On November 27th, the snow has stopped for three days. A faint hint of sunshine shines through the clouds. The weather is rarely fine. If you are living at home, such weather is of course good, but if you are on the battlefield, it is just the opposite. This is

The perfect weather for bleeding...

The Jin soldiers from the southern and northern battalions of the Jinzuo Route Army stationed on the north and south banks of Huaishui and Jishui received orders from General Yeluduo at the same time. At three o'clock in the morning, they were to attack the Iron Wall Pass of Wuma Mountain at the same time.

The enemies of the two villages at Chaotian Pass launched a month-end offensive. So the southern and northern camps immediately took action.

Yeluduo's move was due to both political and military considerations. Militarily speaking, the most important thing to avoid when besieging a city is a siege. The side with the upper hand must always send out troops to beat the enemy from time to time. This can maintain the strong morale of the army and at the same time maintain a strong morale.

Little by little, it destroys the enemy's military morale and fighting spirit; and politically, it is because of the middle road

The defeat of the army... To be honest, Yeluduo was not very optimistic about the battle of the Central Army's attack on Tianshu City before, thinking that there would be a small setback, and the final victory would take a long time, and it would never be as disastrous as the two men expected.

It came down in one fell swoop. But I never expected that the battle would end so quickly, and it would end in a disastrous defeat that had never been seen before.

In order to avoid shaking the morale of the Left Route Army, the news was blocked to this side. Only officers above Muke knew about the defeat of the Central Route Army. However, most of them only heard that the Central Route Army suffered a defeat and retreated to Zhending.

Not many people know exactly how it was defeated and how miserably it was.

Yeluduo had just received a relatively detailed battle report two days ago, and it also came with an instruction from the right deputy marshal Zongfu, requiring him to capture the Wuma Mountain Stronghold by next spring at the latest. If there are not enough troops, they will be drawn out by then.

Wang Bolong's team of ten thousand people came to assist.

Yeluduo knew in his heart that the commander-in-chief, who had always been calm and composed since presiding over the Eastern Route Army's campaign, was beginning to become anxious. After all, Deputy Marshal Zuo's West Route Army, Marshal Zuo Jianjun who attacked Hejian, and the Southern Route Army in the Central Plains and Hedong

The various armies over there were fighting smoothly. This naturally highlighted the dismal battle of the Eastern Route Army.

Moreover, it is said that Ma Kuo also asked for thousands of reinforcements and prepared to go north for rescue... Can he capture the Wuma Mountain stronghold as soon as possible to put an end to the Southern Dynasty's desire to rescue? Then join forces with Wang Bolong's ten thousand troops and the Zhending city defenders.

To defend or attack the enemy in Tianshu City has become the top priority of the Eastern Route Army.

Wuma Shanzhai has become a useless part of the Jindong Route Army, but he, Yeluduo, will never abandon it easily. No matter what, he will chew it into pieces!

At three o'clock in the morning, two and three golden soldiers from the southern and northern camps each drew out to defeat the troops, forming three attack echelons. They went up the mountain road and launched an attack.

There are two mountain villages in the south and north of Wuma Mountain. They are both very standard walled buildings of this era: there are trenches, suspension bridges, stone walls, crenels, and watchtowers... The Jin army also used conventional methods to attack the stronghold: trench-filling vehicles.

, city climbing ladder, cloud ladder, etc.

Although Wuma Mountain is not as dangerous as Naiheguan, it is also not suitable for deploying large siege equipment. Those goose carts, siege wooden towers, cave houses, etc. are difficult to build and transport, and it is even harder to find suitable terrain for placement.

Used it, so I had to abandon it.

Under such circumstances, whether it is the golden soldiers or the rebels, all that is left is face-to-face hand-to-hand combat. The offensive and defensive battles in the cold weapon era were bloody and cruel.

Most of the five or six soldiers that Yeluduo used to attack the stronghold were signed troops, with a small number of Alixi servants as a reserve team for attacking at critical times, and a smaller number of dozens of Jurchen soldiers to supervise the battle team. As you can imagine

, the main force attacking the stronghold signed the army. How is the equipment on the armor?

The attacking side's equipment is not good, and the defending side is not much better in this regard. The old foundation of Wuma Village is the local volunteers who have formed a stronghold to protect themselves. It would be great for these people to have a spear with an iron head. It all depends on

Zhao Bangjie and Ma Kuo joined,

This gave Wuma Village an official background. It was much easier to mobilize resources. Then came the appearance of King Xin, which made Wuma Village famous overnight, with a hidden tendency to order Taihang. All forces came to invest one after another, which also brought

A lot of resources.

However, no one has enough strategic materials such as weapons and armor. A super rich man like Di Lie, who robbed one-fifth of the Song Dynasty's treasury, is the only one in the Taihang Mountains. Even in the world, he is the only one

share.

Therefore, in the southern and northern villages of Wuma Mountain, there are only 2,000 elite men who can wear half-body leather armor, hold side cards, and wield swords and bows. The remaining more than 7,000 people are the same as those signing troops who attacked the stronghold.

A homemade iron-tipped gun and a pair of earthen plaques made of several thick wooden boards were the weapons used to defend the city.

Tiebikuanzhai and Chaotianguanzhai both have stone walls, which are no more than two feet high. Because the rocks in Wuma Mountain are mostly quartz sandstone, which is highly brittle, the walls are not very strong and are better than wooden walls.

That's it. If there are catapults, they can be destroyed easily. Unfortunately, this terrain cannot place large catapults, and no one in Yeluduo's army can make more sophisticated small catapults such as cyclone cannons.

Since there are no suitable siege equipment, we can only use human lives to make up for it. Fortunately, the lives of the signed troops are not counted. There are so many southerners, like the weeds on the grassland, they die one after another and grow again, endlessly...

…

On November 27, the Jin army fought from morning to afternoon, and only when it got dark did they sound the trumpet and withdraw their troops, leaving behind nearly two hundred corpses.

After the battle, the watchtowers in the north and south villages of Wuma Mountain each beat peace drums to report peace to each other.

The next day, the weather was as fine as yesterday. As if to repay God's kindness, the Jin Army launched another attack, with the same intensity as yesterday. After repeated attacks, the Jin Army's casualties were increasing, and the number of combatable soldiers in Wuma Village was also increasing.

Reduce. The losses of the Jin Army can be replenished; while the soldiers of Wuma Village will die one less...

"Your Highness, the Jin army is cutting their flesh with blunt knives! If we continue fighting like this, I'm afraid we won't be able to survive until the spring of next year..." In the inner hall, Zhao Bangjie, who was dressed in iron armor, had a tired face. He was originally chubby.

The face is big and elongated, obviously he has been very tired these past few days.

Zhao Zhen curled up in the brocade seat, stared blankly at the red coals of the brazier, and murmured: "I wonder how Lian Fangshi (Ma Kuo) asked for reinforcements?"

Zhao Bangjie sighed: "Yingtian Mansion is more than a thousand miles away. Even if the imperial court is willing to send troops to restrain the whole team, it will take time. I am afraid that water far away cannot save the fire nearby..." He did not say anything else. If you put too much hope in

On this point, once the imperial court refuses to send troops, which is more likely, the morale of the military will easily collapse.

"Then what do you think we should do? We can't win the fight, we can't escape, and we can't wait for the reinforcements... Is it possible that we should just sit here and wait to die?!" Zhao Zhen's voice suddenly became sharper, and her body stood upright.

He stood up and stared at Zhao Bangjie with blazing eyes. If it weren't for the running of the old man and the horse, how could he be in such a desperate situation? He really deserved to die.

Zhao Bangjie hurriedly saluted and apologized: "Your Highness, please calm down. Although we can't count on reinforcements from the imperial court, we can still summon one or two reinforcements from nearby Taihang."

"Reinforcements from nearby Taihang?" Zhao Zhen was stunned and thought for a long time, "I don't remember that there are any big forces nearby. If there were any, they would have already joined our stronghold. What Zhizhai said was...

…”

"There was none a few days ago. But recently there has been." Zhao Bangjie turned to the northwest and pointed to the northwest, and said three words: "Pingding Army!"

"Pingding Army! Tianshu City! Di Lie..." Zhao Zhen said one word after another, and that proud and unyielding face seemed to appear in front of him again. It was because of this person that he was able to escape the disaster, but he did not

Half grateful. Because it was the same person whose contemptuous eyes deeply hurt his fragile and extremely sensitive heart that had been beaten by the golden man.

Jin people are like tigers and wolves, they can despise me; you are just a subject of my Zhao family. It is your duty to save the royal family, but you are arrogant about your merits. Not taking this king seriously... is tolerable, but the school cannot tolerate it!

This is the psychological logic behind Zhao Zhen's inner hatred for the person who helped her even though she was rescued by Di Lie. She only remembers other people's disrespect but not their good deeds. This is probably a common problem among people who claim to be in the upper class.

Zhao Zhen's face changed unsteadily, and she said indifferently for a long time: "Although the bandit army in Tianshu City has been pacified and their power has increased greatly, they will not be able to escape the revenge of the Jin people this time. They have too much time to take care of themselves, so how can they send reinforcements to rescue us?"

"This Tianshu City rebel army..." Zhao Bangjie paused after saying this, and looked up at Zhao Zhen. He didn't quite understand why the rebel army with the same nature as Wuma Mountain was called a "thief army." But he continued.

, "According to the news from Fushan Village, this city is extremely powerful and has sophisticated weapons. It has defeated incoming troops in the past.

Contrary to the record of the Jin Army. In this siege by the Jin Army, Tianshu City may fall, but it is possible to survive the retreat to Pingding City. Pingding City has high walls and is easy to defend but difficult to attack. On that day, nearly 10,000 Jin troops laid siege to nearly 1,000 people.

Only after a month can we win it. Thinking that Di Lie had the record of defeating the Jin soldiers before, and the means to pacify him later, maybe..."

Zhao Zhen sneered coldly and said disdainfully: "The so-called 'Victory of Drinking Horse Beach' in which three thousand troops of the Jin Army were completely annihilated. Such a ridiculous and ridiculous record dares to be fabricated. How can one expect its combat power?"

Zhao Bangjie pondered for a moment and said: "Perhaps Tianshu City's combat power is nothing, but it is said that there is a strange firearm in its army, which frightens the enemy troops who are fighting for the first time. Perhaps it is this thing that scares them away

The Taihang villages...last month there was a military general in our village who led

Leading hundreds of soldiers down the mountain to collect grain, they met a group of merchants. They wanted to collect some military taxes, but unexpectedly they were attacked by a strange flaming and noisy object from a distance, and they were defeated. Afterwards, spies reported back,

That group of merchants came down from Tianshu City..."

"Is there such a thing?" Zhao Zhen glanced at Zhao Bangjie and understood in her heart that most of the people in the village would not let herself know about such things as collecting food from all over the village. Of course, she was too lazy to care about it.

"Knowing the meaning of the stronghold, can we get these reinforcements from Pingding?"

"That's right. Choose one or two good climbers and rope down from the cliff on the west side to avoid the Jin soldiers' patrols. The Jin soldiers' patrols are mostly distributed in the east, south and north to prevent us from escaping.

The west is full of deep mountains, over many mountains, and it is also the territory of the Jin army in Liaozhou. Therefore, the Jin soldiers are not worried about us escaping to the west, and the defense is relatively loose. It is just that the Jin people ignored one thing - there is not only Liaozhou to the west

There is also a pacification army in the state!"

"So, does Zhizhai think that Tianshu City will come to rescue my Wuma Village?" Zhao Zhen is now on the verge of despair. No matter what kind of soldiers and horses they are, as long as they can be captured, it will be the straw that can increase the life-saving effect. As for Di Lie and Di Lie,

It's not too late to wait until you save your life to deal with the turmoil between them.

Zhao Bangjie was not very sure and said: "Although Di Lie occupies the city of Pingding, he lacks a status. If His Highness, on behalf of the emperor, granted him a position of authority to pacify military and state affairs, a strong beam would suddenly crowd into the temple. Perhaps, someone like Di Lie

There is no way of knowing whether someone will be moved and send troops..."

"It's just a false title, so it doesn't matter. It's just that my king's seal may not be effective." Zhao Zhen hesitated. He had met Di Lie and knew that person was not easily fooled.

However, Zhao Bangjie did not take it seriously: "He is just a strong man. I don't think he is that particular, let alone recognizes the emperor's seal... And we are not trying to trick him. This time Ma Lian visits Yingtian, no matter how much he can bring back."

Reinforcements, in an official sense, at least a general who is in charge of all roads in Hebei is indispensable. At that time, His Highness will naturally have the right to appoint and remove officials from the fifth rank and below. This power will naturally ensure the official title of pacifying military and state affairs.

.”

Zhao Zhen patted the handrail and said happily: "That's great! Just follow what Zhizhai said."
Chapter completed!