Chapter 156: Take Only the Urn City
The construction of the Chinese city, after the Song Dynasty, has reached a very high level, all kinds of imperial facilities and the construction of the city wall are improving day by day, for the attacker, want to easily conquer a city, it is not easy, the current Huzhou city, because it is the northern gateway of the Lin'an capital, so after the establishment of the Southern Song Dynasty, after several repairs and construction, the city wall is five zhang high, the lower width is two zhang and five feet, the upper width is one zhang and two feet, the inside is rammed with clay, and the outside is wrapped in city bricks, Such a wall is very strong and durable, not to mention ordinary artillery bombardment, even if the heavy artillery of later generations is pulled, do not want to collapse the city wall in a short time. Pen % fun % Pavilion www.biquge.info
In addition, the waterways of Huzhou City are longitudinal, and the groundwater level here is also extremely high, and it is impossible to enter the city by digging tunnels, and the only thing they can do is to break through the moat, lean on the city wall, and then climb over the city wall and conquer Huzhou City, there is no other way, so Gao Huaiyuan is ready to pay a heavy price this time, and constantly presses up a group of soldiers and horses.
And the siege battle that has just begun is very fierce, and those people in the city have already made up their minds to fight the trapped beasts, and they can only capture Huzhou City by destroying the morale of the enemy army.
After the battle began, after a fierce attack, under the suppression of various arrows and stones, the first army finally arrived at the other end of the city river with a ladder cart and some pointed wooden donkeys after paying considerable casualties, and then the soldiers began to set up the ladder and began the first siege.
Xiao Liang and Bao Zaitong in the city held blood-dripping waist knives, running back and forth in the city, killing some soldiers who were afraid of the battle from time to time, and driving the soldiers to strengthen the counterattack.
Although this approach offended a large number of soldiers, but they also had no choice, and this practice of killing a hundred people, did play a considerable effect, it turned out that some soldiers who were unwilling to resist, under the coercion of the generals, had to honestly counterattack, braving the arrows flying up from outside the city, frantically shooting arrows downward.
When they saw that the enemy army was already approaching the city wall, the guards began to throw all kinds of rolling wood and stones, boiling oil, etc., to attack the enemy troops who had already reached the city, and as a result, the siege generals caused considerable damage to the siege generals, and seriously hindered the first wave of attacks.
But Gao Huaiyuan stood indifferently behind, supervising the army's assault on Huzhou City, fighting from morning to afternoon, and failed to make a breakthrough in any place, at the end of the day, the loss of soldiers and horses almost reached the level they could not bear, the casualties exceeded more than 1,000 people, and some battalions even suffered more than half of the casualties, and they were already unable to fight again, so they had to withdraw for rest.
"General Gao, it's not a way to fight like this! Our casualties are too great! An officer from the Infantry Division found Gao Huaiyuan and persuaded him.
Gao Huaiyuan glanced at him coldly, and reprimanded: "Hugh wants to say such nonsense again, you must take Huzhou City within three days, there are still two days left, and we will continue to attack tomorrow!" Your duty is to command your men and horses to attack me, and you have to mention anything else that you can't fight! Otherwise, if anyone dares to say a truce, they will be regarded as collaborating with the enemy and will be dealt with by military law! ”
So the officer who spoke suddenly closed his mouth, and quickly turned back to his formation, not daring to say anything more.
And Hua Yue also came over at this time, hugged his fist at Gao Huaiyuan and said: "My lord, it seems that today's officials can temporarily withdraw their troops in today's battle!" The officers and men suffered heavy casualties, and they were also very tired after a day of fierce fighting, and if they continued like this, they would only make the soldiers dissatisfied, so it was better to withdraw the troops today and fight again tomorrow! ”
Gao Huaiyuan nodded and said: "The words are good, but today I will wait for the siege to have little effect, and I will wait for a while, and then pass on the order, so that those who have crossed the river will give up attacking the city wall, and make every effort to seize the periphery of the urn city, and cut off the drawbridge, as long as the drawbridge is cut today, it will be regarded as a success, otherwise such casualties will be in vain!" ”
Hua Yue took a look at the battle situation in front of him, and immediately hugged his fists to receive the order, and immediately waved the order flag after going down, conveying Gao Huaiyuan's general order.
There is no way to retreat for the soldiers who cross the river, as long as the sound of gold is not sounded, they can only continue to attack, a commander commands the soldiers on the river bank to form a shield array, with dozens of shields to form a fish scale shield wall, give up the long ladder they carry across the river, cover more soldiers to cross the river, and the crossbowmen cover it, and constantly shoot arrows towards the city, as long as there is an enemy outcrop at the battlement, it will immediately attract their shooting, so that the army on the city can not stretch out their heads to shoot, which covers a group of men and horses to rush across the pontoon bridge, Gradually, he gained more troops and attacked the urn city at the city gate.
A city like Huzhou, after several repairs, has been expanded at the city gate to create an urn city, in case the enemy army from the city gate to attack, after capturing the urn city, can attack the main gate, and the urn city controls the suspension bridge on the moat outside the city, only by occupying here, can the suspension of the suspension bridge be cut.
After receiving Gao Huaiyuan's order, this army immediately approached the urn city, and the crossbowmen on the other side of the river also concentrated their firepower on the crossbow platforms and enemy towers on both sides of the urn city as much as possible, and the arrows fell on both ends of the urn city like flying locusts, and mobilized more than a dozen artillery carts to bombard the city tower, and the imperial rebels here were beaten to a foothold, and the casualties were very heavy.
The soldiers and horses crossing the river took advantage of the situation to approach the urn city, and immediately erected a long ladder, and the team of its team immediately covered their heads with shields, and with a loud shout, they led a group of soldiers up the city, and the rest of the soldiers covered them with bows and crossbows.
When the war reached such a situation, the attention of the people in the city had already been distracted, and no one noticed the situation in the city for a while.
It wasn't until this group of soldiers attacked the city that it was discovered by several rebels who hid under the female wall and did not dare to show their heads, and the team general was also considered brave, flying over the battlement, and cut down a rebel who was close to him with a knife, but then was stabbed by a few spears into the abdomen, this team general knew that he was not lucky, and he got up and shouted to hack the nearest enemy to death, abandoned the knife and grabbed the two spears pierced into his abdomen and pushed the two enemies into the urn city together, and died with the enemy in a very heroic situation.
However, his death also bought the time of the brothers behind, and then several soldiers climbed the wall of the urn city, they saw that their team was about to die on the city, and each of them was aroused to be ferocious, and began to slash and kill on the city wall with a knife and axe, and in a short time a small number of enemy troops on the wall of the urn city were killed, and the two sections were immediately sent to defend, and several soldiers immediately rushed into the urn city watchtower.
There were still a few rebels in the building, and they were so frightened by these wolf-like soldiers that they fled downward, and they couldn't care about the wheels that dropped the drawbridge, and a few soldiers immediately swung their axes and slashed the slings frantically.
Soon the sling was cut by them, and the drawbridge boomed and fell down on the river leading to the city gate.
When he saw the drawbridge falling, Xiao Liang in the city realized that the urn city was lost, and quickly led the troops to kill the urn city, and the Song army on the urn city started a fight, after the Song army captured the urn city, more and more people began to climb the city wall, and in a short period of time, the rebels led by Xiao Liang actually killed a person on his back, and controlled the urn city from above, but the enemy could not get close.
Originally, the role of the urn city was to catch turtles in an urn after the enemy broke through the city gate, and gave major damage to the enemy army besieging the city, but this time the Song army controlled the urn city from top to bottom, seized the city wall of the urn city, and made the urn city lose its original role.
As a result, the urn city was completely conquered by the Song army before dark, and the two gates of the urn city were also opened from the inside by the soldiers, so that the Song army controlled the outer layer of the main gate.
After Gao Huaiyuan heard that the urn city had been captured, he ordered Ming Jin to withdraw his troops, and sent a team of soldiers and horses to the urn city to take over the defense there, replacing the soldiers and horses with heavy casualties.
The battle on the first day also came to an end with the sound of Gao Huaiyuan's army, and a large number of Song troops withdrew from the moat like a tide, and the wounded who were snatched back by the bearers returned to the camp.
Gao Huaiyuan ordered the army to rest immediately, and several battalions were disabled at the end of the day, in order to prepare for tomorrow's attack, he reorganized these battalions, and the two battalions were combined into one battalion, so that the soldiers immediately had a full meal and rested immediately.
And Xiao Liang also took advantage of the retreat of the Song army to count the losses in the city, and at the end of this day, the fierce attack of the Song army exceeded his expectations, and the firepower of the Song army was very fierce, and the arrows and stones also caused great casualties to the left army in front of the palace.
The whole city was stained with blood, and the corpses of soldiers who had been stoned to death and killed by crossbow arrows abounded, and they fell on the city walls, and a large amount of blood soaked the bricks on the city walls, and they slipped on them.
The city is full of broken siege equipment, the burned ladders are still burning, illuminating the outside of the city, the air is filled with a strong smell of blood, one by one the long ladders that have been cut off are crookedly falling at the foot of the city wall, and there are many corpses of the dead who have not had time to be snatched by the enemy, still lying in the open space between the moat and the city wall.
After a day of fierce bombardment, many battlements and female walls on the city wall became dilapidated, which also weakened the effect of their defense, and many artillery trucks on the enemy tower were smashed apart by the enemy's artillery after a day of fierce fighting, and some were burned by the fireballs thrown by the enemy, and they were still smoking at this time.
There are all kinds of arrows scattered everywhere inside and outside the city wall, and some places on the city wall are still inserted with giant arrows fired by the enemy's bed crossbow, which makes the city wall in the fire swagger become a lot more hideous, like a porcupine with big thorns, and some fallen corpses are still hanging on the giant arrows fired by some bed crossbows, swaying slightly with the wind, which looks very weird.