Chapter 385 The Eve of the Decisive Battle

"Boom."

With a loud bang, the south gate of Liangxiang City was breached first.

In mid-November, the sky was covered with dark clouds.

It was snowing heavily in Liaodong at this time, and the cold wind from Siberia was brewing in Yanyun, and snow could fall at any time.

A large number of winter clothes were delivered to the Song army. They wore thick cotton clothes and shouted like a charge.

Groups of Song soldiers came out of the trenches, holding long spears in their hands, shouting slogans such as "Charge", "Kill", "Destroy Liao dogs", and "Recover Yanjing".

The artillery on the top of the city was still firing sporadically, but because the Song army had dug trenches outside the city, the artillery in the trenches also fired at the top of the city.

The two sides went back and forth, suppressing each other, so that the Song army below quickly rushed to the top of the city and quickly poured in from the broken city gate.

The battle lasted less than an hour, and with the surrender of a large number of Liao troops, the resistance in the city also came to an end.

The siege over the past month has made Liangxiang City shaky. Except for a few stubborn resistance, most of the non-Khitan Han, Bohai, Jurchen, and Mengwu armies in the city collapsed.

There were countless surrenders and people who fled, but the Song army had surrounded Liangxiang in three layers, leaving no place to escape. More than 10,000 Liao soldiers in the city were almost wiped out, and none of them escaped successfully.

After taking Liangxiang, the Song army began to march and threaten again. Liangxiang is already the front line of Xijin. After Liangxiang, you can actually attack Xijin Prefecture directly, because Yuhe and Wanping are located to the west and south of Xijin.

This means that the Song army can attack Xijin Prefecture from the southwest to the northeast, crossing Yuhe and Wanping, but it is very likely to be attacked by Yuhe in the north and Wanping in the east.

Fan Zhongyan naturally could not make such a low-level mistake, so he did not rush to surround Xijin, but divided his troops into two groups. The main force went out of Liangxiang and pretended to attack Xijin, while the other two groups went straight to Wanping and Yuhe to continue his bunker and trench tactics.

At this time, the battlefield situation became that the Song army was almost close to Xijin Prefecture. If we look at the map of later generations, the main force of the Song Dynasty is currently stationed in Fangshan District and Fengtai District of Beijing, threatening the city center of Beijing.

The other two groups went north to attack Mentougou and Shijingshan District of Beijing in later generations, and went east to attack Daxing District and the area around the South Fourth Ring Road. The whole area around Beijing was full of beacon fires.

Under such a situation, Yelu Zongzhen had to consider quickly completing the counterattack against the Song Dynasty. The Liao Dynasty began to mobilize troops frequently, and the two sides went back and forth and entangled constantly.

With the large-scale mobilization of the army, the intelligence of both sides was also constantly adjusted. Every day, there were countless situations of the Song army on Yelu Zongzhen's desk, and there were also countless movements of the Liao army on Fan Zhongyan's desk.

Before the war officially started, the intelligence war was already on another battlefield.

On November 24, the Song army had slowly surrounded Yuhe and Wanping. The Liao army's scout system outside was almost paralyzed and could not spread out at all, so it was difficult to find out the movement of the Song army.

Often, they would not know where the Song army's offensive had reached until the Liao army's outer defense system was attacked, which made Yelu Zongzhen very passive.

Because even in Luxian, Huairou and other places, there were scouts of the Song army, which meant that the surrounding areas of Xijin were almost completely surrounded by the Song army.

On the 25th, on the wall of Xijin Prefecture, Yelu Zongzhen and many ministers of the Liao Kingdom were standing on the women's wall, looking southwest.

Starting from yesterday, the Song army first had a large number of scouts appear outside the city of Xijin Prefecture to clear out the Liao army scouts that were leaving the city. Then the large army slowly followed and stationed in the wilderness outside the city.

The original farmland and villages were occupied by the Song army. A large number of Han people either fled or were relocated by the Song army. Then, camps were built one after another, and the outer walls were everywhere.

Yelu Zongzhen looked quite serious, observing the entire camp layout, direction and movement trajectory of the Song army.

He saw that the Song army actually just cut down a lot of trees and built some fences on the periphery. After all, although the Song army was very good at civil engineering, they were not gods, and it was impossible to repair all the camps overnight.

This means that the Song army’s current camp is just an empty frame, with a wooden fence outside and tents where soldiers live inside. There are almost no extremely critical defensive equipment such as chevaux de frise, horse pits, caltrops, and watchtowers on the periphery.

However, Yelu Zongzhen did not dare to send a large army to take advantage of this opportunity to break through.

Because the way of war has changed, it is no longer the cold weapon battle of the past. They only need to climb over the fence with a ladder to successfully raid.

Now, people only need to stand on the platform behind the fence, raise their guns and cross the fence to shoot the Liao army rushing over.

So attacking while the Song people are setting up camp is the most suicidal behavior.

But until he saw the way the Song army fought with his own eyes, Yelu Zongzhen realized that the Song army seemed to have no solution.

Indeed, there was no solution.

If you attack the camp, they will shoot you from more than a hundred feet away.

Even if you rush to the front, you still have to climb over the fence, and countless people will die on this road alone.

If you defend the city, they will slowly dig trenches all the way to your city, and surround the city with three layers inside and three layers outside.

At that time, you will still face the bombardment of enemy artillery fire, like a hedgehog.

This hedgehog not only made the Liao generals in Liangxiang City uncomfortable, but now it had actually made Yelu Zongzhen, the Liao Kingdom, feel where the trouble was.

"Fan Zhongyan is really insidious and cunning. It's a pity. I didn't expect Zhao Zhen to trust him so much. Not only did he not be replaced, he even lost many of our internal agents in Kaifeng."

Yelu Zongzhen on the city wall patted the female wall and let out a sigh.

Zhang Jian is wearing a purple cotton robe with mink fur on the outside. This is a costume only worn by the nobles of the Liao Dynasty. In the past, purple robes were made of silk, but the cotton from the Song Dynasty has now spread to the north and is deeply loved by the Liao people.

His eyes were already a little blurry, and he could only vaguely see the continuous fortresses in the distance outside the city, like small hills, blocking the sky and the sun, with no end in sight.

"Your Majesty, the sudden establishment of the Political Council of the Song Dynasty, and Fan Zhongyan's ability to command so many soldiers and horses and promote many innovations are inherently strange. There must be secrets that we cannot know, and this secret must be related to Zhao Jun. "

Although Zhang Jian could not see clearly, his mind was still flexible and he said softly: "So as long as we have the support of Zhao Jun, it will be difficult for us to shake Fan Zhongyan's position."

The Emperor of the Song Dynasty issued an edict. Although he sent two supervisors, they were both Fan Zhongyan's acquaintances and Zhao Jun's confidants. Basically, they would not give him much restraint. Therefore, the actual edict was to declare to the world that the imperial court had strict control over Fan Zhongyan. of trust.

This means that Liao's countermeasures are empty.

Yelu Zongzhen smiled bitterly and said: "My father-in-law is right. I do take it for granted. The Song Dynasty today is no longer the Song Dynasty it once was. It is unrealistic to use such a simple strategy to drive away Fan Zhongyan."

Zhang Jian comforted him: "Your Majesty, there is no need to belittle yourself. This strategy can be the best, and it doesn't matter if it doesn't work. The most important thing now is what kind of countermeasures should be thought of."

Yelu Zongzhen frowned and said: "If we continue to defend, I am afraid that Xijin will eventually fall into the fate of Liangxiang. The Song people are constantly digging soil and building trenches outside. One day, they will dig trenches under the city."

Once dug under the city, the Song army could use the cover of trenches to attack. Although Xijin City is much taller than Liangxiang City, the city wall is three feet high and one foot and five feet wide, with an area of ​​36 miles. It is the tallest and largest among the five capitals of Liao Dynasty. Beijing.

But in this era, it is no longer an era where the height of the city wall can be used to defend the enemy well. Because people will use cannons to bombard your city gate, and the city gate will be blown to pieces with one shot.

The ancient city walls were so thick, let alone blocking cannons, that even rocket launchers couldn't penetrate them or explode them. But the city gate couldn't do it. It was just a thick iron gate. It could hold up an ordinary siege vehicle, but it couldn't hold up against that terrifying one. Cannonballs are just fantasies.

Therefore, as long as the Song army digs trenches under the city, Xijin Mansion will also be in danger.

Zhang Jian raised his head and glanced at the sky, and said softly: "Your Majesty, have you ever felt that the weather has become colder recently?"

Yelu Zongzhen looked to the north and said, "It seems like it's going to snow."

"If it snows, can people in Song Dynasty still dig the earth?"

"The soil will freeze, and even if we can dig it, it will probably take time and effort."

"Then it's better to wait. By then, all our troops in Dading Mansion and Liaoyang Mansion will be able to fight to the end. After all the troops are gathered, we can always think of a way."

Zhang Jian sighed and said, "Maybe as a last resort, we should give up analyzing Jin City."

Give up analyzing Jin?

Yelu Zongzhen frowned even more tightly.

He thought for a moment and quickly understood what Zhang Jian meant.

"What Xiangfu wants to say is to lure the snake out of its hole?"

"yes."

Zhang Jian said: "Maybe this is the only way to take a gamble."

Yelu Zong really fell silent.

Since he chose to stay, he naturally wanted to fight to the death.

But the problem is that Song Jun doesn't seem to want to fight them to the death.

As soon as they arrived, they set up camp and then slowly besieged the city.

It is conceivable that even if all the Liao army leaves the city and wants to start a desperate showdown with the Song army, the Song army will probably not go out of the stronghold to fight with them face to face with gongs and drums.

After all, the Song army could completely encircle the city all the way and surround the Liao army to death, so why would they need to resort to such an unexpected confrontation between the two armies?

Then Yelu Zongzhen's plan to have a decisive battle with the Song army in the wild was completely in vain, and he could only continue to defend, and then finally watched the Song army surround the city, and finally the city was destroyed and the Liao army was defeated.

Zhang Jian's meaning is obvious. In this case, why not simply abandon the city. Luring the Song army to attack, they took the opportunity to set up an ambush, and then conducted large-scale legion operations in the wild.

But there's another problem here.

That is.

What if the Song army doesn't attack?

What if the Song army picked up Jijin Mansion for nothing and directly occupied the city?

What's the difference between that and sending Xijin Mansion away for nothing?

For a while.

Yelvzong realized in a daze that he seemed to have done something stupid.

If I had known earlier, I should not have agreed to Zhao Yuanhao.

Even if you agree.

We should also have peace talks with the Song Dynasty earlier, and maybe it will not be reduced to the level where the Xijin Mansion has a high probability of being taken away by the Song Army.

And just when Yelu Zongzhen was worrying about gains and losses on the gate tower of Jijin Mansion, he realized that the Song army had become so powerful.

What he didn't know was that someone was also observing his every move on a hillside about four or five kilometers southwest of Xijin Mansion City.

After the fall of Liangxiang, Fan Zhongyan went straight to the outside of Xijin Mansion and started his old operation of setting up camp and then digging trenches outside the camp.

However, he did not start digging immediately. Instead, he simply built a simple fort without any fortifications. In addition to arranging dozens of artillery positions on nearby hills.

But it is a pity that Yelu Zongzhen was obviously not fooled, which made Fan Zhongyan very regretful.

"Is the man wearing the velvet cloak on the city wall the Yelv Sect?"

Wang Su holds a telescope in his hand and looks out.

Of course, the telescope of the Song Dynasty was not made of plastic, but made of iron. It consisted of an objective lens and an eyepiece, and could magnify up to ten times.

So from a place four or five kilometers away, it looks like it is three or four hundred meters away, and you can vaguely see the people standing on the city wall.

"Probably so."

Fan Zhongyan said: "Yelu Zongzhen was quite cautious and did not leave the city."

Wang Su said: "The Liao people have probably lost the courage to fight us in the wild. After all, they have fought us many times in the wild before, but they have been defeated repeatedly."

"hehe."

Fan Zhongyan smiled and said: "Now that the Song Dynasty is strong and the Liao Dynasty is weak, I'm afraid Yelu Zong will not do such an uncertain thing."

"Then let's just do this?"

Wang Su said.

Fan Zhongyan said: "If we continue to waste it, the Liao people will undoubtedly be defeated. I think they will also think of a way."

"any solution?"

Wang Su scratched his head and said, "Anyway, if I were in the city and saw this formation, I would probably be helpless."

"Well"

Fan Zhongyan raised his head and looked at the sky and said, "Do you think it's going to snow in the sky?"

"It should be soon."

Wang Su saw that even in the daytime, the sky was quite gloomy.

Moreover, the climate is getting colder and colder. It seems that before the twelfth lunar month in December, or even throughout the twelfth lunar month, it will snow heavily in the Youyan area.

"This snow will help the Liao people for a while and prevent us from digging earth and rocks. But in early spring, the Liao people will have no choice but to wait for death."

Fan Zhongyan said softly: "But during the same period of time, the Liao army originally blocked by Di Qing in Liaodong will probably be able to arrive. By then, all the troops in the Liao Kingdom will fight us to the death."

Di Qing cut off Yuguan, not only to intercept the Liao people's supplies, but also to keep their large troops out of the pass. It's just that people from Liao can still enter the pass through Xifengkou.

However, this does not mean that Di Qing has no use. In fact, Di Qing's existence plays a key role in determining the direction of the battlefield.

Because people can walk through Xifengkou, but supplies cannot.

This led to the fact that as the Liao's troops became more and more concentrated in Xijin Prefecture, supplies became increasingly scarce, resulting in less and less grain reserves.

At that time, Yelu Zongzhen would have no choice but to engage in a decisive battle with the Song army, otherwise he would end up running out of food and grass and his troops would starve to death.

So it can be said that Di Qing completely controlled the entire battlefield.

Otherwise, if there are enough firearms and food to defend the tall city of Xijin, even if the Song army breaks through the city gate through the tactics of digging earth tunnels, they may not be able to capture the city with a large number of people and sufficient food.

Fan Zhongyan put down the telescope in his hand, put his hands behind his back, and looked towards the distant northeast. His purple robe was swaying in the wind, and his eyes were full of anticipation and nervousness.

Yan Yun, who has been lost for hundreds of years, will finally return to his homeland in his hands. This is such an exciting thing.