In the Song Dynasty, there was no law or order.

At noon, the sun hangs high and shines warmly on the ground.

As February approaches, the land of Youyan is still a bit chilly.

Although the north wind is not as sharp as in winter, it still blows constantly.

The willows by the river have sprouted buds, and their green branches are swaying in the wind.

In the midst of this unique scenery, loud explosions broke the tranquility.

The Song army dismounted on the river bank, and hundreds of people formed a group and formed their usual three-stage gun formation, fighting with their backs to the river.

Large groups of Liao troops attacked from the left and right sides in front. With the continuous sound of gunfire, these Liao troops were quickly repelled, and the river was dyed red with blood.

"Chase!"

"We're running out of ammunition."

"How many rounds do you have left?"

"I have eight more."

"There are eleven more."

"I only have four left."

The soldiers of the Song Army counted quickly.

The commander of this team felt his scalp numb for a moment.

The current military system of the Song Army has been standardized, including weapons, camps, uniforms, ammunition, equipment, and baggage.

Each soldier carried 70 rounds of ammunition, suspended in a bag on the right side of the horse.

This number is very standard. For example, in the Battle of Borodino during the Napoleonic period, the number of French troops was about 136,000, and the number of bullets was 8.2 million, with an average of 60 per person.

After the battle, the French army consumed 2.144 million rounds of bullets, and after the war, there were 6.056 million rounds remaining, which was about 20 bullets consumed.

But in fact, this estimate is an average. Many soldiers on the firing line fired far more than 20 rounds of bullets. Soldiers at the rear who had not had time to enter the battlefield may even have ended the war before a single shot was fired.

So the situation on the Song Army's side is similar.

The Song Army in the front who is fighting fiercely consumes bullets very quickly. The Song Army in the back who has not yet encountered the enemy has a full supply of bullets, which will put the soldiers in the front into a dilemma of lack of bullets.

"Commander, why don't we go back to the camp to replenish ammunition?"

Someone suggested to the battalion commander.

The battalion commander glanced at the fleeing Liao army in the distance and said unwillingly: "Then first."

Before he finished speaking, several roars suddenly sounded in the distance, and then dozens of huge cannonballs drew an arc in the air and were thrown towards the small woods near the river in the distance.

But the accuracy of the artillery shell seemed to be a little off. It smashed several big trees with a rumble, but it just didn't hit the Liao troops who fled north along the forest.

One of the cannonballs even fell straight into the creek next to them, less than ten feet away from them. The water splashed three feet high, scaring the nearby Song Army to the point where they almost jumped from the ground.

"These artillerymen are bastards. They are not very accurate when they fire artillery."

Someone cursed.

The Song Army's musketeers and artillery should have complemented each other, but many musketeers were angry with the artillery and did not like them.

First of all, artillerymen are often very safe and can fire artillery far away. Unlike them, they often need to fight the enemy at a position of one to two hundred feet. If they are not careful, the enemy may rush forward to fight with them.

Secondly, in this non-information age, manual operations are prone to accidents. Sometimes the artillerymen are so cruel that they even blow up their own people. Such accidental injuries are inevitable.

Although there are more accidental injuries among the musketeers, such as some rushing to the front and stray bullets injuring or even killing their comrades, there are countless incidents where stray bullets are inevitable on the battlefield. You can only admit that you are unlucky.

But if you encounter artillery bombardment of your own people, you will inevitably have to scold your mother. After all, stray bullets affect too many things, but if the cannonball hits one of your own people too far, it often means that the artilleryman is not good enough, which will naturally attract scolding.

However, when he said it unintentionally and listened with intention, the battalion commander suddenly felt something in his heart. He turned around and said to everyone: "Their artillerymen are all firing artillery from behind. What do they need bullets for? Brothers, don't you think so?"

As soon as his words came out, everyone immediately woke up. Someone said: "That's right. We are here to protect you anyway. What bullets do you need?"

"They almost hit us, so taking some bullets from them was the right thing to do."

"Let's go find them."

The battalion commander immediately got on his horse, waved his hand and went to trouble the artillerymen behind him.

There are Song troops and horses everywhere in the wilderness at this moment.

The ones at the front were the musketeers. The artillerymen couldn't carry heavy artillery, so they could only carry the 200-pound Weiyuan artillery on an artillery cart.

Some people withdrew from the front line after running out of bullets, others simply looted the artillery, and others just caught up, crossed the front line of fire soldiers, and continued to bravely pursue the Liao people.

As more and more Song troops rushed to the battlefield, the Liao people, who could barely fight back and forth with the Song troops at first, couldn't bear it anymore and slowly fled towards the north.

From noon to late afternoon, almost an hour and a half passed. From the initial chaos, the Liao army tried to organize its troops and fought to the death with the Song army in the chaos, and now it is gradually defeated. Three hours passed.

Within at least five or six kilometers north of Xijin City, the number of Liao troops was getting smaller and smaller. A large number of Liao troops were defeated steadily in the first wave of Song army's raids. Even Xijin City was under attack. .

At this moment, outside the city, Zhang Kang stopped his horse, and a large number of carriages and horses were coming slowly from behind.

The genial spring sunshine enveloped him warmly, and the gentle breeze from the willows, carrying the rich smell of blood and the faint fragrance of wild flowers and grass, lingered faintly in his nose.

Looking up to the north, one can barely make out the outline of the gate tower on the north gate of Jijin, and in the distance a cluster of green mountains and cliffs stretches across the side.

"Sir, the artillery from our rear has arrived, and there are a lot of bullets and shells."

The deputy general came over to report the situation to Zhang Kang.

After Zhang Kang led his Song army to drive away a large number of Liao troops scattered in the north of Xijin City, he began to think about how to take the city.

Don't dare to set fire to the city now, because the sudden attack by the Song army has resulted in tens of thousands of Liao troops who have not withdrawn from the city. Once a fire is set, they will burn themselves into stuffy cans.

So now the Liao army in the city just closed the city gate, and then prepared artillery fire on the city wall and stood ready.

"First establish a temporary command post here."

Zhang Kang pointed to the hillside road next to him.

"yes."

The deputy general waved his hand, and people immediately started setting up tents on the hillside.

At this time, Zhang Kang's location was probably on the north-east side of Xijin City, about four kilometers away from the Gongchen Gate of Xijin City, and could only be observed through a telescope.

The undulating hills and soil slopes are layered with mountains. After the beginning of spring, the land of Youyan has changed from the dry and yellow color it once was, and has been replaced by greenery and vitality.

The green grass is covered with trees of all sizes, slightly sparse, and some are just saplings, but they grow tenaciously.

Looking south along the scenery where dilapidated villages and desolate countryside could still be vaguely seen, one can still see many abandoned buildings under the northern wall of Xijin City, witnessing the appearance of slums outside the city.

Zhang Kang held a telescope in his hand and stared at the city. After a moment, someone said: "My lord, General Zhou, General Zhe, General Zhang, General Wang, and General Fan are here."

Then Zhou Mei, Zhe Jimin, Zhang Qi, Wang Xin, Fan Ke and others walked down the hillside to the small slope one after another, and said to Zhang Kang, who was standing on the top of the slope looking out at the city, "Mr.

During the Song-Xia War, these people were only middle- and lower-level officers, but later they gradually climbed to the level of middle- and upper-level generals due to their repeated meritorious service.

For example, Zhou Mei was previously the deputy commander-in-chief of troops and horses at Huanqing Road, a senior general second only to the commander-in-chief of troops and horses, the deputy commander-in-chief of troops and horses, and the commander-in-chief of troops and horses. Zhe Jimin was even more powerful. He served as the prefect of Linfu and the general manager of the troops and horses of Yanyan Road, and he grew up very quickly.

However, they were still respectful in front of Zhang Kang. Not only was Zhang Kang now the Deputy Privy Envoy, but he was now the Deputy Privy Councilor, one of the three prime ministers. He was also their old boss, leading them to achieve countless meritorious deeds.

So when one by one heard that Zhang Kang called them over, they quickly stopped chasing and defeating the scattered Liao army, and rushed to the north of Xijin City with their own troops.

"Um."

Zhang Kang nodded, put down the telescope in his hand and said, "Come here."

Everyone came closer.

Zhang Kang pointed to Xijin City in the distance and said, "I want to capture Xijin."

Zhou Mei said: "There should be tens of thousands of Liao troops in the city, and there will be a lot of artillery fire. I'm afraid it won't be easy."

Zhang Kang sneered and said: "The retreat of the Liao army was cut off by our surprise attack, which will definitely make the soldiers in the city unstable. Therefore, we only need to break through the city gate to make them surrender."

"But Prime Minister Fan said they might set fire to the city."

Wang Xin hesitated and said: "What if we push them hard and they burn Xijin themselves?"

"I don't believe that so many people are willing to be buried with him."

Zhang Kang muttered: "The bottom priority is to attack the city, and the top priority is to attack the heart. If we attack from the east and attack from the west, where is the beauty of Zhou?"

"The end will be here."

"You lead the people to attack Tongtianmen, and when you get close to the city, you will immediately persuade the soldiers in the city to surrender."

"yes."

"Where are Wang Xin and Zhang Xi?"

"The end will be here."

"You two are pretending to attack Gongchenmen. There is no need to attack forcefully. The artillery from our rear has arrived. We will bombard them with artillery, forcing the Liao people to concentrate the only remaining artillery in the city near Gongchenmen."

"yes."

"Where is Zhejimin?"

"The end will be here."

"Immediately lead your troops to attack Qingjin Gate and Xianxi Gate to the west."

"yes."

"Fan Ke."

"The end will be here."

"Go and fight at Anton Gate and Yingchun Gate."

"yes."

After Zhang Kang assigned the task, he explained: "Start immediately and act as ordered."

"yes."

Everyone agreed with a bang and immediately led their troops to leave.

Several generals had almost 5,000 men under them. In addition to Zhang Kang's 8,000 men, the Song army assembled about 30,000 people to attack Xijin.

The guard on the city is the Liao right-guard general Yelubegut, also known as Yelu Zongjian. He is the third son of Shengzong of Liao and the true brother of Yelu Zong. He is in charge of the Pishi Army of Liao.

He saw a large number of Song troops gathering under the city, seemingly intending to attack the city, and suddenly there was a bit of chaos.

As a descendant of the clan, Yelu Begut had never actually been on the battlefield. This time the Liao people retreated in accordance with order. Yelu Ren should have been left in the city to lead his troops and horses last.

But just when Yelubegut and his men were about to leave the city, they were attacked by the Song army, forcing him to return to the city.

Yelvren first had to defend Fan Zhongyan from the south city gate from attacking from the main gate.

As a result, he became the highest general of the North City Gate.

So when he discovered that the Song Army was pretending to attack Gongchen Gate, Yelubegut thought that the Song Army had launched a general attack, and quickly ordered all the surrounding artillery to be pulled to Gongchen Gate.

At this time, the Liao people had dismantled most of the artillery in Xijin City.

When the city of Jin was at its peak, there were more than 800 cannons on the thirty-six-mile city wall, with an average of 24 meters per cannon. You can know how tightly guarded the Liao army was.

However, facing the siege tactics of the Song army, the Liao army had no use no matter how many artillery pieces they had. Therefore, when they retreated, they dismantled a large number of artillery pieces and pulled them away with difficulty through artillery carts, leaving only more than 300 pieces in the city.

Moreover, most of the artillery pieces were concentrated in the South City. The six gates of the North City, West City and East City only had about 100 pieces in total.

Yelu Begut did not mobilize the artillery pieces at the West Gate and the East Gate, but mobilized the artillery pieces at the Tongtian Gate. The Liao army struggled to push the artillery pieces weighing two thousand pounds over the city wall. More than 20 people pulled and pushed forward, and only then did they concentrate more than 20 artillery pieces at the Tongtian Gate to the Gongchen Gate.

It was already 3:30 in the afternoon, about 4 o'clock in the afternoon. The sky was clear and the sun was gradually setting in the west. In the evening breeze, a strong smell of sulfur and gunpowder filled the air, adding a bit of solemnity to the air.

"Boom boom!"

The artillery fire on the top of the city was continuous, and the Song army below also responded with artillery fire. The shells of both sides kept arcing in the air, some fell into the city wall, and some fell into the wild.

However, as a three-zhang, or nearly ten-meter-high city wall, the advantage was still very obvious. Even though the Liao army had bronze or iron cannons, and the flat shooting range was far inferior to the Song army's steel cannons, they increased the range at a high altitude, posing a considerable threat to the Song army.

For a time, the Song army was suppressed. Even though the number of Song army's field artillery was far greater than that of the Liao army, and the firing rate was also better than that of the Liao army, they were still slightly at a disadvantage due to the unequal range and the protection of the Liao army with the city wall.

After a round of artillery battles, only eight artillery pieces of the Liao army were destroyed, and less than fifty people were killed or injured. However, more than twenty artillery pieces of the Song army were blown down, and more than one hundred people were killed or injured. Obviously, they suffered a great loss.

"Hahahaha."

Yelü Begut laughed and said, "The Song army is just so-so."

"Report, General, something big has happened."

Just then, a galloping horse came from the city wall and shouted, "The Song army is now attacking Tongtian Gate."

"What?"

Yelü Begut was shocked, and then said, "Quick, follow me."

He immediately mobilized the army in the city and headed for Tongtian Gate.

Outside Tongtian Gate, the Song army was bombarding the city gate with Weiyuan Cannon. Due to the lack of heavy artillery, after just over ten minutes, under the combined bombardment, the Weiyuan Cannon blasted the city gate open.

Although this small steel cannon has a short range of less than two kilometers, it is far inferior to the heavy artillery of the Song army, but it is light and mobile, and the Liao people cannot pull artillery support in time.

Soon after the city gate collapsed, a large number of Song troops began to charge forward, and the Weiyuan Cannon continued to bombard the city wall, suppressing the Liao army archers on the wall.

The Liao army was forced to hide under the women's wall and threw grenades down the city to try to stop the Song army, but they could not withstand the continuous Song army rushing in under the artillery fire.

Capturing Xijin was a great achievement, and it changed their fate in this move. No one wanted to fall behind. Even if they died, it didn't matter. The pension for the dead soldiers in the Song Dynasty was very exaggerated, enough for the whole family to live comfortably for a lifetime.

With such fearlessness, the Song army rushed into the city not long after, and Yelu Begut also came with his troops, and the two sides started a fierce battle around the Tongtianmen Gate.