Song Emperor Jiangshan

Thinking of this, Xiao Shan gradually fell asleep.Tomorrow, it will be a more brutal test, and now, rest is needed.

He was awakened from his dream by the sound of horseshoes. When he jumped up from the bed, it was not yet dawn.

Xiao Shan opened the door, and there were two personal soldiers standing in the small courtyard outside the door. When they saw him coming out, they bowed and saluted: "General."

Xiao Shan nodded, the sound of the horse's hooves in the dream just now was very clear, he even calculated its distance in the dream, it should arrive at the city in more than ten minutes.But now when he woke up, Xiao Shan stood in the courtyard and could only hear the sound of the wind in the night, not any sound of horseshoes at all.

Xiao Shan asked, "What's the situation with Jin Bing?"

The two soldiers bowed and said: "Report to the general, Lord Zhijun said that if the general wakes up, please go to the tower."

Xiao Shan nodded, he didn't take off the chain mail when he was sleeping just now, but the chain at the shoulder of the armor was broken, and there was no extra armor in the city, so he had to wear a broken one.He was about to go out, but saw a soldier handing over his cloak, he unfolded it, and saw that the hole shot by the arrow had been repaired, the stitches were thick, and it looked a little funny, but Xiao Shan didn't care so much .Even though it was a cool night, it would definitely be very hot to wear this thing, but if you fight for a while, it can stop the blood and prevent your feet from slipping, and secondly, it can be used as a weapon in a critical moment.Drying cloth into sticks is the realm of masters in martial arts novels, which Xiao Shan cannot achieve.It's just at his current level, but if it's covered with blood, it can be wet into a stick.

Xiao Shan tidied up his cloak, and another soldier handed him a gun. Xiao Shan shook it in his hand, it was a bit brittle, and the toughness was not very good. Very good.

After getting the weapon, Xiao Shan walked towards the tower.

Before he got close to the city tower, he saw the people in the city under the night carrying some stones back and forth, and some were delivering food and water to the soldiers guarding the city wall. When Xiao Shan came, he walked over and said, "There are only two cannons in the city. I ordered them to move the cannons to the top of the city tower. They can be used when the Jin soldiers come. But I haven't fought before, so I don't know where to put them. No, I need you to take a look."

Xiao Shan said: "Those two cannons are single-bore cannons, they can shoot far, don't put them on top, if they are damaged by Jin people, it will be troublesome. Move them down to the city, and put them in—" He turned his head and looked Around, pointing to two places, "Place it here and there, covered by trees, it's not easy for Jin people to find out the location."

Zhang Xiaoxiang agreed, and quickly ordered someone to move the cannon down.

At this time, there were already firearms. There were cannons in Xiangyang and Ezhou cities, but the Xinyang army did not. Although Xiaoshan wanted to build some artillery after he came, there was no special weapons supervisor in the city, and saltpeter and sulfur were needed to make firearms. They are all scarce, and even if he spends a lot of energy, he can only build four or five of them. Cannon - There are limited boulders in the city, and some smaller stones can be used for loose cannons.There is no problem with Zhang Xiaoxiang's placement of the loose cannon, because its range is not far, and it cannot be placed under the city tower, but can only be placed on the city wall.

As Xiao Shan said, he walked up to the tower, where the defenders were arranged in an orderly manner, very standardized.Xiao Shan thought to himself: Zhang Xiaoxiang seems to have worked hard in this area, he is not a scribe who can only recite poems and compose poems.

There were only 1000 people in Xinyang City, Zhang Xiaoxiang arranged 200 people on the four walls, and the remaining 200 people were on standby in the city as a reserve team.This arrangement is also in compliance with the rules, but this time, it is not a regular battle.

Xiao Shan said: "Change the layout, leave ten guards on the south side, and 40 guards on the east and west sides. After a while, the Jin soldiers come from the north, and adjust the north wall to 100 guards."

Zhang Xiaoxiang was slightly surprised: "Leaving a reserve team of 800 people, is this... too much?"

Xiao Shan said: "Not many! These 800 people are on standby at any time, follow me out of the city to fight!"

Zhang Xiaoxiang was taken aback, and said: "The news from the spies, the other party has sent 1 people, there are few people in the city, you still want to take 800 people out?"

While talking, the sound of horseshoes could already be heard, Xiao Shan didn't have time to explain too much to him, he just said: "It's too late, you stay here and help me take care of it!"

After finishing speaking, Xiao Shan turned around and said to the [-] soldiers who had already gathered: "Get ready to attack!"

When everyone heard this order, they were all startled and uncertain. Xiao Shan stood on his horse and said loudly: "Listen to the voice, the enemy actually sent cavalry over here first. They must have come here first to find out the facts, and they are not ready to fight hard. Let's go out first. If you catch him by surprise, you can kill as many as you can! Destroying the enemy is equal to strengthening your own strength!"

All the soldiers shouted in unison: "Yes!"

Wu Luan also came over at this time, pleading loudly: "General, please let me lead the team out!"

Xiao Shan shook his head: "Stay here, watch the situation on the tower, command the archers and gunners, pay attention to cover me, if the two sides fight together, don't shoot the arrow!"

Wu Luan didn't say anything more, turned around and waved and ordered: "Open the city gate!"

The gate of the city was slowly opened, and the suspension bridge at the gate of the city was slowly lowered. Xiao Shan rushed out first with his heavy sword in his hand, followed by [-] pawns behind him, and formed a square formation outside the city, each holding a sack of hemp. Knife, with a small shield, bare right arm.The early morning sun has fully risen, and the morning glow has dyed the end of the sky a blood red color.

The Jinren's cavalry arrived in no time. This time, there were a total of 800 cavalry. In the collision of infantry and cavalry, the cavalry has an absolute advantage. , It is to take advantage of the amazement of the enemy to see that he dared to go out of the city to fight, rush into the cavalry formation, chop off the horse's legs, and kill the enemy army.

This is bound to be a tough battle, and it is also the first time that the pawns trained by Xiao Shan for more than a year have faced a tough battle of this scale. At this point in the usual drills, it is time to test their effectiveness!

The enemy's cavalry rolled up smoke and dust, and with the sound of a cannon in the city, arrows rained from the tower behind him, Xiao Shan shouted loudly: "Attack!"

The eight hundred pawns ran quickly, and the enemy's arrows were blocked by the small shield he was carrying. Xiao Shan knew that as the general, his own safety was very important. If something happened, it would kill him. Falling into a situation where the dragons have no leader, but at this time, it is the first battle of the handover between the two sides, and morale is even more important.It is the best way to boost morale if he goes into battle in person and rushes to the front!

When they rushed in front of the tall cavalry, everyone felt the psychological pressure brought by the cavalry. When the enemy who was twice as tall as himself stood in front of him, that kind of killing and absolute advantage was in front of him. When I was in front of myself, my heart felt a little bit bulging, especially when the enemy swept over with heavy maces with steel thorns, the cracks rolled up were enough to make people's skin feel painful.

Xiao Shan was the first to fight against the golden man. He rolled on the ground, but dodged the oncoming stick, and slashed hard with the heavy sword in his hand, and a horse's leg was cut off by him. The movement of crawling and rolling on the ground, he usually practiced thousands of times, this time he succeeded in one fell swoop, the scorching horse blood sprayed his face immediately, and the horse also groaned and lay down on the ground. The soldier fell to the ground, and his intestines were immediately trampled out by the horse in his hand.

Following Xiao Shan's first attack, the [-] infantry he brought had also started to move. Everyone's movements were strictly trained, bending over, rolling, swinging a knife, chopping a horse's leg, all movements were done in one go. A scream has already started.

Under such circumstances, Xiao Shan had no way to command, he couldn't hear his yelling, everyone could only follow their own instincts, show their real strength and force, and fight head-to-head. Staggered, the enemy's horse legs were cut down quickly, and the blood immediately stained the ground outside the city wall.

The golden cavalry's whistle sounded, an order to quickly retreat and then assemble. In this whistle, the Song army also quickly separated from the Jin army, assembled again, and then under the cover of the artillery, rocks and arrows, they staggered again. .

Retreat and gather, and then rush to kill.Repeatedly, the ground is already full of corpses, some were hacked, some were trampled to death by horseshoes, when they charge again, what they are stepping on is not the ground, but the corpses, and they may trip over the corpses at any time Roll down and get trampled.

Xiao Shan was no exception, when he was tripped, he quickly jumped up, and then slashed again.

Kill, kill, kill!At this time, all people lost the ability to think, and only had one thought - to kill the enemy and survive by themselves.

After rushing back and forth for a total of six times, everyone was covered in sweat. At this time, the sun was already high, and the summer heat was showing. It was impossible to distinguish which sticky body was sweat and which was blood.

The same goes for the enemy, everyone has been stained red with blood, the horse has become a blood horse, and the people have become blood men.

The golden soldier's whistle sounded again, three long and one short, an order to retreat.

It was also time for the Song army to retreat. A square formation of 20 of them slowly gathered towards the city gate, and those closest to the city gate quickly retreated into the city, while Xiao Shan stayed in the last square formation to cooperate with the city gate. Arrows, slashing the enemies who rushed up.

Jin Bing obviously also saw the intention of the Song Army, and wanted to retreat to the city. He wanted to rush up many times, but he couldn't get close because of the dense arrows and scattered guns on the tower.

Finally withdrew a phalanx in the city, responsible for fighting back the corpses on the hanging wall, not daring to push down the moat, although Xiao Shan dug the moat a lot deeper, but because of the severe drought for days, there was not much water in the river, if you push If it goes down, I am afraid it will be filled.

It wasn't until the last person returned to the city that Xiao Shan dodged and jumped into the city gate that was being closed, a golden soldier had already rushed over, Xiao Shan yelled, and cut him in half, leaving half of his body behind In the city, half of them were left outside the city, and their intestines were caught in the tightly closed city gate.

As soon as Xiao Shan returned to the city, he rushed to the top of the city tower, took the bowl handed over by the soldier who brought water, gulped down a large bowl of cold water, and poured another bowl on his face to wash away the stains on his face. Blood.

He wiped the water off his face indiscriminately, hid on the top of the city tower and looked into the distance, and sure enough, he saw the army approaching in the distance. Ten thousand troops gathered at the city gate and spread out like locusts in autumn. When he fell to the bottom of the valley, he saw the things brought back by the enemy's infantry - no less than fifty catapult carts, including locomotives for firing artillery, goose carts for engineering, and iron carts for digging tunnels .

The ones just now were just the vanguard. At this moment, the enemy has arrived at the city, and the fierce siege battle has officially begun.

Arrows from the city tower kept shooting, enemy artillery and boulders also smashed intermittently, many houses in the city near the city gate were on fire, Zhang Xiaoxiang directed the people in the city to use the horse manure and ashes that they usually collected Extinguishing.

The watchmen on the tower held up different flags to indicate the position of the enemy's trebuchet, and the artillerymen of the two single-shot guns below the tower fired according to this position.

In order to prevent the Jin people from discovering the positions of the only two cannons remaining in the city, five or six people had to move the single-cannon cannons every time two cannons were fired.

The sound of drums outside the city was loud, and the enemy had set up ladders and started a strong attack. The towers took out poles one after another and pushed down the ladders. Occasionally, golden soldiers who climbed up the towers started fierce hand-to-hand combat.

The [-] pawns who followed Xiao Shan out of the city and fought for several rounds couldn't get any rest at all, so they were about to join this kind of battle. In the round after round of attack and defense, the sun had already reached the top of the head, and it was noon .

The sound of the enemy calling for gold came. At noon, the Jin people were afraid of the heat and took a rest.

Xiao Shan also took advantage of this opportunity to count the number of troops and at the same time estimate the enemy's casualties.

What made him more gratified was that in this kind of battle, the Song army did not suffer many casualties, only ten people were killed and 15 people were injured.The enemy lost at least two hundred people.

This should be a very good record, and it is entirely due to the usual rigorous training.However, the number of people in Xiao Shan's hands is small, even this level of damage will make him fall into a passive position.

Xiao Shan was pressed against the city wall, while gnawing on the cornbread, he turned his head to check the enemy's situation.There was a change in the enemy's army. The attack from the north could not allow them to successfully take down the city wall. They began to move towards the east.

Xiao Shan transferred some soldiers who were severely exhausted to artillery, and quickly assembled the soldiers who had taken a little rest to the east gate.

In the afternoon, it was another bitter battle, more severe than in the morning, and the casualties also increased.

The golden men gave up today's attack until the sun went down, but that didn't mean they wouldn't come to harass them in the middle of the night, and it didn't mean they would retreat tomorrow. The reason for giving up the attack was just because it was dark and it was inconvenient to fight. With an absolute advantage, there is no need to take this risk.

Xiao Shan also noticed this. He discussed with Wu Luan, Zhang Xiaoxiang and several generals in the army: The enemy has more than 50 trebuchets. If this continues, the damage will be even greater tomorrow. Under the cover of night, go out of the city to destroy the enemy's engineering equipment, and only then can we win a little bit of victory.

In the first half of the night, Wu Luan took 50 people there. Among the 50 people, more than a dozen were members of the Restoration Society. Today they fought very bravely and moved very quickly.

Wu Luan came back after going out for half an hour. Everyone was injured, but there were no serious injuries, and no one died. The news he got was encouraging. He had already destroyed ten of the enemy's trebuchets.

However, this is not reassuring. The enemy still has forty trebuchets left, and they can also make them on the spot.

Xiao Shan and the other 50 people had already rested in the middle of the night, and it was time for him to go out in the second half of the night.

Xiao Shan was afraid of alarming the enemy, so he didn't dare to ride a horse, so he left the city with a rope, and then quietly lurked to the enemy's front line, touched his secret post, and sneaked into the camp. Even more rigorous, this heavy siege weapon was received in the camp, and the soldiers patrolling outside the camp were basically constant.Xiao Shan waited for an hour before he got his chance.He first randomly found a place to prevent fire, and when the enemy camp was in chaos for a moment, he took the opportunity to pour oil on the catapults and burn them.

This time the enemy's reaction was faster than Xiao Shan had imagined. He only killed five taels of catapults before being chased by the enemy and had no choice but to retreat.

When retreating, a soldier had his leg cut off by the enemy. Xiao Shan was unable to rescue him, so he could only reluctantly abandon him and retreat quickly.

At dawn, the enemy launched another attack. This time the attack was much weaker than the previous day, but the morale in the city was extremely high. Due to the casualties of the soldiers and the lack of manpower, they temporarily recruited young and middle-aged men in the city to serve as soldiers.

At night, it was still Xiao Shan and Wu Luan who took turns to destroy the enemy's engineering equipment. It was more and more difficult each time. This time, they could only destroy three catapult carts and one goose cart throughout the night.

Xinyang was besieged, and there was a shortage of food and weapons in the city. However, the Jin people had an endless supply of food and grass. They also began to cut down trees outside the city to remake catapult carts.

Five days later, Zhang Xiaoxiang told Xiao Shan that there were not enough stones in the city, so there was a higher requirement for the accuracy of the trebuchet.

Eight days later, the arrows in the city were no longer enough, every day Xiao Shan would send people out to pull out the arrows stuck on the city wall and recycle them, but the consumption was still very high.

Ten days later, the food stored in the city also began to run short.

Even if everyone's eyes are covered with red threads, even if someone's face is already swollen due to lack of sleep, even if some people die due to wound deterioration and insufficient wound medicine, everyone's fighting spirit is unprecedented Burning, all people have a belief in their hearts - fight to the death with the Jinren!

When defending the city for fifteen days, Xiao Shan leaned against the city wall and drank gruel. It was early in the morning, and Jin people used to attack at this time, but today it was surprisingly quiet.

"This is unscientific!" Xiao Shan thought silently in his heart, but before he figured out what was unscientific, the golden man had already given him the answer.

Hundreds of golden-armored warriors marched out from the enemy camp and walked to the city gate. Wu Luan was about to shoot arrows, but Xiao Shan immediately stopped him.Because looking at the situation, the Jinren are coming to talk.

Sure enough, after the enemy's golden-armored warriors stood firmly under the city, they lined up in two rows and made way for a path in the middle. A general in heavy armor with his nose protected by a helmet rode out on horseback.

He was wearing an armor made of gold, which was real gold, and it looked slightly reddish in the sun. There was a gold belt around his waist, and patterns of the sun, moon, mountains and rivers were drawn on his knees.

This kind of attire cannot be used by just anyone, Xiao Shan narrowed his eyes slightly, mountains, rivers, sun and moon are the symbols of the Son of Heaven, who is this person here?

The golden armor general said: "Who is the leader of your city guards? Let him come out, I will have something to tell him!"

Xiao Shan's heart skipped a beat, he recognized this person's voice.Although he called himself "The General", with his exposed eyes and lips, Xiao Shan still recognized that this person was the emperor of the Kingdom of Jin—Wan Yanliang!