Volume 2 Chapter 47: Between Wars
Of course, Xiao Talan Wanyan Guoying wanted to get out alive, and he soon figured out that this must be due to the different heights of the inner and outer walls. It was not some magic trick, but just a very simple but practical trap. Once he understood the principle and got rid of the fear in his heart, the youngest Meng'an of the Jin army, who had a strong desire to perform and survive, naturally wanted to try his best to climb back.
The two simplest ways are to call on other soldiers who have fallen into the trap to serve as a human ladder for you, and to carefully carry and stack the bodies yourself and make a place to stand under the wall.
Wanyan Guoying chose the second method because the former would expose his identity as a frontline general and would easily attract the attention of the Song army crossbowmen on the city wall, while the latter would be much more bland... at least many people did so.
However, things were still somewhat difficult. Firstly, most of the bodies slid to the bottom of the ditch, making them difficult to carry. Secondly, the gap between the inner side of the sheep-horse wall and the trench was very narrow, making it difficult to stack the bodies.
After several failed attempts, Wanyan Guoying, whose armor had been pierced by seven or eight crossbow arrows and who looked like a hedgehog with its hair lost, noticed someone else's escape route. A few dozen steps to his side, a young man who was obviously a "strong civilian" under Zhang Yu was trying a seemingly feasible escape route.
This man was also stacking corpses, but he was not doing it at the bottom of the narrow wall. Instead, he was stacking them at the bottom of the inner trench... Because there was a ladder next to him, it was obvious that he was going to use the corpses to build a stable base for the ladder on the ice so that he could climb over the wall and escape back.
Wanyan Guoying chose to cooperate with this person without any hesitation.
A young Jurchen noble and a young Han citizen who might be from the street somewhere west of the capital, under the city wall of the Song army, amid the sounds of wailing and arrows, worked together to carry the corpses of Jurchens, Han people, or people of other ethnic groups, in an attempt to escape back to the Jin army camp... There is nothing in the world more absurd, yet more reasonable, than this.
This is the powerlessness and helplessness of an individual in a total war.
The silent cooperation between the two sides went very smoothly, and they soon successfully put up the ladder. However, at that moment when the ladder was put up, the nearest person on the top of the city wall noticed the movement here. With the shouts of the commander on the top of the city wall, their chances of escape were greatly reduced.
So, on the noisy battlefield, Wanyan Guoying threw his former collaborator onto the ice at the bottom of the ditch without hesitation, and climbed up the ladder first, ready to escape before the impending mass shooting... The latter climbed up awkwardly and hurried to catch up, but as the two climbed the ladder together, the already unstable lower body of the ladder suddenly slipped, and it tended to lose control.
Wanyan Guoying was furious, so he reached for the knife at his waist on the ladder, ready to kill the man behind him on the spot. However, before he touched the knife at his waist, he felt a pain under his armpit... The Jin army soldier turned around and realized what was happening.
It turned out that the young reinforcement behind him keenly noticed Wanyan Guoying's intention, and then took the lead and snatched the strange white blade hanging on the opponent's waist from below, and then directly inserted the knife into the gap of the opponent's armor from the lower side.
After being stabbed with a knife, Wanyan Guoying was still enduring, but this man was the first to panic. He actually gave up the fight for the ladder and chose to jump off the ladder in a panic and lie down behind the pile of corpses on the ice.
In contrast, the intense pain stimulated Wanyan Guoying, and the retreat of the man made him no longer care about the stability of the ladder. With a strong desire to survive, he continued to crawl hard, but the pain in his armpits seriously hindered his movement. He only managed to climb three or five steps before he could no longer move. During this pause, many arrows flew at him, and at least four crossbow arrows successfully penetrated his arm, which was the weakest part of his defense, causing significant damage.
Under the combined severe pain and the location of the wound, the man could no longer hold on to the ladder and fell directly onto the pile of corpses.
The man who was holding his head at the bottom of the ladder, after seeing this scene, realized the opportunity. He actually picked up the knife on the ground for the second time, rushed forward to the opponent's back, and stabbed the blade in his hand into the opponent's neck. Then, under the subtle gaze of the Song army crossbowmen on the city, he rushed up the ladder and climbed over the fatal sheep and horse wall.
As for Wanyan Guoying, who was stabbed twice and hit by four arrows, he did not escape alive in the end.
Originally in history, this man lived to be seventy-four years old. As a rare long-lived royal veteran of the Jin Dynasty, he experienced the rise of the Jurchens, civil strife and fighting, and all the wars and uncertainties of the Song-Liao War and the Song-Jin War. In the end, he held the same military rank as Da Talai, that is, the title of deputy marshal of the Jin Dynasty; and held a similar prominent position to his father, that is, the governor of Xijing. He died at the end of the most prosperous period of the Jin Dynasty, Emperor Shizong.
But now, at the age of 23, he died under the city of Nanyang because of a trench and a wall, because of his strong desire to perform and survive, died under the sword of his uncle, and died under the resistance of a Haner reinforcement of a similar age...
Nothing could be more reasonable.
Otherwise, with the war having progressed to this point, who can we turn to for excuses for the millions of lives that have been lost on this land?
Even in the afternoon, when the Jin army called off the battle and the Song army went out of the city to clean up the battlefield inside the Yangma Wall, none of the Jin army generals who had already known the situation of the inner trench behind the Yangma Wall asked why Wanyan Guoying never returned? They didn't even know that the young Meng'an had been stripped naked by the unsuspecting Song army, and even the crossbow arrows that hit him were pulled out with great effort. In the end, like other Jin army soldiers, he was thrown out of the Yangma Wall naked and became the outer barrier of the wall.
Of course, everyone thought of similar possibilities, but most people didn’t care much... It was as if the Jurchens had never lost a general. Wanyan Aguda personally braved the arrows and stones to seize the pass and fight on the battlefield. Could it be fake?
As for how Wanyan Balisu will explain to his brother when he returns, that is his own business and has nothing to do with others.
In fact, after Wanyan Wushu and other generals of the Jin army figured out the reasons for the failure to capture the city, they discussed it for a while and only cared about two things in today's battle:
First, the casualties were somewhat heavy;
Secondly, the defense of Nanyang City does have some tricks, and it can be seen that the people defending the city have some tricks and foundation.
The two things eventually merged into one thing, which was whether to continue the siege at this intensity before setting up a large enough and sufficient cluster of stone cannons?
The answer is beyond doubt. The fourth prince Wanyan Wushu had already made up his mind. He wanted to make sure that the people of Song Dynasty in the city would not be able to breathe for a day.
But if this is the case, it would not be worth it to take the lives of the Jurchens, or the main force of the Jin army, to explore the way towards the city.
As a result, Zhang Yu was promoted as expected. He is now the governor of Henan Province of the Jin Dynasty, and was granted a large amount of military equipment and food. Wanyan Wushu also allowed him to form a new army of 10,000 people! That's not all. The fourth prince also promised that if Nanyang was conquered in the future, a Qi State would be established in the east of Henan Province, with Dongjing City as its capital, and a Zheng State would be established in Henan Province, with Nanyang City as its capital. The person who was able to help the southern expedition this time was not necessarily alone.
Zhang Yu was of course ecstatic about this. After thanking the Fourth Prince for his great kindness, he swore to do his best to help the Fourth Prince capture Nanyang City and capture Zhao Jiu from Cangzhou alive.
The Fourth Prince also smiled and comforted her, which was a rare occasion.
However, when this man returned to his eastern camp and entered his own military tent, his face suddenly turned gloomy. After a long while, he called his sworn brother and trusted deputy general Li Dayin, and explained everything to the latter in the back tent.
"You're asking us brothers to die!" Li Dayin fell into his tent when he heard this, and then his face was full of helplessness. "Today, the three Jurchen Meng'an came together to help, but they only suffered heavy casualties and couldn't even pass the Sheep and Horse Wall... If it continues like this, how many days will it take to break through the Sheep and Horse Wall? How many days will it take to fill the inner moat? And then there's the city wall!"
"They said we should wait until they finish firing their cannons!" Zhang Yu replied with a dark face, playing with the dagger in his hand. "We don't necessarily need to break the city wall."
"Fire the artillery?" Li Dayin couldn't help but sneer. "The Jurchens are not fools. Now that they know the tricks of city defense, they must have enough artillery. In my opinion, the Jin people will not move without 200 artillery, maybe 300 or 400 artillery, but there are only 50 artillery in the camp now... By then, I'm afraid all of us brothers will die!"
Zhang Yu also sneered, but did not speak for a while.
"Brother, have you been fooled by the phrase 'claiming to be alone and helpless'?" Li Dayin suddenly remembered something and asked seriously.
"If I had been fooled by them, I would not have come to you today." Zhang Yu glanced at the other party and shook his head repeatedly. "My family knows my own business. How can I have the fate of such a noble family? Wasn't I surrounded by the Jin people and driven all the way here?"
Li Dayin finally breathed a sigh of relief and explained a little more: "It's not that I'm suspicious, it's just that I'm being controlled by others now, and I just feel uneasy..."
"No need to say more." Zhang Yufu shook his head again. "I asked you to come here, but I asked you to think of a way to both give an explanation to the Jurchens and save as many soldiers as possible... Actually, I am the same as you. I feel uncomfortable with the Jin people, as if someone is holding a knife to my neck. I don't expect any rewards or future in this battle. I just hope to survive the war safely. By then, I can still save a few thousand soldiers, and we brothers can find a remote corner and live happily for a few years!"
Li Dayin nodded repeatedly, then stood up, bowed, and accepted the order, then left the tent... He was born a carpenter, and was later drafted into the army. He was a gunner when defending Tokyo City, and he had defended Huazhou before. He was an expert in city defense.
Seeing Li Dayin busying himself, Zhang Yu did not say much. After a little preparation, he took off his armor, and regardless of the cold winter, he went out of the tent with his bare chest and a dagger in hand. He ordered his subordinates to drive out the "one-stick men" who had just returned from the battlefield in the morning and the "new recruits", preparing to continue expanding his troops.
But it is obvious that, like Zhang Yu and Li Dayin, after experiencing today's brutal siege, many people in this special force have doubts and doubts about the prospects of the war, at least their own prospects in this war.
"What did you say?"
After a moment of silence, Zhang Yu, shirtless and revealing a red tattoo on his chest, turned over and sat on the railing high up in the camp in the afternoon sun, then laughed and questioned the middle-aged civilian who spoke first. "I'm not letting you be a stick man anymore, and you're still not happy?"
"Grand Marshal." This middle-aged man who was obviously nominated quickly kowtowed to Zhang Yu and explained carefully. "Grand Marshal, you have shown us respect, and we are naturally grateful..."
"Dujian." Zhang Yu fiddled with the dagger in his hand and corrected the other party nonchalantly. "Just now, the Fourth Prince promoted me to be the Dujian of the Henan Army... Where did this Taiwei come from?"
"Yes, Captain!" The middle-aged man continued to kowtow. "Captain, you have shown me your respect, and we are grateful, but we are not soldiers, we are mostly merchants and farmers, we can neither use knives nor swords, and we can neither kill people. Wouldn't it be a waste to go into battle? It would be fine if we lost our lives in vain, but I am afraid that it would delay the war and delay the Captain's future with the Jin people."
Zhang Yu raised his eyebrows slightly when he heard this, as if he was thinking about something.
Seeing this situation, the crowd inside the fence seemed to be encouraged. With the recommendation of another group of people, another person stepped out. He was a young man who had been promoted to a reinforcement soldier, who set out today carrying a ladder and then came back alive.
Unlike the middle-aged man on the ground who seemed cautious but was actually at ease, the young man obviously flinched for a moment, but still reluctantly knelt on the ground and kowtowed: "Captain, we...we actually want to go back and be civilian laborers...Today, we went out with the ladders, and there were a team of 100 people, but only more than 80 came back alive, and more than a dozen were shot and injured . If this continues, we will not be able to survive with just a piece of wood. If we were civilian laborers, we would have let many of them go when we saw the government troops on the city wall."
Zhang Yu turned his head to look at the dazzling sun, touched the tattoo on his chest, and then nodded: "What you said makes sense and is true... When it comes to the battlefield, the government troops will naturally shoot arrows at the soldiers first, and farmers and merchants who have become soldiers will not kill people. Even if they really carry a ladder to the top of the city, they will just be killed by the government troops with a knife."
The two people below kowtowed repeatedly, and the two large groups of people behind them who saw hope also knelt down and kowtowed.
"But there's nothing we can do about it." Zhang Yu suddenly sighed loudly. "If you were soldiers at the beginning, wouldn't it be enough if you could kill people? At the very least, you could be craftsmen, you wouldn't have to go into battle, and you could still eat and drink well... But you are just farmers and merchants! In this world, what's the point of being a farmer and a merchant?"
The two men below were about to speak, but Zhang Yu suddenly became serious: "I have a plan. It can help you quickly become soldiers. You will no longer be afraid of fighting in battle. You may even make contributions and become officers... Surround these two leaders!"
The two men below looked at each other, and in an instant, dozens of soldiers came out and surrounded the two leaders. They were obviously familiar with the situation. At the same time, the people outside also retreated in a hurry, but soon there were soldiers who surrounded them from behind.
"Get up!" Zhang Yu didn't care about these, but raised his hand and shouted at the two people in front of him.
Both of them had shaking hands and legs. The young man even reached out to help the middle-aged man, and they managed to stand up together.
"Tell me your names." Zhang Yu asked with narrowed eyes, but suddenly pulled out a dagger, which was sharp in the sunlight. "What's the name of the young man? What's the name of the middle-aged man who's pretending to be so pretentious? Where are they from? What do they do?"
"I am from Zhengzhou, and I own a shop in the city. I was named Ma Fei because I was a little fat when I was young." The middle-aged man trembled. "The governor must forgive me."
"Zhou Bin, a man of iron... from Ruzhou." The young man was also shocked for a moment. "He was originally a scholar."
Zhang Yu nodded, and suddenly threw the dagger in front of the two men, in the middle of the armored soldiers, then smiled and said something casually: "It doesn't matter whether you are scholars or businessmen. I will blow a whistle later, and you two will start fighting, but only one can survive... In this way, the winner will be considered as a killer, and can be promoted to a higher level. A stick man will become a supplementary soldier, a supplementary soldier will become a regular sergeant, and a regular sergeant can be promoted to an armored soldier. The loser is destined to be useless in this world, it is better to die early!"
Everyone around was shocked, but Zhang Yu suddenly whistled on the fence.
The two people who were surrounded looked at each other instinctively, and almost at the moment their eyes met, the young man, Zhou Bin from Ruzhou, suddenly grabbed the dagger on the ground. Seeing this, the middle-aged businessman Ma Fei turned around and tried to escape.
It happened in a flash. Seeing Ma Fei running away, Zhou Bin just stepped forward with all his strength and knocked him down from under his feet. Then he stood up and pounced on him, and finally stabbed the dagger directly into Ma Fei's neck.
Ma Fei lay on the ground with his head raised, and he struggled a few times before he stopped moving. However, although he was dead, the blood from his neck was still spurting out, dyeing half of Zhou Bin's face and chest blood red. But Zhou Bin didn't dare to get up easily, and could only cry while letting the blood splatter.
Seeing this scene, Zhang Yu applauded and laughed: "Although your movements are sparse, you are very fast. You killed someone in the battle today, right? And today you couldn't even find the government troops, you must have killed your own people while fleeing, right?"
Zhou Bin, covered in blood, looked up blankly, but nodded without saying anything.
"It's okay, it's okay." Zhang Yu, who was sitting on the fence, shook his head and laughed. "This world... When I was in Tokyo, I didn't get along with a commander named Wang Shan. That guy was born in Hedong, and he often bullied me because he had more soldiers. But he often said something very good, and I remember it clearly... He said that when the world is in chaos, it is the time to redefine the rich and the poor, the noble and the humble! Scholar, remember, from today on, scholars will be trampled under the feet of us tattooed thieves! And since you have made a good start today, I will make an exception and give you the treatment of a soldier, give you a dagger, and let someone tattoo a flower on your body to determine your status! From now on, you will also be a superior person in troubled times!"
Zhou Bin was still confused, but was dragged away by the soldiers around him.
After Zhou Bin left, Zhang Yu continued to look down at these men with sticks and reinforcements who were already horrified, but no one dared to look at them.
“Now that these two groups of birds have come out, none of them can escape. Let them fight each other to decide the winner… As for the rest, use a ruler to measure them. Select the taller and stronger ones, and organize another 3,000 of them. If that’s not enough, send someone to tell the rear camp to go to the surrounding villages and towns to fetch some people.” After Zhang Yu said this, he jumped off the fence and went back to the military tent with his bare chest as if nothing had happened.
As for the civilians and reinforcements behind him, they were almost in despair.
It was getting dark, not to mention what was happening outside the city, but inside the Nanyang Palace after the victory, there was a weird atmosphere… It turned out that after returning to the palace after the battle, Yang Yinzhong, the commander of the Imperial City, who had disappeared before, appeared. He did not mention how much he had gained, but just reported some weird matters in a rambling manner, from the morning meals of the soldiers on the city, to the consumption of coal reserves preserved in ice water, to the soldiers' cotton clothes, etc. It was everything, and they were all specific numbers that Emperor Zhao liked the most, which sounded boring.
Emperor Zhao listened quietly to Yang Yizhong's report before nodding his head: "Thank you for your hard work, Zhengfu. But I just remembered that there is one more thing I want you to check..."
"Your Majesty, please give your orders." Yang Yi Zhong quickly lowered his head.
"People in the city should be eating now, and the stoves in the military camps below the city should be boiling water for washing feet. Go and see if there is enough hot water for the city. If not, immediately take the gold medal to find Yan Shaoyin and ask him to prepare it." Emperor Zhao looked at him seriously. "Then come here to cancel the coal number."
Yang Yi Zhong was silent for a moment, but still obeyed the order and left the palace immediately.
After Yang Yizhong left, the other important officials in the hall looked at each other, and then the Chief Censor Hu Yin stepped out and said, "Your Majesty, if you care about the soldiers on the city wall, why don't you take the initiative to go up to the city wall and take a look? If you send your own troops to check what the foot washing water is, the soldiers may not be grateful!"
"That's right." Lu Haowen, who was in high spirits after the battle today, asked Lu Xianggong, who rarely stepped out to meet him. "In my opinion, the emperor should go to the top of the city and reward those who have made outstanding contributions in the war, so as to show the emperor's grace and power!"
"In the past, during the Jingkang period, the weather was cold and the ground was frozen. The soldiers on the city walls of Dongjing were short of military supplies and often deserted. So Yuansheng (Song Qinzong) ordered that the palace, including the empress, and thousands of palace ladies, personally sew scarves and send them to the city walls. The soldiers on the city walls were very grateful, but they said, 'Although scarves are good, they lack winter clothes and coal, and it is really difficult to hold on.' Then the deserters continued to flee..." Emperor Zhao lowered his head and read the documents non-stop, and then called another person to confront him. "General Hu (Hu Hongxiu), did you know about this when you were on the city walls?"
"Reporting to the emperor, it is true." Hu Hongxiu stepped out of the line and said, "Not only that, the number of nobles in the palace is limited after all, and the support is not enough, so the troops sent to the city can only come first, and the soldiers who did not receive the support simply dispersed, and some even surrendered to the Jin people directly... Your Majesty did not go to the city to comfort one or two of the role models, but was concerned about whether the soldiers on the city could get enough hot water. In my opinion, it is really appropriate."
Hu Yin was speechless, and Lu Haowen was also silent for a while... After all, this was totally inconsistent with their understanding of the values of war, but it also seemed to be very reasonable, and there was also the lesson of Jing Kang there.
However, there are always people who are better than others. At this moment, Lu Yihao, Lu Shuxiang, suddenly said, "Your Majesty, in this case, when the battle comes tomorrow, why not ask you to put on armor and fight the enemy yourself? The soldiers will surely be grateful, but it will not delay your guarantee of fair logistics for the soldiers after the battle..."
Emperor Zhao put down the document, deep in thought.
But the rest of the ministers were all dismayed. Lu Haowen even disregarded the rules and turned around to look at several censors, intending to ask them to come out and stop it.
However, Hu Yin, the Imperial Censor, who was originally feeling embarrassed, was overjoyed when he heard this, and then he directly cupped his hands to express his agreement: "I think what Lu Shuxiang said is very reasonable."
Upon hearing this, Zhao Jiu finally nodded heavily, while Lu Haowen and other ministers were all stunned... The team of Nanyang City is probably not as capable as the group of people at Bagua Mountain back then!
What was Emperor Zhao thinking when he assigned the candidates that day? !
