On August 25, the battle to capture Xiangyang was about to begin, and artillery fire was ready to begin at the time of Mao. This time, the Song army concentrated two artillery regiments of the Second Artillery Division, two artillery regiments of the Sixth and Seventh Armies, the Imperial Guard Artillery Brigade and the Imperial Navy’s Ten Artillery Ships, a total of more than 700 artillery pieces, and concentrated fire from the north, west and south.

With such a large-scale artillery bombardment, Zhao Bing knew that it would probably cause heavy casualties to the people in the city, but he had no choice but to do so. Because the current artillery curve is not high, and direct artillery cannons are difficult to cross the obstacles near the city gate. The enemy will place a large number of troops under the city to fight against the siege troops. If the defense cannot be effectively killed and suppressed, it is likely that it will fall into a fierce war of attrition at the beginning of the siege.

According to the principle of using troops, the siege troops must be several times higher than the enemy in order to be sure to conquer the city. However, under the current circumstances, the Song army's strength is equivalent to the total strength of the Xiangyang defenders, and does not have an absolute advantage in terms of number of people. Moreover, due to the limitations of the terrain, it is scattered on three relatively independent attack surfaces, making it difficult to concentrate absolute troops at one point.

You should know that in this case, even if there is an absolute advantage in training, equipment and number of people, as long as the defender has a decent army, it is almost impossible for the attacking side to obtain a better exchange ratio in the shooting. The defender will be happy to use the fish troops to shoot against the attacking side. If the attacking side has no backup, it is difficult to capture such a city by fighting and consumption.

There are nearly 70,000 regular enemy troops in the city, and there are nearly 100,000 people in the city. These are reserve forces. Not to mention the transfer of Ding Zhuang, those who can move in a hurry will be sent to the front line. The Mongolian Yuan has always done a good job in this regard, with the tradition of driving away women, children, young and old as shields, and using Ding Zhuang as cannon fodder. Don’t expect Shi Bi to be kind and be able to let go of these ready-made consumables.

On the other hand, there is no need to say much. Since the Song army has changed its firearms and artillery has been used in offensive and defensive battles, and relying more and more heavily on firearms, many bulky siege equipment have gradually disappeared from the equipment. This time, the first task of "surrounding the wall" to enter the city is to kill and injure the enemy in large quantities. It cannot be said that it can severely damage the enemy. At least it must delay their reaction time and gain time and fighter jets for the assault troops to climb the city.

The first artillery of the siege was fired by the Imperial Guardian Artillery Brigade. Twenty rocket launchers arranged on the south city of Fancheng opened fire almost at the same time, roaring towards the northern city of Xiangyang. Then the Imperial Guardian Artillery Boat also began to shell and shoot into the city by shooting. At the same time, the Guardian Engineering Battalion began to use the remaining bridge piles in the Han River to build a ferry between Fancheng and Xiangyang, and carried infantry to cross the river with captured merchant ships, trying to capture the dock outside the Xiangyang city and establish a landing site.

A quarter of an hour later, heavy artillery began to be tested in the Song army artillery positions outside the Nancheng and the Xicheng. Their target was the Yuecheng along the river and the bridge castle in the moat outside the city. Yuecheng is a city wall surrounding the city wall, also called the Sheep Horse Wall, and the inner moat wall of the moat outside the city tower; and the bridge castle is used to connect the two sections of the suspension bridge in the moat and is also a stronghold to prevent enemies from crossing the river.

Yuecheng is a fortification similar to the city circle built by the guardian to defend against the enemy outside the city. Especially after the moat in the north freezes in winter, Yangma City, located outside the big city wall, is the first to be hit and becomes the first defensive fortification. Generally, it is about ten to twenty feet away from the main city wall. The size of the wall is smaller than the main city, and the height is generally only like the sheep and horse, so it is commonly known as the Sheep and Horse Wall. Its advantage is to further defend the main city wall, so there is no street or housing between the Sheep and Horse Wall and the main city, but an empty city, which is a city built and used for defense operations. There is also a door open to the wall, which is opposite the trench bridge outside the door, leading to the outside of the city.

The Song army's artillery was willing to deal with the main city wall but not enough, but the sheep and horse wall, which was only six feet thick and five feet high, was not vague. The solid bullet hit the surface even if it did not penetrate it, it would crack. If another shot hits the surrounding area, it would immediately fall. In addition to killing the enemy soldiers hidden in the city, the impact of the explosion should not be underestimated.

Under the shooting of the Song army, Yuecheng quickly became a broken wall. The soldiers guarding the city had not yet fought, and even had an arrow shot, they suffered heavy casualties. The city wall had been destroyed, and there was no point in waiting for death here, so they hurriedly dragged the dead and carried the wounded, retreated into the urn, and the first line of defense was lost.

The bridge fort built on the sandbank is only ten feet away from the other side, and is very small in scale. In Zhao Bing's eyes, it is just a large gateway, which is a checkpoint and a bunker. It usually has two teams of ten people stationed on weekdays. The main task is to collect and release the suspension bridge. Now, there are only fifty people who have strengthened their troops. If they are in the past, they can get reinforcements from the city's forces and can also be called a strong stronghold.

But facing the Song army's artillery, this stronghold was too weak, and the artillery soldiers bullied people. They knew that they had no counterattack ability and the bows and arrows in their hands could not hurt themselves. They pushed the artillery into front of them for direct aiming and shooting. The bridge fort built with stones could not bear the direct shooting of heavy artillery. Moreover, it was taken care of by a heavy artillery battalion, and after two rounds of shooting, it was basically razed to the ground, and it was too late to destroy the suspension bridge.

The two armies are now in a state of great strength. After the defense facilities outside the city were destroyed, they immediately ordered their respective artillery soldiers to turn to the enemy on the city and inside the city to shoot. While suppressing the enemy on the city to counterattack, they killed and injured the enemy troops stationed under the city. The infantry began to assist the engineering battalion in building bridges. They were divided into two routes: one to reinforce the old suspension bridge piles and repair the damaged bridge deck; the other route pushed the prefabricated rafts into the river, then formed a group of connections, and built two other floating bridges to avoid being unable to continue to send troops after being damaged, resulting in interruption of the attack.

The Holy Driving has moved to a small hill four miles west of the city. All the access roads at the foot of the mountain have been blocked by the guard regiment. The guards on the mountain have blocked the access roads to the mountain and set up a guard post on the hillside. The emperor stayed in an empty field near the top of the mountain. From here, you can directly look at the battlefield in the west of the city, and you can also see the battlefield in the north and south of the city, overlooking the dynamics in the city.

A high pole was erected on the top of the mountain, and the imperial flag on it was fluttering in the wind, which was clearly visible several miles away. Zhao Bing'an sat under the canopy. It is unimaginable in modern times to expose the position of the head coach, let alone reveal the whereabouts of the lord of a country. Such a shell might end the battle.

Fortunately, there were no aircraft, missiles and long-range cannons in this era. Zhao Bing knew that even if the enemy knew that he was standing here, they had no choice. But this did not mean that he was safe. After all, there was not a lack of death in the historical emperor on the battlefield. It was common for the enemy to find and chase and besiege. Although the main force of the enemy is trapped in the city, outside the city does not mean that there are no remaining soldiers and elites who sneak out of the city. After all, the enemy and I understand that killing him is even greater than defending Xiangyang City.

Therefore, the generals opposed the emperor's ceremonial guards and the Gaoshu Royal Flag watching the battle, but Zhao Bing insisted on keeping his promise to the army and soldiers, and he would always fight with them until he captured the city of Xiangyang. Everyone could not resist him, but they refused to let him get closer to the battlefield. They could only look far away, strengthen the defense and vigilance of the place where they were stationed, and ensure the emperor's safety.

Zhao Bing looked at the battlefield greedily with a telescope. As the strongholds outside the city were blown up, artillery fire began to extend into the city, and dense artillery fire bombarded violently into the city. The rumbling sound of cannons was deafening, and the explosion ignited the houses in the city. The blazing flames rose several feet high, and the smoke that covered the sky and the sun enveloped the entire city, as if the doomsday had arrived...

Alihan hurried to the East City under the protection of a team of soldiers. At first, when the North City was bombarded by Song's artillery, he thought it was another routine for the enemy. Unexpectedly, the artillery fire became more and more fierce, and the government office soon fell into artillery fire. He had to lead the officials to move to the South City, but in a moment, a group of fire was already in the middle of the west city, and the sound of artillery fire was also shocking.

After the Song army destroyed Qiaobao and Yuecheng, artillery fire moved to the city to bombard the city. If the kung fu is not very good, it has already blown up the sky. The city seems to have no pure land. The tower where they are located is tall and majestic, which naturally became the focus of the Song army's artillery. Alihan considered that if the officials in the government office were taken down by the Song army's artillery, there would be no need to fight the battle without a leader.

So Alihan moved the government office to a slightly calming temple in Dongcheng again. When he found out that the general manager was commanding at the Dongcheng Tower, he ordered a team of soldiers to meet. But along the way, the road was full of people, blocking the road, so he could only abandon his horse and walk, and let the soldiers forcefully break through a road before reaching the city.

At this time, the defenders had arranged fences to block the road, and used heavy troops to deploy defenses, with swords unsheathed and arrows rolled in. It was like facing a great enemy, preventing the people from rushing to the city gate and letting the enemy break into the gate. Alihan did not care much and showed his identity and rushed to the city. When he saw Shi Bi, he reported: "The chief manager, the enemy's artillery was sharp. The three cities in the south, north and west were all severely damaged. The soldiers were injured and suffered heavy casualties. The guards all asked for help from the palace and asked for instructions!"

"Now that the Song army is attacking the city from three sides, it is still difficult to distinguish the direction of the main attack. We still have to wait!" Shi Bi said as he looked at the battlefield.

"General Manager, if the Song army attacks the city from three sides and we are reluctant to send troops to reinforce us, wouldn't it be the enemy's capture?" Alihan said anxiously.
Chapter completed!