Chapter 6: Battle of the Mountain

Liaodong, Gaizhou.

Three months ago, Gao Guang, the governor of Liaodong, organized the Northern Expeditionary Army of the He family to send 5,000 soldiers to participate in the Northern Expedition, including the most elite cavalry battalion under the He family. Unexpectedly, Gao Guang's army was defeated like a mountain, and there was no news from the Xiaocai Battalion so far, and it was rumored that the Xiaocai Battalion had been completely annihilated by the Liao Army in Yingzhou, and He Shihu couldn't believe it.

He Shihu has just received the news that the Liao army is heading south, which is simply a bolt from the blue for He Shihu. The reason why the He family was willing to lose their money, and even did not hesitate to send elites like the Xiao Cavalry Battalion to participate in the Gaoguang Organization of the Northern Expeditionary Army was to drive the Manshu people out of Liaodong, avoid direct contact with the Manshu people, and preserve the strength of the He family.

The strength of the Yu family in northern Liaobei and the Wu family in Liaozhong was originally not under the He family, but since the rise of Manshu forty years ago, the two families have been in constant conflict with the Manshu people, and frequent wars have gradually consumed the strength of the two families. No one in the He family hoped to follow in the footsteps of the Yu and Wu families, but the hope of the He family was wiped out with the collapse of the Xiao Cavalry Battalion.

"Fuck! What do you eat in Pingshan Fort! The big battle is imminent, and more than 500 people in Pingshan Fort have disappeared in less than a day! The fuck flew into the sky?! He Shihu slammed his fist on the table angrily, and he was in a bad mood now.

The Liao army took advantage of the victory to attack the south, Gaizhou bore the brunt, and the comfort of the He family was tied to Gaizhou, and as the most important military fort on the Gaizhou front, more than 500 defenders were nowhere to be found! What is even more worrying is that Pingshan Fort hoarded a large amount of ordnance, grain and grass before the war, especially a large number of sophisticated firearms, these firearms will fall into the hands of the Manshu people, the consequences will be unimaginable!

Send troops now! Rush to the aid of Pingshan Fort! You must defend Pingshan Fort, or you will come to see me! He Shihu roared angrily.

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The main goal of the Liao army was Gaizhou, and Pingshan Fort, a small military fort, was not worth too much of a stay by the Liao army to conquer the south. Although he lost a record of elites in Pingshan Fort, he was still a person who understood the overall situation and did not delay the war for this. The Liao army was divided into two routes, Wanyan Fushen led the main force to bypass Pingshan Fort and go straight to Gaizhou City, Wanyan Haiya took 5,000 Liao troops to stay and continue to attack Pingshan Fort, in case Pingshan Fort posed a threat to the main force attacking Gaizhou.

Before the soldiers and civilians of Pingshan Fort had time to enjoy the joy of victory, the Liao army was ready to attack the city again. Obviously, this time the Liao army learned its lesson and did not attack recklessly like last time.

The Liao army quickly set up an offensive formation, with the first row pushing shield carts, the second row of archers, and finally the besieging foot soldiers pushing the well fence (a large siege machine, the four sides are columnar, there are wheels under it, which can be pushed, and there are soldiers standing on the top, mainly using long-range weapons such as bows and arrows to cause damage and threat to the defending soldiers) to rush forward. This is a typical siege formation of the Liao army.

The Liao army was neatly organized, and thousands of Liao troops were in a neat formation on the open field, which was spectacular. These Liao troops have just gone through the baptism of blood and fire, and there is a solemn aura exuding from their bodies, which is daunting. The Liao army defending the city knew very well at this moment that the real vicious war had just begun!

In the face of such a tiger and wolf army, how can Gao Guang's 160,000 rabble be invincible? He Tengxiao is now looking upstairs, looking at the neat lineup of the Liao army and sighing.

"Put!" Wanyan Haiya drew his sword and pointed at the city.

Fifty or sixty Zhao soldiers who had been driven to the front of the formation fiddled with the ten artillery pieces placed in front of the formation, and hurriedly lit the fuse.

He Tengxiao yelled that it was not good and ordered to lie down. This is the first time He Tengxiao has seen the Liao army use artillery, the Liao army has artillery, and Pingshan Fort will be more difficult to defend!

The cannon sounded one after another, and the head of the Zhao army nested under the battlements, hiding from the shelling of the Liao army.

After the Liao army finished the first array of artillery, four shells fell outside the castle, smashing four conspicuous holes in the ground, five fell into the fort, and only one fell on the city, smashing a corner of the city wall. There were no casualties in the Zhao army.

He Tengxiao was secretly glad that seeing this burst of artillery like this, the gunners of the Liao army were not familiar with it, and the threat of the Liao army's artillery to Pingshan Fort was not as serious as he imagined.

After a few moments, the cannon rang out again, this time four shells landed on the city walls. Three soldiers were killed on the spot, and one of them had his entire head blown off by a shell, leaving only a headless body.

"Brother!" A Zhao soldier ran to the headless corpse crying, and an old soldier grabbed him and covered his eyes with tears to prevent him from seeing the bloody picture.

In this shelling, there were three loud noises in front of the Liao army's formation, two cannons exploded, and one cannon exploded on the spot because the gunners were too nervous and filled with too much gunpowder.

More than 20 artillery soldiers were killed and wounded, and the nearest Liao soldiers were also burned by the heat released by the explosion to varying degrees. Artillery explosions were a common occurrence in the Zhao army, and it was already well known that the ordnance supervisor cut corners and made shoddy work. Of the 10 artillery pieces produced by the Ordnance Supervisor, some of them were unqualified.

He Tengxiao still has a deep impression of this, he has seen the Liaodong Town Army receive the artillery from the imperial court ordnance supervisor and directly throw the cannon into the furnace and melt it into molten iron to rebuild the knife and gun. Ordinary artillery is not as reliable as knives and guns in their eyes. After the artillery of the Zhao army set up the cannon, it was not uncommon for them to dare to fire the artillery, for fear that the cannon would hurt themselves.

The first time the fame of artillery was fifty years ago, when Shang Chuanren, a famous general of the Shenzong Dynasty, went out to crusade against the Hami Washen tribes in the northwest, which was also the first large-scale use of artillery, but the artillery used by the Zhao army today is far different from the artillery of the past in terms of quality, and it is not the same.

The rest of the artillerymen were so frightened by the bombing of the artillery that they did not dare to open fire. The angry Liao army drew their swords and killed these soldiers.

After Yan Haiya waved the flag, the Liao army blew the horn of attack, followed by an overwhelming shout.

The shield chariots of the Liao army shrank behind the shield cart and pushed the shield cart towards the city wall, followed by the archers.

He Tengxiao ordered the seven small cannons to be pushed up, and seeing the tragedy of the Liao army's artillery just exploding, the soldiers couldn't help but stay away when they saw the artillery.

"If this cannon blows up, Lao Tzu will screw your head off!" A Zhao soldier waved his fist at the artilleryman, he had just witnessed the tragedy caused by the explosion of the Liao army's artillery and still had palpitations.

"If you want to blow up, I'll die first." The artilleryman said, "The broken copper and iron from the ordnance supervisor only exploded, and this artillery was issued by the Fuzhou Military Bureau, and the craftsmen of the Military Bureau took their lives to protect it." As he spoke, the gunner pointed to the three words poured on the gun, which were the names of the craftsmen. The Gaizhou Military Bureau is essentially the He family's private arsenal, and the weapons manufactured by the Private Military Bureau are much better than those of the imperial court's ordnance supervision.

After the artillery set up the artillery, and the Liao army entered the firing range, He Tengxiao gave an order, and the seven cannons rang out in unison. This small artillery used a sub-mother cannon, which had a fast rate of fire and a much higher reloading efficiency than ordinary artillery, and soon fired a second wave of shells.

The formation of the Liao army's attack was relatively dense, and many artillery shells fell into the Liao army's formation, and the range of solid bullets was not large, but it was a very terrible thing to be hit by solid bullets. Several Liao soldiers were seriously wounded by solid bullets, and lay on the ground wailing with missing arms and legs. The Liao army around them ignored them at all, and the whole team continued to move forward.

After the Liao army entered the range of firearms and spears. The Zhao army on the castle took turns to launch the Liao army, and suddenly the smoke was filled, and the Liao army under the city could not even see the figure of the Zhao army on the city wall, but could only see the vague outline of the city wall.

The bullets hit the shield cart of the Liao army, leaving dense bullet holes, and from time to time feathered arrows were shot on the shield cart. The shield car blocked a lot of Zhao army's bullets, bows and arrows for the Liao army, and many Liao troops fell on the way to attack. But these did not shake the will of the Liao army in the slightest, and the Liao army still approached the fort step by step with steady steps.

The Liao army stopped in front of the trench for a while, and the Liao army behind pushed the folding bridge and spread it on the trench. After the folding bridge was erected, the Liao army stepped on the folding bridge and continued to move forward.

Finally, Pingshan Fort came within the range of the Liao army's bows and arrows. Several Liao army officers who looked like they were recording the first to direct the Liao army archers to release arrows. A rain of arrows poured down on Pingshan Fort.

In an instant, more than two dozen Zhao soldiers who were hit by arrows fell one after another. Most of them were shot by the Liao army and lost their combat effectiveness.

The Zhao army nested under the battlements, hiding from the fire of the Liao archers. A loaded musketeer got up to shoot, but was pierced through the throat by the Liao army just as he emerged.

"Get down! Get down! Don't show your head! He Tengxiao ordered.

The firepower of the Zhao army was suppressed by the archers of the Liao army, and the return fire of the Zhao army became more and more sparse. Several leaders of the Liao army commanded the infantry behind to push up the ladder cart and set up the ladder to climb the city to attack.

"Roll the wood!" He Tengxiao untied the rope on a winch and put down the rolling logs tied to the winch. Three or five Liao soldiers who were hit by rolling logs let out a muffled snort, fell down the city, and fell into a ball of flesh.

The Zhao army in the city braved the rain of arrows to release rolling logs and smash stones to give the attacking Liao army a head-on blow. Drive the Liao army out of the city.

After He Tengxiao put down the rolling log, he pulled up the rope of the winch to collect the rolling wood and put it down. The rolling wood stone here is different from the rolling log stone he saw in another time and space film and television drama. Rolling wood is not a simple log that can only be used once, the wood is tied with rope and equipped with a winch, so that it can be recycled and used after being smashed, after all, the resources of the defenders are limited.

As for the stones, they are just five or six pounds of stones, unlike the ancient soldiers in the film and television works who picked up a boulder and threw it under the city, if they hit such a stone, He Tengxiao estimated that they would be smashed two or three times, and the defenders here would have to be overdrawn physically, so what else would they take to defend the city?

After He Tengxiao put down the rolling log, he grabbed a five- or six-pound stone and smashed it down. At a height of more than ten meters, even if you throw down a watermelon, you can smash the Liao army below half to death, and if you are hit by a stone of five or six catties, even if you don't die, you will basically lose your combat effectiveness.

Constantly the Liao army was hit by rolling logs and stones and fell off the city. The offensive of the Liao army did not decrease at all, the Liao army held a knife in his mouth, grabbed the cloud ladder with one hand, and covered his head with a shield with the other hand and climbed towards the city.

"Fierce fire oil! Fast! Put the fire oil! Ling Feng led more than thirty Zhao troops to push more than a dozen large wooden box-shaped things in front of the ladder truck.

After a Zhao sergeant ignited the fire, he (naked) and agitated the bellows with his arm, and Ling Feng pulled out the plug stick, and a scorching flame erupted from the mouth of the box. The Liao army who climbed to the top of the ladder was scorched by this sudden heat wave, and rolled down the ladder with a howl like killing pigs.

This thing is simply a living flamethrower, He Tengxiao exclaimed.

After a brief burst of fierce jets of oil, a Liao army led the first soldier to the top of the city. The Liao army turned over and jumped onto the city wall, cut down the two Zhao troops who operated the fierce fire oil, and tore a hole in the city wall. The Liao army that followed closely behind swarmed......