Li Xia fell asleep sitting on the chair. When he opened his eyes again, he saw that it was still dark.
"Feiyu is awake?" Fang Yankai was sitting on the side, filling out a booklet by the candlelight.
Li Xia rubbed his face and asked, "When is it?"
"At two o'clock in the morning, it's almost dawn."
"The landlord wants to see me for something, why don't you wake me up?"
"It's good to let you sleep a little longer." Fang Yankai put down the candle and booklet in his hand and said, "It's not a big deal. I'm here to talk to you about the preparations for defending the city."
Li Xia said "hmm" and smelled a disgusting stench filling the air.
"What does this smell like?"
"The golden juice is boiled." Fang Yankai said: "The arrowheads have also been tempered. In addition to the golden juice, two pots of Miao village-specific poison have also been boiled..."
Because of this war, the relationship between the two seemed to be much harmonious.
Fang Yankai was talking about the preparations for city defense, pointed to a cloth bag on the desk, and said, "Han Qi'an brought it to you at night."
Li Xia picked up the bag and opened it. There were eggs inside.
Although the stench from the tower made people lose their appetite, he still peeled it and ate it.
"The population and food in the city have been counted, and I have arranged for a special person to provide food. In addition, this is the roster of archers. I have asked Wu Ang to bring people to the top of the city to listen to your arrangements..."
Fang Yankai was quite experienced in making various arrangements to defend the city, and he was still talking.
Li Xiayin's mind was still in chaos when he just woke up. Most of the time, he just listened and recalled that there seemed to be something he had not finished talking about before falling asleep.
"By the way, have all the people moved into the city?"
Fang Yankai pondered for a moment and said: "How can a county be moved in just a few days if it is so big? Many villages can only be moved to high mountains."
"The Mongolian army didn't have much time to attack the city. They still wanted to plunder." Li Xia said, "We can't let them plunder the population and food."
"All the registered residents have been settled. There are occasional omissions... There are not too many people. We have tried our best and we have done the best we can." Fang Yankai sighed and said: "Here in the border area, we have done our best.
In the county, various ethnic groups live together, making it difficult to govern..."
Li Xia heard what he said was a little vague and said: "I have only been in office for a short period of time, so it is not appropriate to interfere with the authority of the landlord, but if one more person can be moved, one less person will die."
"Yes." Fang Yankai said, "Let's continue talking about city defense. Leather armor is not enough..."
While the two were talking, they went down to the top of the city to inspect the defenses.
The sky was gradually breaking, and there seemed to be the faint sound of horse hooves.
"The Mongolian army is attacking the city, get ready."
Li Xia looked around and saw a vague outline on the field outside the city in the faint light.
Some soldiers picked up drum sticks and smashed them on the big drum, awakening Qingfu County from its silence.
"Dong dong dong..."
"what is that?"
Yu Bian squinted and stared, and from a distance, he saw rows of figures staggering forward in front of the formation of the Mongolian cavalry.
He was chosen as the chief scout by Li Xia because of his good eyesight.
"Those are...our people?"
Yu Bing murmured and shouted: "County Lieutenant, look!"
The sky is getting brighter and brighter, and the team in the distance is getting closer and closer.
Not only Yu Ging, but also people on the top of the city could see that six to seven hundred men, women, and children were being driven towards the county seat by the Mongolian army.
These people come from all ethnic groups, but the majority are Bo people, who wear tattered coats.
The cries had reached the top of the city, mixed with curses and screams, making it look extremely miserable.
Li Xia turned his head and looked at Fang Yankai.
"Housekeeper, where does this person come from?"
Fang Yankai did not turn his head or speak.
He was already very haggard and seemed much older.
In a trance, the sky seemed to suddenly brighten.
Shouts rang out from the city.
It was a driven man shouting, with a crying voice, and his voice was full of fear.
"Open the city gate... They say they will massacre everyone if they don't open the city gate... Open the city gate and save everyone, don't anger the Mongols... Ah!"
The man was shouting as he walked, and his voice suddenly stopped and turned into a shrill scream.
He fell into a ditch.
The ditch was dug a stone's throw away from the city wall and filled with bamboo thorns. It was originally used to defend against the Mongolian army, but now thirty or forty captured people fell into it.
Sharpened bamboo pierced their bodies.
"Ah! Ah..."
The cries of father and mother were loud and loud.
The whole world was filled with such screams, which made people's hair stand on end.
Fang Yankai trembled and turned to look at Wu Ang.
He pouted and made no sound.
The Mongolian army was already ordering the prisoners to fill the ditch. Fang Yankai wanted to order them to be shot, but for a moment he couldn't bear it.
"Fire the arrow!"
The next moment, Li Xia shouted loudly.
He may not be struggling internally, but at this time, there is no room for too much hesitation.
Arrows were not released immediately from the city top. Wu Ang and his archers looked at Li Xia and then at Fang Yankai.
"Fire the arrow!"
Li Xia grabbed a bow and shot an arrow into the ditch with his own hands.
The arrows on the top of the city finally struck down.
These arrows were either tempered with gold or poison, but they could only hit these captives.
There was another burst of screams in the ditch, and gradually became silent.
The Mongolian army did not give the survivors time to mourn and drove them to fill the ditch as quickly as possible.
From time to time, there were screams. If the people below the city were a little slow in filling the ditch, the Mongolian army would chop them down with one strike; if they dared to move forward a little, arrows would attack them from the top of the city.
The wails almost never stopped from the moment they started.
"Don't shoot the arrow! Don't shoot the arrow..."
Behind them, Dali's servants began to build artillery carriages.
…
"Housekeeper's book." Li Xia said, "You said everyone has been settled properly? Where did these people come from?"
The county lieutenant is under the chief record and has no qualifications to question; moreover, the fact is that this time Yankai has done an excellent job in clearing the country, and any county magistrate in the Song Dynasty may not be able to move the population outside the city in a short period of time.
Walking so much...
But Fang Yankai didn't dare to turn around and look at Li Xia.
"Near Liangcaopong, there is a Bo village that has never been under the jurisdiction of the county government... and the villagers at the foot of Dustpan Mountain also..."
When Fang Yankai said this, Li Xia suddenly shouted again, interrupting him.
"Who told you to stop! Shoot the arrow!"
Looking around, I saw that the prisoners below the city had already filled in the first ditch and were carrying soil to fill in the second ditch.
Arrows rained down from the top of the city.
"I'm not excusing myself, but you should know, Feiyu, that it's impossible for all people to be..."
When Fang Yankai finished speaking, he was suddenly pulled by Li Xia and fell to the ground.
Several screams rang out from the surroundings, and the Mongolian army's arrows struck at the top of the city.
A nearby archer was hit by an arrow, and blood spilled all over Fang Yankai's face.
He was not afraid, but the guilt weighed on his heart and he seemed a little confused.
Li Xia had already picked up his collar, lifted him up, pulled his head, and looked down at the city again.
"Look clearly, the people under our rule."
In Fang Yankai's sight, a fallen old woman was still shouting towards the top of the city, but she was shot down by an arrow.
He felt his heart was stabbed again, and tears came to his eyes.
For others, it is just sadness and anger. For him, these are all his responsibilities...
"Defend the city first." Li Xia pushed him on the back without saying anything else.
…
Under the city wall, two ditches have been filled in.
The prisoners built a row of wooden shields. Driven by the Mongolian army, they pushed the wooden shields, braved the rain of arrows, rushed to the bottom of the city, and began to dig soil.
With a "bang bang" sound, the wood fell down.
The hot golden juice was also poured down, and the whole city screamed.
At the same time, the Mongolian army in the distance also fired back with arrows, pressing down on the Song army on the top of the city.
Even so, the casualties among the prisoners were still very high. In less than half a day, there were only more than two hundred prisoners left under the city wall.
However, the defenders on the top of the city did not feel the joy of killing the enemy, but only felt depressed.
Everyone is tense.
They originally thought that the Mongolian army was not good at attacking the city, and thought that the traps, gold juice, and hammering wood they prepared could cause damage to the Mongolian army.
But at the beginning of the siege today, almost all of them were their fellow villagers and elders who died...
"What is that?!" someone suddenly shouted.
Li Xia looked around and saw the Mongolian army setting up several large pots in front of the formation.
Yu Bian wiped the blood and sweat from his face and murmured in confusion.
"They dumped the body in there?"
Bao San said: "That's refining corpse oil."
"Corpse oil?"
"Did you see it? They built a cannon truck to throw fireballs lit with corpse oil into the city. This kind of fire is difficult to extinguish with water..."
"Bang!"
A ball of fire smashed in front of the city gate, and the fire suddenly jumped up and enveloped the city gate.
"Quickly put out the fire!" shouted people at the city gate.
The defenders quickly poured buckets of water on it, but the fire did not decrease at all.
Fang Yankai has already caught up.
He wiped away his tears in a deserted place, regained his composure, returned to his mature and prudent appearance, and began to organize the people to put out the fire.
"Use sand to put out the fire! Hurry, there is sand at the top of the city!"
"Feiyu! Let the archers cover...sprinkle the sand."
Only then did sand and dust fall on the fire at the city gate.
However, there were screams again and again in the city, fireballs crashed into the city one after another, and the fire burned in several houses.
There were also fireballs falling on several city walls where the Mongolian army concentrated their attacks.
When the city wall in Qingfu County was built, it was built with wood as a frame and glued with glutinous juice. When it was stained with corpse oil, the fire burned fiercely and was difficult to extinguish.
The trees and corpses under the city were also set on fire, and the fire became more intense.
"Don't splash water! The city wall will crack!" Fang Yankai roared: "You can only use sand to put out the fire..."
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