Son of Song Dynasty

Chapter 123
Zhao Dezhao remembers clearly that in the original historical line, during the Jingkang period, the Jin soldiers besieged Taiyuan City, and also played a trebuchet battle, but did not achieve good results. In the end, the stone bullets in Taiyuan City ran out, and then In addition, the reinforcements were routed on the outside, which led to the depression of the troops in the city, and it took nearly a year to finally capture the city.

Right now, the terrain of this pass city is precipitous, and the city defense is as strong as Taiyuan, but the troops he can use are not as good as the golden men at that time. If he wants to attack it hard, he really doesn't know how much it will cost, even if he bears it. If you can afford casualties, you can't afford this time.

Zhao Dezhao was worrying about this, but Fang Zhengqi was so desperate that he came over to make up for it. He was a fleeing general from the Southern Han Dynasty and was familiar with the local geography and climate.

"Your Highness, the weather is getting hotter day by day, and it will soon be a thunderstorm..."

Zhao Dezhao's face turned dark again. Of course he knows what a thunderstorm looks like. Every day at noon, there will be a heavy rain, followed by the sun. Even though the soldiers can shelter from the rain in the camp, the ground is hot and humid. There is no way to avoid the steaming of the water, people are like being in a steamer, this is not just a day or two, but every day, steaming and then drying, drying and steaming, just like making soy sauce It seems that it is not difficult to imagine that after a few days of steaming and drying, a large number of soldiers in the army will soon fall ill.

Seeing that Zhao Dezhao did not make a statement, Fang Zhengqi thought that the young His Highness did not understand the seriousness of the matter, pointing to the gentle river in front of him and said in a low voice: "When it comes to the thunderstorm season, there will be a big flood in the Qinshui River, and maybe there will be a flood." For the mudslide, His Highness must make early plans."

This is the upper reaches of Qinshui River. The river is wide and gentle, the water depth is shallow, and the flow speed seems to be relatively gentle. There seems to be no harm, but once it enters the flood season, it is uncertain what the situation will be, at least in Qinshui River like now. It is not possible to camp by the river, so the camp must be moved to higher ground as soon as possible.

Zhao Dezhao was stunned for a moment before realizing it. Hearing Fang Zhengqi talking about rising water, he suddenly thought of the strategy Liu Hui offered yesterday. It is unreliable to take advantage of the raft going down the river, but can't he take advantage of the river's rising water?

Thinking of this, Zhao Dezhao suddenly had inspiration in his heart, and turned his head to look at Fang Zhengqi: "Are you sure that the river will swell in a few days?"

Fang Zhengqi replied: "Yes, once it rains, the river will rise sharply, and then—"

Zhao Dezhao interrupted directly: "How many days will it take?"

Fang Zhengqi was stunned for a moment, thinking that only God would know about this matter, he hesitated and said: "I think it will only be ten days at most."

Zhao Dezhao didn't ask him any more, and immediately summoned the banner officer, pointing to the Qinshui River: "In three days, I will cut off this river for this king!"

The flag officer was quick-witted, and after a little thought, he immediately understood the master's intention. This was to stop the river and besiege the city, which was a good idea.

But to complete it within three days is clearly beyond the reach of the strong, and he said with a bitter face: "Your Highness, this river is so wide, even if everyone in the army comes to pick up soil to fill the river, how can it be cut off within three days? It will take at least half a month to complete."

Zhao Dezhao said coldly: "I can't wait that long. Military orders are no joke. If you can't complete them within three days, I will demand your head!"

The flag officer prostrated himself on the ground, said nothing, did not protest, but did not accept the order. The meaning was very clear - Your Highness, if you want to chop off the head of the general, do it now, there is no need to wait for three days. In the future, it will definitely not be possible anyway.

When he thought about it, cutting off the Qinshui River within three days was simply a fantasy. Although the Qinshui River flows gently here and is not deep, it is very wide. How can it be easily cut off?Furthermore, no matter how gentle a river is, it will never become gentle again after it is cut halfway.

He couldn't help but secretly curse in his heart. His Highness the County Prince was simply born in a deep palace and raised in the hands of a woman. Not only was he not familiar with military affairs, he didn't even have basic common sense!

Of course Zhao Dezhao was not interested in wanting his head, so he smiled lightly and said, "Didn't you cut down a lot of trees? Drive the stakes into the bottom of the river, like a fence cage, then fill them with earth and rocks in cloth bags, and throw them into the water one by one. Use this The method can be completed in one day at the earliest, how can it take three days?"

He was able to come up with such a method, not only because of a moment of quick wit, but also because he had traveled to Dujiangyan in his previous life. He remembered that the tour guide seemed to have mentioned that when Li Bing and his son built the weir, they used bamboo cages to hold stones. Sinking in the river, bamboo can encircle the weir, and there is no reason why wooden piles cannot. In the past two days, in order to make ladders for siege, a transport team has been dispatched to cut down a lot of wood in the nearby mountains. Even if it is not enough for use, it will be cut down again. It doesn’t take much trouble to get some.

But the flag officer was shocked: "Your Highness, even if this method is feasible, how can there be so many bags in the army?"

Zhao Dezhao didn't allow him to complain, and directly said with a downcast face: "If you don't have enough cloth bags, use grain bags and salt bags. If you don't have enough, then take off your trousers and use them as bags! If you say one more word , this king will have your pants taken off right now!"

The flag officer opened his mouth wide, swallowing the words he wanted to argue and complain.

From the next morning, the entire camp of the Song army seemed to be turned into a huge construction site. Thousands of soldiers were using the felled trees to make wooden piles and make wooden fences for the cofferdam of the Shenjiang River. There were more than 1 soldiers People are excavating earth and rocks and putting them into various bags to prepare for filling and blocking the river.

According to Zhao Dezhao's instructions, the remaining ten thousand troops continued to attack the pass city. Dozens of trebuchets still fired stone artillery bombardments at the towering city wall of Yanguan, and smashed a hole on the brick-covered rammed-earth city wall. A huge crack.

Fang Zhengqi's prediction of the weather was obviously too far away. The preparations were all done. The clouds in the sky quickly piled up. You can feel it just by breathing. The air is quite stuffy. Everyone knows that it won't be long. It's going to rain, and it may be a heavy rain!
Zhao Dezhao knew he couldn't afford to wait, so he gave an order: "Cut off the river with a cofferdam!"

Thousands of soldiers worked together. The front team nailed the long wooden stakes into the river, and someone from the rear team threw the cloth bag filled with earth and rocks into the cofferdam of the wooden fence. The soldiers of the two teams separated from Qin The two sides of the water are gradually closing in the middle, and the progress is not slow.

The river channel of Qinshui here is very wide and slow, so the flow speed is not fast, the water depth is not great, and the deepest part is no more than a human neck. Therefore, whether it is driving piles to the bottom or sinking earth and rocks to make weirs, it is not particularly laborious.

(End of this chapter)