The Song Dynasty on the Sand Table

Chapter 414 The Rangers Are Back
Peng Qi didn't remain unconscious for long. The next day, after the anesthesia wore off, he slowly regained consciousness. Opening his eyes, he saw the ugly sleeping face of a strongman, with drool dripping down his back.

"Huh? I think I've really come back to life?"

Peng Qi moved slightly, and the strongman woke up, exclaiming happily, "Brother, are you alright?"

Peng Qi laughed: "You won't die."

The strongman was overjoyed and rushed out of the tent, shouting. Soon, more than a dozen people squeezed into the small tent, and then hundreds of soldiers took turns coming into the tent to see him.

Soon after, Yue Wenxuan was also notified and came to visit with Gong Erniangzi and Niu Gao.

Unable to get up from his sickbed, Peng Qi could only apologize, saying, "Young Master Yue, Privy Councilor, please forgive me for being injured and unable to perform the proper etiquette. I will not thank you for saving my life. If you ever need anything from me, just say the word."

Gong Erniangzi smiled and said, "We are all righteous people who are fighting against the Jin, so it is only right to help. General, you don't need to worry about it."

Niu Gao then said, "General Peng, you came to persuade me to surrender a few days ago, now it's my turn to persuade you. Why don't you take this opportunity to come to the Northern Song Dynasty?"

Peng Qi: "If you don't mind, I'll follow you brothers from now on."

Niu Gao laughed: "General Peng, the Northern Song Dynasty is different from the Southern Song Dynasty. It's a very proper place. The official position that the Northern Song Dynasty gave me was very legitimate, unlike the Southern Song Dynasty which just randomly bestowed official titles upon you. You and I can no longer act like bandits as before, using slang like 'following my brother.' We must not say such things again."

Peng Qi's face flushed slightly.

The Southern Song Dynasty was indeed very reckless, arbitrarily appointing "pacification commissioners" to various rebel armies in the Central Plains, resulting in a situation where officials were neither officials nor bandits.

It's no exaggeration to say that if you saw a scholar in a white robe and a feather fan, and he opened his mouth with a line like, "Fuck your mother, come with me to chop up those bastards," that would be a common occurrence.

Gong Erniangzi asked, "General Peng, how many Jin soldiers did the Jin army send out in the Battle of Mutuogang?"

Peng Qi's spirits lifted, and he quickly replied, "The Jin army numbers approximately five thousand, including five hundred Iron Pagoda Cavalry and five thousand cavalrymen, led by Jin Wuzhu. The puppet Qi regime has mobilized over twenty thousand men, led by Li Cheng."

Niu Gao said, "Li Cheng is nothing but a thief, yet he's become a general of the puppet Qi state?"

Yue Wenxuan laughed: "When the tiger is away, the monkey becomes king. The root of the pseudo-Qi state is still the group of surrenderers from the Southern Song Dynasty. Basically, there are not many who know how to fight. That's why traitors like Li Cheng and Kong Yanzhou became generals in the pseudo-Qi."

Niu Gao smiled strangely: "If I hadn't surrendered to the Song Dynasty, but instead devoted myself to working for the puppet Qi, I probably could have become a general."

Yue Wenxuan and Gong Erniangzi both laughed: "With the general's abilities, he could easily rise to the position of Privy Councilor in the puppet Qi state. But the Privy Councilor in the puppet Qi state is utterly useless. He would have to call the Jin soldiers 'father' if he encountered them. What's the point of that?"

Niu Gao laughed: "That's true, hahahaha."

Listening to their conversation, Peng Qi couldn't help but ask, "Gentlemen, is your plan this time to take Kaifeng as well?"

Yue Wenxuan: "Kaifeng is a tall and large city. If the enemy holds it firmly, it will be difficult to take it quickly and may tie down our main force. If the Jin Kingdom takes the opportunity to launch guerrilla warfare, it will cause great harm to the people in our rear. So my strategy is to take it if we can take it easily, and if we can't, then so be it."

Peng Qi: "I have heard that there is a magical artifact in the Northern Song Dynasty called the Thunderclap Thunder! As long as you perform the ritual, a huge thunderbolt will fall from the sky. After a few booming sounds, it can cause the city wall to collapse. Why don't we take this out and use it to knock down the Kaifeng city wall?"

Everyone: "?"

Gong Erniangzi: "Where did you hear that?" Peng Qi: "The merchants spread it! They also said that you used this kind of magic weapon when you attacked Shouchun City. There was only a thunderclap, and the walls of Shouchun City collapsed."

Everyone: "Pfft!"

It turns out that the cannon was given a name by the common people: Thunderclap.

Yue Wenxuan didn't hide anything from him and laughed, "That's a folk misunderstanding. Its real name is cannon. Moreover, it's not a magical artifact, but a man-made weapon, and its power isn't as great as people say. The Shouchun city wall had been in disrepair for many years and was already in poor condition, so it was knocked down with just a few shots. But the Kaifeng city wall wasn't so easy to take down."

The city wall of Kaifeng during the Song Dynasty was approximately 8 meters high and 5.1 meters wide at the top. The rammed earth core of the wall was encased in blue bricks, which not only provided strong impact resistance but also fireproofing.

A five-meter-thick city wall—trying to knock it down with solid iron bullets is a pipe dream.

Therefore, Kaifeng is not so easy to attack.

The Jin army was able to easily capture Kaifeng because the entire court was inclined to surrender, and the emperor was a coward. The Jin army didn't even have to besiege the city; Kaifeng surrendered on its own.

There are actually many reasons why Kaifeng surrendered.

To put it simply, "the Song army was completely ineffective in field battles," I'll skip the details here.

Because the Song army lacked field combat capabilities, the area surrounding Kaifeng City easily fell into enemy hands, allowing the Jin army to calmly use the "lockdown tactic" to intimidate Kaifeng into surrendering.

However, when it was the pseudo-Qi regime's turn to defend Kaifeng, the situation was different.

The Jin army had strong field combat capabilities, and the cavalry's "flower-blowing" tactics were a situation that the Northern Song's firearms army was not good at dealing with. It would be difficult for the Northern Song army to take over the area around Kaifeng before using the "lockdown" tactic to deal with Kaifeng.

Under such a premise, the puppet Qi army in the city would be more confident and more willing to defend the city and fight a protracted battle.

After Yue Wenxuan finished his analysis, Peng Qi couldn't help but nod and sigh, "Young Master Yue's explanation is so clear that even a rough man like me can understand it. Young Master Yue is truly a reincarnation of Zhuge Liang."

Yue Wenxuan thought to himself: I'm not a Zhuge Liang, these are just suggestions my dad gave to the "time traveler" based on his historical knowledge.

"We will continue to adopt a steady and pragmatic approach, developing each area we occupy thoroughly, and gradually approaching Kaifeng."

Just as Yue Wenxuan finished speaking, a scout rushed in and said quickly, "Young Master Yue, Second Madam, something terrible has happened! After Jin Wuzhu suffered a great loss yesterday, he was angry and sent out two teams of cavalry, each with a thousand men, all lightly armed, to bypass our camp and harass us in the direction of Qiao County behind us."

Upon hearing this, Peng Qi was slightly alarmed: "Oh no! The farmland and towns of Qiao County are going to be burned to the ground."

But Yue Wenxuan and Gong Erniangzi remained calm: "It's alright. A large number of cement fortresses have been built in the northeast of Qiao County, which can withstand the cavalry for a while. Messenger, go and inform Yizhangqing to lead the cuirassiers to drive away the Jin cavalry."

The messenger sped off.

Before long, the cavalry of the Northern Song Dynasty sprang into action. Yi Zhangqing led a thousand cuirassier cavalrymen and quickly headed towards Qiao County.

(End of this chapter)