The sneak attack led by Zhao Hu that night was not a success, nor was it a failure, the Western Xia army really fought at night, hundreds of Liao craftsmen rushed to work overnight under the protection of heavy soldiers, hundreds of bonfires and thousands of torches illuminated in the open space in front of the Xia army camp, and dozens of patrol horses shuttled around to be on guard.

It can be seen that the Western Xia army is not afraid of the Song army's insight into its attempt to build trebuchets to attack the city, but also carefully protects the safety of hundreds of craftsmen, basically eliminating the possibility of the Song army's sneak attack at night.

Zhao Hu and the others were afraid that opening the city gate would attract the attention of the enemy sentinels, so they took seven or eight good men from the corner of the northwest city wall to quietly approach the front of the enemy camp.

But Zhao Hu was reluctant to return empty-handed, although the corners of the craftsmen's clothes didn't want to be stained, but according to Su Jin's explanation in advance, people can't kill the raw materials, piles of trees cut down on Longshan Mountain are piled up on the edge of the clearing, except for hundreds of patrol soldiers who hold torches every few moments and go around the edge of the field, there is no special protection.

So Zhao Hu took seven or eight good hands to move a little bit patiently, and after nearly an hour of patient waiting, he finally succeeded in coming to the west of the camp next to dozens of piles of logs, although the logs were not easy to ignite, but with the help of the fire oil, the seven or eight piles of hills-like logs were soon set on fire.

The fire ignited, and immediately alarmed the Xia soldiers patrolling in all directions, they came from all directions, Zhao Hu and others shuttled in the fire and the figure was also discovered by the Xia soldiers who arrived first, Zhao Hu did not do two and led people to directly slaughter more than a dozen Western Xia horse soldiers, took their horses and fled back, the Xia soldiers bluffed behind them while releasing arrows, but there was no real pursuit, no one dared to chase each other in this dark night, and the Song army did not know how many traps they dug in the open ground of the north gate, Chasing someone in such a place in the middle of the night is a joke with your own life.

Zhao Hu's futile return made everyone a little frustrated, but Su Jin was very happy that Zhao Hu returned safely, he didn't have any hope for this sneak attack method at all, Xia Jun just didn't have any brains and wouldn't fail to protect the treasure-like craftsmen, if you let them easily succeed in front of their army, then wouldn't it be a joke for the Western Xia army to attack the city with great fanfare; The Western thieves in the Song population are not a rabble, their IQ is not below the Song people who think of themselves very highly, otherwise how could a small country in a barren land beat the Song people, if it were not for the limitations of geographical location that made the Western Xia unable to become strong and rich, the Song State would have already become the bag of the Western Xia.

In Su Jin's view, the biggest gain of Zhao Hu's move was not to burn a few piles of wood from Xia Jun, but to cut more wood on Longshan, and 100,000 people would cut it for another year; Su Jin's biggest gain is that Zhao Hu's move made him suddenly have a bold plan, this plan is so bold that even he himself is a little afraid, Su Jin didn't dare to tell everyone about the plan he thought of, first, the time has not come, and second, this plan will attract unanimous opposition from everyone, Su Jin decided not to mention this matter for the time being, and then throw out this plan at the right time, everything depends on how the war develops.

The Song people's night attack on burning wood not only did not anger Li Yuanhao, but made Li Yuanhao understand one thing.

When convening a meeting of the generals of various armies, Li Yuanhao laughed when he talked about last night's incident: "The Song people are afraid!" The night raid to burn the timber is proof that the Song people were afraid of the trebuchets we were building to attack the city, otherwise why would they send people to obstruct it? In the eyes of the Song people, our Great Xia warriors can only ride horses to kill, but they are incompetent in attacking the city, because my Great Xia Iron Army never disdains to use these siege equipment, they did not expect that we would change our usual practice to build siege equipment, which is their weakness, and I want to reward General Qu Lie, the leader of the nerd tribe who prompted the craftsmen of the Liao Kingdom to come to help. ”

The generals of the Xia Army thought that although Li Yuanhao was tyrannical and unkind, his vision was still unique and accurate, and he saw through the tricks at a glance, and the Song people were afraid; But he was silent about Li Yuanhao's so-called promotion of the help of Liao craftsmen, in fact, these craftsmen were not here to help at all, but the masterpiece of Qu Lie, the leader of the Liao border nerd tribe who had recently descended to Great Xia, and the envoy of the five festivals of Shanxi.

After this Qu Lie descended to Great Xia, he relied on Li Yuanhao's support to constantly harass the border of Liao, and these hundreds of Liao craftsmen were sacrificed to Li Yuanhao by him from Liao, Li Yuanhao

I didn't care much about it at the beginning, but now I understand that Qu Lie offered it is all treasures, these people are all craftsmen of the Liao army, good at building siege equipment, if there are no these craftsmen in this battle, the Xia army will have nowhere to eat.

As for Qu Lie's move, which has aroused the extreme dissatisfaction of the Liao people, Liao Xingzong has even sent an envoy to severely reprimand Xia Guo's actions, and issued an ultimatum to Li Yuanhao to hand over Qu Lie to the Liao State to deal with Yunyun, Li Yuanhao ignored everything, Li Yuanhao was not even afraid of the Song State, let alone the Liao State.

Li Yuanhao understands the psychology of the Liao people very well, and also sees the current situation very thoroughly, today's situation, the Liao and Song Dynasty are at peace on the surface, but in fact, they are two donkeys on a notch, these two countries will sooner or later tear their faces, and although their own Daxia seems to be the weakest, it can affect the balance of power between the two countries, in comparison, the Liao State is more willing to join forces with themselves against the Song people, as long as they don't go too far, a little cheap, Liao Xingzong can't do anything with himself.

Li Yuanhao connived at Qu Lie to harass the Liao State, which seemed to be unwise, and would make people think that it was very stupid to offend the Liao State when the Song and Xia were fighting, but in fact this was Li Yuanhao's shrewdness.

Li Yuanhao knew very well that it was precisely because he was at war with the Song State that the Liao would tolerate this, and once he negotiated a peace truce with the Song people, if he wanted to take advantage of the Liao people, it would attract a hundredfold revenge; At the same time, this move is also Li Yuanhao to vent his anger to the Liao people, not long ago the Liao people rejected their proposal to jointly send troops to attack the Song people, the Liao envoy into Bianliang and the Song people did not know what agreement was secretly reached, and sent more than 200,000 soldiers and horses on the border to stay for only two months before withdrawing, which made Li Yuanhao very angry, so he not only connived at Qu Lie to loot in the Liao border, but also ordered that the national garrison on the Xia Liao border could also turn into bandits to rob the Liao people, which is a punishment for the Liao people's rebellion.

After five days of continuous construction, day and night, the craftsmen almost died of exhaustion, and the results were indeed obvious to all, one after another trebuchets were erected in front of the array, and thousands of simple trebuchets were erected in the three trebuchet positions on the left, middle and right; In the past five days, the soldiers of the Xia Kingdom have not been idle, cutting wood, transporting stones, and thousands of soldiers holding shields to slowly search the pit in the open space of the north gate, once the pit is found, there are soldiers carrying sandbags to fill the pit.

The defenders at the head of the city scolded angrily, but they were helpless, they could only watch the Xia army move under the city, but there was nothing they could do; Fortunately, the Western Xia soldiers were quite afraid of being able to shoot out the bed crossbows on the head of the city four hundred steps away, although the Song army only had about 20 bed crossbows, but these bed crossbows were not shields that could be blocked, and the middle of the Western Xia soldiers holding shields was a piece of flesh and blood, and the people who were shot were naturally bombarded to slag, and even the three or four people next to them would be affected and injured; Therefore, when more than 20 bed crossbows were jointly fired, a group of Xia soldiers who searched for the pit paid a painful price, and dozens of people were bombarded into meat sauce under a row of crossbow arrows, and this deterrent force the Xia army to stop the search operation within 400 steps under the city; And the traps in this range are the most dense, which also makes the Song army feel a little relieved.

In the early morning of the eighth day of the eighth month of August, when Xia Siling and Xiao Sui'er were helping Su Jinzheng to get dressed, the dynasty rushed into the inner house like a gust of wind, and shouted: "Son, the western thieves have begun to attack the city." ”

Su Jin was startled, bit his lower lip, and finally started, it's been six days, and it's time to start.

Su Jin hurriedly said: "Inform Jingtai and Pan Jiang to gather at my north gate." ”

Wang Chao said: "They are already at the head of the city." ”

Su Jin nodded and said, "Prepare the horse, let's go immediately." ”

Wang Chao turned around and ran out, Su Jin stood up, took the iron helmet handed over by Xia Siling and put it on his head upright, reached out and touched the scabbard hanging from his waist, and walked away.

Xia Siling grabbed his hand, looked at Su Jin and said, "Be careful, the slave family is waiting for you to come back." ”

Su Jin smiled, patted her face and said, "Don't worry, I'll be fine, Weizhou will be fine, you can go to Brother Zhaoting and help him deal with some logistics, from now on everyone will have to do their part for Weizhou." ”

Xia Siling nodded firmly and said, "The slave family will." ”

Su Jin glanced at Xiao Sui'er and said: "Sui'er's cooking skills are good, you will make the meal for me and a few adults at noon today, this battle is all in battle, we are a role model for the people of Weizhou, do you want to be like this every day, but also let the people see that the people around me Su Jin are also contributing to the defense of the city." ”

Xia Siling and Xiao Sui'er nodded again and again, Su Jin smiled and waved his hand, turned around and walked away