Chapter 634: The Battle of Gubeikou

In late September, Yelu Zongzhen finally led a large army to Gubeikou, the reason why he sent troops so late was actually very simple, that is, because of the lack of grain and grass, even if he issued an order to the states to mobilize grain and grass, but because the previous civil war had exhausted the materials of the state capitals, and then raising materials almost cost the lives of these state capitals.

However, under the compulsory order of Yelu Zongzhen, the various state capitals finally emptied the warehouses, which barely gathered the grain and grass materials, and then Yelu Zongzhen gave an order, in addition to leaving 20,000 people in Zhongjing, the remaining 80,000 people were all taken away by him, and in just a few days, 80,000 Liao Iron Cavalry killed outside the Great Wall of Gubeikou.

The autumn wind is bleak, after nearly a hundred years, the Khitans and the Han people once again fought to the death in the defense line of the Great Wall, Liu Ping stood at the head of Xiguan City and looked at the Liao army on the opposite side, when they attacked the sixteen states of Yanyun before, the Liao army could only defend because of too few troops, but the defense could not give full play to the strength of the Liao army's iron cavalry, and the endless cavalry in front of him was the real Liao army's iron cavalry.

Of course, Liu Ping will not be stupid enough to go out of the city to fight with the Liao army, the terrain of Gubeikou is dangerous, most of the surrounding mountains are mountains, and there is a Great Wall built on the mountain range, the cavalry can not pass at all, and the only valley mouth is also blocked by Xi Pass, although the Chaohe River next to it can be passed, but the Liao army is cavalry, not accustomed to water warfare at all, and they are also very vulnerable to the Song army when they cross the river.

The most important thing is that the prisoners of war were recruited to rebuild the Great Wall at Gubeikou, in addition to the Great Wall and Xiguan on both sides of the mountain, several fortresses with dangerous terrain were also built on both sides of the Chaohe River, and archers and musketeers were hidden in the fortresses, which could completely block the surface of the Chaohe River, and even dozens of iron chains were erected on the river to prevent ships from passing.

At the same time that Liu Ping was looking at the Liao army, Yelu Zongzhen in the Liao army was also looking at the Xi Pass opposite, half a year ago, this place was still controlled by the Liao army, but Xi Pass had long been dilapidated, and usually mainly collected taxes from merchants entering and exiting the pass, but when this pass fell into the hands of the Song army, it suddenly revealed its original hideous minions.

I saw that the dilapidated city wall of Xi Pass had already been repaired, and the city was full of Song troops, behind the battlements of the female wall, a spear was erected and pointed obliquely at the sky, Yelu Zong really knew that it was a bed crossbow, and there were iron pipes sticking out from behind the battlements, if he guessed correctly, it should be the legendary artillery.

Looking at the Xi Pass in front of them, which was armed to the teeth, and then looking at the steep mountains on both sides of Xi Pass, as well as the Song army defending on the Great Wall of the mountains, the entire Gubeikou was like an iron bucket, and they had no other way to think of except to attack.

"Your Majesty, the Song army has been prepared for a long time, and it has long been expected that we will attack Gubeikou, but our speed is fast, if we turn the horse's head and storm Fenghua Prefecture now, it will still be too late!" In the midst of the army, Yelu Renxian suggested to Yelu Zongzhen with an anxious face.

Before sending troops, Yeluren first used his influence to send a small group of troops to operate outside Fenghua Prefecture, hoping to attract a part of the Song army to the past, but he didn't expect Liu Ping to be fooled at all, now Gubeikou is heavily defended, in his opinion, it is not appropriate to attack at all, otherwise even if they are defeated, they will have to pay huge casualties, and they will definitely not be able to go south in the future, so it is right to look for the weak place of the Great Wall's defense line and take advantage of the weakness.

"How can this be done, the grain, grass, materials and the army have all been mobilized here, if the target is changed temporarily, do you know that this is a taboo in the army?" Yelu Zongzhen glared at Yelu Renxian and reprimanded, this is Yelu Renxian, if he was another person and dared to deny his thoughts again and again, I am afraid that Yelu Zongzhen would have pulled people out and cut them down a long time ago.

Seeing that Yelu Zongzhen still refused to listen to his persuasion, Yelu Renxian immediately retreated in panic on the surface, but secretly sighed, he had long known that Yelu Zongzhen was too rigid and self-serving, but after experiencing this civil war, Yelu Zongzhen seemed to be even more conceited, and Liu Ping on the opposite side seemed to have already figured out Yelu Zongzhen's character, otherwise he would not have directly transferred the army to Gubeikou.

"Encamp! Siege in three days! With Yelu Zongzhen's order, the Liao army also immediately began to set up camp, and the camp was only three miles away from Xiguan, which was a very close distance, if the Song army attacked the camp at night, this distance was simply too convenient.

However, Liu Ping at the head of the city smiled calmly, Yelu Zongzhen's little cleverness had long been seen through by him at a glance, and placing the camp at such a close distance from Gubeikou was nothing more than to attract them to attack the camp at night, but he was sure that the Liao army would definitely set a trap at night, and if he really sent troops, he would only suffer a big loss.

In the next few days, the Liao army made a posture of rest and recuperation, and at the same time sent people to scold in front of Xiguan City, in fact, they wanted to lure the Song army out of the city, but Liu Ping was a veteran in the army, and he didn't care about Yelu Zongzhen's small means at all.

However, some young generals couldn't hold their breath, and asked Liu Ping to fight, but they were all scolded by Liu Ping, it is a good thing that these young generals are not afraid to fight, but they can't be brainless, they have a city wall to rely on, and defending the city is the strength of the Song army, there is no need to sacrifice their own strength to go out of the city and fight with the Liao army, you must know that most of the Liao army are cavalry, and they wish that the Song army would go out of the city to fight with them.

In addition, the Liao army is now short of materials, so the time is on the side of the Great Song Dynasty, as long as the Liao army is slowly dragged down, one day they will not be able to hold on, and it is not too late to take advantage of the situation to counterattack, these simple truths can be seen clearly by people with a little brain, such as Di Qing, these people did not speak, and all the people who asked for war were a bunch of brainless reckless people.

The Liao army has been scolding and fighting outside the city for three days, and the Song army at the head of the city is not to be outdone, and they still scolded back, which is also interesting, there is an army in the army that specializes in scolding, although the number is not large, but all of them are composed of strong men with big voices.

Don't underestimate the seemingly unpopular form of scolding, in fact, these people play a great role, and sometimes they can even shake the opponent's military heart, if they can scold the other party's main general to be impetuous, so as to make a wrong decision, and even determine the direction of a war, this should be the earliest psychological tactics on the ancient battlefield.

However, after scolding for three days, the people on both sides of the scolding array also lost their strength, and even many of them had swollen throats and couldn't even speak, and at this time, Yelu Zongzhen finally couldn't hold his breath, after all, Song Jun could wait, but he couldn't wait, not only was there a shortage of food and grass materials, but the weather was getting colder and colder, if he didn't fight again, then he could only return in vain.

Early in the morning of the fourth day, the Liao army finally put away the previous tricks, 80,000 troops gathered outside the city of Xiguan, and the Great Song Dynasty was also waiting for it, with a passionate horn, the vanguard of the two Liao armies took the lead in killing the city.

Xi Pass is located at the mouth of the valley, one side is a mountain range, one side is the tide river, so the terrain is quite narrow, and Xi Pass only has a city wall facing the Liao army, which also leads to the Liao army can only send a small number of troops to attack the city at a time, otherwise it can not be opened at all, it can not be said that it is a man when the pass, ten thousand people do not open it, but it is also an extremely dangerous terrain, otherwise the Northern Qi Dynasty would not have built the Great Wall here.

"Put!" With the arrival of the Liao army, the artillery at the head of the city took the lead in firing, only to hear a thunderous roar, a black projectile shot out of the muzzle, with the sound of wind and thunder directly hit the Liao army rushing into the formation, some unlucky people were directly hit by the artillery, and the people and horses were immediately smashed into a puddle of flesh.

The lethality of the cannonball is far more than that, because the cannonball will find a bounce after it hits the ground, so that it will rush out of a straight line in the shape of the enemy army, as long as the Liao army on this straight line, almost either dead or wounded, even if it is only a little rubbed, it is also the end of broken bones and tendons.

"This ...... Is this the artillery of the Song army? No wonder you can blast open the city gates! Yelu Zongzhen in the camp of the Chinese army held a telescope and looked at the battlefield in front of him, but at this time, he had already lost his previous conceit, but had a shocked look on his face.

Yelu Renxian next to him also held a telescope and looked ahead, these telescopes were captured from the Song army, although they lost the sixteen states of Yanyun, but occasionally they could win a few battles, so a batch of telescopes were captured from the Song generals who died in the battle, and all of them were sent to Zhongjing by the defeated army.

"Artillery, muskets, and I heard that there are many other firearms in the Song army, these firearms are far sharper than the firearms of the year, it seems that the Song army has greatly improved the formula of gunpowder, so that the power of firearms has increased greatly!" Yelu Renxian also said with a heavy face at this time.

The sharpness of the firearms of the Song army has long been known to everyone, so Yelu Renxian also asked people to collect a lot of information on firearms, as for the gunpowder is not a secret, in fact, the Liao army imports a lot of fireworks from the Great Song Dynasty every year, so they also know that the key to firearms lies in the formula of gunpowder, and even some people in Liao know how to prepare gunpowder, but their formula is problematic, and naturally it cannot achieve the effect of the firearms of the Song army.

When he was talking, he saw that the two vanguard Liao army also killed under the city of Xiguan, at this time the distance between the two sides was already very close, and the artillery could not play an effect, generally at this time, it was the competition of the archers on both sides, but this time it was a little different, the archers of the Liao army were just ready to shoot, but they only heard the crisp sound of "popping" in the Song army at the head of the city, and then the Liao army under the city fell in pieces, and it was the musketeers who began to shoot.

There is a city wall to cover, the musketeers don't have to worry about protection at all, they can shoot with peace of mind, and they are condescending, and they can give full play to the power of the musket, so the Liao army under the city also suffered heavy losses under the killing of the musket.

Although this was only a tentative attack, but seeing that the vanguard he sent had suffered such heavy losses, Yelu Zongzhen's face became more and more ugly, and Yeluren next to him wanted to persuade him again when he saw this, but he opened his mouth but didn't dare to speak.

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