Updated: 2010-05-06

After the great victory in Shiling Pass, the imperial camps set out from Zhenzhou and traveled on both sides. On April 22, they arrived in Taiyuan. At this time, there were more than 200,000 imperial guards gathered around Taiyuan. On April 23, Zhao Jiong personally inspected the imperial guards on all sides of Taiyuan City to check whether the siege equipment was complete. Wherever they passed, the imperial guards saw Zhao Jiong wearing bright yellow brocade robes from afar and cheered in unison. The sacrificial hearings were dozens of miles away, and the morale of the defenders on Taiyuan City was depressed. Zhao Jiong ordered hundreds of warriors who were tamed to dance with swords and swords, and used sharp blades to attack and throw each other under Taiyuan City to show their military power, and wrote a letter to surrender Liu Jiyuan, the ruthless and long siege of Taiyuan City. Then, the tragic and long fourth Taiyuan siege officially began.

On April 24, Zhao Jing personally led the imperial troupe to the west to assist the battle. Pan Mei, Cui Han, Cao Han and other generals supervised the battle and attacked the western wall closest to the Beihan Palace City. Chen De was wearing heavy armor and followed Zhao Jing with the generals to watch the imperial guards siege. He saw that there were already 40,000 or 50,000 crossbow formations under the city, with stone throwing machines, bed crossbows and other sharp siege weapons. The crossbow formation soldiers were divided into five teams. After the strings were lifted, they squatted on the ground, waiting for each order to stand up, and tens of thousands of crossbows were fired, and the sky was covered with continuous rain of arrows, which made the defenders on the top of the Taiyuan city unable to raise their heads.

When the trenches below the city wall are filled, the deer antlers are removed, the crane is controlled, and the Hujie army's selection of the front-line soldiers pushed the siege car to the bottom of Taiyuan City, leaning under the city wall, digging the city wall, and setting up a ladder to climb. The siege car is made of hardwood and fine iron, covered with several layers of raw cowhide. Each layer of raw cowhide is coated with wet mud, and a thick layer of soaked sponge is sandwiched. Dozens of dead soldiers in the siege car are trying their best to dig the city wall. The defenders' wooden rolling stones and crossbow arrows fall like raindrops, hitting the roof of the car, and the sound is like the heavy rain in the south in summer pouring on lotus leaves.

The soldiers who were so dense and without any cover outside the siege car were simply sharing the attacks on the city's head with their flesh and blood, arrows, wood, stone bullets, boiling oil and boiled manure. Many imperial guards with strong armor were shot all over their bodies like hedgehogs, but behind them were the officials who supervised the battle and could not retreat. They all gritted their teeth and directed the soldiers to shoot arrows at the city's head, or built cloud ladders to climb the city. Even so, in a short time, the dead and wounded imperial guards under the city were still covered with the ground, layer by layer, accumulation higher and higher, screaming one after another, endlessly.

The soldiers in Taiyuan on the city were also killed and injured under the attack of the Song army's crossbow formation. Under the rain of arrows and stone bombs, there was almost no foothold on the city wall. A commanding soldier added to the city wall, and all the casualties were killed and injured in an instant. Some soldiers had just fired two or three arrows, and five or six arrows were inserted into their bodies. The soldiers guarding the city had no room to transport the wounded and corpses. They had to push the injured soldiers and corpses randomly on the inside of the city wall. Blood was flowing everywhere, and the city wall was extremely slippery. Guo Wanchao, the commander of the Northern Han Cavalry and Infantry Army, who was supervising the battle, immediately ordered the old and weak households who were helping guard to go up to the city, moved the bodies and wounded, and sprinkled lime on the city wall. He divided the soldiers guarding the city into ten teams, most of them raised shields on the inside of the city wall to avoid arrows, and a small number of them leaned out to throw stones and shoot arrows to reduce casualties.

Just now, the Northern Han army fought to the death and refused to retreat. Although the imperial guards set up a cloud ladder, and the dead soldiers of the Crane Control Army held sharp blades and climbed up desperately, they were densely raining arrows, wood, wolf teeth slapped, rolling stones, and rolling oil at the top of the city, the soldiers on the cloud ladder kept falling down like dumplings. Even so, many heads of the capital and centurions asked the governor Cao Han to temporarily suspend the attack. After the defenders on the city wall were exhausted, they attacked with all their strength. Cao Han sternly said: "The brave ones will win when the two armies meet, and the official family will supervise the formation personally. It is really time for us to serve the country." He personally wore heavy armor, got into the siege cart under the protection of his personal soldiers, and urged the soldiers to climb the city to dig the city.

After the reduction of the archery guards, the imperial guards climbed the city regardless of casualties, and the Tianwu Army Captain Jing Si took the lead in climbing the city. When he approached the city, a wolf teeth patted was being pulled up. Jing Si ignored the iron thorns covered with iron thorns, reached out to grab them, and leaped up to the city. Before the soldiers guarding the city could react, they shouted loudly and immediately beat the two northern Han soldiers who were pulling the hemp rope and putting up the wolf teeth pat to the ground. The Han army next to him was also very fierce. Seeing this, he immediately abandoned the crossbow, drew out the horizontal sword, surrounded him, and fought with Jing Si and the other three Song soldiers who followed him to the city.

Under the city wall, Zhao Jing saw the Song army climbing the city, and was overjoyed. He pointed at Jing Si's figure and said, "I have such a warrior. Why worry about the immortality of Taiyuan? Beat the drums and urge the troops to continue!" The generals looked there one after another. Pan Mei, Cui Han and other generals showed relaxed spirit, and Chen De also looked surprised. He knew the fierceness of the Han soldiers in Taiyuan, but he did not expect that the Kaifeng Imperial Army was so powerful that they could climb to the city in less than half a day. Only Liu Yanrang, Zhang Mei and other veterans still looked like they were old gods and had nothing to do with them.

Seeing the drums urging by the Imperial Camp, the Song army shouted loudly and gathered together where Xiang Jingsi and others climbed the city. In almost dozens of breaths, more than a dozen ladders were set up on a short section of the city wall, hundreds of tiger and Jiemen, and the soldiers of Tianwu Army took advantage of the opportunity of the Han soldiers on the top of the city to fight with the Song army on the city, and had no time to shoot arrows down and fall rocks. They did not avoid the raids on all sides, and climbed up with their hands and feet. Each siege ladder was densely filled with imperial soldiers, pressing the ladders to bend. Even Cao Han, the commander-in-chief siege in the west, got out of the siege car and stood in the open space not far from the city wall and shouted loudly. Thousands of elite Tiger and Jiemen troops gathered beside him. Once the Song army with hundreds of people reached a breakthrough, they would continue to attack. Jinyang, a thousand-year-old city, seemed to be crushed by a bang.

Seeing this on the city, the guard Guo Wanchao felt a sank. He immediately called Yabingdu Head and ordered him to supervise the battle from the past without hesitation and kill the city. Shen Kai took the order and took more than 500 elite troops to collect more than 1,000 people who dared to fight behind the city walls. However, under the extremely dense arrow rain and stone bullets of the Song army, he only walked a few hundred steps, and more than 200 people had been injured or killed. Even Shen Kai, who had heavy armor, had more than a dozen arrows inserted into his body. At this moment, the rain of arrows of the Song army suddenly became sparse. The large crossbow arrow formation composed of tens of thousands of people in the Song army consumed a large number of crossbow arrows, which was difficult to supplement for a while. Shen Kai was overjoyed and shouted loudly: "The Song army has gone all the arrows, move forward quickly and cut those Kaifengzi in the city into meat sauce!"

The soldiers he brought were all for the rest of his life. He knew that although the stone bullet was powerful, the chance of being hit was very small. The most harmful to the soldiers guarding the city was the dense rain of arrows, especially the crossbow formation rain that was almost spared no effort, like a storm. At this moment, the Song army had no arrows and their morale was greatly boosted. He walked forward hundreds of steps, surrounded dozens of Song troops who had climbed the city. He used swords and swords to stab several dead soldiers in the periphery to death.

"What's going on?" Seeing that the rain of arrows shooting towards the city stopped, Zhao Jiong was furious and shouted.

"Your Majesty, the millions of arrows have been used up. I am replenishing everything from the camp. But I have to wait a little longer." The eight masters of Haozhai, the west captain, made Hao Shourong stumble and run up to explain that even though Hao Shourong had been responsible for replenishing military supplies in several battles, he expected that Zhao Jiong personally supervised the battle and set up the crossbow formation to control the crane. Hu Jie's army was afraid that the battle would not work, so he shot the crossbow arrows like flowing water. In less than two hours, the city walls on the west side of Taiyuan were actually shot into dense crowds like hedgehogs, and the millions of arrows that had originally accumulated in the crossbow formation were almost empty. Hao Shourong was anxious and ordered his subordinates to quickly replenish arrows at the crossbow formation. Unexpectedly, he happened to step on the key moment of the imperial guards' battle and lost arrows, so he rushed over to apologize.

"What are you doing here? Why don't you hurry up and urge the replenishment of arrows? Don't delay any major events!" Zhao Jing calmed down his anger. Although he was anxious, he had never expected to take the city on the first day of siege. He saw the Taiyuan soldiers quickly surrounding the city from both sides of the city wall, and his heart almost reached his throat.

The northern Han soldiers on the top of the city quickly surrounded the narrow area of ​​the Song army's landing city, and the bodies of the killed imperial guards were constantly throwing them down. The reserve team Guo Wanchao held in his hand was more well-trained than the soldiers on the ordinary city. Under the command of Shen Kai, the elite tooth soldiers directly attached the rare number of Song army on the city, and attacked one of them together. A large number of other Han soldiers used iron hooks to push the Song army on the cloud ladder at the city and spread them far away. At this moment, the Song army was afraid that there were a large number of robes on the city wall and did not dare to release stone bullets to this section of the city wall. It was conducive to dozens of Han soldiers' cooperation teams, shouting in unison, pushing the heavy cloud ladders one by one to the ground. The poor cloud ladders were full of dead soldiers in the control army, and they didn't even see the enemy's face, and they fell to pieces.

The Song army on the top of Zhao Jing's city was less and less, and dead bodies kept falling. If they continued to fight, the hundred and ten imperial guards who had climbed the city were going to explain all the things at the top of Taiyuan city. They clenched their fists tightly with their left and right hands, and finally sighed, "Forget it, fight again tomorrow, and call the warriors on the top of the city to retreat." After the words, the flag plaque commanded the soldiers to ring the golden gong. The imperial guards who were struggling to support themselves on the top of the city finally breathed a sigh of relief. They fought and retreated, and more than a dozen people were retreated, but the several Hujie soldiers who were finally cut off were cut into several sections by the Northern Han soldiers who were swarming up and threw them down the city wall. Zhao Jing saw that the blue veins on his head stormed up, his eyes widened, and shouted, "Where is the crossbow formation? Hurry up and shoot this group of murderers to death!" At this moment, the arrows of the Song army's crossbow formation finally replenished, and thousands of arrows were fired at once. The Northern Han soldiers who could not hide on the city wall were killed and injured.

The Song army was beaten down again when they attacked the city, and their morale was already drained. They stopped attacking the city that day. Zhao Jiong ordered the warriors who were the first to climb to the city of Taiyuan without removing their armor and came to see each other immediately, and he wanted to praise them personally.

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