It was night! It was not until two o'clock in the middle of the night that Hu Biao and his party returned to Haiyang City.
The main reason was that they spent too much time discussing with Zhang Jue, Li Meng and others how to deal with the incoming Jurchen army.
However, in this lengthy discussion, they failed to come up with many better solutions.
There are not many things that can be settled, only a few points.
First, we have reached this point and surrender is impossible, so we can only bite the bullet and fight to the death with the Jurchen army.
Therefore, Hu Biao led the Xuan Ge camp to defend Haiyang City up and down; in addition to these, he should also be able to mobilize 1,200 to 300 civilians to help with the harvest.
Zhang Jue led his troops to guard Pingzhou City. Their troops were of course larger.
The serious military strength alone is about five thousand people, and the civilians can mobilize as many as six or seven thousand people.
It's just that despite the large number of troops, these former Liao soldiers have been frightened by the Jurchens, and their combat effectiveness is not very optimistic.
Moreover, Pingzhou City is much larger than Haiyang City, so it naturally requires more troops to defend it, so it is impossible to mobilize troops and horses to support Haiyang City for a while.
The two sides can only agree to be each other's horns, and if there is an opportunity, they will try their best to help contain the Jurchens' troops.
Of course, the most important thing at the moment is to immediately seek help from the Liao army under Yanjing City and Tong Guan, who is still under remote command in Hejian Mansion.
Let them dispatch some of their troops to come to the rescue.
It doesn't take too much, even if there are only 10,000 elite Western troops, they can fight back the Jurchens.
Second, immediately implement the strategy of fortifying the walls and clearing the field. Try to cut down as many trees as possible around the two cities. Those that cannot be cut down after a period of time are directly set on fire, so that the Jurchens cannot easily build siege equipment.
For the same reason, uninhabited villages were burned down, wells were filled, or some cattle and horse carcasses were thrown in, polluting the water.
In short, these Jurchens who came from afar should not be able to find anything that they could use.
Third, send messengers to tell people in Wuzhai in various places in Pingzhou to start escaping as soon as possible while the Jurchens still have two or three days to arrive.
Personnel who can ride war horses, drive carts, and have the ability to maneuver quickly are best to evacuate directly toward the territory of the Zhuozhou Evervictorious Army.
If not, we can only rely on people on foot. It is probably too late, so we should evacuate towards Pingzhou City quickly.
In fact, Pingzhou City is not big and cannot accommodate that many people; but the Dengzhou Navy is not still there, and it is completely possible to leave on the Navy's ship and evacuate directly to the border of Shandong.
Helping transport some refugees to Dengzhou and other places was the only thing that Li Meng, the naval commander, agreed to help with.
This was something that Zhang Jue and Hu Biao agreed to in private by promising to give him a large sum of money. As for letting his sailors go ashore to fight, no matter how much the price was, Li Meng was
No matter what, he refused to agree.
In this way, after discussing some specific details involved in the above three points, it was already past nine o'clock in the evening.
Therefore, by the time Hu Biao and others rushed back to Haiyang City overnight, it was already midnight.
Fortunately, Hu Biao received good news after entering the city. The team of scouts led by Yu Hanfeng had returned one by one before dark...
****
"What the hell! These grandsons are finally here~"
When standing at the north gate of Haiyang City, a group of netizens at the head of the city saw an infantry army with a large number of mules and horses appearing in front of them, escorted by thousands of horsemen.
In the mouth of the smelly old fart, he slowly said this sentence in a very complicated tone.
At this time, it is already July 28th.
Compared with the expected time, Wanyan Loushi's army was delayed by about two days, which allowed Hu Biao and the others to make more war preparations.
For example: a batch of food and ordnance transported by the Dengzhou Navy was urgently transported to Haiyang City.
In this way, even if they are besieged for two or three months, the city will still not be in danger of running out of food; that is, if they can hold on for that long.
The moat will also be completely completed, the river water will be diverted to fill it up, and the work of strengthening the walls and clearing the fields in the surrounding areas will be completed.
The problem is that having two extra days of preparation time cannot be said to be a good thing.
The reason why Wanyan Loushi's army was delayed for so long was entirely because they destroyed all the forts they saw along the way.
All food and property were plundered, and all the young and old were slaughtered, leaving only a few young and strong men and women who marched with them.
The specific approach was similar to that of the Tatars who regarded the Jurchens as their ancestors hundreds of years later.
Originally, Hu Biao and the others definitely sent messengers to notify these Wuzhais, telling them to run away as soon as possible to avoid being poisoned.
It is a pity that these people did not believe Hu Biao's well-intentioned reminders at first.
By the time I heard vague rumors about it from other channels, it was already too late to run away.
Because the Jurchens' vanguard cavalry arrived, they not only drove back all the horse exploration troops of Xuan Ge Camp, but also cut off all possibilities for the people in these villages to escape.
So now, many netizens have seen the Wanyan Loushi army, which not only has nearly 10,000 troops on foot and cavalry, but also has 7,000 to 8,000 prisoners.
With the Jurchens' brutality, once the siege battle goes slightly wrong.
These young and strong prisoners will definitely be driven to attack the city and use their lives to take the lead in consuming the defensive strength of their city...
A group of netizens stood at the top of the city and observed silently.
After arriving, the army from Wanyan Lou's room set up a large camp at a location about five miles outside the city;
What to fuss over.
During this process, he had more than 4,000 cavalrymen under his command, galloping on war horses outside the city, showing off their power.
Among them, there were about 3,000 cavalry troops, that is, 1,000 Jurchen cavalry, leading 2,000 Liao cavalry who surrendered.
He bypassed Haiyang City directly from the right and set off in the direction of Pingzhou City.
It was not like what was shown on TV, where a messenger with a loud voice rushed to the city and shouted at the top of his lungs, shouting, "As long as you put down your weapons, open the city gates and surrender, that's all."
Seeing such a posture, Hu Biao and others understood Wanyan Lou's tactics.
This plan is to use 3,000 cavalry troops to hold back the troops in Pingzhou City first; the remaining infantry and cavalry will first capture Haiyang City.
They didn't even make any move to persuade them to surrender. By the time they captured Haiyang City, it was already very obvious what the fate of the soldiers and civilians in the city would be. It was feared that not many people would survive.
Thinking of this, Hu Biao and others had already been mentally prepared. Fortunately.
However, the Xuange Camp soldiers on the city wall, as well as some civilians who mobilized to help on the city wall, had obvious panic on their faces.
It was also at this time that the system's unique mechanical sound sounded in everyone's ears.
"Congratulations to Mr. Hu Biao, commander of Xuan Ge Camp, and congratulations to all personnel involved in this mission. The second phase of this mission has been officially triggered.
Everyone, please pay attention to the following task requirements.
First, before midnight on August 6, the fourth year of Xuanhe, Pingzhou City and Haiyang City must be controlled by the Song Dynasty.
If any city is lost, the mission in this phase will be considered a failure.
Second, before midnight on August 6, the fourth year of Xuanhe's reign, the number of people successfully evacuated by the Dengzhou Navy could not be less than 15,000 refugees.
Third, after the specified time is reached, the number of survivors of the Xuange Camp team and netizens cannot be less than ten.
If any of the above three points is not completed, the system will randomly kill five people as punishment; if all three points are not completed, the system will increase the punishment and directly determine that the mission has failed.
All members of the Xuange Camp team, as well as netizens who just participated in the mission this time, will be collectively wiped out.
Fourth, after the number of evacuees exceeds 15,000, the greater the number, the higher the evaluation and reward given by the system will be after the end of this mission.
Finally, I wish you all all the best and successfully complete your mission~"
