Poor Family Chapter 860

  Chapter 860 Eastward Adverse

At the same time when Li Yanqing took advantage of Weicheng's lack of strategic depth and easily captured Weicheng, Fengxiang Mansion in the south was also engaged in a tragic battle for Dashan Pass, which is located in the north of Qinling Mountains in the southern suburbs of today's Baoji City. Lu, known as the "Throat of Sichuan and Shaanxi" since ancient times, is the west gate of Guanzhong. If Dashan Pass is lost, the gate of Guanzhong will be opened, and the Xixia army can attack Jingzhao at any time.

But for the Xixia Army, the Dasan Pass has a second significance. They want to attack Li Yanqing's backyard and force Li Yanqing to withdraw from Xixia. Withdrawal of troops from the territory.

Of course, the Xixia army has another option. The army will go directly to Douling and Shaniuling, capture the Hulu River Valley, and cut off Li Yanqing's back. , even if the soldiers can climb mountains and ridges, the logistics and supplies are simply too difficult to pass. Not only that, the Song Army also deployed thousands of defenders on various dangerous passes. Among the vast mountains.

  Brother Li Cha was very clear about this point. He gave up his plan to attack Calabash Valley from the west, and instead adopted another more realistic plan. He captured Dasan Pass, entered the pass, and forced Li Yanqing's army to retreat.

Dasan Pass was led by Liu Kai, a famous general of the Western Army, with 10,000 troops. Liu Kai was originally the envoy of Qinfeng Road. The governor of Taiyuan and the peace envoy of Hedong Road, but he is temporarily unable to take up the post. Hedong Road is still in the hands of the Kingdom of Jin, and he needs to lead the army to recover it. At the same time, the situation of Qinfeng Road is critical. Li Yanqing asked him to continue to sit in Dasanguan until the situation stabilizes Come down and hand over the handsome seal.

   Not only that, Li Yanqing also sent the commander Liu Tie to lead 3,000 troops to Dasan Pass to help in the battle. Although there were not many reinforcements, they brought the most advanced defensive weapons, the nemesis of the siege ladder—Feihuolei.

  'Boom! Boom! Boom! ' The sound of drums outside Dasan Pass shook the sky, and 30,000 soldiers of the Western Xia Army rushed towards the city like a tide. This was the third big siege launched by Brother Li Cha.

The terrain of Dashanguan is relatively high, and the city is built with huge stones, which is extremely tall and strong. It was difficult for the Xixia army to attack from the bottom. They had to use a large siege ladder four feet long, which was four feet wide. The ladder beams on both sides are as thick as calves, and are made of fine and solid ash wood.

30,000 Xixia soldiers carrying hundreds of large siege ladders surged towards Guancheng to kill. When the city was closed, thousands of soldiers were waiting in battle with big bows in their hands. The imperial court did not expect the Xixia Army to attack Xihe Road with a sharp firearm like Zhentianlei, and transferred hundreds of Zhentianlei from Jingzhao Mansion and Fengxiang Mansion to Taiyuan and Tokyo.

There are boulders weighing tens of catties in the trebuchet on the top of the city. This small trebuchet has a throw rod of only one foot, and can throw boulders weighing thirty to forty catties a hundred steps away. Due to the weak defensive weapons of Sanguan, they not only brought a thousand flying fire mines, but also fifty thunderbolts, which greatly strengthened the defense ability of Dashanguan.

At this time, twenty thunderbolts had been put into the throwing pocket of the small trebuchet. Liu Kai watched the Xixia soldiers rushing under the city. The Xixia soldiers had already entered within 150 steps, and he immediately ordered: : "Crossbow bolt launch!"

The red flag was waved down, and a thousand god-armed crossbows were launched first. Their killing distance was between 150 and 180 steps. Most Xixia soldiers wore leather armor, held spears, and had no shields to protect them. Only the sword and shield army has strong shields. After all, Xixia is only a small country with relatively poor national strength. It is impossible to be fully equipped like the Song army. Even the Song army, only the forbidden army is equipped with shields, and the ordinary Xiang army and rural soldiers are not equipped.

Thousands of crossbow arrows were shot at the surging enemy army, and the soldiers running ahead fell down one after another, causing hundreds of casualties. However, the casualties of hundreds of people were just a wave in the ocean to the 30,000-strong army. In other words, the Xixia army continued to rush towards Guancheng.

  After two rounds of strong crossbow shooting, the 5,000 Xixia crossbowmen who rushed to the front finally came within a hundred paces.

   Seeing that the enemy army had entered the range of the trebuchet, Liu Kai calmly ordered: "Shoot the trebuchet!"

  The green flag waved above the city, the trebuchet, which had been charged for a long time, was launched, and the soldiers lit the matchlock, followed by a series of 'Boom! Boom! ' With the sound of throwing, twenty black thunderbolts soared into the sky and hit the Xixia soldiers a hundred steps away.

   Xixia soldiers obviously have not undergone systematic bomb avoidance training. They don't know that crawling and shields can protect themselves from being injured to the greatest extent, and they don't have special mine-watching soldiers.

Facing the attack of Zhentianlei, Xixia soldiers could only lower their heads and rush forward, relying on luck to escape the explosion attack. Twenty Zhentianlei exploded on the two-mile-wide field. There were shouts and cries everywhere, and thousands of soldiers were directly killed by the bombing, and the number of soldiers who were unfortunately injured by the flying shrapnel was several times as many.

A thunderbolt can be split into hundreds of iron fragments, including the shell itself and the iron particles filled inside. The shrapnel and iron particles fly, and a large number of Xixia soldiers are hit and fall down. A round of thunderbolt explosion , the number of casualties exceeded 3,000, and the Xixia soldiers were really a little scared.

  Brother Li Cha was very anxious. The Xixia army had entered within a hundred paces. They could not retreat any longer. No matter how many casualties there were, they had to fight hard. He sternly shouted: "Continue to attack, and those who retreat will be killed immediately!"

  'Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! With the sound of fierce drums, tens of thousands of Xixia soldiers could not retreat, so they could only bite the bullet and continue to charge. Three thousand archers rushed to the bottom of the city first, and began to shoot arrows at the top of the city. The shooting of the crossbow soldiers with the divine arm was suppressed, but the three thousand soldiers with the big bows stood behind and shot downwards in the form of projectiles. The thick arrows fell like raindrops, and the Xixia soldiers could hardly avoid them. , The loss was very heavy, and the Xixia crossbowmen were suppressed again, and the remaining crossbowmen had to retreat one after another.

At the same time, the second round of Thunderbolt was launched, and huge explosions echoed among the crowd. Soldiers were constantly being blown into the sky. The battlefield was filled with gunpowder smoke. The death was extremely tragic.

Seeing that the attacking soldiers were about to retreat, Brother Li Cha immediately ordered five hundred knives and axes to step forward and kill all the retreating soldiers. After hundreds of soldiers were killed, Xixia soldiers launched an attack again, and more than ten thousand soldiers rushed forward. Go to the bottom of the city and put a large siege ladder on the top of the city.

Liu Tie led 500 throwers out. They were specialized fire-throwing soldiers with very skilled throwing skills. They lit a very short match, and the copper rod was thrown out immediately. Feihuolei immediately circled and flew towards the siege ladder, 'Wow! ' The iron chain was blocked by the ladder beam, and immediately flew left and right, and Fei Huo Lei tightly wrapped around the siege ladder, and then boomed! boom! There were two explosions, and the siege ladder was blown off in the middle.

Not only one siege ladder, but all the hundreds of siege ladders that had just reached the top of the city were blown up in the middle. The Song army immediately poured kerosene on the siege ladder and ignited it with a fire pocket. More than a hundred large siege ladders were swallowed up, and the Xixia soldiers were dumbfounded. They could no longer attack the city and had to retreat one after another.

  Brother Li Cha could see clearly in the distance that the hundreds of siege ladders had all become strings of fire, so he could only sigh secretly, and ordered: "Send my order, the whole army retreats!"

'when! when! when! ' The bell for withdrawing troops rang, and the soldiers who had already lost their morale retreated like an ebbing tide.

  The soldiers on the top of the city suddenly burst into excited cheers.

In this offensive and defensive battle, the Xixia army suffered nearly 10,000 casualties, but Dashanguan was not damaged at all. Only more than 40 defenders on the city were injured by arrows, and no one was killed. achieved brilliant results.

  Brother Li Cha also knew that he could no longer capture Dasan Pass, so he had to lead the army to retreat sadly in the direction of Huizhou.

  (end of this chapter)

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