The Happy Life of Small Officials in Northern Song Dynasty

(Thanks to 100 Possibilities, Alphabet book friends, Gaifeng Jinyun for giving monthly tickets. Thanks for the reward of Song of Ice, Moon and Fire.)

Early the next morning, Su Jin personally led tens of thousands of soldiers to the lake area in the south of Zuzhou City, but what Su Jin gave was not a battle order, but a confusing order. A five or six foot high earth dam was built on a small river that entered the lake on the south side of the great lake. After the earth dam was completed, people were ordered to dig up all the dams of several rivers and small lakes upstream. The terrain was high in the south and low in the north, and the water from the rivers and lakes rushed into the small river that had been built with an earth dam. In two days, the river surged, overflowing the grasslands and trees on both sides of the river bank, and suddenly became a swampy country.

Pan Jiang and the others understood Su Jin's intentions. Pan Jiang asked, "Does the commander want to divert water to fill the earth dam, and then dig the dam to flood Zuzhou City?"

Su Jin nodded and said: "The terrain is quite different. The terrain in the south is at least five or six feet higher than that in the north. When the flood floods into the city, it will be as high as a person. Do you think they can stay?"

Jing Tai smiled and said: "The commander is really unparalleled in resourcefulness. This method is really brilliant. It can be effective without spending a single soldier. The humble staff can't wait to see the scene of the flood attacking the city."

Su Jin said with a smile: "Don't rush. Zuzhou is low-lying. Several rivers in the south flow into the big lake, but the water level has been kept stable. This means that the Liao people must have opened canals to divert water out of the city and keep Zuzhou from being destroyed. The rising lake is submerged; I judge that there must be a large river or canal flowing out of the north or east of the city, and the next step is to block all the rivers that discharge the flood, and then I don’t need to talk about it.”

Jingtai raised his big finger and said: "The commander-in-chief has an excellent opinion, I would like to go to the northeast of Zuzhou to have a look."

Su Jin nodded and said: "Okay, you take 2 brothers to the north, and Wang Chao takes [-] people to the east. Remember to bring more straw bags, fill them with mud, and move overnight. The dam will be opened tomorrow morning. This mud dam I'm afraid it won't last long."

Under the orders of Jingtai and Wang Dynasty, they searched the north and east of Zuzhou overnight. Sure enough, as Su Jin expected, there were seven rivers flowing through the northeast. The river was blocked for three or four miles, making final preparations for the flooding of Zuzhou.

At night, the Liao army defenders in Zuzhou saw the torches on the east and north sides of the city, making a lot of noise. They thought it was the Song army building the siege fortifications. The food is hundreds of thousands of stones, even if they surround us for three to five years, they don't want to trap us to death. You just need to keep your eyes open and don't let them attack the upper city at night. Send me an order to increase the number of night watchmen on the northeast wall. , and hang three hundred wind lanterns on each city wall.”

In the early morning of the next day, Su Jin brought dozens of personal guards to the outside of the city of Zuzhou, and stood still three hundred steps away. Ma Han took out a strong bow with an iron arm, put on a feathered arrow and aimed at it from a distance, A small captain of the Liao Army at the top of the city saw this situation and pointed at Su Jin and others, laughing, and ridiculed: "Song Zhu! Are you going to stand outside the range of my bed crossbow for the rest of your life and shoot cold arrows? I don't believe your arrows. If you can shoot [-] steps, don't waste your time, go back to the Song Dynasty, if you delay, your Bianliang will be taken by our Daliao cavalry."

Ma Han shouted: "If you have the guts, just stand still."

The leader of the Liao army patted his chest and shouted: "Grandpa doesn't even blink."

Ma Han shouted: "Okay, whoever moves is the bastard tortoise."

The leader of the Liao Army laughed and said: "If you hit me, I will be your son, okay? If you can't shoot, you will be my son."

Ma Han shouted: "Son, look at Grandpa's arrows." After saying that, he bent his bow like a full moon, let go of his hand, and the arrow shot out like a shooting star, and the bowstring rebounded, making a low buzzing sound.

Su Jin rolled his eyes straight, called someone else's son, and called himself grandfather, what kind of generation is this.

But seeing that arrow fly over the open area of ​​[-] paces, it only went to the chest of the leader at the top of the city. Zhi Zhi came straight to him, without even a curve, straight and full of strength.

The little boss was startled, and forgot the promise not to move. He jerked his body to one side, and quickly moved half a step to the side. The arrow passed by his chest with a trembling sound, and someone behind him yelled loudly. The soldier on guard was shot by an arrow innocently, the arrow pierced through the armor and pierced his chest three inches deep, and it seemed that he could not survive.

All the Liao soldiers gasped, my good fellow, the Song people are evil, and one arrow can shoot [-] steps, what kind of arm strength and bow and arrow are these, if everyone is like this, can this city still be defended?

Ma Han's arms were numb. This iron-armed bow was made by him by asking Liang Shi to select high-quality refined iron refined from the Chengzhou Iron Mine. A wild yak has only four suitable hamstrings, which are taken out, dried and crushed, and then twisted into thin ropes. The 64 plum-blossom strings required for bowstrings require more than a hundred hamstrings. One can imagine how precious they are.

A good bow may not be usable. It is not easy to draw such a bow and arrow. Ma Han could only draw half of it at first, but he has a brute strength. Well, today Ben is going to shoot letter paper into the city. He took this bow and arrow out of consideration of a safe distance. Throwing it into the city is not difficult, but killing people at a distance of [-] steps requires the full bowstring to do it, so he shot it with one arrow. My arms and arms were a little numb.

"You hid, you are my son, son, there is a letter from my commander-in-chief on the arrow, send it to your father and me, and when the city is broken, you and I will talk about the relationship between father and son, haha Haha." Ma Han taunted loudly.

The little boss was wronged, with a livid face and said nothing, he turned his head and saw that there was indeed a ball of cloth bag hanging on the shaft of the arrow, which had been stained red by the blood of the dead soldier, so he quickly reached out to take it off, hurriedly went down the tower, and went to Report to the city lord's mansion.

Ye Lurong was sitting and drinking tea with a group of generals and officials in the city lord's mansion. When he heard Song Jun sending a letter into the city, he laughed and joked: "Could it be that the Song people want to make friends with me? Song people just like to engage in such vain things." Thing, I dare not fight, send a letter, can we give up our ancestors? It's a joke."

All the officials burst out laughing, and someone jokingly said, "Perhaps the people of Song Dynasty planned to send some beautiful women to bribe your lord. Your lord had a good time, and maybe they will take Zuzhou if they are soft-hearted."

Ye Lurong scolded with a smile: "Bah, I'm so lustful? It's almost as if the emperor of Song Dynasty gave his empress and concubine to me, hahaha."

Amidst the roar of laughter, Yelurong Shiran took out the letter paper from the cloth bag and unfolded it. It was heavily ink-stained, with a few lines written on it. The calligraphy was not very good, but it looked like a knife, a sword, and a halberd.

"Your Excellency, Tai Jian, my great Song army is coming south, and will soon capture Zuzhou. You think you are safe and secure, but you don't know that the disaster is coming; the soldiers of the two countries are innocent, and in view of this, the commander is out of morality and considers the innocent people. , You are allowed to evacuate the people for a limited time of one hour, and if the time is over, if the people are ruined, it is not because of the inhumanity of the Song Dynasty, please think twice! Su Jinzi, the general of the Song Dynasty who suppressed the North."

Yelurong was so angry that he stretched out his hand and threw the letter paper away, scolding: "You are so arrogant, who is this Su Jin? What a big tone."

Someone picked up the letterhead and looked it over, saying: "Su Jin is the general who commanded Xia's army when Daliao and Xia fought. It is thanks to this person that Daliao suffered a great loss a year ago."

"No wonder he's so arrogant, but this time, I told him to crush him in my hands." Yelurong gritted his teeth.

An official wondered: "Why is Su Jin so arrogant? They suffered a lot from attacking the city a few days ago. Could it be that they came up with some strategy and failed?"

"It's a bullshit strategy, it's just a bluff, how can the strength of Zuzhou be broken casually." Ye Lurong looked nonchalant.

"Master Yelu, don't take it lightly. Let's think carefully about whether there are loopholes in the city defense. What does he mean by reminding us to evacuate the people in his letter? What danger can people be in the city?"

"I have already said that they are just bluffing and trying to cause panic, so ignore him." Yelurong became impatient.

"No, my lord. Last night, the Song army acted sneakily and worked all night in the north and east of the city. Could it be a joke? I wonder if there is something strange?"

Yelurong frowned, but he didn't pay attention to what the Song army was doing in the north and east of the city. No one came to report it early in the morning;

"Let's go, go and have a look at the top of the city." Ye Lurong grabbed his weapon and went out, followed by a group of officials and generals, mounted their horses and galloped to the north city, and after they climbed the city wall, everyone set up an awning to look at the place where the Song army marched loudly last night. Because I am too familiar with the terrain, I can see something in the distance at a glance. If you look closely, it is something like an earth dam.

"When were those three earth dams built?" Yelurong asked.

"We didn't build it, it must have been done by Song Jun last night."

"Why did the Song army build an earth dam... ah... that's not good!" Yelurong yelled.

Everyone asked in surprise, "What's the matter, my lord?"

Without saying a word, Yelurong quickly descended the city and galloped towards the east city. When he went up to the tower, he could see the four newly built earth dams. Suddenly, sweat dripped from his forehead, and he said in a loud voice: "It's amazing, it's amazing. Incredible."