end song

Chapter 222 Captive
Qingfu County, Xicheng Tower.

Li Xia sat on the chair and fell asleep, and then opened his eyes, only to see that it was not yet dawn.

"Feiyu is awake?" Fang Yankai was sitting by the side, filling out a booklet by the candlelight.

Li Xia rubbed her face and asked, "What time is it?"

"Yin Shi Er Mo, the sky is almost dawn."

"The house owner is looking for me, why don't you wake me up?"

"It's good to let you sleep a little longer." Fang Yankai put down the candle and booklet in his hand, and said, "It's not a big deal, I'm here to talk to you about the preparations for defending the city."

Li Xia let out a "hmm" and smelled a disgusting stench in the air.

"What's that smell?"

"The golden juice is boiled." Fang Yankai said: "The arrowhead has also been quenched. In addition to the golden juice, two pots of poison unique to the Miao village have been boiled..."

Because of this war, the relationship between the two seems to be much more harmonious.

Fang Yankai talked about the preparations for the city defense, pointed to a cloth bag on the table, and said, "Han Qi'an brought it for you at night."

Li Xia picked up the cloth bag, opened it, and found eggs inside.

Although the smelly smell from the city tower made people lose their appetite, he still peeled it and ate it casually.

"The population and food in the city have been counted, and I have arranged special personnel for food; in addition, this is the roster of archers, and I have asked Wu Ang to take people to the top of the city to listen to your dispatch..."

Fang Yankai is quite experienced in the various arrangements for defending the city, and he is still talking.

Li Xia's mind was still in chaos when he just woke up, and he just listened more often, thinking that there seemed to be something left to talk about before he fell asleep.

"By the way, all the people have moved into the city?"

Fang Yankai pondered for a moment, and said, "How can a county be relocated in just a few days? Many villages can only be moved to high mountains."

"The Mongolian army didn't have much time to attack the city, so they wanted to plunder." Li Xia said, "We can't let them loot people and food."

"The household registration population has been settled properly, and there are occasional omissions... There are not too many people. I have tried my best, and I have done the best I can." Fang Yankai sighed and said: "The frontier In the county, various ethnic groups live together, and it is not easy to govern..."

Li Xia heard him speak vaguely, and said: "I have only been in office for a short time, and it is not appropriate to interfere with the authority of the landlord's registry, but if one more person can be moved, one less person will die."

"That's right." Fang Yankai said, "Let's continue talking about city defense, the leather armor is not enough..."

While talking, the two went down to the top of the city to inspect the defense.

The sky gradually dawned, and there seemed to be the faint sound of horseshoes.

"The Mongolian army is attacking the city, get ready."

Li Xia looked around, and in the twilight, he saw a faint silhouette on the field outside the city.

Some soldiers picked up drumsticks and smashed them on the big drum, awakening Qingfu County from its silence.

"Dong dong dong..."

~~
"what is that?"

Yu Gang squinted and stared, and from a distance, he saw rows of figures staggering forward in front of the formation of the Mongolian cavalry.

He was selected by Li Xia as the head of the scout, and he has good eyesight.

"That's...our people?"

Yu Bing murmured and shouted: "County Captain, look!"

The sky is getting brighter, and the distant teams are getting closer.

Not only Yu Bing, but everyone on the top of the city could see that six or seven hundred men, women and children were being driven towards the county town by the Mongolian army.

These people come from all ethnic groups, but most of them are Bo people, wearing tattered gowns.

The cries had spread to the top of the city, mixed with scolding and screams, it seemed extremely miserable.

Li Xia turned her head and looked at Fang Yankai.

"Housekeeper, where did this come from?"

Fang Yankai didn't turn his head, nor did he speak.

He was already very haggard, and seemed to have aged a lot.

In a trance, the sky seemed to suddenly brighten.

Shouts rang out from the city.

It was a driven man shouting, with a crying voice, full of panic and fear.

"Open the city gate... They will slaughter everyone if they don't open the city gate... Open the city gate and save everyone, don't anger the Mongols...Ah!"

The man was walking and shouting, shouting and shouting, the voice stopped abruptly and became a shrill scream.

He fell into a ditch.

The ditch was dug an arrow away from the city wall, and it was filled with bamboo thorns. It was originally used to defend against the Mongolian army, but at this time, thirty or forty captured civilians fell into it.

The sharpened bamboo pierced their bodies.

"Ah! Ah..."

The wailing of crying father and mother shook the sky.

There are such screams in the world, which makes people's hair stand on end.

Fang Yankai shuddered and turned to look at Wu Ang.

He mumbled, but made no sound.

The Mongolian army was ordering the captives to fill the ditch, and Fang Yankai wanted to order them to be shot, but for a while he couldn't bear it.

"Fire arrows!"

The next moment, Li Xia shouted loudly.

He may not be free from inner struggles, but at this time, there is no room for too much hesitation.

No arrows were released immediately from the top of the city, Wu Ang led the archers to look at Li Xia and then at Fang Yankai.

"Fire arrows!"

Li Xia grabbed a bow and shot an arrow into the ditch with his own hands.

The arrow on the top of the city finally fell.

These arrows were either quenched with golden juice or poisoned, but they could only hit these captives.

There was another scream in the ditch, which gradually died down.

The Mongolian army did not give the survivors time to cry, and drove them to fill the ditch as soon as possible.

From time to time, there were a few more screams. If the people under the city were a little slow to fill the ditch, the Mongolian army would strike down with a knife;

The howling has hardly stopped since it started.

"Don't shoot the arrow! Don't shoot the arrow..."

Behind them, the Dali servants began building artillery carts.

……

"The owner's register." Li Xia said, "You said everyone has been settled properly? Where did these people come from?"

The county lieutenant is under the master book, so he is not qualified to question; moreover, the fact is that Fang Yankai has done an excellent job this time, and any county magistrate in the Song Dynasty may not be able to move the population outside the city in a short time. walking so much...

But Fang Yankai didn't dare to turn his head to look at Li Xia.

"Near Liangcaoyong, there is a village of Bo people who have never been under the jurisdiction of the county government... The villagers at the foot of Dupan Mountain..."

When Fang Yankai said this, Li Xia suddenly yelled again, interrupting his words.

"Who told you to stop! Shoot the arrows!"

Looking around, I saw that the captives below the city had already filled the first ditch, and they were filling the second ditch with soil.

Arrows rained down from the top of the city.

"It's not that I'm excused, but Feiyu, you should know that it's impossible for all the people to..."

When Fang Yankai said this, he was suddenly pulled by Li Xia and fell to the ground.

There were several screams from around, and the arrows of the Mongolian army attacked the city.

An archer nearby took an arrow, and the blood spattered Fang Yankai's face.

He wasn't afraid, but he felt a little bit dazed because of guilt.

Li Xia had already picked up his collar and lifted him up, turned his head, and took another look at the city.

"See clearly, the people under our rule."

In Fang Yankai's line of sight, a fallen old woman was still shouting towards the top of the city, and was shot down by an arrow.

He felt his heart was stabbed again, and tears welled up in his eyes.

For others, it is just grief and indignation.For him, these are all his responsibilities...

"Defend the city first." Li Xia pushed him on the back without saying anything else.

……

Under the city wall, two horse traps have been filled.

The captives built a row of wooden shields, pushed the wooden shields under the driving of the Mongolian army, rushed to the city under the rain of arrows, and started digging.

In the sound of "bang bang", the pole fell down.

The hot golden juice was also poured down, and there were screams in the city.

At the same time, the Mongolian army in the distance also fought back with arrows, pressing down on the Song army on the top of the city.

Even so, the casualties of the prisoners were still very high. In less than half a day, there were only more than [-] prisoners left under the city wall.

The defenders on the top of the city did not feel the joy of killing the enemy, but felt depressed.

Everyone is on edge.

They thought that the Mongolian army was not good at attacking the city, and they thought that the trapping ditch, golden juice, and Leimu prepared could cause damage to the Mongolian army.

But at the beginning of the siege today, almost all of the people who died were their folks and elders...

"What is that?!" Suddenly someone shouted.

Li Xia looked around and saw the Mongolian army setting up several cauldrons in front of the formation.

Yu Bing wiped the blood and sweat from his face, and murmured doubtfully.

"Did they throw the body in there?"

Bao San said: "That's refining corpse oil."

"corpse oil?"

"Did you see that? They built cannon carts to throw into the city a fireball ignited with corpse oil. This kind of fire is very difficult to put out with water..."

~~
"Oh!"

A big fire ball smashed in front of the city gate, and the fire burst out, wrapping the city gate.

"Quickly put out the fire!" shouted from the city gate.

The defenders hurriedly poured buckets down, but the fire did not diminish at all.

Fang Yankai has already caught up.

He wiped away his tears in a place where no one was around, reorganized his state of mind, and resumed his old and prudent appearance as the master bookkeeper, and began to organize the people to put out the fire.

"Use sand to put out the fire! Come on, there is sand at the top of the city!"

"Feiyu! Let the archers cover...sprinkle the sand down."

The sand was sprinkled on the fire at the city gate.

There were screams again and again in the city, one after another fireballs smashed into the city, and the flames rose in several houses.

There were also fires falling on the city walls, including several places where the Mongolian army concentrated their attacks.

The city walls in Qingfu County were built with wood as the frame and glued with waxy juice.At this time, with the corpse oil on it, the fire was burning so fiercely that it was difficult to extinguish it.

The wood and corpses under the city were also set on fire, and the fire became more intense.

"Don't splash water! The city wall will crack!" Fang Yankai roared, "You can only put out the fire with sand..."

(End of this chapter)