Volume 3 Chapter 61: Murder
The hill opposite the Fangzhou city is part of the northern mountain range Qiaoshan, called Xiaoqiaoshan.
As the name suggests, this mountain got its name for two reasons: one is that it comes from the whole mountain of Qiaoshan, and the other is that the top of the mountain is right in front of the big suspension bridge in the north of Fangzhou City. Such terrain, combined with the road and river in front of the mountain, and the Fangzhou City on the south bank of the river, naturally formed an exquisite, solid and integrated defense system.
By the evening of that day, a full day had passed since Wu Jie climbed up to the Qiaoshan military camp in person after he cried while looking at the mountain. At this moment, the governor of Jingyuan Road was sitting in the camp on the mountain, watching coldly as the soldiers in the camp celebrated wantonly.
Of course we should celebrate.
I didn't mention last night. Today at noon, 10,000 Jin troops came to attack. Almost all of them were Jurchen and Bohai soldiers. They were intimidating and shocked the defenders. In fact, these Jin troops were indeed strong. They first took a rest in the gullies of the plateau far away. When the hottest time in the afternoon was over and they had recovered their strength, they all dismounted, put on heavy armor and held hard bows. They fired at the Song troops on the mountain and the city on the other side of the river, and ignored the effective casualties caused by the crossbows, enemy-killing bows, and divine arm bows, and forced to attack the mountain on foot!
The Song army had clearly killed and wounded effectively, and the Jin army had clearly suffered obvious casualties, but the Jin army still fought hard to the front of the mountain . By the time the Jin soldiers reached halfway up the mountain, the Song army in the front row of the military camp on the mountain had begun to collapse.
But the Song army still won!
As luck would have it, before the Shenbi bow sequence in front of the military camp collapsed, a Shenbi archer hastily raised the angle and shot a crossbow arrow, which actually pierced the foot of the enemy Wanhu from a distance. The Jin army was so frightened that everyone rushed to rescue him. In addition, the Jin army had already suffered considerable casualties and did not dare to let the injured Wanhu stay at the foot of the mountain, so the Jin army simply retreated.
At this time, the scouts found out that the Jin army retreated to two plateaus in succession and stopped to rest after hiding in the flower ditch ten miles away... In other words, today's battle was indeed won, and it was a big victory! Because the Jin army left behind more than a hundred corpses, but the Song army was almost unscathed.
"Who shot that arrow?" Most of the people in the camp were still in a state of commotion, but as Wang Xi in the city on the other side of the river was ordered to lead his troops to the military camp to help clean up the battlefield, dozens of officers gradually gathered in front of the commander-in-chief, and Wu Jie only then looked up and asked.
The generals looked at each other in bewilderment. However, Yao Ding, the commander in charge of the divine arm bows and Wu Jie's favorite general, stood up with his chest puffed out and his belly protruding. He then saluted and said, "General, the battlefield was extremely chaotic at that time. It is really hard to see who shot the shot. But at that distance, since it was not a crossbow, it must have been shot by our divine arm bow team. The city on the other side of the river may not be able to reach it..."
Wang Xi, who came out of the city, wanted to fool people by saying something, but firstly, he saw with his own eyes that the Jin general was shot too far to the north, and secondly, as a fellow villager and confidant, he saw that Wu Jie's expression was a little strange, but he suppressed the idea of vying for credit... This was not common in the Western Army.
"That's right." Wu Jie sat still, his expression calm. "That's the truth. In this case, the great credit will be shared by all of you, the Divine Arm Bow Team... Everyone in this mountain stronghold who went to the battle today will receive a piece of silk, and the Divine Arm Bow Team will receive an extra piece of silk. The silk is in the city. Do you trust me?"
As soon as these words were spoken, all the generals couldn't help but laugh, and the soldiers around who heard these words simply burst into laughter. The roar became louder and louder as the soldiers spread the news by word of mouth.
There is no doubt that Wu Jie still has a lot of credibility in the army.
In fact, it was not only Wu Jie, but also Qu Duan before, and Wu Jie's brother Wu Lin, who were basically able to gain the trust of these soldiers when they spoke... It can only be said that the reason why this army mainly composed of Jingyuan Road was able to take charge of the situation after Loushi swept Guanxi, and after the defeat in Yan'an, it once annexed the other two armies and dominated Guanxi, was for a definite reason.
In the previous few years, the situation in Guanxi was extremely difficult, but the troops in Jingyuan Road had strict military discipline and clear rewards and punishments internally, which led to the fact that several main generals of this army were able to win the hearts of both the military and the people.
For example, after the first Loushi Guanxi sweep, Qu Duan recruited defeated soldiers and refugees in Jingyuan Road, claiming that people's hearts were at peace and no one stole things on the road; and in another time and space, the Wu brothers were guarding Dasan Pass, and there was a shortage of food and grass in Shu. It was the people of Guanxi in the occupied area who continued to supply food and grass to Dasan Pass. These can almost be called ironclad evidence.
However, the reason for this is not to say that Qu Da, Wu Da, Wu Er and other officers from Shaanxi and northern Shaanxi have high ideological awareness. The key lies in the three words "sons and daughters of the army".
In the Western Army system, everyone knows clearly who lives where, who is rich and who is poor, who is good at literature and martial arts, who is wise and who is brave, whose father died for whose brother, and whose family died for whose clan. In the past, the imperial court had supplies, the country was safe, and the Western Army was large in number, so officials could naturally eat empty salaries and use some tricks, but now the country is broken and the family is ruined, the population of Guanxi is declining, and the number of Western Army has been sharply reduced. With only those things and people, it is inevitable that they have become more strict.
Of course, this is not entirely a good thing. At the very least, this close relationship between the military and the local area can easily enhance the authority of some military commanders and then form local semi-independent forces.
Even Qu Duan, although he had no intention of rebelling, he was so domineering before. Didn't he think that he was popular among the elders of Guanxi and that his army only listened to his words?
All I can say is that it was fortunate that guy couldn't even handle the internal relations properly, causing the Wu brothers to rebel against him, otherwise, he would have just taken advantage of the situation to become a vassal state.
After the rewards were decided, the cheers of the surrounding soldiers gradually died down. Wu Jie looked at Yao Ding again, and then sighed: "As the old saying goes in Shaanxi, Yang, Yao, Zhong and Zhe are considered the older generation of generals before the two Lius (Liu Fa and Liu Yanqing) started their careers... Among them, the Yang family left Guanxi in their old age, but later the old steward Yang recognized the clan, and his grandson Yang Yi Zhong is now a favorite of the emperor, so it can be considered a continuation of the family line; there is no need to say much about the most prominent Zhong family. During the Jing Kang period, the old and young Zhong Jing Lie Xianggong died for their country together, which was quite spectacular; as for the Zhe family, the entire clan surrendered, with only one Zhe Yanzhi in Bashu, who is only a civil servant, and is basically extinct... And your Yao family in Shaanxi..."
Having said this, Wu Jie's speech began to become intermittent and he shook his head repeatedly.
Yao Ding was also quite embarrassed... During the Jing Kang period, the Yao family was not actually extinct. Yao Gu died in battle, but Yao Gu's son, Yao Pingzhong, the former commander-in-chief under the city of Dongjing during the Jing Kang period, rode away on his horse after failing to strike, and fled all the way to Bashu, disappearing without a trace, and no one knew whether he was dead or alive since then.
In fact, as early as in Nanyang, many people had recommended this person to Emperor Zhao. After all, this person had been the commander-in-chief of the Song Army for a long time. But Zhao Jiu was too lazy to pay attention to them. Later, when he was forced into a corner, he started talking nonsense to the people around him, saying something about Sun Yuanliang and Araki Dofen, and how he had seen a lot of such things, and that this person had lost his courage and could not be used at all... Although the specific story of Sun Yuanliang and Araki Dofen was unknown, the meaning was clear, and the court just regarded this person as dead.
"How about this." Wu Jie sighed and said to Yao Dingyan in a serious tone. "Since your army has achieved such a great feat, I have to reward you specially. Now that I am the military governor, I will promote you to be the military commander."
Yao Ding was stunned at first, and then he was ecstatic.
The officers around were all pale and then dim for a moment... It was obvious that this promotion was too much, especially for Wang Xi who came from the city to investigate. He thought that the eunuch was in his pocket and was particularly dissatisfied.
But who can blame him for being a member of the Yao family? How could he be so lucky today?
Apart from that, Wu Jie's performance yesterday and his attitude today were somewhat strange, which made Wang Xi, who was obviously dissatisfied, dare not say anything for a while.
"I will send a letter to the imperial court and your family in the name of the general, letting them know that the Yao family of Sanyuan, Shaanxi has made contributions to the country, and your son will also have a chance to benefit from it in the future." Wu Jie sat where he was, and continued to speak slowly, then suddenly asked, "But you are really defeated today, right? I saw with my own eyes that you led a few people to escape all the way behind where I am sitting... am I right?"
Yao Ding's smile did not diminish, and then he was horrified.
"Rules must be followed." Wu Jie continued to sit still, just pouting slightly. "The rules I just said yesterday cannot be broken!"
As Wu Jie gestured with his lips, dozens of armored soldiers suddenly rushed out and captured Yao Ding and several archers with divine arms in front of their commander, as if they had been eyeing a specific target for a long time... The sudden change made the military camp, which had been clamoring for rewards just now, gradually fall silent. Many people had no idea what had happened, but were still frightened for a moment.
In a trance, only the faint chirping of cicadas in the distant mountains could be heard, and coupled with the heat waves in the air, it continued to be restless.
"Strategy!"
Yao Ding was already so frightened that his mind went blank, and he just let those Wu Jie guards tie him up. A moment later, Wang Xi, who was just jealous, was so angry that he stepped forward to plead for mercy. "We won today anyway! Why do you have to do this?"
"Winning a fight!" Wu Jie threw his sword to the ground, and finally got furious. "If it weren't for that coincidental arrow, everyone on the mountain would have been dead today! I'm afraid you, Wang Xi, can only cry and then flee from the south of the city!"
Wu Jie had a complete outburst, and combined with yesterday's agreement, everyone was shocked.
"Look at this terrain for yourself, don't you think it's good?!" Wu Jie stood up with empty hands, grabbed Yao Ding, whose hands were tied behind his back, and dragged him forward for more than ten steps before stopping. He turned around and pointed at the front of the mountain and the military camp behind him, and was furious. "This terrain, this military reserve... I have been preparing since the great defeat after the New Year... If we stand here and shoot arrows, as long as we hold our ground, how can the Jin army attack us without losing more than 5,000 or 6,000 people? Even if the Jin army retreated this time, wasn't it because they couldn't bear the casualties? Why did they retreat? I don't understand, from Taiyuan to here, from old General Zhong Jinglie to me, Wu Da, time and time again, why did you retreat? Aren't you human? Aren't the Jin army human? If Taiyuan didn't know the consequences of retreating, don't you know it today? Don't you know that retreating is a dead end?!"
Wu Jie raised his voice to question, but the front line of the military camp fell into complete silence, and no officer around, from Wang Xi on down, dared to respond.
As for Yao Ding, he opened his mouth several times to defend himself, but he had no idea how to explain... That's right, that's the truth! After fighting the Jin people for so long, it's no longer the situation in Jing Kang. Now everyone understands that standing here and shooting arrows non-stop is the best way to deal with it. The closer the Jin people are, the more effective the killing will be. If you turn around and run away, the Jin people will only catch up and take down the entire military camp, and the probability of death will be greater at that time!
However, no matter how logical they were, when the armored Jin army reached the halfway point of the mountain despite casualties, and when the Jin army's heavy arrows began to take effect, they could not help but feel panic in their hearts, and then they could not help but turn around and flee... just like they had done time and time again before.
On the banks of the Yellow River, ten thousand people were chased by five hundred Jin cavalrymen like ducks and forced to jump into the river. Then Wanyan Loushi was soft-hearted and ordered people to rescue them!
On the banks of the Huai River, more than 10,000 people were chased by hundreds of Jin cavalry and forced to jump into the river. Zhao Jiu was so angry that he killed Liu Guangshi at all costs!
These soldiers were all formally appointed members of the Song Dynasty's imperial guards. Not to mention whether their weapons were good or not, even if their weapons and equipment were poor, and even if these soldiers and officers were stupid, don't they understand that if ten thousand people really went into battle, how could they stop five hundred cavalrymen?
Han Shizhong once led 200 cavalrymen to defeat the Jin cavalry that was several times larger than his own. What a living example.
However, they understand the truth, but when facing a battle, when the desire to survive arises, they will not care about anything else... If they want to stop this desire to survive, someone must stand up and tell them that there is a price to pay for doing so.
Seeing that everyone was silent, Wu Jie turned around, picked up the sword he had thrown on the ground, and came behind Yao Ding without saying a word. Before the other party could react, two guards stepped forward to hold him down, and one guard pulled off the man's helmet. The general took action himself, and with just one stroke, he thrust the blade into the back of the man's neck, and then pierced it out from the front with blood.
Then, the surrounding guards ignored the soldiers' pleas for mercy and took action. They quickly and efficiently killed more than a dozen archers who had escaped from the position where Wu Jie was sitting today.
After killing all the people, Wu Jie turned around with his bloodstained sword still shining in the sunset, and continued to speak coldly to the generals and soldiers in the military camp who had already been silent:
"You are all soldiers from Shaanxi, and we are all familiar with each other... During the battle today, I asked my guards to keep an eye on you. In addition to these dozen or so archers, there are seventy or eighty more who have escaped my station, and one of them is a commander. Do you want to stand up on your own, or do you want me to pick them off one by one?"
The sun sets and no one says a word.
Seeing this, Wu Jie did not pretend and simply waved his hand. More than a hundred personal soldiers swarmed over and dragged out the deserters in batches according to the organizational sequence. Then, without any discounts, they killed them one by one in front of the military camp.
As for the commander Ma Xizhong who was dragged out last, he was not allowed to plead for mercy for a moment and was beheaded by Wu Jie himself.
Fortunately, there was a quick battle in the afternoon, and few Song soldiers were killed. Instead, there were more than a hundred corpses of Jin soldiers. However, Wu Jie simply killed more than a hundred deserters afterwards, which was almost one-tenth of the more than a thousand people in the military camp!
It can only be said that fortunately these soldiers were all Wu Jie's own soldiers, and this man was always kind and strict, and rewarded and punished appropriately. Otherwise, if it were someone else, there would have been a mutiny long ago... In fact, even so, Wu Jinqing had made preparations. In addition to his own personal guards, he also asked Wang Xi to bring hundreds of young men from his hometown De Shun Army from the city to the camp early, and set a reward before killing people.
Back to the present, after killing Ma Xizhong, Wu Jie looked around the camp and suddenly called out a name: "Wang Xi!"
Wang Xi was shocked when he heard this. His legs went weak and he immediately knelt down. He then hastily explained: "Jinglüe, I have been guarding the city today... There is no way I can retreat from in front of you to behind you!"
"I'm not going to kill you." Wu Jie threw the knife in front of him again, and then said coldly, "The Jin army has just arrived and doesn't know the geography. After sunset, you will lead 500 people to attack Huagou at night! Attack for a while, and then set fire! In this battle, no one in the army can escape!"
Wang Xiru was as if pardoned, and immediately stepped forward to pick up his own general's sword.
