Wanyan Zhehe nodded, still serious: "Attack and defense of cities are the specialties of the Song people. We are in the field first... Although Taiyuan City is strong, I am not prepared to defend it for a hundred days. Fifty days will be enough... If the city is lost before fifty days, it will be me, Zhehe, who has failed the commander-in-chief. I will die with regrets. After fifty days, it will be the commander-in-chief who has failed me. I, Zhehe, will die without regrets... These are the original words I said to the commander-in-chief when I first accepted this position."

Meng'an next to him finally curled his lips helplessly, and it would be better if he didn't say anything... When encountering such a general, let alone fifty days or a hundred days, the key point is that his words are so boring, how can people tolerate it?

Time passed easily, and in just a few hours, the 30th day of the twelfth lunar month arrived in the biting cold wind. In the huge camp under Yuancheng, Daming Prefecture, Yue Fei held a military meeting with Hu Yin and Zhang Rong early in the morning and announced the decision to launch a large-scale siege on the city. Then Hu Yin announced the temporary suspension of rations on the grounds of the New Year, relaxed logistics, and rewarded the stored dried meat and fermented rice.

When the news came out, although the three armies knew that they would be attacking the city today, they still cheered loudly.

Next, the Song army was not in a hurry. They first had a leisurely breakfast, and then, while preparing for the siege, they lit a big fire and prepared a snack for the siege.

Unlike the evaporation of moisture caused by melting snowflakes under the city of Taiyuan, the moisture under the dry and cold city of Yuan could only be turned into clouds due to the rising water vapor. The Jin army, who were separated by a river, saw the smoke and steam coming from the other side of the river and heard constant noises from the opposite side, so they knew that the Song army was taking action, but they hurriedly regrouped their troops.

Immediately, Wuzhu and Balisu led the generals to climb the tall earthen hill that had just been built in Hexi in the past few days. They observed the situation from afar and immediately realized that the Song army was going to attack the city today.

However, these senior officers looked at each other in bewilderment, but none of them seemed too surprised... A few days ago, they had heard the news that the Zhao Song officials were making rapid progress in Hedong, and their hasty attack had failed, so they decided to cut off the river. They knew at that time that the Song army would respond.

The most direct reaction of the Song army, of course, was to attack the city.

However, since the Japanese military had made that decision, everyone tacitly understood that they wanted to give up Gao Jingshan and Yuan Cheng.

However, these words were destined not to be spoken, especially since there were two other people, Shaohe and Pu Suyue, in the army.

In this way, the four-character flag of the Song army and the five-color sun-holding flag of the Jin army were flying on the earthen hills on both sides of the river. The commanders of both sides saw the situation clearly. In addition, Gao Jingshan should have also climbed up the city wall in full armor, but in order to avoid being recognized and eliminated, he did not raise any flags or wear any overly obvious clothes.

Of course, the Song army also had an extra hot air balloon, but it had not been launched before the battle.

In this situation, the Song army openly prepared for the siege, and then openly used the extra meal on the battlefield, while the Jin army in the city also gathered behind the city wall early, ready to fight. The main force of the Jin army in Hexi decisively attacked before the Song army launched a formal attack.

However, this attack was undoubtedly easily suppressed by the Song army relying on the river embankment fortifications.

In the afternoon, as the hot air balloon of the Song army rose, the battle officially began. The artillery carts roared first, bombarding the remaining corner towers and temporary fortifications on the city wall, and more cannonballs fell directly on some of the weak points of the already shaky city wall. Then, under the cover of the artillery carts, the Song army from three sides and multiple directions almost moved out at the same time. Under various flags, the flashes of armor and white blades were like sparkling waves. Countless Song soldiers holding bows and crossbows pushed forward and suppressed continuously, and the goose carts also started one after another and headed straight to the city.

The so-called goose cart refers to a siege vehicle with four wheels and covered with iron sheets. It can be equipped with a battering ram underneath, or it can be left without a battering ram. It can directly carry people to the weak points under the city to carry out fortification work, such as digging tunnels, digging walls, or even just setting up a safe point under the city to facilitate subsequent sieges. It is considered the basic configuration for sieges.

Turning back to the present, at this scene, Gao Jingshan, who was wearing ordinary armor of a low-level officer, did not choose to leave the city, but stood on the bare north wall with a sword in his hand... Since sending Pu Suyue out, he has taken off that set of armor and no longer wears fur to climb the city walls. Instead, he has always stood on the front line in ordinary armor like today to stabilize the morale of the troops in the city.

However, cannonballs were overwhelming and goose carts were heading straight for the city, but Gao Jingshan's eyes were still wandering... because he had not yet found the main means of siege by the Song army today.

If the Song army wanted to launch a saturation attack, they would have cooked at four o'clock in the morning and started attacking the city early in the morning. However, on a winter day when it got dark very early, they delayed the attack until noon. This meant that they must have a core, main, and key killer weapon.

However, the rumbling of the artillery carts was only a general attack, and they were not concentrated in a certain direction to target a weak city wall. The same went for the goose carts. There were some in front of every city gate, and in front of several city walls where fortifications had been destroyed. But there were no backup goose carts prepared in front of any city gate or specific city wall. There was only one goose cart for each one... For example, here in the north, seven or eight goose carts were dispatched together, almost moving in parallel towards the city, with no connection in depth at all.

"There are movements in the tunnels we heard about before." An officer came up to the city wall and reported. "The east-west two tunnels are very obvious in the north of the city."

This made Gao Jingshan even more confused... The Jin army had already dug a trench in the city, so what was the use of the tunnel? And if this was the killer of the Song army, then maybe they could survive today.

However, would Yue Fei, who defeated Wang Bolun so decisively and efficiently that day, and who moved his camp directly to the foot of the city so ruthlessly, place his hopes on the tunnel?

My dear, there is more to this chapter. Please click on the next page to continue reading. It’s even more exciting later!