The fierce attack on Shizhou City by the 200,000 troops of the Western Xia has lasted for fifteen days, and both sides have paid huge casualties, the casualties of the Western Xia army exceeded 40,000, and the casualties of the Song army also exceeded 15,000, but the Shizhou City still stands.

This was not a battle with a huge disparity in strength, but a strategic choice of the commander of the Eastern Front, to weaken the advantage of the cavalry of the Western Xia army by defending the city, which could not only avoid the weakness of the Song army's slightly inferior numbers, but also give full play to the Song army's well-equipped strengths.

This decision seems conservative, but the final result proves that it is undoubtedly correct, victory but not coquettishness, defeat without discouragement, always calm and composed, and only an experienced veteran like Seed Master Dao can make such a wise decision.

The arrogant Li Binglie ended the first siege with a crushing defeat, and although he was guaranteed by Li Qianshun and was not executed by Richard Brother, he was finally forced to bow his arrogant head and hide behind the generals with his tail between his legs, never daring to show his figure again.

Although Brother Richard taught this arrogant nephew a hard lesson, his life was also not easy, the Western Xia army never attacked the city for more than five days, and this time it actually lasted for half a month, and there was still no sign of capturing the city, which was also a heavy blow to Brother Richard.

The imperial brother never urged him, never blamed him, but let him go to attack Shizhou City, it was precisely this kind of dissatisfaction that seemed to be hidden in the trust and looked at it coldly, which added huge pressure to Brother Richard.

For half a month, Brother Richard has not slept well for a day, and every day he is thinking about how to capture the city, he is obviously emaciated, he has thought of all kinds of tricks, all of which have been easily resolved by the Seed Master, he has never found a good way to capture Shizhou City, Brother Richard finally has to admit that he has no other choice than to attack the way.

Before dawn, Richard was woken up by a personal soldier.

"Your Highness, Your Majesty has an urgent summons!"

Richard pushed away the sleeping prostitute who was curled up in his arms, turned over and got up and put on his military uniform, and several personal soldiers stepped forward to help him put on his armor.

"What time is it now?" Richard felt that it was not yet dawn outside.

"Back to Your Highness, less than five watches!"

Brother Richard was slightly stunned, and he went to find himself before the fifth watch, did he find himself before the imperial brother, did something big happen?

Brother Richard washed his face a little, and then took a dozen guards to ride to the king's tent a few miles away, and there were already guards waiting in front of the camp where the king's tent was located, and when they saw the arrival of the king of Jin, the guards hurriedly stepped forward and said: "The king is waiting for His Highness, please come with me!" ”

Richard rolled over and dismounted and asked, "What happened?" ”

"I don't know the specific lowly position, but Your Highness will know it when you go to the big tent."

"Lead the way!"

After a while, Brother Richard followed the guards to the king's tent quickly, and the guards went in to report, and came out to salute after a while, "Your Highness, please!" ”

Brother Richard strode into the king's tent, the light in the huge king's tent was bright and soft, and Li Qianshun, the king of Western Xia, stood in front of a map in his hand and was stunned, as if he did not realize his arrival at all.

"Brother Huang, what happened?" Brother Richard walked forward quickly and asked.

Li Qianshun sighed lowly, "I just got the express news, and the Jurchens have broken through Shangjing." ”

Brother Richard was also stunned, and asked for a while, "And then?" ”

"I don't know what happened later, we just received a message from the Liao State spy Feiying, and we got Shangjing lost."

Li Qianshun looked back at Brother Richard, "The drastic changes in the situation in the Liao State will inevitably affect the Western Xia, the Jurchen talents are our real enemies, my limited national strength can no longer be consumed like this with the Song army, I plan to negotiate peace with the Song Dynasty." ”

"But...... We annihilated more than 100,000 Song troops and won a big victory, it should be the Song Dynasty that sued us for peace, we took the initiative to sue for peace, and the result would be unfavorable to us! ”

Li Qianshun said lightly: "If you can break through Shizhou City within three days, then I will allow you to continue to lead the army south and force the Song Dynasty to take the initiative to sue for peace, but if you can't capture Shizhou City within three days, then we can only ask for a truce and negotiate peace." ”

Brother Richard couldn't say a word, they had been attacking Shizhou for half a month, but they had never been able to capture the city, how could he do it in three days, the imperial brother actually couldn't tolerate his own failure.

After pondering for a long time, he gritted his teeth and said: "Don't give me one last chance for three days, if I can't capture Shizhou today, everything is up to the imperial brother." ”

Li Qianshun wanted this sentence, he nodded, "That word is a certainty!" ”

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As soon as the day dawned, the rumbling war drums sounded in the Xixia camp, Li Yanqing, who was napping on the east city wall, was suddenly awakened by the sound of drums, this was already the fifteen nights he spent in Dongchengtou, for half a month, Dongcheng has been the top priority of the Xixia army's attack, far more than the northern city, making the Dongcheng defenders suffer the most casualties, the casualties of the Hedong army and the Xiang army reached as many as 8,000 people, more than half of the casualties of the entire Song army.

Li Yanqing and his companions have paid great hard work and sweat, and the soldiers have paid countless lives and blood, but their generation of young generals has won high recognition from the officers and men of the Northwest Army.

The sound of drums in the Xixia military camp alarmed all the soldiers in the city, and they all stood up and stared at the Wuding River in the distance, but Wang Gui reflexively ran towards a cannon, and shouted in a hoarse voice: "Has this cannon been repaired?" ”

The firing groove of this cannon was broken, Wang Gui found out last night, he immediately found a craftsman to repair it, six craftsmen were sweating heavily to install a firing groove on the cannon, more than a dozen soldiers were assisting them, and one craftsman trembled and said: "It'll be fine soon, give us a little more time." ”

"The enemy must be repaired before attacking, otherwise military law will be engaged!"

Artillery and trebuchets were the most consumed weapons in the fierce battle for half a month, they had no inventory, each one was precious, Wang Gui especially cherished each one and regarded them as his brothers.

But Wang Gui's obsession with the earth-shaking thunder actually made him think of a wonderful plan to solve the worry of the leakage of the earth-shaking thunder formula in one fell swoop, and he suggested that all the stock of nitrate, sulfur powder and toner should be weighed in hundreds of copies per catty, and then the amount should be taken as needed.

This plan was approved by Li Yanqing, and Li Yanqing took the number of portions according to the proportion of the formula, and soon prepared a piece of earth-shaking thunder gunpowder weighing 500 catties, and made 25 sky-shaking thunderbolts.

It's a pity that they don't carry many gunpowder raw materials, basically all of them are finished gunpowder products, Li Yanqing had thought about transforming the finished gunpowder products before, but they all failed without exception, the formula for making earth-shaking thunder gunpowder is very accurate, and the thickness of the iron shell must be customized, no more than one point or less can not achieve the effect of a strong explosion, and even the iron shell cannot be exploded.

It would take a lot of time and money to succeed in a lot of experiments, but now that it's the time of the war, they don't have that much time and energy.

At this time, Liu Jian walked up quickly and said with a smile: "Li joins the army, let's add another meal today!" ”

Liu Kuang refers to the meaning of the additional meal, Liu Kuang is extremely interested in this kind of sharp firearms, although the earth-shaking thunder is matched by Li Yanqing, but they are distributed by the seed master, Dongcheng is a key defense area, thirty earth-shaking thunder is allocated, Li Yanqing and Liu Jian have fifteen in their hands, they have used it twice, and there are only five left in each person's hands.

Li Yanqing smiled: "It depends!" If the situation is critical, you decide to use it, just don't blow up your city. ”

"How so!"

Liu Jian also laughed, "This thing is very powerful, but the number is too small, if there are hundreds, let alone defend Shizhou City, I don't think it is impossible to destroy Western Xia." ”

Li Yanqing shook his head secretly, the firearms of the Southern Song Dynasty were more powerful, and they were also destroyed by the Mongols, and the Northern Song Dynasty also had a large number of firearms, but they were no match for the Jin State.

"It's a secret that the earth-shattering thunder is small in number, and if the Song army is equipped on a large scale, then Western Xia and Liao will soon appear."

"Joining the army is right, the commander is very worried about the earth-shaking thunder in the hands of Captain Tong, since the whole army has been destroyed, it is likely that the earth-shaking thunder in their hands has fallen into the hands of the Xixia people, it is estimated that the Xixia people are studying it with all their strength at this time?"

This is also something that Li Yanqing is very worried about, if the physical object falls into the hands of the Western Xia Army, I am afraid that within half a year, the Western Xia Army will be developed, but the matter has come to this point, it is useless for him to worry, he can only take one step at a time.

"Join the army, the enemy is coming!" One of the soldiers shouted.

Li Yanqing looked back at the river in the distance, and saw that the army under the pressure of black pressure was crossing the river quickly, and a cloud ladder and heavy trebuchets were mixed in, Li Yanqing already had experience, and he immediately judged from the equipment and momentum of the army that it was the army of the party people, and this must be a large-scale siege.

He immediately said to Liu Kuang: "You can use the Heaven-Shaking Thunder, but don't use it up all at once, mix it in the thunderbolt cannon, and come with a shot at a critical moment!" ”

Liu Jian was overjoyed, "I understand my humble duties!" ”

He hugged his fists and saluted, and hurriedly went back, Li Yanqing said to Wang Gui again: "Leave a best cannon to use the earth-shaking thunder, and listen to my orders before it can be launched!" ”

"Obey!"

Wang Gui hurriedly ran to the female wall, and shouted at the soldiers of the Xiang Army who were resting under the city in a hoarse voice: "The enemy army is about to attack the city, I will unify it!" ”

At this time, the commander Chongshi Dao also heard the news and went to the viewing platform, he stared at the enemy army crossing the river in a big way, and the enemy army that was put into the siege today was at least 50,000 people, and the Seed Master Dao suddenly realized that it was likely that the external situation was unfavorable to the Western Xia army, and they began to be anxious.

"Pass my orders and beat the drum!"

The drum is also a way of commanding, different drums represent different meanings, the earth-shattering drum is a giant drum with a diameter of one zhang, which needs to be sounded by three people at the same time, it represents the meaning of the decisive battle in the Hedong Army, and the master realized that today will be an unprecedented big battle, and he asked all the soldiers to go all out with a decisive attitude.

'Knock-knock-knock-'

The earth-shattering drum sound echoed in the four city heads, tens of thousands of Song troops rushed to the city heads, one after another trebuchets and cannons began to operate, making a creaking sound, the Song soldiers holding crossbows and bows in their hands were in place, spears were like forests, flags fluttered, tens of thousands of soldiers cheered up, ready to meet the coming battle.

.........