The fierce battle to attack the Ta Cut Village has been fought for three whole days, the smoke is billowing everywhere under the Ta Cut Village, and the corpses that have been burned into charcoal can be seen everywhere, the corpses are stacked on top of each other, and the blood stains the earth red, the Song army has suffered more than 20,000 casualties, but the Ta Cut Village is still standing majestically, and the Song Army has never been able to capture it.

Tong Guan was already red-eyed, and he waved his sword and shouted, "Throw another 10,000 attacks, order 3,000 sword and axe men to supervise the battle, and those who dare to take a step back will be killed immediately!" ”

No one dared to persuade Tong Guan, and the general Wang Yu had to order: "The Fourth Army is attacking!" ”

'Boom! Boom! Boom! The drums beat loudly, and 10,000 Song soldiers rushed to the mountain road like a tide, and the morale of the Song army was very low at this time, but Tong Guanqin led 3,000 swords and axes to supervise the battle behind and forced 10,000 soldiers to charge forward.

The north side of the village is also steep and difficult to attack, only a mountain road about two zhang wide leads to the gate of the village, both sides are steep mountain cliffs, the mountain road of just more than two hundred steps is full of the corpses of the fallen soldiers, the Song soldiers behind can only step on the corpses of their companions and charge upward, the first wave of more than 1,000 soldiers just rushed up dozens of steps, and a thick rolling log rolled and smashed from the mountain.

The soldiers in front were so frightened that they raised their shields to resist, but the impact of the heavy rolling logs was too great, and under the violent impact, the soldiers were smashed and flew out, and hundreds of casualties were immediately injured, and several soldiers were smashed to the brains, which was extremely terrifying, and thousands of soldiers were so frightened that they squatted on the ground and trembled, raising their shields and shouting, but no one was willing to go up.

Tong Guan saw it clearly, was furious in his heart, and shouted: "Those who slack off and don't attack will be killed!" ”

Rushing to a team of crossbowmen, they fired arrows at the back at those who refused to charge, and shot dozens of people in a row, and the Song army in front was forced to climb and charge upward, they were already frightened, and their legs could no longer stand up.

At this time, the general Wang Yu couldn't stand it anymore, and stepped forward to persuade Tong Guan: "This kind of charge is meaningless except for increasing casualties, it is impossible to take the Ta cut village, it is better to attack other county towns and loot some food." ”

"Even if we can get food, how can we go back?"

"It's better to go west, retreat to the Yellow River, and then go south along the Yellow River."

The Yellow River is at least 500 miles away from here, and it is necessary to pass through a vast Gobi, and the march is very difficult.

At this moment, there was a sudden movement behind the army, only to hear the frightened shouts of the Song army, the army formation began to be confused, Tong Guan was stunned, what happened?

A soldier crawled and ran: "Tai Lieutenant, there is a Western Xia cavalry attack behind!" ”

At this time, the ground began to shake, and there was a muffled thunderous rumble in mid-air, Tong Guan also saw that a boundless cavalry was coming from the east to cover this side, the dust covered the sky and the sun, but the army was still in chaos, this was another 10,000 cavalry from behind the mountain, taking the lead in disrupting the formation of the Song army.

This is undoubtedly a very clever tactic, first use 10,000 cavalry to impact the opponent's formation, causing chaos on the other side, Richard Brother only then led 30,000 main cavalry to suddenly kill, so that the Song army did not have time to meet the whole team, and eventually there will inevitably be a fiasco.

Tong Guan's face turned pale, and he shouted in a trembling voice: "Fight in formation!" ”

At this time, there was no point in forming a formation, the Song army attacked Ta Cut Village with heavy casualties, morale was already very low, and the military spirit was almost on the verge of dissipation, and the 40,000 cavalry of Western Xia finally brought a heavy blow, and the 70,000 Song army finally collapsed.

Before the cavalry arrived, the 70,000 Song army was defeated like a mountain, tens of thousands of soldiers shouted in terror, trampled on each other, threw away their weapons, took off their armor, and fled desperately, Tong Guan was also surrounded by hundreds of soldiers and fled westward, and the battlefield became a one-sided massacre.

In this battle, the Song army was killed on their backs, corpses were all over the field, and the 70,000 troops only escaped less than 20%, and most of the others were slaughtered by the enemy army in Western Xia.

Seeing that the opponent's main force had been defeated, Richard ordered his subordinates to continue to chase down the defeated army, and he personally led 10,000 elite cavalry through the Ta Cutting Village to kill the main logistics force of the Song army.

The logistics army of the Song army are all local army and people, both equipment and combat effectiveness are very weak, because of the loss of the village, so that they are lost, waiting for a few days without any news, they have to slowly retreat to the reward port.

Just when hundreds of thousands of troops and tens of thousands of carts were about to retreat to the Xiangyikou, Richard's cavalry killed, the wind was loud, the Xiang army and the people were terrified, and they abandoned the cart and ran for their lives, and the Western Xia cavalry pursued and killed all the way, and successively captured the Song army camp and the Xiangyikou.

Mountains of all kinds of military supplies blocked the mouth of the canyon several miles wide, and only 500,000 stones of grain were transported, as well as countless military materials such as armor, war drums, fire oil, and firearms, and tens of thousands of soldiers and civilians were killed, and the Song army that attacked Western Xia on the Western Front was completely wiped out.

Due to the defeat of the Song army on the western front, the Song army on the eastern front suddenly became precarious, and the Western Xia quickly increased the number of troops to Xiazhou by 200,000, making the total number of troops stationed in Xiazhou reach 300,000.

.........

In the Xiazhou Palace, Li Qianshun stood in front of the window with his hands in his hands and listened to his brother Richard report on the battle situation.

"Tong Guan's army has almost been completely defeated, the last information I got is that Tong Guan got the help of Shuqiang, and fled south along the Yellow River with thousands of remnants, the imperial brother does not have to worry that he will make a comeback, his logistics and baggage have all fallen into our hands, he is no longer able to counterattack, he should be thinking about how to explain to the emperor of the Song Dynasty now, right?"

Although Brother Richard achieved brilliant results, Li Qianshun said lightly: "The defeat of the Song army on the Western Front after Liu Fa's death is certain, otherwise I would not have transferred to Xiazhou in advance, and it is not worth boasting about defeating a eunuch like Tong Guan, and it is Zhong Shidao who is really difficult to deal with." ”

Li Qianshun's words were like a basin of cold water, which immediately extinguished the pride in Brother Richard's heart, and he lowered his head and was silent for a long time.

Li Qianshun glanced at him and asked again, "Did you do the thing I ordered before?" ”

Brother Richard perked up, "Brother Hui, we captured one of Tong Guan's staff, and under his guidance, we found six earth-shattering thunderbolts in a big tent. ”

Li Qianshun's face finally showed a smile, "Where is the thing?" ”

"Just put it in the outhouse, please come with me!"

Brother Richard took his brother to a room that was tightly guarded by the guards, and as soon as he walked in the door, Li Gan's eyes lit up by the way, and he walked quickly to a large table, staring at the six swarthy iron bumps placed on the table for a long time, each weighing at least forty catties, this is the earth-shaking thunder captured by Brother Richard after defeating the Song army on the Western Front, Li Qianshun finally saw the earth-shaking thunder that he had been looking forward to for a long time.

At the table, two experienced gunpowder veterans were carefully studying a heaven-shaking thunder that had been disassembled, and at this time, Brother Richard said in a low voice: "That staff member explained that this kind of earth-shaking thunder was just developed, and even Tong Guan did not have a formula in his hands, and the formula was in the hands of the seed master, no matter how Tong Guan coerced, he just refused to give it to Tong Guan." ”

"This is the cleverness of the Seed Master's Dao, knowing that Tong Guan is unreliable!"

Li Qianshun sneered, then walked up to the two old craftsmen and asked, "How is it, do you see anything famous?" ”

An old craftsman hurriedly got up and said to Li Qianshun and Brother Li Cha: "Your Majesty, His Royal Highness the King of Jin, we have taken a closer look at this earth-shaking thunder, judging from the color, it should still be nitrate, sulfur powder and charcoal, but the content of the three components is different from the gunpowder we usually use, and the reason why the earth-shaking thunder is so big is that the amount of gunpowder must be sufficient to blow up the iron shell. ”

"Can you empirically see the ratio of these three ingredients?" Li Qianshun continued to ask.

The old craftsman shook his head, "It's hard to see when mixed together, but you can see that the nitrate content has increased, the toner content has also increased, and the sulfur content has decreased, but we can experiment, and after a few months of trial and error, I think we can also make a thunderbolt." ”

Li Qianshun was overjoyed, and immediately shouted: "Take two hundred taels of gold!" ”

The soldiers brought a plate of gold, and Li Qianshun said to the two old craftsmen: "You can take this gold to settle the family, and then give me a closed test, and the results of the test will be reported to me directly, and you can't tell anyone!" ”

The two old craftsmen were flattered and hurriedly said, "We don't dare!" ”

Li Qianshun then said to Li Ziran, the general of the personal guard: "You lead a thousand troops to go to the provincial city with them to test firearms, you must strictly protect them, no one is allowed to contact them, and at the same time, you must strictly seal the news, after the matter is completed, I will have a heavy reward!" ”

"Obey!"

Li Qianshun pointed to a few earth-shattering thunderbolts on the table and said, "Take them away together." ”

Li Ziran and several guards took the earth-shaking thunder away, and the two old craftsmen saluted and went out with them.

At this time, Brother Richard slowly stepped forward and said, "If we create a sky-shaking thunder within half a year, we may be able to turn the tide of the battle in Youzhou." ”

Li Qianshun shook his head, "The general trend of the Liao State has gone, not one or two firearms can change the fate of its annihilation, at most it will be delayed for a few years, I am afraid that once the Jin people get this kind of firearm from the Liao State, our Western Xia will face a catastrophe." ”

"Brother Huang doesn't plan to give it to Liao?"

Li Qianshun smiled faintly: "This is our secret weapon, it must be used at a critical moment to be effective, with this kind of earth-shaking thunder, at least the Jin Kingdom will not be able to destroy us, so from today onwards, we must strictly seal this news, except for our brothers, we must not let anyone know that we are also studying the earth-shaking thunder." ”

"Brother Chen, I understand!"

"That's it! Let's not talk about the earth-shaking thunder, let's discuss it and see how we can take Shizhou City? ”

Brother Richard had already held his breath in his heart, and said proudly: "Brother Huang doesn't have to worry about such a trivial matter, I promise to take Shizhou City within three days!" ”

"That's an army of masters, not Tong Guan, you must not underestimate the enemy!"

"Brother Chen will not underestimate the enemy!"

Brother Richard gritted his teeth and said, "That old guy is about to go into the ground!" Before he goes into the ground, I will finally taste my awesomeness! ”[.]