The east gradually revealed the whiteness of the fish's belly, and a sleepy-eyed Han army lookout looked out of the battlement, and his face suddenly turned pale. Not far from Nanshan City, the Liao army was out of camp and lined up. Under the light of the morning sun, I saw the boundless armor dazzling, and the swords and guns were shining. The Liao army's position is extremely wide, the place east of Nanshan City, the width is only more than ten miles, as far as the eye can see, except for the sea by more than three miles without the Liao army, the rest of the place seems to be filled by the Liao army. The camps and infantry arrays were layered on top of each other, and there was no end in sight, and there were countless soldiers and horses moving back and forth between the battalions.

The narrow battlefield and the dwarf Nanshan City set off the large array of the Liao army appeared boundless and the strength of the army was incomparable. In the array, the banners of each department were fluttering, and in the front was the Xi army's foot soldiers wearing iron armor and forming a strong formation. In the middle of the large array, there was a looming artillery base, the black muzzles of the iron barrel cannons were aimed at the head of the city, and a large number of Khitan soldiers had dismounted and formed a formation, surrounded by various siege equipment, waiting for the military order to attack.

Although the Liao army has not yet attacked the city, such a strong force has invisibly put great pressure on the Han army. From the Liao army's large array, from time to time there was a loud sound of soldiers and people pushing stone throwers and siege vehicles, the shouts of the officers dragging their voices to give orders, and the sound of horses' hooves from time to time near and sometimes far away, these movements, the Han army at the head of the city could hear them clearly, but every time they stood on tiptoe and looked around, they only saw the endless camp and the big array.

From time to time, the artillery fortress of the Liao army tested the shells, and with the roaring sound of the cannons, the iron projectiles drew arcs of different heights and swept past the head of Nanshan City. As soon as the cannonballs were coming, the Han soldiers shrunk their necks and lay on the ground, while the Liao army under the city laughed loudly, and even the constantly howling north wind seemed to be cheering for the Liao army.

In the north horse side fort of Nanshan City, everyone's faces were shrouded in a solemn atmosphere. Through the narrow cannon hole, Tong Yunjie looked at the seemingly endless enemy army, and said in a low voice: "General Zhao is responsible for the overall situation of Liaodong, so he can supervise the battle in the back, and he doesn't need to come in person." His face was resolute, and he did have a plan to live and die with Nanshan in his heart. In the Han army defending the city, there were only more than 500 artillery men, plus more than 1,000 musketeers, more than 1,000 archers, and 500 sword and shield men. In the face of the powerful Liao army, this little bit of strength is really not worth mentioning.

In front of the menacing Liao army, Nanshan City, which was defended by a mere 3,000 Han army, was like a stone in front of the wheels, as long as the wheels rolled forward, they could be crushed at any time. Nanshan Castle is not even as good as a stone, because it is almost entirely made of earth, to be exact, just a slightly larger piece of earth, and under the wheels, it may only be crushed and turned into dust.

Liu Zhijian glanced at Zhao Xingde, and stopped talking, in his heart, he was not optimistic about Nanshan City, even the fortified cities like Huanglong and Liaoyang, under the attack of the army, it is difficult to say that they are impregnable, although Nanshan City can be said to be planned and built by Zhao Xiaowei himself, but whether such a short city can be defended is really not a little confidence in people's hearts.

Zhao Xingde also squinted his eyes and observed the Liao army in the distance. The gun holes of the enemy platform are narrow and rectangular, but the field of view is sufficient. Unlike Bianliang Castle, where barrel cannons were erected on the city walls, Nanshan Castle's artillery was erected in a fort about ten feet high above the ground, supported by thick wooden stakes, and there were more than three feet of rammed earth on the top.

"Liu Dutou and I stayed in this city, and Captain Zhao should supervise the battle in the back." Jian Cheng also said in a deep voice. Du Fujiao's face turned a little pale, and he echoed: "Captain Zhao,......"

Before Du Fujiao's words were finished, Zhao Xingde opened his mouth and asked, "Why should I leave?" ”

All the generals looked at each other, not knowing how to answer, but listened to him say slowly: "Is this city as tireless?" In my opinion, it is as stable as Mount Tai. He pointed out from the vertical direction of the cannon hole, it was the front of the city wall between the two enemy platforms, which was most vulnerable to enemy attack, and asked in a deep voice: "Zhijian, if the Liao army is attached to attack the city, how many people can be killed in this place?" ”

Liu Zhijian looked out along his fingers, hesitated for a moment, and replied, "About two thousand people." "Because Nanshan City is small, the place under the city wall is also extremely narrow, even if the besieging army uses the densest formation and carries the least large equipment, then the land of projectiles can only accommodate more than 2,000 people.

Zhao Xingde nodded, and asked again: "If his 2,000 people resist death and do not retreat, the enemy platforms on both sides will fire shotguns at full speed, how long will it take to kill them all?" There was a slight chill in his words. Liu Zhijian couldn't help but shudder, repeating in his mind, "How long can you kill 2,000 people?" This question, who was familiar with artillery, soon found out that it really didn't take long. Five barrel guns were arranged on each side of the enemy platform, and each iron cartridge was loaded with more than 100 shotguns. Ten barrel cannons fired a rain of bullets at full speed, but the Liao army that rushed to the city was huddled together, with nowhere to hide, and when they were full of casualties, could they really not retreat?

"There are only so many people under Nanshan City, and no matter how many Liao troops there are, they can't change the superfluous places. The iron barrel cannon can kill them to the greatest extent, and the speed of killing is faster than the speed at which the enemy can replenish it, as long as the cannonballs are sufficient, there is no shortage of food and grass, and Nanshan City is as stable as Mount Tai. Zhao Xingde said expressionlessly, "Why should I leave?" ”

"Really,......, really?" Du Chuijiao's brain was a little dizzy, he felt that Captain Zhao's words had some truth, but he still hesitated a little when he looked at the boundless enemy army like the sea in the distance.

Zhao Xingde did not scold him, but asked: "Blowing the horn, there are twelve hours a day, the water flows low, and the cold and heat alternate at four o'clock, just like people want to eat when they are hungry and sleep when they are sleepy." You can't go wrong with that, right? Du Blowhorn thought for a moment and replied, "This is nature." ”

Zhao Xingde nodded and said, "Naturally, it is the way of heaven." Heaven is constant, no matter how virtuous or foolish, no matter how strong or weak, it is the same for everyone. If the people of the Liao Kingdom can only attack the city with ants, they will definitely not be able to conquer Nanshan City. With an unmistakable tone in his words, Du Fujiao nodded vigorously again. I can't help but say that this language similar to a god stick made the generals feel strange, and they actually felt his inexplicable confidence from the "Dao", which alleviated the fear of the Liao army to a certain extent.

"The way of heaven is constant, not for Yao, not for death." Zhao Xingde said in a low voice, as if talking to himself, as if he was cheering up the generals. Just within his field of vision, the Liao army has begun to speed up the speed of the bombardment, and one after another huge stone bullets have drawn arcs and flew over the head of Nanshan City, occasionally a few shots directly hit the walls of Nanshan City, making a "bang" and "bang" sound is very dull. The artillery bombardment of the Liao army continued, and Zhao Xingde estimated that the Liao army fired at least hundreds of various stone bullets ranging from a few catties to dozens of catties, mixed with some stone shells thrown by stone throwers.

However, the Liao army did not carry giant barrel cannons that could fire hundreds of pounds of stone bullets, which could not destroy the thickened rammed earth city walls, and even many of them were directly bounced off the sloping walls. The damage from the shells that landed at the top of the city wall and inside the city was minimal, because there was little on the wall except for a few soldiers, and the city was only bare. In addition to the Han army's barracks, which were built against the anticline of the city wall, ammunition and water were stored in cellars several feet deep, and the Han army could even reach the walls without passing through the ground and through short tunnels.

On the other hand, because Nanshan City occupied a condescending advantage, the range of the shells was farther than that of the Liao army, and Zhao Xingde, with the help of Chai Yi, had already pre-calibrated and test-fired the various points that the Liao army might set up artillery forts. The artillery fortress of the Liao army was constantly hit by the heavy artillery in Nanshan City, and the artillery battalion suffered heavy casualties, not only lost dozens of artillery, but even the remaining shells were more and more inaccurate, and many of them flew high over the head of Nanshan City, and they did not know where they were hit.

About an hour later, Yelu Yanshan, the commander of the Liao army, also saw that something was wrong, and he couldn't think of any other way except to call Wu Chun, the capital of the artillery battalion, over and whip a few more whips. Seeing that he could not expect to be able to open Nanshan City with artillery alone, he ordered an attack on the city wall, and the more than 10,000 Xi troops in front immediately pressed it.

The hills where Nanshan City is located are gentle, and the Xi army is not moving fast, and in the more than 10,000 army, there are also various siege equipment mixed with cattle and horses, although the speed is not fast, but it is all over the mountains. The artillery at the head of the city seemed to be dumb, and the Han army lookout post watched the Xi army advance from the foot of the mountain to the front of the first trench, and was about to build the Hao Bridge, but found that although this trench was very shallow, it was very wide, and the ordinary Hao Bridge could not reach the opposite side at all. The Xi army could only temporarily stop in front of the trench and first fill in a road that could accommodate other siege equipment with the original bridge and earth, and this delay lasted more than half an hour. Such a slow speed made Yelu Yanshan, who was watching the battle from afar, angry.

At the urging of the generals, while the oxen pulled the carts and ladders through the trench, the Xi soldiers jumped off the trench one after another, raised their shields and continued to move forward. The trench dug by the Han army is quite strange, the side of the mountain is very shallow, but the bottom of the trench is deliberately dug into an inverted slope surface, so that the side of the mountain is a lot deeper, so the Xi army in front has not climbed the trench, and the back easily jumped down, for a time, the whole trench is almost crowded with Xi soldiers and horses pushing and shoving.

At the bottom of the trench, an earthen rampart poked a window from the inside, revealing the muzzle of the black hole, more than a dozen artillery men were stuffy in it for a long time, and finally saw the light of day, someone took a breath happily, looked at the Liao army huddled together, and asked suspiciously: "This, do you still need to aim?" The back of the head was immediately slapped, and the person behind scolded: "Quickly dodge, fire!" Fire! ”