The loud sound accompanied by the heavy impact shocked Cao Ergou, who was feasting on his meal, and almost dropped the half-eaten piece of fatty bacon in his hand.

He followed the sound and saw that a big hole had been smashed into the roof of the city wall more than ten meters away on the right, and the barrel of a light artillery had been smashed and deformed. Several soldiers who were eating next to him were so frightened that their whole bodies

The top and bottom were also covered with falling cement dust.

Just when everyone was stunned, several more loud noises and heavy blows were heard. The heavy blows that followed made the thick fortress walls shake slightly.

Cao Ergou stuck his head out of the parapet and looked in the direction of the Mongolian army, and saw more stones the size of human heads flying towards the city wall from behind the earthen wall.

"Everyone takes cover, fire the crouching cannon." Cao Ergou issued two emergency orders while hiding. The firing of the crouching cannon placed on the top of the inner fort has already been set, and all that is needed is to load the ammunition and fire it.

The Mongolian army's trebuchets could only hit the outer fortress, so the squatting gunner appeared to be calm and attacked the trebuchets behind the earthen wall one by one.

"Roll call". Due to Ouyang Xuan and Cao Ergou's evil intentions, Jia Gulong always believed that earthen walls could block artillery attacks in ancient times, so he only prepared for the Pili Army's surprise attack out of the city, and did not provide any protection for the trebuchets -

—Of course, even if you do it, it will be in vain.

The target of the attack ordered by Cao Ergou was not the trebuchet but the craftsmen who operated it. The heavy-duty Tiger Crouching Cannon had a large charge, and the soybean-sized shotguns it fired were extremely lethal to people within thirty meters.

After several rounds of shelling, the Mongolian army's trebuchets all misfired. In fact, very few trebuchets were destroyed. The reason for the misfire was that the craftsmen who operated them suffered heavy casualties.

Since the Tiger Crouching Cannon was aimed at the trebuchet, the number of casualties among the new auxiliary soldiers responsible for guarding was not many in comparison.

As soon as the cannon fired, they all jumped into the traffic trench to escape, and the remaining craftsmen also ran back after seeing this.

Although the launch time of the Mongolian army's trebuchet was very short, it caused considerable damage to Hengyuan Fort. After being thrown and accelerated, the stones the size of a human head were extremely powerful.

The wall was only slightly dented, but the south gate of Hengyuan Fort was deformed and more than ten large holes were smashed into the top of the city wall. In addition to the loss of one artillery piece, there were also more than a dozen people who were unable to escape.

The soldiers were injured by rubble, three of them seriously.

In fact, this result is considered excellent. You must know that trebuchets were a deadly weapon in the cold weapon era. No city wall in any state or county in western Sichuan could withstand the bombardment of dozens of trebuchets.

The top of the wall of Yokoyuan Castle was built only to protect against arrows and rain, but obviously it could not protect against stones the size of a human head.

However, although this top cover is not very defensive, it is very effective. It was hot summer during this time, and the top cover blocked the harsh sunlight, which was highly praised by the soldiers guarding the fort.

On the other hand, the Mongolian army, except for the cavalry who could hide in the shady woods, the newly attached troops and civilians were either in short and narrow tents or in trenches under the earth walls, suffering from the intense heat.

.

After Jiagu Longgu took the whip from the secreter's fire, he organized people to go to the earth wall to reassemble the trebuchet.

Due to overloaded firing, some of the previous trebuchets' mechanical structures had been damaged, and some had developed cracks, and they could no longer be used a few times.

However, as soon as the craftsmen climbed to the ground from the communication trench, they were bombarded before work started. The Perak Army set up an observation post on the top floor of the inner fort to watch every move happening behind the earthen wall.

Jiagulong was unwilling to give up in ancient times, and ordered the craftsmen to assemble trebuchets, but they were bombarded without exception. After repeating this several times, he had to give up in frustration, after all, the craftsmen were almost dead.

Secret Master Huoli was extremely angry now. This time he led troops to attack the Perak Army, originally thinking that he would be able to capture them easily.

According to intelligence, the Perak Army only has more than a thousand soldiers, and the Minzhuang only has four to five thousand soldiers. This combat strength is not worth mentioning in the eyes of the secret fire.

In fact, the intelligence of the Mongolian army is still very accurate. In this era, the ratio of soldiers to civilians is generally between 1:10 and 15. If you raise too many soldiers, the economy will often be brought down.

Although there are tens of thousands of people under the rule of the Perak Army now, most of these people are refugees and cannot be considered an effective population yet.

Even though industry, mining, commerce and trade were developed, a large amount of profits were obtained, and there was a large amount of free labor in the labor camps, the Pili Army's finances were still stretched thin.

The confidence of Mi Zhe Huo Li is not wrong. In terms of combat effectiveness, the combat effectiveness of cavalry with the same equipment is more than five times that of infantry, and can even reach ten times.

If there is something wrong with Secret Master Huo Li, it is because he, like most people, belongs to the cold-weapon era mentality.

In fact, Mi Zhehuoli was considered an excellent general in the Mongolian army, otherwise he would not have been given the responsibility of stationing in western Sichuan by Mongolian Khan.

He had also heard about the failure of Yelu Maizhu's attack on Wanjiapu, but he believed that it was due to the new annexed armies in Dayi, Yongkang and Qingcheng acting on their own, Zhao Shicai's rashness and the inconvenience of carrying siege weapons in the rugged and narrow mountainous area.

He had also heard that artillery was powerful, but he didn't pay much attention to it. After all, losers always brag about the enemy's power to avoid appearing too incompetent.

Of course, out of caution, he still followed Liu Heima's advice this time and mobilized all the combatable troops in western Sichuan to prepare to wipe out the Perak Army in one fell swoop.

However, the progress of the war was far beyond his expectation. After more than ten days of fierce fighting, not only was there no progress, but more than 2,000 people were lost.

Although only a dozen Mongolian cavalrymen were lost, and the rest were casualties, wounded and fleeing new vassals and civilians, it was still an unbearable defeat.

When Jiagu Longgu muttered the words about digging a tunnel, he was, as expected, whipped by the secret fireman again.

Everyone knows that it will take at least two or three months to dig tunnels and attack the city. Although the Mongolian army can dig from the earth wall through the communication trench, the trench in front of Hengyuan Fort is wide and deep. Although more than half of it has been filled,

But it still needs to be passed under it, and the amount of engineering work for just one tunnel is extremely huge.

Obviously, there cannot be only one siege tunnel, because the defenders will definitely have countermeasures to destroy the tunnel.

Jiagu Longgu was obviously aggrieved after being beaten. Although this Hengyuan Fort is located on flat ground, it is more difficult to deal with than those in steep areas.

To deal with strong forts, the Mongols often encircled them instead of attacking them, trapping and exhausting the defenders. But to the west of Hengyuan Fort was the Wenjing River, which seemed to be a river barrier, but it was also a natural passage.

As for the northern part of the fortress, which is only a few dozen meters away from the mountain pass, the passage into the mountain is completely within the fire coverage of the wall, making it impossible to use encirclement tactics.

Hundreds of new soldiers who attacked the city followed the fleeing civilians into the mountain pass in a panic. They tried to turn back, but were beaten back by a burst of artillery fire.

It is said that these deserters from the newly attached army were stuck on the mountain road between Hengyuan Fort and Wanjiabao, unable to advance or retreat, and they were suffering from summer heat and thirst.

The dozens of die-hards who were unwilling to surrender tried to instigate an attack on Wanjiabao. Not only did they receive no response, they were beaten with bruises and bruises. The others kidnapped them and took them to Wanjiabao with a surrender certificate.

Jiagu Longgu also ordered people to climb to the top of the mountain north of Hengyuan Castle to check the situation, but the reported situation was discouraging.

Although the mountain is not high, it is extremely steep. It is extremely dangerous for a strong person to climb up. What is even worse is that it is difficult for people to stand on the top of the mountain, and it is impossible to place siege equipment.
Chapter completed!