lost the momentum of the big victory, and wanted to chase Yu Xing but was dissuaded by Liu Yuanzhen. In Liu Yuanzhen's view, the Mongolian cavalry was exhausted from the long-distance attack, and Liu Quan's defenders of Shenjian City were also suffering heavy casualties after many days of death, and once the Song army reinforcements arrived, it would turn from a big victory to a big defeat. He replied that he thought that the Song army that Liu Yuanzhen was referring to was Zhang Jue's Diaoyu Cheng army, so he laughed and said that it had been contained by Wang Weizheng and Yang Dayuan's two Mongolian armies in Qingju City. Regarding the disdain of the lost answer, Liu Yuanzhen said with a gloomy face that he was not worried about the Hezhou army in Diaoyu City, but worried about the Thunderbolt army. As soon as these words came out, both Lost Answer and Liu Cheng were silent. In the Battle of Wenjiang, the artillery of the Thunderbolt Army made the Mongolian cavalry suffer heavy losses, which made the Mongolian generals in central Sichuan frightened, and Liu Quan also knew very well the power of the Thunderbolt Army's artillery and warships.

After listening to Liu Yuanzhen's words, he let his subordinates rest and recuperate, and sent scouts to ride out, and found that the Thunderbolt army had quietly come from Xuzhou by land and water. On the water, hundreds of warships of the Thunderbolt Army were rushing down the water, and there was also a cavalry army of thousands of men marching towards Fushun Jian in the direction of land. He didn't dare to be careless, so he sent someone to report that he was coming to Luzhou, and on the other hand, he asked Liu Cheng and Liu Yuanzhen to repair the defense facilities of Shenjian City, and he led his cavalry to Fushun Jian to block the Thunderbolt army coming by land. This Fushun prison is not only rich in salt, but also has an extremely important geographical location, which is in the middle of Xuzhou, Zizhou and Luzhou. If the Perak army occupied Fushun Prison, it could not only block the southward movement of Niulin from Zizhou and cut off the connection between the main force of the Mongol army, but also take Luzhou in the south, Shaoxi Mansion in the west, Changzhou in the east, and Zizhou in the north.

What I couldn't answer clearly was that at this moment, on the south bank of the Great River, a hundred miles away from the Divine Arm City, five thousand elite soldiers from Banzhou were quietly waiting by the Chishui River, waiting for the arrival of the Thunderbolt Army's transport ships. This army was led by Yang Wen himself and gathered the most elite soldiers in Banzhou, including the light infantry brigade led by Yang Bangxian. Due to the short time and lack of firearms, the newly formed field division of the Banzhou Army did not have much combat effectiveness at the moment, so Yang Bangxian only brought over the light infantry brigade that had formed a preliminary combat strength. The Banju Light Infantry Brigade has only dozens of artillery pieces, most of which are light guns, and there are no heavy artillery, and even medium artillery is few, and it cannot be compared with the Thunderbolt Infantry Brigade in terms of field combat capability or offensive ability. But Yang Wen was not worried about this problem, and Ouyang Xuan wrote to him that the Banzhou army only needed to build a fortress under the Divine Arm City to defend and wait for the Mongolian army to attack. As for the lack of firepower, the ships of the Thunderbolts more than made up for it.

After the Thunderbolt fleet reached the waters of Divine Arm City, some of the ships remained in place to block the water connection between Divine Arm City and the outside world. Zan Wanshou did not send a messenger to surrender, or even ordered the soldiers to shout, but directly ordered the artillery to bombard the city, destroying the defenses and siege weapons within the range of the artillery. As soon as the artillery came down, except for the direction of the east gate facing the land, the rest of the city defenses were destroyed. The other part of the ships continued down the river to the mouth of the Chishui River, ready to transport the Banshu soldiers. General Yang Wen led the Banzhou army to build a camp on the shore and outside the east gate, preparing to trap Liu Quan.

The cliffs on three sides of the city are extremely steep, and even if the Thunderbolts control the water, it is really difficult to climb up. If the army wants to attack the Divine Arm City, the only way to do it is from the east gate connected to the land route, but Liu Cheng is by no means a mediocre person, and the east gate is also fortified layer by layer, and even if the Banzhou army and the Thunderbolt army fill it with human lives, it is difficult to easily attack it. Yu Xing besieged January with an overwhelming superiority in troops, but only destroyed a lot of city defenses, but it was also in vain.

Listening to the roar of the artillery warships on the river, Liu Quan's mood fell again, and the joy of defeating Yu Xing was gone. After Sulida led his army to Fushun Jian to block the Thunderbolt infantry cavalry, the Mongol army was again at a disadvantage. The defenders of Divine Arm City had lost one-third of their strength in the early stage, and now there were only 2,000 men left. This amount of troops can deal with the siege of the ordinary Song army, but in the face of the Thunderbolt army with artillery, it is impossible to defend it. Liu Yuanzhen saw that Liu Quan's face was terrified, lest it affect the morale of the army, and even more afraid that he would abandon the city and flee, so he cheered him up and said: "Although the Thunderbolt Army is strong and the artillery is strong, it can only hurt the skin, but it can only help the root of the Divine Arm City. As long as we stick to the east gate, which is beyond the reach of artillery, and when the army led by Marshal New arrives, the Thunderbolt army will surely repeat the mistakes of Yu Xing." When Liu Cheng heard this, his mind became active again, and he ordered most of the defenders in the city to go to the direction of the east gate to garrison. One is that the artillery here cannot reach, which can reduce casualties, and the other is that if the army wants to attack the Divine Arm City, it will only attack from the east gate.

Sure enough, the Thunderbolts began to camp outside the East Gate. Liu Quan took advantage of the unstable foothold of the Thunderbolt army to send troops to raid, but retreated in embarrassment under the heavy bombardment of the warship artillery. Although only a few dozen people were lost in this reckless attack, it cut off Liu Quan's idea of trying to capture and burn the warship. Zan Wanshou was originally a thoughtful person, and under the influence of Ouyang Xuan's concept of "hardening the village and fighting in a dumb battle", he was very cautious in marching and arranging. The Thunderbolt artillery ships were not docked, but moored in the middle of the river, and the camp on the bank was also very particular about the location of the camp, except for facing the east gate, it was only two miles from the shore, and was under the protection of the warship artillery. The Thunderbolts' new naval guns had reached a maximum range of more than three miles, but they still could not bombard the east gate of the Divine Arm City, which was four miles away.

By the time the Banshu army set up camp under the East Gate, it was already ten days later. Rao had many ships in the Perak army, but the number of 5,000 soldiers and the baggage accompanying them was extremely large, and it took three round trips to transport them. The Banshu barracks were also set up two miles from the shore, but the difference was that they were facing the direction from which the reinforcements from New Zealand came. Thanks to the Perak Army's logistical support system, the Banju Army's barracks were erected very quickly, with the earth excavated in the trenches being packed into sacks and then placed in a frame made of steel and hardwood, and in just two days a three-meter-high earthen wall was erected. The earthen walls are topped by turrets, lookouts, and light artillery, and beyond the walls are three-tiered trenches with mines planted underneath the walls. On both sides of the camp gate and other important defensive points, triangular nails were also sprinkled, and tripwires were pulled to prevent the cavalry from attacking. Unlike ordinary ropes, these tripwires are unusually thick, and if you peel off the fibers, you will find that there is iron wire wrapped in them.

Although Yang Wen is Ouyang Xuan's father-in-law, and his official position and grade are also high, according to the agreement, the commander-in-chief of the battle against Luzhou is Zan Wanshou, who has a lower grade. It's just that Zan Wanshou is young, and his official position in the imperial court is only the prefect, and he is only a general in the Thunderbolt army system, which can be compared with Yang Wen who dominates the side, so he has great respect for Yang Wen. Yang Wen was afraid that Zan Wanshou would have a psychological burden on commanding him, so he simply delegated power to Yang Bangxian and let him come out to face Zan Wanshou, while he did not command specific military affairs, but only sat behind the scenes to control the overall situation. In Yang Wen's view, "the sword is sharpened", although Yang Bangxian is not old, he is also young and old, as the son of the Yang family, he should also experience the wind and rain alone.