Three days later, the army led by Yang Wenguang finally started from Jingzhou, among which Chongge and Guhe led two front armies as the vanguard to Xingqing Mansion successively, breaking through several defense lines set up by the Western Xia people outside the city, and the troops approached the city of Xingqing Mansion, but after they launched several tentative attacks on Xingqing Mansion, they quickly gave up the idea of breaking Xingqing Mansion alone, and honestly waited for Yang Wenguang's army under the city.

With the arrival of Yang Wen's vast army, the Song army's attack on Xingqing Mansion also officially kicked off, but perhaps it was a lesson learned from the last Jingzhou City, this time the Great Song Dynasty did not attack desperately at the beginning, but surrounded the east, south and west sides of Xingqing Mansion, leaving only the north side alone, of which the south is the main direction of attack, every day there will be an army to try to attack the city, the east and west sides are besieged but not attacked, just shoot several rounds of shells into the city every day to warn.

Zhao Yan also came to the city of Xingqing Mansion with Yang Wenguang's army this time, and he also saw the cruelty of war here, especially in the siege war, although it was only a tentative attack, but it was still extremely cruel, round after round of cannonballades were fired on the city wall, and the flesh and blood of the Xixia soldiers on the city head were blown up, and under the suppression of the attack of the city head, the Great Song soldiers under the city would carry the ladder to the city in a group, and then climb up without forgetting their lives, but most of them were not waiting for them to climb to the city. He was already pushed down by the Xixia soldiers who rushed up again, and one by one they broke their bones and tendons, and the screams were endless.

Regarding the situation on the battlefield, Zhao Yan couldn't bear to look at it anymore after standing on the high ground of the barracks and looking at it with a telescope for a while, and then went to the wounded barracks to help Zhilugu and those military doctors treat the wounded, although these military doctors were not particularly proficient in the medical skills taught by Zhao Yan, but at least the method was correct, which also greatly increased the survival rate of the wounded sent here. The front battalion was quickly filled with all sorts of wounded, and even had to expand the area of the wounded barracks in the end.

Seeing that the wounded soldiers were operating in an orderly manner, Zhao Yan also felt very relieved, and because Yang Wenguang did not order the army to attack in a big way, the number of wounded was relatively small, and those military doctors knew his identity. He didn't dare to let Zhao Yan work too hard, so after he helped a few times, he found that he had nothing to do, which made Zhao Yan a little depressed.

In addition, Zhao Yan thought that after the army came to Xingqing Mansion, he would quickly implement the airborne plan, but he didn't expect that the wait would be half a month, and then he couldn't wait, so he simply asked Yang Wenguang, and the answer he got made him even more depressed. Because Yang Wenguang and they had already selected a city gate as the direction of the raid according to the layout of the city defense of Xingqing Mansion they had obtained, but now the wind direction was not right, so they were also very anxious, but they had no choice but to wait for God to change the direction of the wind, and Zhao Yan was also very helpless about this, so he had to continue to visit his students.

The Song army stationed on the east side of Xingqing Mansion fired ballistae at the city three times a day. And in order to save gunpowder shells, most of the shells they fired were stone or earth shells. Only when they saw that the Western Xia soldiers gathered at the opposite city were more concentrated, they would fire gunpowder shells, one blow up and one accurate, which also made the Western Xia very popular, but they did not dare to go out of the city without authorization.

There is a low earth hill in the southeast corner of the city wall of Xingqingfu, and standing on it can not only overlook Xingqingfu City. At the same time, ballistas can be fired from above into the city, and the mountain is bare without any vegetation, and it is extremely steep and washed by rain, which can be said to be a very important military point, and a Western Xia army of hundreds of people was stationed here in the past. It's a pity that the Song army blew up the mountain with ballistas, and all the 100 people were buried on the top of the mountain, and this dirt mountain naturally fell into the hands of the Song army, becoming an excellent place for ballista shooting.

Hu Yanqing led hundreds of his brothers to be stationed on this dirt mountain, and there are twelve bed crossbows, and the daily task is to see the order flag of the attack under the mountain, shoot the ballista shells on the opposite side of the city, and at the same time to prevent the opponent's crossbow arrows from hitting the ballista on their side, it sounds very simple, but in actual operation, you must be careful and careful, for example, the storage of those shells alone is a big problem, in case it does not blow up the enemy but explodes in your own hands, Then they all have to be buried with the Tangut people on the other side.

In the evening of that day, after Hu Yanqing saw the order from the mountain, he finally fired the last cannonball of the day on the opposite wall, which also meant that they could finally rest, and at that moment he asked people to drag the ballista along the previously paved track to the back of the mountain, so that they did not have to worry about being destroyed by the bed crossbow or stone thrower of the Tangut people.

The area on the top of this dirt mountain is not large, and because the mountain is very steep, coupled with a light snow some time ago, it makes the mountain road ice and snow, which can be said to be very difficult to walk, just the daily supply is a big problem, not to mention the transportation of artillery shells and other materials, so the station of a hundred people on the mountain is already the limit.

Hu Yanqing They built some fortifications on the back of the hill, so that the soldiers could live inside, and there was also a small warehouse in the unfinished place where the cannonballs and other materials were stored, and there were special people guarding them, and it was strictly forbidden for anyone to approach them in normal times.

Taking advantage of the fact that it was not yet dark, Hu Yanqing immediately ordered the whole army to rest and have dinner, after all, the supplies on the mountain were limited, and there was not even a torch at night, so it was better to eat early now, so as not to find even dry food at night.

While eating, Hu Yanqing called his ten chiefs to the forgotten room where he lived for a small meeting, in fact, the so-called room is a soil hole dug out of the mountain, and the space inside is not large, and the eleven people are already full when they squeeze in, which is mainly Hu Yanqing as the head of the capital, and some important things need to be kept by him personally, so he will have such a big "room".

After all, they have been coming to this mountain for more than half a month, and they are watching orders every day, and life on the mountain is very boring, so after a few chiefs routinely said their respective things, they began to chat while eating dinner.

"Damn, the supplies sent by the mountain today are all cannonballs, I asked them for hot water and hot rice, but those bastards said let's wait for two more days, during this time, we eat dry food and drink cold water every day, and I want to vomit when I see the dry food in my hand now!" One of them, a burly man with a scar on his forehead, cursed loudly and gnawed on the dry food in his hand viciously, as if the dry food in his hand was the quartermaster who did not bring them hot water.

The Great Song Dynasty army labor expedition, although the Great Song Dynasty court has been preparing for this for a long time, but the pressure on logistics is still very great, the dry food of the Song army is also very monotonous, all of them are a kind of cake mixed with flour, corn flour, sweet potato powder, this kind of cake has very little moisture, even in the summer can be stored for a long time, not to mention the cold weather now, but the taste of this cake is really not very good, there is some salt added to it, but in addition to it is hard and dry, people with bad teeth can't bite at all.

"Scar, you are content, now there is dry food to eat is already good, think that we were in Huanzhou once besieged by the Tangut people, the city lacked food, and finally the whole city of rats, insects were eaten, can only gnaw wood, and even soon there will be a situation of cannibalism, fortunately, the Tangut people can not hold on to retreat, otherwise the old man I will starve to death there." At this time, another gray-haired old chief said with a smile, this chief is not only old, but also dry and thin, looking like a big horse monkey, so people call the old monkey, the old monkey is one of the oldest low-level generals in the army, and when he speaks, he likes to educate his juniors with the things of the year.

"Old monkey, what you said is not right, you didn't have food back then, so naturally you can't compare it with now, but now there is food in the barracks, and the brothers under the mountain can eat at least one hot meal every day, but we have worked hard enough to stay on this dirt mountain, but we can't eat hot food every day, this is obviously because the people below are lazy and refuse to send us more food!" As soon as the old monkey's words fell, the burly chief with a scar on his forehead retorted, his nickname is Scar, he is a famous thorn in the army, he has always been dissatisfied with anyone, and he likes to carry it with the old monkey the most, but he listens to Hu Yanqing's words the most, not only because Hu Yanqing has saved his life more than once, but also because he is still a little afraid of Hu Yanqing.

"What's wrong with my words, the road on our mountain is ice and snow, it's already difficult to walk, it's already difficult for the people below to transport other supplies, and we all bring dry food, so if it's not necessary, they naturally don't want to have more burdens, if you say they're lazy, then where do the shells we shoot out every day come from?" The old monkey actually didn't have such a high consciousness, the reason why he said this was to carry it with the scar, after all, life on the mountain is so boring, and a quarrel with someone can kill some time.

For the old monkey and the scar, the people around them have long been accustomed to it, and instead of persuading them to quarrel, they all showed interested expressions one by one, and even at this time they felt that the dry food in their hands was not so unpalatable.

At this time, Scar originally wanted to say something more, but at this time, Hu Yanqing suddenly interrupted him and said: "You two don't quarrel anymore, it's all because I was too impulsive before, otherwise everyone should have been promoted and made a fortune now, and there is no need to follow me to guard this dirt mountain and eat dry food!" ”

Hearing Yihu Yanqing mention the previous incident and take all the responsibility on himself, this made the old monkey and Scar hurriedly persuade: "Dutou, how can you be blamed for that incident, if we were you, I'm afraid we would do the same thing!" (To be continued......)

ps: Because Lao Yu has important things to do today, I am afraid that the update at 7 o'clock in the evening will be postponed to after 10 o'clock in the evening, I hope you can be considerate. R1292