The north wind was howling, scraping the noodles like knives, and the smell of burning cow and horse dung wafted in the air.

Zuo Nianyuan leaned on the battlements at the head of the city and looked out, the vast frozen land, after many days of tug-of-war, the snow was already very dirty, and there were sparse corpses under the city. In the distance, beyond the range of the artillery at the head of the city, the cowhide tents were connected one after another, and the activities of the Liao army could be clearly seen at the head of the city. Farther to the south, the Song army's joint camp loomed, and the cavalry occasionally rushed closer to shoot the battalion's military orders or inscriptions into the city. Under the pressure of the Song army, the Liao army's siege of Xiongzhou existed in name only, however, in order to drag the Liao army to a decisive battle under the city of Xiongzhou, rather than retreating into Youzhou to hold on, Wang Gui's army slowed down the march from twenty miles away from Xiongzhou. It took three days for the Song army to advance to the underground village of five miles south of Xiongzhou. The Liao army also seemed to have made up its mind, and instead of retreating, it concentrated hundreds of thousands of soldiers and horses near Xiongzhou to the south, putting on a posture of a decisive battle with the Song army.

The sky was getting brighter, and the fierce north wind made the sky clear, and there was not a trace of dark clouds.

Wisps of green smoke rose from the burnt bonfires in the morning light, and the outside of Xiongzhou City was a little too quiet.

The two armies of Song and Liao seemed to have been facing each other for a long time, and the sumo wrestlers were ready to make a decision.

Previously, the Liao army retreated step by step, and the Song army crossed Yishui, and the severe cold turned Xiongzhou into an isolated city on the ice field.

There is no danger to defend, if it was in the past, the Song army would never dare to fight a decisive battle with the Liao people in such a terrain, however, after the formation of the fire gun battalion, the fire gun can be both an archer and a pikeman, and the same number of people, the combat power of the infantry has doubled. At the suggestion of the generals and staff officers, Wang Gui decided on the plan of winning the victory with regular troops, rejected Zhang Xian's suggestion to use cavalry to detour the flank of the 'female' Zhen army, and personally selected the central camp for the artillery battalion and placed artillery. The central artillery of the Song army had 32 'doors' of 4-inch guns, 40 'doors' of 3-inch guns, 16 'guns' of guns on the left flank, and 40 'guns' on the right flank. The entire formation completely followed the 'drill' code written by Zhao Xingde, focusing on carrying forward the power of artillery, protecting the forts with the fire battalion, and using the 'elite' cavalry and the head of the infantry battalion as the reserve for counterattacks.

The Liao army was clearly divided into three groups, and in front of it was the wooden fence built by the 'Nu' Zhen army, although it was not strong enough, but the 'Nu' Zhenren very cunningly set up many tents and bonfires, covering the mountains and fields, so that the Song army could not distinguish where their main force was. The Murbo cavalry and the Khitan cavalry gathered further north away from the range of the Song artillery. Obviously, if the war is unfavorable, they will definitely not hesitate to leave the 'female' real people and flee alone, however, this depends on the timing. The emperor issued a strict order, anyone who withdrew the army without authorization and led to the defeat of the army would be severely punished, and Wanyan Zongbi's head was still hanging on the head of Youzhou City, which was a deterrent to all the Liao army generals, including Yelu Tiege. Although Yelu Dashi did not come to the battlefield in person, the killing ring has been opened, and no one wants to be the next monkey.

In the morning, the battle began with the sound of bombardment and artillery, and black smoke rose from the snow-white ice field.

As soon as the battle began, the heavy artillery on the artillery forts arranged by the Song army began to bombard the simple camps built by the Liao army.

A heavy shelling pierced the silent air, then disappeared into the howling north wind, followed by a second and third shelling, which was the gunners' test shot. After the initial air shock passed, before the Liao army had time to move, more artillery sounds sounded, the sound of hundreds of 'doors' of artillery was connected, and heavy round iron shells pierced the blue sky, one after another, scrambling to fall in the front camp of the Liao army. Because of Yelu Tiege's 'selfishness', the Liao army in Xiongzhou, whether it was the 'Jur' Zhenren or the Murbo, or the Khitan cavalry monitoring them, did not have even a single 'gate' of heavy artillery. Therefore, at the beginning of the shelling, the Liao army was at an absolute disadvantage. However, the Liao army also seemed to understand this, although their camp was not strong, but it was very scattered, the 'female' real foot soldiers hid far away from the range of the Song army's cannonballs, and the Murbo cavalry gathered and scattered, and the Song army was obviously unable to destroy the Liao army brigade in one fell swoop with artillery alone.

The shelling was intermittent, and after about an hour, more than 1,000 Murb cavalry wrapped in thousands of 'female' real foot soldiers attempted to spare the central artillery of the Song army and attack the Song army from the flank. From the head of Xiongzhou, the cavalry of the Murbo was sometimes sparse and sometimes dense, and it was obviously familiar with how to attack under the threat of artillery, the speed of the cavalry was not fast, and the infantry quickly passed through the ice field in the middle of Song Liaoliao with the cavalry. From time to time, the cannonballs made a sharp whistling sound through the sky, and some directly penetrated the ranks of the Liao army's foot soldiers, leaving a bloody 'flesh' alley, because the distance was far away, in addition to the roaring cannonball, the Song army at the head of Xiongzhou City could not hear the enemy's screams at all, they only saw the Liao army rushing towards the right wing of the Song army three times, each more fierce than the other, and three times was beaten back by the Song army on the flank.

However, when they rushed through the smoke of large and small regiments and desperately beat their horses to launch the final charge, the Song army gunners who had been waiting for them carried out two rounds of rapid and fierce volleys, and at the last moment, the gunners 'inserted' the spears, and the large white blades flashed in the sun.

On the other side, the attack of the Song cavalry on the right flank of the Liao army was also repulsed. However, compared with the Liao army, the losses of the Song cavalry were not large, and they retreated almost at the touch of a button. Unlike Zhang Xian, who advocated a decisive victory in the cavalry, Wang Gui advocated a frontal attack with foot soldiers, and the cavalry's attack was only a test of 'sex'. The battle fell into calm for the time being, and the Song army took the opportunity to move forward again.

"Can you win this battle?" Zuo Nianyuan took a deep breath, and the cold pierced his chest.

"Victory or defeat mainly depends on the big battalion, let's contain the Liao army, and at the last moment, we can kill it from the city." Jia Yuanzhen said in a deep voice.

"Just those soft eggs in the south who can't open a bow and haven't even shot a few shots?"

Jian Tianliang pursed his lips and looked at Zuo Nianyuan defiantly. After a few days of fighting, Jian Tianliang, who had never looked down on the Southern Army, had to admit that the firearms battalion under Zuo Nianyuan could indeed fight tough battles, and it was not inferior to Henan's 'elite' soldiers. The platoon artillery of the Quang Nam battalion was particularly powerful, when the enemy ants were attached to the city to seize the city, the gunners and firecrackers could hold back a single shot under the rain of arrows of the 'female' real people, until the enemy was only twenty or thirty steps away from the city, the officer gave an order, the cannon sound suddenly became loud, and the bullets in the smoke fell down like a torrential rain, and the enemy soldiers who climbed the city screamed again and again, falling down like leaves blown by the wind, and occasionally a few fish that slipped through the net climbed up desperately, and the guns in the back row were stabbed in front of them, and all of them were killed. At this time, Jian Tianliang knew that most of the soldiers of the Guangnan battalion were veterans who had fought bloody battles with the Great Eaters in Guangzhou, and Zuo Nianyuan was not a weak scholar, but a ruthless horn 'color' who crawled out of the pile of dead.

The criteria for judging the strength and weakness of the sergeant of the Xia State are very simple, and they have always followed the opponent.

In terms of strength, the armies of the Xia State are good at winning, the Turkic Great Food is the fierce enemy of the Anxi armies, and Zuo Nianyuan can defeat the Great Food Samurai under the city of Guangzhou, which explains everything. However, it is one thing to win respect, Jian Tianliang has no good impression of the southerners anyway, and he feels that Zuo Nianyuan has concealed his achievements in Guangzhou, making his previous behavior of ridiculing him become as 'humiliated' as a clown. Therefore, in the past few days, Jian Tianliang's attitude towards Zuo Nianyuan and other Guangnan soldiers has become worse and worse, although the Guangnan battalion is very 'outstanding' in the battle to defend the city, but this does not prevent him from ridiculing other southern battalions for not being able to fight.

"If you don't practice for three days, the archers have to 'shoot' at least a dozen arrows a day, and I don't think those firecrackers may shoot a ...... a year."

"I don't think it's necessarily ......" Zuo Nianyuan's face was 'pale' and 'gloomy', no matter how good the clay man was, he had a temper, not to mention that he had been fighting with the 'female' real people in the city in the past few days, and the anxiety caused by the battle array was dull in his heart. The self-cultivation of the scholar has been consumed a lot, and Jian Tianliang spoke coldly when he met. At this time, Zuo Nianyuan's face sank, and he was about to have a dispute, Jia Yuanzhen hurriedly walked between the two and interrupted Zuo Nianyuan loudly: "I don't think it's necessarily ......" The two looked at him together, Jian Tianliang hugged his arms, mocking like a smile, while Zuo Nianyuan was angry. The fire actually burned to him, Jia Yuanzhen smiled bitterly and said: "Firearms are no better than arrows, and when they are shot, they are silver money, and they can't be recovered." The court is in a tight position, except for a few 'fine' soldiers, it is understandable that the firecrackers usually do not open a few guns. "Am I right?" Jian Tianliang was unrelenting, and he looked like he was not afraid of big things.

At the juncture of the decisive battle of the army, the Liao army suspended the siege, and the defenders of Xiongzhou were idle.

Jian Tianliang also developed a 'hair' disease in his early years, and the strings were too tight at the critical moment, and he was a little unscrupulous as soon as he loosened it.

"This, the firecracker is not as good as a bow and arrow, they all stand in a row and accumulate 'shooting', and it doesn't matter if the individual 'shoots' accurately or not."

Jia Yuanzhen scolded secretly and continued to look back to make up for it: "The key to the 'shooting' of the fire gun is that the movements are neat and consistent, and the loading of ammunition 'medicine' is fast, which can be trained without firing, and all battalions of the Chinese army are also repeatedly 'drilling' and training." Although the firecrackers cannot be compared with the skilled archers, it doesn't matter if hundreds or thousands of people fire the guns together. Moreover, now that the weather is bitterly cold, bowstrings made of beef tendon and deer tendon are not very good, and the 'shooting' range is also greatly affected, while the fire gun does not use beef tendon and deer tendon, except for the occasional inferior explosion, it is not so troublesome. Jian Tianliang snorted in his nose, after all, Jia Yuanzhen is the envoy of the tenth battalion, although he is defending firearms, it is a fact, if it were not for the impact of the severe cold on the 'female' real bow and arrow, there would have been a lot more casualties in the head of Xiongzhou City.

"Without artillery, we can't win at all!" Wan Yan Xian also rode his horse to Yelu Tiege's camp.

He was preoccupied, as if he was thinking about a very important matter that he had to meet with Yelu Tiege. However, all he wanted to say was: "Without the cannon, we would simply be sent to death!" His horse was stopped in front of the tent of Jeroditege, "Why are you riding a horse 'messy'!" As if they didn't know him, the guard shouted rudely. Lord Xiao, I am the 'female' true king! Wan Yan Xian also recognized that Yelu Tiege's lieutenant general was standing next to him, Xiao Jin wanted to pretend not to know, and let the guards scold this 'female' real barbarian, Wan Yan Xian also took the initiative to greet him, he nodded at him, without the slightest smile, and asked: "The king is not in front to supervise the battle, why did he come here?" ”