It turned out that the spear-like arrows that shot the Liao generals directly down and nailed to the ground were fired from the bed crossbow on the tower of Yanmen Pass.

When Zhao Weiji made the iron arm crossbow, he also made the bed crossbow by the way, although only two were made because of the trouble of the production process. But in this era without cannons, the deterrent power of bed crossbows is basically the top.

Even without the appearance of Zhao Weiji, the bed crossbow would soon appear in the Song Dynasty. Later, during the Battle of Lanyuan, Xiao Dalan, the general of the Liao State, was directly nailed to death on the battlefield by the heavy arrows of the bed crossbow like this general.

And the bed crossbow made by Zhao Weiji was twice as large as the one that originally shot Xiao Dalan in history, and the arrows were finally directly transformed with spears.

Due to the shock of the bed crossbow, all the Khitan troops stopped at this time. At this time, Yelumo, who was in command of the troops, also had a headache, he didn't know how many of this thing there were, and how far the range was. This time, because only the general who had been shot just now rushed to the front of the team, he was the only one who was shot. But if a large army rushes over and is shot in the crowd, God knows how many people will suffer.

Jerumo's caution was not unreasonable, as the bed crossbow did not like a cannon that would explode at the point of the hit and then spread to the surrounding area. However, due to the extremely strong impact of the arrow, once a heavy arrow is carried away, it will also impact the crowd behind. In particular, cavalry has a great forward propulsion when charging, and the damage caused by the impact will be greater than that of slow travel.

So Jeremo had no choice but to set his troops back five miles. And all this was clearly seen by Zhao Xin, who was above the city tower, from the telescope.

This telescope is naturally also the product of Zhao Weiji after he asked Chai Yu to get out of the glass. However, because the technology they have now mastered is too difficult to make colorless glass, there is only one type of glasses that can image clearly.

Seeing that Yelu Mo retreated five miles, Zhao Xinli was not only relieved, because there were only two bed crossbows. And because the bed crossbow string is very hard, it can't be pulled open by manpower, and it must be pulled apart by a winch. Therefore, it is very time-consuming to load, and in the case of insufficient crossbow machines, if the Khitan army insists on rushing, it cannot be blocked.

Fortunately, the effect of the first arrow was too good, so it temporarily deterred the entire Khitan army.

At this time, Zhao Weiji and the others, who had returned to the gate, had also climbed the city tower, and after they took turns observing the situation with binoculars, they couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief. At this time, the Khitan's retreat was a good thing for Yanmen Pass, because there were not many soldiers in Yanmen Pass. Most of the soldiers were either killed or captured in the previous battles. There are less than 15,000 soldiers who have followed the main generals to safely retreat to the pass and still have combat effectiveness, plus the 5,000 people who were originally left to guard the pass. The current combat strength is only 20,000 when it is fully fought.

Now some people may wonder why Yanmen Pass was one of the most important passes in the Northern Song Dynasty, and why there were only 50,000 or 60,000 people stationed there. Actually, the answer is very simple, it doesn't need that much. The Song Dynasty pursued a policy of strong cadres and weak branches, and although there were many troops, it was the forbidden army that accounted for the majority. In order to prevent the military generals stationed on the border from supporting their own troops, the Northern Song Dynasty court not only implemented a more military law, but also reduced the number of border troops. In the cognition of the imperial court, anyway, your border army has a pass to rely on. You can rely on the city to hold on, and the Khitan army will come to disturb you and you will beat them back in the city, anyway, the Khitan army has always lacked effective siege methods. As for going out of the city to pursue, forget it, there is nothing to catch up with anyway, not to mention that your infantry chasing cavalry generally can't catch up.

As a result, there are not many people living in Kannai. The fact that there are 50,000 or 60,000 people stationed at this Yanmen Pass is already because it is very important.

At this time, all the generals in Yanmen Pass knew that more than half of the troops in the pass had been lost. Not only did they know, but so did Jerymus. Although Jerumo ordered his troops to retreat five miles, he did not withdraw. Because he was unwilling, it was easy to wipe out most of the military strength in Yanmen Pass, and if he could capture Yanmen Pass at this time, it would undoubtedly be a miracle. But he also understands that the biggest reason why the Khitan army has not been able to go south is because of the lack of siege capabilities, so now he can only wait and see.

Now both sides are watching. But it is obvious that the Khitan army is more calm. Because they are not short of supplies, Shuozhou City in the rear is not far away, not to mention that at this time, the Song army has no spare strength to make moves such as cutting off grain roads.

On the other hand, the Song army, although they held the city, the soldiers would be attrition every day. The reason is simple, the medical conditions in this era are really poor. Many of the soldiers who die in the war do not die directly on the battlefield, but from trauma. Because once you get hurt, you can develop a disease called tetanus. The probability of tetanus infection on the battlefield can be as high as 80%. Moreover, due to the limited medical conditions of this era, the incidence of tetanus was much higher than that of later generations. It is often recorded in history books that so-and-so died of arrow sores, and this kind of recurrent arrow so-and-so may have been infected with tetanus and then became ill and died.

And because of the unwritten rule of prohibiting alcohol in the military, it is impossible to find alcohol for disinfection. Moreover, tetanus is also resistant to boiling, and it cannot be sterilized at high temperatures. So now the Song army is facing the possibility of attrition every day. Because now, among the Song army, there is no direct contact with the enemy army for the time being, and only the 5,000 soldiers who originally defended the city are the only ones.

Zhao Weiji: It's not that they didn't think about transferring troops from Daizhou City in the rear to support, but after weighing it again, they didn't dare. Because Yanmen Pass is not a complete Daizhou barrier. The first battle that Zhao Weiji experienced after arriving in Daizhou has already shown that Daizhou has the possibility of being attacked by a sneak attack.

But Zhao Weiji was not in a hurry at this time, because in fact, the Khitan army was not completely superior, at least one point that the two armies were the same, there was tetanus infection regardless of nationality, and the Khitan army also had the opportunity to get sick. What's more, at this time, the Khitan general was directly shot with an arrow, although judging from the current situation, the main general was not shot dead on the spot at that time, but the shot is certain. Now Zhao Weiji is betting that the Khitan army will have tetanus.

Moreover, Zhao Weiji is still very confident in the way of defending the city with the high walls of Yanmen Pass and the assistance of equipment. So at this time, Zhao Weiji decided to just one word: drag.

And Yelumo over there was unwilling to retreat, but he couldn't find any way to attack the city quickly for the time being, so he decided to wait and see for a while, in case anything happened to the Song army. That's where the opportunity comes in. So he also decided to drag.

Just after the two armies faced off for seven days under the Yanmen Pass, the Liao army suddenly withdrew on the eighth day. Zhao Weiji judged at this time that he must have won the bet.

Things turned out to be as Zhao Weiji expected, and on the night of the seventh day, Yelu Zonglin, the commander of the Liao army, died of arrow sores. The news came as a surprise to Jerymus. It's not that he wasn't smart enough, it's that the limitations of the era meant he didn't have any knowledge about tetanus. He couldn't imagine that although the arrow didn't kill Yelu Zonglin on the spot, in the end, Yelu Zonglin still died under the arrow.

Due to the sudden death of the main general, Yelu Mo had no choice but to retreat. After all, Yelu Zonglin is also the son of Yelu Huge, the general of the Liao State, and Yelu Mo can't cause Han Derang to be unable to face Yelu Xiuge in the future because of his ambitions. Moreover, Yelumo was really not sure that he would be able to capture Yanmen Pass.

When they saw the Liao army withdrawing, the Song army did not completely relax. Because of the last move, Song Jun is still very cautious. By the time the scouts sent out were completely sure that the Khitan army had indeed withdrawn. Song Jun was finally able to breathe a sigh of relief.

Although the Khitan army had withdrawn, Yang Yanping still asked Zhao Weiji with some concern: "I wonder if the crossbows captured by the Khitan will be imitated?" ”

"Don't worry, general, I added a mechanism to the crossbow machine when I designed the repeater. There is a nail that will be completely broken up into parts as long as the crossbow machine is removed, and it cannot be assembled without drawings. I'm sure those captured soldiers will definitely pull out the nails before they are captured. It's something we've trained repeatedly before. What's more, even if the whole piece is captured by the Khitan army, it doesn't matter, as long as you want to dismantle the imitation, you must first pull out the nail to disassemble it without damage, but once the nail is pulled out, it can no longer be assembled. ”

"That's fine. This failure is all my responsibility, and I will now go back to the official family to ask for the guilt. This is where the loss is shown. After speaking, Yang Yanping left with a somewhat depressed expression.

Soon, Yang Yanping's plea was sent to Beijing. The excerpt completely stopped the blame for the defeat of the war on himself, not to mention that if it wasn't for Zhao Weiji's efforts to turn the tide, the situation would have been even worse.

And Song Taizong's punishment also came to Daizhou with Yang Ye's return. Yang Yanping was mainly responsible for the defeat, was demoted to the third class, and was fined for one year. Yang Ye has joint and several responsibilities that he does not know and is demoted to one class, but he is still in charge of the military affairs of Yunzhou, Zhengzhou, and Daizhou, and he is also fined for half a year. Although Zhao Weiji has made many contributions, because he did not stop the stupid behavior of the main general before the expedition, the merits were offset by the demerits. But at the same time, Zhao Weiji was also recalled to Bianjing.

When Zhao Weiji left, he was still greeted by the generals of the Yang family, after all, everyone saw Zhao Weiji's ability during this time, and they also admired him a little.

And although Zhao Weiji didn't get any promotion, it was still the same as when he came, the three of them came and the three of them left. But he didn't have any gains, first of all, he received the friendship of the Yang family. And also found a billet of a future celebrity.

Although I don't know why Zhao Guangyi summoned him back to Beijing, he did feel a little homesick. What's more, there is another person in the capital who is waiting for him to marry.

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