The bravery of the general also inspired the fighting spirit of the soldiers of the Song army. More than a dozen wolf soldiers who rushed to the city were also killed. The tiger shooters performed exceptionally well, killing all the more than twenty wolf soldiers on the siege ladder.
, enabling the soldiers of the Song Army to withstand the first wave of impact.
Deputy General Yang Yuanqing took over the command and shouted: "The commander is only slightly injured, no need to worry."
He stabilized the morale of the troops in time and ordered the soldiers to use rolling logs and stones to hit the enemy's heads. The axemen seized the opportunity and continued to chop successfully. More than half of the thirty siege ladders had lost two rungs, and the enemy only had
Nine siege ladders remain.
The huge rocks and rolling logs smashed down from the top of the city caused heavy casualties to the attacking Jin soldiers. Corpses piled up like mountains on the top of the city, and the offensive was significantly weakened.
The general, Chen Qing, was sitting against the female wall. He was exhausted and felt dizzy in front of his eyes. This was a sign of blood loss.
A medical soldier was nervously bandaging him to stop the bleeding. The knife on his back cut off his armor, leaving a wound three inches long and half an inch deep. The medical soldier was worried because he didn't know whether his muscles or bones were injured.
Chen Qing waved his hand to indicate that he would not be in the way.
‘Dang! Dang! Dang!’ The withdrawal bell rang, and the golden soldiers raised their shields high and retreated slowly.
This is a retreat, not a defeat. The rules of the Jin soldiers are extremely strict. Anyone who dares to run away from the city wall during the retreat will be immediately beheaded by the supervisors and his whole family will be made into slaves.
The morale of the Song soldiers on the city wall was greatly boosted, and they raised their spears and cheered.
The withdrawal order was issued by Wanyan Wulu, and Han Chang felt angry and ashamed. He lost two thousand soldiers in battle, and even paid Xiao Tao, the captain of the wolf soldiers, to pay for it, but he still failed to capture the city.
But the fact is here, no matter how angry he is, there is nothing he can do.
Han Chang urged his horse to run forward, clasping his fists and saying: "I am incompetent because of my humble position. I cannot help the marshal to share his worries!"
Wanyan Wulu waved his hand, "It's not your fault. It's because the enemy army was so cunning that they actually cut off the rungs of the siege ladder. No matter how brave your men are, they can't kill them."
"I can change the rungs of the siege ladder into raw iron rods, and I can defeat the enemy's move."
"There is no rush to attack the city for the time being, let's try another strategy!"
Wanyan Wulu looked at the top of the mountain and said calmly: "Although they are condescending, there is a place higher than them."
…………
Jianxiao Pass is located on a branch of Longshan Mountain. The mountain is extremely dangerous. The trees on the top of the mountain are lush and inaccessible. Only herb collectors and hunters go down to the mountains and forests.
A team of Jin soldiers consisting of more than 120 Jurchen soldiers and puppet soldiers climbed up Jianmao Mountain under the leadership of an Orion guide.
There was no road on the mountain, with thorns all over and rugged rocks. They climbed rocks and walls, passed through dense woods and thorn bushes, and spent a full two hours before reaching the top of Jianxiao Mountain.
A Jurchen soldier stood on the top of the mountain and looked down. The Song soldiers in Guancheng were like ants, and Guancheng was like a square piece of wood stuck in the middle of the canyon.
"How is it?" asked the centurion in the distance.
The Jurchen soldier nodded, "Down below is Guancheng. If there are enough rocks and giant trees, we can indeed launch an attack downwards."
"Where are the bows and arrows?"
The centurion came over, looked down, frowned and said, "I'm afraid it's a little difficult to use bows and arrows, but it's not impossible. The key is to have enough numbers."
After surveying for a long time, Orion looked at the sky and politely said to Jin Bing: "It gets dark early now, so you have to hurry up if you want to go back."
The centurion had no intention of going back; his mission was not yet completed.
"Is there a way into Guancheng from the mountain?" the centurion asked.
Orion shook his head, "There is definitely no road. If we want to go down, we can only rely on ropes to hang down little by little. It is at least 80 feet high from the foot of the mountain, which is very dangerous."
"If I want to go to the south canyon, is there a better way to go?"
"Yes, there is. It's about thirty miles away. There is a path that leads down. Below is a very deep and narrow valley. Going out from the valley is five miles south of Jianxiao Pass."
The centurion glanced at the mountain opposite and asked: "What about the opposite side?"
Orion shook his head like a rattle, "I told you when we were going up the mountain that it is much easier to walk to the east than to the west. If you want to go up the mountain from the west, you have to go at least dozens of miles to find a path, and it is all steep cliffs."
The Jurchen centurions had done enough homework before setting off, and they even specially recruited surrendered soldiers from Mianyang County who were originally stationed in Guancheng to go up the mountain with them.
The centurion found a puppet soldier and asked him: "Where is the water source in Guancheng?"
The puppet soldier clasped his fists and said: "Reporting to the general, the water source in Guancheng is in a cave behind the warehouse. It is a spring, but where is its origin? I really don't know."
The centurion looked at Orion again, and Orion's face was full of confusion: "There is indeed a spring on the mountain, there are three springs, but I don't know which spring is in Guancheng?"
"Take us to find them one by one!"
...........
At night, the Jurchen camp was still brightly lit, and in the commander's tent, Wanyan Wulu was discussing with the generals how to attack the pass.
"Just as the marshal expected, the opponent's troop strength is about a thousand at most!"
Han Chang loudly said to everyone: "Although they are very tenacious in fighting, their number is limited after all. As long as we take a large number of troops and attack day and night, I believe we can take Guancheng within three days!"
Wanyan Wulu waved his hand, "If we include Xia Jin's three thousand troops, our losses have already reached five thousand. In fact, the loss of troops does not matter. The key is the siege weapons, which we plan to use to attack Dashan Pass.
There are not many weapons.
But in just one morning, we lost 60 siege ladders, accounting for 30% of the total. Although we still have cars and cars that crashed, I don't want to lose them all in the Jianzhu Pass, so we need to change our thinking.
Use another way to siege the city."
Han Chang was helpless. He had just found a sense of attacking the city, so he paused again. Wouldn't his two thousand elite soldiers have been sacrificed in vain?
He was dissatisfied in his heart, but he didn't dare to show it on his face. After all, he was not a general and he was a Han, so he had no decision-making power.
At this time, a soldier reported outside the tent: "Commander, the expedition team is back!"
Wanyan Wulu was overjoyed and said quickly: "Let the leader come in!"
Not long after, the centurion who was exploring the mountain walked quickly into the big tent. He knelt down on one knee, saluted, and presented a map to Wanyan Wulu, "This is today's harvest. The commander is concerned about several points.
It’s marked on it.”
Wanyan Wulu quickly took the map and looked at it carefully. He pointed to the arrow going down the mountain and asked, "Can I go down from the top of the mountain to Guancheng?"
"Reporting to the commander, we can only hang him down with a rope. There is a slightly buffered place in the middle, but we need at least thirty feet of rope to climb down. It will be easily discovered by the enemy!"
This would make him a living target, no! Wanyan Alu rejected the plan to go down the mountain with a rope, and asked: "Is there a way to the outside of the south city?"
"Yes! It's just a long way around and the road is not easy to walk."
"What about the water source in Guan City? Have you found it?"
"I found three springs, and they all flowed into the mountain. I don't know which spring is the source of water for the Song army."
Han Chang finally couldn't help but said: "Commander, the Song army must have stored water. Without food and water, it usually takes several months of siege. The war on Monk Yuan's side is about to begin. I'm afraid we don't have time to delay it."
"I know in my heart that the mountain is just a auxiliary means. We are taking a multi-pronged approach. I want to see how many troops the Song Army has to fight against me?"
...........
The city was still brightly lit. After several bloody battles, Chen Qing and his generals also knew where the weak points of their defenses were.
In the final analysis, their troops were still too thin to form a powerful blow, and their army had suffered nearly two hundred casualties. Chen Qing was really worried that if the enemy adopted a war of attrition, he might not be able to hold on for a few days.
Chen Qing also wanted to send an eagle letter to Wu Jie to request reinforcements, but Wu Jie only gave him two letter eagles in total. When he captured Guancheng, he had already sent one letter eagle, and the remaining one was when Guancheng fell.
It was sent on time, not to ask for reinforcements.
"We don't expect reinforcements. Even if reinforcements arrive, it will take more than ten days."
In the room, Chen Qing said to several generals: "The next thing we have to do is to reduce casualties as much as possible. Of course, we cannot expect mercy from the enemy. What I mean is to try to protect the soldiers as much as possible, such as armor, treatment of injuries, etc.
Wait, and we must strictly prevent accidental casualties."
Yang Yuanqing asked in confusion: "What do the commanders mean by accidental casualties?"
"If there are no casualties on the battlefield, they should be regarded as accidental casualties. For example, soldiers are injured by wounded soldiers who pretend to be dead when clearing the battlefield. Another example is when soldiers are patrolling and are shot with cold arrows by enemy spies outside the city. You only need to be careful with these casualties.
, will not happen, we must resolutely prevent it."
Everyone nodded silently, and Zheng Ping said: "The commander just mentioned the treatment of injuries. We should recover the lightly wounded soldiers as soon as possible and return to the battlefield. Currently, we have thirty-seven lightly wounded soldiers and fourteen seriously wounded soldiers. This
Thirty-seven people should be treated as soon as possible."
"How is the commander's injury?" Yang Hua suddenly asked.
Only then did everyone remember that Chen Qing was also injured, so they actually ignored him. Everyone looked at Chen Qing together.
Chen Qing smiled slightly and said: "It should be a minor injury. It didn't hurt the muscles and bones. The medicine Yang Dazhi gave me is very effective. The wound has scabbed. I just wait for it to heal as soon as possible."
"Commanders still have to be careful and try not to use force these days. Don't let the wounds burst, which will cause trouble."
Chen Qing nodded and his eyes fell on Luo Gan. He saw that Luo Gan was thoughtful but remained silent.
"Luo Gan, please say a few words!"
Luo Gan bowed slightly and said: "I am thinking about whether the Jin soldiers will send out surprise troops to seize the pass?"
Chen Qing was shocked. He did not expect the enemy to make a surprise attack, so he quickly said: "Tell me more about it!"
Luo Gan thought for a while and said: "For a pass like ours, there are only two directions for surprise troops, one is underground and the other is in the sky. I am worried that the enemy will come from the mountain?"