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

"Toot toot toot toot!~"

"Toot toot toot toot!~"

"Toot toot toot!~"

The sharp whistles in the wilderness made the killing mad Song army sober up a little.

Liu Chun, the general of the Song army, kept blowing the whistle and gathered the surrounding soldiers.

"Quick, count the number of people and let the soldiers return to the team immediately."

"Yes."

The messengers around hurriedly spread out.

Not long after, the Song army within a radius of about one kilometer gathered hurriedly.

When everyone arrived, they found that Liu Chun was not their commander at all.

"Which unit are you from?"

"Report, we are the subordinates of General Ma Hema."

"What about you?"

"We are the subordinates of General He Binhe."

"We are the subordinates of General Wang Zhongbao."

"We are the subordinates of General He Xinhe."

Everyone talked at once.

Liu Chun suddenly felt a headache.

The husband issued a military order for a chaotic battle, and it was fun to kill the Liao people.

The soldiers chased him out and fired everywhere.

But TM's army was all scattered, and he didn't know where his own troops had gone.

If he hadn't had hundreds of guards around him, he might have become a commander without troops.

"Come here and tell your soldiers that this is an emergency. Take your own soldiers and follow me, okay?"

Liu Chun said to the officers of the other departments.

After these people were summoned, the highest commander naturally came to the meeting.

Knowing that they were inexplicably under the jurisdiction of Liu Chun, some people were dissatisfied and said: "General Liu, we are not under the same command with your army, I am afraid."

"Confused!"

Liu Chun was furious: "Now is a time of military emergency. We are all Song army. How can we not consider the overall situation if we are worried about the war? Moreover, if we look closely, we are all under the command of Mr. Fan."

"Then"

Someone hesitated and said: "General, please tell us what the emergency is?"

"The main force of the Liao people has returned to support."

Liu Chun pointed to the direction of Xijin City and said: "A scout reported that it is less than ten miles away from the city."

Where are they now?

About twenty miles north of Xijin City, probably in the area of ​​Aobei Forest Park in Beijing in the future, where there are dense trees around, and they chased the Liao army here.

So the Song soldiers who were fighting in the wild at this time actually didn't know what the current situation was.

Someone wondered, "Since the main force of the Liao army has arrived, why don't you blow the horn and summon all the scattered soldiers around?"

"How do I know if you ask me?"

Liu Chun waved his hand impatiently and said, "Just because you asked us to adapt to the situation doesn't mean we will remain unmoved when the main force of the Liao army arrives. Maybe you have your own considerations, but we must not do nothing, even if it means gathering the troops around us first and moving closer to observe the situation."

Seeing him say this, everyone had to agree.

And situations like Liu Chun's are happening everywhere in the wilderness.

It was getting dark, and since Fan Zhongyan had not sent anyone to blow the horn to summon the three armies, everyone continued to do their own things.

At present, the horns of the Song army are all controlled by the army level, and only people at Liu Chun's level can blow them.

But they didn't dare to blow them.

Because the order to assemble the entire army can only be issued by Fan Zhongyan, and the sound of the horn can be heard at least one kilometer in radius. After Fan Zhongyan issued it, it would be passed to Zhang Kang, and then passed down by Zhang Kang layer by layer.

This back and forth will definitely lead to the sound of the Song army's trumpets in the entire wilderness, so naturally the troops can be quickly called back.

The problem is that Fan Zhongyan did not issue orders, and the senior officers of the Song army did not have the power to give orders without authorization.

After they learned that the main force of the Liao army had appeared, they could only use whistles to attract the nearby Song army and slowly gather the Song army, which had been broken up into battalions, to the army level.

The Song army did not have a regiment system, and mainly used battalions as units.

After the reform of the imperial army, the original more than 2,000 battalions became more than 1,000. The largest organization was the left and right wings, of which five battalions were one army, and ten armies were one wing. The left and right wings added up to 100,000 people.

Therefore, these army-level generals often called up combat units at the battalion level.

The Song army had more than 100,000 troops, and now there were more than 100 battalions running around in the wild, and there were also smaller "du".

As a result, from Xijin City to the north for thirty or forty miles, and to the northeast for thirty or forty miles, the entire road in the direction of the Liao army's retreat was full of the Liao army and the pursuing Song army.

The main force of the Liao people arrived in a swagger, and the Song scouts were not fools, so they would naturally report the situation to the surrounding senior generals.

Therefore, at this moment, except for some generals who chased too far or were relatively stupid and relied on relationships to get promoted, most of the Song army generals within twenty miles of Xijin realized that something was wrong and began to try their best to gather the surrounding troops.

Many Song army generals recruited soldiers from other parts of the army under their command, some gathered one or two thousand people, some gathered two or three thousand people, and the largest was Guo Zun, who gathered more than seven thousand people.

In this way, the Song army, which had originally dispersed more than a hundred troops, gathered in a short period of time, forming about thirty large and small troops, with an average of about three thousand people per unit, and some teams even had two or three military-level generals, and were discussing what the current situation was.

The change in the situation on the Song Army's side did not change the attitude of the Liao Army, nor did it even arouse alarm, because when the main force of the Liao Army came over, the Song Army encountered along the way also blew their whistles immediately, and then hurriedly fled on horseback.

Therefore, even if there were whistles everywhere and the Liao army scouts were conducting reconnaissance, the senior officials of the Liao army could only judge that the Song army was gathering in a small scale and not a single bugle sound for a large-scale gathering could be heard.

At this moment, the main force of the Yelv Sect finally arrived outside Xijin City.

It was already a quarter past eight o'clock in the evening, which was about eight o'clock in the evening. The sky was completely dark, and the bright moonlight cast a silvery glow across the sky. The visibility was actually not very good, and one could see about seven or eight meters around.

The main force of the Liao army was carrying torches, like thick fire dragons. But compared to the huge fire in the city, it pales into insignificance.

After all, it was a fire in an area close to one square kilometer in radius.

If it weren't for the Yaochi and Guanyin Lake to the west of Danfeng Gate, and the Long Street to the east, and we could find ways to stop the fire, I'm afraid the entire Xijin City would be a sea of ​​​​fire by now.

"Report!"

The scouts rushed over and reported to Yelu Zong Zhenhui: "Our army encountered a blockade by the Song army near the city gate."

"Can the situation in the city be investigated?"

Yelu Zongzhen asked.

"There were constant sounds of musketry in the city, as well as shouts of death and screams."

the scout replied.

"Can't we break through the city gate?"

Yelu Zong really frowned.

The scout said: "There are many Song troops near the city gate, and their firearms block the city gate. It is difficult to break in by force."

Yelvzong really had a headache.

The Song army was able to use artillery to break down the city gates and then charge into the city, because they had muskets.

And they only have cold weapons.

Facing people using muskets to guard the city gate, everyone would die.

"Where's the ladder?"

Yelu Zongzhen asked.

Xiao Ying replied: "In the rear army baggage team."

"How long does it take to arrive?"

"I'm afraid it will take more than an hour."

"Soldiers are valuable and quick, we can't wait any longer."

Yelu Zongzhen took a deep breath, then waved his hand and said: "The order is given. The entire army will launch a surprise attack and enter through the city gate hole broken by the Song army. Be sure to cooperate with the remnants of the city and the fire to annihilate the Song army in the city in one fell swoop. Wait. After destroying the Song army in the city, it will be much easier to clear out the stragglers in the field."

"yes."

Xiao Ying, Xiao Xiaoyou and the other generals all came down.

It's really time to attack.

Because from the perspective of the Liao army, first, there are still some Liao troops in the city struggling with the Song army.

Second, the Song army had no time to quickly gather the scattered soldiers in the field.

Third, although the Song army defeated their rear army and part of the central army, and at least 100,000 people were scattered by them, the Song army is still in a state of disarray.

However, they still have about 70,000 to 80,000 people in the central army and the front army. They have collected another 20,000 to 30,000 defeated soldiers on the road, and have assembled a large force of 100,000 people. They are still in formation, so they will not be defeated by thousands of stragglers. Stop it.

"Ohh Ohh ohh!"

As the desolate horns of the Liao army sounded, the Liao army soldiers, who were overwhelmingly crowded in the north of Jijin City, began to form a formation.

Then they divided into left and right sides, ran out several knights, and headed towards the east and west city gates.

The rest of the main force slowly moved towards Xijing City.

At this moment, between Gongchen Gate and Tongtian Gate, there were many Song troops near the city gates on both sides, blocking the small group of attacking Liao troops. No one could see what was above the city wall.

But if Yelvzong really knew about it, he would be scared to death.

Because the Song army was constantly raising the cannon barrels to the city wall.

The total weight of the Weiyuan gun is 200 kilograms, but this includes the turret, gun mount and gun body. The actual weight is about 180 kilograms, and only two people can lift it up.

So at this time, the Song Army placed these small steel cannons section by section on the wide city wall, and now more than 200 of them have been assembled.

During the Napoleonic period, 600,000 French troops attacked Tsarist Russia with just over 2,200 artillery pieces. However, France was not that big. In its heyday, the total area including the occupied territory that was not included in the territory was only 1 million square kilometers.

When the Song Dynasty was at its weakest, its land area was three times that of the Napoleonic period, its population was four times that of France, and its resources were extremely rich, so it had a lot of artillery.

The basic configuration of the Song Army is that one army has ten heavy artillery pieces and 60 field artillery pieces such as Weiyuan artillery. This leads to the current army of more than 100,000 in Fan Zhongyan's hands. The total number of field artillery pieces is more than 1,800, and the number of heavy artillery pieces is also 300. Many doors.

The number of troops is 150,000, and the artillery configuration is four times that of Napoleon. This is basically a reflection of the gap in national power.

So Fan Zhongyan gave an order, and at this moment, more than three to four hundred field artillery pieces were carried up one after another above the city wall. Although the heavy artillery was too heavy to be moved to the city wall, small steel cannons were enough.

A famous scout took advantage of the darkness and stuck his head out from the female wall to look outside. Even with a telescope, it was pitch black outside, except for the Liao army's fire dragon team in the distance, which was full of dazzling light.

They were like countless fireflies in the darkness, urging the horses, and slowly came towards the entrance of the city gate of Xijin City.

No one charged, because charging with thousands of troops towards the city gate was an act of suicide. The Song army was crushed to death by its own people before they could fight. Therefore, they all approached in an orderly manner, and the soldiers at the front had already raised their weapons. Steel shield.

They had to go in with the muskets of the Song army. As long as they rushed into the city gate and the Liao army continued to crowd in, they could always get close to the Song army, and then they would raid into the city and kill the Song army in the city.

"Ms. sir, the Liao people have begun to attack."

Zhang Kang stood by the city tower, listening to the sounds outside the city that had a completely different rhythm from the Song horns.

It was the horn of the Liao people, full of desolation and melodiousness.

“We also blow the trumpet.”

Seeing that the Liao army was slowly approaching and had already entered the range of artillery fire, Fan Zhongyan said softly: "Let the artillery push out of the crenellations of the female wall and aim at the outside of the city!"

"yes."

Zhang Kang issued orders to the soldiers around him and asked, "Are you blowing the rally horn?"

"No."

Fan Zhongyan turned his head, glanced at Zhang Kang meaningfully, and said with a smile: "Blow the attack horn!"

Attack number?

Zhang Kang was silent for a while, and then asked: "Ms. sir, do you really trust these generals? It's hard to win this chaotic war until now."

Fan Zhongyan shook his head and said: "It's not a matter of trust, but that only by doing this can we maximize our interests. We will not only save Xijin, but also eliminate the effective strength of the Liao people, and prepare for the general to destroy the Liao Kingdom."

"If we fail to send troops in time to disrupt the Liao people's rhythm, then when they retreat to the rear and a large number of troops and horses gather to defend, it will not be so easy to defeat them head-on."

He continued: "At that time, it is very likely that we will continue to make progress step by step as before, even if we have to fight until next year. So this is an opportunity created by the Liao people themselves, and we must make good use of this opportunity. In this way, too I can only trust my generals.”

"But if these generals fail to respond in time, I am afraid they will not be able to expand the results."

Zhang Kang said with a bitter smile.

Fan Zhongyan is right. Only by doing this can we expand the results of the battle, not only save Xijin, but also defeat the Liao people at once and drive them out of Yanyun.

But this requires extremely high general quality, because the army is scattered and relies entirely on the command of the middle and lower levels.

If these generals cannot exert their subjective initiative and assemble their troops at this time, once the artillery on the city of Jijin is fired at full strength, causing chaos to the Liao people and launching a surprise attack, then most of the Liao army will still escape.

In this way, the enemy's effective strength will not be killed, and there will be many obstacles to destroying the Liao in the future. At most, the battle will be over and the Liao people will flee north in panic.

However, at this moment, they had no other choice but to hope that the Song generals below would understand.

"Okay, let's blow the trumpet."

Fan Zhongyan saw that rows of artillery had been pushed to the crenellations of the female wall.

The gun muzzle made of steel was aimed at the outside of the city.

The gunner was already calibrating the position.

"Blow the trumpet!"

Zhang Kang said to the messenger holding the horn next to him.

"Ohh Ohh ohh!"

A horn sound that was completely different from that of the Liao army sounded, and then the trumpet players around them started playing almost instinctively when they heard the sound.

The low horn horns slowly spread into the distance in the open space, and the sounds one after another spread out like circles of ripples. A trumpeter mustered up his strength and blew out the Song Army's own offensive rhythm!

There seemed to be countless voices echoing from all directions.

The Song troops on the periphery who heard the sound of the horn also responded to the direction of Xijin City, telling them that they were already ready!