Guide to traveling through the Northern Song Dynasty

Gaochang City was first built in the Western Han Dynasty.

It was a military farm built by the Han people!

For thousands of years, the rulers here have been constantly changing. The Han people ruled for the longest time, followed by the Uighurs, Tubo, Rouran and other tribes.

The Ming Dynasty had enough reasons to recover its homeland.

After generations of consolidation and expansion, Gaochang City already had a palace city, an inner city and an outer city, and there were nine gates on the outer city wall.

The wall foundation is 12 meters thick and the wall is 11.5 meters high.

In terms of the defensive capabilities of the city wall, it is definitely the largest city in the Western Regions!

Even if the Ming army put up a row of heavy artillery, it would be difficult to directly knock down the city wall. The giant rammed earth city wall has a strong anti-artillery capability.

Artillery is not good, and Huihui cannon is even worse.

What Yuan army used Huihui cannon to knock down Xiangyang City is pure nonsense based on rumors.

The Huihui cannon only destroyed the fortifications and buildings in Fancheng, and partially damaged the walls of Fancheng. The Song army defending the city even imitated the Huihui cannon on the spot to fight back.

All the above mentioned are Fancheng, not Xiangyang.

Xiangyang was only hit by the Huihui cannon on the city tower. The Song army was trapped in the isolated city and had no reinforcements. Because Fancheng on the other side had also fallen, they surrendered in despair.

…

Li Yanxian led his army to Gaochang. There were many fortresses built outside the city. They were all newly built in the past two years and formed the outer defense system of Gaochang City.

After setting up camp, a meeting was held.

Li Yanxian took out a map of Gaochang, and it was the latest version drawn by the spy at the beginning of this year.

After discussing for about half an hour, Li Yanxian made a decision:

"Gaochang City and the surrounding farmland all rely on the Gaochang River (Mutougou River) for water supply. These forts are all located next to the irrigation canals, and those irrigation canals also draw water from the Gaochang River."

"We can divide our troops to attack the two forts in the east and northeast at the same time to lure the enemy troops in the city to rescue. Our main force will be in the middle to support, and once the defenders in the city come out, they will be quickly annihilated."

"After capturing these two forts, we will remove the forts in the north of the city. Then we will cut off the Gaochang River to prevent the river water from flowing into the city, and all the river water will flow to the irrigation canals we occupy."

"After cutting off the river, we will fill up the moat."

"Let's see how they hold on without water!"

The civilians and craftsmen all took action to cut down trees and make siege equipment.

No large equipment was built, only ordinary siege ladders were built as quickly as possible, and the target was naturally the various forts outside the city.

More than 10,000 miscellaneous cavalry and two to three thousand elite cavalry from the Western Liao Dynasty were dispersed to interfere with the Ming army civilians who were attacking and cutting trees.

The Ming army cavalry also went out to drive them away, and used infantry to protect the main felling points.

The two sides fought for several days, and the Western Liao cavalry lost more than they won.

Their overall combat effectiveness was too poor, especially those grassland cavalry, who still used a large number of bone arrows, which were like tickling the armor of the Ming army.

For example, the Naiman tribe, Yelu Dashi only had a few hundred armored cavalry at the beginning, but he could suppress them completely.

"We can't win. The Ming cavalry is too powerful!"

Narheshi said to Taiyang Khan: "Their armor is like free. Even the light cavalry sent out for reconnaissance are all wearing light armor. The rest of the Ming cavalry are all wearing armor. Today, we rescued a Ming army corpse. Although the outside is cotton, the inside is full of armor pieces."

Taiyang Khan sighed: "Han is indeed rich."

"Father, let's just surrender." Narheshi no longer wanted to fight the Ming army to death.

Sun Khan shook his head: "Wait a little longer. There is no sure win or lose in a war. The elite reinforcements of the Liao Dynasty are coming soon. What if the Liao Dynasty wins in the end and we surrender in advance? "

Narheshi said: "We can't let the tribal warriors die in vain."

Sun Khan said: "Tell the leaders of each tribe not to fight to the death when they meet the Ming army. Just pretend to shoot a few arrows, and run back immediately when they encounter danger."

Not only did the Naiman tribe passively avoid fighting, but other resident or nomadic cavalry also chose to paddle during the battle.

No one wanted to die for the Western Liao Dynasty!

With this, the Ming army completely gained control of the area around the battlefield, and the Western Liao cavalry only dared to run over to take a few glances and then retreat.

All kinds of small siege equipment were built, and tens of thousands of Ming troops advanced forward, leaving only a few thousand newly arrived soldiers to guard the camp.

Xiao Cha Laa watched the Ming army approach the fort outside the city without a telescope, but did not dare to send a large army to rescue.

Between the two Western Liao strongholds in the east and northeast, the main force of the Ming army has formed a large battle array. The front row is a defense line composed of four-wheeled side carriages, and countless artillery and muskets make Xiao Chala Abu's scalp numb.

After the main force of the Ming army built a large battle array, it divided into two troops of thousands of people to attack the two Western Liao strongholds on the left and right.

Xiao Chala Abu still mobilized the army to prepare, and even let part of the army go out of the city to form a battle array, in case he could seize the opportunity to win a partial victory? He couldn't just watch the Ming army take the stronghold.

"Boom boom boom boom!"

There were loud gunfire from the direction of the two strongholds, mostly small and medium-caliber artillery bombarding fortifications.

The only two heavy artillery were also dragged out, one heavy artillery against one stronghold.

While the artillery was firing, the civilians began to fill the trenches outside the strongholds. Those trenches even introduced river water, which was equivalent to a small moat.

If they continued, the moat would be filled up.

Xiao Chala Abu led the main force out of the city, and sent thousands of infantry and cavalry to try to rescue the eastern fort.

As soon as he moved, the main force of the Ming army also moved, and sent thousands of infantry and cavalry to intercept.

After a battle, the Western Liao army fled in a panic, and the Ming cavalry chased them until they were close to the Western Liao army before returning.

That day, in the middle of the afternoon.

The two Xiliao fortresses were all destroyed, and one of them surrendered directly after being beaten.

The Ming army's camp also moved over and was divided into two, with the two forts as the center of the camp, because there was a richer water source here.

The next day, some soldiers were left to guard the camp, while the rest of the troops went to attack the enemy camp in the north of the city.

Xiao Chala'abu sent a large number of miscellaneous cavalry to harass the main force of the Ming army. Infantry was also sent to attack the Ming army's camp, which was relatively "empty" and had not even built any barriers.

The soldiers guarding the camp had a large number of flintlock guns, and even carried thunderbolts. The moment the grenadiers were dispatched, the Xiliao soldiers who were sent to attack the camp collapsed and fled.

Aksukh was left in a camp. When he saw the objects thrown by the grenadiers explode, his two eyeballs almost exploded.

"That's the devil's weapon!" Aksukh said to himself.

A few days later, the Ming army uprooted all the nearby Xiliao forts, and the outer defense system of Gaochang City was completely destroyed.

Moreover, the Ming army also cut off the river and only flowed to the irrigation canal leading to the Ming army camp. Not a drop of river water stopped flowing to the heavily guarded Gaochang City.

The residents in the city have gone crazy. In order to store water, every household carries buckets out.

Such a big city naturally has an urban drinking water system, which is nothing more than digging many artificial rivers and bringing river water from outside the city into the city for residents to use.

The water source was cut off and was still flowing downstream. Countless residents came swarming to get water. The water levels in the small river inside the city and the moat outside the city dropped rapidly.

Xiao Chala Abu collected all the containers that could store water and sent out troops to store as much drinking water as possible.

Seeing that the river was about to bottom out, the army even began to expel the people.

The Ming army was not idle either. They sent troops to keep an eye on the nine city gates and lined up on foot and horse in rotation outside the moat all day and night. Once they found that the city gate was open and soldiers and civilians wanted to get water from the moat, they would immediately fire crossbows and muskets.

It was not until most of the water in the moat flowed further downstream that the Ming army formed formations and slowly withdrew.

During this period, civilians from the Ming army came to fill the moat with their soil. The cavalry guarded all passages of the moat. The civilians only had to remove the chariot baffles to prevent arrows, and then they could pour earth and rocks into the moat calmly.

"This city is going to fall." Aksukh said.

Du Jushi said: "Did you know? This city was built by our ancestors, but unfortunately it was later occupied by foreigners."

Aksukh was quite surprised: "The people here, as well as the previous refugees, look different from you."

Du Jushi said: "But many of them are descendants of Han people, but they have been mixed with foreign races for a long time. Since the Han people built the city here more than a thousand years ago, the Han people have ruled here for most of the time. Even this The name of the city, as well as the name of the country that was destroyed by the Western Liao Dynasty, was taken by the Han people before the city was built. The terrain was high and the people were prosperous. This is the origin of the name Gaochang, which is clearly recorded in "History of the North". "Among them."

"No wonder this is a land of peach blossoms," Aksuhe said. "Our Roman Empire also lost a lot of territory and was occupied by foreigners. I don't know when it will be recovered."

While the two were chatting, the morale of the defenders was already declining.

When the water stored by the soldiers and civilians in the city is finished, or is about to be finished, some people may be thinking of surrendering.

Xiao Chala'abu had already sent several groups of messengers, and after paying the price of more than 300 horses, he broke through and sent letters asking for help to the west.

Xiao Weili, the commander-in-chief of the Xiliao reinforcements, received the first letter two hundred miles away, when the river had just been cut off by the Ming army. By the time his pioneers arrived a hundred miles away, the soldiers and people in the city could only rely on water storage to survive.

Li Tiansheng, deputy envoy of the Privy Council and commander of the Ma Army, said: "This battle is a bit difficult to fight. With Xiao Chala's commanding ability, all the water sources outside the city were lost in such a short time. The Ming army is stronger than we imagined. Stronger in the middle.”

Xiao Weili asked: "What do you think of the vehicles and artillery in the letter?"

Li Tiansheng shook his head and said: "There is no way to deal with it."

Xiao Weili asked in confusion: "Why can't the artillery we made shoot so fast? Could it be that the escaped party members are still hiding something?"

The supervisor Yelutiege said: "Those Xixia party members who escaped had only seen muskets and artillery from a distance. The leader of the party who knew the most only touched the barrel of the Xixia artillery a few times while watching the Xixia artillery exercises. We According to what these people said, it is not easy to imitate the artillery, and the artillery of the Ming army must have been modified. "

Xiliao also has artillery!

The artillery imitation was actually relatively smooth, and it was successful before Yelu Dashi died. However, the gunpowder ratio is a bit difficult to control. Although it has been improved many times, the power is still insufficient.

Even the original gunpowder formula was smuggled from the Ming Dynasty with a lot of money.

The Ming army mixed the secrets in the caravans to spy on the enemy. Of course, Xiliao could also bribe the money-minded merchants.

The businessman received the advance payment, asked folk craftsmen for the recipe, and then went to Xiliao to collect the balance after he knew it by heart.

At first, the civilian gunpowder formula could not even explode, and Yelu Dashi thought he had been deceived by the businessman. By adjusting the ratio again and again, it was finally possible to explode, and its power became more and more powerful.

Firearms cannot be kept secret forever.

Xiao Weili said: "The Ming army cut off the water source in the north of Gaochang City. If our army wants to win, we can only fight with real swords and guns to recapture the water source. If we cannot capture the water source, this battle will be defeated!"