Fenghou

Wei Yanzong smiled and said, "Is it the [-] shi of grain on our ship?"

Wang Qing suddenly realized that they planted [-] shi of grain in each of their [-] boats, but it was not [-] shi of grain, but those were not grain, but sand and wheat bran mixed together, and they found it when they opened the bags.

Even the [-] barrels of gunpowder on board are only [-] barrels of dirt.

"Let's go!"

They didn't need to ask any more information, they left Yangzhou on foot, headed southwest all the way, and entered the border of Zhenzhou that night.

At the wharf in Yangzi County, Zhenzhou, they found a boat to pick them up, a group of people boarded the boat, and the boat sailed to Dangtu County overnight.

……

The 20 troops of the Western Army surrounded Bianliang. At present, there are still [-] signing troops guarding the city of Bianliang. Their task is to hold back the Western Army and cover the main force of the Jin soldiers to withdraw eastward.

Chen Qing's biggest problem now is that they don't know the situation in the city. The gates are closed and no one can get out. How many troops are there in the city?It is not known whether all of them are signed soldiers or some Jurchen soldiers.

If you want to attack the city, you still need to wait for the siege weapons to be delivered.

Zhang Xiao stroked his beard and said with a smile: "There is still a way!"

All the generals looked at Zhang Xiao, Zhang Xiao said indifferently: "Attacking the heart is the top priority, and attacking the city is the bottom. Use two iron rhinos to blow up Qingcheng, and give the soldiers in the city a prestige. Some people will definitely open the city and surrender."

Qingcheng is a small military city three miles south of Bianliang. There is another such small military city in the west called Yuetai, which is also three miles away from Bianliang city.

Zhang Xiao's heart attack lifted the spirits of all soldiers, and Yang Zaixing suggested: "It's better to blow up Yuetai as well, the deterrent effect is stronger."

Chen Qing shook his head, "You can blow up the city, but you have to do it step by step, first send a letter, and then blow up the city!"

Chen Qing immediately wrote an ultimatum of Kaesong's surrender, "Letter from King Yong to the Brothers Shoucheng".

The general content is to ask the soldiers in the city to open the city and surrender. As a voluntary surrender, they can be released home immediately. Once the Western Army breaks through the city gate, they will be prisoners of war. The prisoners of war will have to serve three years of hard labor before they can go home.

Immediately let the craftsmen of the military camp engrave and print thousands of leaflets in one go.

As night fell, six thousand cavalry rushed out of the camp and rushed all the way to the city of Bianliang, approaching the moat. The cavalry rushed around the city and shot arrows at the top of the city.The cavalry then ran away again.

Chapter 32 Deterrence

The main general in Bianliang City is Du Rong, who is in charge of the capital. He was the guard of Chenzhou Gate of Bianliang at the earliest. He once opened the city gate to let Jin soldiers enter Bianliang and slaughtered many counties. Liangcheng, and ordered the entire army, whoever dared to surrender, beheaded immediately!

As night fell, Du Rong had just returned home to prepare for dinner, when a general on duty hurried over and said, "All control, look at this!"

Du Rong took a look at the leaflets, and immediately jumped up, "How many copies have been passed into the city?"

"I don't know, probably thousands of copies, all of which were shot into the city with arrows."

"Collect it immediately, no one is allowed to fall into the hands of soldiers, hurry up!"

The general on duty left, Du Rong was not in the mood to eat, so he took a few casual bites, left the bowl and rushed to the city.

On the top of the city, all the soldiers were assembled. Du Huan, the commander of the military disciplinary battalion, led hundreds of soldiers to conduct a body search one by one. Du Huan was Du Rong's nephew.

At this time, a leaflet hidden in a soldier's shoe was found.

Du Huan was furious. He drew his sword and stabbed the soldier in the chest. The soldier screamed and fell to the ground dead.

Du Huan raised his bloody sword and shouted: "Hand over leaflets quickly, whoever dares to keep them privately will be punished."

After a while, some soldiers came out and threw leaflets on the ground, and soldiers continued to come out and put leaflets on the ground.

But from the beginning to the end, all the soldiers were silent, even the generals were silent.

Du Rong gritted his teeth and said, "Someone must be hiding in the crack of the wall. Everyone should go and search, and if you find one, you will be rewarded!"

At dawn, a total of [-] leaflets were seized, and [-] were not found. But the key point is that Du Rong didn't know how many leaflets there were in total. Fire burns away.

As the soldiers on duty at night returned to the barracks, Chen Qing's "Book to the Three Armies of Bianliang" quickly spread in the barracks.

'Boom!Boom!Boom! '

At dawn, the war drums were sounded in the camp of the Western Army in the south. The dull sound of the war drums made all the Bianliang defenders nervous. Du Rong hurriedly ordered [-] troops to go to the city. .

A small city three miles away is Qingcheng, and the Western Army camp is still south of Qingcheng. At this time, ten thousand square formations appeared on both sides of Qingcheng. It seems that all the soldiers of the Western Army are looking at Qingcheng A lot of people ran out of Qingcheng, all the Western soldiers squatted down and covered their ears.

The defenders on the top of the city were all baffled, wondering what the other side was up to?

Suddenly, there were two earth-shattering explosions in the distance, "Boom! Boom!" The mud and bricks of Qingcheng shot up into the sky, the ground began to shake, and the city walls also shook, like an earthquake. The soldiers couldn't stand still. They all squatted down.

After a while, the soldiers slowly got up and looked towards Qingcheng, only to see thick smoke, but they could see clearly that Qingcheng had completely collapsed.

All the soldiers gasped, my God!What kind of firearm is this?It was so powerful that it even knocked down an entire military city!

Du Rong's face turned pale. This is the legendary Iron Fire Thunder. I thought it was only slightly stronger than Wood Fire Thunder, but I didn't expect it to be so powerful. This is just a threat from the Western Army. If the Western Army puts it into actual combat, Bianliang couldn't keep it for a minute.

The Song army did not continue to attack the city, the [-] troops withdrew to the camp, and the soldiers defending the city also went back one after another, but the leaflets last night and today's explosion have changed many people's hearts.

In a civilian house close to the military camp, five generals gathered together. The leading general was Li Taigu, a commander, and the other four generals were his confidantes.

"We called everyone here because Du Rong is too insidious. He will send people to watch our every move. Once generals gather, he will suspect us of rebellion."

"Brother wants to dedicate the city!" said a general.

Li Taigu nodded, "Wanyan Wushu ran away, but asked us to stand up to the 20 Western Army. It was obvious that he wanted us to die. Wanyan Wushu really knows how to pick people. He chose Du Rong, and he was right. .”

"Control, does this Du Rong have no intention of surrendering at all? Serving the Kingdom of Jin so desperately."

Li Taigu sneered and said: "That's because you don't know his past. In the second year of Jingkang, he was the guard of Chenzhou Gate. He sacrificed Chenzhou Gate, and Jin Bing entered Bianliang from Chenzhou Gate. Later, he led his army to massacre more than a dozen county towns, which can be described as a heinous crime. How dare he surrender to the Western Army, but we are different. We have never slaughtered cities, and we have not done those outrageous things. Why should we sacrifice our lives for him? , destroy with him?"

"Brother is right, Du Rong wants to die, but he wants to tie us up to die together, we won't do it!"

"Brother, tell me! What should we do?"

Seeing that everyone was willing to follow him, Li Taigu said slowly: "We have a total of five thousand soldiers under our command. We have long nights and many dreams. Let's do it tonight and control the North City Gate!"

……

At noon, on the tower of the North City, under the cover of the surrounding people, a soldier climbed a rope and slid down the city wall, swam across the moat, disappeared into a willow forest.

An hour later, the soldier encountered the patrolling cavalry of the Western Army and was immediately taken to the camp.

Someone in the city came to deliver a letter. Chen Qing was not surprised by this news at all. The enemy army in the city is absolutely impossible to be monolithic. The Jurchens have all withdrawn. These signed troops are actually going to fight him to the end?

Under normal circumstances, such a situation would never occur. There is only one possibility, the Lord will fight himself to the death!What about the other major generals?They must have their own ideas.

It's just that Chen Qing didn't expect the effect to be so good. The iron fire thunder exploded in the morning, and someone betrayed him at noon.

He got all the information in the city at this time.

Li Taigu, Chen Qing is not very familiar with this person, he asked again: "Where was your General Li originally stationed?"

"My family, General Li, has been stationed in Laizhou, and later transferred to Bozhou and Jeju, and later served as the commander in front of the Royal Forest Army Palace of the monarch of Qi State Liu Yu. Li Cheng led the army to fight against Zhang Jun in Caizhou, and later he had a bad relationship with Li Cheng, so he was transferred back to Kaifeng to garrison."

Chen Qing understands, haven't you heard of this person? It turns out that this person is Liu Yu's trusted general. He has been engaged in internal affairs and has never participated in a war. bad relationship.

"You General Li are going to act tonight?"

"Exactly! He will open the north city gate, and the time is around one o'clock."

Chen Qing ordered people to take the messenger soldiers down to rest, and discussed with several generals. Liu Qiong was a little worried that this was a trap set by the other side, and he said worriedly: "If it is a fake surrender, the other side has set up a trap, which will cause us heavy casualties. .”

Zhang Xiao laughed, "Little Liu Dutong is like taking a dozen burly men to fight with a group of three-year-olds, afraid of the traps set by the little ones."

Everyone roared with laughter, and Liu Qiong also realized that his worries were absurd. In the face of absolute strength, any trap would be trampled down by the powerful strength. He immediately blushed with embarrassment and dared not say a word.

Chen Qing said with a smile: "If Xiao Liu is afraid of traps, then use iron fire thunder to blow off the iron chains on both sides of the suspension bridge first, and then use iron rods to block the city gate, so it will be safe."

Liu Qiong took the opportunity to stand up and clasped her fists and said, "Humble job is willing to be a pioneer!"

"permit!"

Chen Qing approved Liu Qiong's request, and all the generals yelled in dissatisfaction. They even suspected that Liu Qiong was deliberately pretending to be stupid to get the opportunity to enter the city first. This is not an ordinary city, but Bianliang. He took the lead in entering Bianliang, but Liu Qiong took away the opportunity.

Regardless of their yelling, Chen Qing said to Yang Zaixing, "Once the city is broken, Du Rong will definitely lead his army to flee from the east city. You lead [-] cavalry to encircle and suppress them, and bring Du Rong's head to meet!"

"Follow the order!" Yang Zaixing accepted the task straightforwardly. If he didn't get the chance to enter the city first, then killing the opponent's general would be the second most important contribution.

Chapter 33 Broken City

As night fell, the defense in the city became tense again. Du Rong also knew that night was the best chance for the Western Army to make a breakthrough. Especially tonight, Du Rong felt the crisis. The generals were gathering in private and even found a copy of the Western Army's leaflets, which made Du Rong even more worried.

When the first watch was approaching, Du Rong successively issued orders to adjust the defense of each army. The defensive area of ​​the third commanding army was changed from the north gate to the west gate, and the east gate and south gate continued to be under the command of Du Rong himself. Ten thousand troops are in charge.

The chief general of the third commanding army was Li Taigu. Du Rong's temporary change of the defensive area really caught Li Taigu by surprise. He immediately summoned several confidantes to discuss countermeasures.

Li Taigu said to the generals: "It's less than half an hour before the first watch. It's too late to notify the Western Army to change the city gate. We can only delay it, and count as long as it can. If we can't delay it, we will start the war. Everyone, go and gather your brothers. Get up and tell them the truth, we are going to open the city to welcome the Western Army, let the brothers join us."

All the generals went to gather their own troops. At this time, Du Rong sent someone to urge Li Taigu to change his guard and go to Xicheng immediately.

"Please tell Du Tong that someone in my army may have been infected with the plague and is seriously ill. We are in quarantine and cannot leave for the time being."

The messenger turned his horse's head and went back to report. Du Rong frowned after listening to the report. It was ridiculous. How could he never know when he was infected with the plague?

His nephew Du Huan said: "Second Uncle, Li Taigu is just an excuse, how about nephew take someone to see, what is his plan?"

Du Rong nodded, "You have to be careful, if you find something wrong, don't expose him, come back immediately!"

"Nephew knows!"

Du Huan rushed to the North City Gate with more than 100 men. Du Rong was not at ease after thinking about it, and rushed to the North City with 3000 people himself. This Li Taigu is not his, and the possibility of rebellion is extremely high. He should be allowed to guard the North City, Du Rong regretted it, and rushed to the North City with three thousand soldiers.

Li Taigu was deploying countermeasures after opening the city gate, when suddenly a soldier came to report, "Reporting to the control, Du Huan is here, insisting on going to the city to check military discipline."

Du Huan is Du Rong's No. [-] hunting dog. He serves as the commander of the military discipline battalion. He specially uses the excuse of checking military discipline to monitor the troops. Li Taigu knew that he should come, and he immediately said: "Everyone go back immediately, gather the troops and open the city gate. !"

All the generals went to their own actions. Li Taigu immediately led hundreds of soldiers to intercept Du Huan.

At this time, there was no need for Du Huan to go to the city. He discovered the clues at the bottom of the city. Originally, the gates of the city were blocked by boulders, but now all the boulders have been moved out, and the gates are no longer blocked. This is too obvious. .

"let's go!"

Du Huan turned his horse's head and left, but at this time he could not go. Li Taigu had already led more than a thousand people to surround him and his men, and aimed crossbow arrows at them.

"Li Taigu, what do you want to do?" Du Huan shouted fearfully.

Li Taigu smiled coldly, "You and I know it well!"

Seeing that the situation was not good, Du Huan shouted, "Break out!"

He drew out his knife and urged his horse to rush towards the opponent.

"Fire arrows!"

As soon as Li Taigu gave an order, arrows were fired at once, and there was a scream in the open space. Du Huan and his subordinates were shot down by arrows one after another. Among them, Du Huan was killed by more than [-] arrows in his body.

Li Taigu ordered: "Light the city head on fire and open the city gate!"

It was less than the hour of the first watch, and Li Taigu couldn't take care of it anymore.

Du Huan left a few of his subordinates on the outside. They heard the screams and rushed back to report in fright. They didn't go far before they met Du Rong who hurriedly led the army.

"What's going on, where are your leaders?"

"The humble staff heard the screams and didn't see the commander come out, so they felt bad, so they hurried to report."

Du Rong was shocked, and immediately sent someone to mobilize reinforcements. Li Taigu must be rebelling.

The situation was urgent, and he could not wait for reinforcements, so he led [-] soldiers and rushed towards the north gate.

There were more than [-] steps away from the North City Gate, when a burst of arrows shot towards him, many soldiers rushing in front were caught off guard and fell down from the arrows.

All the people found out that there was an ambush on the opposite side, and they got down in fright.

"Dutong, there is fire on the top of the city!" A soldier pointed at the top of the city and shouted.

Du Rong also saw that there were blazing fires on the top of the city. There should be three fires. The other two fires were blocked by the tower, but the smoke and dust on the tower could be seen.

This was sending a signal to the Western Army. Du Rong was anxious and shouted: "Go up and close the city gate!"

Three thousand soldiers have followed him for many years, they are all his confidantes. The soldiers shouted and charged again. This time, the soldiers with shields rushed forward and effectively blocked the arrows.

Li Taigu's soldiers rushed out from both sides, and the two sides fought fiercely together.

At the same time, Liu Qiong led [-] cavalry and [-] black armor troops to attack the North City Gate from one mile away. Two miles away, [-] cavalry led by Liu Cui were rushing to kill the North City Gate. Come on, they are the second batch. Once Liu Qiong's army enters the city, they will also sprint with all their strength.

There were only a hundred steps left in the distance, no arrows were shot overhead, only fifty steps were left, the suspension bridge had not been pulled up, and the city gate showed no sign of closing.

Liu Qiong had already confirmed that there was no trap, so he shouted, "Follow me into it!"

Liu Qiong took the lead and charged into the city with a long gun in his hand. After entering the city, it was just the Wengcheng. Only when entering the inner city can he really enter the city. But there were nearly a thousand people fighting fiercely in the Wengcheng. Liu Qiong recognized it at a glance. An army wrapped around their left arms There was white cloth, and it could be seen clearly under the moonlight that it was Li Taigu's army. With a loud shout, he stabbed seven or eight soldiers who were not wrapped in white cloth.

A large group of cavalry rushed in behind him, and they were finally discovered by Du Rong's soldiers. They turned around and fled, shouting in fear, "The Song army has entered the city! The Song army has entered the city!"

Liu Qiong urged his horse to gallop, and led hundreds of people into the inner city gate in an instant, only to see countless soldiers coming towards him. With a loud roar, he led the cavalry to fight fiercely with the enemy. More and more cavalry rushed into the city, exceeding There were 5000 people, and Du Rong's army was killed and fled to the wind.