son-in-law

Chapter 625

Chapter 625

As the day was slanting westward, on the city of Taiyuan, I saw the spreading front of soldiers receding from the field of vision.

Far and near, there are black beacon smoke rising into the sky, and the flames on the top and bottom of the city are still burning. People pushed the corpses down the city, and hung the spikes and other defensive objects on the wall again. Stack the sandbags.

In the wilderness below, dark red blood and corpses are intertwined into a tragic picture. Most of the corpses belong to the civilians of the Wu Dynasty who were driven to attack the city. The groaning has become powerless, and countless corpses and people who are dying are lying on the field. Farther away, there are civilian captives who are not dead but are almost desperate, and the Jurchen army with murderous intentions and ambitions.

Qin Shaohe stood on the top of the wall, looking at the camp of the Golden Army on the other side. During the battle, he, as the chief officer, also participated in the battle on the wall, beheading two golden soldiers with his own hands. , A corner of the official uniform has also been scorched black.

The fierce battle continued for a day and a night. When seeing the countless tragic scenes on and off the city wall, people's emotions were no longer compassion.The numbness and trembling of the body resonates with the whole world, the buzzing sound permeates the surrounding air, every inch of the world, the awareness of death and the hidden fear behind it, the bloodthirsty impulse and the lingering fear after being injured, It will all be mixed together.

In the same way as these things, there is also a greater feeling that transcends these things and spreads before the eyes—of course, perhaps only in the hearts of Confucian generals like Qin Shao and this kind of emotion—— The collision and life and death, pain and hope of more than a hundred thousand people, the past of countless people extends to this point, and many of them will come to an abrupt end in this fury.

"It's not difficult to defend." Qin Shaohe murmured in a hoarse voice, looking at the direction where Wanyan Zonghan might be. However, his words were not recognized by the generals behind him.

Due to the brilliant record of the Jurchens before, when the opponent's soldiers advanced to Taiyuan, everyone who defended the city did not know whether they could hold the city under the first wave of offensive.It was also because of the worry and self-consciousness in his heart that Qin Shaohe, as one of the chief officials, rushed to the city wall to fight in person at the first time.At this time, although it took a day and a night to finally wait until the Jurchen retreated, everyone did not feel relieved at all.Because of this emotional influence, when Qin Shaohe said something to boost morale, several generals in the rear did not agree immediately.

Of course, this also proves that under Qin Shaohe's deployment, none of the generals was lazy in the rear, and they had already felt the pressure brought by the Jurchens in this first collision.

After looking at each other for a while, the time to express their agreement has passed. One of them pointed forward and said in a low voice: "Master Zhifu, the Jin people failed to attack the city for the first time, and they failed to go all out because they came here in a hurry. The weapons in the city are not prepared properly, they will withdraw their troops at this time, they will never retreat, but they will spend time preparing their weapons, and the next attack will definitely be more violent, we must not take it lightly."

"General Han is right." Qin Shaohe nodded, "We now know how ferocious the Jurchens have become. Look at those people under the city wall, who have been in front of us since today. Yes, there is only one way to stick to it. But the good thing is that they have never fought before, and everyone has speculated about the strength of the Jurchens in their hearts. After the head-on confrontation, they can always know that although the Jurchens are powerful, they are not superhuman ghosts and gods. There is a limit. Ladies and gentlemen, from now on, the 10 lives in Taiyuan will be in our hands... work hard."

He arched his hands, and the rest of the generals also arched their hands heavily.Qin Shaohe said with a smile: "But it's okay, it's said that Wanyan Agu took only three hours to capture Shangjing, and we have defended it pretty well." As he said this, he walked to the side, picked up a pair of bows and arrows, and went to the wall.Looking at the groan below, aiming for a moment, he fired an arrow.

Among the corpses below, a commoner of the Wu Dynasty who had broken his hands and feet but was still alive finally passed away with an arrow in his heart.

Holding the bow, Qin Shaohe stood there staring blankly at the corpse below for a long time before finally taking a step back and waving his hands: "Give me an order to let the Divine Bow Team and the Military Law Team choose those who are seriously injured and can't be saved. Civilians, it’s too painful, let’s give them a ride..."

He walked down the city wall, and not far away, a man named Cheng Zhouhai walked towards him. Although his clothes were neat and meticulous, no matter the dust on his robe or the expression on his face, it could be seen that the other party had been working for several days. overworked.When he came to the front, Cheng Zhouhai cupped his hands and bowed: "Master Qin, since the war is over, it's time for the young and strong members of my organization to take turns to go to the city to have a look."

Qin Shaohe nodded: "Send them up, let them see what the people outside the city look like, and tell them that if the city is broken, they will be like this... It's just that although the Jurchens backed away, But it's hard to say whether to pretend to retreat. When sending people up, don't send too many people, be careful not to mix in the details of the Jurchens. In addition, if the Jurchens attack the city again, they will immediately withdraw..."

After chattering for a while, then feeling that it seemed too long-winded, Qin Shaohe's expression settled down, then he smiled wryly, and patted Cheng Zhouhai's shoulder.After working in the prime minister's mansion for so long, Cheng Zhouhai would surpass him in terms of meticulous and rigorous planning.With a slight smile, Cheng Zhouhai just replied: "Yes." Then he looked at the deputy beside him, and the deputy nodded.

Cheng Zhouhai looked towards the city wall, and Qin Shaohe, who patted him on the shoulder, looked forward. The outer buildings near the city wall in Taiyuan were being demolished. Soldiers and civilians were busy in the field of vision, running back and forth. Further away, Taiyuan City was row upon row The houses are stretching out, the war has already started, and the lives of hundreds of thousands of people still have to continue in a tense manner.

On the field outside the city, the autumn wind in August whistled across the field full of blood and war smoke. The dead bodies, the wounded, and the assembled and restless army stretched all the way. What awaited them was also an unknown fate.

This is the beginning of the battle of Taiyuan...

Soon, Qin Shaoqian led Wu Ruiying to meet the enemy in Shouzhang, and the troops led by Wanyan Zongwang and Guo Yaoshi met them.The two armies fought back and forth for a day in the vicinity of Shouzhang, which has become a scorched earth. Qin Shaoqian did not let Wu Ruiying confront the opponent head-on. He divided Wuruiying into five teams with nearly ten thousand people. Around Shouzhang, he circled around with Guo Yaoshi, always pretending to be a feint.And a large number of reconnaissance cavalry and detachments broke out small-scale battles around them from time to time.

In this kind of back-and-forth battle, Guo Yaoshi chose a relatively conservative advance in order to determine the situation.In such a feint attack and a small-scale offensive situation, Qin Shaoqian led the most elite troops to turn the sham into reality, and went straight to the troops led by Zhang Linghui. A fierce fight broke out between the two sides near Xizhi Village, north of Shouzhang. In the attack of time, Zhang Linghui, who was weaker, was swallowed up, but only partially gained the upper hand.

On the other side, Guo Yaoshi was already fighting with a team of [-] enemies who were in charge of containment, and the [-]-strong team was defeated after half an hour.

The defeated team fled in all directions, and then many liaison officers arranged by Qin Shaoqian gathered around again. Then, the entire Shouzhang battlefield seemed to be turned into a huge piece of loose sand, and the surrounding seemed to be full of opponents, and the fighting became fierce. But nowhere is the main force.Qin Shaoqian led the [-]-strong team to lurk around, and at the same time maintained the operation of the battlefield with the greatest strength, waiting for the opportunity to deal the most violent blow to Guo Yaoshi and others.And Guo Yaoshi began to gather his troops and rushed to Shouzhang County, which was guarded by tens of thousands of people.

This chaotic battle situation lasted for a day, dozens of small-scale fights broke out, and two large-scale battles occurred, but it also made it impossible for Guo Yaoshi and others to concentrate on attacking the city.One day later, Wanyan Zongwang's main force arrived, and 9 or [-] people joined forces in Shouzhang. After colliding with Wu Ruiying, they ran over Shouzhang County in a mighty way...

The Wuwei and Wusheng armies that were supposed to attack Zongwang's troops in a three-pronged attack position defended Jinan and Daming, but they did not appear from the beginning to the end.As for Wu Ruiying, who took the initiative to attack and intercept the Jurchen army, there was not much to mention in this battle except for Qin Shaoqian's superb army-building skills shown in the loose sand-like deployment...

After this battle, Wanyan Zong hoped to enter the Central Plains!

****************

A large number of wounded and broken soldiers and civilians near Shouzhang retreated from the front.Chaotic sounds filled the sky.

Ning Yi and Wenrenbuer stood by the side of the road, watching the scene of defeat.

"Although we already know that General Qin will be defeated, but in this way, time is really running out."

Wenrenbuer took a deep breath and sighed in a low voice.After a while, they greeted a wounded general who had withdrawn: "Where is General Qin! Where are you General Qin!?"

The general glanced at Wenrenbuer and Ning Yi, then shook his head: "I don't know! I don't know! It's just an order to let us withdraw to Dongping! You ask others!"

The general mingled with the crowd and went away. Wen Renbuer glanced at Ning Yi, who had a serious but calm face. Ning Yi tilted his head and looked at the crowd: "Do you think this is a calm turn?"

"what?"

"Look at these people, the civilians evacuated, which means that they didn't leave in a hurry, didn't they?"

"...Really." Wen Renbuer hesitated for a moment, and then said, "But the Jurchen passed by too fast, and the original plan of strengthening the wall and clearing the wild must not be able to keep up..."

"If you can't keep up, you have to do it." Ning Yi closed his eyes and opened them after a while, "After all, this is chess, and you can't expect others to follow your pace..."

After he finished speaking, he walked into the crowd and grabbed a defeated general. The other party was about to draw his sword, but Ning Yi held down his wrist: "This general, where is General Qin? Where are you General Qin? "

The other party was shocked, and after looking up and down at Ning Yi, he waved his hand suddenly: "How did I know!"

The sky is filled with an ominous atmosphere, far and near, this is just a corner of chaos.And the Jurchens' long-distance drive means that the entire plan of fortifying the wall and clearing the wilderness will lag behind in progress from the very beginning.

On the seventh day of August in the 13th year of Jinghan, Emperor Zhou Zhe Gangang made arbitrariness, and the imperial court issued an order to strengthen the walls and clear the fields on the five routes of Hedong, Hedongxi, Jingdongdong, Jingdongxi, and Hebei.But the public opinion in the entire court and society is still in a very delicate state.

The Jurchens came too fast, and the whole society has not yet been enveloped by the fear of war.At the same time when Ning Yi and the others and the Prime Minister were carrying out the fortification and clearing of the country, the impeachment papers from the entire court were flying towards Zhou Zheyu's case like snowflakes.

In a war, using methods such as fortifying the wall and clearing the field is really too decisive a measure.The benefits involved in the relocation of tens of millions of people and the destruction of materials are astronomical, not to mention that it is still around the autumn harvest.Anyway, the majority of people who strengthen the walls and clear the wilderness basically hold two attitudes. One is based on interests. To strengthen the wall and clear the wilderness, to relocate the population and burn down the fields and houses, the most affected are the big landlords and gentry in the north, and they can support their position Yes, it is another relatively rational attitude, that is: fortifying the wall and clearing the country will not help at all, he will only let a large number of civilians die at the hands of our own people.

This argument is very tenable. On the most intuitive level, all the troops of the Jurchens going south are only 20. How many places can they fight all the way?How many people were killed?More places will not be affected by military disasters, and these people may survive in the cracks of war.And even if the walls are really strong and the fields are cleared, when these 20 people want food, they can easily meet their needs by setting up a place. On the land where tens of millions of people live, how far can you clear the fields to make all the food disappear?

"Even if the court can't stop the Jurchens, the people should still be left alive!"

In the remarks of Confucian scholars, the backlash caused by this measure is hard to describe, but what really supported the operation of this measure was the attitude of Emperor Zhou Zhe.In a sense, Zhou Zhe is synonymous with courage, and only his support can make this matter stand still amid so many criticisms.As for the upper echelon of the Wu Dynasty, whether it is Cai Jing, Tong Guan, Li Gang, Qin Yuyuan, etc., they may have faintly seen the seriousness of this situation, and the middle and lower echelons are arguing fiercely. The attitude of these real power factions is still amazing. Unanimously, they just watched this matter in silence, which was something that Li Gang and Qin Yuyuan could not justify after all.

Under the operation of the low-level officials in the north of the Yellow River, huge and amazing results have been achieved in the early stage of strengthening the walls and clearing the country, but the real focus of Ning Yi and others' work has actually been placed in the south of the Yellow River from the very beginning.They led a large number of refugees to the south, exaggerated the atmosphere of war, and publicized the necessity of fortifying the walls and clearing the country. The atmosphere of terror quickly accumulated, but as Wenren Buer said, the Jurchens came really fast.

The verbal criticism and the impeachment battle in the capital court are still going on in chaos. Scholars and scholars are talking about the impassioned war and the heroism ahead in restaurants and brothels.On August [-]th, Wanyan Zongwang's troops began to cross the Yellow River. Zhou Zhe shouted from the Golden Luan Hall: "Why hasn't the area around the capital been cleaned up yet?"

Just before this day, the troops near Gyeonggi had been transferring a large amount of food nearby to the city, and then finally began to expel civilians and search for food, and a huge and chaotic civil unrest began to erupt.A county magistrate was stoned to death by angry people when he asked the people to evacuate, and then the army began to clash with the people.Under this swift and violent situation, the debate on the strong wall and clearing the wilderness came to an abrupt end in the capital, and the atmosphere of panic began to cover every part of the city. A large number of people poured into the capital, and a large number of people poured out to the south.

On August 23, the Yellow River defense line collapsed, and the Jurchen East Route Army crossed the Yellow River across the board.

The previous planning of Ning Yi and others created certain rules and conveniences for the transportation of food and population migration near Kaifeng, but a large number of people were still involved in the flames of war. For the first time in more than 200 years, the flames of war spread to the south bank of the Yellow River. Regarding the beginning of the whole war, no one expected that it would extend so quickly.

On August 28, just over a month before the start of the Jurchen war, Wanyan Zongwang covered a distance of thousands of miles, besieged Tokyo, and then launched an attack.

The defense force of the capital of the Wu Dynasty has shrunk across the board to the city. At the same time as the defense of Tokyo began, Zhou Zhe's order had been sent out, and more than 30 King Qin troops from all over the country began to gather in Tokyo. In the battle, Wuwei and Wusheng, who had not moved their troops, were two armies.A larger and more chaotic war is about to start outside Tokyo.

While Ning Yi came south with the army, Taiyuan City had resisted Yan Zonghan's crazy attack for nearly half a month...

(End of this chapter)