Add Bookmark | Recommend this book | Back to the book page | My bookshelf | Mobile Reading

Free Web Novel,Novel online - All in oicq.net -> Historic -> Being an emperor among the Five Dynasties

Volume 9: Jin'ou is short and must be replenished Chapter 18: Shuozhou reinforcements?

Previous page        Return to Catalog        Next page

    In the Guangwu Walled City, the roar in the south was still ringing for a while. After several days of fixed target bombardment, the accuracy of the Zhou army's gunners was getting higher and higher. Each round of four iron  The projectiles could always land solidly on the top of the south wall of the walled city, stirring up a puff of smoke at the top of the city.

    ¡°It just stirred up a burst of smoke and dust.

    The continuous shelling not only made the gunners more experienced and their accuracy began to improve significantly, but also made the people who were bombarded become accustomed to it. Now the defenders of Guangwu Walled City have almost understood how to avoid the projectiles falling from the sky.  Apart from being extremely unlucky, almost no one would stand stupidly on the top of the city waiting to be hit by a few kilograms of iron projectiles and lose their arms and legs.

    In the past two days, apart from occasionally hitting the crenel where an unlucky guy was hiding, causing such a poor man to die unjustly, the iron projectiles fired by the Zhou army into the walled city most of the time smashed out the horse path at the top of the city.  Small and large pits, or smashing the straw bags piled on top of the crenels to let the sand and soil contained in the straw bags spill out. Generally speaking, Guangwu Walled City can be said to be impregnable.

    Zhou Jun¡¯s artillery shells damaged the crenels and the straw bags above, which was certainly a damage to the city¡¯s defense facilities, but Guangwu Walled City could still afford this level of damage.

    The crenels made of rammed earth are broken. Although it cannot be rammed here in a short time, and it is impossible to ram it freely under the artillery bombardment of the Zhou army, it is still okay to fill the gap with wooden parapets commonly used in city defense.  .  Although the defense of these wooden parapets is much worse than that of the rammed earth crenels, if they are hit by direct projectiles again.  The secondary damage caused by wood fragments is much more severe than that of sand, but there are always few chances of the projectiles falling into the same crater. These wooden parapets are better than nothing in the end.

    It is even more insignificant if the straw bags stacked on top of the crenel are damaged. There are many spare straw bags in the warehouse.  There are a lot of weeds outside the Great Wall. If it weren't for manpower constraints, you could have hundreds of thousands of grass bags.  As for the sand and soil used to fill the straw bags, they are all available in Guangwu Walled City, which means that the garrison soldiers have to work harder at night. Compared with the bloody battle between the two armies on the city wall, this kind of hard work is not so annoying.

    In fact, Zhou Jun¡¯s continuous bombardment was of some benefit to the defenders.  Originally, the walled city outside the Great Wall had sandy soil, barren grass, and few stones and trees. Huangfu Jixun originally wanted to build this Guangwu walled city.  It took a lot of effort to prepare those green hemp stones, but the number of rolling stones prepared in the city was limited. The projectiles shot up by the Zhou army provided the defenders with iron stones that were easy to use.  These iron projectiles weighing several kilograms are very easy to pick up, and they are round and easy to smash down through the hanging eyes.  It is actually much easier than sending masons to make hammer stones, and there is no need to send special personnel to collect and build them. These projectiles basically fall on the top of the city and around the city wall, and only need to be collected by people.

    After four or five days, Huangfu Jixun became more and more confident in his ability to defend Guangwu City.

    Zhou Jun is still huddled in the camp at Baicaokou.  Although there would be no casualties due to the resistance of the defenders, how could the bombardment of four small cannons alone possibly shake the defenders?  The heavy artillery that Han Zhifan mentioned that fired projectiles weighing more than ten kilograms has never appeared. It seems that the heavy artillery is too bulky and difficult to transport up terrain like Yanmen Pass.  Guangwu Walled City does not need to withstand the blows and tests that Taiyuan City suffered.

    We don¡¯t know the situation on other fronts yet, but there are always some gates whose defenses will not be as good as ours.  The possibility of advancing straight in after being breached by the Zhou army is relatively high, so compare the two.  His ability will undoubtedly be noticed by the Lord of Liao, and the chance of making a difference in the Southern Privy Council in the future is not small.

    Of course, the premise is that the Lord of Liao will not be completely defeated by the Zhou army. It will be difficult for the Zhou army to gain the same advantage on the grasslands that it used to have in the Central Plains, Shu and Jiangnan.

    Regarding this, Huangfu Jixun is actually quite confident.  It has been nearly ten years since he came to the Liao Kingdom. From following Oruduo, the leader of the Liao Dynasty, to migrating throughout the seasons, to leaving Shangjing to work in Xijing Road, he has a deep understanding of the vastness of the grassland. On such a vast grassland, he can walk step by step.  The Zhou army, which has strong military and firearms, is afraid that its advantage will be greatly reduced. As long as the Liao army, which is good at cavalry, deliberately avoids the decisive battle with the main force, the Zhou army will probably not be able to catch them. However, the Zhou army's own food routes will be exposed to the Liao army at all times.  Under the attack of the army.

    In this regard, Huangfu Jixun understood the Liao lord's decision not to send reinforcements to the border cities, the Liao army's decision not to defend Yunzhou, and the Liao army's plan to avoid a decisive battle with the main force of the Zhou army.

    It¡¯s just that this kind of understanding seems extremely pale when I am in danger Fortunately, not many people know about this kind of high-level decision-making. At least in Guangwu City, I am the only one who understands a little bit, otherwise the defenders would have long ago  Everyone is so frightened that they can no longer hold on.

    But look at the white grassOn the other hand, the Zhou army's weak offensive performance made Huangfu Jixun's mind active again. Although the entire border city was abandoned by the Liao lord and used to gradually consume the Zhou army, the Guangwu Walled City might be able to hold on until the Zhou Dynasty.  On the day when the army retreated, my military exploits at that time were probably not much worse than those of those who commanded the Pishi Army and other main forces of the Liao Army.

    "Hmph, the famous Yang Wudi of the Northern Han Dynasty, the top general in Hedong, was probably the local people's boast! If this Yang Ye was really as powerful as the Zhou people boasted, how could the Northern Han Dynasty suffer so much loss?  Are you ready? Now you only dare to huddle in the camp and be timid, relying on your sharp firearms to suppress our army, but you don't dare to form a formation to attack the city. Most of them are afraid that our army will go out of the city to attack the stronghold. It can be seen that this person has a false reputation! "

    As a general who also subjugated his country, Huangfu Jixun was obviously very worried about the difference in reputation between himself and Yang Ye among the Zhou people.

    The Lord of Zhou also led a large army to fight in person. The Southern Tang Dynasty could hold out in front of the Zhou army for much longer than the Northern Han Dynasty. What's more, the Northern Han Dynasty also had 100,000 cavalry from the Liao Kingdom to support it. It can be seen that the combat level of the Southern Tang Army was much higher than that of the Northern Han Dynasty.  The Northern Han Army, and when it comes to the core generals of the two countries, besides Lin Renzhao who died in the battle, isn't the Southern Tang himself?  Yang Ye of the Northern Han Dynasty may not be able to be ranked first. If you calculate it this way, in what way will you be worse than Yang Ye?  It happened that the people of Zhou were full of praise for Yang Ye, but they knew nothing about him!

    Yes, nothing!  According to the spying on the Zhou army in the east of Hedong over the years, those Zhou people praised Yang Ye to the sky, and even the Zhou people had great respect for Yelu Wuzhi, the king of the Northern Court of Liao who was defeated and died.  It is said that the defeat of the 100,000 Khitan cavalry was due to the mastermind of Zhou, but it was not because of Yelu Wuzhi's incompetence, but what about the demise of the Southern Tang Dynasty?  Those Zhou people would at most mention the loyal and brave Lin Renzhao who perished in the sea of ??fire, or even a certain Tang general who was smart enough to imitate Zhou firearms, but no one mentioned Huangfu Jixun!

    It's pitiful that he and his son, two generations of good generals, were relied upon as the Great Wall by the Tang Dynasty for a long time, but were so ignored by the Zhou people that they were treated like the mediocre generals of Hou Shu and Southern Han Dynasty. They were called "some miscellaneous generals of the enemy army"  , in fact, it doesn¡¯t even have a name!

    Fortunately, I was luckier than the generals of the Later Shu and Southern Han Dynasties. I neither died silently in the rebel army nor was I captured by the Zhou army and ended up living in the countryside. Instead, I was reborn in the Liao Kingdom. Now I have to  Let Zhou Jun see what happened to Huangfu Jixun who was completely ignored by them in the Guangwu Walled City!

    There was another roar in the Zhou Army Camp to the south. Under the clear sky, you could clearly see a puff of green smoke rising from the Zhou Army Camp. Four projectiles suddenly arrived and hit the city wall with a loud bang.  A puff of smoke and dust stirred up at the top of the city, but Huangfu Jixun just curled his lips in disdain.

    The skills stop here!

    Just after the bombardment, a rush of footsteps came from behind, and then the excited words of the Khitan army leader Yelu Kuowen were heard: "Deputy Envoy Jiedu, reinforcements from Shuozhou have arrived!"

    "What! Reinforcements from Shuozhou?" Huangfu Jixun was greatly surprised. This change in military situation was not what he expected. "How did you know it was reinforcements from Shuozhou? How many troops did they come?"

    Huangfu Jixun was very confident in his previous analysis. Besides, the edict of the Lord of Liao was still in his ears, "No needless troops are added to each city." How could Xiao Weili still risk the disapproval of the world?  Even if he is the brother-in-law of Lord Liao, he cannot act so boldly

    "They are really reinforcements from Shuozhou! The smoke and dust in the north were stirred up by Lao Gao. There are nearly ten thousand troops at least. They are less than ten miles away from our city. Their former army has arrived at the north gate and is calling the gatekeeper general to open the city.  I've gone to see it, and the person calling the door is a commander of Shuozhou Han'er Army, and the former army is a commander of Han'er Army, so there can be no mistake!"

    Yelu Kuowen didn't have as many twists and turns as Huangfu Jixun in his heart. He bent down and jumped from the opposite side of the horse road, and walked quickly towards Huangfu Jixun against the female wall, but he explained the whole story in his mouth.  Got to be clear.

    Huangfu Jixun frowned when he heard this and said hesitantly: "Nearly ten thousand troops came from Shuozhou? Didn't the emperor and the Northern and Southern Privy Councils have military orders not to increase troops without authorization to the cities along the border? Or has it been since the Zhou army?  After the invasion, this military order can be changed?"

    Hearing what Yelu Kuowen said so confidently, Huangfu Jixun couldn't help but have doubts about his ability to judge military strategies. Maybe his assessment was indeed wrong?

    It has to be said that Huangfu Jixun was seriously lacking in self-confidence after suffering repeated defeats against the Zhou army. However, since he came to the Liao Kingdom, he had compared with the Khitan people and the Han'er from the Liao Kingdom itself.  With his military experience, Huangfu Jixun regained his confidence and slowly gained confidence in his military abilities.  But now that the situation stated by Yelu Kuowen is so clear, he still?As for doubting the other party's ability to judge the size and direction of the army through smoke and dust, let alone doubting that the other party cannot recognize the generals of Shuozhou Han'er Army.

    ¡°Let¡¯s go and have a look!¡±

    Yelu Kuowen did not take the initiative to open the city without authorization, but came to report to him. This made Huangfu Jixun very satisfied. Since he had doubts in his heart and there was no pressure on the defenders in the south, he might as well go over and take a look.  To be continued.  .

    {Piaotia Literature www.piaotia.com thanks all book friends for their support, your support is our greatest motivation}
Didn't finish reading? Add this book to your favoritesI'm a member and bookmarked this chapterCopy the address of this book and recommend it to your friends for pointsChapter error? Click here to report