In the spring of the third year of Xianping, the final decisive battle between Song and Liao will be launched in Chanyuan. The battlefield, which should have been tense, showed an extremely paradoxical phenomenon...

The Liao army, which was used to fighting on the plains, was huddled in the military camp and did not come out, and had a high sign of war. The Song army, which had won the battle before, did not attack the Liao army camp with the momentum brought by victory. Instead, they set up camps on the back of the Yellow River and asked soldiers to go to the bank of the Yellow River to get sand.

Since we couldn't understand what the other party was trying to do, neither party dared to act rashly at this moment.

...

On this day, Yelu Mo was walking back and forth in the camp of the Liao army commander. He was waiting for two news, one was when the reinforcements could be allowed, and the other was what tricks the Song army was doing.

At this moment, a scout entered Yelu Mo's tent. From his mouth, Yelu Mo learned that reinforcements would arrive in Chanyuan five days later, which made the big stone in Yelu Mo's heart finally fall underground. Now these reinforcements are the trump card in his hands. It is understood that the Song army does not know the existence of this reinforcement, which makes Yelu Mo more confident in the victory of the war.

Just after the scout here reported the reinforcements, another scout also entered the tent, and what he brought was the latest information about the Song army.

"What did you say? The Song army built the filled sandbags on the battlefield?" Yelu Mo could not believe the scout's report at all, because he had never seen a war like this.

"Yes, Yilijin. The Song army built sandbags into curved low walls, spreading them sporadically on the battlefield. Then, they built a long-lasting block with the remaining sandbags at the front."

As the scouts kept feeding out the details, Yelu Mo couldn't understand what Zhao Weiji was doing: "They didn't use to refuse horses? How high are those walls?"

The scout shook his head: "They used the horse-rejected horse, but the horse-rejected horses are behind the sandbag wall. The height of the sandbag walls does not seem to be very high."

After hearing this, Yelu Mo, who was still confused, asked both scouts to retreat. Then he turned around and looked at the map behind him, hoping to find some reasons for Zhao Weiji to do this on the map, but the result still disappointed him very much.

Just when Yelu Mo was still thinking hard, in the Great Song army camp, Zhao Weiji was leading a group of generals and staff members to make pre-war deployments around a giant sand table.

At this time, the Song army's messenger entered the big tent: "Report to the prince, all the sandbags and horse-rejecting horses have been arranged."

After hearing the reward from the messenger, Zhao Weiji raised his eyes from the sand table and asked the messenger: "When we do these things, what's going on in the Khitan?"

"There is no movement, and the battle-free sign is still hanging high, but the scouts will be sent out every now and then to observe the situation we arranged."

"Oh, this is fine. If they want to observe, let them observe. Pass on my new order, and let the soldiers start digging a trench under the Changsha bag wall now."

"What is a trench, prince?" There is no idea about the new term "Sentencer" mentioned by Zhao Weiji.

When Zhao Weiji heard the messenger's question, he slapped his head and reacted. There was no such thing as a trench in this era. So he pointed to the location of the sandbag wall on the sand table, and then marked the location where he was about to dig the trench and told the messenger to dig a three-foot-wide and three-foot-depth tunnel at this location.

The commander who didn't know why the prince was digging such a tunnel did not ask any more questions, but instead took orders to get out of the tent, so the soldiers of the Song Dynasty began to dig up the pit with shovels again.

After three more days, gradually, the trenches on the Song army were basically almost completed, and the commander of the Liao army, Yelu Mo, was basically unable to sit still.

Every day, scouts came to report that the Song army began to make new moves again, but Yelu Mo could not understand the meaning of it. After discussing with his subordinates for a long time, there was no progress. This made Yelu Mo unable to bear the Song army's chaos.

So he decisively sent the envoy Songying to make a battle in two days. What he did not expect was that Zhao Weiji actually agreed decisively.

Two days later, both sides sent troops to appear on the battlefield at the same time, but when both sides appeared on the battlefield, Yelu Mo discovered that the Song army had made trouble again.

When the Khitan cavalry stood on the battlefield with a charge formation as always, the Song army did not form any formation. They scattered all the soldiers behind the sandbag walls, and then there was nothing.

Yelu Mo, who was not sure about the situation, decided to carry out the battle at his own pace, so he issued an order to attack. Just as his order was conveyed, the Khitan cavalry began to charge.

However, not long after the Khitan cavalry rushed out of the position, the nightmare-like cannon sounded again. Yelu Mo never dreamed that Zhao Weiji would actually move the equipment used to defend the city to the battlefield.

Although he suffered a big loss twice before, Yelu Mo still did not give too much attention to artillery such as weapons that surpassed this era. He always felt that this was just a war equipment produced by the Song army once, which may be effective in siege or defending the city, but there should be no way to pose too much threat to the Khitan cavalry in the field of field battles.

However, reality gave him a loud slap. After Zhao Weiji organized the carpenters in Bianliang City to make cannon cars, the cannons were pushed onto the stage of field battle.

Those curved sandbag walls were designed by Zhao Weiji as the position of the turret. The staggered turret distribution of the front and back allows the artillery to allow the firepower of these forty artillery guns to almost cover the entire battlefield without adjusting the angle of the barrel.

In addition to resisting the attacks of the Khitan cavalry, the trenches were established to prevent artillery from accidentally injuring the soldiers in front.

With the sound of cannons, the Khitan cavalry began to cause a large number of casualties. Seeing that this continued, Yelu Mo, who was undoubtedly sent to death, decisively cried out to withdraw his troops.

The first confrontation between the two sides ended with the fierce artillery fire of the Song army at the cost of almost zero casualties in the Song army.

After Yelu Mo returned to the camp, he immediately summoned all the Liao generals. They had to come up with a way to deal with these artillery before the reinforcements arrived. Otherwise, many reinforcements would be in vain.

Although the Song army survived a great victory, Zhao Weiji knew that these still could not represent anything. On the surface, the Song army had no choice but to fight, but that was based on the premise of fighting. If the Khitans chose to retreat, with the current power of the Song army, they would not want to chase the Khitan army at all.

At that time, one city after another will inevitably attack. This is very troublesome and costly. The city baptized by a fire will at least not have any defensive capabilities in the next year. Zhao Weiji doesn't want to see such a result.

At this moment, he was eager to see Li Jiguang's northwestern cavalry arrive at the battlefield as soon as possible. Only with these northwestern cavalry can Zhao Weiji have the capital to pursue the Khitans.

Coincidentally, at this time, the scout who was in charge of contacting Li Jiguang came back. He brought good news to Zhao Weiji that Li Jiguang's troops would arrive at the battlefield in a maximum of four days, which made Zhao Weiji very excited.

"Tell me my order to General Li, so that he will not rush to enter the battlefield in the future. Let him ambush at this position on the map. Once a huge cannon body begins to sound on the battlefield, let him directly copy the Khitan's retreat and head straight to their camp." As he spoke, Zhao Weiji handed a map to the scout, and a location on the map was drawn by Zhao Weiji with cinnabar.

Just when Zhao Weiji was already planning for the next step, Yelu Mo was still having a headache about how to deal with the Song army's artillery.

They only know that artillery can hit far and its power is very strong, and can kill dozens or even hundreds of Khitan soldiers at a time. But they don’t know how far the artillery can shoot, and whether it can attack from a distance like a catapult cart, but they can’t hit near it.

In the minds of Khitan soldiers, this weapon is a demon and magic. Whenever they hear the sound, there will be an explosion around them. It is not like a catapult cart, and you can see throwing objects flying over, and then you will have a reaction time to avoid them.

"Can we disperse the team like before, so that even if we are bombed, there will be no too many casualties at once." Xiao Lang, who could not think of a solution, brought up the method that Yelu Mo had used before again.

But this method was denied by Yelu Mo as soon as he proposed: "I haven't thought about this method, but have you not found that the locations of the explosion today were very uniform and wide? Such an explosion range cannot be avoided by dispersed teams."

Yelu Mo's observation was very careful. The explosion points on the battlefield today were indeed uniform and wide. The reason for this was because this was the power of Zhao Weiji's artillery combined.

Whether it was shooting on the ship or on the city gate before, the number of artillery was insufficient. Without sufficient number, there was no enough firepower to cover it, which allowed the previous Khitan army to seize some gaps.

Just as everyone was at a loss again, a general with a dirt face suddenly spoke: "Since we cannot pass through the Song army's position during the day, can we rob the camp at night?"

The proposal of this method made Yelu Mo suddenly realize. Yes, although the Khitan army is not good at night battles, it does not mean that it cannot fight at night.
Chapter completed!