It turned out that the spear-like arrows that shot the Liao generals directly down to the ground were fired from the bed crossbow on the Yanmen Pass city tower.

When Zhao Weiji made the iron-arm crossbow, he also made the bed crossbow together. Although only two were made due to the trouble of production technology. However, in this era without cannons, the deterrence of the bed crossbow was basically the top.

Even without Zhao Weiji's appearance, the bed crossbow would soon appear in the Song Dynasty. Later, during the Battle of Chanyuan, the Liao general Xiao Dalan was like this general who was directly nailed to death by the heavy arrow of the bed crossbow and on the battlefield.

The bed crossbow made by Zhao Weiji is twice as big as that of Xiao Dalan in history, and the arrows were finally transformed directly with spears.

Because of the shock of the crossbow, all the Khitan troops stopped. Yelu Mo, who was leading the troops, also had a headache. He didn't know how much this thing was and how far the range was. This time, because the general who was shot just now rushed in front of the team, he was the only one who was shot. But if the large army rushed over and was shot in the crowd, God knows how many people would suffer.

Yelu Mo's care is reasonable, because although the bed crossbow does not explode at the shot point like a cannon and then affects the surroundings. However, due to the extremely strong impact force of the arrow, once a heavy arrow is taken away, it will also impact the crowd behind it. Especially when the cavalry charges, it has a great forward push, and the damage caused by the impact will be greater than the effect of slow travel.

So Yelu had no choice but to let the troops retreat five miles. All of this was clearly seen by Zhao Xin, who was on the city tower, from the telescope.

This telescope is naturally the product of Zhao Weiji's request to Chai Yu to make glass. However, since the technology they have mastered now is too difficult to make colorless glass, so there is only one that is the one that has clear imaging.

Seeing Yelu Mo retreating five miles away, Zhao Xin was not only relieved, because there were only two crossbows on the bed. Moreover, because the strings of the crossbows were very hard and could not be pulled by manpower, they had to be pulled open with winches. Therefore, it was time-consuming to fill. In the case of insufficient number of crossbow machines, if the Khitan army insisted on rushing, it would not be blocked.

Fortunately, the effect of the first arrow was so good, so it temporarily shocked the entire Khitan army.

Zhao Weiji and others who had returned to the pass have also climbed the city tower. After they took turns to observe the situation with telescopes, they couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief. At this time, the Khitan's retreat was a good thing for Yanmen Pass, because there were not many soldiers in Yanmen Pass. Most of the soldiers were either dead or captured in the previous battle. There were less than 15,000 soldiers who had the combat power to safely retreat to the pass, plus the 5,000 people who had left the guards to the pass. The current combat power was only 20,000.

Now some people may have questions. Yanmen Pass is one of the most important passes in the Northern Song Dynasty, why only 50,000 or 60,000 people were stationed. In fact, the answer is very simple, and it doesn’t need so many. The Song Dynasty originally adopted a policy of strong, weak branches. Although there are many troops, the imperial guards occupy the majority. In order to prevent the military generals stationed on the border from gaining their own troops, the Northern Song Dynasty court not only implemented a more garrison law, but also reduced the number of border soldiers. In the court's understanding, your border army has a pass that can be relied on. If you stick to the city, you will be done. If you come to harass you, you will be able to repel them from the city. Anyway, the Khitan army has always lacked effective means of siege. As for pursuing the city, it’s better to forget it. Anyway, there is nothing to be caught when you chase the cavalry. What’s more, you can’t chase the infantry and cavalry.

This has led to not many people staying in the pass. The reason why there are 50,000 or 60,000 people stationed in Yanmen Pass is because it is very important.

At this time, all the generals in Yanmen Pass knew that more than half of the troops had been lost. Not only did they know, but Yelu Mo also knew. Although Yelu Mo ordered the troops to retreat five miles, he did not withdraw his troops. Because he was unwilling to give up, he finally wiped out most of the military forces in Yanmen Pass. If he could capture Yanmen Pass at this time, it would undoubtedly be a great achievement. But he also understood that the biggest reason why the Khitan army could not move south was because of insufficient siege ability, so now he could only wait and see for the time being.

Both sides are watching now. But it is obvious that the Khitan army is more calm. Because they are not short of supplies, Shuozhou City in the rear is not far away, not to mention that the Song army had no spare time to make any moves such as cutting off food.

On the other hand, although the Song army held the city, the soldiers would lose their staff every day. The reason is very simple. The medical conditions in this era are really bad. Many soldiers who died of war actually did not die directly on the battlefield, but died of trauma. Because once they were injured, a disease would be produced, called tetanus. The probability of infection of tetanus on the battlefield can be as high as 80%. Moreover, due to the limitations of medical conditions in this era, the incidence of tetanus has increased much more than later generations. What kind of death is caused by a certain person who died of a recurrence of arrow sores may be infected with tetanus and then died of illness.

Moreover, due to the unwritten rule of banning alcohol in the army, it is impossible to find alcohol to disinfect it. Moreover, tetanus is resistant to boiling and cannot sterilize high temperatures. So what the Song army is facing now is the possibility of reducing personnel every day. Because the Song army has not had direct contact with the enemy yet, only the five thousand soldiers who were originally guarding the city.

Zhao Weiji and the others had not thought of sending troops to support from Daizhou City in the rear, but they did not dare to do so after weighing the pros and cons, because Yanmen Pass was not a complete Daizhou barrier. The first battle Zhao Weiji experienced after arriving in Daizhou had already shown that Daizhou had the possibility of being attacked by a sneak attack.

However, Zhao Weiji was not in a hurry at this time, because the Khitan army was not completely dominant. At least one point, the two armies were the same. There was a tetanus infection on the other side, but it was not divided into ethnic groups. The Khitan army had the chance to get sick. What's more, the Khitan general was shot directly at this time. Although judging from the current situation, the main general was not shot to death on the spot, but it was certain that he shot. Now Zhao Weiji was betting that the main general of the Khitan army had a tetanus disease.

Moreover, Zhao Weiji was still very confident in defending the city with the high walls of Yanmen Pass City and the thick walls and equipment assistance. So at this time, Zhao Weiji decided to just say one word: drag.

Yelu Mo on the other side was unwilling to retreat, but he could not find any way to attack the city quickly for the time being, so he decided to wait and see for a while, if any incidents occurred in the Song army, there would be an opportunity to take advantage of it. So he also decided to delay.

Just after the two armies confronted each other for seven days at Yanmen Pass, the Liao army suddenly withdrew its troops on the eighth day. Zhao Weiji judged that he must have won the bet.

As Zhao Weiji expected, on the seventh night, the Liao army commander Yelu Zonglin did have an arrow sore and died. The news came out of Yelu Mo's surprise. It was not that he was not smart enough, but that the limitations of this era led to him not having any knowledge about tetanus. He could not have thought that although the arrow did not shoot Yelu Zonglin on the spot, Yelu Zonglin died under the arrow in the end.

Due to the sudden death of the main general, Yelu Mo had no choice but to retreat. After all, Yelu Zonglin was also the son of Yelu Xiuge, the general of Liao Kingdom. Yelu Mo could not be unable to face Yelu Xiuge because of his ambitions. Besides, Yelu Mo was really not sure that he would definitely conquer Yanmen Pass.

When the Liao army retreated, did the Song army completely relax. Due to the last attack, the Song army was still very cautious. When the scout sent was completely sure that the Khitan army had indeed withdrawn, the Song army was able to breathe a sigh of relief.

Although the Khitan army had withdrawn, Yang Yanping still asked Zhao Weiji with some concern: "I wonder if the crossbows seized by the Khitan will be imitated?"

"Don't worry about this general. When I was designing the crossbow, I added a mechanism to the crossbow. If there is a nail, it will completely disperse into parts and cannot be assembled without drawings. I believe that those captured soldiers will definitely pull out the nail before being captured. This is something we have trained repeatedly before. What's more, even if the complete parts are seized by the Khitan army, it doesn't matter. As long as you want to dismantle the imitation, you must first pull out the nail to be dismantled without damage, but once the nail is pulled out, you can't assemble it anymore."

"That's good. This failure is all my responsibility. I will go back and apologize to the official family. The compensation is shown here." After saying that, Yang Yanping left with a look of decline.

Soon Yang Yanping's apology was sent to Beijing. General General Jizi completely blocked his guilt for the failure of the war, and said that if it were not for Zhao Weiji's efforts to turn the tide, the situation would have been even worse.

Song Taizong's punishment also came to Daizhou with Yang Ye's return. Yang Yanping was responsible for the main defeat, demoted the third grade and fined the salary for one year. Yang Ye had joint and several liability for unknown people and demoted the first grade, but he was still in charge of the military affairs of Yunzhou, Zhengzhou and Daizhou, and was also fined the salary for half a year. Although Zhao Weiji made many contributions, he did not stop the stupid behavior of the commander before going to the expedition, so his merits and demerits were offset. However, Zhao Weiji was also recalled to Bianjing.

When Zhao Weiji left, he was still given away by the generals of the Yang family. After all, everyone saw Zhao Weiji's ability during this period and admired him a little.

Although Zhao Weiji did not get any improvement, he still left again just like when he came. However, he did not have any gains. First of all, he received the friendship of the Yang family generals. He also discovered the blanks of a future famous general.

Although he didn't know why Zhao Guangyi summoned him back to Beijing, he was indeed a little homesick. What's more, there was someone in the capital waiting for him to marry him.
Chapter completed!