The Song Dynasty on the Sand Table

Chapter 195 Preparation before the war
When everyone heard this, they realized that the arrangement of this battle was slightly different from the last time.

The last time, it was the elite of the rebel army that defended the city, but this time the elite were sent out into the wild to prepare to encircle the Jin thieves, and it was Wu Zhan's troops who returned to defend the city.

Among the several major divisions of the rebel army, Wu Zhan's unit was the weakest in combat effectiveness, inferior to the main force led by Zhang Yong and the soldiers trained by Wu Jialiang. In the last battle, Wu Zhan was sent to garrison Laizhou City and had almost no chance to take action throughout the entire battle.

I didn't expect that this time I would be sent by Madam Gong Er to guard the city.

A heavy responsibility!
Wu Zhan himself was a little panicked: "I...I'm in such an important position, is that okay?"

Madam Gong Er said: "No, the most important thing this time is not the battle to defend the city. This position is the easiest."

Wu Zhan was slightly stunned, then he came to his senses: "The Jin army is not good at attacking cities."

Wu Jialiang laughed and said, "That's right! The Jin army is actually not as good at attacking cities as the Khitans and the Tieli people."

The Liao Dynasty, founded by the Khitans, had been dealing with the Song Dynasty for many years and had been highly sinicized. The Liao people had long adopted a fighting style similar to that of the Han people. In terms of siege warfare, they were indeed better than the Jin people.

In contrast, the Jin people were basically not good at attacking cities.

During the several wars between Song and Jin, the Jin Kingdom failed to capture any strong cities. They only captured cities by "intimidation".

For example, a large number of troops were sent to the city of Luoyang to fight, and the officials of Luoyang City abandoned the city and fled, while the people opened the city gates and surrendered.

Later, they sent a large army to besiege Kaifeng, but did not attack it. So the two emperors in the city opened the city gates and surrendered, and obediently gave themselves up as prisoners to experience the ceremony of leading a sheep.

That's why Madam Gong Er arranged the weakest Wu Zhan to guard the city.

The stronger Zhang Yong, Wu Jialiang, and the main force of the rebel army were sent outside the city to fight.
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Half an hour later, Zhang Yong was ready to lead the main force of the rebel army.

This main force included the more than one hundred core veterans Yue Wenxuan had seen when he first laid eyes on the sand table, as well as soldiers who had been recruited gradually since then. Their composition was very complex, including the group of scoundrels who had fought against the rebels and guarded the Guanhai Salt Field, the militia from Dongmiaozi Village, the servants and hangers-on of Mr. Wang's family, and the militia from the surrounding villages...

The total number of people is already two thousand.

The equipment of these two thousand people has also been upgraded many times.

The last time we fought in the Baliyuan Mountains, a large amount of equipment could not be used and was shelved, but this time it was different, all the equipment was released.

Wang You, the woman in charge of the treasury, was standing before the soldiers. Behind her was a group of civilians carrying several coffins. They placed the coffins before the group and said, "Get your weapons! The True Lord has decreed that firearms are no longer permitted in this battle. Let us teach the Jin thieves a lesson in lead bullets."

Zhang Yong was overjoyed: "Oh? You have lead bullets too? I thought we would have to use iron bullets in this battle."

Wang You smiled and said, "A large amount of lead has been shipped in from the Zhaoyuan gold mine, and the lead mine in Qixia is also being mined in large quantities. From now on, we will switch to using lead bullets. Look, that big coffin is full of lead bullets."

The soldiers gathered around and saw that the coffin was indeed filled with small lead bullets.

Zhang Dashu is now a "fire musketeer and part-time long swordsman". He reached out to grab a handful of lead bullets.

Wang You quickly said, "Don't grab them randomly. You have to record how many lead bullets you received and how many you used in the battle. The totals must match. You can't just grab them randomly."

Zhang Dashu: "Ah? So complicated? We're all brothers, why do we have to calculate it so clearly?" Wang You said angrily: "If the money and property are not calculated clearly, those of us who are in charge of the warehouse will have our heads chopped off countless times."

Zhang Dashu didn't quite understand, but he listened to what people smarter than him said and cooperated obediently. He counted more than a dozen lead bullets, put them in cloth bags, and went to get bird guns and gunpowder, counting every item clearly.

Fortunately, there weren't many musket soldiers left. Their entire army only had a little over a hundred muskets, so counting them one by one didn't take long.

On the other side, Wu Jialiang's men were also queuing up to receive bird guns, gunpowder, and lead bullets. There were also about a hundred bird gun soldiers.

But then Ma's group of artillerymen also ran over, opened a coffin, and took out four tiger squat cannons from it.

Then four vehicles specially used to transport the Tiger Crouching Cannons were pushed over. The Tiger Crouching Cannons were installed on the vehicles, and they stood happily on both sides. Two cannons were pushed into Zhang Yong's team, and two cannons were pushed into Wu Jialiang's team.

Next came the chariots. A large number of chariots were continuously pushed out from the military camp, one after another. The two armies were each given dozens of chariots, which were handed over to the "chariot commanders" in the army.

The former captains of the Mandarin Duck Team in the rebel army have all been promoted to vehicle commanders.

Each person was responsible for commanding a chariot and a team of soldiers to accompany the chariot.

The training of chariot formations has been going on for a year, but in order to keep the tactics secret, there has never been any real combat. Only a few simulated battles with the "heavenly soldiers" have been carried out. However, the rebel soldiers are not panicked at all. They have achieved certain results in the simulated battles with the "heavenly soldiers", so why should they be afraid of a mere group of mortals?
"Let's go!" Zhang Yong waved his hand at Wu Jialiang. "County Lieutenant Wu... oh, no, Inspector Wu, we'll meet up at the Jin army's position in a while."

Wu Jialiang laughed and said, "What a great idea! You go from north to south, and I'll go from south to north. Let's defeat the Jin army and join forces at their position."

"Let's go!"

The soldiers shouted, and the two armies left the city, one through the north gate and the other through the south gate. After a few miles away from the city, they turned west, estimated the distance, found a secluded place, and hid.

With the help of heavenly soldiers and generals to suppress the enemy's scout circle, they don't have to worry too much about being detected by the enemy's scouts.

At the same time, Wu Zhan was not having an easy time either. Although the Jin army was not good at attacking cities and mostly just rode horses to scare Jimo County, he also had to be prepared to fight outside the city and open the city gates at any time to go out of the city to cooperate with the actions of the other two armies.

"Deploy the chevaux de frise!" Wu Zhan shouted to his men, "Put up more along the base of the city wall. Don't let them run around freely below the city walls."

A large group of laborers placed large wooden chevaux de frise on the open space outside the city, densely packed all over the ground.

Also, a handful of caltrops were scattered in the open space between the chevaux de frise.

In the end, only one passage facing the city gate was left.

This is the way for the rebels to leave the city! Of course, the enemy can also attack along this road if they dare.

There was not a single bird gun or tiger squat cannon left in the city, but there were a large number of Huihui cannons and giant crossbows. These two weapons were not convenient to carry and were not very useful in fighting outside the city, but they were quite convenient for defending the city.

All the Huihui cannons and giant crossbows were aimed at the path marked by the chevaux de frise and caltrops.

(End of this chapter)