The Jurchen army of 28,000 people arrived at the starting point again. The army stopped five miles away from the entrance. The Jin soldiers pitched hundreds of large tents on the official road.
The Jin soldiers returned all the way, digging a lot of vegetable roots and tree stumps, and also caught a lot of fish. In addition, they also had dry food for many soldiers who died in battle. In order to reduce the load, the troops going south gave them half of the dry food, and there was extra.
With thousands of war horses, they can still hold on for more than ten to twenty days.
But for a siege, more than ten days have passed in a flash, and these grains are basically of no use. It just depends on whether they can break out of the siege.
Wanyan Nianhan came down four miles surrounded by dozens of generals. Here was their first natural moat, a gap three feet wide. There was not a single Song soldier on the other side of the gap, indicating that there was more to it.
at.
A general said: "Marshal Du, the only way is for us to continue chipping away at the wall and create a new path in depth."
Wanyan Nianhan remained silent. This method was not very good. Although they could cut the wall here, would the Song army allow them to cut the wall calmly at the front? Not even with shields.
At this time, a captain clasped his fists and said: "Marshal Du, there is a way for me to humble my position!"
Everyone looked at the commander. Can anyone think of a solution in this situation?
"Tell me, what can I do?"
"If we tie them with spears, we might be able to build a bridge."
Wanyan Nianhan's eyes lit up. He had not thought of this good idea. Thousands of spears could be tied tightly with leather straps to form a spear bridge.
However, he also knew that this method was not enough to deal with the cliff chasm on the south side. The width there was six feet to eight feet, and no matter how many spears were bundled together, it would not be able to withstand it.
The Jurchen soldiers immediately took action. After more than an hour, a bridge four feet long and densely packed with three thousand spears appeared in front of everyone. Once it was set up on the broken road, it could be crossed effortlessly on horseback.
Commander Shaluyi of Thousands was also promoted to Commander of Ten Thousands by Wanyan Nianhan because he came up with this method.
Without the obstruction, Wanyan Nianhan was about to start a powerful breakout.
"Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!"
The earth-shattering drum beats echoed in the valley. A Jurchen captain shouted and urged his horse to gallop. One thousand black-armored cavalry behind him also galloped after him. One thousand black-armored cavalry relied on their superb horse control skills to rush forward.
As they galloped along the mountain road, the sound of horse hooves sounded like muffled thunder, and the sound was astonishing.
One thousand black-armored cavalry galloped towards the entrance of Luoshui Road two miles away, followed by two thousand Jurchen cavalry. If these three thousand men could break through the Song army's many obstacles, then there would be hope for the entire army to break through the blockade.
A high observation deck has just been built in the city, which is seven or eight feet high. Standing on the high platform, you can clearly see the situation on the Luoshui Road.
Chen Qing stood on a high platform and looked at the Song army's interception battle from a distance. He did not intervene in the specific battle, but Liu Cui was responsible for implementing various combat strategies.
Chen Qing is the coach. He plans and deploys the overall situation, and the specific operations are completed by his men.
On the official road, the black-armored cavalry came at lightning speed, taking the lead to enter the shooting range of the crossbowmen above their heads. Arrows overhead were like a hail of arrows, and the soldiers raised their shields to meet them. Cavalrymen continued to be hit by powerful crossbow arrows, and their horses neighed.
He fell headlong off the cliff, leaving the soldier screaming in agony.
This little attack obviously couldn't scare off the Jurchen cavalry. Instead, the Jurchen cavalry accelerated their speed. At this time, the bed crossbows on the front and side became powerful, firing like a violent storm. Even the shield could not stop the power of the bed crossbow. The black armor
The cavalrymen were thrown off their backs and hundreds of them were shot dead.
Then hundreds of fire thunders rolled down from the top of the head and fell into the cavalry group behind. They exploded violently in the cavalry group. The smoke filled the air, poison nails flew everywhere, the soldiers shouted, the horses neighed, and seven or eight hundred cavalry were killed.
The war horses fell down on the official road and twitched. Many soldiers were shot with poisonous nails and their faces were covered with flowers. After walking a few steps, they fell to the ground.
However, nearly half of the casualties only slightly frustrated the Jurchen cavalry's offensive power. When the smoke cleared and the rapid-fire crossbow bolts stopped for a moment, the 1,800 Jurchen cavalry regrouped and continued to charge. Behind them, Wan Yan Nian
Han also invested two thousand cavalry.
They used their superb riding skills to dodge left and right on their horses, getting closer and closer to the entrance of Luoshui Road.
Liu Cui ordered: "Launch the kerosene offensive!"
The black-armored cavalry were more than a hundred steps away from the first blocking mud wall when they realized something was wrong. The official road was all covered with dark mud and liquid. The hundreds of black-armored cavalry at the front were suddenly frightened out of their wits.
, it was impossible to turn around at this time, so they had to fight hard, trying to rush out of the kerosene area before the enemy set fire.
At this moment, dozens of torches were thrown from the top of the head, and a dozen torches landed twenty steps in front of the Jurchen commander. With a sound of "Boom!", the flames on the ground burned rapidly, and the flames rushed towards their faces, and the war horses were frightened.
With a long hiss, the captain fell headlong into an abyss of dozens of feet.
Huge kerosene tanks were thrown down from the top of their heads and shattered on the ground. The black kerosene was immediately ignited. The flames flowed everywhere and the black smoke billowed, making the cavalry and war horses unable to see the road clearly and had to stop running.
But it only stopped in an instant. More and more fire oil cans were thrown down, and the two-mile-long official road turned into a sea of fire. The manes and tails of the war horses were ignited by the fire. Hundreds of war horses could not bear the flames and went berserk.
He screamed and jumped off the cliff desperately.
At this time, the retreat route was also cut off. The Song army threw down hundreds of bundles of wheat straw and dead branches, burned them on the mountain road, and dozens of Jurchen soldiers rushed up from behind, trying to push the burning wheat straw down the cliff, but they were also intensively attacked.
of crossbow arrows.
The divine arm crossbow and the bed crossbow once again showed their power. Liu Cui gave an order and thousands of crossbow arrows were fired at the official road from the side like a storm. The official road was already engulfed in fire and smoke. Only some sporadic wails and lamentations were heard.
There was no more movement.
The first round of attack ended in just over half an hour. The entire army of 5,000 Jurchen cavalry was wiped out, and no one survived. Green smoke curled up, and the official road was full of burnt corpses. The stench was so bad that the Song soldiers could not
Instead of covering his mouth and nose with a wet towel, he used a long shovel to push the body down the cliff.
Five thousand people were killed, which reduced the number of the Jurchen army from 28,000 to 23,000. The casualties finally exceeded half. The tragic battle situation made Wanyan Nianhan realize that it would be difficult for them to break through the Song army's encirclement.
, the continuous disastrous defeats caused him to suffer the heaviest blow since the battle to destroy Liao. For a while, Wanyan Nianhan's mood became very depressed.
The coach suffered a setback, and the morale of the more than 20,000 Jurchen troops was also low, and despair began to permeate the army.
........
At the same time when Chen Qing used the trapped beast strategy to completely trap Wanyan Nianhan's army on the Luoshui Road, major events also occurred on the Jianghuai battlefield. Li Qiong, the commander of the capital, led 30,000 troops and hundreds of thousands of family members to surrender to the puppet Qi state.
, causing a huge loophole in the Song Army's Huaihe River defense.
Zhang Jun's 100,000 troops could not withstand the 200,000 puppet Qi troops attacking from the front and side, so he urgently ordered the Wu-level troops to return to support him.
At this time, Wu Jie's army was fighting fiercely with Yue Fei's army in Fangcheng County, Tangzhou against Wanyan Wushu's 30,000 Jurchen cavalry on the left.
Yue Fei used his hook gun to defeat the Jurchen cavalry's cavalry. The Song army defeated the left wing of the Jin army. They chased for more than 100 miles, killed more than 10,000 Jurchen cavalry, and occupied Yancheng in Xuzhou and Xiangcheng in Ruzhou.
In this important town, Wanyan Wushu's army was forced to withdraw northward.
But at this moment, a shocking news came. Zhang Jun's army in the middle of the battle with the puppet Qi army was defeated miserably. Tens of thousands of people were killed by the Song army, and they were retreating to the Yangtze River in panic.
Yue Fei and Wu Jie, who originally wanted to pursue the victory, had to abandon Yancheng and Xiangcheng and return to rescue Zhang Jun's army. Yue Fei's 50,000 troops encountered Li Cheng's 80,000 troops in Dingcheng County, Guangzhou. The two armies fought fiercely all day and night.
, Li Chengjun was defeated, and 80,000 troops were killed and fled in defeat.
Yue Fei's army did not pursue, but continued south for rescue. The 30,000 troops led by Wu Jie also defeated the 50,000 troops of the puppet Qi army deputy general Liu Yi in Huoqiu County.
Liu Lin, the commander-in-chief of the Puppet Qi Army, saw the ferocity of the two Song armies coming to rescue him, so he had to give up the siege of Zhang Jun's army, and the army quickly retreated north.
Although the Song army maintained the front line of the Huaihe River, Shouchun County and Hefei County, where money, grain and supplies were stored, were captured by the puppet Qi army. Hundreds of thousands of grains and nearly one million yuan were robbed by the puppet Qi army, and a large number of wheat fields were burned.
, seeing that the wheat that was about to mature was destroyed, a large number of people were displaced, and hungry people were everywhere.
The Song Dynasty's finances could no longer afford the huge financial pressure on Jianghuai, and could no longer provide enough military rations and military salaries to the Song army. The court had to make the decision to abandon Huaixi, and the army retreated to the south of the Yangtze River, leaving only Han Shizhong to guard it.
Yangzhou and other Huainan five states.
Yue Fei's troops on the western front also withdrew to the south of Funiu Mountain and saved Tangzhou and Dengzhou.
The surrender of the capital commander Li Qiong and the disastrous defeat of the Central Route Army had a huge impact. Emperor Zhao Gou was furious and issued an order to remove Zhang Jun from the post of prime minister. Zhao Ding became the left prime minister and Qin Hui became the right prime minister.
Immediately afterwards, Huaixi Xuanfu envoy Zhang Jun wrote a letter to impeach Wu Jie for leaving his post without permission, which led to the disastrous defeat of the Central Route Army. The imperial court dismissed him from his military post. After repeated pleas from Yue Fei and Han Shizhong, Wu Jie was reassigned to be the governor of Yuezhou affairs. (To be completed.)