On October 4, Fan Zhongyan arrived at Daming Prefecture in Beijing, Song State, and immediately began to mobilize the entire Hebei Road army, gathering the imperial guards usually stationed in various states in Hebei Road and marching them to the border.
Di Qing secretly went to Bohai County, Hebei Province, and mobilized the Binzhou Navy of Hebei Province and the Dengzhou Navy of Shandong Province. The two naval fleets, with a total of more than 30,000 people, set sail.
At the same time, as early as the end of September, the Song-Xia War in the northwest had already reached a white-hot stage.
In late September, the Song army was unstoppable, capturing cities along the way and reaching the city of Miaochuan occupied by the Western Xia and the outskirts of Zhuola City on the native territory of the Western Xia.
Jingtai looked into the distance outside Zhuola City. In the northwest, in late autumn and early winter, it started to snow lightly. Small hailstones mixed with the snow rustled in the air and quickly melted into strands of raindrops when they hit people's faces.
It was clearly noon, but the sky looked like dusk. Looking into the distance it was as if looking at a gray smoke.
Zhuola City, located in Liushu Town, south of Yongdeng County, Gansu Province in later generations, was sandwiched between high mountains on both sides. The west side of the mountain was about five kilometers away from the east side. This meant that the Song army could threaten the entire city by setting up cannons on the mountains on both sides.
However, the Xixia people naturally knew this, so they also deployed defensive forces on the mountains on both sides. In addition, there were also artillery in the Xixia mainland, which made the Song army wary and did not launch a rash attack for a while.
However, the Xixia people's layout in the mountains soon fell. The Song army sent a small force to bypass the mountains and attacked the Xixia people's camp from behind, winning the victory.
At this time, the Song army was almost invincible in field battles. Although the artillery was very powerful in the mountains, there were large amounts of jungles in the hills and mountains. After the Song army scouted the terrain, they sneaked directly into the mountains and launched a fierce offensive against the mountains.
The Western Xia army's artillery was aimed at the Song army camp in the south. However, they did not have the small steel cannons like the Song army, which made it extremely difficult to turn the cannons weighing more than 2,000 kilograms, greatly reducing their flexibility.
Once the enemy attacked from behind, the artillery position became a sitting duck and was soon pursued and attacked by the Song army all the way, destroying the camps on several mountaintops.
After the Western Xia army on the mountains was defeated, the Western Xia army in the city became a trapped beast fighting. At this moment, Jingtai was riding on horseback, wearing a thick cotton coat. It was not the kind of clothes covered with black or green linen, but a silk velvet coat on the outside, with a cloak fluttering behind him.
Behind him were a crowd of soldiers also riding war horses. At this time, the Song army had undergone great changes in both military system and uniforms. They used to wear red uniforms with iron armor and a hat on their heads, just like Lin Chong's style.
But at this time, the Song army uniformly wore red linen cotton-padded clothes in winter, a velvet hat on their heads, and no armor on their bodies - in the age of firearms, iron armor was almost useless, and it made no difference whether they wore it or not.
They all carried muskets on their backs, with bullet bags hanging on both sides of the horse's belly, a ring-handled sword hanging on the left waist, and a holster on the right waist. The holster contained a pistol, which was a fire gun from the Ming and Qing dynasties. It was a modified version of the rifle and was suitable for close-range shooting.
If you look down from a high altitude, you will see that the Song army is slowly moving forward, less than three kilometers away from Zhuolao City. This position is basically the maximum distance for artillery to fire at the city. If it is on flat ground, it will be about one kilometer.
"Deputy Commander, our flag has been planted on the top of the mountain."
Jingtai Station is located on a small hill east of Zhuolao City. On the hill, a lookout is looking at the mountains on both sides through a telescope.
He saw that the red flag of the Song army had been raised on the top of the mountain and was waving towards this side.
"Tell them to immediately transport the Weiyuan cannon to the mountain and install it."
"yes."
The flag bearer next to him also began to wave the flag rhythmically.
The distance was too great, and long-distance communication could only be carried out by lookouts on both sides observing the changes in the flags through telescopes and executing orders.
On the distant mountains, Song army general Wang Shiyun, who was observing through a telescope, saw this scene.
He used to be Wang Shiyun, the deputy chief officer of Guwei Village. Later, because of his meritorious service in the battle of Lanzhou City, he was promoted to the military supervisor of Gongzhou and is now the vanguard of the army.
"Have the artillery arrived?"
Wang Shiyun turned around and asked.
"We're almost there, we're already halfway up the mountain."
"Hurry up and send more people to transport it."
"Yes, but why don't we use the Xixia artillery?"
The messenger asked casually.
Wang Shiyun was stunned for a moment, then pointed at the messenger and said happily, "You're really a talented person! Quick, turn the Xixia artillery around."
"yes."
The messenger hurried to convey the order.
The Song army's Weiyuan cannon is a small steel cannon weighing more than 200 pounds. Due to its caliber, its range on flat ground is definitely not as good as that of artillery, which is only a little over one mile.
But if it is installed on a mountain, the range will be greatly increased, which is more than enough to fire for several kilometers.
But even the smallest cannon weighed more than 200 pounds, and climbing up a mountain several hundred meters high was simply a death-defying task. The Song army was exhausted before they reached the halfway point of the mountain.
If that’s the case, why not use the Xixia people’s artillery?
Although the quality of their artillery is a bit poor and prone to explosion, it is still artillery after all, so they can still fire a few shots.
Thinking of this, Wang Shiyun looked back at the top of the mountain.
The top of the mountain was littered with the corpses of Xixia people, who were riddled with bullets from the Song army that rushed up.
In a pool of blood, there were more than ten artillery positions near the camp. The Xixia people had embedded the gun mounts in the ground to reduce the recoil during firing.
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