Fenghou

Cai Mingde yelled at the soldiers to stand up, but he himself was flustered. His front line stretched three miles, but the opponent was a hundred paces away. washed out.

At this time, an army also came from the rear. The [-] army collapsed, and the soldiers fled in all directions. Fortunately, the torrential water was not too deep and not too wide. Countless soldiers threw away their helmets and armor, threw away their weapons, and swam to the opposite bank. They ran for their lives, but there were [-] troops waiting for them on the other side, and they had no way out except to surrender.

In this battle, more than 1 soldiers were beheaded from the army, and the main general Cai Mingde died in the chaos. More than [-] soldiers surrendered, but a large number of soldiers escaped successfully, but they did not return to Linfen County. With the help of the cover of night, each escaped home.

These Xie Congjun soldiers are all Han Chinese, and they are not fools. The Kingdom of Jin has been defeated repeatedly, and even Wanyan Nianhan's army has been completely wiped out. Given the chance, they would all run away and go home, even refusing to admit that they had ever been Confederates.

However, a very small number of soldiers fled back to Linfen County with the general Luo Wu.

Chapter 769 Huo Yi

An unprecedented shame and humiliation broke out in Han Chang's chest. He was tricked by the Song army and lost [-] troops for nothing. The key is that he was not deceived by Chen Qing, but by Niu Gao, Chen Qing's subordinate. Deceit is even more embarrassing and indignant.

He drew out his sword, cut the table in half with one slash, gritted his teeth and said, "If I don't kill this thief, I will not be a human being!"

All the generals silently looked at the furious Han Chang, worrying about his gaffe. Before, Han Chang shouted to use [-] troops to fight the Song army, but now instead of getting the [-] troops, he only had [-] troops left.

But what Han Chang didn't expect was that there was a reason why Yang Zaixing's army didn't go north for a long time. He was creating an opportunity for Liu Cui's other army.

Not long after Liu Cui's army came out of Gushe Mountain, he ordered his deputy general Hu Yantong to lead an army of 5000 to go north along Gushe Mountain, with the goal of capturing Huoyi County. Huoyi County is the southern entrance of Queshu Valley. Seizing Huoyi County is equivalent to cutting off the northward retreat of tens of thousands of Linfen troops.

Before the official siege of Linfen County, all peripheral affairs must be handled properly, especially in Huoyi County, and the Congregation Army cannot be given the opportunity to withdraw northward to reinforce Taiyuan Prefecture.

Huoyi County is just a middle county with a population of more than [-] people, and the city walls are not tall. It is a very ordinary county town and has nothing to do with strategic locations.

In fact, the strategic importance of Queshu Valley was only reflected when the Sui and Tang Dynasties intersected. Li Yuan raised troops from Taiyuan and went south to Pujin Pass, but was blocked by Song Laosheng in the Sui Dynasty. , Li Yuan's army would not be able to cross the Queshu Valley, and eventually the Tang Dynasty would not be able to be established.

However, from the founding of the Tang Dynasty to the demise of the Northern Song Dynasty, for nearly 400 years, Queshu Valley basically did not play any military role. It has always been used as a commercial road, and Huoyi County has no military use. Of course, don’t expect Its walls are tall and strong, easy to defend but difficult to attack.

The actual situation is that Huoyi County is neither easy to defend nor difficult to attack, otherwise Han Chang would not defend Linfen County, but directly defend it.

The main general in charge of attacking Huoyi County this time is Hu Yantong, the deputy commander. Since Hu Yantong defected to Chen Qing a few years ago, he has been stationed everywhere and rarely participated in the battle. Bright lieutenant.

He got the chance to fight for the first time, and Liu Cui entrusted him with the task of attacking Huoyi County.

Liu Cui was also worried that Huyantong had no siege experience, so he sent another commander, Zhao Hou, to assist Huyantong. Zhao Hou had rich experience, especially participated in dozens of siege and defense battles. With the help of his experience, Huoyi was captured. The county is not a big problem.

Hu Yantong was very excited, and took advantage of the rest time of the march to invite Zhao Hou to discuss the strategy of the battle.

Zhao Hou is not yet 30 years old. He is a native of Chencang County in Guanzhong. He has a steady, mature personality and considerate issues.

Zhao Hou smiled slightly and said: "Actually, most of the cities we seized were considered sneak attacks or outsmarts. There are not many cities that really spend money to attack. This city in Huoyi County is only two feet high, so I know that Jinbing is not very strong. Value this county."

"Why?" Hu Yantong asked puzzled.

"General Huyan may not know that we have been calling for an attack on Hedong for a long time, at least half a year! If we really paid attention to it, we should have increased the height and thickness in this half a year, but it is only two feet high. If we remove the battlements, it will be too long." One foot and eight feet, a few soldiers can climb up by building a ladder."

Hu Yantong pondered for a while and said: "Is it because there are dangerous passes in Queshu Valley, so they don't pay much attention to Huoyi County?"

"That's right, there is a Yangliang South Gate in Queshu Valley, about [-] miles north of Huoyi County. In fact, it is the entrance to Queshu Valley. It is very dangerous. I also think that it is because of this reason that the Kingdom of Jin doesn't pay attention to it. Huoyi County, but they forgot one thing, Huoyi County also guards the official road to Queshu Valley, if Huoyi County is occupied by us in advance, then the Jin soldiers in the south of the East Road will not be able to withdraw."

"But they can send troops from the north to attack Huoyi County south and open this passage. Anyway, the wall of Huoyi County is not high, and they can easily take it back."

Zhao Hou laughed and said: "General Huyan's conjecture is close to the truth. They may also be worried that once Huoyi County is built too tall and strong, if it is captured by us, it will be difficult for them to take it back. But the problem is that things are unpredictable. If Did we also capture Jiexiu County in the north?"

Hu Yantong nodded, "The county king personally sent troops to Fenzhou, Jiexiu County is in danger."

After a pause, Hu Yantong waved his hands and said with a smile: "Let's get away from the topic, let's talk about Huoyi County! How to capture it?"

Zhao Hou smiled slightly, "It's still the old way, first the easy ones and then the hard ones. If the sneak attack doesn't work, just break open the city gate."

……

At two o'clock in the night, [-] troops arrived in Huoyi County. Huoyi County is already located in a mountainous area, surrounded by vast mountains. The terrain of Huoyi County is not dangerous, but further north, Fenshui is between the mountains. Passing through the gorge and flowing into the depths of many mountains, only a mountain road halfway up the mountain can pass.

Zhao Hou was a little stunned, Queshu Valley is simply the second Luoshui Road!The biggest difference is the different landforms. The Luoshui Channel is all loess ravines, while the Luoshui Channel is a hard rock canyon.

But what confuses them the most is Huoyi County itself. Although Huoyi County does not guard the dangerous point, it guards the only official road to the dangerous point. It is completely a strategic city, which just blocks the passage to the north. It is impossible to walk through the city, you must pass through the city through Huoyi County, shouldn't such a city be built into a dangerous city?

However, this county city is dilapidated and small. It doesn't even have a moat, only a trench has been dug.

"I see!"

Zhao Hou pointed to a river in the distance and said with a smile: "That's the Shushui! They originally wanted to connect the trench to the Shushui, but they didn't dig it halfway."

"It should be that they didn't even have time to clear the walls, which shows that they dug trenches in a hurry."

Although it was midnight, there were many guards on the top of the city, thousands of them. They said that they had discovered the Song army brigade, and it was basically impossible to sneak attack at night, so they could only use battering rams.

Although Hu Yantong was attacking the city for the first time, he arranged it decently. He sent a commander to lead more than a thousand soldiers to look for thick and big trees nearby. There were big mountains around, and there were many towering trees on the mountains.

But there is a suspension bridge in front of the city gate, protecting the city gate, Hu Yantong doesn't know what to do?

Wang Hou has rich experience. He said with a slight smile: "The best way to deal with the suspension bridge is to use fire to burn the front end into carbon, and the iron chain pile heads will not be able to support the heavy suspension bridge."

Hu Yantong nodded, and with an order, five thousand crossbowmen rushed forward holding their big shields, using the big shields as a cover, and fired arrows from the top of the city. The arrows like a storm suppressed the soldiers on the top of the city.

Immediately afterwards, hundreds of soldiers rushed forward carrying the quilts soaked in kerosene, and threw dozens of quilts onto the suspension bridge, and more than a dozen quilts were even hung on iron chains.

When the torch was thrown up, dozens of beddings were immediately ignited, thick smoke billowed, and the flames burned the iron chains. After half an hour, two iron chains were burned one after another, and the suspension bridge fell down with a loud crash.

At this time, the soldiers also cut down hundreds of big trees not far away, one of which was five feet long and three feet in diameter, which could easily be made into a huge battering ram.

At this time, Wang Hou proposed a new siege plan, burning the south wall and attacking the north gate with a battering ram.

Wang Hou explained: "The south gate must be blocked by boulders, but the north gate will definitely not be blocked. They have to leave a way out for themselves."

Hu Yantong pondered for a moment, but shook his head and said: "I am simpler than you think. There is no need to attack the city, burn the south wall, and then set up a net outside the north gate, and they will throw themselves into the net."

Hu Yantong's idea is very simple, since the other party doesn't value Huoyi County, they won't stick to it, and if the situation is not good, they will give up immediately, so they simply lay a net on the official road in the north.

Of course, the terrain of Huoyi County is not as dangerous as the Nanguan in the north. It just guards the official road, and there are rugged slopes on both sides. You can go around to the north of the county from the slopes on both sides.

7 Chapter Seventy

Although Zhao Hou wanted to attack the north city gate with a battering ram, Hu Yantong was the main general after all, and in the end he still carried out Hu Yantong's plan. Hu Yanqing personally led 1 troops to go around to the north official road to ambush under the cover of night.

Zhao Hou was in charge of a feigned attack on the southern city. In the morning of the next day, as the war drums rang rumblingly, 100 Song Army archers rushed forward and suppressed the soldiers at the top of the city with dense arrows. There are more than [-] wooden rafts, which can be used to climb the city by nailing wooden blocks on them.

Putting on a posture of preparing for a large-scale attack, the soldiers on the top of the city were frightened. At this time, a thousand throwers, under the cover of crossbowmen, rushed forward and threw small burning thin-skinned clay pots onto the city. This kind of small earthen jar contains three catties of kerosene, which has been ignited after being coated with a layer of kerosene, and is thrown to the top of the city by the throwers.

One by one fire pots were thrown on the top of the city, and then shattered and cracked, the kerosene overflowed, and was ignited by the flames on the fragments. Immediately, a thousand fire spots appeared on the top of the city, and the fire oil cans were thrown on the top of the city one after another. The scattered fire points gradually connected together, black smoke billowed from the top of the city, and the flames raged.

Huyantong is using common sense to judge the enemy's intentions. If the enemy attaches great importance to Huoyi County and wants to defend Huoyi County, then it will definitely expand Huoyi, build a strong city, and then place a large number of troops to station. In this case, the city more important than the military.

On the contrary, if the county seat is dilapidated and small, and they are unwilling to spend money and energy to rebuild it, and there are not many garrisons, this is a typical situation where the army is more important than the city.

Huo Yi belonged to the latter, and their army was more important than the city, because there were more important Yangliang Nanguan and Queshu Valley behind them, which needed more troops to guard.

The soldiers withdrew from Nancheng one after another. Thinking of the Song army's siege ladder, the defenders in the city realized that the head of Nancheng had fallen, and the county town could not be kept. The chief general Wang Pei immediately ordered to retreat north.

The gate of the north city was opened, and 1 troops withdrew quickly to the north, but within ten miles, only a sound of drums was heard, and [-] Song troops rushed out from both sides of the official road, scattering the enemy troops to pieces. , Song Jun shouted in unison, "If the Han people don't kill the Han people, those who surrender will not die!"

At this time, the soldiers of the Xie Congjun Army had no intention of fighting. Seeing that the Song Army was so powerful, they were ambushed again, and they were so frightened that they trembled. When they heard the Song Army shouting, they knelt down and surrendered.

The chief general Wang Pei rode his horse and ran, but met Hu Yantong head-on. Hu Yantong grabbed an enemy horse, turned on the horse, and stabbed Wang Pei with his gun.

Although Hu Yantong's martial arts is a family tradition, but he is not qualified enough, and his martial arts is only second-rate, but his opponent Wang Pei's martial arts is third-rate, and when the second-rate meets the third-rate, he looks extraordinarily brave. The steel whip was whipped hard to the back, with a crisp sound of 'pop', the leaves of the iron armor scattered, Wang Pei spat out a mouthful of blood, swayed, and fell headfirst from the horse.

Soldiers from both sides rushed forward, knocked Wang Pei down and tied him up.

The main general was arrested, and some soldiers who still wanted to break out of the encirclement were finally desperate, and they followed the Song army and surrendered. Five thousand allied troops, more than [-] people were killed, more than [-] surrendered, and a small number of people fled.

Wang Hou led his troops into the city, quickly took control of the whole city, and began to implement martial law. The next step is to capture the Yangliang South Pass, so that they can completely control the south entrance of Queshu Valley.

……

After five days of hard marching, Chen Qing's [-] troops were finally about to walk out of the valley, but they encountered a small trouble here. A military city was built at the final exit of the Jurchens, blocking the exit.

Of course, the Jurchen army only cut off the official road, and they can still go out through the mountain from the side road, but the horses and luggage cannot go. More than half of the Song army's [-] soldiers are cavalry, and there are [-] camels, so they must take the official road to go out. .

For Chen Qing, this military city is just a small problem. The military city is not big, with a circumference of only ten miles, and a maximum of several thousand people can be stationed there. It is a fortified castle.

But these castles built on the mountain have a common defect, that is, there are higher places than them, but the mountains on both sides of the military city in front of us are relatively gentle, although there are high places, they are far away from the city. You can't attack the military city from a high place.

Since the existing geographical environment cannot be used, Chen Qing has to create conditions by himself.

As soon as the night fell, thick black ruled the sky. The clouds were quite thick tonight. Although there was a moon, the moon was covered by clouds most of the time.

At this time, several black shadows were slowly descending along the southern hillside. They were all dressed in black. In the dark night, the defenders on the top of the city could not see the few black shadows on the hillside at all, but the few black shadows were still there. I am trying to use shrubs and boulders to cover my figure.

The five black shadows were three soldiers of the Song Army and two craftsmen. They were ordered to investigate the structure of the city wall. After a while, the five came to the junction of the foot of the mountain and the city wall.

"It's made of old city bricks!" A craftsman stroked the city wall for a while and whispered.

The task of the two craftsmen was to evaluate the structure of the city wall and find the best place to place the gunpowder. The two immediately found the corner of the city wall. They looked at each other, and their eyes lit up at the same time. Long cracks are penetrating cracks.

Sure enough, as they expected, this is the biggest problem with the old turned walls. Cracks are easy to appear at the corners. This is a big problem, which means that the strength and hardness of the bricks are not up to standard. Simply put, the internal structure has become It is relatively crisp, and there is no problem on the newly built normal wall, but cracks and other problems will appear after a few years.

But the corners of the city wall are different. The old bricks here bear greater tension and pressure, and are more prone to problems.

One soldier went back to report, and the other two soldiers worked with the craftsman to unload a brick first, which had been crushed and could be easily pulled out bit by bit.

Take out one piece first, and the rest will be easier. Two soldiers quickly pried off more than [-] bricks with sharp iron crowbars. After half an hour, two large black holes appeared in front of them, and they were filled with bricks. The sediment.

At this time, more than a dozen soldiers slowly dragged down two huge wooden barrels. This was a huge wooden barrel filled with gunpowder. The gunpowder weighed five hundred catties, and the explosive power was astonishing.

This kind of powerful explosive firearm was produced during the Jingkang period, but there was not such a large amount of gunpowder, and the quantity was very scarce. The same is true for the Western Army. A total of only [-] pieces were made, and they are generally not used lightly.

This time, Chen Qing brought only two pieces in total for his eastward expedition, but they were all used in this military city.

In the distance, Chen Qing stood on a high place, staring at the dark shadow of the city wall. Tonight's night is indeed very cooperative, and he has not been discovered until now. Maybe there will be no such opportunity tomorrow.

Liu Qiong beside him said with a smile: "There should not be many defenders on the side, and the target is a corner, where the least defenders are. Otherwise, no matter how dark the night is, they will be aware of it. I have a personal experience of this."

Chen Qing shook his head, and said lightly: "You can't use your ability to demand ordinary soldiers. You have trained your eyesight and hearing hard since childhood, and your eyesight, hearing and acuity are far superior to ordinary soldiers. Even if you can't see someone on the other side, you can still feel But ordinary soldiers can't do it, the city head is three hundred steps away from the hillside, so far away, they certainly can't see it."

Just as he was talking, a red light burst out in the distance, followed by two earth-shattering explosions, "Boom!", three miles away, he felt his heart was about to be shattered, and the surrounding Song soldiers squatted down covering their ears.

The entire military city was filled with black smoke, calmed down a little, Chen Qingzhan waved his sword, "Attack!"

"Ugh-"

The low-pitched horn blew, and the [-] Song soldiers shouted, rushing towards the military city like a tide...

In Xihe County, tens of miles away, Wanyan Huonu looked westward with complicated eyes. Fifty miles away, he also heard a dull explosion.

Wanyan Huonu knew that Chen Qing's army must be attacking Juncheng.

Thinking of the enemy who had been waiting for many years to finally meet, he felt an indescribable anticipation in his heart, but also an indescribable nervousness.

Chapter 771 Xihe

The Song army captured Juncheng that night. Hundreds of soldiers were killed in the bombing, and the remaining 3000 soldiers fled in fright. When the Song army attacked Juncheng, there were only about [-] soldiers left The frightened military prostitute and the rest of the soldiers ran away cleanly.

At dawn the next day, the army began to set off to pass through the military city, and everyone was shocked by the appearance of the military city.

Half of the originally square city had collapsed, and the entire southwest corner was gone. Half of the west and south walls had collapsed, and the remaining walls were covered with cobwebs. Fist, looks very scary.

Chen Qing looked at the military city, shook his head secretly, turned his head to Hu Yanyun, the logistics chief, and said, "Destroy it all! Don't hurt people."

"Humble post obeys orders!"

Hu Yanyun went down to arrange staff.

Out of the valley, a large piece of wilderness appeared in front of the eyes, which made people's eyes suddenly clear. Although there were still mountains in the distance, within tens of miles as far as the eye could see, they were all flat basins. It was just that the wheat had just been harvested, and the land had been regenerated. Plowed and sprinkled with seeds.

But Chen Qing also found that there were no trees, and all the trees had been cut clean. To cut trees, he had to go to the mountains hundreds of miles away, or return to Xiangyanggou to look for pine forests.

Not only were there no trees, but the village was also gone. There should be a village not far from them, but it was razed to the ground.

It seems that Wan Yan Huo Nu's strong wall and clear field have done a good job.

Chen Qing immediately ordered, "The army camps on the spot and rests for two days!"

The soldiers began to set up the big tent, rammed the sentry tower, and dug the trench. Chen Qing ordered his own soldiers to find Tang Qian. After a while, Tang Qian hurried to the big tent.

Tang Qian knelt down on one knee and saluted, "See the county king for a humble position!"

Chen Qing asked, "Have the scouts over there in Xihe County been arranged?"

"Reporting to the county king, I have already arranged five groups of one hundred brothers, and I plan to deploy scouts from Jiexiu County, Wenshui County, Qi County, Xiaoyi County and Pingyao County."

Chen Qing nodded and said: "From the fact that the enemy army built the Guancheng, the enemy army is very clear that we want Fenzhou, and they will definitely deploy against us, so complete and accurate information is what makes us invincible basis, General Tang, do you understand what I mean?"

Sweat dripped down Tang Qian's forehead, "The king of the county is obviously dissatisfied with his information, and it's no wonder that they found a military city standing at the mouth of the valley when they were about to leave the mouth of the valley. This scout failed too much."

"The humble job has been re-deployed in an all-round way, with additional manpower, and the humble job has personally dispatched."

Chen Qing said indifferently: "Before General Tang personally dispatches, it is best to communicate with General Huyanlei. I remember that the Taiyuan intelligence point has a branch in Fenzhou. It is best to ask, and the intelligence inside and outside the city can be combined. Get up, and you won't be easily fooled."

"Humble job understands, so go ask!"