When the Mongolian army invaded, Liu Ran was caught off guard and retreated while fighting. All his subordinates died in the first few days. After he retreated to the vicinity of Kaifeng, in order to reduce the pressure on Kaifeng City, he launched several attacks on the Mongols.
By now, the officers around him had changed twice more.
There is no doubt about the strength of the Mongols. From last night to the present, the scale of the battle has increased, and the casualties of the soldiers have been very tragic. In fact, Guo Alin's words are euphemistic. Not to mention the thousand-man army, even with the size of the Mongolian hundred-man army, it is difficult to fight.
The biggest difficulty was that the temporarily assembled team lacked tactical coordination. Although the ordinary people who temporarily surrendered to the army were brave and courageous, they could not follow the orders and prohibitions, and could hardly realize the commander's intention. Liu Ran arranged ambushes and sieges three times, and both times they failed.
Because some people in the team could not restrain themselves and took action in advance, which alerted the Mongolians.
As a result, what was supposed to be a battle of annihilation turned into a battle of defeat. And the Mongols were unstable, so why did they care about the temporary disadvantage? They retreated on their own initiative, and the encirclement failed. Then the Mongols relied on their cavalry superiority to repeatedly destroy and expose them.
There was an ambush, and many experienced soldiers died in the process.
Liu Ran had seen heroic soldiers fighting to the death, being accidentally shot through the body by heavy Mongolian arrows, and having their internal organs and bones crushed by horses.
He had seen young farmers finally muster up the courage to step onto the battlefield, only to collapse when they were dozens of steps away from the enemy. As a result, they dropped their weapons and fell alone. They were chased by the Mongols as if they were hunting, and were shot like hedgehogs.
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He had seen ordinary people rejoicing because of the counterattack by the army. They came out from the cellars or jungles where they were hiding to cheer. They were bullied by the Mongols, and they were slashed and stabbed with swords and guns. They waved their hammers or rakes in their hands to resist.
, the broken arm and limbs can fly half way up the sky.
Half an hour ago, in an encounter, the warrior Cai Bal'er who brought hundreds of strong men from Pan Gang was also killed. Among his remaining troops, most of the wounded of varying severity were now led by the scholar Yuan Haowen.
Rest in a hidden river ditch.
The people surrounding Liu Ran now were almost all newcomers who had struggled out of the mountains of corpses and been temporarily promoted because of their bravery in combat. There were only two officers with more seniority. Liu Ran hoped that they would not die again.
No one teaches the basic rules of the army.
The 800 men under Guo Alin were the biggest contributors to the previous annihilation of two Mongolian centurions. However, in order to achieve the result of annihilation, more than half of the 800 men were killed or injured.
Under this dignified Xuanwu Army Jiedushi, several of his generals who were good at fighting have also been lost one after another. Now only deputy general Tang Jiurei follows him.
Tang Jiurei also had several injuries from swords and arrows, and his right calf was pierced by an arrow cluster. He was leaning against a cart to rest, his face was pale from the pain, and his eyes were as scary as a will-o'-the-wisp.
The army of the Great Zhou Dynasty was huge, but in the Central Plains, on the one hand, many of the old Red Coat Army troops continued to be liquidated and dismissed. On the other hand, the original backbone also transferred to other yamen to serve as officials or officials, or retired from the army and returned home to guard their property and enjoy a comfortable life.
Yes, the number of veterans retained in the army is very limited.
Guo Alin's confidant headquarters was his support for suppressing the entire town. The subsequent impact of losing more than half of it was simply unbearable. That's why Guo Alin had doubts about the subsequent battles.
But Liu Ran was not worried about his own lack of manpower.
"We fought for six times, but the Mongols around Kaifeng were slow to respond. Now they want to assemble, can they really assemble? We have discussed before, from Guide Prefecture to the west, Suizhou, Qixian and the area to the west of Kaifeng
In Xingyang, Zhengzhou and other places, all the Mongolians who were supposed to take action were too late. They were held back! Don’t worry, we are not the only ones fighting the Mongols! That’s all the Mongols are, and our people will become more and more
The more!”
After all, Guo Alin was from the Central Plains, and he had been under the command of the Emperor of the Zhou Dynasty not long after he joined the army. He was accustomed to using himself and the Zhou army as the only support against foreign enemies. Liu Ran, who was born in the border area of eastern Liaoning, always believed that the army and the people were one.
At critical moments, only you can rely on yourself, and everyone should have the consciousness to fight for their lives on the battlefield.
The reality was just as Liu Ran thought. This vast land was boiling, as if red-hot magma was constantly pouring out from under the land and forming a river.
During the fierce battles, people kept crossing the fields and shrubs covered with thin snow and gathering around him.
Among these people were stragglers, petty officials, farmers, craftsmen, traders, a group of family-based coastal fishermen, shipwrights, and even a few who claimed to be from Lizhou East Road in the Song Dynasty.
The mountain bandits, with blood-red eyes, said they would fight the Mongols to avenge their comrades.
They gathered continuously in a very short period of time and then fought with the Mongols. Some people died neatly during the battle, and some were promoted by Liu Ran and other generals. This caused the army to be broken up repeatedly, but it regained its size again and again.
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Liu Ran was a veteran soldier and had long been used to seeing all kinds of bloody scenes, but those scenes still gave him a strong shock, deeply moved him, and even made him dizzy from time to time.
He took off his sword from his waist and placed it on the ground with its scabbard to support his tired body and figure out how to arrange the next step of the battle.
When he was in Liaodong in the early years, he knew that many Mongolians did not know that the vast majority of the people in the Jin Kingdom were Han people. The Mongolians only knew the Jurchens, and used "Khitan" to refer to all the ethnic groups enslaved by the Jurchens. Other ethnic names
, those Mongolians don’t care and don’t bother to remember.
Liu Ran has many relatives and friends who are brave and good at fighting. He himself has been practicing martial arts since he was a child and has strong skills. However, he cannot change the ethnic group he grew up in, cannot change Han'er's status, and cannot prevent Han'er from being brutally attacked by his opponents.
They are regarded as a nation that is as cowardly and incompetent as a coward.
But how could Han'er be what the Mongolians imagined?
The Han'er showed restraint and weakness because they could not see the future and had no hope. However, now they have a future and hope, and there are no longer Jurchen nobles entrenched above them, constantly sucking their flesh and bone marrow.
On the contrary, the newly born Zhou Dynasty constantly encouraged Han children to be enterprising and adventurous. In order to achieve this goal, the methods used by Zhou Dynasty were simply crude, which often shocked the Southern Song Dynasty.
What, your military status is so high, and the restraint is so weak? What, you are so indulgent to the merchants that in order to recruit workers for the mines and factories that are popping up everywhere, you can sit back and watch the local farmers continue to decrease? What, you are
Various miscellaneous studies are taught in various places, including arithmetic, geography, management, and martial arts, more than the teachings of saints? What, your army is not only equipped with weapons, but also caravan guards and village militiamen.
How many strong bows and crossbows are there?
If this continues, there will only be tigers and wolves under the Zhou Dynasty. How can there be obedient people?
In the eyes of many outsiders, each of these incidents is a sure way to die. Originally, people in the Song Dynasty were very afraid of the title of the Zhou Dynasty. In recent years, some people think that the Song Dynasty can wait for the north.
The Caotai team's regime was in chaos and was on the way to collapse.
Although Liu Ran came from a martial arts background and loved reading, he was a little worried about this earlier. But now he fully understood that what Guo Ning, the Emperor of the Zhou Dynasty, wanted was exactly this situation.
Perhaps His Majesty does not care about his identity as the founder of the country, nor does he recognize the kind of long-term peace and order where the people are as obedient as grass. As an emperor, he has always been concerned about how to defeat the enemy, and what he looks forward to is how to make his dynasty capable of martial arts.
Full of virtue.
The emperor's expectations came true.
The Central Plains, which was supposed to be filled with obedient people, broke out when faced with the invasion of powerful enemies. The Han people in the Central Plains showed amazing ruthlessness. They dared to fight against any enemy, even in the face of the Mongolian army that killed people like mowing grass.
Same thing.
After the surprise attack, the panic among the soldiers and civilians in various parts of the Central Plains lasted for about five or six days. After five or six days, the people in this vast land began to roar at the Mongols with their fighting. They told the enemy that as long as there was a little
If given the opportunity, they will resist and will inevitably cause heavy losses to the enemy.
"Judge, Marshal, look!"
A soldier ran over panting and pointed in the distance with his hand.
Liu Ran and Guo Alin looked up and saw smoke rising in all directions, and heard a huge roar like a volcano erupting.
They saw countless cavalry coming from the west. The knights rode their horses and charged in waves. The sound of horse hooves on the ground was like the roar of strong wind and thunder. Under the sun, the armor on the cavalry made a cold sound.
In the cold light, the iron currents are rushing, interspersed, and advancing like surging waves, like a painting with thick ink and heavy colors.
They saw a large number of people, first in twos and threes, then in groups, and finally appeared like a tide from the end of the southern wilderness. To be honest, there was no queue to speak of as the people marched, and they did not look like they could withstand the Mongolian soldiers.
Liu Ran even saw some furious people marching at the front of the queue, peeling off the armor of some of the dead along the way, gathering their horses, and holding weapons.
But how could their number be so large, and how could their march be so violent?
At some point, a group of people gathered around Liu Ran and Guo Alin, all of whom had blazing eyes.
"Kaifeng! Look in the direction of Kaifeng!" Suddenly a soldier shouted.
The two men suddenly turned around and saw a commotion among the soldiers at the top of Kaifeng City, as if there was a violent mobilization of troops going on.
"Is Guo Liushou going to lead his troops out of the city?" a soldier asked happily.
On the top of the city, Guo Zhongyuan had also been looking outside for a long time. He confirmed that the surrounding situation had suddenly changed, so he praised calmly: "The sons and daughters have done a good job, and the fellow villagers are also good men... It's almost our turn. Already."
The people and materials that could be used for fighting in Kaifeng City had actually been sorted out yesterday. But for a certain decisive node and a certain special weapon, he waited until now.
Guo Zhongyuan nodded to the officers beside him, and then saw a soldier waving a flag.
Under the city wall, the soldiers who were ready to go subconsciously moved closer to the city gate. There were also people at more than ten crenels near the city tower who raised their pine torches and lit the fuses.
Guo Zhongyuan suddenly thought that he had a lot of connection with things like fuses. Back then, he made great achievements in Zhongdu City because he unintentionally lit up an iron cannon and killed the trapped enemy. Now these weapons that use fuses, It is different and much more complicated than the iron artillery that had been preserved for decades. In recent years, there has been no funding from the central government.
In the chaotic situation, Guo Zhongyuan expended a lot of energy to promptly bring the team studying this weapon to the city and equip it with everything needed. But this is meaningful. A powerful army cannot just rely on The bravery of the soldiers; living in Kaifeng, a city with prosperous industry, and with the support of so many craftsmen, it is more important to use your own talents.
It seemed that extra preparations were made before lighting the fuse, so some time was delayed. Guo Zhongyuan waited patiently, watching the fuse closest to him spit out sparks and burn into the interior of the huge metal structure.
Only then did he raise his hand and give it a heavy slap on the battlement.
As if some terrible power was released by this action, after a huge roar, no one inside or outside the tower could hear any sound. Thick white smoke covered the sky and blocked their sight.
Sorry for the slow update. I had a severe attack of costochondritis two days ago. It felt like my sternum was going to explode, like an alien would jump out.
