Chapter 292 Song Dynasty Has Guns

In late August of the fourth year of the Qingli reign, the Western Xia army led an army of 100,000 to raid Qingtang.

Their vanguard also brought more than ten artillery pieces.

In the first year of the Kangding reign, the artillery pieces of the Song army appeared on the battlefield of the Song and Liao dynasties for the first time, and they shone brightly.

After that, the Song and Liao dynasties, and the Song and Xia dynasties signed treaties one after another, and the Liao and Western Xia dynasties began to spare no effort to get artillery and grenades.

The grenades were okay. In the first year of the Kangding reign, whether they were duds left on the battlefield or secretly purchased from the Song military later, the Liao and Xia dynasties were able to get a lot.

But artillery pieces were not okay.

Because from the end of the war in the first year of the Kangding reign to the two years before the second year of the Qingli reign, the Song dynasty had only more than 200 artillery pieces in total.

And they were all copper cannons, each of which was expensive and only supplied to special elite troops. These troops were strictly controlled and almost impossible to sell secretly.

The turning point began in the second year of the Qingli reign, when Zhao Jun built a steel plant and used converters to make steel, which greatly increased steel production. After the application of steel, cannons were manufactured in a gusher-like manner.

In the second half of that year alone, the Song Dynasty built more than 400 steel cannons.

In the third year of the Qingli period, the situation was even more exaggerated, with more than 1,000 cannons built. By the beginning of the fourth year of the Qingli period, almost all the border cities of Hebei Road and Shaanxi Road were filled with cannons, which was terrifying.

Such large-scale production of cannons naturally had loopholes. At that time, Zhao Jun had not reorganized the army, so there were many cases of private sale of military equipment.

The Liao Kingdom and the Western Xia Kingdom got a lot of cannons from the Song Dynasty military at that time, but because they could not make steel, they could only make wrought iron cannons.

The Liao Kingdom was fine, imitating black gunpowder, grenades and cannons, and now it can be regarded as having a certain firearms strength.

The Western Xia Kingdom was in trouble.

Due to the lack of raw material sulfur, the cannons in hand were only more than 50 wrought iron cannons in addition to a few steel cannons secretly bought from the Song Dynasty army.

It's not that Xixia lacks iron. In fact, Xixia's smelting and forging technology are not bad. Otherwise, history would not record that the Song Dynasty's swords and spears could not pierce the armor of the Xixia people in the war with Xixia.

It's really that the black gunpowder made from that little sulfur is not enough. The inventory of grenades is only tens of thousands, which shows how scarce the sulfur raw materials in Xixia are.

That is to say, the Liao Kingdom has invested a lot of money this time, not only giving a lot of money, but also a lot of sulfur. Li Yuanhao may not dare to send troops.

However, the sulfur is indeed on the way, but has not been delivered yet. He is also worried that the Song Dynasty will reorganize the military as soon as possible. Li Yuanhao also wants to take advantage of the weakness of the Song Dynasty army and send troops immediately to take Qingtang.

Li Yuanhao has already figured out the situation in Qingtang.

The Song Dynasty did not sell a cannon to Zuosiluo, not even a grenade. It is obvious that Zuosiluo wants to become dependent on the Song Dynasty and completely tie the Qingtang regime to the Song Dynasty chariot.

On the Qinfeng Road side, only Qinzhou, which is Tianshui City in the future, has more than 30 cannons in reserve.

The rest of the cannons are either in the hands of Fan Zhongyan's firearms army or deployed in the border cities of Hebei and Shaanxi Road. Lanzhou City cannot have cannons.

So Li Yuanhao was relieved and bold to send troops.

In his view, it was not a problem to take Lanzhou City. After taking Lanzhou, he would set up a defense line in Lanzhou and then immediately raid Xining to the west.

If the Song army attacked, he could not resist it and immediately withdrew his troops.

Then according to the original retreat, he said that it was justified to send troops to Qingtang on the grounds that Xixia only signed a peace agreement with the Song Dynasty, and then accused the Song Dynasty of tearing up the treaty by taking the lead.

I think Zhao Zhen is a man of face, and there is probably nothing he can do to him.

If the Song army attacked, he not only resisted it, but also defeated the Song army, which would be interesting.

This means that there was a big problem with the military governance of the Song army this time, and the army's combat effectiveness was low. Then Li Yuanhao could find out the strength of the Song Dynasty and immediately unite with the Liao Kingdom to annex the Song Dynasty in the south.

This is a plan to kill two birds with one stone.

What he never expected was that there were suddenly dozens of artillery pieces on Gaolan Mountain in the south of Lanzhou City.

Just looking at the firing frequency, Li Yuanhao judged that there were at least thirty or more.

This scared him a lot.

At the end of the morning, after two days of running around, the Xixia people first arrived north of Dongyuguan at noon yesterday.

Then they went east along the north bank of the Yellow River and crossed the river in the area of ​​Xigu District, Lanzhou in the future.

They started to attack Lanzhou this morning.

However, the defenders in Lanzhou City were tenacious and had artillery, which beat his vanguard army to pieces.

If it weren't for the fact that the west city of Lanzhou was a vast plain area with spacious space, I'm afraid his front army and the middle army might have been rolled back by the vanguard army.

"What's going on? Why are there so many cannons?"

Located about ten miles outside the west city of Lanzhou, in the front army of Xixia, Li Yuanhao suddenly heard many cannons and was shocked.

He naturally brought all the more than fifty cannons this time, but the problem is that the vanguard only brought twelve.

Just by the sound, there must be forty or fifty cannons on the front battlefield.

Where are there so many cannons?

"My king!"

At this time, the scouts sent back by the generals in the front came to report in a hurry: "The enemy deployed thirty cannons on the mountain and caught us off guard!"

"This is impossible!"

Li Yuanhao said in astonishment: "There are no cannons in Lanzhou City."

"They must have placed them on the mountain."

The general next to him said: "My king, cannons are most afraid of close combat, let's go around and attack immediately!"

"Okay!"

Li Yuanhao agreed, and he must go to see the situation on the battlefield now.

The army continued to move forward.

As a result, after walking for more than ten minutes, when he was still seven or eight miles away from Lanzhou City and about three or four miles away from his vanguard army, he saw continuous explosions in front of him.

Then the vanguard army finally couldn't hold on and began to retreat.

At this time, there was no need to attack. He immediately ordered to intercept the defeated vanguard army and reorganize them into formation.

"Run!"

"Shenwei Tian is angry."

"This is the punishment of the gods!"

Many Uighur, Uighur, and Tatar small tribesmen shouted in fear and galloped away.

Not only them, but even the Tangut officers who controlled them in the army couldn't stand it, and they also ran around in panic with them.

There was no way.

First, their cannons couldn't hit the mountains.

Second, Wang Shiyun's small steel cannons couldn't compete with others in distance and power on flat ground, but after the range made up on the mountain, the advantage of firing rate was reflected.

In the past, whether it was a gun or a cannon, it was a muzzle-loading design, and bullets and shells had to be stuffed into the barrel and poked into it with a milling tube.

But the cannon needed to increase its power and range, and the barrel was very long, so the reloading speed was very slow.

It was good to fire three to five rounds a minute.

The barrel of the small steel cannon was shorter than that of the cannon, and the shells could be stuffed into it at once, so the firing rate was naturally much faster.

Under the continuous bombardment, the Uighur, Uighur, and Tatar tribes, whose morale was not high to begin with, could not bear it at all. Not to mention people, the horses all fled in all directions, unable to resist.

Li Yuanhao was extremely anxious when he saw this, but there was no point in being anxious, so he could only order his generals and officers to go and reorganize the troops immediately.

He himself looked around, and his eyes finally fell on Gaolan Mountain in the distance.

The mountains were high and the forests were dense, and silver light could be vaguely seen on the cliff halfway up the mountain, and it seemed that some almost invisible black spots were looking at this side.

The distance between the two sides was too far, at least more than ten miles, or even twenty miles. Even if the plain area had a wide field of vision, without a telescope, it was impossible to see what was there.

"My king, I will lead my men to go around and kill the mountain. I don't believe there are still many soldiers and horses hidden in the mountain."

Some generals also noticed it and immediately asked Li Yuanhao for orders.

Li Yuanhao did not agree immediately, his eyes showed deep thought, but at this moment, the gate of Lanzhou City in the distance opened, and countless Tubo soldiers rushed out.

This made the battlefield even more chaotic.

Seeing this, Li Yuanhao was worried that there was an ambush in the city, so he could only say: "Retreat quickly!"

"Retreat quickly!"

The surrounding generals also shouted hurriedly.

For a while, the two sides chased and fled, and there was no fighting. Soon Li Yuanhao's army retreated like a tide, and even the cannons brought by the vanguard were seized.

The Xixia army retreated more than 30 miles, which is almost the distance from Xigu District to Chengguan District in Lanzhou City in later generations.

As night fell, tens of thousands of troops were forced to set up camp.

This time, Li Yuanhao brought 50,000 people. Of the 100,000 troops, 20,000 were stationed in Zhuoluo City as a reserve army, and the other 30,000 were stationed at the river mouth to prevent the rear from coming to help if Lanzhou was not taken in a short time.

Unexpectedly, according to the report of the spies who disguised themselves as merchants and sneaked into Lanzhou City, Lanzhou, which should have only 5,000 defenders, no firearms, and no cannons, actually had such a strong firepower.

And the enemy dared to go out of the city to fight, which forced the suspicious Li Yuanhao to retreat back, in doubt.

At night, tents stood in the wilderness plain.

In the big tent in the middle, Li Yuanhao held a military meeting with everyone.

Candles were lit in the tent. Although Xixia was a small country, some resources were relatively scarce, but paraffin mines were available.

Resin and paraffin were often used to make candles in the Song Dynasty. Although the smell was a bit unpleasant, it was not difficult for them, the dignitaries, to add some spices to the materials.

The candlelight in the room was dim, and Li Yuanhao's face, which was slightly lowered, was also hidden in the darkness, which made people feel a little uneasy and fearful.

He was silent for a long time, and then suppressed his anger and said: "Who can tell me what's going on? Didn't the scout report that there were only 5,000 defenders in the city and no cannons?"

"This"

General Fang Dangqiu Hu hesitated and said: "But all the scouts who entered the city are like this. Could it be that Zuo Silu bought cannons from the Song army during this period?"

"I don't think so. There must be a trick."

Another general Fei Tinggu said: "How did An Ziluo know that we would come? How dare he go out of the city to fight? I suspect it."

He looked at Zhang Yuan, who had been silent beside him, and said: "I suspect there are spies in the army."

Li Yuanhao immediately looked at Zhang Yuan suspiciously.

Zhang Yuan smiled bitterly and said, "Your Majesty, I think there are no spies."

"Oh?"

Li Yuanhao said without comment, "Tell me."

"If there were spies, could we cross the river safely like this? They only need to set up cannons at the mouth of the river and attack us halfway across the river, and our army will suffer heavy losses."

Zhang Yuan explained patiently, "Moreover, if Your Majesty defeats the enemy, they will also pursue the victory, so there is nothing wrong with An Ziruo going out of the city to fight and hunt us down."

"Then how do you explain this cannon?"

Li Yuanhao asked.

"Your Majesty, don't forget the Song army."

"Are you talking about the Song army outside Lanzhou?"

"Yes."

Zhang Yuan said: "Before our spies found that they only had more than 2,000 people and no cannons, but what if cannons were delivered right after the spies' investigation? Now the Song Dynasty has more than a thousand cannons. It is possible to make a few more this year and send them to the military camp."

"I"

Li Yuanhao was speechless for a moment.

It was true.

His scouts had indeed investigated Wang Shiyun's troops.

However, he did not dare to attack the Song army directly.

He was afraid that if any of the Song scouts were leaked, what awaited him was that the Song State would accuse him of breaking the alliance, and then the main force of the army would go directly to Xixia.

So he could only attack Lanzhou.

Who knows if Wang Shiyun's troops did not have cannons before, but now they are equipped with them?

If that were the case, I would not know where to go to make sense.

"Even if that is the case, Lanzhou City now has cannons, what should we do?"

Fei Tinggu said.

Zhang Yuan said solemnly: "Your Majesty, I think there are only 5,000 people in Lanzhou City, and at most 2,000 Song troops. We attacked Qingtang. Since the Song army took the initiative to attack us, it means that Song State has torn up the contract. In the future, if Song State asks us, we will be on our side. There is no need to worry. The most important thing now is to find a way to break the city."

"Do you have any ideas?"

Li Yuanhao asked.

"I saw today that they are attacking westward from the mountain south of Lanzhou City. We are naturally within their range if we attack from west to east, but what if we attack from north to south?"

Zhang Yuan said.

"Oh?"

Li Yuanhao thought for a while, and then said happily: "The military advisor is still smart. Now that we have just been defeated and morale is low, we will attack from the north city after a day of rest."

"Then why don't we attack that mountain and shoot down the cannons on the mountain?"

Someone asked.

Zhang Yuan patiently explained: "The mountain is steep. If we attack the mountain in reverse, they will fire cannons from the mountain, and we will suffer a great loss. Therefore, we only need to attack from north to south, and their cannons will be useless."

The ancient Lanzhou City was not on the Yellow River, but at the foot of Gaolan Mountain, about ten miles away from the Yellow River. The drinking water for life depended on the Agan River, which is the Leitan River in Lanzhou in later generations.

So if we attack from north to south, Lanzhou does not have the natural barrier of the Yellow River. There is an endless plain area to the north, which is very easy to fight.

If the Western Xia army attacks from the west, the cannons of Gaolan Mountain in the south do not need to cross Lanzhou City, but fly directly from the wilderness in the northwest to hit their positions.

But if we attack from north to south, the shells will have to fly over the sky of Lanzhou City, which may not only accidentally injure Lanzhou City, but also be farther away.

It is several miles from Lanzhou to Gaolan Mountain, and several miles from north to south of Lanzhou City, plus the Western Xia army must have run several miles away.

All in all, it is probably more than twenty miles.

No matter how powerful the Song army's artillery is, it can't shoot more than 20 miles.

Therefore, attacking from north to south is indeed easier.

Everyone understood, and Li Yuanhao decided to rest first and launch a general attack on Lanzhou the day after tomorrow.

While the Xixia army was analyzing the situation, the Song army was also analyzing it.

In Lanzhou City, Wang Shiyun and An Ziluo discussed countermeasures.

"When will the reinforcements arrive?"

An Ziluo asked anxiously.

"Lanzhou is more than 200 miles away from the military camp, but there are our beacon towers along the way. We have already lit the beacon fire, and I think it will arrive the day after tomorrow at the latest."

Wang Shiyun replied.

In history, during the reign of Emperor Shenzong, the Qingtang regime was slowly annexed and a large number of fortresses were built on the border.

But there is no such fortress at this time. The nearest one is Guweizhai, which is more than 300 miles away from Lanzhou.

However, Fan Zhongyan adopted Zhao Jun's suggestion and built a large number of beacon towers on the border to quickly transmit the message.

This thing is much faster than sending messages on horseback. Almost as soon as the battle started, Wang Shiyun had people light the beacon tower.

The terrain of the northern part of the Saibei is open, with many hills and mountains. The beacon tower is built on the hills. As long as it doesn't rain, the green smoke can be seen from 20 to 30 miles away.

So in about an hour, relying on the beacon tower to send messages, Guwei Village has already learned the news, and the chief supervisor of Guwei Village will lead troops to help as soon as possible.

"I'm afraid that the Western bandits will attack tomorrow."

An Ziluo sighed.

The nearest reinforcements are the Song army, but Guwei Village has few people, only three armies, about 7,000 people, and one of them is controlled by Wang Shiyun in Lanzhou.

And Zuo Siluo is in Qingtang, hundreds of miles away, and it is even more impossible for him to come to help as soon as possible. Now they are trapped in an isolated city with thousands of people.

Wang Shiyun comforted him, "Don't worry. The Western bandits were defeated today and their morale is low. Li Yuanhao should not rush to attack. The only thing to worry about now is that they attack from the north city, which is dangerous."

"Why?"

An Ziluo was puzzled.

"I saw it on the mountain today. It is too far from the north city. If the Western bandits still have cannons, our cannons on the mountain cannot reach them, and it is easy to accidentally hurt the city. If they are placed on the city wall, they will not be able to hit them either."

Wang Shiyun explained, "Their cannons can shoot more than ten miles, and our cannons can only shoot three or four miles, unless they continue to attack from the west city like today."

An Ziluo hurriedly said, "Today we seized nine of their cannons and a lot of shells."

"Put them on the city first, and I'll think of a way."

Wang Shiyun fell into deep thought.

Night fell, and soon a day passed.

In the evening of the next day, the official road east of Lanzhou City was dusty.

"Hurry, hurry, hurry!"

Thousands of war horses galloped, led by a sturdy bearded man, who was Sun Guangyi, the chief of the Guwei Village.

The defenders on the Lanzhou city in the distance saw the flag of the Song army and did not open the gate immediately.

It was not until Wang Shiyun saw Sun Guangyi on the top of the city that he immediately ordered the city to be opened, and a large group of soldiers rushed in.

"General Sun."

Wang Shiyun and An Ziluo went to meet him.

Sun Guangyi smiled and said, "I'm not late."

"Just in time."

Wang Shiyun smiled, then asked in confusion, "General, you came so quickly, did you bring the cannon?"

He sent the message yesterday at noon, and by this afternoon, about fifteen hours had passed, which is about thirty hours.

It is normal for cavalry to arrive overnight if they travel day and night for a distance of three hundred miles, such as Cao Cao sent the Tiger and Leopard Cavalry to chase Liu Bei, more than three hundred miles in a day and night.

The problem is that the small steel cannon must be brought.

In this case, the speed is much slower, so Wang Shiyun speculated that they would arrive tomorrow.

Who knew it would be so fast.

"What cannons? Do you know what I picked up on the road?"

Sun Guangyi smiled.

"What?"

Wang Shiyun was puzzled.

Sun Guangyi pointed to the two young officers behind him and said, "I picked them up."

The young officer bowed and said, "Zeng Yong, the commander of the third battalion of the Dragon Meng Corps' Tokyo Firearms, greets the general!"

Another person also bowed and said, "Zhang Wenwu, the commander of the fourth battalion of the Dragon Meng Corps' Tokyo Firearms, greets the general!"

Firearm Battalion?

Even Wang Shiyun knew the other party's reputation at the border.

In fact, Wang Shiyun and Sun Guangyi were investigated by the envoy sent from Bianliang last month.

Neither of them committed crimes or colluded with the enemy, so the envoy was very satisfied. Not only was he friendly, but he also told them a lot about Tokyo.

It is said that this firearm battalion was organized and built by Mr. Fan and Mr. Zhang last year. 50,000 elite soldiers were drawn from the army and divided into ten corps, each with 5,000 people. It has strong combat effectiveness and is the national treasure of the Song Dynasty.

This time, the whole army was reorganized. Envoys were sent from all places to strictly inspect the army and rectify military discipline. In order to prevent the invasion of Xixia and Liao, the court specially sent 35,000 people from the Firearms Battalion to guard the border. Among them, 20,000 were in Hebei Road and 15,000 were in Shaanxi Road.

I didn't expect to meet two battalions of 1,000 people this time.

Sun Guangyi introduced: "The two of them were ordered to go north to Huining to guard. When they passed by Guwei Village, I happened to see the beacon you sent, so I immediately asked them to come to help."

"How many cannons did you bring?"

Wang Shiyun asked hurriedly.

Cannons?

Zeng Yong and Zhang Wenwu looked at each other and laughed, "No one."

"No cannon? What should we do then?"

Wang Shiyun said worriedly, "I don't know when the Western bandits also made cannons. Although they are not as good as ours, their range is much longer than ours."

"No problem."

Zhang Wenwu took out a thin object from behind and patted it, saying, "We have guns!"

"Gun?"

Wang Shiyun looked up and down and said, "Is this considered a gun?"

Although the musket was successfully manufactured two years ago, it has always been a secret. From manufacturing to formal mass production, only the Firearms Battalion has it.

Zeng Yong said, "General, if you don't believe it, we will let the Western bandits know how powerful we are when they invade in the future."

"Let's go into the city first."

An Ziluo hurriedly greeted them.

At that moment, Wang Shiyun took Sun Guangyi and others into the city first.

After entering the city, everyone gathered in the city lord's mansion.

They briefly told a few people about the current situation.

The current military strength is very different. Even if Sun Guangyi and his men come, the Qingtang and Song coalition forces only have more than 10,000 people, while the enemy has 100,000.

So Wang Shiyun suggested installing the captured Xixia cannons on the mountain, so that the cannons plus the range of the high mountains can shoot at the enemy positions.

The only problem is that it is easy for them to bring a small cannon weighing more than 100 kilograms up the mountain, but it is difficult to bring a cannon weighing more than 2,000 kilograms.

The mountain road is rugged and difficult to travel, and it is difficult to bring this cannon up.

However, Zhang Wenwu and Zeng Yong rejected their proposal. They suggested placing the cannons on the city wall and facing the enemy. They will launch a surprise attack from the flank after the battle.

Because it is difficult to turn the cannon, not to mention that the opponent will definitely place the cannon in front of the formation for long-range shooting, as long as they attack from the side or rear, the side and rear are all Xixia troops, and the enemy will not be able to use cannons to hit them.

At that time, Zhang Wenwu and Zeng Yong will let the Xixia army taste the power of muskets.

Wang Shiyun and An Ziluo both felt that they were a bit too confident. They also felt that since the court had built a firearms camp, it would not be aimless. After discussion, they decided to implement it according to their method.

So the next day, the Qingtang and Song allied forces began to take it seriously.