The war on Zhongjing Road is not just a matter of war, but also a bargaining chip for the confrontation between the Song and Liao countries. Yelu Pei has already learned about Zhang Jian's southward journey. In his opinion, the Song army would not launch an attack on Zhongjing Road at this time for the purpose of peace talks.

But in the roar of artillery fire, he found that he was wrong. The Song people had no choice but to take care of it, and even launched a siege attack on the Dading Mansion. The first to be threatened was the city wall. Almost all the artillery fires of the Song people were concentrated on the city wall and did not pose a threat to the houses in the city, but the city wall was devastated under the continuous bombardment of the Song cannons.

This reminded Yelu Pei of the scene he saw when he was hunting on the banks of the Duck River with the late emperor. A turtle was caught by a hunting dog, constantly hammering its shell, or throwing it into the air and hitting it heavily on the ground. In the end, the ferocious hunting dog could actually smash the shell of the turtle.

Now, Dading Mansion is like the turtle, with only a strong armor, but there is no room for resistance. The years of fighting with the Song Dynasty have made the Liao people already know the Song Dynasty's ability to attack the city. When encountering the Song army with artillery, they cannot hide in the city and hold on. Even if the city is too hard, they will eventually be smashed.

The best way is to fight out of the city and destroy the terrifying artillery of the Song Dynasty. However, there are many Song troops besieging Dading Prefecture, and many elite soldiers are useless to go out. The Song people's tactics are very difficult to deal with, and they always protect the artillery strictly.

For Yelu Pei, the city was destroyed only a matter of time. Unless reinforcements came to attack the Song Dynasty's military formation and made it scattered, and at the same time, the army in the city attacked inside and outside, they could only sit and wait for death.

The Han military strategy says: the superior army attacks the plan, the second is to attack the diplomatic relations, the second is to attack the troops, and the lower is to attack the city.

But now it seems that it is not the same thing. The siege battle has become what the Song army is best at. The current situation is a one-sided attack. The Khitan cavalry who used to gallop on the battlefield could only huddle in the Dading Mansion to defend. On the contrary, the Han people, who were the least good at cavalry fighting, were running outside the city.

The sound of artillery fire was shaking the earth, and every roar was accompanied by bricks and stones on the Dading Mansion's walls. The people in the city were also extremely frightened. They began to demolish the buildings in the city to reinforce and repair the city walls.

The young and powerful were organized and given simple armor and weapons. Some of them did not even have armor. They just took a pitchfork in their hands and were considered armed. The city was large in number, and the number of 500,000 people was no less than the Liao Dynasty, but for the Song army outside the city, these combat powers were not enough.

How many of the 500,000 people are old, weak, sick and disabled? How many are women and children? How many are they who have never seen bloody cowards? Apart from these, there are only a few people, not to mention that they are not willing to go to the battlefield, but are forced to do so!

As the artillery fire stopped, the Dading Mansion became lively, and the people were organized to transport stones and wood. Children ran around the streets to transport food, fresh water, etc. to the soldiers behind the city walls.

Women were busy in the kitchen, and almost every family was assigned to do so, and no one could escape. The war, which was originally far away, was going on by the side. This tension and oppression was unbearable. Some people had already collapsed and tried to secretly leave the "dead city", but their bodies were hung on the streets or by the city walls, floating on wooden poles like a piece of rag, and like the big flag of the decline of the Liao Dynasty......

When Yang Huaiyu saw Su Shi, he saw him fiddling with the Baniu Crossbow and installing a large bamboo basket on the front of the huge gun rod. The bamboo basket was closed and had no mouth, but Yang Huaiyu knew that the broken bamboo basket could not withstand the impact of the Baniu Crossbow at the touch.

"What are you doing? Could it be that you have a powerful weapon to attack the city again?"

Looking at Yang Huaiyu's curious gaze, Su Shi stood up and hammered his sore waist. He had been squatting on the ground for more than an hour, and almost broke his waist: "This thing is to be sent to the Central Army. Send a few soldiers to go with me."

Yang Huaiyu looked at the basket piled up like a hill in front of her and was slightly dissatisfied: "We have to send this thing to the Central Army? When Peng Shuai found out, he thought I was going to spend it! Look at this thing, he kicked it apart with just one kick. What can it hold inside?"

Su Shi rolled his eyes: "What he wanted is that it would break when touched, but it could not break when the crossbow arrow was fired. This is the case with this bamboo basket. It is not a sharp weapon for siege, but it is a thing that can attack the heart."

After saying that, Su Shi picked up a stack of paper and waved it: "I will let these flyers spread throughout the Dading Mansion!"

Yang Huaiyu felt that Su Shi was crazy. Could it be that these papers as light as feathers could attack the Liao people? He didn't believe it anyway, but looking at Su Shi's resolute appearance, he really didn't know what to say. Finally, he waved his hand and said, "Forget it, you have to persevere and go. Just choose a few soldiers in the army."

Knowing that Yang Huaiyu didn't believe it, Su Shi left without explaining that he had brought a few soldiers and a carriage. As for the things like Baniu Crossbow, there were so many central troops that he didn't need to bring them with him. The carriage arrived all the way to the central army. Peng Qi was quite curious about Su Shi's arrival.

Looking at the bamboo baskets piled up like hills in front of him, Peng Qi was as puzzled as Yang Huaiyu, but after Su Shi demonstrated his role, he was amazed that although this thing could not cause a substantial blow to Dading Prefecture, it had a great effect on dismantling the morale of the enemy!

Peng Qi waved his hand and said, "Order the soldiers in the middle to drive the guns with all their might! Don't stop the artillery, let the Liao people in the city know that the Song Dynasty has civilized and martial arts!"

So the army of the Song Dynasty became weaving craftsmen amid the rumbling gunfire, and they used weathered and fragile rattans, whether it was bamboo baskets or rattans. As long as they could hold the flyer, they would be broken as soon as they touched it!

The busiest people in the army wrote those literate soldiers. They had to copy a large number of leaflets for a while, and the contents were the same words of persuasion and surrender, as well as the power that the Song Dynasty now possessed, so that the people in the city would give up resistance, and of course they would also have to write the conditions for surrender and the price of the head of Yelu Pei, the guard in the city...

This thing depends on quantity. Not to mention anything else, just paper is needed. Peng Qi issued a military order, ordering the surrounding prefectures occupied by the Song Dynasty to provide materials and everything needed.

These things are not difficult to find, weathered rattans are everywhere, and there is no shortage of things like pens, ink, paper and inkstones. Especially after Su Shi included these things as purchased by the Song army, the people who sat in the prefecture immediately entered the mass production.

So in just a few days, countless bamboo baskets were sent, and the number of leaflets copied by the soldiers in the army was also very large. After these things were put into the bamboo basket, they were fixed on the crossbow arrows of the Baniu Crossbow.
Chapter completed!