Huge stones streaked across the sky, accompanied by a rain of arrows that covered the sky, and then hit the towering city wall violently after crossing a distance of tens of feet. The stones shattered and fell, and the city wall was also shaking.
Some stones crossed the top of the wall and fell into the city full of soldiers, causing horrific casualties. On the city wall, people launched the artillery amidst shouts, lit the fuse, and the shells fell towards the positions outside the city.
.
In early September of the ninth year of Wu Jianshuo's reign, the altar of hell had been filled with the blood of the sacrifices, and the door to harvest was finally officially opened.
The Jurchens' fourth southern expedition, in an atmosphere where everyone was tacitly aware of and suffocated by it, advanced to the moment of war. The one who sounded the horn of this moment was Damingfu on the way of the Jurchen East Route Army southward.
Prior to this, all possible efforts had been made. Wang Shanyue's Guangwu Army and the Black Flag led by Zhu Biao defeated Li Xizhi's nearly 200,000 men and carried out a massive clearing of the surrounding area. However,
The killing of the Jurchens represents a completely different meaning than before. Even though Damingfu has made a desperate gesture, no one still knows whether the isolated city of Damingfu can survive the fierce first attack of the Jurchens.
.
At that time, Shangjing in the Liao Kingdom was also an important town that was said to be able to hold on for several years. Under the leadership of Aguda, the Jurchens used less to attack more, and the myth of the siege of Shangjing in just half a day emerged. Of course, the battlefield situation was changing rapidly, and the Jurchens went south for the first time.
Zheng, Qin Shao
And the soldiers of the Wu Dynasty who were not as good as the Liao army were guarding Taiyuan, and in the end the time was delayed for a year. In any case, the Jurchens arrived, the main show kicked off, and all the members came to the stage with trepidation,
Waiting for the moment of judgment.
On August 17, dusk quietly engulfed the sky in the west. The Jurchen "Fourth Prince" Jin Wushu, also known as Wanyan Zongbi's vanguard cavalry, arrived at Daming and set up camp north of Daming Mansion. Then, came the Jurchen forces and craftsmen.
, the logistics personnel arrived one after another, and then, the Puppet Qi troops that could be mobilized near Daming Mansion drove away the civilians who could not escape within the range, and poured into this isolated city on the north bank of the Yellow River one after another in great force.
The tents, flags, and the crying people who were driven over were densely packed and stretched endlessly, forming a terrifying and permeating ocean tide in the field of vision. Every morning or dusk after that, the wailing or crying in the crowd
The sound made the people on the top of the city couldn't help but clench their fists and cry.
The war has not yet started, but the most cruel thing has already been foreshadowed. Since more than ten years ago, it has been a routine for the Jurchens to drive civilians to attack the city. After the third southern expedition, the Wu Dynasty was driven out of the Central Plains, this land was nominally
The land belonging to the Puppet Qi has been dominated by Jurchens for many years. But this time when he went south, facing the obstruction of Daming Mansion, Wanyan Zongbi immediately classified all nearby Han people as rioters, and on the one hand, he drove the crowds over,
On the other hand, propaganda began to be given to these civilians.
"...The Wu Dynasty has lost all virtue in the world. The Central Plains has belonged to Da Qi for many years and is no longer owned by the Wu Dynasty! We, Da Jin and Da Qi, were originally brotherly states. You are Da Qi people and live here.
It is only natural that these Wu Dynasty thieves are occupying the city and causing chaos! Please remember, your good life was disrupted by these Wu Dynasty thieves."
While promoting this, people were selected to enter the city to persuade them to surrender. The people who came to the city either begged or cursed, which were just the uncomfortable appetizers before the war. When their pleas to surrender were rejected, they were sent out of the city.
People were captured together with their families and whipped to death in front of the city. At the same time, in the Jurchen military camp, the construction of siege equipment was still going on non-stop.
On the morning of the fourth day of September, crowds of people were driven towards Daming Mansion. People crying and begging broke away the first wave of landmines that had been hastily planted outside the city. Some people also carried ladders for the Jurchen army and tried to rush forward.
city, seizing a glimmer of life. The Jurchens' military law troops were arrayed in the rear, and the Han people were facing the Han people. Shortly after entering the shooting range, the first wave of arrow rain came as promised...
…
War is never a place for the weak to stop. After the war has been going on for more than ten years, the people who have been tempered have already understood this.
The red clouds burned the sky red, faintly tinged with the color of blood. Daming Mansion on the north bank of the Yellow River was even more submerged in blood. On the fourth day of September, the first day of the Jurchen siege, people were driven from Daming Mansion below the city.
The Han people suffered over 10,000 casualties. Driven by the Jurchens’ butcher knives, the entire moat was almost filled with corpses.
Amidst the overwhelming rain of arrows, stones and explosions, some people set up ladders and tried to climb the city while shouting and crying. Stones were thrown from the city.
No one knows where the Jurchen soldiers are hiding.
During the fierce attack and defense, the Jurchen army launched three consecutive raids on the city defense of Daming Mansion. The defenders above the city wall did not neglect and responded promptly to the Jurchen raids each time. At noon, there was even a Jurchen vanguard briefly
After climbing onto the city wall, Hu Sanniang, who was nearby, led a team to kill him on the top of the city, forcing the attack back.
The Jurchens did not want to lose too many troops in Daming Mansion, but the lives of the Han people below the city were not valuable. In order to attract these people, they tried their best to climb the city. The Jurchens rained arrows and threw stones at everyone above and below the city to greet them. Such high intensity
The battle lasted for a day
, when the fighting stopped for a while that night, and the soldiers on the city calmed down a little, they all felt exhausted. As for the city, there were countless corpses. The wounded were rolling among the corpses, wailing, groaning, and crying. In the blood, that was
A human tragedy that is unbearable to watch.
Wang Shanyue led the reserve soldiers up to take turns and count the wounded soldiers. Late that night, the Jurchen camp's stone-throwing troops mobilized and launched another round of attacks. The civilians below were driven away and carried ladders to continue.
He put it up and cried to the people in the city to let him go. The people smashed the stones down from the city with red eyes.
The next day, the fierce fighting continued as usual. The soldiers on the city dropped a leaflet with the words "If there is any movement, run east." The note was passed among the civilians below, and the Jurchens strengthened the east wall.
On the third day, a brutal siege was underway. Wang Shanyue mobilized the soldiers on the city to shout: "Go west! Go west quickly!" The pressure of death forced the people to mutiny for three days.
Get up and face the west
Then, the Jurchens' cannons in the west rang out. The shells passed through the crowd and blew up people's limbs. However, among the crowd of tens of thousands, people could not tell the front, rear, left, and right at all, even if someone stopped at the front.
After coming down, countless people were still running. This commotion broke out a hole in the relatively weak defense line on the west side of the Jurchens. Probably tens of thousands of people surged out of the hole and fled lifelessly into the distant woods.
On the fourth day, thousands more of these tens of thousands were driven back and continued to participate in the death team attacking the city.
From the first Bianliang defensive battle to the present, more than ten years later, the cruelty of war has never changed. Xue Changgong rushed on the city wall of Daming Mansion, supervising the defense operations of every part of the forty-eight-mile-long city wall.
Defending the city is a difficult and long-lasting task. Forty-eight miles in length, sufficient arrangements must be made for every place visible to the naked eye.
The generals who are clear-headed enough to command and adapt to the situation must stay during the day and at night. During the most intense period, fresh troops must be left behind to take turns with them in the subsequent gaps. Compared with the emphasis on bravery during the attack, more emphasis is placed on defending the city.
It also tests the general's meticulous thinking and watertightness. Perhaps this is also the case, so Taiyuan finally held on for a year under the command of Qin Shaohe.
In the same brutal defense of the city more than ten years ago, there are still some things that have only appeared in these years. All over the city, in the gaps before and after every battle, soldiers will sit together and whisper about their own affairs:
The life I once lived in the Wu Dynasty, the changes after the Jin people came to kill me, the humiliation I suffered, are all dead.
Their relatives, their voices and smiles. At this time, Wang Shanyue either came from behind, or had just withdrawn from the city wall. He would often participate in such discussions one after another, talking about the Wang family’s past.
He talked about the whole family of heroes, the widow of the family, and his feeling that he would rather eat people than admit defeat.
This change was brought about by Wang Shanyue. It originally came from the inner demon's Bamboo Records. Ever since Wang Shanyue established the Guangwu Army, meetings similar to remembering the bitter and thinking of the sweet have often been held. The culture of this land is often
He is reserved. A real man will not reveal too much about his past to outsiders. Xue Changgong also has a reserved temperament. When he first met him, he felt something was wrong, but Wang Shanyue didn't care.
, he talked about his grandfather, and how he couldn't beat others, but since he was the only man in the Wang family, he had to support the whole family. He only ate people to make people feel afraid, but in order to make people afraid, he didn't
After being together for a long time with the intention of biting his enemy to death, Xue Changgong finally realized that this man who looked like a woman might not be willing to talk about this with others at first.
However, when it comes to talking about it, it is quite useful to the army. Some men who are clumsy may just say: "I want to avenge my children." But after telling others, their spirits will indeed be different. Especially in Daming Mansion.
In such a desperate situation, the newly joined soldiers talked about these things with sadness, but after talking about them, the desperate meaning in their eyes became stronger.
After the Guangwu Army and the Huaxia Army defeated Li Xizhi together, people with lofty ideals came to join the nearby Huangshe Village, Huishan Village and other places. Although these foreign soldiers were somewhat ambitious, they always had their own banditry in terms of deployment and quality. Even if they joined,
They always seemed to have their own ideas. The day after the war started, the people in Huishan Village
The leader of the village, Yan Kan, told people about his family affairs. He was considered a wealthy family in the Central Plains at that time. His daughter was raped and killed by a Jin man. Yan Kan went to the government, and was later arrested and beaten eighty times.
, he was beaten to the point of dying, and most of his family property was dispersed before he survived. After surviving, he became a bandit, and he remains until now.
When these things were revealed to everyone, the old village leader in front of him cried in front of everyone, and then dispersed several of his capable men into the Guangwu Army, and would never go his own way. On the third day of defending the city, he was in a terrible state.
He led the charge and repelled a group of Jurchens' surprise attack. Fortunately, he did not die. After the battle, half of his body was stained with blood. He laughed to himself and others with unspeakable joy.
In fact, in the past few years, after the Central Plains became Qi, who joined the Guangwu Army and did not feel the least bit sad? Even if they did not have relatives, at least they had witnessed the death of their comrades and friends.
Listening to them talking about this, Xue Changgong occasionally thought of his deceased wife He Leer, thinking of how timid and fearful she was, but she ran down the city wall more than ten years ago and was finally hit by an arrow... Over the years, he was afraid
Due to the Jurchens' fighting power, they dare not leave their children in this world, but they don't feel that they are truly affectionate towards their wives. Why would a man worry about not having a wife? But now that he thinks about it, he can always see the woman's voice and smile in front of his eyes.
emerge.
Whatever.
He thought, woman, I never thought I could live forever...
As a general, he could not say these relatively depressing words, but when he occasionally looked at the tragic scenes and surging crowds outside the city, he could always laugh. And inside the city, Wang Shanyue was also taking steps step by step.
To encourage and brainwash people.
"...Yes, the Wu Dynasty is nothing great, but compared to the Jurchens, how much better...Look at those people outside the city, they are miserable, but what will happen if we surrender? The whole world surrenders
How can we live well? We are all slaves. Jurchens are not gods. They used to... just had nothing. Now we have held on. You know why... now we have nothing..."
"... We can't defeat them, we can't do it... But even if their teeth are shattered, we still have to keep them here... Wanyan Aguda is dead, Wu Qimai is about to die, we drag them down,
They are going to have internal strife, and the Wu Dynasty will fight back... Let's drag them down.
The Black Flag Army will fight back... The more than 10,000 black flags and Zhu Biao, as long as we can hold them back, they can fight back. Brothers... the city is not easy to defend, and it is not easy for us to live.
I don’t know when I open my eyes tomorrow, any of you will be gone, or I will be gone..."
"... But we have to hold on. I want to live, and so do the people outside the city. No one can live until the Jurchens die... So even if I die, I will drag them with me to die together."
"...die together..."
The diffuse beacon smoke was blown up by the strong wind, the city wall was smashed by huge rocks, and the corpses gradually began to emit a stench. The people who lost everything stood still on the desperate ground...
In early September, when the Jurchen East Route Army went south to destroy Nanwu in the first battle, facing Daming Mansion guarded by more than 40,000 people, Wanyan Zongbi once made a plan to break the city in three days at most. Then three days passed, and another
Three days passed, and the city was almost drowned in blood during the first round of attacks.
, until mid-September, Daming Mansion still stood firm in this sea of corpses and blood. When this city was first built, it was to guard the Yellow River and resist foreign enemies. Once the soldiers in the city could grit their teeth and survive, they would
It is not easy to defeat the city defense from the outside.
At this time, it had been nearly a year since Wu Qimai suffered a stroke, and the change of the times was just around the corner. The two brothers Zongfu and Zongbi could not have imagined that the first battle south would involve them chewing on such a hard nut. What they also could not have imagined was that besides Hei
Banner, the Han people in the south are gradually starting to have such bones.
To the west, Wanyan Zonghan crossed Yanmen Pass and set foot in the Central Plains.