Dong Cheng stood on the dilapidated city wall of Lingchuan County and looked down at the city thoughtfully.
Yesterday, it was in this position that the magistrate of Lingchuan County uttered his last curses and shouts, and then jumped down.
It's a pity that almost no one could notice his voice amid the shouts of thousands of troops.
But Dong Cheng noticed.
Dong Cheng stared at the falling figure, waved the 30-pound wind-splitting knife in his hand, and ordered the soldiers to launch the final charge.
Because he knew that once this person died, Lingchuan County would be his.
It was this magistrate who seemed to be powerless, wielding an ordinary iron sword with difficulty with his thin arms, motivating the officers and soldiers guarding the city with words, and resisting his attacks one after another.
It was this magistrate who blocked Dong Cheng outside the gate of Lingchuan County for three full days.
You know, there are less than 3,000 people in the city who have been trained or not, old, weak, sick and disabled.
Although relying on this dilapidated city wall, Dong Cheng still admired this unknown county magistrate from the bottom of his heart.
On the third day, a messenger was sent from the city.
Dong Cheng ordered the soldiers to secretly move out of the way, blocked the way for a few times, and then let the messenger go.
Most people think that Dong Cheng, a fierce general who uses heavy weapons, must be of low level in terms of strategy.
Niu Wenzhong valued Dong Cheng's bravery, so he sent him as a vanguard.
So not only Niu Wenzhong, but also the generals Shen Ji and Geng Gong around him had the same idea.
It wasn't until the moment Dong Cheng gave the order that Shen Ji and Geng Gong suddenly realized that they had misjudged this pioneer.
"Besieging the city must leave gaps." Dong Cheng said at the time: "If we blindly besiege the city, the nerves of the defenders will be broken from the desperate magistrate down to the county, but if we let the messenger go, there will definitely be
A little bit of relaxation.”
"Only when the magistrate thinks that he cannot hold on, he will send a messenger; but once the messenger is sent, the magistrate will feel that his mission has been completed."
For the first time, Shen Ji and Geng Gong saw a hint of cunning in Dong Cheng's thick eyebrows and big eyes. So, out of surprise, under Dong Cheng's command, they launched an attack that was not necessarily the largest, but certainly the most intense.
attack.
Sure enough, it worked this time.
Twenty thousand troops entered Lingchuan County. While Dong Cheng ordered to appease the people, he also issued another order.
"Regardless of surrender or not, those who have blocked our army's advance will be killed without mercy."
Shen Ji and Geng Gong shuddered from the bottom of their hearts. The curse of killing and surrender had existed for a long time, but this time, Dong Cheng ignored the curse and ordered the massacre of the surrendered soldiers.
The two looked at each other and acted decisively.
Dong Cheng stood at the spot where the magistrate jumped, looking thoughtfully at the scene from the city wall.
Almost a thousand people were forcibly taken outside the city walls and massacred!
Blood once again dyed the land outside the city wall of Lingchuan County red.
"The messenger will definitely bring reinforcements, and we will block their way here." Dong Cheng looked at Shen Ji and Geng Gong who responded, and his words were unusually decisive: "We have 20,000 people, which is enough."
"Master Pioneer, I heard that the Song Dynasty, with Gao Qiu as the marshal, had an army of 100,000 to attack our dynasty, and Lingchuan was the first to bear the brunt." Shen Ji couldn't help but point out the coming danger: "We'd better give up on Lingchuan and the Privy Council.
The armies gathered together and drove Gao Qiu out of Gaizhou."
Dong Cheng glanced at Shen Ji coldly and said only two words: "No!"
Then Dong Cheng repeated his point of view: "Twenty thousand people are enough. I let you execute the surrendered soldiers outside the city wall in order to weaken the spirit of the Song Dynasty soldiers."
Shen Ji and Geng Gong were speechless. Are these people serious?
"You guys go down and prepare." Dong Cheng looked into the distance, where was the direction of Weizhou: "I'm afraid that within five or seven days, the Song Dynasty army will arrive."
Lord Niu Wenzhong had a desperate temperament. He contributed the most to Tian Hu's subordinates, but he didn't expect that Dong Cheng was even more powerful than Niu Wenzhong.
And it seems that Dong Cheng’s words just now did not mean to order Pegasus to report to Niu Wenzhong.
Could this guy be planning to crucify Gao Qiu and his 100,000-strong army right here?
Shen Ji and Geng Gong retreated, feeling that they were following a madman.
Maybe this is the real reason why Niu Wenzhong asked Dong Cheng to be the pioneer?
Song Bing arrived faster than Dong Cheng expected. In the afternoon of the third day, Geng Gong's spies had already reported the news of Song Bing's arrival.
Soon, Geng Gong and his spies came to Dong Cheng to report the situation.
"How many people are there?" Dong Cheng held a piece of overcooked beef and put it into his mouth: "What's the flag?"
Most of the farmland near Lingchuan County has been abandoned, and the only fate of those farm cattle is to be used as military rations.
The main reason is that Dong Cheng does not like pigs and sheep, but only loves beef.
In the farming era, this taste was indeed unique. Fortunately, Dong Cheng was not a farmer, but a pioneer.
"Reporting to Mr. Xianfeng, the number of people is about 10,000 to 12,000, and the banner is Chenzhou Military and Horse Supervisor Wu." The spy seemed to hesitate for a moment when he said this: "There is also a slightly strange banner. , it has the words Blood Blowing Janissary on it.”
"The blood of blood is not the snow of white snow." The spy added specifically.
"Huh? Blowing blood?" Dong Cheng swallowed the beef in his mouth and touched his head: "Whose army is this? Check it out!"
Geng Gong then took out a pamphlet and flipped through it: "There you go...Wu Bingyi, the military commander of Chenzhou, is he bleeding..."
This booklet was presented to Tian Hu by Bai Ying. It recorded the names of the military garrison, governors and commanders of the Song Dynasty. However, Geng Gong read it three times from beginning to end and still could not find the information about the "Blood Blowing Guards".
"No? Could it be that this blood-promoting personal army suddenly appeared?" Dong Cheng impatiently tapped the big bowl of beef with bamboo chopsticks: "Look for it again!"
Among Dong Cheng, Shen Ji, and Geng Gong, only Geng Gong was literate, which is why the pamphlet was in Geng Gong's hand.
Geng Gong sweated and flipped through it twice more, and finally found some connections from a certain page at the back.
"There is Ximen Qing here, whose name is Chuixue, but it is not blood of blood, but snow of white snow."
"What does this person do? Which state and government are he from? Governor or controller?" Dong Cheng continued to ask.
Geng Gong shook his head and said: "No, this person is from Qinghe County and is currently serving as a commander in the Imperial City Division."
"How many troops can one commander have?" Dong Cheng dropped the bamboo chopsticks and laughed dumbly: "The Imperial City Division does some shameful things, so it's not okay to talk about fighting."
"It doesn't matter if the Song soldiers don't come to attack the city tomorrow, but if they come, it's only ten thousand people who will never come back."
...
...
"It's just a thieves, why do you care?" Wu Bingyi, the military supervisor of Chenzhou, heard that the spies reported that Tian Hu's banner had been replaced at the top of the city. He laughed and said: "Tomorrow, we will cook at the fourth watch, and we will camp at the fifth watch to attack Lingchuan! "
Ximen Qing had a different view: "Since the Taiwei sent us to check the situation in Lingchuan, our goal has been achieved. We can only stay here and wait for the Taiwei's army; or we can retreat to Huixian and make plans later."
"Master Supervisor, don't blame me for talking too much." Wu Bingyi said with a smile: "Prying out intelligence, you can do it but I can't; fighting, I can do it but you can't. You can get the credit at your fingertips now, and tomorrow you can rush into Lingchuan and seize the city with all your strength. Why bother?
"
"There will be no good in marching hastily." Ximen Qing frowned and said, "No matter what, I would like to ask Governor Wu to wait here and report to the Taiwei before making a decision."
Wu Bingyi promised to think about it again, so Ximen Qing had no choice but to leave and return to his tent to discuss with the leaders of Liangshan.
Thunderbolt Fire Qin Ming suddenly frowned: "Wu Bingyi is just going to have his own way, and he doesn't take Brother Ximen, the supervisor, into consideration at all."
"If you want to replace the second military commander, you will probably be greedy for credit." Sun Li, the sick lieutenant, revealed the secret: "What contribution can he make in Chenzhou? He was finally sent out by Gao Qiu alone to inspect Lingchuan.
The situation, don’t let this credit go to waste.”
Ximen Qing pondered for a while and then asked Shi Qian to sneak into Lingchuan secretly to spy on the enemy.
It was more than half the night before he returned, and he reported: "There are about 20,000 defenders in the city. The leader is Niu Wenzhong's vanguard Dong Cheng, and there are two side generals Shen Ji and Geng Gong."
"Twenty thousand people!" Ximen Qing was slightly surprised: "If Wu Bingyi goes to attack the city, I'm afraid he will suffer a loss."
"There is another situation." Shi Qian frowned and said, "Then Dong Cheng ordered the soldiers to be killed and the land outside the city wall was dyed red."
Lu Zhishen said in deep thought: "This is a way to weaken the spirit of our army. Dong Cheng has quite a plan."
Ximen Qing was about to go find Wu Bingyi. Unexpectedly, as soon as he left the tent, he heard the sound of men and horses neighing, and soldiers from all directions rushed outside the camp.
Lin Chong was shocked and grabbed a soldier to ask. The soldier said: "Superintendent Wu ordered the cooking at the fourth watch and the camp to attack Lingchuan at the fifth watch. Now it is time to give the order to assemble."
After hearing what Lin Chong said, Ximen Qing hurriedly got on his horse and came to look for Wu Bingyi. Unexpectedly, he had already deliberately avoided it.
When they arrived outside the camp, they saw Wu Bingyi neatly dressed in the firelight from a distance, holding a big halberd in his hand and giving lectures.
Ximen Qing rode his horse to the front and shouted: "Wu Dujian, there are 20,000 enemy troops, don't rush in by taking advantage of the enemy!"
Wu Bingyi, the Superintendent of the Army and Horses of Chenzhou, sneered when he heard this: "The thieves are all a mob. Even if there are 100,000, if our army is one for ten, it will be a tiger among the sheep! If the supervisor is afraid, just go back to sleep!"
After saying this, Wu Bingyi waved the big halberd in his hand, and 10,000 horses marched towards Lingchuan City in unison!
When Ximen Qing saw that Wu Bingyi did not listen to the dissuasion, he returned to the camp with a long sigh and summoned everyone for discussion.
At dawn, Wu Bingyi had already deployed 10,000 horses at the foot of Lingchuan County. The horses were circling back and forth, cursing in his mouth: "Grass bandits, why don't you leave the city and die?"
Soldiers had already reported that Dong Cheng, Dong Cheng, Shen Ji, and Geng Gong were all well-dressed. When they went to the city wall to look at it, they saw Wu Bingyi showing off his power. He couldn't help but laugh and said: "This is the army of the Song Dynasty? Wait until I go to battle to meet this Wu Bingyi!"