Chapter 117: Chasing and spanking
In the afternoon, Zhao Yulin still entered Qinzhou City. He first affirmed Miao Gui's decision not to move the mortar, and then told all the brothers, especially Hao Xiaoming, that the mortar should not be moved until the moment of the general attack.
Then he asked: The enemy already knows that we have firearms for long-range attacks, but they still dare to make such arrangements . What do they rely on?
Shunfeng learned that the Mongolian army had craftsmen who were capable of building large Huihui cannons. Would they build large Huihui cannons in the back to provide cover for themselves?
These issues must be considered seriously.
He suggested deploying those mortars with the longest range, finding a position to set up an ambush on the west side of the valley, and focusing on attacking the enemy's heavy weapons.
Miao Gui agreed with his point of view, believing that in order to intercept the enemy's cavalry, they still had to rely on thunder cannons and crossbows. There were not many mortars, so the focus should be on clearing the enemy's Huihui cannons and carrying out precision strikes.
Zhao Yulin led the discussion to this point and the brothers continued.
At this time, the Fire Phoenix came in to report that the Third Column had arrived at the battlefield.
Zhao Yulin said that the 3rd Column should be used as a battlefield reserve, but Fenghuang refused to do so and insisted on accepting the most difficult sniping missions and fighting positional warfare. He also accused him of nepotism.
The brothers felt very embarrassed. You looked at me, I looked at you, and then we all looked at him.
Zhao Yulin hesitated for a moment and said, "Okay, I'm convinced." But there was one thing he had to do, which was to cut Fenghuang's hair short.
Fenghuang stroked her hair reluctantly and immediately asked the guard to bring a pair of scissors.
Then the woman handed him the scissors and told him to cut the hair himself.
After saying that, Phoenix sat down and closed his eyes.
Zhao Yulin was also reluctant to part with his smooth and beautiful hair that looked like a phoenix ponytail, and he was in a dilemma.
But if she didn't cut it, the enemy would see at a glance that she was a woman and would soon know that she was the leader of the Third Column, Fire Phoenix, and the danger index would increase ten thousand times.
He made up his mind, picked up the scissors and quickly cut the woman's hair to the ear level. After a slight trim, he said "OK". Then he put a hat on Fenghuang and said with a smile, "Not bad, not bad". The female general looked heroic now.
Fenghuang didn't even look at the bronze mirror. She asked her guards to cut their hair according to her own style. The war room actually became her barber shop.
Miao Gui asked with some embarrassment: Do you really want my sister-in-law to be a sniper?
Zhao Yulin said it was necessary, there was no joking in the army. Besides, the Third Column had a fine tradition of sniping, and I believed they would be able to do it. After the brothers finished discussing the matter, Huo Fenghuang went to the back hall to say goodbye to him and asked him if he had any other instructions?
Zhao Yulin pointed to the drawn trench diagram and explained, reminding her that the enemy's Huihui artillery could cover the east, and that the trench should be widened and deepened to lock in the enemy's cavalry and use anti-artillery holes to protect the soldiers.
Phoenix looked at her man happily, put her arms around his neck, gave him a kiss and ran away.
He walked to the hall, gave some instructions to his brothers, then left the state capital and went to Lingyan Temple in the west to wait for Cao Youwen.
Wang Shixian arrived at the Wang Family Army camp in the evening. After listening to his eldest son's account of the morning's battle, he said disdainfully that the enemy had become smarter, taking advantage of our unstable foothold to launch a sneak attack, biting off a piece of meat and running away. In just one encounter, they actually took away one of my generals and several thousand soldiers, which was not simple.
However, this battle also exposed the weakness of the Shenwei Army. Their eastern position was exposed to the range of the Huihui artillery of the Wang family army and was definitely unable to be defended.
A large number of infantrymen were lying on the ground in a daze, waiting for his cavalry to die. What a sin.
Old Wang was very pleased and felt that his eldest son had made progress.
In the past, the impression his eldest son gave him was that he was young and daring, aggressive, and brave but not wise.
Today, he saw his eldest son observing carefully and setting up several black tents to hide the large Huihui cannons. He felt like a handsome man.
When Zhao Yulin woke up from a nap, Sanqiang told him that Wang's army had fired artillery at his sister-in-law's position again.
He arrived at the observation point and took the telescope handed to him by San Qiang. He saw that the sniper position had undergone tremendous changes. The Fire Phoenix had dug out a prototype overnight according to his trench reconstruction drawings, and there were scenes of people digging trenches with pickaxes and shovels everywhere.
Li Sanqiang said that his brothers were walking in the trenches with their backs bent and they could not see the end of the trenches, and they were not afraid of the enemy's arrows and artillery fire at all.
Zhao Yulin was very satisfied. The trenches were still being deepened and widened and needed to be continuously extended.
This was improved upon after he inspected the ancient battlefield sites during the time when Wu Jie fought against the Jin army. At that time, Wu Jie's method of resisting the Jin cavalry was to dig wide trenches, interrupt the cavalry's galloping speed, divide and surround them, and then attack them one by one.
After daybreak, Wang Xian heard the report from the soldiers on the watchtower: The Song army was digging trenches. At first he smiled contemptuously and asked what was the point of digging trenches.
The old man's rider still jumped over.
However, when his eldest son climbed up to the watchtower to look around, he was dumbfounded.
Overnight, criss-crossing trenches appeared on the Song army's positions. The trenches were wide and deep, and the excavated area was still expanding.
After Wang Shixian knew the real situation, he went upstairs to observe in person. He saw the danger of this move at a glance. If he allowed the Song army to dig down, his cavalry would lose the advantage of attacking the enemy formation and would be divided into pieces of positions and become sitting ducks.
He immediately gave the order to organize an attack, otherwise he was worried that his cavalry would never have the chance to cross.
Immediately, the Wang family army camp was crowded with people and a busy scene appeared.
All of these could not escape the Song army's observation posts, which saw them clearly and reported them immediately to the command post. Both sides stepped up their preparations for war.
Zhao Yulin received news of unusual movements in the enemy camp, indicating signs of a war. Worried about the Fire Phoenix, he immediately rushed to the mortar position.
This is the western peak. Miao Gui deployed three mortars with the longest range to maneuver here and monitor the battlefield.
After Zhao Yulin scanned the entire area with his telescope, he asked the team leader, "Have you seen the enemy's big black tent?"
Team leader Deng Guanghui said he saw it and it was a bit strange. Compared with the height, it was higher than the large white tent at the back. It must be hiding something. It was either a camouflaged command post or some new weapon. He would keep an eye on it.
Xiao Deng's words were enough. Zhao Yulin saw that the Wang family army began to form a team and set off, but they were still far away from Qinzhou City and out of the range of the catapult.
His trebuchet had a spring-assisted range, so it had an intimidating enough range, but that was all it could do. If it wanted to go farther, he would have to reduce the weight of the splitting shells.
However, if the weight of the splitter bomb is reduced further, the power of the charge will be greatly reduced. This is already the ideal range.
The Huihui artillery at the north gate of the Wang family army fired stone bullets and shrapnel at the Song army.
The shrapnel bomb had the strongest lethality. They hollowed out stones, loaded them with gunpowder, lit the fuse and threw them out. The stone bombs exploded and burned in the air above the position, causing heavy casualties to the enemy.
Therefore, Zhao Yulin asked the Fire Phoenix to dig anti-artillery holes, so that the soldiers could hide inside and cover the hole entrance with shields, which would be much safer.
After three rounds of
At this time, Wang Xian was a little surprised that the small Shenwei Army was indeed quite powerful.
The eldest son told him that the bows and arrows of the Shenwei Army were very powerful, with a very fast shooting speed, and a range of more than thirty steps farther than the bows and arrows of Cao Youwen's army. As soon as the brothers went up, arrows rained down on them. Anyone who was hit immediately lost his fighting power. The arrows were short, less than three inches, and penetrated into the body and could not be pulled out.
Their iron barrel cannons fired gunpowder bags at you, and anyone who was hit would be blown to pieces without a single bone left.
Wang Shixian was now at the point of winning the battle. There was no expression on his face, and he ordered the army to fight again with a stern look.
This time, led by the main general Zhang Zhaopeng, the mixed infantry and cavalry launched a desperate charge.
The Fire Phoenix retreated as planned, leading the enemy into the attack range of the catapults. The catapults of both sides launched a relay artillery battle, but the Song army's catapults had a fast firing rate and their shells were powerful. After a fierce fight, the Wang army could not bear it and retreated again.
Zhang Zhaopeng was hit by three arrows in his hands and feet. Although his life was not in danger, after experiencing the rain of arrows from the Song army, he trembled and reported to Wang Shixian that the firepower of the Song army was too fierce, which he had never seen before.
Wang seemed to be in a bad mood and waved her hand to tell them to go down and rest.
He turned around and told his eldest son to call a truce today.
Wang Shixian was now in a dilemma. He had not expected that the current Song army was so well-equipped and so tenacious. He had originally wanted to take back Qinzhou City and then go to Xihe and Fengzhou to rob some good things, but it was probably difficult.
This can only be blamed on his mentality of being content with his own little corner and his overconfident mentality. Why doesn't he do some serious investigation and research?
On the battlefield outside Qinzhou City, the Fire Phoenix urged the evacuation of the wounded and the reinforcement of fortifications.
In this battle, she truly realized the benefits of the new trenches Zhao Yulin gave her. Not only was it convenient for troop deployment, but the casualties were also extremely low. Compared with the past battles in Mahujiang and Gucheng where they had to fight with flesh and blood, the brothers felt very comfortable and dug even harder.
The Huihui cannons of the Wang family army suffered heavy losses because they were targeted by the catapults of the Shenwei army. Less than half of them are usable and they are still under emergency repair. It is estimated that their firepower will be significantly weakened if the war breaks out again.
Zhao Yulin observed until the battle was over and there was no obvious change in the enemy camp, so he returned to the temple to rest. Just after he took a nap, Sanqiang came in to report that General Cao had arrived.
Zhao Yulin accompanied Lao Cao to the observation point again, took off the telescope on his chest and gave it to Lao Cao.
Cao Youwen raised his telescope and looked around. How come the soldiers from the enemy camp were right in front of him?
He was so frightened that he almost dropped the telescope.
Lao Cao calmed himself down, raised the telescope again and looked around. While looking, he asked Zhao Yulin with great praise: What is this thing? It is so magical?
Zhao Yulin said with a smile: "Magic mirror, it can see the enemy clearly." Lao Cao looked around and was reluctant to give the telescope back to him.
