News that the Mongolian army was about to invade reached Zhang Shun half a month ago, and he has been on full alert.
But to be honest, Zhang Shun actually didn't think that the Mongolian army would really attack during this Chinese New Year.
There is control in the army, and the commanders analyzed that it was only in October that the Mongolian army put down Li Fen's rebellion. In just two months, they had to clean up the mess in Shandong and then march to Guanzhong. It was not that fast no matter what.
Although Zhang Shun just said a lot of truth, about Mongols on the grassland being cold-resistant... it was just that he, as a general, wanted the soldiers to be vigilant and guard well.
He himself believed that the words of the soldiers in the garrison were right. He had been a miserable man all his life, and suddenly he was favored by Prince Pingling. He didn't know how to repay him, and he wanted to rip his heart out.
Yes, he is indeed just trying his best to perform.
This display of hard work not only means working hard to be on guard against danger, but also always telling yourself in your heart that "the Mongolian army will come". You have to believe it even if you don't believe it.
Military rules, absolute obedience...
Suddenly, the Mongolian army really came. If there was no preparation, the entire Heyang camp would be attacked and might be killed instantly and collapse.
But Zhang Shun paid too much for this defense, forcing his soldiers to guard the Yellow River on New Year's Eve. He even felt that "if the Mongolian army doesn't come, then it will be in vain", so on this day
For a moment, he didn't panic.
Not only did he not panic, he also appeared to be particularly steady, calmly directing the soldiers to blow the whistle, light fires, call for reinforcements, assemble, and push out the horses... because he was so well prepared.
The Mongolian army obviously wanted to make a sneak attack, so they chose to cross the Yellow River on the night of the first day of the first lunar month. However, they did not expect that the Song army was so heavily guarded.
So, the sneak attack turned into a strong attack, lighting torches to adjust the formation, and planned to kill them.
…
Zhang Gui raised his telescope and saw the torches of the Mongolian army still hundreds of steps away, like a long dragon.
Snowflakes were blown into the eyes, forcing people to squint.
The light from the bonfire could only shine a dozen steps ahead, and the area between the two armies was completely dark.
"The Menglu haven't moved yet...what are they doing?!"
"Damn, it's too dark..."
Suddenly, Zhang Gui vaguely seemed to see something.
In the little light of the campfire, a figure seemed to flash past dozens of steps ahead.
Hundreds of steps away, the Mongolian army seemed to be still in formation, but...
"coming!"
Zhang Gui exclaimed, and the telescope in his hand fell to the ground, making a crisp "ding" sound on the ice.
"coming!"
"Fire the arrow!"
Some soldiers fired arrows in a hurry, shooting into the darkness with a "whoosh" sound, but there was no reaction.
However, before they could breathe a sigh of relief, footsteps sounded.
Zhang Gui was about to lean down to pick up the lookout tube on the ground, but he saw a row of evil men suddenly appear from the darkness and leap into the light of the campfire, as agile as wild beasts.
"kill!"
What the other party shouted was not in Mongolian, but with some Hebei accent.
With a "hoo" sound, the scimitar was thrust in front of him, and the soldiers of the Song Dynasty stabbed him with their spears.
As soon as the fighting started, blood was splashed on the ice.
The hot blood did not melt the ice, but quickly froze it.
One foot stepped on the icy blood, trampling the frozen blood clots into scattered pieces, but not long after, the man fell to the ground and gasped in pain.
He was slashed on the neck with a knife. He was not dead for a while, but he could not breathe. He was twitching in the cold wind, and his face was purple and blue in pain. However, his colleagues and enemies around him ignored him and continued to kill themselves.
He fell helplessly on the ice and thought of the thatched house that belonged to him. There were his mother and eight-year-old son in the house. Today was the first day of the Lunar New Year, and he didn't know if they were eating well...
"Huh...huh..."
The sound of breathing mixed with the sound of wind, and gradually only the sound of wind was left.
The wounded man who fell to the ground finally died, and his body cooled down little by little. The blood flowed from his neck to the ice and froze, and even the wound was frozen, so it stopped bleeding.
The deceased's blue face was slowly covered with a layer of white frost. When someone else's blood was splashed on his face, the frost melted and snowflakes covered it.
I don’t know how long it took, but he turned into a lying snowman.
When I looked away from the corpse, I saw that the battlefield was covered with corpses.
…
When the enemy camp was defeated and surrendered, there were more than 7,000 people, and later it was reorganized into 10,000 people.
Among them, brothers Zhang Shun and Zhang Gui only commanded more than a thousand people, and He Tai, who commanded more than a thousand people, was responsible for the defense line between Xia Yangdu and Heyang Camp.
Other commanders had their own lines of defense along the Yellow River.
In this environment at this time, they did not know whether there was fighting elsewhere or how many Mongolian troops this line of defense faced. They just felt that enemies were coming in an endless stream.
It was as if a hundred thousand Mongolian troops were attacking just a thousand of them.
Zhang Shun kept giving orders and at the same time tried his best to encourage the soldiers.
"Where's the bed crossbow? Fire the crossbow quickly! The Mongols are about to retreat!"
"Fire the cannon! Fire the cannon! The ice will collapse and all the Mongols will drown!"
Because of such instructions, the soldiers of Song Dynasty had no time to slack off or retreat, and were urged to be busy non-stop.
Even so, the soldiers arrayed in front to resist the Mongolian army still fell one by one.
Gradually I felt like I couldn't hold on any longer.
"Hold!"
Zhang Gui shouted again, but at the same time he was stabbed.
The knife struck his cotton armor and failed to cut through. However, it caused Zhang Gui to stagger and fell into a trap surrounded by three Mongolian soldiers.
He quickly stabbed someone with his spear and hit one of them in the middle, but the spear was also held in his hand and broke into two pieces with a "stuck" sound.
"puff."
This time he was stabbed in the arm, causing severe pain. Zhang Gui hurriedly threw a Mongolian soldier to the ground.
"Peng!"
A big rock fell from behind, making a big hole in the ice in front. Under the hole was the rushing Yellow River water.
Someone was shouting in the chaos.
"Why did you throw it so close?!"
"The barrel is broken..."
Zhang Gui had no time to care about this, he was already fighting with the Meng soldiers.
With a "pop" sound, the broken spear stabbed into the enemy's neck, and blood spread all over his face, which was very warm.
Then there were two more "puff" sounds, and he was also stabbed twice.
After fighting for too long, the armor has been torn, and the injuries from these two swords are not minor.
Zhang Gui rolled on the spot, picked up a knife and chopped off the enemy's feet. When he looked up, he saw several enemies rushing up. He couldn't help but despair, thinking that he was going to die now.
"Boom."
Suddenly there was a loud noise and screams, but the ice around the ice cave in front collapsed, and many people were swept directly into the bone-chilling river water.
They still wanted to struggle, but they were dragged down by their armor and couldn't climb up at all.
Zhang Gui was frightened when he saw this scene. He kicked as hard as he could and ran away, rolling twice on the spot.
The crack spread underneath him and finally stopped cracking.
People around him fled away, and Zhang Gui, who fell beside the ice cave, was able to breathe a little.
But when he looked up again, there were only densely packed Mongolian troops nearby, fighting towards the west.
The Song army's defense line retreated.
Zhang Gui was shocked and was about to get up when suddenly a knife penetrated his abdomen.
An injured Mongolian soldier got up, stabbed him with a knife and pushed Zhang Gui into the ice hole.
Zhang Gui was pinned to the ice and couldn't struggle to get away. Where he looked, he saw a corpse in front of him, which was Wang Shuangui whom he had only seen in the evening.
It suddenly occurred to him that Wang Shuangui had not had time to eat the bacon he had given him today.
Speaking of which, although Wang Shuangui is not a good talker, he is warm-hearted and always likes to help other soldiers sharpen their knives. It is a pity.
"Gulu gulu..."
Zhang Gui's head was pushed into the glacier. The Meng soldiers behind him were extremely powerful and could kill him immediately.
"puff."
Just when Zhang Gui thought he was going to die, he suddenly felt a light force on his head, and someone suddenly lifted him up.
His vision went dark, and he felt as if he had been fainted for a long time, but it seemed that it was only for a moment.
When it slowed down a bit, I could only hear footsteps and shouts everywhere, and the chaos made it difficult to see the situation clearly.
Someone was pressing his wound to stop the bleeding, so he called out: "Brother, I can't survive..."
"No vital damage was done. He will survive."
It was He Tai who spoke.
Zhang Gui tried his best to open his eyes and saw the wrinkles on He Tai's forehead.
"Commander He?"
"Don't move. The Mongolian army retreated temporarily when they saw that we had reinforcements coming. I'm afraid tonight is just their test offensive..."
Zhang Gui felt inexplicably at ease, a feeling that only veterans can bring to others.
He closed his eyes and allowed He Tai to heal his injuries, then thought that he really shouldn't doubt He Tai.
Only when you have experienced despair between life and death can you understand that the only people you can trust on the battlefield are your comrades.
However, when Zhang Gui turned back and looked at the battlefield littered with corpses, he could estimate that more than a thousand of them had suffered heavy losses in just one night, even though he had not counted them.
If this battle was just a test offensive by the Mongolian army, under this comparison of forces, he almost didn't know how to fight the subsequent battles.
He Tai seemed to be thinking about this issue too, and muttered to himself when he got up and left Zhang Gui.
"Can the enemy camp fight such a tough battle? Even I don't believe it..."