Across the Water Margin: Officials of Ximen

After the defeat of Xie Qian's army, Guo Zhizhong's army couldn't resist, and was also defeated by the Jin army. Only one out of ten of his troops escaped with their lives.

With the defeat of Xie Qian and Guo Zhizhong's two armies, the Southern Route Army of the Song Army completely collapsed. Guo Zhizhong, Zhe Yanzhi, Gao Wei, Qian Guishan and others fled back to Longde Mansion with their remnants.

The Song Army's East Route Army and South Route Army were defeated successively, leaving only the soldiers of Zhang Hao and Zhang Sizheng in Fenzhou, and the tactic of advancing in three directions failed again.

At this time, Zhang Hao and Zhang Sizheng recruited soldiers and horses, and gathered a total of about 17 regular soldiers and township soldiers, known as a million to the outside world, to strengthen their momentum.

Yes, Song Jun's bluff can't scare the experienced Wanyan Yinshu and Wanyan Loushi.Before Zhang Hao and Zhang Sizheng's army entered the battle, the generals of the Jin army said: "Since Liu Kai and Xie Qian's two armies have been defeated, Zhang Hao and Zhang Sizheng's army is nothing to worry about."

On August [-], Zhang Hao dispatched Zhang Si, the deputy commander of the orthodox army, to march from Wenshui County in the northeast of Fenzhou to break the siege of Taiyuan City.

When Zhang Sizheng led his troops out of Fenzhou again, he arrested Song General Ji Jing who had lost Shiling Pass.He said to the crowd: "This is the fate of those who do not stick to Shiling Pass and escape alone!" He ordered Ji Jing to beheaded and sacrificed to the flag.

On the night of August [-]th, Li Siben, a general of the Jin Army stationed in Wenshui County, accompanied the Jin Army to drink and enjoy the moon. He was discovered by Song Army spies and informed Zhang Sizheng's army.Zhang Sizheng attacked the unsuspecting Jin army overnight, beheaded hundreds, and nearly captured Jin army general Li Siben.

This Li Siben was the Song Army's Daizhou Guard at the time, and he took refuge in the Jin Army after being captured by the Jin Army.

After the Song army captured Wenshui County in a sneak attack, Zhang Sizheng did not enter the city, and led the army directly to Taiyuan City.

On the [-]th, the Song Army and the Jin Army met in the middle of the road and fought in battle.

Wanyan Yinshu said to the generals: "Although the Song army has many soldiers and horses, they are chaotic and incapable of doing anything! Our army should be determined by a single battle!"

Seeing that the Song army was in a disorganized formation, Wanyan Yinshu could immediately charge Zhang Sizheng's army with three thousand cavalry.Sure enough, Zhang Sizheng's army was about to collapse at the first touch, and more than [-] troops rushed for their lives.As a result, without the Jin army beheading and killing, the Song army trampled on each other in the mountains and tens of thousands of people died.

In this battle, the Song army was saved out of ten, three or four, and more than a hundred envoys were killed in battle, and more than [-] gold, silver, money, grain, and silk were thrown away.The Song Army's West Route Army also failed completely.

Zhang Sizheng fled back to Fenzhou with thousands of defeated troops.Fearing that the Jin army would pursue him, Zhang Hao fled to Cizhou and Xizhou in the southwest of Fenzhou with hundreds of his own soldiers.

The Song Army's three-way army failed again in the battle to rescue Taiyuan.After hearing the news of the defeat of the Song army, tens of thousands of people from Weide, Longsheng, Fen, Jin, Ze, Jiang and other prefectures helped the old and the young, and crossed Henan to escape disaster. empty.

The judgment of the people in Hedong was correct. While the Song army was still trying to break the siege of Taiyuan, the Kingdom of Jin had already decided to attack Song for the second time.

In order to conquer the Song Dynasty, the East Route Army of the Jin Army in Yanjing City joined the army of Wanyanchang in the Dading Prefecture of Zhongjing, and its strength was further strengthened.

Wanyan Zongwang, the commander of the Eastern Route Army, was promoted to Marshal, Wan Yanchang was the Marshal Zuo Jianjun, and Wanyan's mother was the Marshal Zuo Dujian. The three of them led the Eastern Route Army to attack the Song Dynasty.

In August, around Taiyuan City in Hedong, when the West Route Army of the Jin Army was fighting fiercely with the main force of the Song Army, Wanyan Zongwang gathered his troops to attack the Song Dynasty again. Starting from Baozhou, they defeated the Song Army in Xiongzhou, Zhongshan, and Guangxin Army one after another. The [-] western troops of the Min Department of the Song Dynasty were defeated in Jingxing, took the Tianwei Army, and then returned to the east to conquer Zhending Mansion and killed Li Miao, the guard of Zhending Mansion.

When the Jin Army's East Route Army went south, Wanyan Zonghan also led troops from Datong Mansion in Shanxi to the south and launched a final attack on Taiyuan Mansion.

The battle of the Kingdom of Jin to destroy the Song Dynasty kicked off.

9 Chapter Thirty: Wang Ting's Choice

Since the Jin army's first attack on the Song Dynasty, Taiyuan Fucheng has been besieged by Wanyan Zonghan's West Route Army for more than eight months.

In the past eight months, Taiyuan City has been isolated from inside and outside, but it has not fallen.

Taiyuan soldiers and horses are in charge Wang Zhi and his son Wang Xun led the army and the people to resist resolutely and defend Taiyuan City to the death.

Wang Jin took the lead and drove on the city wall every day. Whenever there was an emergency, Wang Jin would come to support him in person. All the soldiers, people and elders in the city knew Wang Zongguan's famous name.

Wang Zhi led the army and civilians of Taiyuan to stick to the isolated city from the beginning of spring to summer, and from summer to the end of autumn, but he never gave up.

The Jin soldiers attacked the city nine times before and after, and were repelled by Wang Zhi nine times.

However, because the imperial court failed to organize soldiers and horses to rescue the siege three times, Taiyuan City did not receive a single soldier or a grain of food support, and the food storage in the city was finally cut off.

The most feared thing in the defense of the city is the lack of food. Because of the lack of food, the defenders of Taiyuan City were so hungry that they could hardly hold their weapons.

In order to continue to persevere, the soldiers and civilians of Taiyuan City ate all the cattle, horses, donkeys and mules in the city, and then stewed the tendon on the bow and the cowhide on the armor to satisfy their hunger.

The green leaves on all the trees in the city and the chaff in the grain depot were all eaten up, and gradually even the bark and straw were used as rations.

By sticking to this step, the soldiers and civilians of Taiyuan City can be said to be worthy of the Song court.In the case of running out of food, even if you surrender to the Jin army, there is nothing wrong with it.

However, Zhang Xiaochun, the magistrate of Taiyuan Prefecture, and Wang Ti, the commander of the army and horses, still refused to surrender and wanted to resist to the end.

In order to motivate the army and people in the city, Wang ordered his subordinates to kill his horses to satisfy the hunger of the soldiers and people defending the city.

The guards dissuaded and said: "In order to resist the Jin army, the general manager gallops on the city wall every day. Without a mount, how can the general manager meet the enemy?"

Wang Fu looked up to the sky and sighed: "If I can't defend Taiyuan City, even if I have ten thousand family properties, what's the use of it?"

Wang Ting insisted on killing his beloved horse to feed the whole city's army and horses.

All the soldiers and civilians in the city followed suit, and within a few days, the horses in the city and the leather on their saddles were all eaten clean.

In this way, the soldiers and civilians of Taiyuan City held on until September of the first year of Jingkang, and had been trapped for more than 250 days.The city of Taiyuan was short of food and desperate for help, and nine out of ten soldiers and civilians in the city had suffered casualties, and they couldn't hold on any longer.

At this time, after the Kingdom of Jin decided to attack the Song Dynasty for the second time, Wanyan Zonghan brought Wanyan Xiyin, Yelu Yujian and other generals and the repaired army from the Datong Mansion in Shanxi Province of the Kingdom of Jin to the city of Taiyuan.

After learning that the Song Army's three siege battles were completely shattered, the Song Army suffered millions of casualties, and was unable to rescue Taiyuan City anymore, Wanyan Zonghan issued an order for a general attack on Taiyuan City.

On September [-], the Jin army attacked the city on a large scale.

At this time, there were not many defenders left in Taiyuan City, and they were too hungry to stop the Jin army from climbing up the city wall.

Wang Zhizheng led the crowd to fight back desperately on the south wall of the city, but the north city was broken by the Jin army.The Jin army opened the city gate and rushed all the way into the city.

When the news of the fall of Beicheng came, Wang Zhi led his troops to the north of the city to support him.

On the way, someone came to report that the prefect Zhang Xiaochun had been captured by the Jin army.

At this time, there were only more than 100 personal soldiers left by Wang Ting's side.But he still led the team to rush to the magistrate's yamen, trying to rescue the prefect Zhang Xiaochun from the Jin army.

On the T-shaped street, the golden soldiers rushed forward in a swarm, and met the defenders led by Wang Ting head-on.

Wang Ting led the crowd to start a fierce street battle with Jin Bing.Dozens of people supported each other and followed Wang Tin to fight against the golden soldiers step by step in the streets and alleys.

The guards around Wang Jin saw that the golden reinforcements were gathering, and there was no hope of retreating the enemy, so they urged Wang Jin to break through the encirclement and retreat quickly.

Wang Xun persuaded Wang Ting: "Father, the city of Taiyuan can no longer be defended. The child will be left behind for the father. Please leave the city to break through!"

Wang Jin roared angrily: "Taiyuan's soldiers and civilians have no people who are greedy for life and fear of death. I am the military commander of Taiyuan Prefecture. How can I abandon my father and fellow villagers? Xun'er, today my father and son will live and die with Taiyuan City!"

Encouraged by Wang Ting, all the Song troops in the city gathered around him, fighting with their last breath to kill the enemy.

At this time, the Jin army led Wanyan Bali quickly into the city, found the trace of Wang Tijun, chased them with soldiers and horses, and started street fighting with Wang Tijun.

Wang Ting led his men to fight and retreat, from the city to the Kaiyuan Gate in the south of the city.

In the scuffle, Wang Zhi was stabbed in dozens of places, but he still swung his sword and led the crowd to fight hard.

At this time, the elite soldiers mobilized by Wanyan Zonghan rushed into Kaiyuan Gate from outside the city and surrounded Wang Zhi's army.

Wanyan Zonghan was in the formation, and sent a general to call out to Wang Bao, urging him to surrender.