Fenghou

In the afternoon of that day, Li Fuxing led an army of [-] and turned around to kill Haohao in the direction of Luoyang City.

At this time, Huyanlei's army had already controlled Yanshi County, Gongyi County, Sishui County and Mengjin Pass, and Luoyang City had become an isolated city.

……

Just five days after the defenders of Xin'an County were wiped out, Chen Qing led an army of [-] troops through Xin'an County and continued to advance towards Luoyang City. He also brought [-] camels full of grain and supplies. A large cart brought in advance food supplies, and then hundreds of large ships came east along the Luoshui River. They brought tents, camp fences, and large siege weapons. The weapons were dismantled and needed to be installed on site.

Ten miles to the west of Luoyang City, a barracks-style barracks rose from the ground, and [-] troops could be stationed in the barracks. Yang Zaixing also built a smaller barracks barracks to the east. To the east and west is Yang Zaixing's [-] troops, and Mianchi County's [-] troops are also stationed in various counties of Henan Prefecture.

So when Chen Qing's army of 15 arrived, [-] troops surrounded the city outside Luoyang City, and the Song army was bound to win Luoyang City.

The [-] troops of the Song Army set up a large camp between Luoshui and Yishui in the south of Luoyang City. It is also impossible to attack the main camp from Luoshui. The Song army is heavily guarded and will not give the enemy any chance.

In the big tent, Chen Qing listened to Yang Zaixing's report, Chen Qing nodded and said: "Attacking Luoyang from Mengjin Pass seems a bit complicated, but it gave us a good exercise, using the Yellow River to carry troops and attack both sides of the Yellow River The possibility of attacking Mengjin Pass proves that it can be implemented, so it is definitely not an unnecessary move as General Li Muqing said."

Li Muqing bowed and said: "Thank you for your teaching, I finally understand the humble position!"

Chen Qing smiled and asked Yang Zaixing again: "How are you going to take Luoyang? Are you going to blast open the city gate with iron fire thunder?"

Yang Zaixing shook his head, "Always relying on Tiehuolei is not good for soldiers, I'm still planning to attack the city according to the original plan!"

Chapter 969

Although there are Xiongguan guards around Luoyang City, Hangu Pass in the west, Hulao Pass in the east, Yique Pass in the south, backed by the Yellow River and Beiman Mountain, Luoyang City itself is not difficult to break through, mainly because it has a huge The defensive loophole is Luoshui.

It would be unrealistic to attack the city. Luoyang City also stored tens of thousands of barrels of kerosene and 10,000+ dans of wheat straw, which were enough to burn the soldiers of the Song Army who attacked the city into black charcoal.

But if the Song army attacked Luoshui, it would pose a greater threat to Luoyang City.

Luoshui is not a few feet wide moat, it is hundreds of feet wide, passes through the city, and divides Luoyang City in two. If the Song Army's warships attack Luoyang City along Luoshui, the army will directly enter the city.

Zhe Keqiu was also well aware of this loophole. He organized civilians to lay hundreds of wooden stakes in the Luoshui River in the city to prevent the ships of the Song Army from entering the city. Thousands of soldiers stored a large amount of kerosene and became the second line of defense.

Although the wooden defense line is far from being as strong and strong as the city wall, it is not so easy to break through.

In particular, two iron cables to block the river were deployed on the east and west sides, and two hundred soldiers were responsible for manipulating them.

At this time, Zhe Keqiu was standing on the western city wall. Here was the broken city, and Luoshui was in front of it. The hundred-foot-wide Luoshui flowed into Luoyang City from between the two broken cities.

Wang Zan was killed in battle, the entire army of 1 people was wiped out, and the Song army had surrounded Luoyang City. He knew that he had no way out, and the Song army would never write him a letter of persuasion. He would die if he fell into the hands of the Song army. undoubtedly.

It is also desperate, Wanyan Wushu and Wanyanchang can't just watch the Song army attack Luoyang, they will definitely take action, as long as he can hold on to Luoyang, he will be able to usher in the final victory.

Inspired by his faith, he can find anything, and he devoted his whole mind to the defense of Luoyang City, and the defense of Luoshui became the top priority.

"Commander, I have an idea!" Commander Ding Hengshan whispered.

Zhe Keqiu glanced at him, "What do you think?"

Ding Hengshan pointed to the Luoshui Road under the city: "I feel that it is meaningless to deploy kerosene on the west pontoon bridge. The west side is downstream. When the kerosene is thrown out, it flows back. Instead, it burns the wooden piles and the pontoon bridge."

Zhe Keqiu nodded, it really made sense, he asked with a smile: "What do you think?"

"The humble officer thinks that the west side should use gunpowder kegs and boulders to shoot down from the city wall, and directly use the gunpowder kegs to sink the enemy's boats."

Another general next to him said: "If the Song army's ship is full of kerosene, and the ship is blown up, the kerosene will still float over."

Zhe Keqiu nodded, which also made sense. The Song army was upstream. No matter which plan was used, the kerosene would drift downstream, so the key was how to intercept the kerosene.

Ding Hengshan also knew the key point here, and put forward a new suggestion, "Hizhi suggested pulling two iron cables on the water surface, and piled up all kinds of broken garbage in front of the iron cables, such as vegetable leaves and leather, which would float on the water surface. But it is not easy to burn, if the bunk is several feet wide, the opponent’s ships and kerosene will be blocked when they float in, and the flames will burn, but the flames will not enter the city.”

Zhe Keqiu nodded again and again, and said happily: "This plan can be adopted!"

Zhe Keqiu immediately ordered: "Go and implement this plan!"

Thousands of soldiers acted together, pulled two iron chains on the river, tied iron nets on them, and collected a large amount of household garbage in the city and threw them on the river, causing the river to float a garbage area seven to eight feet wide.

That night, the Song army's fire attack plan began to be implemented. Hundreds of small sampans were thrown into the water, and each sampan was filled with four or five barrels of kerosene. The fire was on fire, billowing black smoke, drifting along the water to the city of Luoyang...

On the top of the city, more than a dozen trebuchets were launched together. They fired stones weighing dozens of kilograms. The stones fell from the sky like hailstones, knocking over the sampans, pouring out kerosene, and burning on the water surface. I continued to drift downstream, and was blocked by garbage piled up on the water. Sure enough, the river was raging, but I just couldn't get through.

Needless to say, there are wooden pile arrays and pontoon bridges behind, and more than 1000 soldiers with bows and crossbows are waiting.

"Report to Dutong, there is a lot of rubbish floating on the water, and the sampan is blocked, so we can't get through!" A soldier reported to Yang Zaixing.

"Use a big boat!" Yang Zaixing ordered immediately.

The advantage of being on the water is that it is easy to be swung away. Since small sampans can't get through, a few big boats can open a way.

Three five-hundred-stone cargo ships sailed towards the city quickly, with soldiers rowing oars on them, at a very high speed, rushing towards the city like cutting through the waves...

Chen Qing and several generals were also watching the battle from a high place, and they could see clearly. At this time, Liu Cui said to Chen Qing, "Your Highness, it is impossible for the garbage on the water to stay still. There must be iron chains blocking the water, and the ships may not be able to get through."

Chen Qing nodded, "I know, let's try it first!"

The big ship rushed through the raging fire and swept away a large piece of garbage. The front ship suddenly shook, as if it had hit something, and the ship immediately slanted and stopped horizontally on the water.

The soldiers on the pontoon bridge in front raised their crossbows and shot arrows. Thousands of arrows were fired at once. More than a dozen oar soldiers were unable to dodge, and their arrows fell into the water one after another. , the poisonous nails splashed everywhere, and the soldiers of the two ships behind were unfortunately also shot by the poisonous nails, so they had to dive for their lives.

One of the soldiers took out a fire bag, ignited the kerosene in the ship, and then jumped into the water to escape for his life. The third cargo ship caught fire and collided with the two previous ships, and the three large ships began to burn.

The initial attack failed and dozens of soldiers were lost. Yang Zaixing had no choice but to order his troops to withdraw.

In the big tent, Yang Zaixing made a self-criticism to Chen Qing, "Your Highness, you have underestimated the enemy with a lowly position. You think things are too simple, too easy. The opponent's iron chains lock the river, and the opponent also has kerosene and gunpowder barrels. He wants to break through The opponent's blockade is not so easy."

Chen Qing nodded: "Actually, you haven't seen where the opponent's most difficult defense is?"

"Humble and dull, please give me advice, Your Highness!"

Chen Qing said indifferently: "It's the iron chains of the other party. There are three in total, and each one is one foot apart. This is not the point. The point is that the two chains behind are alive, and there are dozens of people pulling at each end. , If you want to burn it with fire, the soldiers will loosen the iron chain, let the chain sink into the water, fish it out and blow it up with fire mines, but more than 1000 people on the opposite side aim at you with bows and arrows, and two iron chains can even kill you. Ships are easily overturned, this is the most difficult enemy defense weapon!"

"What if we attack from the east of Luoshui?"

Gao Ding asked cautiously, "Will it be easier?"

Chen Qing shook his head and said, "You didn't understand me. The garbage piled up on the water is not important, but the two iron chains. As I said just now, these two iron chains are controlled by soldiers. They are constantly burning, exploding, and even It can overturn the ship, and such an iron chain can also appear on the Luoshui in the East City. Think about it, how can you break it?"

Everyone fell into deep thought. At this moment, Yang Zaixing glanced at Chen Qing, who was smiling and silent, and suddenly realized that he was really confused. They had nothing to do, but His Highness has a way!

Yang Zaixing hurriedly said: "I implore Your Highness to tell me, is there any good way?"

Everyone followed suit and looked at Chen Qing together. Chen Qing smiled and said, "Of course there is a way. It is wise to break through the city by water, but why do we have to stare at Luoshui? Can't we just leave?" The city above the moat?"

Suddenly, everyone attacked the city by water, but boarded the city directly with a big ship.

Chen Qing knew that everyone didn't really understand what he meant, so he continued: "I'm not only talking about the direction of attacking the city, but also the means of attacking the city. It's not impossible to attack from Luoshui, the key is to use big ships , a big ship of about five thousand shi will definitely be able to rush directly into the city, even if the opponent uses iron chains, it will be useless."

Li Muqing immediately reported loudly: "His Royal Highness, there are hundreds of [-] stone boats at Mengjindu on the Yellow River!"

Chen Qing nodded, and immediately ordered: "Immediately dispatch fifty large ships of five thousand shi from the Yellow River to Luoshui!"

9 Chapter Seventy

At the moment when Yang Zaixing's army was besieging Luoyang, Liu Qiong and Tang Qian led an army of [-] and [-] donkeys to march southeast from Shangzhou. They also formulated two plans. The first plan was to cross Xiong'er Mountain and enter Ru State, but this plan was rejected by the review team. Their objection was that the risk was too high and the cost was too high.

But their second plan succeeded, that is to enter Dengzhou along the Danshui ancient road to Shangyu. The risk of this plan is much lower. You can reach Dengzhou along the Danshui River Valley. Although you have to climb a short section of mountains on the way, in general, the cost is much lower.

Crossing the mountains is mainly in the lower reaches. Wuguan is controlled by the Sichuan-Shaanxi Army, but there is also a very important pass thirty miles in front of Wuguan, called Longjuzhai, which is an ancient ferry of Danshui. After Yue Fei withdrew to Xiangyang last year, Longju Village was changed to Jin Bing's control. Jin Bing had a thousand troops stationed in Longju Village, just to defend against the Sichuan-Shanxi Song Army's surprise attack on Dengzhou.

Liu Qiong didn't want to expose his army, so he found a hunter who was familiar with the road to guide them, and climbed over the mountain from the side.

"General Liu, this mountain road is also called the medicine road. Since last year, Jin soldiers have not allowed merchants from Sichuan and Shanxi to go to Longjuzhai. Many medicinal material merchants also go to Dengzhou to buy medicine from here, and then return to Shangzhou."

The hunter's surname is Jin, a man in his thirties, who also served in the Song army for several years. After the Fuping war, he ran back to the merchant's hometown, married a wife and had children, and made a living by hunting and gathering herbs.

Liu Qiong asked with a smile: "Then can the golden soldiers enter Shangzhou along this road from Dengzhou?"

The hunter said with a smile: "The Jin soldiers don't need to take this dangerous road, they can go directly to Longjuzhai, but there is no mountain road to go on the Wuguan side, so the Jin soldiers can't go to Shangzhou, but we can go to Dengzhou. However, there is a section of the mountain road that is more than ten miles long that is very dangerous, and you can only walk on donkeys, not on horses, and it is just ahead!"

The people came to the dangerous road very quickly, it was really dangerous, it was almost a [-]-degree hillside, twenty miles away was Longju Village, a corner could be seen faintly, everyone held on to the sides, and walked slowly along the path. Going down the mountain, but the donkey is very light and agile, going down the mountain is like walking on flat ground, and it still carries dozens of catties of food supplies on its back.

The [-] army walked for a full day before going down the mountain road for more than ten miles and bypassing Longju Village. At this time, it was getting late and the army was resting at the foot of the mountain. Tang Qian led [-] troops to Longju Village.

Although Longju Village is very important, it is not dangerous. The reason why Liu Qiong didn't attack at the beginning was because he was worried that someone would flee to Rang County to report the news, which would affect their plan to attack Dengzhou.

Now that we are attacking from the south to the north, there is no need to worry about the enemy fleeing, and it is night, let alone the use of pigeon letters.

The Zhaimen is in the north, and a stone road leads into the Zhaizi in the south. There are hundreds of households in the Zhaizi, and there are many shops. In the past, the business was very prosperous. At present, there are only three places where the enemy troops exist. The first is the Zhaimen in the north. Ten people are guarding, the second is the two brothels, there are probably a lot of enemy troops, the restaurants are closed, there will be no enemy troops, and then there is the barracks on the east dam.

Tang Qian's troops were divided into three groups, and he personally led 2000 people to the barracks.

As soon as they arrived at the gate of the barracks, a sentry on the sentry tower shouted: "Who is it?"

Tang Qian raised his bow and shot an arrow, which hit the sentry's throat. The sentry let out a muffled cry and rolled down from the sentry tower.

"There is an enemy situation!" A patrol in the barracks found out and shouted.

Tang Qian roared, "Kill!"

Leaving 500 people to block the escape route, the remaining [-] soldiers followed Tang Qian into the enemy camp.

……

Rang County is the prefecture of Dengzhou, and Zhang Zhongxiong led [-] troops to garrison, but now there are only [-] garrisons left, and the other [-] troops, led by the commander Wu Shengying, rushed to support Henan Prefecture.

Zhang Zhongxiong is the second son of the famous minister Zhang Shuye. In the second year of Jingkang, Zhang Shuye committed suicide on the way to the Kingdom of Jin by the Jin soldiers. The eldest son Zhang Bofen also followed his father to commit suicide, but the second son Zhang Zhongxiong surrendered to the Kingdom of Jin because of greed for life and fear of death. Later he became a general of the Puppet Qi Army.

In Jingzhao Mansion that year, Zhang Zhongxiong and Chen Qing fought against each other and were defeated. Soon he was transferred back to Bianliang to serve as Bianliang's defense envoy, and later followed Wanyan Wushu to fight with Yue Fei's army. Last year, after Yue Fei's army withdrew south to Xiangyang, Wanyan Wushu ordered Zhang Zhongxiong to lead an army of [-] troops to guard Dengzhou and Tangzhou.

At two o'clock, Liu Qiong and Tang Qian led an army of [-] and appeared three miles away from the county seat of Rang County. silver.

The city is also very clear under the moonlight, but the distance is too far to see the situation at the top of the city clearly.

Not long after, two scouts rushed back to report, "Report to Dutong and General Tang. The enemy's defenses are mainly in the north and south. There are many defenders on the north and south walls. There are sentries on the walls above the gate. There are two teams of patrolling soldiers each, but there are not many defensive soldiers at the head of the west city, we only saw three sentries, and no patrolling soldiers."

It can be seen from the defensive deployment that the defenders in the city were worried that the Song army would come from the north and south. Yang Zaixing's army was in the north and Yue Fei's army was in the south. Instead, they did not consider that the Song army would come from Shangzhou.

The Song army immediately divided into two groups. Tang Qian led an army of [-] troops to capture the west city and clean up the defenders around the city, while Liu Qiong led the main force to directly kill the enemy camp in the city.

The Song army began to move slowly towards the county town. After all, there were sentries on the top of the city. They could not get too close. They stopped advancing about two miles away from the city wall. If they moved forward, there would be no cover and they would be spotted by the sentry at the top of the city.

Tang Qian led five hundred soldiers in a circle and went to the southwest. Using a forest and a dozen dilapidated houses as cover, they quickly approached the city wall. They were about three miles away from the sentinel at the top of the city. The sentinels couldn't see them.

The soldiers brought a long plank and built a plank bridge on the moat. Tang Qian led thirty soldiers and ran over quickly, standing close to the wall.

Tang Qian used to be the chief general of the scout army, and most of his subordinates were from the scout army, and all of them had special skills.

A soldier took a flying tiger claw and threw it upwards. The flying tiger claw accurately grasped the city wall. The soldier carried a soft ladder on his back and pulled the rope to quickly climb up.

Not long after, the soldiers climbed up to the top of the city, and looked at both sides with their heads. They happened to be at the corner at the end of the west city wall, and the other side was the south city wall.

According to the usual practice, this should be the place where the soldiers would sleep lazily, but he only saw two people sleeping against the wall.

The soldier gestured downward, meaning that only the two of them were sleeping. Tang Qian waved to him, telling him not to disturb the enemy.

The soldiers hung up the ladder and threw down the rope ladder. There was a reason why Tang Qian chose this corner to break through. The scouts he sent earlier drew a sketch of the city wall. There should be an upper city corridor opposite the city head.

Tang Qian was the first to go to the city, he jumped up the city lightly, and took advantage of the opportunity to sit on the wall and doze off, and then the No.2 soldier came up and sat on the other side to doze off.

Five soldiers came up in a row and surrounded the two sleeping soldiers.

A soldier guarding the city suddenly woke up, mumbled a few words, got up and was about to take a urinate, when a person suddenly appeared in front of him, frightened him out of his wits, before he could yell out, his mouth was covered with a hand, and he was dragged away Back, another sleeping soldier suddenly woke up and took Song Jun to another for interrogation.

"What is the password tonight, tell me!" A sharp dagger was pressed against the soldier's neck.

"The moon... the bright moon and the few stars!"

Tang Qian winked, and his soldiers ran to another to check, and came back after a while: "This is it!"

"Thank you!"

A knife was inserted into the chest, and the soldier was killed immediately, and the other soldier was also killed. Now is a critical moment, and there should be no mercy for women.

Chapter 971

Tang Qian pretended that the two soldiers continued to sleep, and he started the next step.

Tang Qian and the thirty soldiers were all wearing the military uniforms and leather armor of signing soldiers. Now that they knew the password, they simply lined up and walked towards the tower.

Along the way, there were sleeping enemy soldiers. They moved quickly, covering their mouths and stabbing their chests to death. The sleeping soldiers could never wake up again.

Stopping and stopping all the way, they actually killed more than 100 soldiers, and none of them slipped through the net. When the three sentries saw a general coming, they quickly bowed and saluted.

"The moon is bright and the stars are rare!"

Tang Qian said a password, and asked, "Is it just the three of you? Are there others?"

The soldier pointed to the tower, "Everyone sleeps inside, everyone takes turns to be on duty!"

As soon as the words fell, the mouths of the three of them were covered from behind at the same time, and they were stabbed through their vests to death.

Thirty soldiers entered the tower, and in just a moment, they killed all the twenty or so sleeping soldiers. In addition to the more than 100 people who were killed just now, more than half of the soldiers on the head of the entire west city were killed. Of course, The soldiers guarding the west city were more than that. There were a total of [-] soldiers, most of whom were sleeping under the city.