Chapter 460: Artillery War

The captain reported: "Tai Shi, twenty giant catapults were laid by the river, and there were countless whirlwind cannons on the walls of Tiandebao."

Zhao Xing sat upright on the deck, with several gun guards standing beside him, holding two muskets in Chaolu's arms, sitting cross-legged at his feet. The bard Buffett twisted the strings one after another, standing beside him, Yuan Yeping stood at the bow of the boat, holding a telescope to observe, Lu Qiu Guan was also in front of Zhao Xing. He was not infected with the tense atmosphere before the war, and looked around with a smile.

Zhao Xing whispered: "Let's start!"

Hearing this sentence, Buffett gently put down the six-stringed harp. He leaned his head to the guard at the door of the cabin and made a gesture. The guard used sign language to type a series of numbers to him. Buffett took out a stack of paper from his arms, took out a quill pen, and wrote quickly: "March, 1106 AD (1106 AD), maybe February, because I cannot convert the local calendar to the correct date in modern times. I only know that according to the local strange calendar records, today is March 5th, the third day after their Daughter's Day. The Marshal of Song, whom I serve, started a war, and it was 11:13 noon..."

Buffett forgot to explain that the so-called "11:13" is calculated based on Hangzhou time, and the local time is one time zone apart from Hangzhou time - of course, people at that time did not have the concept of time zone.

However, the war that Buffett said was not accurate. In fact, the war started half an hour later. The Song Dynasty's fleet was rushing all night. In order not to get stuck in the shallow water area on the winding Yellow River, the fleet was sailing in the middle of the river. The ancient artillery and catapults were not far away. At this distance, both sides could only look up to each other, but could not fight.

The Song army's warships went up against the current. In addition to the large warships equipped with sails, small warships were all rowing forward with oars. In order to adjust the formation in the middle of the river, the Song army was busy all morning. When they arrived at the city of Tiandebao, the fleet also took a lot of effort to get the assault boats into the attack position. After half an hour of hard work, the vanguard boats set out in the countercurrent and slowly sailed towards the riverside.

"Boom!" The people of Xixia couldn't bear it and fired a cannon first. The giant catapulted cart threw out strange-shaped stones. The stone rolled in the air and changed its course in the middle without any accuracy. The stone fell heavily in the middle of the river, stirring up a splash of water, and soon. The splash was washed away by the torrent without a trace.

"Boom!" The Song army fired a gun and fought back, but the gun was not accurate at all. The shell flew for a distance and fell into the shallow water area near the river bank. It also stirred up a water column. However, because the shell fell in the shallow water area, the water column was not large, and beside the catapult on the river bank. The Xixia people pointed to the point of bounce, leaning forward and backward, as if mocking the noise caused by this army of unknown origin was far less than that of them.

On the boat, Buffett asked for a telescope from someone else to observe the army on the shore. He looked at the beginning, but did not see the end. He just saw the people beside the catapult car waving their bodies. Then, a column of water suddenly jumped up from the rushing point of the Song army. Then, a larger explosion sounded, and a flame rose from the water. The flames carried a larger wave of water into the air. In the blink of an eye, the water vapor evaporated by the flame made a squeaking sound, and countless tiny water mists blocked Buffett's vision.

"Boom!" The stern cannon of the Pioneer Boat fired. The shells drilled straight into the mist. I couldn't see the point of the projection, but then the water column fell heavily and slapped the river surface. A stream of yellow smoke rose from the shore. It was the dust unique to the Loess Plateau. Above the yellow dust column, there was a dark black smoke column. The smoke column was tumbling, and it appeared and exposed to the red flames.

After the Pioneer Boat fired two guns, he did not stop at all. He turned the rudder and continued to sail upstream. The Pioneer Boat didn't hit the target just now. The first gun was too close and the second gun was too far away. However, the Song Dynasty fleet did not care about this shelling effect. The second Pioneer Boat entered the attack position had adjusted the two corners of its cannon based on the previous ship's artillery bombardment. As soon as it entered the attack position, it immediately launched a cannon attack.

"Boom!" Almost at the same time as the third cannon sounded, the Xixia catapult car on the shore showed its power. Countless huge rocks flew into the air. They rolled in the air, twisting their bodies, as if a group of crows pounced on the second assault boat.

"Boom!" Before the huge rock fell to the river, the first shell of the second assault boat had already landed on the ground. This shell was hitting the riverside. With an explosion, several Western Xia soldiers flew into the air. Immediately afterwards, the sound of the explosion caused more broken limbs and arms to fly around. In addition to fire, there were countless blood and minced meat in the smoke and dust.

The third artillery of the Song army did not hit the catapult, but fell behind the catapult and entered the Xixia team. The Song army's artillery shells had just exploded, and countless huge rocks fell into the river. Suddenly, the entire river surface was like a pot of water boiling, and the water columns rose and fell one after another, and the waves were raised one after another, and the waves surged the warships in the middle of the river, and even Zhao Xing's boat was a little bumpy.

"Boom", the stern cannon of the second assault boat was fired. After the cannon was fired, it quickly turned and continued to sail upstream. Then, the third assault boat entered the range, and it fired two cannons at the same time without hesitation. This time, the bullet point of the Song army's shooting approached the catapult car on the shore. A catapult car was affected by the explosion. It first leaned its body and shook it for a while. Then, the crossbar above the catapult car tilted slightly down. The chassis was pried up and slowly left the shore, as if it was in slow motion. The chassis began to dismember. Then, the slow motion accelerated. The entire catapult car chassis seemed to be torn apart by a giant's hand, flying in pieces...

The next assault boat entered the shelling position, and the Xixia people's catapult cart was still not loaded. Buffett's telescope looked behind the catapult cart. At this time, the Xia soldiers around the catapult cart had already begun to flee. Most of them rushed to Tiandebao not far away, but some people were running towards the top or bottom of the river bank.

The shelling continued, and there were no soldiers beside the huge catapult carts by the river. The Song army's subsequent boats and cannons named the catapult carts. The shells were hit quickly and densely, and the debris of the catapult carts were flying in the air. The smoke columns of explosions on the shore rose one after another.

It was Zhao Xingdi's turn to take a boat into the shelling position and went to the blocking position in front. Buffett saw it more clearly. He found that the riverside was already in a mess at this moment, with corpses lying on the shallow water on the shore. Many of the corpses were incomplete, and the blood had turned the turbid Yellow River water into red. At this time, due to the explosion of the shells, the river water on the shore was still rolling. But the turbid yellow water could not cover the red blood.

Through the telescope, Buffett looked at the bullet point of the shells. Behind the smoke pillars one after another, there was a team of soldiers holding on. Their officers were waving their sabers and shouting at the top of their lungs. At this time, the Song army's shelling had already begun to leap and aimed at this team of persistence.

The warship was bumpy, and the smoke column was thick and dense. Through the smoke, Buffett found that the army's uniform was neat and they were wearing black armor. The people in the front row were holding a large high-ground shield, but the shield array was incomplete. Through the broken shield wall, Buffett found a soldier struggling hard at the gap and trying to stand up. His left arm was gone, only half of the bloody and broken arms were left, and his head and face were covered with blood, making it impossible to see his appearance clearly, but Buffett noticed from the telescope that the soldier seemed to be exerting force.

The hull shook for a moment, as if it was firing a cannon. At this time, Buffett had lost sensitivity to the sound of shelling, and there were explosions everywhere. He could not feel the cannon sound of the ship where he was located, but then a white smoke covered the telescope. Then, the pungent smell made him shed tears. The warship seemed to have crashed into the white clouds, and Buffett's eyes were confused. Then, he felt the warship tremble again. Then he shook continuously.

The smoke of gunpowder became thicker and thicker. When Zhao Xing rushed out of the smoke of gunpowder, the team on the shore seemed to be trying hard to complete the team. However, the officers in command were gone, the military flag was broken, and there were not many people left in the entire team. They either stood in a row with three or two, or stood alone. From the position of these people, it can be seen that the army was originally arranged in a square team.

"Why don't you leave? Why don't they withdraw?" Buffett held the telescope in his hand, his eyes left the telescope's hole, and anxiously asked the people around him for verification.

No one around answered. Buffett put down his telescope and rushed to Zhao Xing, questioning for no reason: "Marson, why haven't they withdrawn? This is obviously a massacre. The enemy's catapult cart is big and bulky, and it is fixedly arranged by the river. Your warship sails from the middle of the river and fights when it's moving. You are moving targets, they are fixed targets, why are these people still insisting?"

Zhao Xing replied lightly: "In the Western Xia military system, the head coach is killed and the whole team dares to withdraw without reason, and the whole team will be killed-"

Zhao Xing gestured around his neck and explained: "It's just beheading! These people don't withdraw because their generals were beaten to death by us. The only reason they retreated was to steal the general's body. But now it seems that they are afraid that their generals are already a team of minced meat. Even if they take this pile of minced meat back, no one believes them, so they can only persist."

Buffett shook his head like a rattle: "No, I clearly saw the catapult retreating just now."

Zhao Xing replied coldly: "The soldiers who operate the catapult car are technical soldiers. In Xixia, such soldiers are called 'Yu Ren'. Such technical soldiers are precious. Their retreat is not controlled by the front line commander."

As he was speaking, the attendant rushed over to report: "Tai Shi, several ships have reported that water is coming into their cabin and are striving to plug the leak."

Zhao Xing snorted and said in annoyance: "The ship is of poor quality when it comes to a single-use ship."

Most of the warships made in a hurry were made of undried wood. The assault boats tried to choose the best wooden boards to make. The ship was loaded with only two small cannons, but in this way, they still couldn't stand the vibration of the shelling. With only two shellings, some ships had already seeped water. Zhao Xing's boat was to choose the best dry wood to make. His ship carried ten cannons, which was why Buffett felt the constant vibration of the hull just now. There were only three such ships in the entire Song army fleet, which were carried by Zhao Xing, the commander-in-chief of the fleet, and the commander of the supply fleet.

"Appoint the water seepage boats to drive on the riverside as much as possible, choose a shallow and prepare to rush to the beach," Zhao Xing ordered.

At this time, Zhao Xing, who had finished the shelling, sailed back to the middle of the river. Beside his boat, those troops transporting ships without cannons were passing by one after another. Countless Song soldiers were rushing to the river, with their faces full of excitement.

"How many intact ships are there?"

The officer randomly counted and replied: "About 10% of the assault boats leaked. According to the previous report, thirteen of them could no longer be repaired. They requested to rush to the beach nearby, and the remaining ships replied: The seepage is not very good and can be repaired."

Zhao Xing nodded: "Leave ten assault boats. Follow my ship for the second round of artillery attacks, and continue to maintain the escort posture. Don't stop. Our target tonight is the Black Mountain Weifu Army Division."

The fleet took some time to reorganize. When the smoke from the battlefield disappeared, the Xixia soldiers who had just left on the battlefield no longer existed. The Song army's boats rushing to the beach were trying their best to unload small cannons from the ship and pushing towards the shore in the mud. At the same time, the nearby Ditiande Army Castle kept firing artillery at the riverside.

This cannon was shot by the whirlwind cannon on the castle. The whirlwind cannon is small in size. Although it is condescending, the stone bullets thrown out are not large in size. These stone bullets barely come to the riverside, and the falling stones make the chests of the Song soldiers clang. Most of the Song soldiers covered their faces with their arms while burying their heads and climbing towards the shore.

The Yellow River is full of loess. These loess are very soft and have no focus. They will collapse when they step on them. This is how the local mudslides are formed. The soldiers are striving to move forward in such an environment. Many soldiers have to throw away their black cloaks in order to move quickly. In this way, their fiery red military uniforms are revealed.

The screams on the city wall of Tiande Army were one after another. With the intelligence of the Xixia people, they could not imagine how the Song army launched an attack on them from the territory of Liao. The lack of information made them unable to make a judgment. In their exclamation, there were many speculations, which were speculated that the Liao Kingdom had joined forces with the Song Kingdom and planned to destroy the Xixia.

The Xixia people were a tiger in front of the Song State, but in front of the Liao people, a kitten in front of the Liao people. This speculation immediately made the Xia people soften their hands and the attack on the city eased slightly. Finally, a Song soldier gently climbed up the river bank, and he lowered his armed belt from the river bank. Then, more Song troops climbed onto the river bank and the cannons were also pulled up.

The Xia soldiers on the top of the city were being dispatched in a hurry. The Song army stood on the river bank, exceeding the range of Xia army's bows and arrows, and the power of the whirlwind cannon was insufficient, so they wanted to transfer other weapons. After a while, black smoke rose from the Xia army's city. Yuan Yeping said to himself in wonder: "What's going on? Our army hasn't started shelling yet?"

"It's gunpowder!" Zhao Xing held up the telescope and observed. He replied: "This is a thunder fireball. The formula contains arsenic, so the smoke is poisonous. Xia Jun wanted to replace the stone bullet of the whirlwind cannon with a thunder fireball."

The Song army finally started firing artillery. The assault boat that entered the attack position tried its best to fire a shot with the maximum shooting angle. This shot floated over the Xia army's city wall and shot into the city, causing a pillar of smoke.

"Okay, it's good to be able to hit the city. Order each ship to fire artillery in turn and use fire to suppress the city." The Song army's gun seemed to have turned on the faucet, and countless clay pots flew up from the city walls. When those clay pots flew into the air, they were filled with smoke. Some clay pots shot far away and barely hit the riverside, but more clay pots were not enough to reach the soldiers on the Song army's shore.

The Song soldiers on the shore were still busy, and they were wiping the incoming water bore in a hurry. Soldiers kept removing wooden boards from the boat and laying a wooden board road on the shore. After a while, a tiled pot with thick smoke rolled onto the boat. The pot was not broken. A Song soldier kicked the pot into the river, and the black smoke stopped.

The Xia army's counterattack was weak, but after a long stalemate, the Xia army's character finally broke out. A clay pot hit a busy soldier beside an artillery gun. With a muffled bang, the clay pot shattered. Then, a smoke of gunfire rose, and the flames swept over the Song soldier, making him a fireman. The soldier rolled on the ground several times and found that it could not extinguish the sulfur fire on his body. He jumped and jumped into the river.

In the river, the fire soldier was still struggling. He grabbed a Xia army's body and barely slap in the shallow water. At this time, the Song army on the shore ignored it and tried hard to fire the cannon.

Boom! The first gun exploded, and there were people lying beside the gun, but then several Song soldiers climbed up from the pool of blood, and they ran towards the rest of the guns to help them fix the gun positions.

Boom! The second cannon fired - not only everyone in Xixia is good, but the Song army's character is also bad. This cannon hit the city wall and seemed to fall into the pile of gunpowder of the Xixia people. As soon as the shell landed, the Xixia city wall shook for a while, and then the compacted city wall flowed to the ground like quicksand. On the city wall, a louder explosion sounded and the river water was trembling.

The situation on the shore was urgent, and the Song ships bombarded by the river did not pay attention to formation. They fired artillery into the city without interruption, and the shells stirred up smoke columns in the city from time to time. At this time, the Xia army had lost the ability to counterattack, and the Song army on the shore finally set up artillery and began to shoot into the city.

The sound of cannons continued to sound, and Zhao Xing kept scanning the smoke columns rising in the city with his telescope. At this time, a fire had already lit up in the city, and the entire city was covered with black smoke, which drifted to the riverside. It was immediately blown away by the river wind.

Zhao Xing raised his hand and felt the wind in the river. He muttered: "The spring breeze in February is like scissors, and the wind before the Qingming Festival is cold and dry."

After a moment of stopping, Zhao Xing continued to raise his telescope and looked into the city, asking in disbelief: "Where is the Iron Harrier? Where is the Husband? Bu Bazi, where are the sign troops? This is an important town on the border?"

Yuan Yeping replied: "According to the records of the Western Xia, the Western Xia side only stationed 30,000 troops on the Ganzhou Road in the Right Xiang to prepare for the Western Fan and Uighurs; 50,000 troops were stationed in Helan (now northwest of Yinchuan, Ningxia). The Tiande Army was just an outpost, not to mention that the Western Xia was a vassal state of the Liao Kingdom and had never fought a war with the Liao Kingdom, so there were not many troops in the city."

Zhao Xing nodded and waved his hand: "I'll leave first, leave those ten assault boats here to meet the people on the shore."

Zhao Xing's warship turned around in Jiangxin and continued to sail upstream. Behind him, the sound of cannons still rumbling. Until that night, Zhao Xing could still hear the sound of cannons echoing on the grassland. In the distance, in the sky, the Tiande Army was like a pillar of fire. Thick black smoke emerged. Its flames reflected the red sky on the east side.

At this time, the officer came to report: "The vanguard boat has arrived at the Hechakou. In front is Hetao, on the east side is the main stream, with a deep water level, directly connecting to the Weifu Army Division of Heishan Mountain. On the west side is the branch stream, with a shallow water level, but there is no large military town along the way. Please give orders from the Taishi!"

The so-called "Hetao" is here. The Yellow River branches appear here, forming a pocket-shaped area. There are several county towns between the two rivers, the most famous of which is Wuyuan City. The Heishan Weifu Army Office is located on the main stream and the famous Wuzhihai City is built next to the main stream.

"Enter the Beitao, the target is at the sea!" Zhao Xing ordered.

At the setting sun, Lu Qiu Guan opened the map and pointed at Wu Zhihai and introduced: "The lord of Wu Zhihai is now a descendant of Zhang Hao. The so-called Zhang Hao is the Jinshi who was dismissed from my Great Song Palace Examination..."

Luqiu looked at Zhao Xing's face and continued to introduce: "The Taiwei captured Zhang Wu's son Zhang Pu during Huanqing, which is the Zhang family. Now their head is Zhang Cong, the eldest brother of Zhang Wu's son."

Zhao Xing was surprised: "Aren't the Zhang family in the Jianing Military Office?"

Luqiu Guan further explained: "The fifth son of Zhang was sent to Bianliang, and the Zhang family was demoted and demoted to the Weifu Army Office of Heishan. The king of Xixia still did not trust them and sent the Tang Wu clan from Liangzhou to monitor him nearby. Now the commander of Wushuhai City is Zhaowu, and the Xuanwei envoy of Suzhou (Gansu) Tang Wufeng (also known as Yang Feng)."

"Boom!" A cannon sound came from the front, and then another cannon sounded continuously, and the attack of the Song army began.

Zhao Xing listened to the sound of cannons and asked, "How long will it take for us to arrive?" The captain rushed over and replied, "We have been delayed for a while in the Tiande Army, and it will take about half an hour to reach the city of Wushuhai."

Zhao Xing called out, but just as his voice stopped, the cannon sound in front of him actually stopped. Zhao Xing listened for a while, and no more cannon sound came. He stood up in surprise and asked at a loss: "What's going on? Why don't you fire a cannon?"

Yuan Yeping was also wondering: "What's going on? If one cannon fires a dud, the rest of the cannons cannot be dud, right? Why don't the front army stop shooting a dud?"

Zhao Xing listened for a while, then sat down slowly, and smiled and said, "It seems that we can have hot soup today."

Yuan Yeping was still puzzled, and Luqiuguan asked tentatively: "What the Taiwei means is that the Heishan Weifu Army has surrendered?"

Zhao Xing nodded: "The Yuan Promoter was right just now. There was a dud shot in one cannon. It's impossible for the rest of the cannons to be dull. Now there is no sound of cannons for a long time. It only means that they have encountered an accident. The only possibility is that the Black Mountain Weifu Army has surrendered."

Lu Qiuguan widened his eyes and turned his eyes in disbelief. Yuan Yeping couldn't help asking: "This is impossible, Zhang Cong is just there. There is Tang Wufeng in the city. He is a native of Liangzhou and a confidant of the Xixia king?!"

Zhao Xing nodded: "I'm also puzzled, but the front army does not fire artillery, there is only one explanation."
Chapter completed!