"Half an hour ago, the Song Army suddenly dispatched to Kaifeng!"
Guo Ning pondered for a while, and Yelu Chucai asked: "How long do you estimate it will take for them to arrive in Kaifeng? Are there any siege equipment in the army?"
"The Song Army's camp is located in the area from Qinglongbei to Kaifeng City in the north of Zhuxian Town. This morning they mobilized more than 10,000 people to stop five miles north of the camp, which is only thirty miles away from Kaifeng. At this time, the Song Army was all lightly armed and still
All the mules and horses in the army were mobilized, and no siege equipment was found, so the march was very fast. In about half an hour, the Song army will arrive at Kaifeng City!"
"you sure?"
"We have more than ten sentries on our side, and we have carefully inspected it. There is no doubt about it."
"...Okay, thank you for your hard work. I'll investigate again and report back."
The sentry rider retreated, Guo Ning raised his eyebrows and chuckled twice: "Song people make up their minds very quickly!"
"Shi Miyuan is a powerful official in the Song Dynasty, and he is indispensable for turning things around. Xuanzhen spent time in Tianjin and Shandong to find out the inside story of our side. Two of his subordinates led the Privy Council Machinery Room.
In addition, most of the powerful sea merchants came from the Southern Dynasties, and they gave Xuan Zhen a lot of information, which may also help Zhao Fang make up his mind."
"And this determination probably represents the risk of a tense situation with us."
"That's right. Since there is a possibility of confrontation or even fighting with our army, the troops and horses on the east and west routes of Huainan cannot be used because there are too many troops and horses in those two places and Jia She and his son... Ahem, Jia She and Li Yun
The Song court could not trust them, and the only ones they could use were soldiers from Jinghu, so Zhao Fang's troops marched long distances here."
"But they don't dare to go against us seriously. Their method is nothing more than an emergency blending with a certain force in Kaifeng City, using our army to fight the enemy fiercely, and first enter Kaifeng; then, with the Kaifeng City and the
The Kaifeng imperial court will come back to influence the situation in this war and even the surrounding situation. Even if it doesn't work, it can also be used as bargaining capital with us."
Having said this, Guo Ning turned sideways and said leisurely to Yelu Chucai: "Jin Qing told me earlier that when Song and Jin formed a maritime alliance and jointly attacked Yanjing, the Liao Kingdom, the Song people kept changing the conditions on the one hand.
He tried to deceive Dai Jin, but on the other hand, he was reticent and did not dare to fight hard, so that Yanjing fell into the hands of Dai Jin, which later caused a huge turmoil."
"The subsequent war between the Song and Jin Dynasties probably stemmed from the disaster planted when the coalition forces destroyed the Liao Dynasty. Perhaps because of the lessons learned from the past, they were much smarter this time."
"That's right, during this coalition operation, the Song Dynasty people never said they were in a hurry to ask for benefits from us, but they suddenly took action at this moment... The Prime Minister was obviously coerced by us and had to cooperate, but he was thousands of miles away.
Apart from that, he can still squeeze out some opportunities on the battlefield, mainly in order to turn against his enemies. This scheming is really good, and the characters of the Southern Dynasties should not be underestimated. "
"yes."
"Kaifeng was once the capital of the Song Dynasty. Once the Song army entered Kaifeng, the situation in Kaifeng city would be complicated and abnormal. The Song people were nominally allies of Dai Jin, and 20,000 Song troops came to assist Dai Jin in exterminating the rebels. We have
It is impossible to use weapons easily. Once time is delayed, more and more variables will become involved, and more and more parties will be involved, making it difficult to sort out... Therefore, we must immediately mobilize troops to compete with the Song army for Kaifeng and immediately clean up Kaifeng.
.It is appropriate for Li Erlang to do these two things, right?"
Yelu Chucai pursed his lips and was speechless for a moment.
Guo Ning smiled and asked again: "Some things will inevitably be criticized by the outside world, and not everyone dares to do it. If Li Erlang doesn't do it, I will have to come forward personally. Do you think it is appropriate for me to drive to Kaifeng with two thousand cavalry?
?”
Guo Ning's determination to kill people on a large scale has not changed from the beginning and will not waver. Yelu Chucai sighed, knowing that it would be inappropriate to say more.
He bowed his hands to Guo Ning and saluted: "If it is delayed, it is indeed not as neat as cutting through the mess with a sharp knife; if Li Ting does it, it will indeed be more clear-cut by the Duke than to do it himself."
"OK."
Guo Ning called Ni Yi, took out the golden sword from his waist, and said in a deep voice: "Li Ting's troops set off from Fengqiu, and they are not far from Kaifeng now. You take my golden sword and gallop away.
Give it to Li Erlang... He understands what I mean!"
Ni Yizhi rode away, and Yelu Chucai had an idea and said quickly: "My lord, the Song army has made a sudden move. It is most likely that it is in collusion with people from the Kaifeng court, but this must be top secret, and ordinary Jin army officers do not know. Please ask the country
The duke immediately sent his troops everywhere and shouted, saying that the Song army and our army have joined forces to attack Kaifeng, and the Jin army's retreat has been cut off, and this battle will be lost!"
"The sooner we defeat the enemy in front of us, the shorter the time left for the Song people. In addition, with the victory and defeat clear, more Jurchens who can see the situation clearly will take the initiative to join us! This is a good idea!"
Guo Ning laughed loudly, knowing that Yelu Chucai was always soft-hearted, but it was not for his own sake.
He immediately sent people to act according to the plan.
As soon as a messenger left, he called another person: "Tell Zhang Lin that we can secure the surroundings of the carriage camp, and ask him to set up the artillery carriage and continue firing! Don't hold back!"
In an instant, a roar like a tsunami suddenly started, from dozens to hundreds to thousands of people shouting at the same time: "The Song army is in the south, the official army is in the north, the two-pronged attack is closed! Jin Dynasty is closed!"
The dogs have no way out and are going to be defeated!"
The huge roar was like muffled thunder, rolling and spreading in all directions.
Monk Wanyan Chen, who was in the fierce battlefield, had abandoned his horse and was fighting on foot.
Someone swung a battle ax across the armor and stomach on his chest, and the ax blade and the iron blades of the armor clashed with fire, making a tooth-piercing sound of metal friction.
This kind of sound is actually not loud, but hearing it too much will affect his hearing. So when he found shouts everywhere, he tried his best to get rid of the Ding navy soldiers in front, and then listened carefully, but he heard nothing clearly.
However, an officer came up from behind, pulled his shoulder and shouted: "The rebel army is shouting, the Song Army and the rebel army are attacking from both sides and the seal is closed! We have no way out!"
"There are tens of thousands of soldiers and generals in Kaifeng. They are defending the city and it is none of our business!"
Monk Wanyan Chen cursed impatiently, suddenly threw the short spear in his hand, and stabbed the Dinghai navy soldier who was wielding an axe. The soldier paused, dropped the axe, and tried to remove the gun from his chest.
After pulling out the short spear twice, the whole person began to spin involuntarily, and then fell to his knees.
At this time, suddenly two more cavalry teams rushed past each other and killed each other.
A war horse was frightened by the sharp blade in front of him and suddenly fell down, bringing the knight to the ground. The man who landed rolled over and over again, making a unique sound of broken bones, but the war horse was fine and struggled to get up again.
Monk Wanyan Chen ran over without hesitation and got on his horse. He waited and watched for a moment, found a direction where the enemies were sparse, and shouted loudly: "Follow me!"
The battle has continued until now, and the entire battlefield has become chaotic. Monk Wanyan Chen initially wanted to break through the enemy's obstacles and destroy the artillery vehicles, but so far, he seems to be getting farther and farther away from the artillery vehicles, and there is nothing but chaos around him. The companions who left, and the Ding navy officers who came and went in groups, seemed to be an impenetrable high wall.
He charged through the gaps in Ding Haijun's array a few more times. During the last attack, he probably looked in the wrong direction and inexplicably retreated to the edge of the battlefield, where he actually had time to rest for a while.
At this time, most of his arms, thighs, etc. had fresh injuries, dripping with blood. Fortunately, none of them hurt his vital parts, and the impact on his power movements was not too great.
His armor and stomach were severely damaged. After the two armor straps on his chest were cut off, most of the thick armor fell off. He had to keep holding his shield to cover it, but the shield was densely shot by bows and arrows, and was again It had been cut many times with heavy weapons and it was obviously loose.
Seeing that he was not in a hurry to kill, many scattered Jin Army soldiers gathered towards him. Some looked at him with admiration, while others came up to bandage his injuries.
At the same time as they were being bandaged, in the center of the naval queue, the whining sound of a cannon truck firing was heard again. Several iron artillery pieces arced in the air, fell somewhere, and then burst into flames and loud noises.
When the two sides were strangulating, there was no longer the dense queue as before, and it was obviously very problematic to determine the accuracy of the naval gun carriage. However, there were still more than a dozen Jin soldiers who were inevitably affected by the power of the iron artillery, and the most miserable ones were He was instantly changed beyond recognition, his body was covered with terrible wounds of all sizes, and then he fell to the ground convulsing and covered in blood.
The surrounding Jin Army soldiers, no matter how brave or outstanding their skills, subconsciously dispersed.
When the battle reaches this level, it doesn't matter how many people die. What matters is who can maintain the morale of the army and the orderly command of the army.
From a rough look, the Ding Navy's array has not wavered from beginning to end, and the maneuvers are clear. On the contrary, it is our own side... relying on the brave general to fight in person, the courage it brings to everyone will fade sooner or later, and Wanyan will never On the Tantan side, the troops that can still be commanded are probably less than half of what they were when we set out.
Through the smoke and dust, Monk Wanyan Chen could vaguely see that behind Wanyan Congtan's general flag, there were thousands of Jin Army soldiers running desperately towards Kaifeng.
Maybe they thought Kaifeng would be safer? Or, if they entered the city before the Song army arrived, would the court reward them?
This kind of thinking is of course dizzy. Monk Wanyan Chen knew that people would behave like this when their emotions break down; those soldiers could not hold on any longer, so they subconsciously ran to places that provided a sense of security.
Monk Wanyan Chen was not angry at their performance.
It is not the fault of these soldiers that the Kingdom of Jin fell to this level. They were all the elites who had gone south to fight against the Song Dynasty. They had already fought as hard as they could. What else do you want them to do now?
Now the Ding Navy is once again using artillery vehicles to bombard, further accelerating the collapse of our own morale, and more and more people will escape.
But in Wanyan Congtan's main formation, the drums urging the attack were still ringing and never stopped from beginning to end.
Monk Wanyan Chen had a premonition. He felt that letting everyone fight to the death here was Wanyan Congtan's purpose, and it was also the intention of some people in Kaifeng City.
At this moment, the key to the war is no longer Lincaiguan, but Kaifeng.
As soon as the Song army moves, Kaifeng City will definitely respond, and once Kaifeng responds, Li Ting's command in the north of the city will follow suit sooner or later. Something will definitely happen around Kaifeng City and between the two armies. In this process, The only role of Monk Wanyan Chen and all his companions is to continuously stick to the main force of Ding Haijun, waiting for something to happen.
What could that be?
When he was in Zhongdu, Monk Wanyan Chen would probably suspect that those high-ranking officials were planning to force the soldiers to die so that he could surrender safely. But he knew that there were indeed a group of capable ministers in the Kaifeng court. , they are really doing their best to maintain the existence of the Great Jin Kingdom.
While Monk Wanyan Chen was making guesses, Tian Zhuo and Hou Zhi were in the tall Baozhen Pavilion. They saw tens of thousands of Song troops approaching from the south of Kaifeng City, and also saw Ding Haijun rushing from the north of the city. Li Ting's troops. The number of Li Ting's troops was smaller than that of the Song army, but a rough estimate put it at seven or eight thousand, of which half were infantry and cavalry, and almost all were wearing armor.
"Pity!"
Hou Zhi slapped the city bricks with his palm, causing small bricks to fly. His palm was cut in many places, and blood was flowing freely, even though he didn't realize it. His face was as black as the bottom of a pot.
Tian Zhuo looked solemn and sighed.
"After all, it's not that accurate." He said: "Who would have thought that Wanyan Congtan and others, with their bravery and desperate efforts, actually entangled the main force of Ding Haijun, so that Guo Ning himself could no longer take care of Kaifeng?"
"It may not be Wanyan Congtan's fault! It may not be that Guo Ning cannot mobilize his own troops!"
Hou Zhi gritted his teeth and said: "Li Ting, who is here now, is famous for his bloodthirsty! Guo Ning asked him to come, and his intentions are extremely vicious! He must have been instructed to massacre in Kaifeng after he entered the city!"
"So... the result is not bad! This time the bandits attacked in two groups. Guo Ning was in the east and Li Ting was in the north. This shows his status. He still killed Marshal Wanyan Heda. , now I have brought seven or eight thousand people here...it is worth it!"
Tian Zhuo murmured something and started to go downstairs.
Hou Zhi took a few steps forward and stopped him: "It's better for me to go. This scene is all arranged by me, so don't fight for it."
Tian Zhuo struggled hard but failed. He raised his head and glared at Hou Zhi, his eyes a little angry and a little ashamed.
Hou Zhi laughed instead. He patted Tian Zhuo on the shoulder, rolled up his robe sleeves, and walked down the stairs.
Baozhen Pavilion is located in the southeast corner of Kaifeng City Palace, not far from the Drum Tower to the east of Longde Hall.
Hou Zhi went down from the attic, passed directly through the Jiafu Tower in the east veranda of Daqing Hall, and exited the Shengping Gate, Chengtian Gate, and Danfeng Gate on the left. Here he met the servants waiting on horseback, got on their horses, and headed south through Fengyi.
Gate, go to Nanxun Gate.
In the past few months, he had been responsible for the construction of Kaifeng New City. Fengyi Gate was the south gate of his newly built inner city wall, while Nanxun Gate was the south gate of the outer city wall. There were three miles between the two gates.
Although Kaifeng City under the rule of the Jin Dynasty has a household registration of more than one million, it cannot be compared with Bianliang, the capital of the Song Dynasty at its peak. Therefore, there are many open spaces in the outer city and the population is quite withered.
In the past year, a large number of Jurchens gathered southward in Kaifeng and unceremoniously occupied many palaces and temples as their temporary residence. As a result, when Hou Zhi was building the city wall, he demolished all these palaces and temples.
It is planned to use these construction materials to build the oars on the outer city wall.
Because the Ding Navy suddenly attacked, this huge project could not continue. Countless wood, bamboo, reed mats, ropes, paint and other materials were piled on both sides of the road at this moment, like a mess of ruins stretching into one another.
at.
This situation is very ugly, and the face of the Jin Kingdom is completely lost. After a while, the Song people will come in and they will laugh.
Hou Zhi walked along these supplies, occasionally stopping to take a look before continuing forward. Beside him and behind him, subordinates with solemn faces appeared from time to time, whispering a few words to him, giving him a deep salute, and then hurriedly retreated.
It took more than two moments for him to stand on the inside of Nanxun Gate.
The city gate is quite tall, but the city wall left by the Song people is extremely dilapidated. Through the city gate, he can hear people outside the city shouting, that is, the Song army has arrived as promised and is about to take over Kaifeng.
"Open the door."
Hou Zhi ordered in a deep voice and immediately knelt down in the middle of the road. After the officials in charge of opening the city gate creaked open, they all ran back and knelt down behind him.
As the city gate opened, the noisy words of the Song army poured in. Because of the different accents, Hou Zhi couldn't understand it. He could only vaguely make out that someone seemed to be talking happily about entering the city to plunder; there were also officers shouting.
, saying that they must wait for Grandpa Zhao to give the order; others cried and said that the blood of the country's enemies and the family's hatred had been washed away.
Then, there was the sound of heavy footsteps.
But Hou Zhi did not look at the person who came, he just leaned down and shouted with all his strength: "You Cheng, the minister of the lower country, lead the three ministers Hou Zhi to greet the heavenly soldiers of the upper country!"
When he shouted, the originally noisy crowd suddenly fell silent. In the doorway directly in front of him, many people gasped and sighed with satisfaction, as if a wind had suddenly blown by.
At this time, more than two miles away from Nanxun Gate, Li Ting rode in the lead. Thousands of people behind him formed a long queue and rushed around the city.
In the long queue, everyone was running or urging their horses. They came all the way, and the smoke was billowing. The officers on horseback were shouting back and forth along the edge of the road, boosting morale and adjusting the queue.
This force was Li Ting's headquarters. After defeating Wanyan Heda, they continued southward, destroying the Kaifeng imperial court's defense lines in the north like a torrent, and finally successfully crossed the river and headed south, strangling the Kaifeng imperial court.
throat.
At this time, all the soldiers knew that their commander-in-chief had received an order from Duke Zhou to snatch Kaifeng from the Song Dynasty. This was no ordinary honor! The soldiers were all excited and felt that the fatigue of long-distance marches and battles had been swept away.
"Get out of the way! Get out of the way! Don't block Grandpa Li's way!"
Seeing that the Nanxun Gate was wide open in front, and many Song soldiers were coming from the south road, and were about to squeeze in and block the city gate, Li Ting whipped his horse hard on the buttocks.
The war horse was in pain, and after bleating a few times, it sped up.
The cavalry following Li Ting also urged their horses, and some had swords in their hands and waved them in the air to threaten him.