Chapter 711 0706 [The Art of Explosion]

Ever since the brothers Damingzhen surrendered to the Ming Dynasty with Haibin County, Li Bao began to strengthen the city wall here.

It had to be strengthened. Daming was the only city in the entire Liaoxi Corridor, and enemies would attack on both sides sooner or later.

Damingzhen and Damingyi surrendered because the Jin Kingdom did not have enough food, and they also asked Li Bao to transport more food to feed the salt workers and farmers in Haibin County.

Li Bao just used work instead of relief, so that the people who had no food to eat could come to build the city.

Because there were not enough civilians, soldiers also took turns to participate in the construction.

It took three or four months. Although the city wall of Haibin County was short and small, the thickness of the wall foundation was increased to nearly ten meters.

In terms of the thickness of the city wall, it was equivalent to the state capital in the Central Plains.

"Bang, bang, bang!"

The Huihui cannons of the Jin soldiers threw large stones and kept hitting.

The rammed earth on the outer layer of the city wall, which was more than three meters thick, was added in the past few months. It was hit by large stones and had potholes and cracks in all directions.

On the fourth day of being hit by the Huihui cannon, a large section of the outer wall even collapsed, revealing the original wall inside.

Shoddy construction!

There was no way, the reinforcement was hastily done, there were not enough people and materials. Moreover, there was a lack of ramming holes between the new and old walls, and it rained a lot in the past period of time, so it was normal for the new wall to be smashed down.

But the accuracy of the Huihui cannon was touching. It was impossible to aim at the same point to bombard the old wall inside after the new wall collapsed.

The Huihui cannon continued to hit for more than half a month, and the new walls of the east and west walls collapsed by nearly half, which was equivalent to destroying a large part of the outer armor of the city wall.

The old wall inside was almost not damaged.

Wanyan Zongbing was afraid that the Ming army would go out of the city to destroy the siege equipment, so he did not dare to divide his troops to set up a front enemy camp for construction. Even the Huihui cannon was transported out from the Jin army camp every day, assembled outside the city, dismantled in the afternoon and transported back to the camp.

Half of the time was consumed in transportation and disassembly, and the city wall was bombarded for only two or three hours a day.

Wanyan Zongwang brought a telescope, which made Wanyan Zongbing feel like he had found a treasure. He would personally use it to observe every day.

"The wall skin (new wall) collapsed the best in the section near the west gate," Wanyan Zongbing said, "It collapsed and became a slope. My warriors of the Great Jin can rush up the slope and climb to the top of the city with a short ladder."

Wanyan Talan said: "If we continue to use artillery carts to throw stones, it will probably take another month or two to knock down the old wall built by the Liao Kingdom. Don't wait until it collapses before attacking the city?"

Wanyan Zongbing said: "The food and grass were looted by Wuben (Wanyan Zonggan) from Goryeo. He transported a batch back to Liaoyang himself, and the rest was given to us to fight. Not only is there a fight here, but also the Great Wall at Zhenhaikou. If we delay for too long, there will be no food and soldiers."

Wanyan Talan frowned and said: "Why don't we concentrate Fight in one place?"

"It doesn't matter whether we concentrate or not in a siege," Wanyan Zongbing said, "The coastal county is too small. Even if there are 50,000 people here to attack the city, only those can be sent, and the rest of the troops can only watch from behind."

Wanyan Talai couldn't help but complain: "Eriduo (Wanyan Zongfu) hasn't been on the battlefield for several years. He doesn't know how difficult the Ming army is to deal with. It's not easy to recapture the coastal county, but he actually wants to start a war in two places and take down the Zhenhaikou Great Wall."

Wanyan Zongbing hasn't fought in three years. After careful consideration, he said: "Use artillery carts to bombard for another five days, select a few city walls to attack, and feint to attack the rest of the places to assist."

Five days passed in a flash.

The east and west towers had been smashed by the Huihui cannons of the Jin soldiers, and the best defensive arrow towers were also collapsed.

The siege officially began!

The Huihui cannons were assembled first, and stones were thrown to cover the advance of the siege troops.

The Jin soldiers were well prepared this time, and they also used the craftsmen abducted from Hebei to make many siege equipment invented by the Northern Song Dynasty.

There were not many people standing on the city wall. It was not until the Jin soldiers stopped bombing that Li Bao dispatched soldiers to quickly run up the city wall from the horse road to defend. Moreover, there was no plan to use thunder bombs for the time being, as there were only 800 of them for the time being.

The wood and fallen rocks had already piled up on the top of the city.

The gold juice had also been boiled into a semi-solid state, which was a mixture of feces, urine and various unknown substances. The salt workers who acted as civilians followed up and added water to the semi-dry and semi-dilute gold juice, then lit the firewood and started to heat and cook.

There was no hot oil prepared, and the materials were supplied across the sea, so vegetable oil was very precious.

At the beginning, all the soldiers who were thrown into the siege were Han people from the north and Khitan soldiers. These two ethnic groups had the largest population in the territory of the Jin Kingdom, and their social status was not high. They were used as siege cannon fodder every time.

The newly built outer wall collapsed, forming a rugged obstacle. Although it made the city wall much shorter, it also made it difficult for the Jin soldiers' large siege equipment to approach.

For things like ladders, they had to choose places where the outer wall had not collapsed in order to successfully hang the ladders on the city wall.

Just as the Jin soldiers turned the capstan and slowly extended the ladders, the defenders suddenly shouted in Chinese and Khitan:

"Han sons, don't work for the Jin people!"

"Khitan brothers, you won't be killed if you throw away your weapons!"

"The Jurchen soldiers dare not attack the city, only let you come to die!"

"..."

In the past two years of cross-sea harassment, Li Bao abducted and surrendered many Jin soldiers and civilians, and had already figured out the routines of the Jin soldiers' siege.

He knew that the first few waves of siege cannon fodder must be Han and Khitan people.

The Ming army soldiers defending the city shouted to persuade them to surrender while trying to kill them.

The first thing to be launched was a rocket, aimed at various siege equipment. The gunpowder mixed with rosin was shot at the siege equipment and continued to burn. As long as enough rockets were fired, one or two of the Jin soldiers' equipment would be ignited.

The first wave of Jin soldiers' attack was quickly repelled by rockets, falling rocks, wooden beams and ordinary bows and arrows.

Before the Ming army had time to leave the city to destroy the equipment, the second wave of Jin soldiers came again, pushing rows of parapet walls and approaching quickly.

The Jin soldiers hiding behind the parapet walls took over the abandoned siege equipment one by one.

This time, someone approached the top of the city wall and was poured back by the burning hot gold juice.

The battle lasted until the afternoon, and hundreds of Jin soldiers were killed and wounded.

"Linchong, there is Linchong over there, all the rockets are shot at Linchong!"

Li Bao personally sat in the watchtower in the city, and suddenly saw something with a telescope, and hurriedly ordered the nearby rocket soldiers to be mobilized.

Linchong was also called Lu Gongche in the Ming Dynasty. It took 20 to 30 people to push it. It was like a mobile building, with many siege soldiers hidden inside, and the top was built slightly higher than the city wall.

Although the Ming army still had many rockets, the archers' arms were weak from shooting.

Li Bao was afraid of accidents, so he asked the messenger to raise the flag and transfer a reserve team.

After thinking for a while, Li Bao said to a messenger: "You ride over and pass the order, let the thunder and fire soldiers throw thunder bombs on the Linchong!"

The Jin soldiers' Linchongs had been covered with sackcloth. At this time, the sackcloth was suddenly uncovered. Li Bao discovered them after pushing them out more than ten meters.

The messenger rode wildly on his horse, rushed up the city wall from the horse road, and shouted along the troop transport channel: "Listen, thunder and fire soldiers, throw thunder bombs on the Linchong!"

The so-called thunder and fire soldiers are the name Li Bao gave to the grenadiers.

He selected a group of strong ones to throw thunder bombs.

The Linchongs were still far away at this time, and the thunder and fire soldiers had plenty of time to prepare.

Wanyan Zongbi did not have Hezhameng'an in his hand. In order to attack the city this time, he selected the most courageous warriors, each wearing two layers of medium-sized armor. Some were arranged in the Linchong, and some were hidden behind the Xingnu Wall.

When Linchong approached the city wall, the warriors of the Jin Kingdom behind the Xingnu Wall also carried out the flying ladder and rushed up the slope formed by the collapsed outer wall.

Arrows fell on the Jin soldiers wearing double armor, making a continuous clanging sound, but the damage caused was extremely limited.

"Jin Juice, Jin Juice, carry it over!"

As the boiling mixture of feces and urine poured down, the Jin warriors who were climbing screamed.

Da Yan (biàn) took advantage of the fact that the Ming army had just poured two waves of gold juice and led his personal soldiers to leave the Xingnu Wall.

This Da Yan, also known as Da and Tabuye, was born into a Bohai noble family in Liaoyang and was adopted by Aguda as his son.

Among all the Bohai people, Da Yan ranked first in terms of military exploits.

He was not only Aguda's adopted son, but also had the support of the Liaoyang Da family. He also made countless military exploits, so at this time he was already a Wanhu of the Jin Kingdom. Later, he even became the right prime minister of the Jin Kingdom and was named the Prince of Shenlu by Wanyan Liang.

Wanyan Zongbing spent a lot of money to let a Wanhu risk his life to climb first.

However, Da Yan was wearing three layers of armor, with a mask and a collar on his helmet. He looked no different from a heavily armored soldier when fully armed. But he ran fast on the rugged slope. Two personal soldiers helped him hold the flying ladder firmly, and he climbed quickly under arrows and spears.

Li Bao was on the watchtower in the city, and could not see the elite hidden in the Xingnu Wall under the city.

The front-line commander reacted quickly and sent thunder and fire soldiers to move to several elite enemy troops.

The Jin soldiers wearing two or three layers of armor were qualified to enjoy the thunder!

Da Yan grabbed the flying ladder with one hand and blocked with a short weapon with the other. He was almost stabbed down by the spear several times, but he continued to climb despite the attack of the Ming army.

At this moment, he caught a glimpse of something falling.

It was a round lump, which seemed to be a falling rock, but it was thrown a little crooked and could not hit him at all.

Da Yan used his hands and feet to climb up again.

Just as he was about to turn over and climb up the city wall, a loud "bang" sounded from below. Da Yan had no idea what was happening, and he fell down because the ladder he was standing on was blown off.

Several elite Jin soldiers wearing double armor below had their legs broken by the thunder bomb because the bomb fell at their feet.

The nearby Jin soldiers were stunned by the explosion. They neither continued to attack nor forgot to escape immediately, but stood there stupidly.

Da Yan climbed higher and was not affected by the explosion. The three layers of armor also prevented sporadic shrapnel.

He fell down and struggled to get up dizzy.

"Hurry up and save Wan Hu!"

More personal soldiers rushed up the slope to rescue regardless of danger, trying to take Da Yan away from the battlefield first.

As soon as these personal soldiers rushed up, another thunder bomb fell.

"Boom!"

Aguda's adopted son, Wanhu of the Bohai tribe, future Jin Guo Jun Wang and right prime minister Da Yan, had one leg blown off and the other leg fractured.

A large number of personal soldiers who rushed over also fell down.

"Ah... my legs!"

Da Yan was not dead yet. It was not until more than ten seconds later that he felt severe pain in his legs, and then found that one of his legs was gone, and the other leg was folded towards the crotch at a strange angle.

Wanyan Zongbing was watching the scene of the first landing with a telescope. He thought about it repeatedly before coming up with this siege plan.

Wanyan Zongbing witnessed the two explosions.

"What is this...what is this?" Wanyan Zongbing was so scared that he was trembling when he spoke.