In the autumn and winter of last year, the Zhongdu City of the Jin Kingdom was besieged by foreign enemies for the first time since it was built. At that time, the Mongolian army had nothing to do with the deep ditches and high fortresses in the Zhongdu City and many surrounding passes. They could only hold their troops outside the city and occasionally attack with bluffs.
city, and used Mongolian cavalry to repeatedly sweep away King Qin's army.
The main problem faced by Zhongdu at that time was not actually the difficulty of defending the city, but the shortage of food caused by the large number of refugees fleeing into Zhongdu. Even if many families had food, no one dared to go out to collect wood for fear of being robbed and killed by the Mongolian cavalry, so
There is a shortage of firewood and it is difficult to cook.
Four months later, Zhongdu remained motionless, and the mobile troops of the Kingdom of Jin in response to King Qin's call suffered heavy losses in the process. Moreover, the more loyal the army was to the court and taking the safety of the capital as its own responsibility, the more it died happily.
On the contrary, most of the smart people who gathered troops in various places to avoid war were active and active.
This time, Zhongdu was attacked by the Mongolian army again, and the situation was slightly different from last year.
Although the troops and horses that attacked this time were under the banner of the Mongolian army, they were actually the Chi army and the Han army that were originally affiliated with the imperial court. Even their banners and organization were the same as when they were recruiting troops on the Northeast Road in Beijing.
The left-behind officers were generally the same when eating the imperial rations.
They invaded the Zhongdu Road at the end of December, relying on the support of the Mongolian cavalry in the field battle, and fought steadily. Attacking cities and plundering territory was their specialty. They devoured the area under the jurisdiction of the military envoy to the east of Zhongdu along the way, and successively broke through the Ping Dynasty.
Zhou, Luanzhou, Jizhou, Shunzhou and other cities, and at the same time captured the strategically important Liuor Ridge running through the northeast of Zhongdu, which is Gubeikou.
As usual, the grain, armor, staff, and equipment stored by the imperial court in a series of military fortresses and fortresses all fell into the hands of the Mongolian army. As a result, the work of the Mongolian army became increasingly slow.
Of course, in accordance with the usual practice, the imperial court continued to issue edicts to various military and state capitals to urge King Qin. However, Hebei Xuanfu envoy San Anzhen was busy reorganizing Meng'an Mouke in Hebei, and the response was not positive. Outside Hebei, those who could timely
The powerful generals who reinforced Zhongdu were generally far away from each other.
So for a while, the only people who could deal with the Mongols were the emperor and the civil and military personnel of his Zhongdu court.
By the beginning of the third year of Zhenyou, everything west of Daxing Prefecture in Zhongdu had changed hands. Only a few places such as Lu County in Tongzhou were still under the control of Dajin. There were more than a hundred Mongolian elite cavalry who even drove hundreds of miles at one time, coveting Qingzhou, Bazhou, etc.
land.
Pusan Anzhen's reaction was very quick. He quickly led his troops to station ten thousand elite troops at Yijin Pass in Bazhou, and stood ready. This made the Mongolian sentry cavalry retreat slightly.
Last year, the Mongols went south from Juyong Pass and Zijin Pass and entered the Central Plains. Therefore, people from Hebei Road and Zhongdu Road fled to the states east of Zhongdu Road. In addition, because Linhuangfu Road had long been lost, the court also transferred Zhongdu Road to
The east side is regarded as the area to receive those fleeing from Linhuang Road.
But at the beginning of the third year of Zhenyou's reign, these people's homes were once again destroyed, and they had no choice but to flee to the west of Zhongdu. From Baodi County to the deserted beaches and salt fields along the line from Zhigu Village, there were people everywhere carrying their only belongings on their shoulders, or
A group of people carrying their families, old, weak, women and children on their backs to flee to the west.
Their faces were frightened and miserable, more often confused or desperate. They were all people rooted in the land, and every time they left their hometowns, they would suffer huge losses. But they have experienced such losses in the past two years.
twice!
A few shabby houses and several acres of thin fields in their hometown have long been reduced to nothing, but for God's sake, they won't even let them stay in a temporary shack or hundreds of wild wheat plants. What should the people do?
In this great turmoil, even An Muke, the daughter of the Zhenfang Village, was in the same panic. They were mixed in the endless flow of people and fled west together. At most, they could only have a cart sitting on it.
Old people or children. Their lives in the past must have been much better than those of Han children, but now they have already lost everything.
Occasionally, there are a few people who think they are noble and want to show off their dignity during the escape, and most of them will die in unknown circumstances. Those who can be mixed with other refugees are all Jurchens who are poor and carry their most important belongings with them.
It was probably just a few pieces of clothing and quilts, and at most a blanket, with a few pieces of dry food and a few Dading Tongbao stored in it.
Among the refugees, there were also soldiers. Most of them had abandoned their armor and looked extremely embarrassed.
At the end of last year, in order to show his determination, Ulin Daqizhu, the eastern strategy envoy of the imperial court, established the Economic and Strategy Department in Pingzhou, which is closest to Beijing Road.
As a result, the Mongolian vassal troops, mainly Han, Bohai, and Xi people, attacked the city. Pingzhou could not defend it at all and was lost in two days. When the commander died, the defenders of many cities behind had no fighting spirit, and they continued to fight one after another.
Everyone is running away.
"Brother Ran! Brother Ran!" Zhang Pingliang ran over from behind panting, shouting repeatedly: "Tatars! The Tatar cavalry is coming!"
This shout was carried by the cold wind to a radius of about a mile, causing hundreds of people to either burrow into the dead grass, or run through the muddy water with icy debris to the reed swamps further away.
The main force of the Mongolian army is not here, but sporadic sentries and cavalry come and go, several times a day. Their main goal is to observe the situation in Daxing Mansion, the central capital, and explore the actions of the defenders. At the same time, they also collect and interrogate escapees.
See if you can find a large group of refugees and loot some hidden belongings.
Soon, a group of Mongolian cavalry appeared in the eyes of Liu Ran and others.
The weather here in Zhongdu is warmer than the snow-covered Beijing Road. This group of cavalry wrapped their dirty black leather robes with a reddish color around their waists, revealing the light armor underneath. Each of them had two horses, and the two sides of the saddle
Leather bags are hung on both sides. One side of the bag is bulging with bows and arrows of different specifications, and the other side is filled with iron spears, straight knives, iron axes and other weapons.
Obviously, relying on capture, the Mongolian army's equipment is becoming more and more sufficient and complete.
These sentries are definitely not the cowardly Xue troops who accompanied Genghis Khan south this time, and they may not even be Mongols in the true sense.
Zhang Pingliang was so flustered that he shouted "Black Tartars". Liu Ran estimated that they were probably the last group of Tatars who surrendered after the rise of Genghis Khan; they might also be the remnants of the Khitan people.
The fighting spirit and ferocity of these people are far inferior to the elites of the Mongolian army. But even if they are the lowest-class people in the Mongolian army, the weapons in their hands are as good as those of Liu Ran and more than ten people.
It's pretty. Moreover, it's much more sophisticated.
"They are not coming for us, please don't move and wait for them to pass!" Liu Ran whispered.
Someone walked carefully among the puddles and brought his words to all the refugees. So more than a hundred people waited quietly in the haystacks, hoping that the Mongols would leave as soon as possible.
There were more than 40 cavalrymen in this group, divided into six or seven small groups. The leading group was already several miles away, and the last five cavalrymen had just appeared, riding slowly along the road.
I don't know if they noticed the footprints on the roadside or heard some noise. The leader, a cavalryman who looked like a captain of ten, shouted twice, suddenly reined in his horse and stopped, looking around.
Liu Ran held a bow in one hand and an arrow in the other, staring at the movements of the enemy's cavalry.
"Everyone, don't move! Don't move! If they ride in, I'll shoot the ten-captain and the two people beside him. You deal with the two people in front. Each person shoots three arrows. After three arrows, follow me and pull them out."
Come forward and fight with the sword."
What this means is that he is sure to kill someone with one arrow, which can be said to be a highly skilled and daring person.
Including Zhang Pingliang, the deserters all nodded.
And while they nodded, they suddenly heard continuous screams.
What's going on? Everyone was horrified, and then realized that it was the Mongolian cavalry who was screaming! Their horses were also neighing!
Someone is taking action at the front of the road!
Listening to the sound, the ambushers all used strong bows and powerful arrows. The arrow clusters were too fast and powerful. They made a sharp sound when they broke through the air, and the dense sharp sounds gathered together, like the cold wind blowing through the rocks.
It's like a non-stop whistling when passing through the gap!
That was a rare elite troop, attacking the Mongolian cavalry at the front of the road!
The Mongolian cavalry who fell behind the road was instantly alarmed. The ten-man captain shouted a few times and led his men to urge their horses forward.
Liu Ran stood up from the cold puddle.
The distance between him and the captain was only twenty steps, which was too close! He drew his bow and arrow, and hit the captain in the back of the head with one arrow. Next to the captain, another Mongolian cavalryman had a full face.
Furiously reining in his horse and turning back, Liu Ran quickly stepped forward, and the second arrow penetrated from his open mouth.
The next moment, the third Mongolian cavalryman was hit by an arrow in the throat, and Zhang Pingliang and others also rushed out.
A few meters away from this small battlefield, Chen Ran's men had formed a circle surrounding a small number of Mongolian light cavalry. Through the continuous grass, Chen Ran couldn't see clearly what was behind the road, but he keenly noticed the change in this direction.
I couldn't help but chuckle.
"Send a few people to help." He said to his subordinates: "As soon as our fleet arrived at Zhigu Village, we ran into some heroes fighting with the Mongols. This is a good sign!"