"About 30,000 or 40,000 Liao troops have entered the hinterland of Suzhou, besieging Tieshan Fort and Nanshan City, and trying to build the city." Zhao Xingde stood beside the sergeant who was waving the flag, looking into the distance. The wind was fierce on the top of the city, and the torches held by the sergeants whirred loudly, and the smoke of the flames rushed to the faces of the people. Although the torch can be used as a substitute for a small flag, only two dangling points of light can be seen in the distance, and you have to slow down to make out what the other person is saying.

After waiting for the sergeant to "say" this sentence in the flag, he continued: "There is plenty of ammunition in the city. Seventy-six were killed and more than 200 were wounded. Two trenches were filled, allowing the besieging enemy to go straight down the city. However, the city is strong, and the morale is available, so there is no need to worry about it. After pausing for a while, Zhao Xingde stopped looking at the south, and said in a deep voice, "Three days ago, I saw the Liao army dragging a huge cannon on the ice, and I am afraid that it has entered the foot of Lao Tie Mountain recently, and the huge cannon stone bullets weigh hundreds of catties. ...... In January, when the sea ice began to melt, the naval division should check the thickness of the sea ice every day, and if the Liao army insisted on stationing troops in Guannan, it might be able to cut off its retreat with artillery, and slowly exhaust it, and attack it lazily. ”

The sky was still dark and heavy, and in the wilderness outside the city, the firelight gradually increased, and it was the Liao army that was making fire, but not making rice, but preparing oil tea and milk tea. The Khitans were born in bitter cold places, and their diet was different from that of the Han people. Fruits, vegetables, and wild vegetables are frozen outdoors, and when you want to eat them, soak them in cold water, and then eat them after the ice melts. As for meat cheese and the like, it is even more so, often slaughtering cattle, sheep, pikas, etc., and cutting the bloody meat and heart and liver a little, and then eating them with wild garlic pickles and the like. Because the food was cold and greasy, the Khitan people loved to drink tea so much that they were almost addicted to tea, and tea has always been the most important commodity in the trade between the Liao State and the Xia and Song dynasties.

After having breakfast in a hurry, the various units of the Liao army left the camp and went to the city of Nanshan to set up a formation. To the south of Suzhou, about 10,000 Liao troops were attacking Tieshan Fort, and more than 30,000 people had established a large camp in the hinterland of Suzhou. However, the completely frozen land made it almost impossible for the Liao army to build a strong enough walled city, and it took a lot of effort to build the walled wall with wooden stake fences. More than 20,000 Liao troops guarded various artillery forts, and Nanshan City had small soldiers, but there were more than 400 cavalry, and they went out of the city to attack and harass every gap. Once, the Liao army's defense was a little lax, and it was almost stepped on the most important artillery fortress by the Han cavalry, Xiao Tachi was furious about this, and ordered to dig a trench in front of the two artillery bases to defend against the Han cavalry, and divided two thousand palace tent troops to camp next to the fort, but the Han cavalry never tried to attack the Liao army's artillery fort again.

"The power of my bucket cannon is actually above the thief, but the accuracy is not good. If the cannon were to be moved forward, even within three or four hundred paces of the city wall, it would certainly greatly improve the accuracy of the stone projectile. However, if the cannon moves forward, it will enter the range of the thief's artillery at the head of the city, and the thief's artillery skill is extremely accurate, and it is almost certain to hit within three or four hundred paces. Our barrel cannons are heavy and inconvenient to dodge, so ,......,"

In the big tent of the Chinese army, Xiao Tachi was chewing sheep liver while listening to the report of Wu Chun, the capital supervisor of the artillery battalion. Because the giant bucket cannon hit the city wall too little, Xiao Tachi had already reprimanded him several times, and the punishment became more and more severe, Wu Chun felt more and more cold on the back of his neck, and had to come up with this method. Seeing that Xiao Tachi was noncommittal, Wu Chun continued, "In the opinion of the last general, although the thief's iron barrel cannon is accurate, but the cannon is light, and the power is not enough, if you can build a large shield cart, shrouded in the outside of our army's iron barrel cannon, the shield cart is dragged by oxen and horses, and the front and top are covered with giant trees, then the thief's artillery will be difficult to penetrate." And our artillery can reach within 300 steps of the city wall, and the cannon can be fired at close range, and only a few hundred catties of stone bullets can be hit a few times to collapse the city wall. ”

After Wu Chunyu finished reporting, Xiao Tachi also happened to eat a piece of sheep liver, with blood stains still on his mouth, and looked at Wu Chun and said: "In another fifty days, the sea ice will melt, how many people do you need to build this shield car?" How many days will it take to finish? How many days did it take to collapse the Nanshan city wall? His eyes were green, like a wild cat staring at its prey. Wu Chun instinctively sweated on his back, so he had to bite the nail on his head and say: "If Lord Dutong allocates 5,000 people to work, it can be completed in about twenty days, and it will take two days to pull it to the city, and if it gets his wish, it will only take a few days to collapse the city wall." ”

"Thirty days," before his words fell, Xiao Tachi stretched out three fingers and shook them in front of Wu Chun's eyes, "I'll give you thirty days, if the Nanshan city wall doesn't collapse, Wu Dujian, you can personally attack the city." After speaking, he waved his hand, signaled that Wu Chun could retreat, took a sip of oil tea by himself, closed his eyes, and suddenly recalled a few words from his grandfather, "Fighting a war is like hunting a yellow sheep, don't be afraid of hardship, surround the enemy from all sides, be patient like a pack of wolves, keep vigil like an owl, pounce like a white eagle, and leave no way for the enemy to survive." ”

"Nanshan City, Zhao De," Xiao Tachi's hand clenched the horn cup tightly, "No matter how powerful you are, you can only be my prey." ”

Since serving the Liao State, Xiao Tachi can be said to be complacent, killing the abolished emperor Yelu Yanxi, being recruited as a concubine by Yelu Dashi, and slaughtering countless Jurchen villages in the north, but at the age of twenty, he commanded an army of 200,000 in the south. With the original strategy of His Majesty and the Northern Courtyard, the Northern Expeditionary Army was divided into two routes, the north and the south, and the imperial expedition directly took the Huanglong Mansion and Huining Mansion, swept away the remnants of the Jin State in the area of the Tongjiang River, and captured the sturdy Jurchens to the south, leaving the Liao army to guard the north, and detained the Northern Jurchen King to bind the various departments, and after the southern battalion captured the Han Army Marshal's Mansion, it swept all the way to Kaizhou, Laiyuan, Zhengzhou, Hengzhou, and deterred the Jurchen tribes in Taibai Mountain and Yalu River, deterred the Goryeo Kingdom, and detained the Southern Jurchen King to bind all the departments.

Although Yelu Yanshan was frustrated, Xiao Tachi didn't care much about it, in his heart, the capture of Nanshan City was not even a start. I didn't expect to meet such a tough opponent here. Not only that, the offensive of the entire southern battalion was extremely unsmooth, and most of the people moved to the north of the Gongmen River, and Kaizhou, Zhengzhou, Hengzhou, etc. were all empty cities, and there was no one to be seen at all. Either that's a hard nail like Nanshan Castle. If such a conspicuous thorn in the flesh could not be removed, it would be ridiculous to search the mountains and fields for the remnants of the enemy.

Xiao Tachi won the favor of His Majesty, and the army was trapped by a small Nanshan city, and many Khitan generals in the camp were obedient on the surface, but they did not have the mentality of watching jokes. Although the Khitans were regarded as Hu people by the Southern Dynasties, they had a sense of superiority over other Hu people in their bones. At this juncture, the Xia Kingdom attacked Xijing Road, and Boshenghuo Murbo, who was originally regarded as a western barrier by Yelu Dashi, actually led his troops to flee without a fight. Although Yelu Dashi did not count this account on Xiao Tachi's head, whenever he thought of this, Xiao Tachi felt deeply humiliated.

"Father, are you really such a coward?" He was thinking with some pain that the soldiers outside had reported that someone was going to offer a plan to conquer Nanshan City. Xiao Tachi regained his watery face, and gave the order to bring the man up.

Nanshan City has been repeatedly attacked, Xiao Tachi in the camp to offer a reward, if there is a plan to conquer the city, reward 30 catties of gold, 300 slaves, if there is no official position, then appointed as the head of the craftsman battalion. Under the heavy reward, there will be a brave man, and the soldiers brought in this person, born with a roe deer's head and rat eyes, a sharp-beaked monkey gills, and two mouse whiskers on his lips, and when he saw Xiao Tachi, he knelt down on his left knee and said: "Villain Gru, knock on Lord Dutong." ”

Xiao Tachi looked at him and asked, "What is your plan?" ”

Gru was a little flattered and said: "Report to the lord, the villain is from the water dragon team in the rear military camp." "The rear army is a place to pile up grain and grass, once by the Han army surprise attack set a fire, almost burned the army grain and grass, and then deliberately added water hoses to prevent fire. Xiao Ta only nodded and did not speak.

Ge Lu Bing said: "There was a fire in the army camp before, and water dragons were also used, because the weather was very cold, and not long after the water was poured, it was frozen into ice. Xiao Tachi couldn't help frowning when he saw that he was out of bounds. As he spoke, Gru secretly glanced at Xiao Tachi's face, and hurriedly said, "The villain had an idea, and he came up with a way to break through Nanshan City. Although this Nanshan city is strong, it is narrow inside, and there is no channel for it to drain water. If you use one hundred and ten water dragons to pour water continuously into Nanshan City, this is another weather where water drips into ice, and Guan Bao makes the Han people inside freeze into ice picks. This Nanshan City will naturally be broken without a fight. ”

After Gru reported the report, he carefully knelt on the ground while peeking at Xiao Tachi's face. Xiao Tachi frowned, his face was suspicious, but he still asked: "According to your method, how many people do you need, and how many days can you break the city?" Gru hurriedly said: "There are originally more than 50 water dragons in the camp, if there are hundreds of workers and slaves to work, and then mobilize some necessary materials from nearby states and counties, more than 100 water dragons should be ready in ten days." ”

"Then twenty days," Xiao Tachi stretched out two fingers, in fact, he didn't fully understand what Gru said, but as long as there was a way, it didn't prevent him from giving it a try, "After twenty days, the army will attack the city, and I want your water dragon to follow!" If the water dragon is useless, you will also attack the city with other soldiers. ”

"Yes, yes." Gru nodded again and again, and asked hesitantly, "What about ......?"

"Now that you are the head of the craftsman camp, thirty catties of gold will be sent to your camp tent, and you will be rewarded as a slave when you return to the capital." Xiao Tachi looked at this person with some annoyance, and said secretly: "The official position and gold are temporarily deposited with you, if I find out that you are talking nonsense, I will naturally get it back along with my life." He didn't look at Gru, waved his hand, and ordered him to stand down.