Early in the morning, when the first rays of sunlight shine on the city wall, the new year is coming, today is the New Year's Day, it is also the arrival of the second year of Jianyan, early in the morning, the sound of firecrackers sounded in the city, and every household began to worship their ancestors.

The Jin soldiers were stationed ten miles away from the southern city and did not attack the city again for twenty days.

Although twenty days was a rare peaceful time for the people of Taiyuan, it was a rare training opportunity for the Song army defending the city.

Fifty thousand recruits trained in the barracks day and night, soaking their training with toil and sweat, making them reborn day by day and gradually becoming stronger.

Twenty days, but also made the Song army's fortifications become perfect, the most obvious is the demolition of the wooden frame behind the city wall, this is to install the trebuchet with the earth-shaking thunder and build a wooden platform, the craftsmen continued to improve the trebuchet, the trebuchet from the rear type to the side-mounted type, so that you can move the throwing rod, the throwing rod turned at a ninety degree angle, the soldiers directly put the earth-shaking thunder into the throwing pocket at the head of the city.

As soon as dawn, Li Yanqing took the soldiers to inspect the city, he came to the north city wall, the lord of the north city will be Wang Gui, and the deputy will be his old partners Cao Meng and Niu Gao, three days ago, the Jin soldiers rebuilt the camp outside the north city and the east city, which means that the Jin soldiers will launch an attack on the north city and the east city.

Li Yanqing also made corresponding adjustments, the lord of the northern city will be Wang Gui, who will lead 20,000 troops to garrison, and the lord of the eastern city will be Liu Qian, who will also lead 20,000 troops to garrison.

When Wang Gui saw Li Yanqing going to the city, he stepped forward and asked with a smile: "Isn't Yanqing going to worship the ancestors in the big tent today?" ”

"I have already put incense on my mother's spiritual seat when I was in Yin, and the lady over there in Jingzhao City will also go to the temple to offer incense, as for sacrificing to the ancestors, let my father be busy!"

"I'm the same, I gave incense to my mother, my ancestors had grandfathers and they sacrificed in Jiangxia, so I don't care."

Wang Gui's mother also died of illness shortly after arriving in Jiangxia, and he will also sacrifice their respective mothers with Li Yanqing every year in the New Year, Li Yanqing patted Wang Gui's shoulder and smiled: "Today's New Year, take a day off!" ”

Wang Gui shook his head, "Last night, the trebuchet of the Jin soldiers had already left the camp to measure the road, I guess it was either today or tomorrow, and the new round of Jin Bing's offensive was about to begin, and there was really no way to rest." ”

As he was talking, a personal soldier hurriedly pulled Li Yanqing, "All be careful of your step!" ”

Li Yanqing found that he was standing on the edge of the city, which was very dangerous, and he hurriedly walked a few steps inside.

Generally, the city wall facing the city is called the female wall, the battlements are relatively short, in order to deal with the trebuchet of the golden soldiers, the Song army specially transformed the female wall on the north city and the east city, mainly with a hammer to knock off the battlements of the female wall, so that the inner side of the city head has no low wall protection, such benefits are obvious, whether it is a stone or a thunderstorm, if it hits the city head, it will directly slide into the city with the help of inertia, and will not stay on the city head.

Of course, there are downsides, the main thing is that the soldiers will fall into the city if they are not careful, and it is up to the soldiers to be careful.

"It seems that the reinforcements of the golden soldiers are menacing, what model of trebuchet are they, can you see it?"

"Visually, it's also a heavy trebuchet, which seems to be slightly taller than ours."

Li Yanqing smiled bitterly and said: "This must be the inventory trebuchet of Zhending Mansion, when I came to Zhending Mansion to inspect the inventory, I found that their trebuchet was well maintained, and I specially commended the officials who managed the warehouse, but I didn't expect that in the end, it was cheaper, it's a bit ironic!" ”

"Don't be depressed, what if Jin Bing has trebuchets, we've seen a lot, and we're not afraid of them at all."

At this time, a group of female guards came to the front, particularly heroic, and the soldiers who were busy at the head of the city panicked and cast a vigilant look at this female soldier.

The female soldiers stepped forward to salute Li Yanqing, they had two duties, one was to check the war readiness before the war, and the other was to help the wounded soldiers during the war.

Although the controversy caused by the recruitment of female soldiers into the army has not yet subsided, all the soldiers wholeheartedly supported this decision, and the timely assistance of female guards greatly reduced the mortality rate of wounded soldiers, which is a fact that has been verified by countless battles.

In fact, there are not many soldiers who were directly killed in the era of cold weapons, and the vast majority of soldiers were injured and died, one was excessive bleeding, and the other was wound infection, which were the two major killers known as causing the death of wounded soldiers.

However, after the female escorts appeared, they would disinfect the wounds of the soldiers with salt water in time, and at the same time apply hemostatic ointment and quickly bandage them, which made the two major killers of the wounded soldiers no longer rampant as before, and the mortality rate of the wounded soldiers plummeted by eighty percent.

The 1,000 female soldiers of the Jingzhao Army rescued a large number of wounded soldiers on the battlefield and won the respect of the Jingzhao Army with practical actions.

At present, only Li Yanqing's Jingzhao Army and Han Shizhong's Huainan Army have recruited female soldiers in the Song army, which are led by female generals Hu Qing'er and Liang Hongyu respectively.

The leader of the female soldiers who came to her was called Wang Qiong, a general, a native of Jingzhao Mansion, and she led fifty female soldiers today to check the preparations for war at the head of the city, and would correct the hidden dangers on the spot.

She saluted Li Yanqing and said: "Qiyu Dutong, so far, eight hidden dangers have been found in the lowly position, all of which have been corrected one by one, the most serious hidden danger is that the earth-shaking thunder is not boxed, twelve earth-shaking thunders are directly placed on the ground, and there is an oil spill on the ground, as long as there is a little fire, the consequences are unimaginable, I have reported this matter to Deputy Dutong Liu, and asked to punish the person responsible." ”

Li Yanqing nodded and smiled: "General Wang has worked hard!" ”

Wang Qiong saluted again, and then led the female soldiers to continue to inspect and inspect, and after walking more than a dozen steps, they found that there was no craftsman's maintenance stamp on a trebuchet, and they immediately asked the soldiers to confirm again, whether this trebuchet was overhauled?

Wang Gui looked at their backs and said with a smile: "How could Dutong think of letting female soldiers come to inspect the war preparations?" ”

Li Yanqing said lightly: "Women are more careful, do not show favoritism, and it is very embarrassing to be found out by women, I believe that all soldiers dare not be careless, in my opinion, they are very qualified!" ”

As soon as Li Yanqing's words fell, a thunderous war drum sounded in the distance, 'Knock! Boom! Boom! Boom! The drums of war were low and dense.

Li Yanqing's face changed, and he shouted: "Ring the alarm!" ”

'When! While! When ......'

The alarm bells in the city also rang fiercely.

In addition to the north and east cities, the west and south cities, which were not likely to be attacked by the enemy, were also guarded by 5,000 soldiers each.

At present, there are a total of 75,000 troops in Taiyuan City, except for 25,000 troops as a reserve support army, the remaining 50,000 troops have all gone to the city, the swords and guns are unsheathed, the crossbows are wound, the earth-shaking thunder has been put into the iron pocket of the trebuchet, and the spears above the city head are like a forest, and the murderous atmosphere is high.

Just as the Song army judged, the goal of the Jin soldiers was indeed the north and east cities of Taiyuan, and the direction of the north and east barracks of the Jin soldiers sounded the war drums almost at the same time, and the two armies began to assemble in the distance, and the figure of a large siege machine was also faintly visible in the distance.

This time, the Jin soldiers transported a total of 300 trebuchets of all sizes from Zhending Mansion, 80 nest cars, 260 cannons, as well as siege rams and trench trucks, the so-called trench is used when crossing the trench, the cart carries the wooden row that has been made in advance, and can quickly erect a wooden bridge on the trench, and its practical shoulder and hand lift is also as fast, but more flexible, the actual combat significance of this trench car is not great.

The biggest threat to the Song army was trebuchet, Wan Yanchang rode on his horse, smiling and looking at the east city wall in the distance, behind him were a hundred heavy trebuchets, all of which were parts when they arrived, and the craftsmen in the gold camp took three days to assemble them.

The trebuchet chassis is very large, there are large wooden wheels around, it can be slowly pushed on the flat ground, the main shaft is two zhang high, that is, six meters, like a row of monster army standing on the field, the long throwing rod is as long as five zhang, and it can throw fifty or sixty pounds of boulders to two hundred and fifty steps away.

The trebuchets at the head of the city were limited by the environment, and the maximum throw distance was only 200 paces, which gave the trebuchets of the golden soldiers a slight advantage.

But against Jin Bing's trebuchet, the Song army is not without a way, one is to make a super giant trebuchet, throw it in the city, can throw the earth-shaking thunder to five hundred steps away, but this kind of ultra-long throwing rod Song Jun currently has only three, and at most can only make three super trebuchets.

The second method is to use the bed crossbow, the range of the bed crossbow is also up to 500 steps, the penetration is extremely strong, the Song army gunpowder craftsman designed a long barrel of gunpowder tube, wrapped in layers of parchment, tied to the crossbow arrow, when it hits the opponent's trebuchet, it will explode quickly, although the explosion power is not large, but it will have a great impact on some key parts of the trebuchet.

However, the most effective is passive defense, for example, the Song army knocked out the battlements facing the side of the city, unless the Jin soldiers' earth-shattering thunder exploded when it landed, otherwise they would rush directly down the city, and a deep earth pit was dug under the city, whether it was a fireball or a sky-shaking thunder, it would fall into the earthen pit.

In addition, the city wall, fortunately, it is still a harsh winter, the Song army continued to thicken the ice on the city wall, so that the ice on the front of the city wall is as thick as a foot, and it is a white mark to knock it down with a hammer, frozen solidly, and it can not break the ice shell with a hundred earth-shattering thunders in a row, not to mention the huge stone city wall inside.

The trebuchet of the Jin soldiers rumbled forward and stopped in front of the lime line of two hundred and fifty paces, the Jin soldiers aimed at the Song army at the head of the city, who had no interest in the city walls and the city.

At this time, Li Yanqing issued an evacuation order, and the soldiers at the head of the north city and the head of the east city evacuated to the west and south cities one after another, leaving only 5,000 soldiers at the heads of the two main battle cities.

Just after the Song army was evacuated, the trebuchet of the Jin soldiers was suddenly launched, and a hundred trebuchets outside the east city were the first to be launched, and a hundred earth-shattering thunderbolts rose into the air and shot towards the head of the east city of Taiyuan.