On the tenth day of the first lunar month, an army composed of fifty or sixty thousand people marched mightily in the dark night, with torches stretching for nearly twenty miles. They had entered Suzhou and were heading north quickly along the Surabaya River.
This large army was General Han, commanded by Han Shizhong, the envoy of Huaidong Xuanfu. At this time, the imperial court was slowly and continuously transporting food and supplies to Yangzhou. It was preparing for war. According to the normal progress, it would not be until spring at the earliest in mid-February.
Only then will the war begin.
However, the experienced Han Shizhong created a time difference and sent troops in early January to attack in the ice and snow, catching Li Qiong's army by surprise.
At the front of the team, Han Shizhong looked solemnly towards the north. He himself did not agree with this Northern Expedition and the attack on Shandong Road. They did not have the capital yet and were no match for the Jurchen Army.
Attacking the Central Plains that the Western Army had already occupied was fratricidal and was not tolerated by public opinion in the world. In fact, they were no match for the Western Army either.
The final goal can only be to attack Li Qiong in Xuzhou. After spending so much money and food to send troops to the Northern Expedition, only three or four states were captured in the end, or the Yellow River area. I wonder if the court has settled this account?
In fact, Han Shizhong had no choice but to send troops at this time. He had already smelled the signal from the court to withdraw his troops. Ever since Yue Fei was dismissed from the military and demoted to Lingnan as an official, Han Shizhong knew that he might be next.
Of course he will not be as miserable as Yue Fei. He is not as upright and offends others as Yue Fei. He participated in the rebellion against Liu Miao and helped save Liu Miao. His ending will definitely be better than Yue Fei's.
But Han Shizhong knew that his removal would not only change his own fate, but also involve the fate of many people. What would happen to his group of generals?
His generals are all promoted by him and are loyal to him. The Han family army is not called for nothing. Even if he leaves his job to retire, he still has to give his men a good home, so that he can give an explanation to the Han family army.
He did not want his Han family army to become a frightened bird like the Yue family army, and was arbitrarily demoted by Zhang Jun. In the end, most of them defected to Chen Qing.
Of course, defecting to Chen Qing is not a bad thing, and it can be considered a good destination, but the process is painful, the military achievements are great, and the result is a cold and ruthless treatment by the court, which is emotionally difficult to accept.
Han Shizhong wanted to send troops to capture Suzhou and Xuzhou before the imperial court ordered the withdrawal, so that he could have a chance to negotiate with the imperial court.
It is still ten miles away from Fuli County, the capital of Suzhou Prefecture. Walking past the hill in front is Fuli County. The army stopped. According to the information obtained by Han Shizhong, Fuli County only has 5,000 defenders. The defender is called Chen Tao and is Li Qiong.
He has many important generals, and the entire Suzhou army only consists of five thousand troops.
Han Shizhong ordered all the troops to extinguish their torches and rest in place, waiting for news from the scouts he sent. When the order was passed, the long fire dragon quickly disappeared, and the 60,000-strong army fell silent.
It was the third watch at this time, with dense clouds and dark clouds overhead. The night was extremely dark and no one could be seen within a dozen steps. This was the best opportunity for a night attack.
Han Shizhong slowly urged his horse forward, walked more than a hundred steps, and bypassed the cover of the hills. The outline of a county town suddenly appeared in front of him.
A quarter of an hour later, several scouts rushed back, and the leading scout reported: "Report to the Xuanfu envoy, there is no sign of the defenders at the top of the city, but there is a faint light of fire. It should be patrolling defenders warming themselves by the fire on the top of the city.
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"Which city is it at?"
"Reply to the envoy of Xuanfu, at the head of the south city!"
"Did you see the fire on other city walls?" Han Shizhong asked again.
"No fire seen!"
Han Shizhong nodded and asked again: "How about the moat?"
"The moat is still frozen and is very thick, and people can walk on the ice."
Han Shizhong immediately ordered: "Where is General Jie?"
Commander Jieyuan stepped forward and clasped his fists: "The general is here!"
"You can lead two thousand of your elite troops to sneak attack on the West City with ten siege ladders. After you succeed, light three torches as a signal and open the city gate!"
"The general will obey the order!"
After a moment of preparation, Commander Jie Yuan led two thousand Song troops to rush toward the west wall. The soldiers carried ten siege ladders and ran in groups of two hundred people.
There were no defenders on the city, and it was pitch black. It was only ten days after the New Year, and the defenders were still immersed in the atmosphere of the New Year. It would be after the Hungry Ghost Festival that the New Year would be called over and they would gradually come back to their senses.
, and then began to think about defending the city.
The defenders never dreamed that the Song army would attack the city during the New Year period, and the defense was obviously relaxed. At the third watch, there were no patrol soldiers at all, and all the soldiers on night duty went to find a place to sleep.
At this time, Han Shizhong led an army of 20,000 people two miles away from the city gate, waiting for the result of the siege.
Ten siege ladders hooked the city wall, and two thousand troops quickly climbed up the city. Jie Yuan took the lead in rushing to the top of the city. The soldiers sleeping on the top of the city were awakened one after another. Suddenly, they saw countless soldiers rushing up to the city and screamed in fright.
With a sound, he stood up and ran away. Many soldiers were unable to escape and were stabbed to the ground with random spears.
Two thousand soldiers quickly climbed to the top of the city. The soldiers divided into two groups. Some soldiers lowered the suspension bridge on the top of the city, opened the iron bolts of the city gate, and lit the torches. Jieyuan and a thousand soldiers rushed down to open the city gate.
At this moment, the alarm bell rang quickly at the head of the southern city, "Dang! Dang! Dang! Dang!" Han Shizhong's army was discovered.
Immediately, sirens blared all over the city, and alarm bells rang everywhere, but it was too late. The west city gate was opened, and Han Shizhong led an army of 20,000 people to swarm towards the city gate.
Guardsman Chen Tao shouted loudly, and the sleeping soldiers woke up one after another and hurriedly put on their clothes. They didn't even have time to put on their armor.
A soldier rushed over and shouted: "General Chen, the Song army has entered Xicheng, there are tens of thousands of people!"
Chen Tao shouted anxiously: "Open the North City Gate and retreat!"
Chen Tao led thousands of people and rushed out of the North City Gate. At this moment, there was a shout outside the North City Gate, followed by thousands of arrows. Chen Tao was unable to dodge and was shot like a hedgehog, killing him on the spot.
Nearly a thousand soldiers were also shot dead, and the remaining soldiers were so frightened that they fled back to the city gate. By this time, Han Shizhong's army had arrived, and thousands of soldiers were desperate and knelt down to surrender.
Han Shizhong was a kind man. Although these soldiers were once soldiers of the Song Dynasty, they followed Li Qiong and surrendered to the Jin soldiers, then surrendered to Chen Qing, and now surrendered to the Song Dynasty again, Han Shizhong still allowed them to surrender.
The Song army captured Fuli County and Suzhou without losing almost a single soldier.
Han Shizhong left 10,000 troops to guard Suzhou. After a little supply, he personally led 50,000 troops to turn east and kill Pizhou.
Three days later, Han Shizhong captured Xiapi County, and all 5,000 Pizhou defenders were wiped out. Han Shizhong's army was overwhelmingly powerful. Three days later, Han Shizhong captured Haizhou, and 3,000 Haizhou defenders surrendered.
Han Shizhong immediately led an army of 40,000 men to turn around and march into Xuzhou, heading straight for Pengcheng County.
In just ten days, the Han army broke through three states in a row. Li Qiong, who was guarding Pengcheng County, did not dare to rescue and watched helplessly as all 13,000 troops were lost.
At this time, there were only more than 20,000 defenders in Pengcheng County. On the one hand, Li Qiong urgently entered the army's combat readiness state, and on the other hand, he sent a pigeon message to Jingzhao for help.
