When the battering ram reached the edge of the slope, it could no longer go up, so it was changed to a man-made pole, and the people passed a knotted rope through the bottom of the battering ram, and then used a thick wooden stick to pass through the two strands of rope, and a single carrying point was formed, and soon a hundred carrying points were formed.

In the muffled sound of the trumpet, two hundred hardcover soldiers picked up thousands of pounds of battering rams and began to walk towards the city step by step.

There was no moat in Shizhou City, but a trench one zhang wide, and at this time, the fire was burning in the trench, and the fortifications who were one step ahead had already extinguished the fire around the city gate with mud and sand, and at the same time laid wooden planks as wide as one zhang on the trench.

The six thousand cavalry had finished their formation under the slope, their spears were like a forest, their swords were unsheathed, and they were full of murderous energy, waiting for the moment when the city gate was opened.

But the defenders of the city did not give up, although the head of the city could no longer gain a foothold, but more than 2,000 soldiers were concentrated under the city, desperate to resist the city gate, 'Boom! There was a violent thud against the gates, and the distance between them shook, and the earth on the walls fell.

Seeing that the city gate could no longer be defended, the commander of the Western Xia army ordered hundreds of soldiers to pour fire oil in front of the city gate, set fire to the city gate, and the fire that rose into the air immediately engulfed the city gate.

The north gate opened, and the soldiers of the Western Xia army began to quickly retreat outside the northern city.

When he decided to use a battering ram to attack the city, he changed the siege strategy, he issued an order to attack the north city, and the 40,000 troops who were ready to attack the east and west cities turned to the north city, cutting off the way for the Western Xia army to retreat north to Xiazhou.

'Boom! It was another violent impact, the bolt of the north city gate could not withstand the repeated violent impact, and finally broke, and the Song army rushed into the city, at this time, even if it was set on fire to block it, it could not stop the Song soldiers who rushed into the city, and hundreds of fortifications quickly covered the city gate with mud and sand, and immediately suppressed the arrogance of the fire.

'Woo-' a low horn sounded, "Kill! The six thousand cavalry let out a cry like a landslide, the horses began to run, the earth trembled, the tips of the swords and spears glittered in the sun, and the six thousand cavalry rushed into the city like a sweeping torrent, chasing the fleeing Western Xia soldiers, and behind them, tens of thousands of Song troops shouted and ran.

Shizhou City fell, 10,000 Western Xia troops were intercepted by 80,000 Song troops, and they were defeated, and in the end, only a few hundred people fought desperately to fight a bloody road, and the remaining 9,000 people were wiped out.

..........

The capture of Shizhou City means that the southeast gate of Western Xia was completely opened by the Song army, and there is no danger in the back, the only big city facing is Xiazhou, if Xiazhou is taken, then the Xiangyou military division was also captured by the Song army, and the Song army walked a grassland of about 600 miles, and then the troops came to the city of Xingqingfu, the capital of Western Xia.

Although things will not be so simple, the loss of Shizhou did bring a great shock to the Western Xia, and the Western Xia Emperor Li Qianshun could no longer sit still, and personally led 50,000 Iron Harrier cavalry from Weizhou to Xiazhou.

At this time, there were about 40,000 troops in Xiazhou, and in addition to the 20,000 troops withdrawn from Shizhou, Li Qianshun urgently transferred 20,000 troops from the neighboring Jianing Military Division to assist in guarding Xiazhou.

Xiazhou is the core city of Xixia in the east, the only residential city, with more than 200,000 civilians, here is the birthplace of Xixia country, is the hometown of the party people, the name of Xixia is derived from this city.

This is also the reason why the Shizhou guard Chaka would rather give up Shizhou and die to protect Xiazhou, Shizhou was lost, and Li Qianshun, the king of Western Xia, blamed him for not defending the city well, but if Xiazhou was lost, he would die without a place to be buried.

Xiazhou is about sixty miles away from Shizhou, located on the north bank of the Wuding River, the circumference of the city is forty miles, in the Sui and Tang dynasties, the party people moved here from the north of Shu and Hehuang, and were placed in a small piece of land centered on Xiazhou by the imperial court, at that time Xiazhou was just a small county town, at the end of the Tang Dynasty, the party people gradually rose, Xiazhou became their political center, they continued to expand the city, Xiazhou also became a circumference of forty miles, the population of hundreds of thousands of big cities, the dynasty of the party people came out of here.

However, the political and economic center of the party has already moved west to Xingqing Mansion a hundred years ago, and Xiazhou is not only the iron-smelting center of Western Xia, but also any traces related to the capital have been erased, and the city is in disrepair, and there is no danger around, and it is completely a big city that is easy to attack and difficult to defend.

Although the Eastern Route Army was overwhelmed and won successive battles, the commander was not carried away by the victory, and after taking Shizhou, he controlled the rhythm of the attack and did not move.

He knew that the battle line was too long, and the Western Xia army was easy to kill from the Jianing Military Division in the west, cutting off his own grain route and back road, he must fight steadily and steadily, and attack with the rhythm of the Western Front.

Like Yinzhou, Shizhou also gathered a large amount of grain and military funds, only grain has 250,000 stones, 500,000 quintals of good forage, countless silver money, as well as various weapons, armor, pig iron, war drums, military flags, oil and so on, but unlike Yinzhou, Shizhou did not have military prostitutes with the army, when 10,000 defenders retreated north and were completely annihilated, Shizhou became an empty city.

The Song army in the second day of taking Shizhou City, the army began to concentrate on rectification, the continuous combat brought about by all kinds of drawbacks one by one to clear, began to reward the three armies, although the master of the Tao by Tong Guan's control, but he has independent financial power, he won a large amount of money does not need to be handed over to Tong Guan, he can dispose of it, after a period of battle, experienced generals are in advance to reward the three armies, boost morale.

Li Yanqing's intelligence battalion was not only short of personnel, but also received a reward of 50,000 taels of silver for his repeated meritorious achievements, which was equivalent to 100,000 taels of silver per person.

In the afternoon, Wang Gui hurriedly came to Li Yanqing's big tent, he was in a very good mood in the past two days, originally he was promoted to the head of the intelligence battalion only to be promoted but not promoted, once the war is over, the army returns to the camp, his position as the head of the capital will disappear like a bubble, and now he has been clearly promised that he has made two great merits and one small meritorious service, and after the war, he will be officially promoted to the captain of the accompaniment from the ninth grade, and he will be worthy of the name as the head of the capital.

If he can be admitted to the martial arts, he will be promoted to the rank of captain from the eighth rank of the imperial martial arts, which is an official rank that can only be obtained by martial champions.

Moreover, he has more war qualifications and military connections than Wu Zhuangyuan, which makes Wang Gui not overjoyed.

Wang Gui walked to the door of the big tent and said with a smile: "Lao Li, I'm here!" ”

"Come in!"

Wang Gui opened the tent curtain and walked in, only to see that the big tent was full of various wooden boxes and barrels, and Li Yanqing was sitting at the table weighing something?

"Lao Li, what are you doing here?" Wang Gui was stunned.

Li Yanqing smiled and said, "I'm preparing gunpowder and need an assistant." ”

Wang Gui saw dozens of iron pumpkins stacked next to him, and he immediately understood that Lao Li was making earth-shaking thunder.

Although Wang Gui was very excited, he was still a little puzzled, "You just brought Yang Guang to help, why did you call me?" ”

"The king of heaven has become the head of the capital and has begun to put on an official show?"

Wang Gui's head shook like a rattle, "How is it possible, you are my boss, how dare I put on an official stand in front of you!" ”

After speaking, he muttered in a low voice, "I see that you are almost the same as putting on an official show." ”

"What do you say? I didn't hear clearly, say it again! ”

"Nothing!"

Wang Gui hurriedly rolled up his sleeves and said, "What should I do first?" ”

"Help me weigh the sulfur powder!"

Li Yanqing pointed to a wooden barrel next to him, "One catty and six dollars are one piece, to weigh it accurately, weigh one portion and wrap it in oiled paper." ”

Wang Gui found two copper weights, found a scale, and sat on the side to weigh them.

"Lao Li, is this gunpowder formula important?"

"Nonsense, if the formula of the earth-shaking thunder is obtained by Liaoxia or the Jurchens, what do you think about the consequences?"

"Then who else knows this recipe except for the two old pharmacists who were sent away?"

"And then there's you now."

Li Yanqing said lightly: "Except for you, I can't trust anyone." ”

Wang Gui was startled, scratched his head nervously and said, "What if..... What if I leak my mouth? ”

Li Yanqing laughed, "You are so-so in small things, but there is no ambiguity in big things, I know you won't leak your mouth, and even if I hide the formula, someone will crack it within ten years." ”

"Will it?"

Li Yanqing nodded, "Although the power of the Heaven-Shaking Thunder is much more powerful than the Thunderbolt Cannon, after all, it is only an improvement, everyone can make firearms, and when they see the power, they all know what is going on, and the Liaoxia Gunpowder Maker will definitely test it again and again, and one day it will be tested, so I have also figured it out." ”

"Figure out what?"

"If you want to not be surpassed by others, you have to keep innovating and making more new firearms."

Wang Gui became even more interested, and hurriedly asked, "What other new firearms?" ”

"For example, the horse mines used to deal with the cavalry, the mines to deal with the warships, and there will be more powerful firearms in the future, you can also think about it."

Wang Gui patted his head and smiled: "I really thought of two, for example, when the enemy army attacked the city, we all used rolling wood and stones, if you add gunpowder poison nails and the like to the stones, throw them down the city to blow them up, is it very effective." ”

"What else?"

"There is also a very small earth-shaking thunder, three or five pounds a, when the enemy attacks the city, the arrows press us and we can't raise our heads, so I sit on the battlements, light one and throw one, and blow up the enemy ghosts crying wolves, but they can't destroy the city, don't you say?"

Li Yanqing smiled and said nothing, the fire that Wang Gui said actually appeared a hundred years ago, but because the power of gunpowder was too small, the effect was not significant.

The reason why the earth-shaking thunder is so powerful is that the amount of medicine is large to be able to blow up the shell, if the amount of medicine is too small, I am afraid it will not be able to break the iron shell.

But Li Yanqing did not discourage Wang Gui's enthusiasm, he smiled and said: "We can experiment when we have time, such as using ceramic bottles and the like, and then mixing highly toxic iron nails, the effect must be good." ”

At this moment, a soldier outside the tent reported, "Li joins the army, the marshal has an urgent matter, please come over!" ”