The remnant sun sets in the west, reflecting half of the western sky as red as blood.

The wilderness outside Xiangyang was a mess, and although the corpses of the warriors were mostly recovered, the battlefield was still littered with broken knives and guns, broken banners, broken armor, and severed limbs. The yellow earth was mottled with dark brown everywhere, and the burning vehicles emitted thick black smoke, and from time to time there were crows with terrible "wow, wow" cries, falling from the sky, pecking at decay, adding a bit of bleakness to the dusk battlefield.

Shi Jun let out a long breath, today is the fifth day of the Yijing, in these five days, the Song army does not know how many times the Jin army has repelled the attacks of the Jin army, and I don't know how many Jin army lives have been lost in the city and under the city, of course, there are also many Song troops who have fallen under the swords and arrows of the Jin army, and can never stand up again. But Xiangyang City has always been strong, although the city wall is horizontal, there are still a lot of arrows and crossbows, and the battlements have been broken in many places, but the city wall is still under the control of the Song army.

It's just that Shi Jun couldn't help but think that he could hold on for a few more days? After four days of fierce fighting, the supplies and grass in the city were sufficient, but with more than 8,000 people killed in the battle, plus seriously wounded soldiers, almost half of the whole army, many soldiers were wounded and fought hard to defend the city. Now there are less than 13,000 soldiers in the city. Although it is not yet overstretched, it cannot withstand any more consumption.

Although Shi Jun Yijing got the news and Yang Yan Yijing led the army to rescue Xiangyang, Xiangyang City could be erected until that time, and Shi Jun had no bottom in his heart. And now that Xiangyang is surrounded by more than 100,000 Jin troops, even if Yang Yan's reinforcements arrive, it may not be known whether they can break through the encirclement of the Jin army and rush to rescue Xiangyang.

When Shi Jun was thinking nonsense, suddenly a soldier ran to meet Shi Jun, with a happy face, and said loudly: "Report to Lord Dutong, reinforcements have arrived." ”

When Shi Jun heard this, he couldn't help but perk up, and several generals and soldiers around him who heard the sound also cheered, Shi Jun hurriedly asked, "But Yang Fushuai's reinforcements?" How many centaurs were brought? "I'm still thinking about Yang Yan's people, I'm afraid I won't rush to Xiangyang so soon, but maybe it's the pioneer.

But the soldier said: "No, it is Liu Dutong of De'an Mansion who led the army to aid us." There were about five thousand centaurs. ”

Although it was not Yang Yan's men and horses who came, Shi Jun was a little disappointed, and the number of people was a little less, but it was always a good thing to get reinforcements, so Shi Jun immediately said: "Kaicheng, Bendu personally went to welcome Liu Dutong into the city." ”

After the city gate was opened, Liu Renxian led the Song army into the city, accompanied by many vehicles. Seeing Shi Jun, the two had a cold chat, and Liu Ren first explained that after he was defeated from Suizhou, he had been stationed in the Jingmen Army with Chen Min, and this time he was Yang Yan's general, and he rushed to reinforce Xiangyang Mansion first, and he and Chen Min brought a total of 15,000 men and horses. However, he was blocked by the Jin army on the way, and only Liu Renxian led more than 5,000 people to escort the baggage into Xiangyang Mansion, and Chen Min was blocked by the Jin army and retreated to the Jingmen army.

After Shi Jun heard this, he was also mixed with joy, he was not interested in the weight of the vehicle, because now there is no shortage of anything else in Xiangyang City, that is, there is a shortage of manpower, with these 5,000 men and horses to help the battle, although the guard strength of Xiangyang has not yet recovered, at least it can last a few more days, and said: "Our army is now suffering very large casualties, and it is short of manpower, fortunately, Liu Du arrived at the time, otherwise this Xiangyang City is really mysterious." ”

Liu Renxian also smiled slightly, and said: "Shi Dutong, please rest assured, after I come, it will be no problem to defend Xiangyang." The Margin Army will never be murderous again. “

※※Support original ※ "Song Xiang" in 7k ※Support genuine ※※

In fact, in the past five days of fighting, the Song army has suffered heavy losses, but the Jin army is no better. As the besieging party, the losses of the Jin army were much greater than those of the Song army, with more than 18,000 people killed in battle, and more than 4,000 people lost their combat effectiveness due to injuries. The attrition was more than 30% of the force at the point of completion.

However, Wanyan Changzhi also knew that the defenders of Xiangyang had almost reached the limit, and if they insisted on an offensive of this intensity for two more days, they would be able to capture Xiangyang, although there were reinforcements entering Xiangyang at this time, but there were only four or five thousand men and horses, and the impact on the entire battle situation was not great. At the same time, Wan Yan Chang ordered to transfer the servants to scatter Zhongyi and Shi Zhan to help the battle and maintain the strength of the Jin army. He also strictly ordered Shi to wipe Yanshan and not let the reinforcements of the Jingmen Army support Xiangyang.

The next day, Wanyan Changzhi immediately ordered the men and horses to attack Xiangyang again.

The Jin army mainly attacked the eastern city of Xiangyang, and piled up eight earth mountains at a place of 200 to 300 steps outside the east city of Xiangyang City, each of which was more than a zhang higher than the city wall of Xiangyang City, and at the same time set up bed crossbows and trebuchets on the earth mountain, which was just condescending, firing crossbow guns and throwing stones and firearms in Xiangyang City, and it was these six earth mountains that caused great danger to Xiangyang City. The Song army had attacked many times, hoping to destroy Tushan, but to no avail.

At this time, the Jin army's brigade and horses lined up outside the city, and the first batch of soldiers and tower carts to fight the city were all ready to fight with Yijing, and the trebuchets and bed crossbows installed on various dirt mountains were also loaded with stones, fire bombs, and crossbow guns, all of which were ready to go.

Wanyan Changzhi was standing on the last and highest earth mountain at this time, this earth mountain was almost close to seven zhang, which could take a panoramic view of the entire city defense of Xiangyang, and it was nearly three hundred steps away from the city wall of Xiangyang City, which was basically at the pole of the Song army's long-range weapons. Therefore, in the past five days, Wanyan Changzhi has commanded the Jin army to fight on the dirt mountain.

Looking down on the entire battlefield from the earth mountain, the Jin army was completely prepared, and only waited for Yan Chang's order to start attacking the city. At this moment, the stone bowl beside Wanyan Changzhi suddenly pointed to Xiangyang and said, "Your Majesty, what do you think it is?" ”

Wan Yan Changzhi looked in the direction he pointed to, and saw that on the wall of Xiangyang City, there were a few more big black cylinders, which seemed to be made of pig iron, about six feet long, and were placed flat on the battlements of Xiangyang City, and there were five or six shiqing around each big column, and I didn't know what it was.

"Could it be that this is some new type of weapon of the Song Army?" Although Wanyan Changzhi didn't know that this was artillery, with the intuition of a martial artist, he also felt that this cast iron cylinder was definitely not an ordinary thing. But at this time, he was not allowed to hesitate any longer, and said, "What are they?" We don't have to be afraid, the Song army has reached the limit, as long as we add more strength, we can capture Xiangyang. As he spoke, Wan Yan Changyi turned around and ordered loudly: "Attack." ”

Just as the word "attack" came out, I only heard several loud noises of "boom, boom, boom, boom-", and forcibly suppressed Yan Changzhi's order. I saw tongues of fire spitting out of those cast-iron cylinders, and then spewing out a large amount of smoke, almost enveloping the entire city wall.

I saw that on several dirt mountains, in the formation of the Jin army, there was a series of deafening loud noises, sand and gravel splashed, and even the earth was shaken. Many of the golden soldiers were shocked and flew up, and the screams and wails rang out.

Wanyan Changzhi's head "buzzed", and he immediately understood that this was Song Jun's fire-breathing iron cylinder. The news of the defeat of the Jin army at sea and the loss of the An Feng army reached Wan Yan Changzhi's hands, which mentioned that the Song army used a new type of weapon, which was a thick cast iron cylinder that could spew flint, and it was surprisingly powerful, enough to shake the earth and crack the mountain. Jin Jun didn't know that this thing was called artillery, so he named it "Spitfire Iron Cylinder." ”

Because it was only seen from the text, Wanyan Changzhi was also skeptical about it, did Song Jun really have such a terrible weapon? Or are these reports deliberately exaggerated. Of course, Wan Yan Changzhi is not the kind of person who can't accept new affairs, in his opinion, the principle of this weapon of the Song army is very similar to that of the assault rifle.

The assault rifle is also a kind of firearm made in the Great Song Dynasty, that is, "with the bamboo as the tube, the inner security of the Ziyi, such as burning, the flame is absolutely and then the Ziyi is issued, such as the sound of cannons, and more than 150 steps are heard from afar". Jin Jun has also copied and produced. But the only advantage of this weapon is that the person who uses it does not need to be trained very strictly, and it only takes a few days of training to get started, but it is not very powerful, and it is used again, so Wan Yanchang ordered to stop copying this weapon. And now it seems that the Song army just changed the bamboo barrel of the assault rifle to iron casting, and thickened and lengthened it. As for whether it really has the power of "earth-shattering, opening mountains and cracking rocks" as mentioned in the report, Wan Yan Changzhi is also skeptical, and he will not completely believe it if he has not seen it with his own eyes.

But now, as soon as he saw the firing of the artillery, Wan Yan Changzhi immediately remembered that this was the "fire-breathing iron cylinder" mentioned in the two reports, and at the same time he believed it, which is not an exaggeration at all.

The goal of the Song army is very clear, that is, to clear the earth mountain outside the city first, as long as the earth mountain is cleared, there will be no problem in holding Xiangyang. Although the nearest dirt hill was only more than 200 paces away from the city wall, it was almost a dead end for artillery, but that meant firing on flat ground. On the city walls, artillery could not be fired at raised angles, so the distance between dead ends was greatly reduced.

Although the golden soldiers on the mountain of Tsui launched an attack on the city without the need for an order, it was too insignificant compared to the artillery.

Although the accuracy of the artillery is not high, and one of the ten cannons may not be able to hit the top of the mountain, as long as it hits the mountain of Tushan, or even near the Tushan, it is also terrible. On the one hand, the splashed sand is also uncomfortable enough, and on the other hand, the soil and mountains are built with floating soil, and the joints are very loose, and the mountain will be covered by more cannons, and the whole earth and mountain will collapse. This is the most fatal blow to the Jin army.