The Song Dynasty on the Sand Table

Chapter 505 Let them come over for hand-to-hand combat
Han Shizhong: "Few dared to engage in a direct firefight with the Tiger Crouching Cannon and the musket soldiers."

Yue Fei's face was serious: "We must fight to the death for our country, even if we dare not. We should delay as long as we can. As long as we can hold out until nightfall and the enemy army withdraws, and the city has not yet been captured, I can organize the soldiers in the middle of the night to reopen the moat."

Han Shizhong remained silent. Even a fool could tell how much damage this tactic would cause!

Only Yue Fei's army could risk their lives for each other.

Can Jin Wuzhu do it?

That's definitely not possible!

Jin Wuzhu roared from the city wall: "Are there any generals willing to die? Go and guard the moat!"

No one answered him!

The soldiers of the puppet Qi regime certainly couldn't do that. As for the Jurchen soldiers, they might fight desperately to defend their home base, but they wouldn't risk their lives to defend Kaifeng, the capital of the Song Dynasty. If a city is captured and can't be held, it's simply lost; why fight so fiercely for it?
Jin Wuzhu looked around and knew it was all over; the moat couldn't be defended.

It's only a matter of time before they're filled in. Once the moat city is gone, the enemy's siege weapons can be pushed directly to the bottom of the city wall.

Once the ladder is erected, the next step is hand-to-hand combat.

"Fine! Fine!" Jin Wuzhu roared, "Mighty combat it is! It's better than being bombarded by cannons from a distance of 108,000 miles away. Let them cross the moat if they want. Everyone get ready to deal with the ladder troops."
-
The moat has finally been filled in!

The engineers even deliberately jumped around on the newly filled riverbed to test the "hardness" of the ground.

Okay, it's not hard at all, it's all soft and limp.

This kind of temporarily filled-in ground is extremely unstable.

But there was no time for the engineers to dawdle.

Minister of War Wu Jialiang looked up at the sky, his face resolute: "Begin the assault."

At a command, a large group of assault soldiers began to move out.

This assault team was led by soldiers from Yan'an, and the frontline commander was Sui Yi.

He also brought a deputy general, Peng Qi.

Peng Qi was originally a general of the Southern Song Dynasty, or rather, a general of the warlord Li Heng. After Li Heng's previous Northern Expedition failed, he joined the Northern Song army. His soldiers were also good at hand-to-hand combat. Of course, their fighting spirit and morale were somewhat inferior to those of the Yan'an soldiers, but they were still usable.

Peng Qi's men carried a large number of cloud ladders and cloud towers.

The Sui postmen, carrying shields, charged ahead.

The Jin soldiers on the city wall peeked out and watched them rush over, then shouted loudly, "The Song army is about to set up siege ladders!"

Jin Wuzhu gritted his teeth and roared, "Well done! Let's fight them hand-to-hand and see how they handle firearms!"

The Jin soldiers nodded and quickly hid under the uneven ground, waiting for the Song soldiers to climb the ladders and engage in hand-to-hand combat. At that time, the enemy's firearms would be unusable, and then they would see how arrogant the Song soldiers could be.

There was a loud "thud," the sound of the ladder being placed on the city wall.

Then came a series of "thump-thump" sounds, as countless ladders were erected.

The Jin soldiers and the puppet Qi soldiers tightened their grip on their spears and knives.

However, the Song soldiers did not rush to climb the ladders; they simply set up the ladders but no one climbed them.

Sui Yi shouted loudly, "General Peng! It's up to you now."

Peng Qi roared, "Preparing, immediately!"

A row of enormous cloud towers was seen being pushed to the outer perimeter of the city wall.

The Cloud Tower is very tall, even taller than the city wall.

Several soldiers stood on the top floor of the Cloud Tower. They took out their muskets and fired a few shots down at the city wall. Then they shouted, "There are a lot of Jin soldiers hiding behind the parapet, waiting for our men to climb up and fight them hand-to-hand!" Before they could finish their sentence, they suddenly groaned and fell backward.

It turned out he had been shot in the chest with an arrow...

The Jin army also had skilled archers; at this distance, their accuracy was extremely high.

The comrades on both sides quickly helped the fallen man up, checked his injuries, and shouted, "Thank goodness, thank goodness, we've blocked the fatal wound, he can still be saved."

"Damn it, these Jurchen thieves dare to fight back!"

"General, we need to get rid of them."

Peng Qi raised his head and roared, "Get them!"

At his command, a strongman immediately appeared on the top floor of the Cloud Tower.

This strongman had once arm wrestled with Xiang Yu and was very envious of Wang Hong for capturing the Iron Pagoda armor. However, Wang Hong advised him not to become a Red Iron Pagoda soldier, as it had no future and he wouldn't be able to achieve any military merits. He suggested that he become a grenadier instead.

The strongman readily accepted the advice and actually didn't become a Red Iron Cavalryman. After these days of training and growth, he has now become the battalion commander of the grenade throwing battalion under Peng Qi's command.

The strongman emerged from the top of the cloud tower, holding a small black ball in his right hand and a tinderbox in his left.

He quickly lit the fuse, then chuckled and threw it forcefully; the small black ball in his right hand flew towards the city wall.

The Jin archer, who had just shot an arrow and brought down a Song soldier, was hiding in the hollow, peeking at the Cloud Tower outside. The archer had excellent eyesight, and he spotted the strongman at a glance. The man's clothes were clearly different from those of ordinary soldiers, and he looked like a junior officer.

The archer was overjoyed and immediately drew his bow, ready to snipe the strongman from the middle and headshot him.

However, at that moment, he heard a "thud" sound beside him, as if a stone had fallen not far from his feet. Looking down, he saw a small black iron ball with a burning fuse on it, sparks flying. The moment the archer looked down, the fuse had just burned to the end.

"What is this?"

The archer only had time to utter two words before a loud "boom" was heard. The small black ball exploded, and countless pieces of broken iron, small iron nails, and small iron beads shot out from it, spreading outwards in all directions.

The archer felt a sharp pain in his chest and abdomen. In a short moment, he was hit by at least four or five pieces of iron. Then the shockwave arrived, and a wave of heat knocked him to the ground. The bow he had just drawn was also blown away to an unknown location.

When the smoke cleared, the archer discovered that his chest and abdomen were a bloody mess...

"Ah! Ah! Ah!"

He screamed three times before everything went black and he knew nothing more.

"Bomb! Bomb! Bomb!"

The strongman roared and lit another black ball, which he then threw over.

On each of the Northern Song army's cloud towers, several grenadiers' heads popped up, and small black balls were constantly being thrown at the city wall.

In no time, the city walls were ablaze with explosions, and the Jin soldiers hiding behind the uneven walls were blown to pieces.

Peng Qi roared, "It's done! We can launch the attack now!"

Sui Yi laughed loudly, "Brothers in Yan'an, charge! Be the first to scale the walls! Be the first to scale the walls!"

Peng Qi laughed: "No one's going to take it from you, don't rush, safety first."

The Yan'an soldiers, with knives in their mouths, climbed the ladders with incredible speed...

"Cover them as they scale the city walls!"

Another unit rushed up from behind; it was Niu Gao. His soldiers were almost all stragglers, each carrying a rifled musket. Niu Gao himself also carried a rifled musket. He quickly climbed a watchtower, set up his musket on the roof, and aimed at a Jin soldier on the city wall who was preparing to pour boiling oil onto a ladder. Bang! The Jin soldier screamed and fell backward. The oil jar landed upside down on his face… The sizzling sound of frying oil filled the air, making his face burn and smell delicious.

(End of this chapter)