The Song Dynasty on the Sand Table

Chapter 176 Don't waste time
Amid the rumbling sound of drums, the rebel army began to attack the camp.

A large number of catapults and giant crossbows were pushed to the front of the formation.

Yue Wenxuan felt unhappy as he watched the catapults in action.

The catapults used by the rebels this time were all old toys he had collected. These catapults came from a set of low-quality toy sets. The technology used in the catapults was ancient and broken medieval technology, which was very troublesome to use.

The truly powerful catapult used by the Mongols was the counterweight catapult, also known as the Huihui Cannon, which was much more convenient to use than their current shabby catapult.

The Mongols relied on Huihui cannons to conquer the world. When attacking the city of Xiangyang, the Huihui cannons "shocked the heavens and the earth and penetrated seven feet into the ground." They hit the Xiangyang watchtower with one shot, causing the Song army to surrender.

He thought to himself, "I'll have to order a set of Huihui cannons and give them to the carpenters to disassemble and learn from." With the craftsmanship of Song Dynasty carpenters, making Huihui cannons was not difficult and was completely feasible.

When the production of firearms cannot keep up, Huihui cannons can be used as an important means of siege.

However, despite all the complaints, these catapults are now enough to attack a group of cowardly pseudo-Gold thieves.

Dozens of catapults were lined up in a row, and the auxiliary soldiers of the rebel army were still loading stones into the catapults. The defenders in the camp were already beginning to panic.

The first ones to exclaim were the auxiliary soldiers!
In addition to the Khitans and Tieli people, there were also thousands of civilians and craftsmen recruited from Weizhou City and Changyi County. These people were originally Han people, and were forced by the pseudo-Jin thieves at knives to participate in the battle.

If they didn't encounter a life-threatening situation, they might be able to compromise.

But now the rebels' catapults are ready. Soon huge rocks will fall from the sky and randomly select a group of unlucky people to death. This will be a matter of life and death.

The butcher knives of the pseudo-Jin thieves are also a threat to your life, and so are the catapults.

Both sides are in danger, why should I listen to your side?
There was chaos in the camp. The civilians and craftsmen were the first to rebel. Thousands of civilians ran towards the west gate of the camp. The gate was guarded by a small group of Khitan soldiers. There were not many of them because the main force had been transferred to the east.

How could that small group of Khitan soldiers resist the thousands of civilians who rushed forward? They didn't even dare to resist. In this situation, whoever tried to stop them would die.

The Khitan soldiers guarding the gate quickly hid in the corner to avoid being caught up in the violent civilians.

The civilians easily opened the gate and ran out. Some of them took a bag of food while escaping, while others used a stick to pry and push the camp gate, making the west gate of the camp look like a zero-yuan shopping scene in the beautiful country.

How could such noise not affect morale?
The soldiers were also affected, and many Khitan and Tieli soldiers mixed in with the civilians and ran westward with them.

Immediately afterwards, the rebels' catapults opened fire, and huge rocks flew up and hit the wooden wall of the village. This thing could not withstand the impact as well as the adobe wall. When the rocks arrived, wood chips flew everywhere, and the village wall collapsed piece by piece.

The pseudo-Jin thieves, whose morale was already low, could no longer bear it. They let out a strange cry and turned around to run away. No matter how Bali Yuanshan shouted at them, they could not stop.

At this point, Bali Yuanshan knew that this battle could not be fought, so he ran! He would definitely be scolded by the Jurchens if he returned, but being scolded was better than losing his life here.

He and Lu Yuantiao ran towards the west gate at the same time, rushed out at the same time, and disappeared far away in an instant.

While running, he looked left and right, looking for the monster in black helmet and black armor.

But this time they were lucky, Lu Bu was not there.

The two men saved their lives and fled towards Changyi County.
-
"Report, the Jin thieves have escaped." Zhang Yong came back excitedly, "We have captured the camp and once again seized all the food and fodder in the camp."

Madam Gong Er was also very happy: "The Jin thieves have become our food deliverymen." Yue Wenxuan smiled and hummed: "We don't have guns or cannons, but the enemy will make them for us."

Zhang Yong: "Perhaps we can seize this victory and recapture Changyi County in one fell swoop."

This proposal was clearly supported by everyone. The eyes of those who heard this lit up. Guan Sheng laughed and said, "Great! Let's take advantage of this opportunity to recapture all of Shandong and return to Jinan. I'm going to chop off Liu Yu's head with my own hands."

Yu Fanwen also said: "Beat the Jin thieves all the way back to Hebei."

As soon as Yue Wenxuan saw their expressions, he knew that this group of people had become arrogant. Their continuous victories and the faux Jin bandits were vulnerable had made them so proud that they had actually begun to dream of retaking all of Shandong. Hey, wake up! You haven't encountered the real Jin bandits yet.

Yue Wenxuan was about to speak to calm them down when Wu Jialiang suddenly popped up and said to Madam Gong Er, "Mr. Gong, we can't go to Changyi! We should withdraw our troops and return to Jiaoshui to continue strengthening our defenses."

Everyone: "Huh?"

Madam Gong Er was a little puzzled. "Captain Wu, even if Bali Yuanshan returns to defend Changyi now, he certainly won't be able to organize a decent defense. We just need to take advantage of the situation and attack. We will definitely be able to capture the county as easily as we attacked the camp just now."

Wu Jialiang nodded and said, "Mr. Gong is right. Taking Changyi is easy, and even taking Weizhou in one fell swoop is possible with our current strength. I can even boldly say that even taking all of Shandong is not impossible."

Everyone was surprised: "Then why do you still object?"

Wu Jialiang: "What's the point of taking it? How can we defend it?"

When this question was asked, everyone froze.

Wu Jialiang said, "I'm not trying to spoil your fun, but our current forces are too thin. We only have about 3,000 combat-ready soldiers, and we don't have enough weapons or armor. We might be able to gain the upper hand against the fake Jin bandits now, but when the real Jin bandits come, we'll have a hard time even defending our current territory, so how can we be confident of taking more territory?"

Everyone: "..."

Wu Jialiang: "The Jin bandits' specialty was high-speed cavalry, circumventing cities and attacking from all sides. They bypassed Jinan, Daming, and countless other major cities, heading straight for Tokyo and capturing the two emperors... Have you all forgotten this?"

Madam Gong Er: "I dare not forget!"

Wu Jialiang said, "That's right. Think about it carefully. If our territory is vast and there are many cities to defend, with our current limited forces, and we disperse them among the cities, how will you defend when the real gold thieves arrive? Are your defensive capabilities better than General Zong Zezong's?"

Everyone: "..."

This really stumped everyone. When we thought about it carefully, we couldn't help but break out in a cold sweat.

That’s right!
This is really difficult to deal with.

At that time, the famous general Zong Ze was still guarding the important city of Shandong, but the Jin thieves dared to bypass Zong Ze and attack Tokyo directly. Zong Ze was left to defend the city and had no way to deal with the Jin thieves. He could only watch them capture the two emperors.

This is the disadvantage of having a large territory.

Wu Jialiang said, "I believe that our original strategy of defending Jiaoshui, Laizhou City, and Jimo City and protecting Denglai Prefecture is the most feasible tactic and should be implemented. We must not forget our original intention just because of these two small victories."

Yue Wenxuan listened from the side and couldn't help but secretly praise: Very good! Zhi Duo Xing is still quite useful in times like this. With you around, I can save some saliva.

(End of this chapter)