Fenghou

Chapter 35 Victory

There is also a long canyon to the south of Jiandao Pass, but the canyon is relatively wide, up to a hundred feet wide. A hundred steps away is a turning mouth, which is a seventy-degree turn. The canyon turns to the southwest, and then turns to the southeast after walking for several miles. It is an 'S' shaped route.

At this time, more than a thousand Song soldiers were standing against the cliff at the corner of the canyon, and Chen Qing was standing behind a big rock, watching the negotiations at the city gate.

Yang Yuanqing's heart hung up, "Why is the other party's chief general here? I'm afraid this will be bad."

Chen Qing waved his hand, "Calm down, things haven't reached that point yet, let the crossbowman prepare!"

Yang Yuanqing turned his head and shouted in a low voice: "The archers are ready!"

Three hundred crossbowmen held their crossbows, ready and waiting for the final order.

On the edge of Guancheng, the chief general Wang Lian pointed at the boulder and said angrily, "What is this?"

Dutou hurriedly came forward to report: "General, this is a strange stone. The old man of the Jiang family sent someone to get it from Bianliang. It was something the emperor used to play with."

Of course Wang Lian knew that Mr. Wang loved stones and called himself a stone idiot, but he was not as ignorant as Dutou, and said angrily: "The emperor is playing with Taihu stones, you are a fart Taihu stone, do you think I don't understand?"

Heipang steward was dressed as Zheng Ping. His father and grandfather were both businessmen, and they had been nurtured since childhood. It can be said that he dressed up as such a steward and businessman perfectly.

Zheng Ping hurried forward and said: "General, this is not the Taihu stone, but the Lingbi stone. It resembles Fan Kuan's map of traveling in mountains and rivers, so it is called the traveling stone in mountains and rivers. It was a sensation in Bianliang in the second year of Xuanhe. At that time, we spent [-] guan to buy the treasure of the emperor, and it was worth at least tens of thousands of guan, and the old man will have his [-]th birthday next month, so this is a birthday present for him."

This is also bullying soldiers who are not educated and ignorant. How could such a square boulder be related to the map of traveling in mountains and rivers?

Mr. Jiang's birthday next month, Wang Lian, also received an invitation. It stands to reason that he could save face and pass the pass directly by throwing stones, but as the chief general, he was under a lot of pressure, and he had to find salaries for three hundred soldiers.

Other Han troops could plunder the county to make a fortune, but his army had no chance, so they just guarded this bare pass, and thirty Jurchen soldiers watched them.

The materials in the warehouse can never be sold.

There is no way to make the soldiers rich, and there is no salary, and the soldiers will flee. Once a soldier flees too much, his head will not be able to keep his head.

Therefore, Wang Lian will not let go of any opportunity to make money, even if it is the very familiar Mr. Jiang.

Wang Lian stared at Dou and said coldly: "For famous stones worth tens of thousands of guan, you only pay tax for [-] guan, do you think it's appropriate?"

Sweat dripped from Du's forehead, he secretly scolded Wang Lian's nose like a dog's, he quickly said: "You are a big bastard, you don't understand the value of this kind of stone, in my eyes, it is worthless !"

"Don't give me this trick. How much benefit have you taken? Do you think I don't know? Let me tell you, this stone must be taxed at the top. If you don't collect it, you will pay the difference yourself!"

"Humble job understands!"

All sweating profusely, they ran over to Zheng Ping and said, "Officer Wang, I'm really sorry, the general said that he must pay a tax of fifty guan, otherwise he will not be allowed to enter the customs!"

Is it hard to say if you want money?I'm afraid they won't take the money.

Zheng Ping pretended to be extremely reluctant, and dawdled to make up [-] guan of tax money, and it had to be copper money, not iron money.

Only then did Wang Lian let them go, he shouted: "Enter slowly, and be careful not to damage the city gate!"

The guys were driving the donkey in front, and Zheng Ping also ran to the front to lead the way, shouting: "Go in the middle, be careful, don't touch the city gate!"

The wooden trailer pulled a boulder weighing several thousand kilograms forward little by little, and slowly entered the city gate, but at this moment, there was a loud bang, and the two axles broke almost simultaneously, and the boulder sat heavily on the ground.

Immediately afterwards, five fellows pulled out their daggers and stabbed them severely in the head of the donkey. More than a dozen donkeys were killed at the same time, and the five fellows rushed towards the city.

This series of changes came so suddenly, almost at the same time, that everyone was stunned. At this moment, hundreds of soldiers of the Song Army suddenly appeared at the turning, raising their crossbows and firing together.

The dense crossbow arrows shot at the city gate. The soldiers couldn't dodge in time, and they fell down one after another. Wang Lian was also hit by an arrow in the shoulder. He staggered and fell to the ground.

Wang Lian lay on the ground and shouted in pain: "Close the city gate!"

"General, the city gate is blocked and cannot be closed!"

Wang Lian finally understood, what kind of nonsense strange rocks are these, they are clearly ordinary rocks used to block the door, you bastards!

He punched the ground hard, and he struggled to get up and fled to the city.

The cavalry of the Song Army appeared, and three hundred cavalry rushed towards them like lightning, stirring up billowing yellow dust. Chen Qing brandished a big iron spear and took the lead. The distance of a hundred steps was only an instant for war horses.

Chen Qing yelled, opened the gate with an iron spear, and rushed into the city first, and [-] cavalry rushed into the pass city from both sides of the boulder like a strong wind.

In the back, [-] infantry also rushed forward with spears in their hands. Although they were not many in number, they were terrifying. They were not much behind the cavalry, and they also entered the pass city very quickly.

As soon as the cavalry of the Song army entered the Guancheng, dozens of arrows were shot at them at high speed.

Chen Qing dialed off a few spiked arrows that were aimed at him, only to find thirty Jurchen cavalrymen coming to attack him.

With a loud roar, Chen Qing went forward to fight, and the iron spear stabbed like a storm, and four or five Jurchen cavalry were picked up and fell off their horses by him.

Chen Qing didn't find Zheng Ping and his men. He swept his eyes and found that an enemy general was leading dozens of soldiers trying to rush up the corridor of the city wall. Zheng Ping and five of his men held spears above the corridor.

They were all dressed in civilian clothes and had no armor. Two of their companions had been shot and fell to the ground. Their life and death were unknown, and the situation was very critical.

"You go up!"

Chen Qing asked his cavalry to rush up to withstand the golden soldiers, took off his bow, drew an arrow, drew the bow and shot quickly, and a mace arrow shot at the enemy general like lightning.

The enemy general Wang Lian heard the wind behind his head, but it was too late, the speed of the arrow was too fast.

'puff! '

An arrow pierced through his helmet, and the tip of the arrow protruded from his forehead. Wang Lian was killed on the spot and fell on his back.

Only then did the soldiers on the corridor realize that a large number of Song troops had entered the city, and they all turned around and fled to the city.

All [-] Song soldiers rushed into Guancheng, and the [-] Jurchen cavalrymen were all killed. The remaining Han soldiers threw away their helmets and armor, ran wildly, and fled for their lives to the north city.

But soon they were overtaken by the cavalry, and it was useless to kneel down and beg for mercy. They were killed one by one by the cavalry, and none of the more than 300 defenders could escape.

Two of Zheng Ping's subordinates were killed in battle. They were wearing commoner clothes, and they couldn't withstand the enemy's bows and arrows. Zheng Ping was also hit by an arrow, but it didn't hurt his vitals. He bandaged a little and rushed to the warehouse.

……

Yang Yuanqing was responsible for leading the soldiers to clean up the enemy's corpses, but Chen Qing brought a dozen of his men to the warehouse.

The warehouse is made of bluestone, consisting of more than [-] rooms, divided into two rows, the front row is the grain and grass warehouse, and the back row is the material warehouse.

A ten-foot-high wall was built around it with logs and masonry, which shows the importance of the warehouse, and even the barracks do not have this treatment.

The soldiers opened more than a dozen grain and grass warehouses in the first row, but pulled out one person from the haystack.

"Forgive me... ah!"

The captured man knelt on the ground, he looked like he should be a civil servant, he kowtowed desperately to beg for mercy, his voice was crying, the Song army killed all the defenders without leaving any survivors, which really frightened this man.

Chen Qing took a look at him, and saw that he was about 30 years old, with a thin body and a long face. He looked like a scholar, and his eyes were full of panic.

"who are you?"

"The villain is a treasury official, managing these warehouses, keeping accounts and taking inventory."

"What's your name? Where are you from?"

"The villain's name is Du Min, and he is from Siyang County. The villain is not the Han army, nor did he surrender to the Jin soldiers. The original treasurer was killed by the Jin soldiers, and the villain was captured by them."

The man was shaking with fright, and he was about to cry.

Chen Qing pointed a long gun at him and said coldly: "You'd better tell the truth, I can interrogate a few people casually, and I will know your details."

"The villain is not lying. The villain was arrested by them ten days ago. There is still a wife and children at home. Don't dare to disobey!"

"Get up! I have something to ask you."

The man got up tremblingly, and Chen Qing pointed to the warehouse and asked, "How much grain and fodder are there?"

"Reporting to the general, there are [-] shi of wheat, [-] shi of rice, [-] dan of fodder, [-] jin of bacon and hundreds of tan of pickled vegetables."

One shi of grain was enough for a soldier for two months, [-] shi of grain was enough for them for three months, and fodder was enough.

"There should be food in the cellar!" Zheng Ping, the head of the capital, couldn't help but said.

He had done his homework in advance and had a better understanding of the situation in the city.

"There are frozen mutton and wine in the cellar. The Jurchens don't eat cured meat. They want to eat fresh mutton. The wine is also theirs. The Han army is not entitled to enjoy it."

Chen Qing must have missed an extremely important thing, but his mind was stuck for a while, and he couldn't remember it.

Chapter 36 Messages

Chen Qing came to the material warehouse again, and the doors of all the warehouses were opened, and it could be seen that various weapons and city defense weapons were piled up in a mess in each warehouse, which looked very messy.

The warehouse is too messy, and there is no trick at all.

Chen Qing frowned and asked, "Why is this mess?"

Du Min said with a bitter face: "These are all kinds of weapons captured by the Jin soldiers in Longzhou. They were not placed in Siyang County, but all were piled up in Guancheng. The former treasurer was killed because the things were too messy. I just I just checked out the grain and grass warehouse, and I haven't had time to tidy up here, I'm so busy these days that I don't even have time to drink my saliva."

"water?"

Chen Qing suddenly realized that the important thing he wanted to ask just now was water.

"How do you solve the problem of drinking water here?"

Du Min pointed to the cliff behind the warehouse, "There is a cave over there, and there is a small spring in the cave."

"Go and see!"

Everyone walked towards the cliff together, Chen Qing stopped Zheng Ping, "You are injured, go to rest!"

"It's been bandaged, it's okay, it's just a little flesh injury." Zheng Ping said indifferently.

Chen Qing stared, Zheng Ping's calf trembled, he quickly saluted, turned and left.

The cave is dark, very humid, about ten feet deep, and the sound of dripping water can be heard.

After walking about seven or eight feet, Du Min pointed to a corner, "That's right there, be careful there's a puddle below!"

Chen Qing saw the irregular octagonal pool on the ground, soaked by running water all the year round, covered with moss, and the rocks became very smooth, much like a natural bathtub.

"How deep is the pool?"

"I haven't measured it. I heard from the soldiers that it seems to be four or five feet deep!"

There was no rushing spring water, but the rock wall was covered with moss. Chen Qing stretched out his hand to touch the moss, and at his fingertips, a stream of water flowed down along the moss, silently pouring into the pool.

"Commander, please look here!" A soldier pointed to the ground a foot away.

Chen Qing walked over and saw a stream of spring water flowing from the pool, and finally gurgling into the crevices of the rocks.

From this spring water, the amount of water on the stone wall can be known.

"Is there any stored water?" Chen Qing was a little distressed that the spring water flowed away in vain.

Du Min shook his head, "No?"

"Then is there any water container in the pass city?"

Du Min thought for a while, his eyes suddenly lit up, "Yes, there are hundreds of empty wine jars!"

"Clean the wine jars well and use them all to hold water!"

After walking out of the cave, Chen Qing said to Yang Hua, "Arrange two brothers to stand guard at the entrance of the cave. Except for the soldiers who fetch water, no one else is allowed to enter."

Chen Qing glanced at Du Min, "Pay special attention to this person!"

"The humble official suggested that he be released from the city. It is still a bit dangerous to keep him."

Chen Qing shook his head, "No one knows our details now, either kill this Du Min, or keep him to work for us."

"Reporting to the Commander, I asked him specifically just now that he is the teacher of the Siyang County School, and I think...killing him may not be good."

Chen Qing thought for a while and said, "Let's do this! Keep him and be responsible for writing home letters to the soldiers. He is not allowed to approach the warehouse or water source. No matter who it is, he must have a token to enter the warehouse and water source."

"Humble post obeys orders!"

Chen Qing got on his horse, at this moment, Yang Yuanqing urged the horse to come over, and asked with a smile from a distance: "Commander, is there enough food and grass?"

"There is enough food and grass, but all kinds of weapons and materials are too messy. You organize the brothers to clean it up. I hope we can get a surprise!"

"What about the copper coins, gold and silver found?"

"Distribute it to the brothers, and slaughter more than a dozen donkeys. Treat everyone well tonight!"

……

Both Zhang Junhe and Wu Jie made a strategic mistake when judging the distribution of the enemy's forces. They greatly underestimated the surrender number of the Song army.

After the Battle of Fuping, Wanyan Zongbi and Wanyan Zongfu led an army of 20 troops to sweep through Guanlong. Xiang armies from all states and counties surrendered in anticipation. In just one month, [-] imperial troops and Xiang armies surrendered in Guanlong. crowd.

After they surrendered, they were reorganized into various Han armies by the Jin soldiers.

The Jurchen army in Longyou and Hehuang was indeed only 2, but in addition to the Jurchen army, there were also [-] Han troops. This was an unexpected factor that Zhang Jun and Wu Jie did not take into account.

Even Jin Bing's plan to attack Heshangyuan and Dashanguan did not include these Han troops. They did not deploy the Han army as an army at all, but used them as slave troops.