Chapter 27: The Siege

The fire arrows struck the iron plating of the siege towers with a rhythmic clanging sound, only to be deflected. Though they embedded themselves into the wooden stakes and wheels below, they did not immediately ignite a blaze. However, as a relentless swarm of fire arrows followed, the wooden supports began to smolder and catch fire.

Seeing this, the Jin soldiers immediately began to extinguish the flames. They had come well-prepared; before the assault, every siege tower had been stocked with wooden buckets of water specifically to counter the Song army’s fire attacks. To facilitate rapid firefighting, the designers had left a half-foot-wide gap at the bottom of the towers, allowing the crew simply to pour water outward to quench the flames. The budding fires were quickly doused by the water cascading from within.

The Song troops, refusing to yield, unleashed a dense barrage of fire arrows, striving to pin them into every possible vulnerability on the siege towers and scaling ladders. This saturation fire was intended to maximize the probability of ignition. Soon, several siege towers were bristling with arrows and began to blaze ferociously. It became clear that the fires in those sections were too intense to extinguish. The Jin soldiers, wasting no more time, urged their comrades forward.

They soon reached the edge of the moat. Since the end of the Tang Dynasty, the climate across the Central Plains had cooled, marking the end of a thousand-year warm period; the winters of the Song Dynasty were now bitterly cold. The moat was frozen solid, and the siege towers rolled over the ice without a tremor.

As the Jin army reached the moat, the Song archers ceased their fire. Those on the ramparts quickly withdrew to make room for the soldiers tasked with hurling stones. Once the siege towers had crossed the moat and pressed against the city walls, the Jin soldiers inside pulled firmly on sturdy ropes. The scaling ladders, fixed to the towers, rose like a giant, suddenly extending arm, latching onto the battlements.

Because these ladders were anchored to the base of the siege towers at a fixed angle, it was incredibly difficult for the defenders to push them away. Furthermore, the tops of the ladders hovered a meter away from the parapets, making it impossible for the Song soldiers to push them off by hand. Consequently, the Song troops began hurling stones, raining them down with fury, aiming for the hatch at the top of the siege tower. One Jin soldier, just emerging, was struck by a falling stone; with a sickening crunch, his iron helmet was crushed inward, his skull fractured, and he plummeted from the ladder, dead on the spot.

Surrounding Jin soldiers immediately filled the gap. The Jin army’s discipline was ironclad; in such moments, there was no choice but to advance, for anyone who retreated would surely face execution upon returning. The soldiers behind filled the breach instantly, moving with the agility of monkeys.

With a dull thud, a massive stone soared into the air, tracing an arc as it barreled toward the wall. The Jin army had deployed their trebuchets, initiating a bombardment. Ten massive siege engines operated in unison, pounding the ramparts.

*Thump, thump, thump...*

Instantly, five men were struck down. Those hit directly by the Song projectiles died instantly, leaving the others in terror. Three more stones soared over the walls, crashing into the city, bouncing across the ground, and shattering into fragments.

Wanyan Yinshuke shouted, "Where are the scaling ladders? Drag them all up here!"

"They are still in the rear!"

Yinshuke roared in fury, "Execute the commander in charge of their dispatch and replace him!"

"But..."

"Do it!"

Before long, a severed head was brought before him. Wanyan Yinshuke declared loudly, "You have all seen it! This is the price for delaying the military advance!"

The Jin soldiers bellowed in unison, "Kill! Kill! Kill!"

Twenty additional siege ladders, each integrated with a siege tower, were pushed forward.

Yinshuke demanded, "Why are there only twenty? Was it not reported that there were fifty?"

"Reporting to the General, there are only twenty!"

"Was it not said there were fifty earlier?"

"Vice Marshal Zongwang requisitioned twenty-five of them; we were left with twenty-five!"

Yinshuke commanded, "Push them all forward!"

"Yes!"

Seeing twenty more siege ladders appear below the wall, Zhang Bofen immediately ordered, "Ready the Thunderbolt Bombs and the naphtha! The entire army is to engage—we fight them to the death!"

The Song logistics crews hauled crates of naphtha to the ramparts, dodging the incoming stones as they positioned them along the walls. By now, some Jin soldiers had begun to scale the ladders. The first wave was repelled by a volley of Song arrows, falling to their deaths at the foot of the wall with piercing screams. Those behind them immediately filled their places.

Each siege tower could hold roughly forty men, a formidable scale. With five towers leading the charge, the Jin army had committed two hundred men at once. Wanyan Yinshuke’s tactic was clearly designed to force the vanguard to draw the maximum amount of Song fire, thereby reducing the pressure on the main force to follow. This proved true; the Song fire arrows saturated the lead five towers, two of which were already burning fiercely, forcing the Jin soldiers inside to flee, only to be crushed by stones falling from the ramparts.

In the brief intervals between the Song army's skirmishes with the vanguard, the rear siege towers were pushed forward rapidly. Strong, able-bodied Jin soldiers sprinted ahead, shoving the towers forward.

"Quick! Ready the fire arrows!"

At this point, a portion of the ramparts had been occupied by the stone-throwers, significantly reducing the space available for the archers. Consequently, the intensity of the second wave of fire arrows naturally diminished.

As the twenty siege towers reached the base of the wall, the ladders extended. Fire arrows struck the flammable sections of about five towers; the Jin soldiers pushing them immediately rushed to extinguish the flames, while those inside roared, shields raised, and began their climb.

The siege towers were in position, the ladders were latched, and the horns of the Jin assault sounded. Yinshuke shouted, "Attack!"

At his command, over two thousand Jin soldiers surged toward the ramparts like a dark, overwhelming flood. The main force behind them took up the cry: "Attack! Attack! Attack!"

The sound of tens of thousands of men rolled forward like a tidal wave, as if it would crush the very walls of Bianjing. The Song archers began firing at will, and a sky-darkening cloud of arrows descended upon the battlefield.

Arrows clattered against the Jin armor, ringing out like metal on metal. Unlucky soldiers were struck in the face or in the gaps of their plating. Most, however, were deflected by the heavy armor, causing no real harm.

Before long, the rear assault waves reached the base of the wall. Viewed from above, they appeared like a dense swarm of insects, beginning their ascent up the scaling ladders. Stones were hurled down, one by one, claiming lives with every impact. Beside the archers, soldiers with long spears thrust downward, skewering any Jin soldier who dared to climb up.

For a time, men tumbled from the ramparts in a constant stream. In just a quarter of an hour, the Jin army had lost nearly a hundred men. The Song army fared no better; the Jin trebuchets pounded the battlements incessantly. The Song defenders fought in a state of constant trepidation, their defensive positions shattered in one location after another. There were even instances where Jin soldiers managed to scramble onto the ramparts.