was unfortunately self-defeating." Zhao Xingde said with some regret. Although he didn't understand what Captain Zhao meant by "self-defeating", Ma Rui still nodded and asked, "Do you want to write a war letter first?" Zhao Xingde shook his head and stomped a few times, the soil here is very solid, suitable for constructing fortifications, "Set up the cannons, and then give them a war letter." ”

Soon, gunners armed with iron picks and shovels began to build positions. The main position happened to be on the extension line west of the Lianhuanzhai in Laiyuan County, about a mile away from the westernmost mountain city. Six three-inch cannons were lined up, and the muzzles of the guns were aimed at the castle tower on the hill. Because the Liao people built the city into a long strip, firing cannonballs on this extension line, even if they were not aimed accurately, flying over the city wall, most of them would fall in the city.

In front of the artillery position, Zhao Xingde led the infantry sergeants to dig a wide herringbone trench, and at the bottom of the herringbone trench, two artillery positions were set up, and two artillery pieces were erected on each position. Two hundred-man archers were stationed on the flank artillery ramparts. Tang Qiyong led two hundred pikemen to guard behind the wide trench, and Du Fujiao's sword and shield team of 100 men was behind them, which was not only the last line of defense of the main artillery base, but also prepared to rush forward at the critical moment. Zhao Xingde's central military tent was on the main artillery position a little behind the central salient. Two hundred cavalry under the command of Ma Rui and Jian Cheng were stationed behind the artillery position, and beyond that was the garrison battalion responsible for the baggage. The soldiers of the 500 garrison battalion honestly built a circular barracks, with a trench on the outside and a low wall on the inside, and carriages and baggage on the inside of the low wall. However, since most of the garrison soldiers were not qualified archers, these fortifications were of limited use in killing and wounding the enemy, and at best could delay the enemy's roundabouts. The safety of the main position of the Chengying Battalion is mainly ensured by superior cavalry.

"General Zhao, when will the siege begin?" Chashen asked. When he arrived at the ground, Zhao Xingde except for approaching Laiyuan City to survey the terrain once, he urged the sergeants to throw off their arms and dig trenches and build fortifications, and did not mention the siege of the city at all. After digging a herringbone trench facing the distant city, Zhao Xingde ordered the sergeants to dig a symmetrical trench behind the position and build a fort as usual. The sergeants weren't lazy, they were just a little confused. "Do you have to wait until the Han army arrives?" Du Blowhorn smiled and said with a smile, the lives of the sergeants of the eighth battalion of Chengying are precious, and it would be good if they could drive the Han army to take the lead in attacking the city.

Zhao Xingde was observing the movement of the city, and when he heard this, he put down the clairvoyant mirror and said with a smile: "Let the Goryeo people do such a troublesome thing as attacking the city." ”

"Huh?" Du Fujiao and Tang Qiyong glanced at each other, and they became more and more confused. Just in front of them, a wide trench was gradually taking shape, and the sergeants piled up the excavated earth behind the trench into a low breastwork, and the gunners were struggling to ram the earth on each gun emplacement in an arc of gun emplacements.

Compared with the hill where Laiyuan County is located, the position of the 8th Battalion of Chengying can only be regarded as a gentle terrain undulation. Therefore, their every move fell into the eyes of the Goryeo people at the head of the city. Previously, Zhao Xingde obtained information that a total of 3,000 Koreans were stationed in Baozhou. However, the Goryeo Kingdom had long been determined to advance the border to the Yalu River, and over the past few days it has continuously increased its elite troops to strengthen the defenses of Baozhou, with 3,000 Goryeo troops stationed in the far city alone, and more than 5,000 troops stationed in the city of Baozhou.

Li Sihai's warship suddenly attacked, and before the Goryeo sailors could react, the castle tower and the sailor building ships of Baozhou Water Village were destroyed. It's not that the artillery of the Xia Guoying is amazing, but that the wooden ships of this era are so unsturdy that the possibility of being bombarded by artillery is not considered at all. The wrecked and stranded ships blocked the passage of the other sailors' ships. The artillerymen firmly remembered Zhao Xingde's instructions, and when they were not sure, they put the enemy as close as possible, and in this way, two rounds of artillery bombardment sank several sailor boats that came by, and then turned around and bombarded the water village on the side of Yuanxian County.

Seeing that his ship was sunk, Cui Xianxi, the soldier and horse of the left army, was not only angry and surprised, but also secretly wrote down the shape of this gunboat in his heart, and prepared to draw it to the imperial court and quickly build a batch of such gunboats. Goryeo also had firearms, and even made iron barrel cannons, and the former emperor Sujong also formed a fire army, but he never thought that he could arrange rows of artillery on sea ships in this way.

"My lord, there is an enemy army on the land to the west."

"What?" Cui Xianxi frowned, could it be that the Liao people rebelled, and he slammed his fist on the railing. "Treachery, what a barbarian!" He scolded indignantly, and when he came to the west of the stockade, the artillery positions built by Zhao Xingde and others were unobstructed. I can even count how many of them there are. "It's just a thousand, probably a striker." He muttered, "Could it be that the people of the Liao Kingdom really want to recapture this place?" Do they still think that they are not close enough to the Jurchens? ”

was groaning, suddenly there was a loud "boom" on the position of the "Liao Army" opposite, and a dark round bullet crossed the wide wilderness, and it could almost be seen flying towards the city, and with a "whoosh" sound, it passed over Cui Xianxi's head. "Be careful, sir!" The soldiers beside him shouted, saying that it was too late and that it was fast, and the cannonball had already flown over Cui Xianxi's head, and his ears seemed to hear the strong wind of "whirring", and he saw the cannonball fly over the high city tower and slam on the roof of a house in the city, only to hear a hula sound, followed by a commotion. It was only at this time that the sweat on Cui Xianxi's back flowed. "Iron bucket cannon, the Liao people actually brought iron bucket cannons over, and they made up their minds to attack the city."

Looking at the position of the "Liao Army", but there were ten cannons, Cui Xianxi endured his weak legs, comforted the soldiers beside him, and said: "Although the iron barrel cannon is powerful, the speed of fire is not fast. Before the words fell, there were several loud noises under the city, and it seemed to be a test firing just now, and this time the "boom boom" sounded together, and the round and dark cast iron cannonballs crossed the arc of the road and flew towards the city. At this moment, a cannonball hit the castle tower, and with a few bangs, the wooden castle tower collapsed a corner, and there were sawdust flying everywhere.

Cui Xianxi squatted behind the battlement almost immediately, however, right next to him, a cannonball was in the middle of the battlement, and immediately smashed the wooden battlement, and the cannonball barely slowed down, when Cui Xianxi turned his head in horror, he just saw a corpse with only half of his head splattered and fell down. Suddenly, he felt an itch in his throat and a burst of blood welling up in his chest. Cui Xianxi, as a hereditary martial arts class, although he has practiced martial arts since he was a child, is a master of Hualang Dao among the three armies and six guards, but he has never seen such a bloody scene. The round cast-iron cannonballs seemed to fly slowly, not as large and astonishing as the iron barrel cannons he had ever seen, nor as fast as the crossbow arrows, but they concealed the power of shattering the battlements. Cui Xianxi only felt frightened, and he shouted in a panic: "Release the arrow!" Shoot the arrows! ”

Garrisoned in Laiyuan County was the elite of the Goryeo army, and despite the cold, they still risked their lives to shoot a dense round of arrow feathers. At this time, it seemed that everyone had lost their minds, and no one told the soldiers and horses that the artillery was three or four hundred paces away, and the effective range of the bows and crossbows in the army was only a hundred paces. Hundreds of arrows shot out of the city like locusts flying in the sky, cutting through arcs, and finally fell to the ground weakly. Seeing this scene, Cui Xianxi came to his senses, and felt a little confused, although he was not good at changing the military order, the archers all consciously put down their bows and arrows, and desperately fell to the ground behind the battlements. Some people even simply lay on the ground. And below the city, the sound of "boom", "boom", "boom" and "boom" cannons was endless, and round iron bullets, drawing visible arcs, clumsily smashed on the city, on the city wall, on the open space, on the roof, and on the flesh and blood.

Cui Xianxi's face turned pale and muttered, "Isn't the iron bucket cannon only able to fire a dozen bullets a day?" He cautiously poked his head out and looked towards the enemy's position, only to see the ant-like gunners almost without stopping to reload, ignite, fire, and push the cannon back into place, and his heart suddenly cooled half. After a closer look at it for a while, I was frightened, and there was a glimmer of hope, "Although the firearms are sharp, the protective forces are short. You can't be trapped in the city and sit still, they only have 1,000 people, I have 3,000 people, and the art of war is said to be doubled, and they can still fight. ”

Behind the main artillery position, Ma Rui sighed: "It's a pity that the city wall is in the way, and the results of the battle cannot be observed." His cavalry was used as a reserve, and there was no battle for the time being. Watching the gunners set off firecrackers, I couldn't help but feel a little itchy. Zhao Xingde stared at the black arcs and said in a low voice: "How many people in the world can endure being beaten and not fight back?" The cavalry should be prepared, and if the Koreans are afraid of the power of the artillery, they will probably make a detour to our flanks and rear. ”