The north wind whistled, and the surface was like a knife, and the smell of burning cattle and horse manure floated in the air.

Zuo Nianyuan leaned against the battlements on the top of the city and looked out. The vast frozen land. After many days of war, the snow was already very dirty, and sparse corpses were distributed under the city. In the distance, outside the range of artillery fire at the top of the city, one cowhide tent after another, and the activities of the Liao army could be clearly seen from the city. Further south, the Song army's joint camp was vaguely visible, and the cavalry occasionally rushed to the nearest place and shot the military orders or manifestos of the camp into the city. Under the pressure of the Song army's army, Liao

The army's siege of Xiongzhou was in name only. However, in order to drag the Liao army to the city of Xiongzhou to fight to the decisive battle, instead of retreating into Youzhou to defend, Wang Gui's army slowed down the marching speed from Xiongzhou twenty miles away. It took three days for the Song army to advance to the underground camp five miles south of Xiongzhou. The Liao army also seemed to have made up their minds. Instead of retreating, they concentrated tens of thousands of soldiers and horses near Xiongzhou to the south, and acted as if they were to fight the Song army to the decisive battle.

The sky gradually became brighter, and the violent north wind made the sky clear and there was no dark cloud.

The burning bonfire was emitting wisps of blue smoke in the morning light, and the outside of Xiongzhou City was a bit too quiet.

The Song and Liao armies seemed to have been confronting for a long time to make a break.

Previously, the Liao army retreated step by step, and the Song army crossed the Yishui River. The severe cold turned Xiongzhou into an isolated city on an ice field.

There was no danger to defend. If it were in the past, the Song army would never dare to fight the Liao people in such a terrain. However, after the training of the musket battalion, the muskets could be both archers and spearmen. The same number of people, the combat power of infantry doubled. Under the suggestion of the generals and staff officers, Wang Gui decided to decide the plan to win with the regular soldiers, denied Zhang Xian's suggestion of going against the flanks of the Jurchen Army, and personally selected the central battalion for the artillery battalion and installed artillery. The central cannon base of the Song army had thirty-two four-inch cannons, forty three-inch cannons, sixteen cannons on the left wing cannon base, and forty cannon bases were used as reserves for counterattacks.

The Liao army was obviously divided into three groups, with the wooden trench camps built by the Jurchen army. Although they were not strong enough, the Jurchens cunningly set up many camp tents and bonfires, all over the mountains and fields, making the Song army unable to tell where their main force was. The Meerbo cavalry and Khitan cavalry gathered further north from the range of the Song army's artillery fire. It was obvious that if the war was not good, they would definitely leave the Jurchens and escape alone without hesitation. However, this depends on the timing. The emperor issued a strict order, and anyone who withdraws the troops without authorization will be severely punished. Wanyan Zongbi's head was still hanging on the top of Youzhou city, which shocked all Liao generals, including Yelu Tiege. Although Yelu Dashi did not come to the battlefield in person, the killing was already opened, and no one wanted to become the next monkey.

In the morning, the sound of cannons kicked off the battle, and black smoke rose from the snow-white ice fields.

At the beginning of the battle, heavy artillery on artillery towers arranged by the Song army began to bombard the simple camps built by the Liao army.

A heavy shelling sound cut through the silent air, then disappeared into the whistling north wind, and then, the second and third shelling sounded, which was the gunners' test firing. After the initial air shock, the Liao army had not had time to do so, and more cannons sounded, and hundreds of cannons were connected. Heavy round iron shells cut through the blue sky, one after another, rushing to land in the front camp of the Liao army. Because of Yelu Tiege's selfishness

The Liao army in Xiongzhou, whether it was the Jurchens, the Meerbo people, or the Khitan cavalry that monitored them, did not even have a heavy artillery. Therefore, the Liao army was at an absolute disadvantage at the beginning of the artillery bombing. However, the Liao army seemed to understand this. Although their camps were not strong, they were scattered very wide. The Jurchen infantry hid far outside the range of the Song army's artillery shells. The Meerbo cavalry gathered and dispersed. The Song army could obviously not destroy the Liao army brigade with artillery alone.

The artillery was intermittent. After about an hour, more than a thousand Melbo cavalry wrapped in thousands of Jurchen infantry to try to escape the central artillery base of the Song army and attack the Song army from the side. From the front of Xiongzhou city, Melbo cavalry was sometimes sparse and sometimes dense, and obviously very familiar with how to attack under the threat of artillery. The cavalry was not fast. The brigade of infantry followed the cavalry and quickly passed through the ice field between the Song, Liao and Liao. The shells made sharp roars through the sky from time to time, and some directly penetrated the Liao infantry team, leaving behind a flesh-and-blood alley. Because the distance was far away, except for the sound of booming cannons, the Song army at the front of Xiongzhou city could not hear the enemy's screams. They only saw the Liao army rushing towards the Song army's right-wing artillery base three times, one more fierce once, and were defeated by the Song army on the flank three times.

The last time, the brigade of Meerbo cavalry almost rushed to the cannon base. However, when they rushed through the large and small groups of gunpowders and desperately launched the final sprint, the Song army musketeers, who were already on guard, carried out two rounds of rapid and violent volleys. At the last moment, the musketeers inserted the gun stabbing, and a large piece of white blades flashed with a cold light in the sun. The Liao cavalry who rushed to the front of the cannon base could not rush through the iron wall of the gun, and then threw down hundreds of corpses of horses, retreated in chaos.

On the other hand, the attacks of the Song cavalry on the right wing of the Liao army were also repelled. However, compared with the Liao army, the Song cavalry suffered not much loss and almost retreated at a glance. Unlike Zhang Xian, who advocated the decisive victory of the cavalry, Wang Gui advocated the attack of infantry head-on, and the attacks of the cavalry were only tentative. The battle was temporarily calm, and the Song army took the opportunity to move the position forward again.

"Can you win this battle?" Zuo Nianyuan took a deep breath, and the cold hurt his chest.

"Victory and defeat mainly depend on the camp. We can restrain the Liao army and fight out of the city at the last moment." Jia Yuanzhen said in a deep voice.

"Are you just the soft eggs in the south who can't fire the bow and have never even shot a few guns?"

Jian Tianliang curled his lips and looked at Zuo Nianyuan provocatively. After a few days of fighting, Jian Tianliang, who had never missed the Southern Army, had to admit that Zuo Nianyuan's firearms battalion could indeed fight tough battles, not inferior to Henan's elite soldiers. The platoons of the Guangnan Camp were particularly powerful. When the enemy ants attached to the city, the gunners and musketeers could hold back a gun under the rain of arrows of the Jurchens until the enemy was about to climb the city with only twenty or thirty steps. The officer gave the order and the cannon sounded.

In the masterpiece, bullets fell like raindrops in the smoke. The enemy troops climbing the city screamed and fell like leaves blown by the wind. Occasionally, a few fish that escaped the net climbed up desperately. The musketeers with guns stabbed in the back row stepped forward and stabbed them all, killing them all. At this time, Jian Tianliang realized that most of the soldiers of Guangnan Camp were veterans who fought bloody battles with the Great Food Pirates in Guangzhou. Zuo Nianyuan was not a weak scholar, but a ruthless character who crawled out of the pile of dead people.

Xia **shi's standard for judging strength is very simple, and he always comes from his opponents.

In terms of strength, each army in the Xia Kingdom was good at winning the battle. The Turkic Dashi was the strong enemy of the Anxi army. Zuo Nianyuan was able to defeat the Dashi warrior under the city of Guangzhou, which means everything. However, winning respect is one thing. Jian Tianliang had no good feelings for the southern people no matter what. Moreover, he felt that Zuo Nianyuan had hidden the record of Guangzhou, making his previous behavior of ridiculing him look ashamed of a clown. Therefore, in the past few days, Jian Tianliang's attitude towards the Guangnan army such as Zuo Nianyuan has become increasingly bad. Although the Guangnan Camp was very outstanding in the battle to defend the city, this did not prevent him from ridiculing other southern camps from fighting.

"If you don't practice your skills for three days, archers will shoot at least a dozen arrows a day. I think those musketeers may not fire a single shot a year..."

"I don't think..." Zuo Nianyuan's face became gloomy. No matter how good the clay man was, he had a temper. What's more, he fought with the Jurchens on the top of the city these days, and the anxiety caused by the battle formation was in his heart. The cultivation of scholars had been eroded a lot, and Jian Tianliang spoke coldly when he met. At this time, Zuo Nianyuan's face darkened, and he was about to argue. Jia Yuanzhen hurriedly walked between the two and interrupted Zuo Nianyuan loudly and said, "I don't think it's..."

Looking at him together, Jian Tianliang held his arms and laughed as if he was ridiculous, while Zuo Nianyuan looked angry. The fire actually burned to him. Jia Yuanzhen smiled bitterly and smoothed out: "The firearm is not as good as an arrow. Once it is fired, it will be money and cannot be collected. The court is expensive. Except for a few elite soldiers, it is understandable that the musketeers cannot fire a few guns." "I'm right?" Jian Tianliang was unwilling to give in, looking like he was not afraid of big trouble.

At the critical moment of the decisive battle of the army, the Liao army suspended the siege, and the Xiongzhou defenders were idle.

Jian Tianliang was also a problem developed in his early years. At the critical moment, the string was too tight and he became a little unscrupulous when he loosened it.

"This is the case that the musketeers fire guns, and they always stand in a row and shoot. It doesn't matter whether the individual shoots accurately or not."

Jia Yuanzhen cursed inwardly and continued to look for remedies: "The key to the volley of muskets is that they are neat and consistent in their movements and loading ammunition quickly. These can be trained without firing them. The battalions of the central army are also practicing repeatedly. Although muskets cannot be compared with skilled archers, hundreds of thousands of people fired guns together, it doesn't matter. Moreover, the weather is now bitter and cold, and the bowstrings made of cow tendons are not good, and the range is greatly affected. The muskets do not use cow tendons and deer tendons. Apart from the occasional bad goods blowing the chamber, it is not so troublesome." Jian Tianliang hummed in his nose. After all, Jia Yuanzhen was the 10th battalion guardian. Although he said this, it is a fact. If the Jurchen bow and arrow range was not affected by the severe cold, there would be a lot of casualties at the top of Xiongzhou city.

"Without cannon, we can't win at all!" Wanyan Xie also rode his horse toward Yelu Tiege's camp.

He was worried, as if he was considering a very important matter of meeting Brother Yelu Tie. However, all he wanted to say was only one sentence: "Without a cannon, we will die!" His horse was stopped in front of Brother Yelu Tie's tent, "Why do you want to rush around on horseback!" The guard seemed not to know him, and shouted rudely. "Mr. Xiao, I am the Jurchen King!" Wanyan Xie also recognized Brother Yelu Tie's deputy general standing beside him. Xiao Jin wanted to pretend not to know him, and let the guard scold the Jurchen barbarian. Wanyan Xie also took the initiative to greet him. He nodded at him without a smile, and asked, "Why did the king come here if he is not in front of supervising the battle?"
Chapter completed!