Seeing the Song army outside the city starting to rectify the troops, list the formation, and move out the cloud ladder, Yelu Zongyun sighed. The Ant Support climbed the city can be said to be the most primitive method and it doesn't work easily. Now it is different. The Song army first used cannons to clear the city's head, and then used cannons to suppress the movement of the Khitans on the city wall. The Ant Support was very simple. What should I do? Yelu Zongyun asked himself. After asking several times, he didn't know what to do.

The 20,000 troops in the city, facing the attack of 50,000 or 60,000 Song troops, defense should be enough. But the fact is that it is difficult to defend for a day.

From the city, Yelu Zongyun looked around. There was no one on the street. I heard that the Song army was sieging the city, and the people hid at home to watch. This area is a Han people's settlement, and they had their own expectations for the Song army, which was really unreliable.

Yelu Zongyun sighed and ordered his generals to prepare to take back the army. Without the outer city, there was an inner city, but Yelu Zongyun was really unsure of how long it could be defended. What's even more terrible is that there are no reinforcements now, can't they defend Song and retreat? Yelu Zongyun shook his head. There is no possibility. If the Song army did not destroy the Khitan, it seems that they would not withdraw their troops.

At this moment, a fast horse came over, rode up and down, and crossed his hands, and said to Yelu Zongyun: "Leave the way, King Alian is invited to the palace to discuss matters!"

Yelu Zongyun nodded, ordered around him to get on horseback and follow the knights, and head towards the innermost imperial city.

When he arrived at the meeting hall, Yelu Zongyun saw that several important figures were there. He understood in his heart that they should have considered that the war outside was not good and had to discuss countermeasures. But at this moment, it seemed that everything was too late.

Yelu Zongyun sat down, and Yelu Alian said, "I heard that the Song army outside the city had a fierce offensive. Is it true?"

Yelu Zongyun said: "Go back to the king, the Song army's artillery is extremely powerful. Our artillery is not an opponent. In the blink of an eye, they were broken by their artillery. Once the artillery is gone, they can't stop them. The war is extremely bad."

When Yelu Alian heard this, his face tightened and asked hurriedly: "How many days can Dading Mansion City be maintained?"

Yelu Zongyun sighed: "If the king asked me yesterday, I would say that I would stay for at least one month. But today, I can only say that I will do my best. How long can I stay depends not on us, but on the determination of the Song army."

Yelu Alian looked at Wu Zhan on the side and said in a deep voice: "What is left to stay, can't the city be kept?"

Yelu Zongyun said: "How to defend? There is no one standing on the top of the city. If the Song army is determined to attack the city, as long as the ladder is mounted, we will not even have people to push the ladder. As long as we make up our minds, the Song army can climb to the top of the outer city today."

After hearing this, not only Yelu Alian, but everyone in the hall was shocked. They heard that the Song army was fierce and the Khitan seemed to be unable to defend, but they did not expect that the gap was so big. They could not defend for even a day. What should we do?

Looking at Yelu Zongyun, Yelu Alian whispered: "Leave the city, what should we do if the city is broken?"

Yelu Zongyun shook his head: "King, how do I know what to do? The Song army came here, which was much more dangerous than we expected. I originally thought that even if they passed Yanshan Mountain, the transportation of food and grass was inconvenient, we only had to guard it for a month or two, and when the food and grass were exhausted, we would naturally return it. I didn't expect that if we didn't say that it would be difficult for a month or two, even a day or two. Who would have thought of this?"

Yelu Alian only felt his head ringing loudly, and after a while, he said, "What should we do? If the city is broken, what should we do?"

Wu Zhan on the side said: "The Song army surrounded three queu and one queu, and there were no enemy troops outside the East City Gate. Otherwise, we will flee east?"

Xiao Han’s slave said: “There are tens of thousands of Song cavalry outside. How can they escape? As long as you leave the city, you will definitely lose your lives.”

Xiao Tuguci said: "But you can't wait to die in the city! The city is about to break out, so you have to think about a way out!"

Yelu Zongyun shook his head slightly and closed his eyes. The Dading Mansion was so easy to be broken, which was completely beyond his expectations. Nothing is used to say now. The city cannot be defended, and he goes out to fight the Song army, and the Khitan is not an opponent. How to do it? God knows.

Outside the city, Du Zhongxiao looked up at the sun and said to Liu Ji: "It's almost time. Order the frontline soldiers and ants to climb the city!"

Liu Jiyingnuo called the commander on the front line and gave detailed instructions. With the support of artillery, the Song army was a mature plan. First, use artillery to smash all the defense facilities at the city, then replace them with flowering bullets to drive away the defensive soldiers at the city. Then use artillery to block a section of the city wall, and the infantry immediately set up a ladder to climb the city. As long as you climb to the city, the Song army using muskets can firmly guard this section of the city wall. Then, they will mount the artillery to the city head, occupy the city wall completely, and open the city gate to welcome the army.

After giving the order, Liu Ji said, "Taiwei, judging from the appearance of the Khitan, he is completely unprepared for us to climb the city like this. According to my estimate, it should be possible to occupy the Dading Prefecture in just one or two hours."

Du Zhongxiao shook his head: "Dading Prefecture was built according to Kaifeng Prefecture. In addition to the outer city, there is also the inner city and the imperial city. There should be no problem occupying the outer city today, and it is impossible to occupy the inner city. Be prepared. After occupying the outer city, you must appease the people in the city and arrange to attack the inner city. There are many things. I heard that the Han people live in the Nanmen Gate, so you must appease them properly."

Liu Ji responded and said, "What the Taiwei said is that the Khitan Empress is now in the capital, and the other princes are in the Dading Prefecture. After occupying the Dading Prefecture and destroying the Oluduo, most of the Khitan power will be removed, which will be considered as destroying the country."

Du Zhongxiao said: "Yes, after this battle, the Khitan will destroy the country. The remaining Shangjing has few troops and a small population. It would be amazing to suppress the northern barbarians. The Khitan was a hero for a while, but he didn't expect that it would be like this when it finally perished. To be honest, I couldn't believe it. I originally thought that it would take several months to occupy the Zhongjing Road in this battle. If it was appropriate, the army headed north to Shangjing in autumn and winter and completely defeated the Khitan. However, it took less than a month to occupy the Dading Prefecture."

Liu Ji sighed together. Who would have thought that a big country like the Khitan would no longer have the ability to fight back after it was defeated.

In fact, there is no way to fight back now. When I was in Youzhou a few years ago, the Khitan was no longer a match for the Song Dynasty. It was just that a sudden battle, neither the Khitan nor the Song people noticed it.

There were only scattered Khitan soldiers left on the top of the city, and they could not stop the Song army who had climbed the city. Soon, the Song army set up a formation at the top of the city and captured the southern city wall. They laid a large rope under the city wall and hung several cannons on it.

Du Zhongxiao's eyes were like this. Now that there are guns and cannons, a more fancy method should be used. However, no matter what fancy method it is, it is not as useful as this local method. It is simple, direct, fast and efficient, and has almost never failed.

The equipment of the Song army is very chaotic. The muskets and artillery development is too advanced. Most of the time, artillery determines the battle pattern, and infantry only checks for omissions and makes up for shortcomings in the final decisive victory.

An hour later, the Song army occupied the southern section of the city wall and entered the city to open the Zhuxia Gate. With a burst of cheers, the Song army brigade crossed the falling suspension bridge and lined up to enter Dading Prefecture.
Chapter completed!