Yan Shiwu regretted that he could not participate in the siege of Yeluxian and the Khitan court ministers on the side of the tributary of the Dongliang River (Taizi River), and in Liaoyang City, a hundred miles away, Yelu Heli, Han Deshu and other Tokyo Provincial officials were worried that they could not break through the siege of the Zhou army. In fact, from the afternoon of the second day of the sixth month of the lunar calendar to the evening of the third day of the sixth month of the lunar calendar, the mood of Yelu Heli, Han Deshu and others can be described as several ups and downs, with mixed tastes.

On the afternoon of the second day of the first month of June, not long after Yelulong's first troops were sent out of the city, the Khitan Tanma, who had escaped the Zhou army's scouts and scouts, sent the news that nearly 15,000 land and water troops of the Zhou army's right army had approached Liaoyang City to Yelu Heli and Han Deshu and other officials.

Shocked to hear that the Zhou army had arrived, the Tokyo Provincial officials, who had not much confidence in confronting the Zhou army, couldn't help but secretly regret it. If I knew this, I wouldn't have sent so many elite soldiers and horses to support and respond to the Son of Heaven. First, although the Khitan elite cavalry and the Bohai and Jurchen warriors sent out add up to only 4,000 people, it is not a small number for Liaoyang City, which only has 15,000 elites; Second, since the Zhou army had already entered Liaoyang City, it was not only meaningless to welcome the Son of Heaven and his ministers, but also made the latter's situation even more dangerous. After all, in the face of the front army of more than 10,000 Zhou troops and the main force of the right army of nearly 30,000 Zhou troops that might soon arrive, Yelu Heli and Han Deshu and others did not think that they and the Son of Heaven had the ability to attack inside and outside and annihilate the 40,000 Zhou army under Liaoyang City. Rather than take the risk for an almost impossible operation to cooperate with the outside world, it is better to let the Son of Heaven and his ministers avoid the territory of the Jurchens, and use the deep mountains and old forests there to deal with the Zhou army, and perhaps have a chance to make a comeback—even if the Jurchens, especially those who gave birth to them, may not be as obedient and surrenderable as they were before.

So, after getting the news, Jeremiah immediately reacted. On the one hand, he sent people out of the city at once to recover the troops of Yelulong, who had just left the city, and managed to get in touch with the Son of Heaven, who was coming to Liaoyang City, to prevent him from continuing southward; On the one hand, he ordered the whole city to be on guard, and stepped up the construction of barricades, in order to turn every street and every house in the city into the grave of the Zhou army. Previously, the news related to the battle between Zuzhou and Fengzhou had been known to the vast majority of Khitan officials and generals, and everyone understood that this method of warfare was the only way to deal with the Zhou army, especially the "Flying Dragon Army". Unless the Zhou army bombarded the whole city indiscriminately as it did against Jurong City, it would have to fight with the defenders in one room and one street, and thus would not be able to give full play to its advantages -- after all, the shelling of the whole city would not do such a thing as a loss of popular support unless it was absolutely necessary.

Yelu and Li moved quickly, and the Zhou army outside the city moved faster. Before the messengers in the city could leave the city, the scouts and scouts of the Zhou army had already spread all over the city, completely cutting off the road to the north, so that several batches of messengers sent by Yelu Heli were either killed or forced to return to the city, and there was no chance to send the news to Yelu Longxian, let alone notify the Son of Heaven to change the route. At the same time, the soldiers and horses of the front army of the Zhou army were quickly deployed in place by land and water, and the city of Liaoyang was besieged, so that Yelu Heli tried to send a large group of men and horses out of the city after the messenger was unable to break through the blockade, relying on the advantage of numbers, and the plan to forcibly send the news away was also completely frustrated.

Seeing that it was impossible to send people out of the city to deliver the message, Yelu Heli and others had to put all their energy on guarding the city, hoping to delay the time for the Zhou army to break through the city as much as possible, in the hope that the fierce city attack and defense battle could attract the attention of the Son of Heaven's Tanma, and change the route of the march as soon as possible to avoid this catastrophe.

Yelu Heli mobilized all the forces he could in the city and prepared to fight to the death with the Zhou army. Unexpectedly, the surging Zhou army did not rush to attack the city. After intercepting all messengers who had left the city to deliver news, encircling the city, and repelling several small counterattacks by the defenders of the city, taking advantage of their unstable foothold, they did not immediately attack the city, but instead ceased their ground and held the fortifications. What Yelu Heli and the officials and guards in the city did not expect was that soon after setting up the camp, more than half of the cavalry of the Zhou army outside the city suddenly left their camp and galloped north in two groups, leaving only five or six thousand soldiers and horses to surround the huge Liaoyang City.

Unexpectedly, Yelu Heli would not miss this good "opportunity". Therefore, after confirming that the two Zhou troops had indeed left the camp and were not a ploy to lure the defenders out of the city, Yelu Heli immediately made arrangements. He divided about 20,000 horses, including 5,000 elites, into four routes, with the Han army townsmen as the front team, the Bohai and Jurchen warriors as the squadron, and the Khitan elite cavalry as the rear team, preparing to swarm out from the four directions of Liaoyang City and kill the Zhou army's camp -- considering the increasingly strong war-fearing and war-weariness of the Han army's townsmen, Yelu Heli's formation arrangement was actually to use the Bohai and Jurchen soldiers to drive the Han army townsmen as cannon fodder to attack the Zhou army's camp and attract the attention of the Zhou army, so as to create conditions for the Khitan elite cavalry raid in the rear.

Regarding the situation that the defenders in the city may take advantage of the lack of their own forces to counterattack, Zou Zhenyuan, the former commander-in-chief of the Right Route Army, has long been prepared; Zou Zhenyuan also had a plan for the Khitan guards such as Yelu and Li to put the Han army villagers in front as bait and cannon fodder, while consuming the ammunition of the Zhou army and attracting the attention of the Zhou army, increasing the hatred of the local Han people towards the Zhou army, and even driving the ordinary people in the city to walk in front of the defenders as meat shields, and other tricks that could not be put on the table, Zou Zhenyuan also had a plan. Therefore, the cavalry troops supporting the two norths had not yet left the camp, and the plan to block the possible counterattack of the Khitan defenders in the city had already taken shape in Zou Zhenyuan's mind.

When the 15,000 Han army Xiangding and 5,000 Khitan, Bohai and Jurchen elites were still assembling the whole team, the Zhou army outside the city had already been deployed under the command of Zou Zhenyuan. Under the cover of three companies of cavalry and three companies of infantry of the Marine Corps, the three 82mm recoilless artillery companies of the artillery battalion of the "Flying Dragon Army" regiment were temporarily reinforced to the north of Liaoyang City, and began to set up artillery and adjust the firing positions outside the Huaiyuan Gate in the east of Liaoyang City. At the same time, the artillery units of the front army of the Right Route Army of the Northern Expedition who remained under the city of Liaoyang concentrated their firepower and carried out a rapid fire attack on the towers of the above three city gates and the city wall near the left, so as to prevent the defenders of these gates from interfering with the Zhou army who were setting up firing positions under the city.

The sudden shelling of the Zhou army not only bombarded the defenders near the three city gates to death, wounding and wolves, but also disrupted Yelu Heli's counterattack plan. Although there were only 50,000 or 6,000 Zhou troops left outside the city, it was not wise to attack Liaoyang Jiancheng, which had been transformed into a huge fortress by itself and defended by more than 40,000 men and horses. However, due to the prestige of the Zhou army, especially the "Flying Dragon Army", Yelu Heli still had to suspend the implementation of the counterattack plan, and sent the 10,000 villagers who had already formed their teams and 3,000 Khitan, Bohai, and Jurchen soldiers to the vicinity of the three city gates that were bombarded by artillery, preparing to resist the subsequent attack of the Zhou army.

However, what puzzled Yelu and Li was that when the Zhou army's artillery bombardment was suspended and his generals rushed to the ruined city, what was ushered in was not the expected attack of the Zhou army's infantry, but another wave of artillery bombardment. It's just that unlike before, this time the Zhou army shifted the target of the artillery bombardment from the city tower, the city wall on both sides of the city tower to the city gate, or more precisely, the suspension bridge outside the city gate, which had long been pulled high. Moreover, unlike before, who did not know where the Zhou army's shells came from, the soldiers with better eyesight on the city could clearly see how the three groups of Zhou army's small groups of soldiers and horses, who were only 200 steps away from the three city gates, operated the eighteen firearms with strange styles and fired projectiles one after another in the direction of the drawbridge. Although not every shell can accurately hit the suspension bridge due to the influence of wind direction, wind speed, aiming error and other factors, after three rounds of fire, the wooden suspension bridge outside the three city gates was still blasted to pieces without exception, and the thick iron cable used to pull the suspension bridge was also blown into several sections, turning into a pile of useless waste. It was only then that Yelu Heli suddenly woke up - the Zhou army was going to trap himself in the city.

As the capital of Tokyo Province and the largest gathering place of Han Chinese outside of Nanjing Province, Liaoyang City can be called the second largest city of the Khitans after Linhuang City. The circumference of the city is 30 miles, the city is three zhang (9 meters) high, there are Yingyang (East Gate), Shaoyang (Southeast Gate), Longyuan (South Gate), Xiande (Southwest Gate), Dashun (West Gate), Da Liao (Northwest Gate), Huaiyuan (North Gate), Anyuan (Northeast Gate) eight city gates. Moreover, because it is close to the Liao River, the moat of Liaoyang City has also been dug wide and deep, making this man-made ditch three zhang wide and two zhang deep become an effective defensive barrier for the city.

Generally speaking, for this kind of city where the width of the moat does not exceed the standard steel bridge of the moat that it is equipped with, the usual tactics of the Zhou army are to use special conveyor brackets to stretch the standard steel bridge assembled on the spot under the cover of fire, and then collapse the city wall or blow open the city gate, and the infantry rush into the city through the steel bridge. This tactic has not been used once or twice, so the Khitan officials and guards in Liaoyang City have also heard of it through various information channels, and the defensive strategy they arranged is also based on this experience. If there was no request for support from Yang Kefu, Zou Zhenyuan originally planned to capture Liaoyang City in this way. But with half of the soldiers under his command being sent by himself to support Yang Kefu to encircle and annihilate the Khitan monarchs, it was a little difficult for Zou Zhenyuan to rely on the remaining more than 6,000 soldiers and horses to conquer a fortified city like Liaoyang. First, due to the lack of troops, it is impossible to maintain the encirclement of Liaoyang City while attacking, and the defenders in the city will inevitably scatter and flee in all directions when they cannot resist it, thus turning a siege and annihilation battle into a rout battle, making it impossible for them to complete the established combat mission of encircling and destroying the defenders of Tokyo Road in Liaoyang City; Second, even if there was no detailed situation of the garrison in the city, Zou Zhenyuan could guess that Liaoyang City must have been built into a huge fortress with traps everywhere by Yelu Heli and other guards. The absolute disadvantage of the Zhou army in strength would also make it difficult to fight in the streets after entering the city, thus greatly increasing his own casualties, which Zou Zhenyuan, who was bent on proving himself in this battle, did not want to see.

Therefore, after studying in detail the city structure map sent by the Liaoyang branch of the "Dark Feather" before, combined with his understanding of the terrain during his life in Liaoyang City, Zou Zhenyuan decided to do the opposite, turning the obstacles such as the city wall and moat to defend against his siege into a "moat" to prevent the defenders in the city from breaking through, and using the defenders' own walls and moats to trap them in the city, until the two troops and horses he sent out to support Yang Kefu returned and then attacked the city. The key to achieving this goal lies in the bridges outside the eight city gates.

Originally, in order to facilitate the entry and exit of the city in peacetime, and also to reduce the wear and tear of the suspension bridge, the suspension bridges outside the city gates of Liaoyang City were only used in daily military drills and wartime, and the people inside and outside the city usually entered and exited through one or two wooden bridges built next to the suspension bridges of the city gates. And as the Zhou army approached step by step, in order to enhance the city's defense capability, those wooden bridges had been demolished many days ago under the orders of Yelu Heli, and now if you want to enter and exit Liaoyang City, you can only pass through the eight suspension bridges. In other words, as long as the Zhou army outside the city can effectively block the eight suspension bridges, even if there are thousands of troops and horses in the city, they can only look at the moat and sigh, neither posing any threat to the Zhou army, nor can they escape, and they have truly become a caged beast. Moreover, in order to prevent the Khitans from using the Han army villagers or Han people in the city as cannon fodder and meat shields to break through the blockade of the Zhou army, Zou Zhenyuan further extended this tactic, using his advantage in weapons to directly destroy these eight drawbridges with artillery fire, so that Yelu Heli even if he wanted to use the Han army townsmen or Han people in the city as cannon fodder and meat shields, unless he could repair the drawbridges that had been reduced to pieces in a very short time, or rebuild the wooden bridges that he had demolished himself. Judging from the small space between the city wall and the moat, and the inevitable interference of the Zhou army, Zou Zhenyuan did not think that the other side would be able to complete these tasks before his troops and horses returned to the camp, or even before the arrival of the main force of the right army.

The huge wooden suspension bridge, though sturdy, was reduced to a pile of broken pieces of wood in the blink of an eye under the continuous bombardment of several 82mm recoilless guns. And although Yelu Heli in the city judged Zhou Jun's intentions, he couldn't find any countermeasures that seemed to be effective. He wanted to send troops and horses out of the city to attack the artillery positions of the Zhou army, not to mention that the 10,000 soldiers and horses that had just been assembled had been sent by him to defend near the three shelled city gates, and it would take time to regroup them. Even if he could gather these soldiers and horses before the Zhou army destroyed all the drawbridges, there was no guarantee that he would be able to kill the Zhou artillery who destroyed the drawbridges, let alone make the Zhou army lose the ability to carry out similar operations again. Of course, if you are not sure, you are not sure, and it is obviously not Yelu Heli's style to sit back and wait for death. Therefore, although time was probably not enough, Yelu Heli still ordered the men and horses that had been sent to the three gates to assist in the defense back and prepared to reorganize into a large group, out of the Longyuan Gate (South Gate) in the south of the city. On the one hand, it was to surprise the Zhou army that might appear in the south of the city to prevent it from destroying the two-gate suspension bridge in the south of the city; On the other hand, after the successful assault, they camped outside the two city gates in the south of the city (Longyuan Gate and Xiande Gate) to protect these two city gates.

It's just that although Yelu Heli's reaction is not slow, the Zhou army outside the city moves faster. The more than 10,000 defenders in the city had just regrouped in place, and before they had time to get out of the city, the three artillery groups of the Zhou army outside the city had already completed the task of destroying the six suspension bridges in the east, west, and north directions, and redivided into two groups to launch the artillery bombardment of the drawbridges outside the Longyuan Gate and the Xiande Gate. Among them, the suspension bridge outside the Longyuan Gate was first "poisoned" because of the fast speed of the Zhou army's artillery attack cluster responsible for destroying the bridge, and before the defenders in the city opened the city gate and rushed out, it had already turned into a pile of broken wood. Comparatively speaking, the suspension bridge outside the Xiande Gate is a bit luckier. Due to the slow operation of the artillery group of the Zhou army, which was responsible for destroying the gate, although the drawbridge was also hit by a few shots and several large holes were blown out, it was finally released before it was completely destroyed, giving the defenders of the city a chance to break out of the city. Although the Han army townsmen who were arranged at the front did not want to be cannon fodder, they were driven by the fierce Bohai, Jurchen soldiers and Khitan elite cavalry behind him, and they still reluctantly stepped on the already crumbling suspension bridge and rushed out of the city under the dense fire of the Zhou army.

Seeing that his soldiers and horses finally rushed out before the last drawbridge was destroyed, the Khitan generals who were in charge of commanding the assault couldn't help but be overjoyed. On the one hand, he ordered the Han army townsmen to speed up their departure from the city, and on the other hand, he was ready to send someone to report this rare good news to the people left behind. However, man is not as good as heaven. Although the increasingly dense flow of people increased the possibility of breaking through the blockade of the Zhou army, it also increased the load on the suspension bridge. The sudden increase in the flow of people was the last straw that crushed the drawbridge, which had already been battered by previous shelling, and the Khitan general's unconsidered order completed the fatal blow to the Zhou army's last exit route for the defenders of the city. The battle between the blockade and the anti-blockade outside the Xiande Gate lasted less than half a column of incense, and ended with the suspension bridge outside the Xiande Gate falling into the moat with a loud "click-la-la" sound.

Although the defenders inside the city desperately went out of the city to assault, the shelling of the Zhou army outside the city did not end there. With the cooperation of another artillery group that rushed over to support, eighteen 82mm recoilless guns carried out several rounds of shelling on the wreckage of the broken bridge in the Xiande Gate and the moat, until the chain pulling the suspension bridge was blown into several sections, and the wreckage of the broken bridge in the moat was blown into pieces.