The Song Dynasty on the Sand Table

Chapter 383 Reinforcements
Zhenyang Town, the temporary prefectural government office.

Fu Songqing was sitting amidst a pile of case files, working up a sweat.

Since Sizhou had only recently fallen into the hands of the Northern Song Dynasty, it was in a state of disarray, with agriculture, handicrafts, and commerce all needing to be developed. Various government offices also needed to be rebuilt, and the entire administrative structure had to be dismantled and rebuilt from scratch.

He, as the prefect, had far too much work to do; he was never able to finish it all.

Just as he had approved a sum of money for the agricultural officials to use to build a branch in Zhenyang Town, a soldier rushed in from outside, shouting urgently, "Lord Fu, something terrible has happened! The puppet Qi army has suddenly attacked our pass! Please send reinforcements immediately, Lord Fu!"

Fu Songqing jumped up from the chair in a flash.

Yue Wenxuan's most important task for him was to prevent the pseudo-Qi from invading. Unexpectedly, the pseudo-Qi actually came.

Fu Songqing rolled up his robe and ran outside, shouting as he ran: "Quick, quick, quick! Ring the alarm bell! Call all the soldiers in the city! Bring everyone you can, including the yamen officials, clerks, archers, gentry, militia... bring everyone you can."

All that could be heard was the clanging of alarm bells echoing over Qingyang Town.

Although this place is just a town, it is a vital transportation hub connecting the north and south by land and water, and has a large population. As soon as the bell rang, the entire Qingyang Town was in an uproar, and a large number of people ran outside.

There were only two hundred soldiers in the city. They immediately understood the situation, packed their belongings, and rushed out of the city, heading towards the pass.

However, the others were much slower to act. Fu Songqing did not leave the city with the soldiers, but stayed behind to try to gather more reinforcements. All the officials and clerks in the yamen took up arms under his orders. But these people only numbered fifty, which was not very useful.

The local militia arrived with their newly formed archers, numbering over a hundred, which was no match for the larger force.

Fu Songqing was a little worried; sending such a small force as reinforcements would be the same as sending no reinforcements at all. But to his surprise, local gentry and militiamen quickly gathered more than a thousand people, piling up in the square in front of the yamen, forming a huge crowd.

Fu Songqing had done similar work in the Southern Song Dynasty before, and it was impossible to mobilize so many people without talking until he was hoarse. However, he did not expect that in the Northern Song Dynasty, he only needed to ring a bell to attract so many people.

"Sir, why is the bell being rung? What has happened?"

A local gentryman shouted at the top of his lungs, his face filled with urgency: "We've finally settled down, and the new crops have just been planted. We can't afford any trouble at this time."

"grown ups!"

"My lord, what has happened?"

Hundreds of mouths are asking questions.

Fu Songqing could only hurriedly say, "The puppet Qi army has attacked and is besieging our pass. General Zhang Wei is fighting a fierce battle and urgently needs reinforcements."

"Then what are we waiting for? Let's go!" many people shouted.

"If the puppet Qi army breaks through the pass and comes in, all our farmland will be trampled to pieces."

"The paper mill was only recently rebuilt after a lot of hard work."

The local militia members looked extremely anxious.

Listening to their discussion, Fu Songqing finally understood why the people were so willing to come to the rescue, unlike when the Southern Song Dynasty had summoned them before. It was mainly because they saw hope.

"send troops!"

Fu Songqing didn't waste any more words and set off immediately with two thousand local gentry and soldiers.

As they crossed the street, passersby couldn't help but ask what was going on. Some of the local militiamen explained to the passersby as they ran, which attracted even more people to join them. Many people went home, grabbed a hoe, and came out to mingle with the militiamen as they moved forward together.

These men, who had temporarily joined with hoes, were actually quite useless. In a real fight, they would run away faster than anyone else. They were only there to "set up the battleground" and cheer on their own side. But having more men did provide some courage, which was better than having fewer. By the time they reached the city gate from the prefectural government office, Fu Songqing's forces had grown to five thousand.

These five thousand men are no match for military discipline or regulations; they're a complete mob. They're utterly incapable of fighting a tough battle, but the sight of such a large, chaotic mass rushing westward is quite impressive.
-
Zhang Wei is fighting hard!

Kong Yanzhou's three thousand men were divided into six teams of five hundred each, and attacked in batches.

One squad was driven to despair by the musket fire, and another squad was immediately thrown into their place.

After several waves of attacks, a section of the wooden wall of the pass had been knocked down, revealing a huge gap. Fortunately, another hundred men arrived as reinforcements. These hundred men held the line behind the gap, arranged the musketeers in a semi-circle, and unleashed a barrage of musket fire at the gap.

The puppet Qi soldiers who rushed in through the gap were instantly wiped out, riddled with bullets.

This terrified the soldiers from the pseudo-Qi state behind them, causing another wave of them to collapse. For a while, no one dared to rush into the gap.

Voices could be heard not far away. Kong Yanzhou turned his head and saw that another hundred reinforcements from the Northern Song Dynasty had arrived.

Based on the current battle situation, he could basically deduce that the Northern Song army had built several passes in the northwest direction of Qingyang Town, with one hundred to one hundred and fifty soldiers stationed at each pass. These passes were not far apart, and if one pass was attacked, the next pass would immediately come to its aid.

Therefore, the number of reinforcements from the Northern Song Dynasty increased from one hundred to one hundred and fifty men each time.

No, we can't let the Northern Song army increase any further.

Kong Yanzhou sensed it; the enemy only had three or four hundred men, yet they were already so difficult to deal with. Once they amassed over a thousand men, what would be the point of fighting? He would be the one getting utterly crushed.

"Damn it, haven't you eaten yet? Go all out!"

Kong Yanzhou couldn't help but roar at his subordinates.

In fact, his soldiers were not weak at all; at least compared to the cowardly formations of the Southern Song and the puppet Qi regime, they were considered strong.

He once fought against the puppet Chu army and defeated the puppet Chu emperor Zhong Xiang.

The crazy soldiers under Zhong Xiang, who shouted "Burning holy fire, burn my broken body..." and charged recklessly, were all beaten to a pulp by Kong Yanzhou's men, and Zhong Xiang himself was captured and killed by Kong Yanzhou.

Based on this alone, he could be considered a T1-level fighter in the Southern Song Dynasty, if Yue Fei were considered a T0-level fighter!

However, when faced with firearms for the first time, even his brave soldiers seemed somewhat at a loss.

Kong Yanzhou had no choice but to announce an increase in the reward: fifty strings of cash for the first person to break through the pass, and ten strings of cash for each Northern Song soldier killed. After capturing Sizhou, the soldiers were allowed to massacre the city for three days, looting whomever they wanted.

This order boosted morale once again.

Massacring the city for three days—that's going to make them rich! They'll make a fortune!
The large group of soldiers rallied, raised their shields, and charged once more toward the breach in the wall.

"Hold on, hold on!"

The rifle in Zhang Wei's hand made a "bang," and a fierce soldier from the puppet Qi army fell to the ground in the distance. But just as Zhang Wei was about to load the next bullet, he discovered that the rifling in the barrel of his gun had been damaged...

"Oops!"

Zhang Wei took out his bayonet, clicked it onto the barrel of his gun, and prepared to fight.

(End of this chapter)