Chang Fang stood at the top of the city, watching the Khitan soldiers and horses busy outside the city, and said, "These Khitans have been attacking for six or seven days. I don't know how many artillery cannons have been used, so I can't do anything to my grandfather! In my opinion, it may not be possible to let them attack until next year."

Cui Qun said: "Instruction, dozens of Khitan guns have been destroyed these days. How many can they bring? How many days can they last?"

Chang shook his head: "That's not good. Looking at the military camp outside, I heard that there were 50,000 troops. If we were to our army, there would be thousands of gates. But are the Khitans? I'm afraid there are not so many."

Cui Qun said: "There must be not so many. In the past one or two days, seeing that there are no iron bombs outside, I started to use stone bombs. With just a few shells, how could they have two thousand gates? From what I see, if they shoot for a few more days, their cannons will not be used."

After saying that, the two of them looked outside the city with a smile. The Song army fired guns on the city, and every time they exploded near the Khitan gun station, there were always casualties and injuries.

Ali's eyes were covered with bloodshots, commanding his soldiers to set up cannons and look at the city wall. The Song army's cannons were indeed accurate than the Khitans. And as time went by, they became more and more accurate. Most of the thirty cannons at the beginning were broken, but the Song army's city walls did not move at all. Ali only went from being confident at the beginning to being disappointed later, and then to being helpless, and his mood became worse and worse.

I remember that on the first day, Ali was only full of confidence. I heard that the Song army attacked Quyang City and collapsed the city wall in one day. He felt that even though the Khitan soldiers were almost done, they should collapse the small city in front of him for two or three days. But he didn't expect that after six or seven days, the city wall was not damaged, but his artillery lost dozens of pieces.

There were a total of 120 cannons in the army, which was an incredible asset in the Khitan. This battle was important, so it was transferred to the Yeluhuali army. If even such a small city could not be defeated and the entire cannon was lost, how would you explain it? Yeluhuali's attitude towards Alizhi in the past few days was getting worse and worse. If no one in the army could compare with him, he would have replaced it long ago.

After setting up the cannons, the soldiers began to set off firecrackers. Seeing the stone bullets hit the city walls and shattered into pieces, Ali kept shaking his head. The Khitan was not as good as the Song Dynasty, and there was not so much iron. In a few days, he had to use all the iron bullets he brought, and he could only use stone bullets. Even stone bullets, there were not many in the army, and it would take a few days. If he could not break the city, would he use mud bullets?

Chang Fang looked at the city with a leisurely expression, not as nervous as a few days ago. If the Khitan used cannons to attack the city like this, they would not be able to do anything to him. He originally thought that he only had twenty cannons, but the Khitans had many cannons, so he was a little scared, but he didn't know that this would be useless.

At this moment, a soldier ran up to the top of the city and said, "Instruction, the official documents sent by Guangxinjun last night!"

Chang Fang took the official document and took it apart. After reading it, he couldn't help but clapped: "Okay, okay, if the Taiwei arrives on Hebei Road, this battle will be easy!"

Cui Qun hurriedly said, "Instruction, which Taiwei is coming to Hebei?"

Chang Fang said: "It is the Privy Councillor Du! Because the Khitan army attacked, the court appointed Taiwei Du as the commander of Hebei Road and in charge of each army!"

Cui Qun heard this and said, "Taiwei Du is here, who will take care of the Privy Council? I heard that the military affairs are all handled by Taiwei Du. Just like our army, we all came according to Taiwei Du's method."

Chang Fang said: "Of course, it is still in charge of Taiwei Du. The person who came to Hebei Road this time was the Privy Council, and he was still in charge of the affairs of the Privy Council. In addition to Taiwei, there are also deputy envoy Fu Taiwei, as well as many officials such as Zhao Taiwei. I think the Khitan is powerful and requires important officials to take charge."

Cui Qun looked outside the city and smiled and said, "No matter how many soldiers there are, it is hard to say that it is powerful. The 50,000 Khitan army outside the city will only have dozens of cannons in six or seven days, and they will set off firecrackers there. It will be useless to fight for another two months."

Chang Fang smiled and said, "What's the solution? The city is built strongly and the Khitan does not have siege equipment. Isn't that the case?"

In this era, there was nothing small in the city. As long as it was strong enough, there was no good way to attack the city. The Song Dynasty's solid walls and clear fields, and there were no people within dozens of miles, which made the Khitan worry. If it was to go around the city, once it was blocked by the Song army, there would be Song army in the supply route behind it, which would be very dangerous. If it did not open the border defense line, it would be really not dare to go deeper.

In Dingzhou, Du Zhongxiao got off the train, Liu Jianji, Dou Shunqing and Jia Kui were welcomed, and arrived at the government office. They each sat down and came to tea.

Looking at everyone, Du Zhongxiao said: "It has been more than a month since the Khitan king brought his army to Youzhou in mid-October. The Khitan attacked Dingzhou and finally the entire army was wiped out. It has been six or seven days since the attack on Baozhou, and there has been no result. Now it seems that the battle is still going well."

Liu Jianji said: "Previously, Yelu Tie did not lead the army to attack Quyang. It was because the magistrate opened the city gate privately, which led to the loss of the city. Judging from the entrance of the Great Wall where the Khitan attacked now, as long as he persisted, it would not be so easy for the Khitans to break through."

Du Zhongxiao said: "How is the general who guarded Quyang at that time now?"

Liu Jianji said: "The commander Gao Min, after the city was broken, fled back to Dingzhou. At that time, because the city was lost, he was taken to interrogate. Now everything is clear, it actually has nothing to do with him, and he is still in prison."

Du Zhongxiao said: "Since it has nothing to do with him, I will let it go. Should I use it? By the way, what about the magistrate who opened the city gate privately?"

"I was caught by the Khitans. Later we occupied Quyang again and he died in the chaos."

After hearing this, Du Zhongxiao said, "It's a good thing for him! Because Quyang is lost, how many things happened later! All the people in the city were killed, and more than 1,000 Khitan cavalry fled south, breaking more than 60 villages, killing more than 8,000 people! You write this clearly and send it to various places from the Privy Council to serve as the local officials' betting! The Khitans are not good at attacking the city, and as long as the defenders are not panicked, they don't have many ways."

Liu Jianji crossed his hands and said that he was.

Du Zhongxiao said to Jia Kui: "You occupied Feihu, what's going on now? Did the Khitan send troops to attack?"

Jia Kui crossed his hands: "Return to the Taiwei, the last general is in Feihu these days, everything is peaceful. Although the Khitan has a large army in Yizhou, he has not sent anyone into the mountain. There are not many soldiers and horses in Weizhou in the north, and there is no movement."

Du Zhongxiao nodded: "Flying foxes are in the deep mountains, and it is not easy to transport materials. It is too inconvenient for your 50,000 army to be in that remote place. I will give you five days to arrange it properly and leave 5,000 people to garrison. The rest of the army will all come to Dingzhou."

Jia Kui crossed his hands and said yes. He asked, "The Taiwei means that he will fight back against the Khitan army."

Du Zhongxiao smiled and shook his head: "How to counterattack the Khitan at this time? You all know that this time the Khitan went south, there were as many as 400,000 tribes, and there were 300,000 prefectures and counties to recruit troops, totaling 700,000 troops. Quyang destroyed 30,000, but in fact it had no major impact on the Khitans. Now there are 50,000 people attacking the Great Wall. There are still 300,000 troops, which have not moved on the border. In other words, the Khitans have not used all their strength yet, and we don't know what will happen next. We defend this battle, and the Khitans attack. Of course, we have to wait until the Khitan army moves and find a way."

Dou Shunqing said: "I think that Baozhou, Guangxin Army, and Ansu Army are not far away from each other, and they are not easy to deal with. The Khitans may still be waiting for the rivers and lakes to freeze, and then the army will attack Xiongzhou. The place there is larger, and the cities are not as dense as those in Baozhou."

Du Zhongxiao nodded: "It's possible. In the twelfth month of this year, the weather is warmer and the rivers are not convenient for the army. The Khitans can only wait in Youzhou. Now attacking the Great Wall may just be a test to attract our army to aid. They are not good at siege cities, which is most conducive to field battles, and they still want to find opportunities in field battles. When the weather gets colder, it is conducive to the action of the army, so we should still motivate our army."

Liu Jianji said: "The border cities are densely packed and the walls are strong and clear. How can we motivate our army?"

Du Zhongxiao said: "It is only a few dozen miles to clear the land. The Khitans really made up their minds and brought a few days of food to pass. The most important thing now is to prevent the Khitan army from suddenly moving south, crossing several border states, and entering the prefectures and counties from small roads. Therefore, all the troops must be prepared early, and once the Khitans bypass the border and heading south, stop them in time."

All the generals made promises together.

Jia Kui said: "When I came from Daizhou, I didn't bring any heavy weapons such as artillery and other things, and I went in light. Now when I arrived in Dingzhou, the army still lacked artillery and other objects. I also asked the Privy Council to issue an order to ask Daizhou to transport the heavy weapons I left there by train."
Chapter completed!