Warrior in Turbulent Han Dynasty

"Boom!" A loud thunderous noise tore through the morning tranquility of Jinyang City, and several sparrows fluttered in the air in panic and flew into the distance. It was a sunny day, the sun had just risen, and it was as red as blood in winter. The soldiers of the Northern Han Dynasty on the city wall heard the thunderous sound, and they didn't know what it was, and they all waited and watched. Behind the first earthen wall fence, more than five hundred steps away from the city, a puff of gunpowder smoke rose.

That's not mine, it's a cannon! After many days of preparations for the siege, the cannons finally sounded impatiently.

This loud noise not only disturbed the stalemate between the sparrows and the confrontation, but also disturbed all parties... Da Zhou, Northern Han, Liao Kingdom Northern Prefecture, and even Youzhou Liao Kingdom South Prefecture. Guo Shao has already received all kinds of signs of detailed reports, and even Youzhou may mobilize troops to rescue Jinyang.

The battle of Jinyang involving all parties kicked off at this moment!

Guo Shao sat on the horse with his sword pressed, and looked up following the sound. The initial velocity of the stone bullet fired by the artillery was indeed not too fast. The naked eye could see the round stone making a parabolic motion in mid-air, and it took a while before it fell to the ground. A "bang" was heard from a distance, and it hit the soil outside the city.

Then it stopped, leaving only the noise of people and horses around.

The generals and officials didn't say a word, they squinted their eyes and looked at the place where the gunpowder was rising to the east. Guo Shao also looked there, waiting patiently.

A military commander on the artillery formation took a look around and shouted, "Stand up an inch!"

The loaded thick|short mortar next to it was immediately dug out from the pile of sacks by the soldiers, and then a sandbag was stuffed in the ear of the gun. A young general quickly went up to measure it with a rope and said, "It's done."

A few soldiers hurriedly carried sandbags to plug the gun barrel. The thick iron gun seemed to be buried in the sand all over its body, in order to fix its position.

Not long after, there was another loud "boom", and under the deflagration of a large amount of gunpowder, the muzzle seemed to be breathing fire, and white smoke rose suddenly! The huge cannon sound seemed to be echoing outside the city wall. Just after the cannon sound passed, a coughing sound of "cough, cough, cough" was heard.

Guo Shao raised his head, looked at the flying stone bullets, and said silently: Medium! middle!

Under everyone's watchful eyes, the stone bullet flew towards the top of the city about 500 paces away with the anticipation of thousands of people. After a while, it landed on the city wall suddenly. The 100-jin stone bomb just hit the target! With a "bang", earth and rocks were vaguely seen splashing on the wall, and dust was flying around, as if it had exploded. Because the stone bomb was very heavy, it was quite powerful, at least it smashed the floor tiles on the city wall out of the hole.

Seeing this situation, the soldiers cheered.

It didn't take long for the artillery deployed in front to ring out one after another, and the camp outside the city was struck by lightning and thunder. Hundreds of cannons fired at once, the momentum was so loud that the earth trembled!

Moreover, Guo Shao deployed more than a hundred cannons on the Jinyang siege camp, and the military supervisor cast a total of more than three hundred of the same Longxiao cannons, all of which were transported to the front line of Jinyang! Because this kind of gun is only useful for siege.

Heavy stone bombs attacked the city wall in front one after another, earth and rocks flew from the top of the city, and the bricks and stalks on the wall fell down. The battle line quickly became a mess, with flames and smoke everywhere.

Guo Shao watched the magnificent scene for a while, but he hadn't gotten used to such a loud sound, even if he was far away from the artillery array, his ears were "buzzed" by the shock.

A large number of artillery bombardments, but the results of the stone bombs are still uneven. The specifications of the Long Xiao cannon, the weighing of the gunpowder, and the angle of the barrel are all uniform, but it is still difficult to avoid errors; the casting technology and measurement methods are still relatively rough, and it is difficult to be accurate.

However, the knowledge and technology used are far ahead in this era... how many years will it take for the laws of parabola and ballistics to be discovered. But these are just junior high school physics knowledge for Guo Shao.

At this time, more than 300 cannons outside the siege fortifications that were more than ten miles long roared one after another, and the battle became more and more lively.

Multiple volleys were fired one after another, as if the city wall of Jinyang was being lifted by waves. Listening to the sound of the battle, Jinyang seemed to be collapsing soon... But the actual effect still feels like a big gap! The average thickness of Jinyang's city walls is ten steps (more than ten meters). This kind of black | gunpowder artillery cannot be overturned, but it is only a matter of time before it causes serious damage to the fortifications such as the brick wall and the female wall on the wall.

Another great effect is that there are a large number of defenders on the city wall, and shelling can also cause damage; it also consumes their morale and fighting spirit.

So on the first day of attacking the city, the Zhou army did not send out a single soldier to attack the city, but continued to bombard the city, consuming a lot of gunpowder and stone bullets. It didn't stop until the evening.

However, the Zhou army is not afraid of consumption. All the cities of the Northern Han army in the southern region are under the control of the Zhou army. The military supplies are continuously transported from Fenshui and Qinlu post roads. The resources of the whole country are undertaking this war!

The first row of howling cannons were deployed five hundred steps away from the city wall; the heavy weapons of the Northern Han army were nothing more than catapults and ballistas, and the range of these weapons was only two to three hundred steps away, so unless they rushed out of the city, they would not be able to reach the Zhou army. The Northern Han army was beaten all day long, and they didn't fight back once.

... The sun went down, and the hustle and bustle that had been roaring all day gradually quieted down. The air was filled with smog, and the choking smell of gunpowder lingered for a long time. Fires were lit up and down the city one after another.

The faces of several generals were black and dirty from the smoke. They put their weapons outside the tent first and walked into the tent of the Chinese army. It was very lively inside, although they were tired all day, but because there were no casualties, the power of the artillery made them very excited (much stronger than the catapult), and they talked a lot in the tent.

After a while, Guo Shao also came in and sat down on the upper seat. Everyone immediately quieted down, and they all clenched their fists and saluted.

"Everyone is free of courtesy, sit down as you please." Guo Shao said nicely.

Everyone bowed together: "Thank you, Your Majesty."

The generals sat down on the left and right according to the words, and the general Gao Yanchou said: "From my point of view, the Long Xiao Cannon is much more powerful than the catapult, but it is only bombardment and cannot attack the city. I think that in order to capture Jinyang as soon as possible, we must attack the city."

When someone spoke, Guo Shao turned to look at him, listened carefully, but nodded with an encouraging expression on his face, and would not speak easily.

When he was a general, he encouraged the generals to express their opinions and judge for themselves. Sure enough, Liu Renzhan also said, "Can we use gunpowder to blow up Jinyang City?"

Guo Shao responded, "You can try it, but the hole attack will take a long time. It will take nearly a month to successfully dig a tunnel and bury the gunpowder...I think it may not be as easy as before to use gunpowder to blow up the city this time. Zhao Kuangyin fully understands the specific tactics of gunpowder bombing the city. He will advise the Lord of the Northern Han Dynasty to guard against this method; once the opponent is prepared, the chances are not as good as before. Furthermore, Jinyang City is thick, so we don't know how effective it will be."

After all he said, he was also speculating on the effect, if it really succeeded in blowing down the city wall again. The gap is very small, and because the city wall is high and thick, a large amount of earth and rocks may accumulate in the gap to affect the attack speed... At this time, if the defenders are already prepared, deploying troops in the small gap and rushing to repair the fortifications, because the contact area is too small, it is very likely to become a tactic of wasting and delaying.

At this time, Wang Pu said: "When the Liao army's reinforcements arrive, if Li Chuyun can stop the Liao army, Jinyang will be an isolated city. There is no reason why the isolated city can't go down, it's just a matter of time."

Guo Shao took it for granted, and said: "Wang Shijun is right. Attacking a city like Jinyang will eventually consume the strength of the defenders and kill their hopes... Blocking the reinforcements from the Liao Kingdom in advance will make the monarchs and ministers of the Northern Han Dynasty feel stubborn and hopeless. Only by capturing Jinyang will they have a chance."

The people discussed a lot and said many ways, including the way of flooding Jinyang city with Fen water. However, these are all old clichés. Someone has said it long ago. It is necessary to wait until the flood season in summer. It is also for the purpose of killing the endurance of the defenders.

Just then, the soldiers came in with their dinner. A group of warriors immediately turned their attention to food, and it seemed that everyone was hungry after running around all day.

The food in the army, the difference between the generals and the soldiers is not big, even Guo Shao as the emperor eats the same food, the generals are too embarrassed to start a small stove alone... If they really want to do it, these generals have thousands of subordinates, it is easy to get some big fish and big meat.

But what I eat now is wheat cakes, which are packed in baskets, and the tube is full; the other is soup cooked with salted meat and vegetable leaves, which are packed in wooden barrels.

Everyone didn't care about it, they were used to eating anyway, and they all asked their relatives to fetch their respective big iron cups, made soup out of the iron cups, and then shared the wheat cakes.