The Song Dynasty on the Sand Table

Chapter 381 Fighting Against the Many
Kong Yanzhou perked up and quickly led a small team to the top of a distant hill to get a better view.

He immediately spotted a small pass under construction in the distance. The pass was made of wood, and a section of the wooden wall had already been built in front of it, but arrow towers and other defensive structures such as barricades were not yet completed.

There were only about one or two hundred soldiers stationed inside the pass; the rest were all civilian laborers.

A cruel smile appeared on Kong Yanzhou's lips: "Alright, while they haven't finished repairing, let's attack and kill them all."

Meanwhile, on the side of the pass under construction, Zhang Wei received a report from his subordinates: "Commander, look over there, there's an army spying on us from afar..."

Zhang Wei climbed the half-built arrow tower and looked westward, where he immediately saw Kong Yanzhou and his group.

Kong Yanzhou was only there to scout the location; he didn't bring many subordinates, only a few dozen riders with him.

Zhang Wei grinned: "Those are enemy troops scouting the area, but they're not ordinary scouts; they must be the commander-in-chief."

The soldier next to him was startled.

The commander-in-chief came to scout the location in person?
That means the enemy's main force is not far from here.

Zhang Wei said, "Quickly request reinforcements! Hurry, hurry, hurry! Have the men from the nearest passes come to our aid immediately. At the same time, send a messenger on horseback to Qingyang Town to inform Lord Fu to mobilize troops for our aid. Hurry, hurry, hurry!"

Several fast horses immediately rushed out of the pass, one heading towards Qingyang Town, while the others scattered and ran towards several nearby passes.

Zhang Wei shouted an order: "Laborers, put down everything you're doing and go move the large logs to finish the last section of the wooden wall that's not yet in place. Hurry, hurry, hurry!"

The laborers were confused. They were standing in a low position, and the wooden wall next to them blocked their view, so they could not see the enemy spying on the pass in the distance. Therefore, the laborers were not panicked. Following Zhang Wei's orders, they moved the timber and piled it up at the wooden wall that had not yet been built.

Before long, the imperfect wooden wall of the pass was barely blocked by various supplies.

However, this temporary patching up doesn't seem very secure.

Just as the laborers finished blocking the breach in the wall, the sounds of men roaring and horses neighing came from the west, and an army of more than three thousand appeared before them.

Kong Yanzhou is here!
From afar, the laborers spotted the flag of the pseudo-Qi state, and then saw a group of soldiers dressed in incongruous attire marching beneath it. Most of these soldiers were wearing the uniforms of the Southern Song Dynasty.

"He's a surrendered general from the Southern Song Dynasty!"

"The surrendered generals of the Southern Song Dynasty have come to attack us, helping the puppet state of Qi."

The laborers were terrified and immediately fell into chaos.

Although they sensed the formidable strength of the Northern Song Dynasty, the pass before them was only guarded by 150 men. With such a small force and an imperfect wooden wall, how could they possibly hold off 3,000 people? That was a pipe dream!

The laborers were thrown into chaos, and many abandoned their work and ran eastward.

Zhang Wei waved his hand and ordered, "Open the east gate and let them leave."

The guards immediately obeyed and opened the east gate.

The laborers surged out and disappeared in the blink of an eye.

"Close the gates! Everyone to your positions, prepare for battle!" Zhang Wei roared. "We must hold out until reinforcements arrive."

The soldiers inside the pass were a little panicked. They only had 150 men, while the enemy had several thousand. How could they possibly fight this battle?
However, the Northern Song Dynasty had been winning battles and had almost never lost, which gave the soldiers strong confidence and high morale. Although there was an absolute disparity in troop strength, the soldiers did not desert and were still able to obey orders.

"The arrow tower isn't finished yet, but the poles are up. Anyone good at climbing trees? Let's go up there!"

At Zhang Wei's command, a young soldier, holding onto a wooden pole with both hands, climbed up in a few quick movements. Reaching the top, he wrapped his legs around the pole, freeing his hands to retrieve a musket. Zhang Wei gave him a thumbs-up: "Well done! You've got some of my skills from back in the day. You'll be a battalion commander like me someday."

The soldier was overjoyed: "Really?"

Zhang Wei: "It's definitely true. If we can win this battle, you'll make a great contribution and get promoted at least one level."

He kept encouraging the soldiers around him, some of whom climbed up the wooden wall, while others stood behind the firing holes that had been dug in the wall.

The pass was not yet built, and no defensive supplies were prepared, but the building materials served as defensive supplies.

There are plenty of stones and a lot of wood.

The melee soldiers, who had no muskets, moved a small amount of stones and wood behind the wall as quickly as possible.

Zhang Wei also took out a musket, his own special "rifled gun," with beautiful rifling engraved inside the barrel, and the paper-wrapped bullets he used were different from those of ordinary smoothbore gunners.

He looked left and right and quickly found a good spot. It was a corner of the stockade wall with a wide field of vision. Several boards were erected around it to cover his body, making it an excellent sniping point.

Zhang Wei hid behind the boards and yelled at the top of his lungs, "Once the fighting starts, I won't be able to give orders anymore. You guys decide how to fight yourselves! After all these years in the army, don't expect me to teach you everything in a fight."

The soldiers weakly replied, "Understood!"

Zhang Wei realized that although the group hadn't run away, their morale had been affected.

Afraid!

He could only pat his rifle and say, "I'm counting on you, old brother. If we can kill one or two of their big shots right at the start of the battle, our morale will be restored."

Just as the Guanzhong soldiers took their positions, Kong Yanzhou's men had already reached a distance from the village.

There weren't many soldiers guarding the stronghold, and Kong Yanzhou was too lazy to bother with siege weapons or even to set up a large formation. He simply waved his hand and said to one of his old subordinates, "Take a few hundred men and attack the first wave. This small, dilapidated pass should be taken in one go, right?"

The subordinate grinned and said, "General Kong, don't worry. I can kill all those soldiers over there with a single sneeze."

"Yeah! Go ahead!"

The man laughed heartily, led five hundred men, let out a strange cry, and the soldiers pressed towards the pass.

The formation was a mess, there was no strategy involved, and everyone was relaxed.

Of course, they didn't rush in recklessly. Before getting close to the stockade wall, they walked slowly to conserve their energy. The right thing to do was to speed up their charge once they were within a suitable distance.

The leading general, seeing that they were about to enter within an arrow's reach, waved his hand and shouted, "Brothers, ten more steps and the arrows from the other side will be flying over! Shields! Raise your shields, you bastards..."

As soon as he finished speaking...

The rifled musket in Zhang Wei's hand made a crisp "bang".

The leader didn't even utter a sound before falling backward.

The soldiers on both sides were shocked and quickly reached out to help him up, only to find that the general's face was covered in blood and flesh in the middle, with a large hole cut open by something.

(End of this chapter)