Inside and outside the city, the sound of crying was loud.
A fire broke out in Yingxiang Building in the northwest of Qingfu County, and the surrounding wooden houses were also engulfed in flames.
The Mongolian army's offensive and the threat of massacre brought great panic to the people in the city.
Less than a day after the siege, panicked people went to the county government to beg Jiang Chun not to defend the city anymore, but to hand over the county's money and food and send the Mongolian troops away...
"County magistrate! The Mongolian army will really massacre the city if we continue to defend it!"
Jiang Chuncai planned to personally lead people to fight the fire in the city, but as soon as he left the county office, he was blocked by a group of people and was immediately distressed.
"Folks, folks, be quiet and don't panic! I heard from this county that the Mongolian army cannot capture Qingfu..."
"Fires are burning everywhere! The city gate is going to be burned down!" The wailing continued.
"If we hold on any longer, the Mongolian army will massacre the city..."
"We don't even have officers and soldiers, how can we defend it?!"
"County magistrate, why haven't the reinforcements come yet?" Another squire interrupted with a cry, "Are they not caring about Qingfu County anymore?!"
"It's only been one day of siege..."
Jiang Chun raised his hands, trying to calm down the noise, but he couldn't.
The Mongolian army's massacre was so frightening that he had heard of it before.
It is said that when the Xixia and Jin Kingdoms were destroyed, many cities heard that the Mongolian army was coming, and many people were so frightened that they committed suicide early.
But after hearing about it, Jiang Chun could understand this panic more deeply only when he was actually involved in it.
Suddenly, there was chaos again in the distance, and a fireball ignited a row of houses.
An archer rushed over and shouted: "County magistrate! The owner of the house and County Lieutenant Li asked the county magistrate to quickly lead people to put out the fire..."
"Folks, please give way and let the county put out the fire first..."
"County magistrate! We can't keep guarding like this anymore..."
Houya.
"We take people to put out the fire?"
Han Qiaoer turned to look at Jiang Di and then at Jiang Cang. She was not used to getting along with these two newly recognized sworn sisters and sworn brothers.
"Yes, we are the children of the county magistrate, so we should set an example." Jiang Di said.
She was good at appointing people, and then said: "Qiao'er, don't you remember the locations of the fire-hiding towers in the city? And Jiang Cang, go and call the government officials over."
"Okay, I'll go call someone in the office then." Jiang Cang responded, a little excited, as if he could do anything as long as he didn't study.
Han Qiaoer hesitated and said, "But... wouldn't it be better if I didn't cause any trouble to Brother Li?"
"This is not about causing trouble, it is about leading people to put out the fire."
Jiang Di walked a few steps with his hands behind his back, his posture still seemed a bit deliberately pretentious, but it already showed a bit of Jiang Chun's majesty as the lord of the county, and Li Xia's resolute spirit.
"There were fires everywhere in the city, but my father was stuck in the county office. When someone came forward to organize the fire-fighting, it cheered people up."
Han Qiaoer was convinced by her words and responded: "Okay then."
After a while, Jiang Cang ran to the front office and summoned several subordinate staff.
"Come on, let's go through the back door!"
"Walk."
Jiang Di was wearing men's clothes, flicked her ponytail on the back of her head, and took the lead to walk out.
At this time, almost everyone in the county was in panic. On the contrary, these half-grown children were not afraid of tigers as newborn calves.
In fact, they can't do much, all they can do is imitate others...
In the evening, the setting sun is like blood.
"The county magistrate was blocked by those people and almost didn't even go out of the county government office. Later, when I heard that the government office was leading people to put out the fire, the county magistrate also got angry and dispersed the people and rushed to put out the fire..."
"It's just a mess."
Fang Yankai cursed lightly, waved off the messenger, turned to Li Xia and said, "The fire in the city is temporarily under control."
"Um."
Li Xia responded and looked at the corpse under the city.
Almost all the six to seven hundred people captured by the Mongolian army were dead, and the siege was temporarily suspended.
On this first day of siege, the Mongolian army performed better than Li Xia imagined.
First they massacred the city to intimidate them, then they drove prisoners and attacked the city, and then they attacked with fire and artillery, all of which seemed very experienced.
This is even when I didn’t bring any luggage and didn’t have much time.
If Li Xia had not fortified the wall in advance and left a large number of people captured by the Mongolian army, he would have easily been pushed to the top of the city by the Mongolian army.
"Look! They've withdrawn!" Suddenly someone shouted in a relieved tone.
Just a stone's throw away, the Mongolian cavalry had withdrawn to the west, leaving only a few cavalry still driving the Dali servants.
Only the hundreds of servants, a few mounted soldiers, and a few lonely artillery carriages could be seen on the battlefield.
"County Lieutenant, do you want to go out of the city and destroy their artillery carriages?" Yu Bing asked.
"No." Fang Yankai said hurriedly: "If you don't have Yu, you won't fall into the trap. This is a plan to lure and annihilate the Mongolian army. The Mongolian cavalry comes and goes like the wind and will be back in a moment. If you send troops out of the city, they will be destroyed."
"I know."
Li Xia's gaze still fell on the corpse at the foot of the city, his eyes stern.
"Housekeeper, tell me the truth, how many people outside the city have not had time to move in?"
"There really isn't any more..."
At the same time, Nig was in a bad mood.
"How can we attack a city without prisoners?!"
Centurion Galdi said: "We have sent scout horses to look for them, but all the villages to the west have been evacuated. I'm afraid we won't be able to find many people."
"If you can't find it, you have to look for it!" Nig said: "If there are another thousand prisoners, this small county will be taken out immediately."
Galdi accepted the order and scattered a few more horses to search for the village...
In today's battle, Nige was not satisfied with the performance.
Qingfu County is not like the mountain city in northern Shu, nor is it a fortified city like Xuzhou. As a result, it was not captured all day long, and the situation became passive.
It's not that this battle is difficult, but it's that he doesn't have much time to waste.
Marshal Du's order was to plunder, destroy the ships, and go to Hezhou as soon as possible.
But after his small defeat, he needed to capture Qingfu County and snatch back the lost ships and supplies...
After finishing the last piece of horse meat, Nige subconsciously reached out his hand and found that the food was all gone, and his face became more and more gloomy.
"Uh-huh, we've run out of food, and we're almost running out of arrows... Call me when Galdi captures the prisoners..."
Nige cursed, turned around and went back to the tent, and said again: "Tumen Bayin, you lead your hundred men to guard the camp tonight."
"I wish the Song army would attack the camp." Tumen Bayin said: "But they certainly don't dare to fight with us in the field. Hari Chagai stayed on guard all night last night, but there was no sign of the Song army."
"If I tell you to defend the camp, just defend it!"
Late at night.
Nige was still sleeping when he suddenly heard Galdi's shout.
"We have found hundreds of exits. They are in the west. We have to run up the mountain."
Nige stood up and cursed: "You don't know how to capture it directly?!"
Galdi said: "Only a few people saw it from a distance. There are not enough people. Two hundred people need to surround it."
Nige said: "Tumen Bayin, take the people with Galdi and call up Hari Chagai to guard the camp..."
"Why am I going again?!"
"Your men are not taking off their armor. They are fast. Go quickly..."
Two hundred cavalry attacked the mountain city in the southwest.
Tumen Bayin looked up and saw hundreds of figures climbing the mountain in the night, carrying large and small baggage.
"Call around."
"Let's go." Galdi said.
After riding up the mountain and chasing for a while, the mountain road gradually became steeper.
"I have to dismount and chase."
Tumen Bayin ordered two people to stay and watch the horses, and then chased them up the mountain.
Seeing that he was in a bad mood, Galdi said: "If we capture these openings, we will have food, and the county seat can be captured tomorrow."
"I almost captured the city today. I'm so annoyed."
The two chased each other for a while.
"That's not right." Tumen Bayin said suddenly, "How come those people are walking so fast?"
"Yeah, it's time to catch up."
Galdi scratched his head, raised his hand and pointed, and said: "There is a stockade ahead. Did they escape into the stockade?"
"Go over and have a look."
It was a small village on the mountainside next to a stream, surrounded by low tea trees. It seemed to be a resting place for nearby villagers while picking tea.
Someone dug a creek and let the water flow around the small village.
This made Tumen Bayin feel a little strange.
After crossing the stream, they entered the village.
"no one?"
"Where have everyone gone?"
Tumen Bayin frowned, walked outside to the tea forest, stretched out his hand and touched the tea tree.
"Kerol? Go quickly! There is an ambush..."
Suddenly, a loud roar sounded in the distance.
"Fire the arrow!"
The arrows carrying fire struck down, instantly igniting the tea trees and villages...
Baiyan Miao Village.
Xiong Chun was looking at the firelight at the foot of the mountain.
"Set off the fire!"
The rocks fell immediately and hit the village on the mountainside.
"Keep firing!"
Amidst the "clucking" sound of the artillery truck, Xiong Aqi looked at the firelight at the bottom of the mountain and said with some distress: "Mr. Li, Lieutenant Li really burned down our tea garden."
"Life is more important than the tea garden." Xiong Chun murmured.
He thought for a while and then asked Xiong Aqi: "There will be a lot of horses tonight. You can take people down the mountain to bring them back..."
In a mountain forest, Li Xia glanced back at the fire on the mountainside, then turned to look at the two men guarding the horses in front of him.
"Do it!"
Huhu shot out an arrow and hit a Mongolian soldier in the middle.
"kill!"
One hundred river patrolmen attacked the two Shimeng soldiers and killed them.
Li Xia did not take the lead this time. He only recruited Song He and ordered: "Remind Xiong Shan, Bao San, and Jiang Fan again. Just defeat the 200 people on the mountain. Don't be greedy for success."
"yes……"
Li Xia nodded and walked quickly towards the horses.
The people running on the mountain tonight are the river patrolmen he sent out; in the large and small baggage are the kerosene and flammable materials they have prepared; the small village on the mountainside is his preset ambush point...
…
He originally planned to wait for another two days when the Mongolian army was more tired before carrying out the ambush.
But during the daytime battle to defend the city, he was not satisfied with the outcome and felt that he was growing too slowly.
If we had known the Mongolian army's siege tactics earlier, we might have been able to set up an ambush to attack the Mongolian army last night. Then, the six or seven hundred people might not have died today.
Of course, the sneak attack last night may not be successful.
Perhaps it was precisely because the Song army did not leave the city for a sneak attack last night that the Mongolian army relaxed its vigilance and fell into ambush tonight; perhaps it was precisely because those six or seven hundred people were dead that the Mongolian army had to chase them up the mountain...
In short, there is no chance to do it again.
For Li Xia, to learn how to fight, he had to go through the training of blood and fire...
Thinking about this, he stepped forward and stripped off the armor of a Mongolian soldier, and got on his horse.
"Twenty horse scouts followed me to attack the camp, and the rest took the horses away..."
Mongolian army camp.
Bai Wu Chang Hari Chagai, who was keeping watch at night, heard the sound of horse hooves and looked back, a little wary.
In the distance, shouts in Mongolian came over.
"Now that we have caught those drivers, the centurion asked me to come back and say something."
"It's good if we catch it." Hari Chagai shouted.
He squinted his eyes and saw that there were only about twenty horses returning in the night. They did not rush directly to the camp, but ran towards the herd of horses.
"I'll put the horse away first." The Mongolian voice shouted again.
Hari Chagai frowned, feeling vaguely strange.
But the more than twenty riders were very fast and rushed to the vicinity of the horses in an instant.
"Kill them!" Hari Chagai reacted suddenly and shouted: "It's the Song Army! Kill them quickly..."
He didn't expect that the Song army would dare to come and steal the camp, let alone that such a small number of people would dare to come.
This was a field battle, and the Mongolian cavalry could easily catch up with the Song army and kill them all.
But the next moment, balls of fire were thrown towards the horses.
"Erlulu!" The frightened horse neighed...
Li Xia took out a baggage.
The baggage is full of fireworks.
There is less than a month left before the Chinese New Year, and almost all the fireworks and firecrackers in Qingfu County were brought out tonight by his people.
He sat on his horse, lit several fuses on the baggage, and threw it directly towards the Mongolian army's horses.
Tonight, Li Xia's purpose was not to sneak attack the Mongolian army. He only had one purpose...horses.
Arrows were fired at him, and Li Xia bent down and galloped on his horse.
Behind him, there was a loud crackling sound and the neighing of horses...