Due to the relatively high terrain of Shichang City, therefore, there is no moat, in order to prevent the attack of the enemy, there are only a few rows of rejecting horses in front of the city gate, and these rejecting horses are naturally unable to block the attack of the Jin army's siege vehicles.

The three siege vehicles, driven by eighteen soldiers, approached the city gate step by step, and directly smashed away the rejecting horses that were blocking the city gate, and went straight to the city gate.

Behind the siege vehicle, five thousand sword and shield soldiers lined up in a neat formation, slowly approached forward, and soon entered the range of the bow and arrow of the Zhao army defending the city.

Seeing that the Jin saber and shield soldiers formed a dense shield array, the general Zhao who was defending the city knew that the bow and crossbow shooting would not have much effect, so he did not order an attack, but asked his soldiers to prepare rolling wood and stones, intending to wait for the Jin soldiers to approach before attacking.

Soon, the three siege engines arrived at the city gate, and the general of the Zhao army, who was in charge of defending the city wall, immediately ordered his soldiers to smash them down with rolling wood and stones.

A large number ......of rolling logs and stones rolled down from above the city gate, smashing heavily on the siege vehicles of the Jin army, making a huge noise.

Hua'an, who was standing from a distance and watching the battle, couldn't help but be a little nervous, after all, this kind of iron structure siege vehicle roof was applied to the battlefield for the first time, and the effect remained to be tested in actual combat.

However, to Hua An'an's relief, after the continuous rolling wood and stone attacks of the Zhao soldiers defending the city, the three siege vehicles were intact and continued to advance under the city gate at a steady speed.

Seeing that the siege vehicle was intact, Hua An's heart suddenly felt a lot easier, but the soldiers of the Zhao army defending the city were taken aback. They had all seen siege engines, but they had never seen siege engines that could not be smashed by rolling wood and stones, so the generals of the Zhao army hurriedly ordered their soldiers to pour fire oil from above the city gate, and then threw torches down to ignite the siege vehicles of the Jin army.

Watching a gurgling liquid pour down from the city gate, Hua An's heart rose to his throat, although in the Armory Hall in Nanzheng City, a fire resistance test had been conducted. But really take this siege vehicle to the battlefield. Huaan is still a little worried.

"Huhuhu......" With the torches thrown down by the soldiers of the Zhao army, the tops of the three siege vehicles were surrounded by huge flames, but happily, the siege vehicles still continued to advance. And. There was no sign of being destroyed by fire.

Gradually, three siege engines entered the doorway. The front of the car body reached the gate of Sichang City, and the eighteen soldiers in the siege vehicle began to connect the cotton thread soaked in oil into the black powder. And set the other end on fire, and then eighteen soldiers, holding the shields that had been prepared, quickly left the gate and took refuge on both sides of the gate.

Seeing the progress of Yiqiē, Hua An smiled with relief, but the soldiers of the Zhao army on the tower of the city gate looked at Yiqiē under the city very blankly, they were confused by the strange siege methods of the Jin army, and they didn't know how to deal with it for a while.

......With a loud bang, the gate of Shichang City was completely blown open, and at the same time, the entire city wall trembled violently, and even with the city gate as the center, the tremor could be clearly felt within a radius of ten miles.

Some of the soldiers of the Zhao army, who were standing unsteadily under their feet, were suddenly stunned, they didn't understand what was happening, they all looked at each other in surprise, and they were stunned in place.

Seeing that the gate of Shichang City was blown open by black powder, Hua An and the generals beside him glanced at each other and smiled happily, after all, with this kind of siege artifact, the pressure of siege in the future will be greatly reduced, which can greatly reduce the casualties suffered by the soldiers.

Looking at the black smoke rising from the cave of the city gate, Hua An ordered softly: "Beat the drum and march to capture Shichang City." ”

"Drumming marches."

"Knock knock knock ......" In the military formation of the Jin army, dozens of big drums made a deafening sound of marching at the same time.

The 5,000 sword and shield soldiers who were close to the gate of Shichang City heard the drumbeat of the attack, and immediately got up and rushed towards the city gate, and the main army in the rear also began to march towards Shichang City, in order to cause unstoppable pressure on the Zhao army defending the city, thus greatly damaging the morale of the Zhao army's soldiers.

The soldiers of the Zhao army, who were defending on the city wall, saw that the city gate was blown open, and the soldiers of the Jin army outside the city were pressing in an all-round way, and they were all shocked, and most of the soldiers had the intention of retreating.

Soon, the sword and shield soldiers of the Jin army poured into the city, and scattered to the city walls on both sides of the city gate, fighting with the soldiers of the Zhao army who were defending the city.

The soldiers of the Zhao army defending the city saw that the city could no longer be defended, so they ordered a retreat, and then, the three thousand soldiers of the Zhao army quickly retreated in the direction of the north gate.

The Jin saber and shield soldiers who attacked the city chased after the fleeing Zhao soldiers and captured a lot, but most of the Zhao army's men and horses still fled from the direction of the north gate.

From the beginning of the siege to the complete defeat of the Zhao army in the city, it took only a few hours, but it was said that it was a quick battle to break the city, from this battle, Hua'an was deeply aware of the great power of black powder, and was ready to use a large number of black powder in the future Northern Expedition to reduce the casualties of the troops and improve the speed of advancement.

Since the area in Shichang City was not very large, Hua'an only let his own guards enter the city to rest, and let Chen Ting and Yang An's men and horses camp in the open space outside the city.

After entering Shichang City, Hua'an and a group of generals first inspected the gate of Shichang City that was blown up by black powder, looking at the city gate that had been blown into pieces and the broken doorway, Hua'an and the soldiers were very satisfied, however, this time, for the sake of safety, the black powder put in was a little too much, for blowing up a city gate, the black powder carried by a siege vehicle was enough, and the black powder carried by the three siege vehicles was too powerful, and the door hole of the city gate had been blown up miserably.

If you add some black powder, maybe you can blow up the entire city gate tower, which is not good, one is too waste of black powder, and the other is that the city gate tower is blown up, and it still needs a lot of effort to repair.

"Big brother, in this battle, our army captured Shichang City in only one hour, and the new weapon is powerful!" Wang San looked at the door hole that was bombed miserably, and said with emotion.

Hua An nodded and said: "That's natural, and the Northern Expedition will rely on it in the future." ”

"Big brother, what is this black thing called, has it always been called an elixir?" Wang San asked.

Hua An opened his mouth and replied: "This kind of thing is black, there is fire when it explodes, it is refined with the alchemy furnace of refining medicine, so it is called black powder!" ”

"Black powder, this is a good name, in the future, we will call it black powder." Wang San said happily.

After taking full control of the city, Hua'an began to send scouts to Qishan to reconnoitre, and drew a detailed topographical map of Qishan to understand the various terrains of Qishan, so as to arrange for his troops to meet the possible attack of the Zhao army.

While the scouts went to Qishan to reconnoiter the terrain, Hua'an's personal guards pacified the people in the city and counted the remnants of the Zhao army left in the city to prevent them from sabotage.

In the city of Shichang, the people of the Qiang and Di ethnic groups are the most numerous, and the rest such as the Jin people and the Qi people are only a small proportion, and they are all foreigners who mainly do business.

In order to make the people in the city trust him, when Hua'an entered the city, he posted a notice in the city, stating that the army under his command had no offense against the people, and if there was a violation, the military law would deal with it.

Under the strict military discipline of the pro-guard army, there were no incidents of soldiers bullying the common people in the city, and the whole city was stable, and everything was going according to plan.

####

The soldiers of the Zhao army, who had been scattered from Shichang City, fled all the way, arrived in Ji County two days later, and told Sun Fudu, the chief general of the Zhao army, who had stayed here, the news of the capture of Shichang City by the Jin army's Hua'an Division.

In the big tent of Sun Fudu in Ji County, Sun Fudu listened to the report of the defeated general, and couldn't help but be furious, you must know that although the area of Shichang City is small, it is a strong city.

Such a strong city was broken by the Jin army within an hour, which made Sun Fudu a little puzzled, especially the scene about black powder reported by the defeated general, which made Sun Dudu feel impossible, he stubbornly believed that it was the defeated general who said nonsense in order to evade responsibility.

However, regardless of whether what the defeated general said is true or not, the news that Shichang City was captured by the Jin army is an indisputable fact, and in this way, the Jin army Hua'an Department will control the nearby Qishan, as long as Hua'an is willing, it only takes a few days of effort, and the Jin army of tens of thousands of horses can be under the siege of Ji County, so as to catch themselves off guard.

Sun Fudu's vision is very vicious, he understands that Qishan, where Shichang City is located, is the barrier of the entire Tianshui County, and the loss of Shichang City is equivalent to the loss of Qishan, so that the hinterland of Tianshui County, which has lost the cover of Qishan, will be under the nose of the Jin army and may be attacked at any time.

In Sun Fudu's heart, the army of Hua'an stationed in Shichang City was a knife hanging above his head, and he would give him a fatal blow at any time.

Therefore, in order to ensure the safety of the hinterland of Tianshui County, Sun Fudu felt that he had to march to the foot of Qishan Mountain and recapture Shichang City.

It's just that, through the reports of the scouts and defeated generals, Sun Fudu learned that Hua'an had mobilized 50,000 main forces to enter near Shichang City, and the army he could mobilize was only 30,000 horses, and he used his own 30,000 troops to fight against Hua'an's 50,000 heroes.

"General Sun, Qishan is the barrier of my Tianshui County, and it is also the barrier of the grain road of General Ma's main army, Qishan is controlled by the Jin army, not only the hinterland of Tianshui County is threatened, but General Ma's grain road will also face great danger, our army stays in Ji County, responsible for protecting the safety of the main army grain road in front, for the Jin army to occupy Qishan, we cannot be indifferent, we must immediately send troops, recapture Shichang City, and re-control Qishan to ensure the safety of the army in front." A subordinate general looked at Sun Fudu and said loudly. (To be continued......)