Chapter 647 0642 [King Yaksha]

When Han Xin attacked Zhao, he gathered troops and stored food in Yuguan.

In the same year that the Northern Song Dynasty destroyed the Northern Han Dynasty, the Pingdingjun City was built on the original site of Yuguan to prevent anyone in Shanxi from daring to rebel again.

There were many strongholds around the military city, which were successively taken down by Zhang Guangdao.

For example, Baijing City in the east, also known as Baijing Village, Baijing Village, and Xitianmen, was forcibly captured by Zhang Guangdao last year, cutting off the southern passage between Pingdingjun City and Jingxing.

There was a stronghold in Heishaling in the northwest, commonly known as Nantianmen, which was also taken down this year.

Pingdingjun is now an isolated city. Because the city wall is too strong, the Huihui artillery hit it for a month, but only a few cracks were made.

The real gain is that the city tower and arrow tower were knocked down!

Zhang Guangdao tried many methods, but in the end he relied on the large number of soldiers to fill the moat and advance little by little. Using siege equipment to cover the infantry's advance, they built two lines of chariot defense dozens of meters outside the city, and then asked the soldiers and civilians to build high platforms.

During the process of building the platform, the defenders in the city found that archery was useless, and they tried to destroy the fortifications at night many times.

However, there were always troops taking turns to defend behind the chariots and the high platforms, and the defenders could not break through the defense at all.

More than 60 10-meter high platforms were built outside the city little by little.

Two wooden cannons were set up on top of each high platform, aiming at the top of the city wall dozens of meters away. This tactic has existed since ancient times, but in the past, catapults were set up and archers were deployed, which could only suppress the defenders with limited firepower.

The Pingding defender was Wanyan Saba, the son of Wanyan Wulu and the nephew of Wanyan Sagai.

Seeing that the earthen platforms outside the city were getting higher and higher, he had already ordered the removal of the door panels of the entire city, and planted them behind the parapet to prevent arrows, and moved a lot of furniture to hold the door panels against them for fixing.

"You lead the troops to guard this side!" Wanyan Saba said to a Han general.

The Han general immediately knelt down and accepted the order: "Even if I die, I will die here!"

"Very good." Wanyan Saba nodded and smiled.

The Han general was a Han Chinese from the Liao Dynasty, named Dong Cai.

He first led the refugees to revolt in Yizhou, and fought again and again after repeated defeats. He fled from Hebei to Shanxi and turned the Shanxi territory of the Liao Dynasty into a mess.

Then he surrendered to the Song Dynasty, and was given the name Zhao Xu by Song Huizong, who instigated Song Huizong to attack the Liao Dynasty.

Song Huizong settled Dong Cai in Shanxi and let him continue to lead his old subordinates.

However, Dong Cai's military rations were withheld for a long time, and he himself was discriminated against by Song officials. Soldiers and their families occupied a large amount of Shanxi grain taxes because of the court's grant of land, and had a bad relationship with the local people in Shanxi.

In fact, most of these grains were embezzled by civil and military officials of the Song Dynasty. But the people of Shanxi were heavily taxed, and they vented their grievances on Dong Cai. After all, they were outsiders, and the soldiers had poor military discipline because of hunger.

From generals to soldiers to their families, Dong Cai's troops suffered humiliation in Shanxi.

When the Jin Kingdom came, Dong Cai's troops were short of food and clothing, so they turned to Wanyan Zonghan and helped the Jin soldiers to capture cities and territories.

In Dong Cai's view, Wanyan Zonghan was a wise leader who had never treated him badly and valued him. The Liao Kingdom and the Song Kingdom were all bastards, the Han people in Shanxi were also bastards, and the Ming Dynasty must also be bastards.

Teams of old Liao Han followed Dong Cai to guard the city wall, ready to fight the Ming army again.

They were all poor people who rebelled because they were forced to live by the Liao Kingdom. They refused to surrender after being defeated again and again, and they were only pretending to surrender when they were recruited by the Liao Kingdom. They hated the Liao Dynasty court, and later hated the Song Dynasty court.

From the beginning to the end, they were all for survival!

"Boom boom boom!"

Sixty wooden cannons, on a high platform dozens of meters away, fired stone bullets at the top of the city one after another.

Instead of using shotgun shells, they fired stone shells slightly smaller than fists.

A large number of door panels used to protect against arrows were knocked down, and some were even shattered, with wood fragments splashing onto the soldiers behind.

"Ah, my eyes!"

"Dad, Dad... your neck is bleeding!"

"..."

On the city wall, Dong Cai's soldiers screamed.

In order to hide his strength, Zhang Guangdao never used more than 300 wooden cannons in battle after they were built.

The enemy was defenseless!

Dong Cai's cheek was also splashed with sawdust, leaving a narrow bloody wound. He shouted hoarsely: "Hide behind the parapet, don't move!"

"Boom boom boom!"

Another 60 wooden cannons were fired immediately, but this time they were loaded with small stone shotgun shells.

Some panicked defenders were shot without knowing why. Some were killed on the spot, but many were only injured with broken bones. The power of the wooden cannons firing shotgun shells was still too small.

After two rounds of shooting, the wooden cannons were reloading quickly. Dong Cai actually took advantage of this gap to calm his soldiers.

Although they were still in a panic, no one ran around soon. They all carefully hid behind the parapet, waiting for the next city defense battle.

These guys, like Guo Yaoshi's old subordinates, were all veterans who had survived many battles.

Yao Pingzhong stood on the high platform and saw clearly through the telescope. He couldn't understand it at all. He muttered: "We are all Han people. Why are we working so hard for the Jin Kingdom? Only by surrendering to the Ming Dynasty can we have a future."

Two more rounds of artillery fire, almost to no avail.

Even if the stone bullets fired by the wooden cannon hit the parapet, it would be difficult to knock down the thin parapet. The defenders hid behind the parapet. As long as they didn't stand up, they were not afraid of artillery shells.

One siege machine after another was pushed out, ladders, nest cars, battering rams, parapets... slowly advancing from behind the earth platform. With the cover of the wooden cannons, the soldiers moved away the chariot defense line they had set up and walked towards the city wall slowly.

The defenders were suppressed by the wooden cannons and could hardly raise their heads, and could not fire rockets at these machines.

When the wooden cannon stopped firing, the nest car was gradually approaching.

As the name suggests, the nest car is a small wooden house like a bird's nest. It is hung on a wooden pole higher than the city wall. Archers hide in the wooden house and suppress the defenders on the city wall at close range.

For fear of accidentally injuring friendly forces, the wooden cannon dared not fire, and now they rely on the nest car to shoot arrows.

"Order, fire rockets!"

Dong Cai gave an order, and the archers guarding the city began to look for braziers.

Most of the braziers were knocked over by shells or fallen wooden boards, and only a few were dragged behind the parapet.

Sporadic rockets were fired, but they could not ignite the nest car because it was still covered with a layer of skin, and the number of rockets was too small.

"Raise the ladder!"

The cloud ladder is also like a chariot, with a carriage and wheels below.

The soldiers hid in the carriage, and there was a baffle in front, and they were pushed by the auxiliary soldiers, including the auxiliary soldiers, to move.

Before they were close to the city wall, the auxiliary soldiers began to turn the capstan.

The folded long ladder, as the capstan turned, was buckled towards the city wall little by little, and the iron hook grabbed the top of the wall fiercely.

This kind of cloud ladder has a small slope, so it is not afraid of boiling oil and gold juice. There are also upright wood on both sides to prevent the wood from rolling down.

Once this kind of cloud ladder is buckled on the city wall, there is a great chance to attack it, and it depends on whether the first person to climb can gain a foothold.

Under normal circumstances, the cloud ladder is often attacked by the rockets of the defenders before it is halfway. But this time the Ming army had the cover of wooden cannons, and then the cover of nest cars, and pushed the cloud ladder over very smoothly.

The soldiers came out of the cloud ladder carriage, put on armor and began to climb.

The nest car archers tried their best to shoot the defenders, but there were still many defenders who used three or four meter long spears to poke the attacking Ming army down.

There was a ladder that organized two attacks and both were repelled. A dark-skinned strong man roared: "Follow me, we must climb first today!"

This strong man is called Wang De. In another time and space, he also has a nickname called "Wang Yaksha".

Wang De was seen climbing quickly in a strong armor. Two consecutive pieces of wood rolled down, but they were blocked by the ladder's anti-challenge device.

When he approached the top of the city about three meters, several long spears stabbed at him, and three arrows were inserted into his body one after another.

With two long spears against his body at the same time, the defenders desperately pushed Wang De down. Wang De grabbed the ladder with one hand and tried to grab the long spear with the other hand, holding the spear shaft and dragging him down.

After grabbing one long spear, he tried to grab another one. The defender grabbed it desperately, but was pulled off the top of the city by Wang De with the spear.

Another defender came to fill the position and stabbed Wang De in the face with a spear. He lowered his head and blocked it with his helmet, climbed up with both hands, and rushed in from the battlement.

At this time, Wang De had no time to draw his weapon. He grabbed the defender in front of him, swung it horizontally, and turned around to smash it.

After knocking down three people in a row, Wang De threw away the enemy who had fainted, took off the iron mace on his waist and rushed forward.

The Ming army's nest car completely stopped shooting arrows, and the defenders of this section of the city wall were finally able to move freely, and a reserve team was dispatched to reinforce the defense.

Four long spears stabbed at the same time, Wang De only avoided one and split one, and the remaining two long spears stabbed him hard.

"Crack!"

Wang De broke the long spear in front of him, and rushed into the crowd fearlessly, killing the defenders and retreating one after another.

The second Ming soldier had followed Wang De to climb the city, followed by the third, fourth, and fifth...

Dong Cai saw that he could not defend even with the reserve team, so he had to come with his own soldiers.

He was proud of his bravery, raised his spear and stabbed it hard on Wang De's armor.

Wang De felt a sharp pain in his chest. Although the armor was not broken, the force was still uncomfortable. When Dong Cai stabbed with the second spear, Wang De grabbed the spear before he could put it away.

Dong Cai used both hands to exert force, while Wang De only used his left hand.

In a flash, Wang De dragged the spear back. Dong Cai was dragged forward and quickly let go of the spear, drew his waist knife and killed Wang De.

"Come on!"

Wang De did not dodge, risking being hit by the waist knife, and smashed Dong Cai's head with an iron mace.

Dong Cai hurriedly dodged, feeling that he could not completely avoid it, and subconsciously put away the knife to block horizontally.

"Dang!"

The sword and mace met, and due to the excessive force, the waist knife was directly broken.

Wang De stepped forward, ignoring the spear stabbing from the side, and swung another mace fiercely.

"Dang!"

The iron mace hit Dong Cai's helmet. The head of this battle-hardened leader of the old Liao Han army, under the protection of the helmet, had been smashed into a ball of paste.

Wang De was so excited about the battle and was stabbed by the spear that he actually grabbed Dong Cai who was about to fall, lifted him up with one hand and threw him at the enemy.

Zhang Guangdao's men were also attacking, but no one could climb the city first.

He stood on the high platform and observed with a telescope. He witnessed Wang De's process of climbing the city and said to himself in amazement: "This man is the bravest among the three armies. Yao Pingzhong actually has such a fierce general under his command!"