The day is gradually bright, the night long-range mutual attack battle has been in the night two watch time ended, after the explosion of two rounds of iron fire and thunder, the Liao army's bed crossbow lost more than half, Yelu Hu immediately decided, the remaining bed crossbow all withdrew, the Liao army took the lead in the truce.

And the Song army also stopped the attack after four rounds of iron fire and thunder throwing.

In the middle of the night, the city was as silent as death.

When the early morning sun shone on the city, it was a shocking scene of ruin, forty trebuchets mounted on the city were blown to the point of stumps and broken arms, the battlements were shattered, the ground was covered with fragments of trebuchets and bed crossbows, and there were shocking blood stains everywhere.

The soldiers were busy cleaning up the corpses, the four rounds of bombardment of the Song army, the Liao army killed more than 650 people, wounded more than 1,000 people, most of them were hit by quenched iron nails, if they could not detoxify in time, then they had only one final outcome.

Although the losses were heavy, the defenders of the eastern city were still very vigilant, and Yelu Hujian sent another 5,000 men to defend the city, and the soldiers were all leaning against the base of the wall, each holding a shield, which was a remedy after suffering a great loss, and the shield could effectively resist the rapid fire of iron nails.

Not only the city is busy, the Song army under the city is also busy, the trebuchet that was shot off the belt last night has been dragged away, the Song army installed a higher protective plate in front of the trebuchet, the height of the protective plate reached three zhang, without affecting the trebuchet, this height is the limit, in addition to the protective plate thickened into a double layer, the Liao army's bed crossbow can no longer shoot through the protective plate.

In fact, most of the trebuchets were not debugged last night, and some hidden dangers have not been eliminated, so only four rounds were fired, but it was these four rounds of projection, and there were many problems with the trebuchet, which would inevitably lead to launch failure if not eliminated in time.

Song Jun craftsmen have to spend at least two days to re-debug and eliminate hidden dangers.

Fanning was listening to the report of the commander who commanded the launch last night, and he frowned and asked, "Can you be sure that there is really a dumb mine?" ”

Commander Chen Qing bowed down and said: "I can be sure that there were special soldiers to confirm the number of explosions last night, and the results of the three groups of soldiers were the same, a total of seventy-five explosions, but we shot four rounds of seventy-six iron fire thunders, then there must be one that did not explode, so I don't know if it fell on the moat or in the city?" ”

Fanning pondered for a moment, then turned back and asked, "Did the patrol find the enemy troops out of the city last night?" ”

"Returning to the prime minister, I have not found any enemy troops leaving the city."

Cao Shi next to him also said: "Even if it is shot into the city, you must first show the Lord General Yeluhu, and then decide whether to send the dumb thunder away, it should not be so fast." ”

Fan Ning nodded, and said to the general on duty: "Invest three times more patrols, patrol day and night, and no one is allowed to leave Youzhou City!" ”

.........

Cao Shi's judgment was not wrong, the Liao army did clean up a bombed house by the wall, found an iron fire mine that did not explode, the Liao army like a treasure, immediately notified the main general Yelu Hujian, Yelu Hujian also rushed to the scene as quickly as possible.

Iron Fire Thunder had been carried by the soldiers to the courtyard of a private house not far away, and the surrounding area was heavily guarded, and Yeluhu looked at this swarthy iron guy who looked like a big pumpkin, and his heart was excited.

The Son of Heaven once decreed that whoever could get the Song Army's iron fire thunder would be promoted to the third level and rewarded with 50,000 taels of silver, but two years later, he got nothing, but he finally got an unexploded iron fire thunder, which was even more precious.

He turned back to a firesmith and asked, "How is this iron fire thunder?" ”

The firesmith shook his head, and said with an incredible expression in his eyes: "I can't believe it's true, Iron Fire Thunder has been studied for fifty years and has not been able to come out, and Song Jun actually succeeded, how did they do it?" ”

Another firesmith said cautiously: "Dashuai, do you want to give us a good study of it and see if we can imitate it?" ”

Yelu Hujian hesitated, he didn't dare to make decisions in this matter, and he had to ask the Son of Heaven for advice.

"I will immediately send an eagle letter to ask the Son of Heaven, and if the Son of Heaven agrees, then I will leave it to you to study."

Yelu Hujian immediately wrote a letter to the eagle and asked the eagle to take it to Shangjing in the north.

Two days later, Yelu Hujian received a handwritten reply from Yelu Hongji, the Son of Heaven, saying, "If you get two, you can keep one in Youzhou, and if there is only one, you must immediately send it to Shangjing, and you must not act without permission." ”

Yelu Hu sighed, and sure enough, as he expected, the Son of Heaven wanted to send this iron fire thunder to Shangjing immediately, and he was not allowed to study it himself, but the question was, how should he send this hundred-pound iron fire thunder to Shangjing?

It's a daunting mission that simply can't be accomplished.

.........

In the middle of the night, the gate of the water city in Beicheng rattled open, and a small boat quietly sailed out, on the boat was a thin man, leading a strong war horse, behind the war horse was carrying a heavy burden, and then a small boat came out, and the boat was also a person and a horse, but the man was very strong.

The boat slowly sailed across the moat and docked by the moat, when someone suddenly shouted in the distance: "Who is it?" ”

They were discovered by the Song army patrol, and the two men immediately panicked, and immediately led their horses ashore, turned over their horses, and urged their horses to run north.

In a few moments, dozens of cavalry galloped forward, and when they saw the boats in the moat, and heard the sound of horses' hooves in the distance, they immediately shouted: "An enemy army is out of the city!" ”

They immediately turned their horses around and pursued them north, and at the same time a soldier fired a rocket into the sky.

The cavalry of the Song army patrolling the surrounding posts gathered from all directions, and in a few moments, the patrol posts gathered into a cavalry team of 300 people, and pursued them in the northwest direction in the direction of the enemy's escape.

..........

Fanning was woken up by his entourage in the middle of the night, "Xianggong, there is a patrol report on the emergency military situation!" ”

"What time is it?"

"The third watch has just passed."

Fanning immediately realized that what he had guessed was likely to have really happened, he hurriedly put on a piece of clothing and walked to the outer tent, where a brigade commander knelt down on one knee to report, "Enlighten the princess, there are two cavalry out of the city!" ”

Sure enough, he wanted to transport away the iron fire thunder, and Fanning hurriedly asked, "How did they get out of the city?" ”

"Through the Water Gate, there are ships transporting them out of the city, and hundreds of our patrols are currently in pursuit."

Fanning nodded, "Pass the order, try to capture it alive, and report it at any time if there is news!" ”

The brigade commander hurriedly left, Fan Ning was no longer sleepy at this time, he walked to the map with his hands in his hand, and at this time, Cao Shi's voice came from outside the big tent, "Has Fan Xianggong gotten up?" ”

"Cao Dushuai, it's only the third watch now!"

Fanning smiled and said, "Let him in!" ”

After a while, Cao Shi walked into the big tent quickly and asked urgently, "Does the Liao army want to send the unexploded iron fire thunder away?" ”

Fan Ning nodded, "It should be, this iron fire thunder is very important to the Liao army, Yelu Hongji must be in a hurry to get it, so that Youzhou will find a way to send it to Shangjing." ”

"But several passages have been blocked, how can the Liao army pass?"

Fanning looked at the map and said lightly: "Being blocked is just a normal passage in and out, if you don't ride a horse or carry a baggage, you can also go over the mountains and mountains, there are still some trails in the mountains to collect medicine and firewood, Yelu Hujian should be the idea, cross the mountain road and cross the Juyong Pass." ”

Cao Shi nodded, and said to Fan Ning: "The Liao army actually came out of the Water Gate, so is the Water Gate the weakness of Youzhou City?" ”

Fan Ning smiled slightly, "There is a precedent for attacking the water gate, and the use of iron fire and thunder can indeed blow up the water gate, in fact, we can use fire oil and iron fire thunder to continuously explode the head of the east city, so that the soldiers of the Liao army can not stay in the city, and our fleet can sail into the eastern section of the moat, so that the soldiers can climb the city with the help of the fleet, and the main army can easily capture the head of the east city without taking any water gate." ”

Cao Shi was stunned, and said for a while: "Since this is the case, why don't you start implementing it?" ”

"That's a good question, why don't you implement it, what do you think is the most difficult thing about attacking Youzhou? Is it a city wall? ”

Cao Shi understood a little, "You mean that it is not difficult to capture the city wall, but the difficult thing is the street battle after entering the city?" ”

Fanning nodded, "Now the morale of the Liao army is high, there are sufficient supplies, and tens of thousands of troops can be armed among hundreds of thousands of civilians, we will inevitably encounter fierce resistance when we enter the city now, and even if we can win, we will inevitably pay a heavy price, this is not my style of fighting, we must first destroy the morale of the Liao army, and then kill into the city." ”

Cao Shi let out a long sigh, "I only understand now!" ”

At this moment, someone outside the tent reported, "Qi Xianggong, news has come from the patrol post that two Liao soldiers have been captured and the iron fire thunder has been recaptured!" ”

This news made Fan Ning very satisfied, he originally estimated that there would be no news until dawn, but he didn't expect to catch two Liao soldiers so quickly.

Cao Shi sneered, "Wouldn't it be better if Yelu Hujian left Tiehuo Lei in Youzhou to study by himself, and then told Yelu Hongji the results of the research with an eagle letter?" Now the chickens are flying and the eggs are beaten, and there is still nothing. ”

"Then you think that the research of Iron Fire Thunder is too simple, you must first identify the formula, and then trial and error, just test various formulas, there will be no results in a year."

After a pause, Fanning smiled again: "But at least the firesmiths in Youzhou will find that there is no such material as fire glue in it, so you are right, Yelu Hongji did make a stupid decision." ”