Yelu Hujian was now standing at the head of the city watching the training of the militia soldiers, who had recruited the first batch of 30,000 militia soldiers, almost all of whom had military experience, and these soldiers wore leather armor and carried spears and bows and arrows.

There are 50,000 pairs of armor in the warehouse, except for the armor is relatively old-fashioned leather armor, spears, knives and bows and arrows are the same as normal soldiers.

Yelu Hu was quite proud, he knew very well that many civilians in the city had been conscripted into the army, and with a little training, the strength of the army had doubled, and he suddenly had an army of 60,000, so why was he afraid of the Song army?

At this time, a soldier shouted: "The wolf smoke of the Caged Fire City is ignited!" ”

Cage Fire City is a military city about thirty miles south of Youzhou City, all the five hundred soldiers in the city have withdrawn to Youzhou City, and there are only ten soldiers left, once the wolf smoke is lit, these ten soldiers will abandon the city and flee.

Yelu Hu also saw the smoke of the three pillars, and he sighed softly, "Song Jun is still here!" ”

An hour later, a black line appeared in the distance, and as the black line got closer and closer, I saw flags waving, dense crowds, like dark clouds, and the low sound of horns kept blowing.

The 100,000 army led by Fan Ning finally arrived at Youzhou City, the team stopped when it was still three miles away from the city, only to see that the high city walls were densely packed with soldiers, and a trebuchet stood behind the soldiers like giants, the whole Youzhou City looked magnificent, extremely strong, and it was not easy to break through it.

Fanning urged his horse forward slowly, stopping when he was still a mile from the wall.

The summer sun is particularly dazzling, Fanning squinted his eyes, and set up a curtain to look at the city wall, the city gate and the moat, the city wall is made of fired big blue bricks, tightly fitted, it is estimated that it may not be blown open by iron fire and thunder, and the city gate is as high as three zhang, two zhang wide, it should be a heavy wooden door, wrapped with iron sheet outside, extremely strong.

At this time, Fanning's eyes fell on the moat, the moat was very wide, at least ten zhang wide, connected to a tributary of the Sanggan River, Youzhou City built a stone bridge to connect with the outside, the high suspension bridge was put down, and it fell right on the stone bridge, but the stone bridge deck has been demolished, leaving only four stone piers standing in the water.

Fanning's gaze moved to the water gate again, generally the big city has a water gate, Youzhou City is no exception, the water gate is two zhang high, one zhang five feet wide, can accommodate a thousand stone cargo ships to sail into the city, there is a secret passage leading to the city in the water gate, when the ship sails in, the soldiers will come down from the dark passage, collect taxes or check, but at this time the water gate is blocked by three arm-thick iron fences, which is no less solid than the city gate.

Seeing that Youzhou City was indeed difficult to attack, Fan Ning sighed in his heart, turned the dock back, and ordered: "The army will go to Lu County." ”

'Woo-'

A low trumpet sounded, and the 100,000-strong army turned east, heading for Luxian, fifty miles away.

..........

The Western Route Army led by Chong Ge had already arrived at Lu County, which was a large county with a circumference of twenty miles, but the people were less than a thousand households, and the Song army had cleared all the people out of the city and sent them to Huairou County in the north.

The Song army began to demolish the houses in the city of Luxian and level the land, except for the county government and a few mansions, the other houses were not left, all razed to the ground, and the county seat of Luxian County will be used as a warehouse and an important place for the military office, and at the same time 10,000 elite soldiers were stationed in the city.

In the wilderness on three sides of Lu County, an endless tent has been built, and a wall has been built around the tent, and three large barracks that can accommodate 200,000 troops have been built.

Tens of thousands of militiamen are carrying supplies into the city, and hundreds of large tents have been set up in the city to be used as warehouses, which are not close to the city walls, but are built in the center of the city, surrounded by a ring of wooden fences.

The reason why it does not rely on the city wall is also to prevent the Liao army spies from shooting rockets into the city from outside the city, of course, there is a military camp on each side of the city, which is arranged in a zigzag shape, and the county town is wrapped in the middle, even if there are Liao army spies, it is difficult to get close to the city wall.

The military office is also in the county seat, that is, the original county government is used, and a large mansion next to it that has not been demolished is used as the station of the intelligence department.

At this time, Fan Ning stood in the military hall with his hands in his hands, staring at the Youzhou model in front of him for a long time, the model is wooden, about one zhang long and wide, it is made according to the reduced scale of Youzhou, and it is very exquisitely made, exactly the same as Youzhou City, and even the proportion of the moat and the city gate is not wrong.

The veteran Chong Ge slowly stepped forward and asked in a deep voice: "Xianggong has the idea of breaking the enemy?" ”

Fanning sighed softly, "Our biggest advantage is the water army, I'm thinking, can we break the city from the waterway?" ”

He immediately understood what Fanning meant, "Xianggong wants to take advantage of the width of the moat?" ”

No wonder Fanning thought of the waterway, the moat is more than ten zhang wide and two zhang deep, and it can completely drive ships of 3,000 stones.

Fanning nodded, "Ships can be transformed into passages to the upper city. ”

"But Xianggong has not thought about it, the ships are too close to the city wall, and the Liao army can easily destroy the ships by attacking with fire oil."

Fanning didn't speak for a long time, this is what he was most worried about, the moat was close to the city wall, and the soldiers at the head of the city could easily throw the oil canisters onto the big boat, only a dozen oil canisters, and the big ship was a sea of fire, which was really unrealistic, for a while, he was a little helpless.

He was very experienced, and he smiled slightly: "In this case, it is better to use heavy trebuchets to open the way first, first fight an air-to-air battle for a month, destroy the morale of the Liao army, and then look for opportunities." ”

Fanning also laughed, "There is also a heavy trebuchet on the city, we have to suppress it, we must use a super heavy trebuchet, it is estimated that it should be transported today." ”

..........

The assembly yard of siege weapons is located in the southwest outside the county seat, there is a large open space, surrounded by wooden fences, and at night, the surrounding wooden fences are full of torches, and the lights are bright, illuminating the assembly workshop as if it were day.

The assembly workshop was filled with countless siege equipment transported by the tugboat fleet, such as siege ladders, ladders, battering rams, trebuchets, etc., of which there were as many as 200 trebuchets alone, but most of them were heavy trebuchets, and small trebuchets and super heavy trebuchets accounted for only a small part.

There are about twenty super-heavy trebuchets that Fanning is looking forward to, this kind of super trebuchet is as high as five zhang, which is equivalent to five stories high, and the throwing rod is up to ten zhang, which can throw a hundred catties of heavy objects to five hundred steps away, and each trebuchet needs hundreds of people to operate, known as the king of war.

This kind of super trebuchet is a self-weight projectile, that is, the principle of a seesaw, hanging thousands of catties of iron ingots at the front end of the throwing rod, when the iron ingot falls from a height, it drives the long rod projectile behind, this balanced structure is simpler than the hinged structure, not easy to damage, and the emission frequency is also fast, but the only trouble is that a lot of manpower is needed to press down the other end like a seesaw, generally at least more than 100 people.

However, after the Song Dynasty invented the steam engine, the power of the steam engine could be used to replace manpower, and one steam engine was enough.

The steam engine of the Song Dynasty became smaller and smaller under the continuous improvement of craftsmen, and the smallest steam engine was only five feet long and wide, weighing about 600 catties, and an ox cart could be transported away.

Two hundred craftsmen were installing a super trebuchet in the clearing, and Fanning, accompanied by an ordnance officer, checked the installation of the trebuchet.

"The biggest difficulty of this super-heavy trebuchet is the production of the casting rods, which take at least five years for each casting rod."

Fanning was taken aback, "Why did it take so long?" ”

"Throwing rod must be made of bamboo, go to the south to find more than ten zhang high bamboo, each throwing rod needs five big bamboos, split them into bamboo strips, and then use glue bundles, tightly wrapped with cloth tape, soaked in oil and dried in the shade, then wrapped tightly with cloth, then soaked in oil and then dried in the shade, and then wrapped with cloth, soaked once is a few months, and it takes a few months to dry in the shade, it takes five years to soak in oil five times, wrap five times, which takes five years, and finally get the casting rod with great tenacity, bending but not breaking."

Fanning thought for a moment and asked, "If the bend is too great, when the final projectile is thrown, will it only be a short distance high and shoot into the sky?" ”

The ordnance supervisor smiled: "There is indeed this possibility, which requires continuous experimentation and constant adjustment to find the best balance, so the assembly link is very important, especially the assembly of super-heavy trebuchets, the slightest difference, it will be a thousand miles, every detail must be perfect, and it needs to be meticulously worked." ”

"How long does it take to install a trebuchet?"

"According to the heavy trebuchet, it is relatively simple, 30 craftsmen can install it in one night, but to install a super trebuchet, it takes 200 craftsmen to install it for three days, and the main trouble is in commissioning."

Fanning didn't calculate it carefully, and asked directly: "Then you tell me, how much time will it take to complete the installation of twenty super trebuchets?" ”

The ordnance supervisor thought for a moment and said, "If everyone works hard and assembles it day and night, I estimate that it can be completed in ten days." ”