Chapter 704: The Desperate Jin Army

The shelling of the Song army has been going on for a whole day. Under the roar of the "Weiyuan Cannon", Taiyuan City trembled. Although Han Chang made a lot of preparations before the war, such as setting up artillery groups in the city to concoct artillery; and demolished towers that were very susceptible to collapse; Then replace the war tents on the faces of various enemy platforms and horses with low walls, and so on.

But after a day's bombardment, the will of the Taicheng Jin Army to defend the city was quickly damaged. Hundreds of stone bullets rained down, breaking houses, destroying city corners, breaking women's walls, and even the brave warriors couldn't help but be terrified. In the shelling on this day, two of the four corners of Taiyuan were blown down, and many of the top of the city walls were knocked out of the gaps!

In Xu Wei's era, Weiyuan Cannon could only appear in film and television, of course, it was so backward that it couldn't be further behind. But in this era, the Weiyuan cannon can be said to be the most advanced heavy weapon. Just changing the catapult from "manpower" to "counterweight" will take more than a hundred years to appear on the original historical trajectory. And it is not a creation and invention of the Central Plains, the Yuan army has been attacking Xiangyang for a long time, so it specially recruited craftsmen from the Western Regions to make this kind of giant cannon. Therefore, it has several names, such as "Huihui Cannon", "Western Regions Cannon", "Xiangyang Cannon" and so on.

A small change, although also based on the principle of leverage, is a remarkable creation! Under the bombardment of Weiyuan artillery, the fortified city of Taiyuan was obviously unbearable. On the evening of the ninth day of the first lunar month, Wan Yanliang and Fusan Zhongyi urgently convened a military meeting, and the generals attending the meeting were terrified, and more than one person said that if this continued, Taiyuan might not even be able to hold out for ten days.

The artillery group we set up in the city will not be able to form a countermeasure to the other side at all. The huge cannon of the Song army was far away, and the load was still large, and the thick city wall of Taiyuan could not help the wrath of this sharp weapon. Two of the four corners of the city were bombarded, and according to statistics, at least seven gaps were punched in the top of the city, and if the Song army continued to bombard for another day, Taiyuan City would be beaten to pieces, which was by no means alarmist.

What is even more frightening is that the morale of the troops has dropped to the extreme, and the will of the soldiers is likely to collapse. At that time, I am afraid that no one can predict what kind of changes will occur. Wan Yanliang's regret also reached its peak at this time, and he volunteered to guard Hedong, of course, out of loyalty to the country, and secondly, to get capital. Who knows, now don't talk about benefits, I'm afraid that even his life can't be guaranteed, can he not regret that his intestines are green?

He was unwilling to ask if there was any other way. And the loyal answer of the servant made him despair: there was no other way but to die fighting for his country.

On the tenth day of the first month of June, the Song army continued the shelling for a whole day. After the previous day's attack, today's shelling is more targeted. The Western Army's gunners constantly corrected the angle of attack, concentrating on bombarding the corners of the city that were easier to penetrate. Because the corners are right-angled, it is the thickest part of the city wall, but it is relatively easy to break because it "protrudes outward".

Of course, the accuracy of the Weiyuan cannon cannot be compared with the artillery of later generations, but for the trebuchet that used to use manpower, its accuracy is undoubtedly greatly improved. First of all, it does not rely on human labor, but on a weight suspended from the other end of the lever to exert its power. The weight of a heavy object is fixed, unlike a human pull, and the force is large or small. To a certain extent, this can ensure the stability of the shell.

Of course, the stone shells that shelled Taiyuan City were also specially processed. It is hastily polished into a round shape and the volume is as different as possible to ensure accuracy. Of course, this is a huge project, but 100,000 horses and horses besieged Taiyuan, and the most important thing is manpower. In order to provide stone shells for the "Weiyuan Cannon", the Song army looted all the stones within a radius of dozens of miles. There were even generals who demolished the houses where their masters had fled in order to obtain the cornerstones, and were punished afterwards, and this behavior was also prohibited.

Under the powerful offensive, the defense of Taiyuan City quickly collapsed. Although the casualties were extremely small, the psychological blow to the soldiers was incomparably great. What people fear most is not failure, but hopelessness. If it is said, even if there are one or two percent, hold Taiyuan City. There are also people who are willing to work hard for it, but the problem now is that with the offensive of the Song army, it is impossible for Taiyuan to be defended, absolutely impossible.

If you know that you can't keep it, why do you have to keep it? It's not like we're out of the box! Zijin Tiger said that as long as Kaecheng surrendered, he promised not to kill. Now that there is no hope of defending the city, why should we still hold on?

The tenth day of the first month, in the evening.

After the sky grew dark, the Song army stopped shelling. The devastated Taiyuan City stands lonely in the sunset that is about to go, and the soldiers of the Jin Army in the city are silent and lifeless, not knowing whether there is a tomorrow.

In front of the city, inside the city, the cannon stones sent by the Song army almost blocked the passage. At this moment, soldiers and civilians are hurrying to dredge. The road surface is simply miserable, the power of the Weiyuan cannon is extremely great, the stone projectile falls to the ground, seven feet into the ground, and the road surface is smashed out of deep pits one by one. Although officers at all levels commanded the soldiers and civilians, they were obviously slack, and it may not take a few days for Taiyuan to be lost......

In the pacification of the Yamen, the senior generals were summoned before they had time to eat dinner. When they arrived at the yamen, the generals met, looked at each other without saying a word, and walked in silently. The bright lights in the festival hall could not make their minds clearer. After entering, he saluted Wan Yan Liang, and the generals sat down quietly.

Wan Yanliang felt their pessimism, and he didn't say a word. The whole festival hall was dead silent, and the falling needles could be heard. The summoning of the generals was originally to discuss countermeasures, but Wan Yanliang didn't know how to start for a while. Looking at the generals with their heads drooping, what else could he do but sigh secretly?

Servant scattered loyalty, once regarded as a pillar by the soldiers of the Taiyuan Jin Army. In fact, he has not been in Hedong for a long time, and if he talks about prestige or something, it is not high. But since Yan Liang came after the fight, he won the support of the soldiers. At this time, he was also speechless, the situation was really beyond his expectations, he had never fought such a battle in more than ten years. In fact, strictly speaking, now it is not called fighting at all, it is called being beaten, and the Jin army has no chance to fight back at all, except for being shelled.

It is foreseeable that within these few days, the Song army will inevitably launch a near-attack operation. At that time, the pressure on the Jin army may be eased a little, but the question is, will it be able to survive until that time?

While pondering, Wan Yanliang finally spoke: "Everyone. As soon as he spoke, the eyes of all the generals brushed towards him.

"The battle has reached this point, you have to defend it if you can hold it, and you have to defend it if you can't hold it." Wan Yanliang's opening remarks made the generals hear it in their ears and shocked in their hearts.