People in the Song Dynasty were lawless

Chapter 393: Collecting Jin and recovering Yanyun

Hundreds of Liao army Pishi troops formed a square formation more than ten steps away from the city gate, eagerly waiting for the opportunity to attack; more Liao soldiers carrying scimitars and howling like wolves came from all directions. Come.

More than 30,000 Song troops attacked the city, but there were more than 50,000 Liao troops in the city, which was more than them. Everyone had to crowd near the city gate to fight to the death.

Soon, the Song army rushed outside the Tongtian Gate, then formed a formation and opened fire in the direction of the city gate.

"Bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang!"

After the intensive gunfire, dozens of people fell down in the square formation in the city gate in an instant. It would be really difficult to fight in the wild, but in the narrow city gate, the Liao army's formation was a living target.

Seeing that it was not feasible to defend the city gate in the previous way, the surrounding Liao troops suddenly dispersed and ran to both sides.

Fortunately, although Yelubegute was unreliable, the middle and lower-level generals and officers under his command still had a certain degree of military literacy, and they quickly shouted to stop the troops and horses in the headquarters to maintain order.

And someone has already shouted: "Quick, prepare rolling stones, wood, lime, and grenades to throw down."

A large number of Song troops were crowded at the city gate and were charging inside.

But it didn't take long for the Liao army to hold on. Because of the fierce artillery fire outside the city, they bombarded the wall above the city gate indiscriminately. Many Liao soldiers who threw things below were killed by the shells.

Song Jun gave him a slap in the face and shouted: "General, what are you asking?"

"General, we caught a big fish."

There were sporadic gunshots nearby, and chaos further away. On both sides of the street, Song troops were escorting prisoners of the Liao army and tying them together with ropes.

"Chase!"

Yelubegut moved his lips but said nothing.

Some Han people shouted: "Those who surrender will not be killed, and those who surrender will not be killed! Now put down your weapons and surrender!"

Under normal circumstances, if they encountered a mob, the enemy would probably have been defeated by now, and Xijin City would have been captured.

The sunshine in early February has lifted off the warm veil of spring, revealing its fiery face, spitting out passion and scorching the world.

Some Liao people shouted loudly in Liao dialect: "The Qing Jin Gate has been breached, and the Song dogs have entered the city. We need reinforcements, we need reinforcements!"

The so-called infantry charges, artillery bombards, the artillery bombards the infantry and then the artillery bombards. Once the Song army mastered fire suppression, the infantry below quickly rushed into the city.

Therefore, once the Qing Jin Gate was breached, the rear of Tongtian Gate would be lost. The Liao soldiers were panicked for a while, and many of them had no intention of resisting at all and scattered like birds and beasts.

Under this situation, the Liao army and the Song army launched a fierce street battle.

"Who are you?"

Although Tongtian Gate is the north gate, it is actually located in the northwest of Xijin City, close to the west. The closest gate to it is not the Gongchen Gate, which is also the north gate, but the Qingjin Gate in the West City, which is also located in the northwest.

While the two sides were fighting to the death, a burst of shouts, shouts, various gunshots, and screams suddenly came from the direction of Qingjin Gate in Xicheng from far to near.

Cast iron helmets and leather hats can be seen on the wall, and bald and broken arrows and broken weapons are scattered on the floor.

The city gate was relatively narrow to begin with. The Liao army threw things down from both ends of the city wall. Even if they rushed into the entrance, the exit was still in danger. For a while, they actually blocked the Song army's offensive.

All kinds of miscellaneous sounds kept coming, making the already chaotic North Gate Tongtian Gate even more chaotic.

It was already afternoon, the sun was setting, and gorgeous flaming clouds hung in the sky. The dusk crow returned and overlooked the vast land. There were countless crowds of people on the ground. Some were coming from all directions, some were running away in a hurry, and some were slowly chasing after them.

Therefore, the Pishi Army only symbolizes a part of the Liao Army, but not all soldiers of the Liao State are Pishi Army.

"I surrender!"

However, the person responsible for cutting off the rear was the most elite Pishi Army of the Liao Kingdom.

The Pishi Army was not simply the bodyguard of the Liao royal family, but a part of the bodyguard.

The Liao State was founded on the elite soldiers of the Khitan, and all the soldiers of the Khitan nation who were able to conquer and fight were gathered together and collectively called the Suwei Army.

"Run quickly! Song Jun is coming to kill us."

Soon all kinds of defensive equipment that had been stacked on the city wall began to be used. All kinds of rolling stones, wood, lime, and grenades were thrown down the city wall for free.

The most elite part among them is called the Pishi Army.

"Snapped!"

But in his busy schedule, he actually forgot to change his shoes, revealing his pair of gold-patterned brocade boots with beads and pairs of horses, and gold threads on them. It was difficult not to recognize that he was a powerful person.

The roars, roars, and sounds of things being thrown on the walls, the echoes, the sounds of weapons blocking, and the miserable howls and groans from below the city walls almost never stopped.

When Zhou Mei entered the city on horseback, she saw the blood of soldiers from both sides splattered everywhere from the city gate opening to the stone steps of the city walls on both sides. The messy corpses were all over the ground, and the city bricks in many places were covered with debris. The blood was completely soaked and turned into a dark red color.

Just as Zhou Mei entered the city, a group of Song soldiers nearby pushed a Liao man who was tied up by Wuhua Da.

About a quarter of an hour later, all the resistance on the city wall had been cleared. The Song Army occupied the Tongtian Gate. A large number of Song Army soldiers entered the city. At this moment, the direction of the Tongtian Gate became quiet.

He was wearing Han Chinese clothes, tattered and dusty.

This means that the Pishi Army is the elite among the elite and has very high tactical literacy.

Zhou Meihe asked.

"Don't kill me."

Even though the commander-in-chief lacked command ability at this moment, the officers of the middle and lower-level Pishi Army were still able to maintain the situation and order and began to spontaneously counterattack.

From the third quarter of Shenshi to the end of Shenshi and the beginning of Youshi, for more than an hour, the front of Xijin City was being tested at any time. The Song army had already rushed into the city, and there was no end in sight to the fierce fighting.

Most of them were corpses of the Liao army, and there were also some corpses of the Song army. Their limbs and limbs had no time to be transported, so they were kicked around under people's feet. The war was too intense, and neither side had enough manpower to clean up the battlefield.

This Xiaozhi is still useful in physics. Yelv Begut woke up after a slap in the face and whispered: "This is the king of Liucheng County Yelu Zongjian."

Zhou Mei's eyes lit up, she waved and said cheerfully: "Send it to Mr. Zhang quickly. Mr. Zhang must be very happy."

The soldiers took Yelubegut away.

After the others left, Zhou Mei said to the lieutenant: "Di Hanchen, like us, started his career following Prime Minister Zhang. But later, Di Hanchen made great achievements and became equal to Prime Minister Zhang. Now he has captured Xiao Xiaomu, the king of Liao Kingdom. , we can’t let Di Qing be more beautiful than before.”

As he was talking, a raging flame suddenly ignited in the distance in the direction of Nancheng. He looked around and saw the Song army passing by on the streets in the distance. No one knew what had happened.

"Old Zhoutou, Lao Zhoutou."

Zhe Jimin, who came in from the Qingjin Gate, came on horseback and ran up to him quickly.

Zhou Mei rolled her eyes.

In terms of age, he is thirty years older than Zhe Jimin. He once participated in the Battle of Chanzhou at the age of seventeen or eighteen, and is now over sixty years old.

But it is a pity that his background is not very good. He was a big soldier in the battle of Chanzhou, and he was only a Yuhou of the Tianwu Army for so many years. It was not until the Song-Xia War that he made meritorious service with Zhang Kang in his fifties and was promoted to a high position. Zhe Jimin, who was only 20 years old at the time, entered the military camp and held a higher position than him. Who could let someone from a general family be able to directly take over the positions of his father and brother as soon as he entered?

So even now Zhe Jimin's official position is still half a level higher than his, even though he is much older than him, Zhe Jimin still calls him Lao Zhoutou.

"Xiao Zhezi, what happened?"

Zhou Mei's eyes showed cunning. If you call me Lao Zhoutou, then I'll call you Xiao Zhezi.

Zhe Jimin also rolled his eyes. Fortunately, he had a good relationship with Zhou Mei. If others called him that, he would definitely fall out, so he said: "Something happened, the Liao people started a fire."

"I saw it."

Zhou Mei raised her head and looked into the distance, frowned and said, "The Liao people are digging their own graves."

"Let's unite our forces and put out the fire first."

Zhe Jimin said: "It is a great achievement to protect Xijin City."

"You know how to make meritorious deeds."

Zhou Mei's capture of Yelubegut was also a great achievement, but she didn't care about competing for credit.

But Zhe Jimin was right.

Fan Xianggong sent troops in this surprise attack in order to kill two birds with one stone. It not only disrupted the Liao army's strategy of retreating step by step and luring the enemy deeper, but also saved the city of Xijin. Therefore, this fire still needs to be put out.

Therefore, even though Zhou Mei said this, she still ordered the lieutenants around her to summon the army immediately and head towards Nancheng.

At this moment, Jinnan City is burning with raging flames.

Yelvbegut was guarding the North City. He did not dare to order a fire. After all, as the son of the pampered Liao Shengzong and the true half-brother of Yeluzong, he only had one life. If he died, he would be completely gone, so he would rather be captured than to perish together.

The direction of Nancheng has also reached its limit.

Fan Zhongyan still has more than 20,000 troops left in his headquarters, and is currently attacking Jinnan City Gate. After the rear was lost, the South City Gate is also in chaos, and the Song army is rushing into the city.

Yelv Renxian was different from Yelvbegut. As a true loyalist of Yelv Zong, he knew that the situation was over and the Song army would definitely attack Xijin, so he simply took the risk and ordered his soldiers to set fires everywhere in the city.

Fortunately, Yelubegut did not give the order. Otherwise, the north and south sides would have burned together. The fire would have taken advantage of the wind and would have swept through the city in a short time.

"Kill!"

"Arrest the people first."

"Surrender and avoid death."

"My husband has an order, and those who stubbornly resist will be killed without mercy."

"Quick, quick, scoop water from outside the city."

The city was in chaos. Some Liao soldiers surrendered on the spot, some fled in all directions, and some resisted resolutely.

Thick smoke billowed from the south city gate, and flames formed in the surrounding houses.

When Zhou Mei and others arrived, Zhang Kang had also entered the city through Gongchen Gate. After Tongtian Gate was opened, Gongchen Gate quickly fell and fell.

"Master!"

Zhou Mei and Zhe Jimin raised their heads and looked at the sparks rising in the distance, as if they were heading towards Beicheng.

The good thing is that the wind is blowing from the north. Although the wind is not strong, it does not quickly spread the flames from south to north with the help of the wind, so it is only burning in the south city gate area.

"It's not easy to extinguish such a big fire. Send me an order. Except for those escorting the prisoners, everyone should go south, cross the central axis, destroy the houses, and dig out a fire break."

Zhang Kang said immediately.

Firebreaks have been one of the main means of fire prevention since ancient times.

"Tokyo Menghualu" records that the Bianliang Fire Brigade, in addition to using water trucks to extinguish the fire, the conventional method is to demolish the surrounding houses immediately after the flames start to prevent the fire from continuing to spread.

So after hearing Zhang Kang's order, the surrounding generals quickly took the order and left. A large number of Song troops carried guns and surged toward the streets and alleys of the south.

The city of Nanjing in the Liao Dynasty was very large, with a length of five or six kilometers from north to south. The square northeast area was Shihefang and Xianlufang, and further south was Tanzhou Street, which was the cross street of the Central Cross Street. The central axis of Jincheng.

The place where Yelv Renxian set the fire was located at the Yamen of the General Manager's Office of Xijin City. It was a building next to the Danfeng Gate of the South City Gate. To the west was the Xijin Palace, where Yelv Zongzhen lived when he was in Nanjing.

After the flames burned, the first direction they spread was the Cherry Orchard to the east of the Office Gate, and Nange and Niu Street to the north. The streets were criss-crossed and flames were burning everywhere. A large number of Liao troops fled towards Yaochi and Guanyin Lake in the southwest of the city, away from the sea of ​​fire.

"Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha."

Yelvren stood on the Danfeng Gate Tower of the South City Gate first, with the flames raging behind him. He opened his hands and laughed loudly: "Even if we can't defend it, you Song people can't even think of getting Xijin."

"Bang bang bang bang!"

Guns fired from the city, and Yelvren was beaten into a sieve first. He fell heavily from the city wall and was broken into pieces.

"Go into the city and put out the fire!"

Fan Zhongyan was sitting in a car outside the city.

He is fifty-nine years old this year, and his bones will be broken if he rides a horse, so he can only ride in this small car.

Today, the rubber in the Song Dynasty is mainly used in steam engines. Before the rubber trees grew, the rubber brought back from South America was used less.

Therefore, the cart still uses wooden wheels. Although it is a little bumpy, it is still better than riding on a horse without a backrest.

Seeing the raging flames at the South City Gate, Fan Zhongyan waved his hand and said: "We must save Xijin City."

"Yes."

The generals immediately shouted, and a large number of Song troops behind them began to charge.

There was a continuous fire near Danfeng Gate, so the Song army entered through Kaiyang Gate in the east, and the Liao troops inside surrendered one after another.

At this moment, the sky has darkened. It is almost the end of Youshi, that is, around seven o'clock in the evening. There is only a trace of sunset in the western sky, and the land of Youyan is dark, as if it is about to fall into a deep sleep.

Only the raging fire in Jijinnan City was burning, and the billowing smoke obscured the sky. Even the bright moonlight rising in the east seemed to be obscured by the clouds and smoke.

"Collect Xijin and restore Yanyun!"

Fan Zhongyan stood up from the car with his hands behind his back. The gentle north wind blew his robes and beard flying. Although his face looked slightly older, his eyes were unwavering.

The land of Yanyun, which has been lost for hundreds of years, is finally returning to the embrace of the Han people!

(End of this chapter)