After the fall of Bazhou, the Jurchen army rested for a day after capturing Bazhou and did not move south yet. However, Xiongzhou City, which was less than three days away from Bazhou, had already become the next target of the attack. Both sides understood that
At this point, Bai Qi, the deputy privy envoy, was in charge of Xiongzhou City. In the past two days, a large number of soldiers and horses who had retreated from Bazhou fled to Xiongzhou. Bai Qi had also received news of the Jurchen army's attack. Bai Qi immediately reported it to the court.
At the same time, he was also ready for a decisive battle with the Jurchens.
Xiongzhou City is the central city that radiates to the vast northeastern border towns, and is the transit place for the supplies of the border towns. Once Xiongzhou is lost, it is equivalent to having its backbone broken. Bai Qi deeply realizes this. Therefore, he gave the imperial court
In the emergency memorial, he asked for permission to immediately order the Ansu Army and Guangxin Army located in the border town on the west side, the Baoding Army located on the east side, and the Shun'an Army and Yongning Army located southwest of Xiongzhou to move closer to Xiongzhou. He planned to use Xiongzhou
Due to the favorable geographical situation of the state, most of the soldiers and horses in the border towns were gathered to fight against the Jurchens in Xiongzhou.
If the five armies of Ansu, Guangxin, Baoding, Shun'an and Yongning can gather in Xiongzhou, the Zhou Dynasty will gather a huge force of 280,000. Relying on the strong city of Xiongzhou and the nearby terrain, it can compete with the Jurchens
Fight to the death, cut off all the Jurchens' southbound routes, and keep the enemy out of the inland cities.
However, the Jurchens were obviously not fools. During the two days they rested in Bazhou, Wanyan Aguda made the decision to divide his troops into east and west and break into the interior. He ordered Yalu Buhua and Hulu to lead 50,000 cavalry.
From the area between Xiongzhou and Ansu, it penetrated into the southwest inland of Dazhou. At the same time, Wanyan Agu himself led all the remaining troops to attack Xiongzhou according to the original route, occupying the most important supplies and grain in this surrounding town.
transit hub.
The reason why Wanyan Aguda made such a decision was to use the light cavalry of Yalu Buhua and Hulu to go south and force them towards Bianliang, so as to mislead the opponent and prevent the opponent from gathering all their troops in
Xiongzhou fights a decisive battle with itself. Once Bianliang, the capital of the Great Zhou Dynasty, is threatened, it may force the Great Zhou Dynasty to make the wrong decision of internal redeployment of troops, instead of massing to meet the enemy, a decision that hinders one's own advancement. Because
For the strong city of Xiongzhou, it is impossible to use the same method as Bazhou. The defense system of Xiongzhou is not comparable to that of Bazhou. There are a huge number of crossbows and a large number of watchtowers built everywhere.
The city gate is the most difficult gate structure to attack. The siege method of Tiefutu will be useless in Xiongzhou. Therefore, to attack Xiongzhou, all siege equipment must be in place and the posture should be properly prepared.
Only Erba Jing's attack can be successful. Once this rhythm is entered, the opponent will have leisurely time to provide reinforcements, which is what Wanyan Aguda least wants to see.
At the same time as he made the decision to divide his forces to confuse the enemy, Wanyan Agu sent out eagle envoys to demand that the Liao army in the west, which had captured Daizhou, could not stay and continue to approach Bianliang in the south, putting further pressure on the Zhou court.
Three days later, a cavalry group continuously attacked Baicheng County.
This small town is more than 300 miles away from the border, and there are not many soldiers and horses stationed in it. There are less than 200 defenders and 300 regiments of training horses in the city. Seeing the Jurchen cavalry rushing to the city like dark clouds, County Magistrate Wu
Haodang even took his family and drove away in a cart. Without any effort, 50,000 Jurchen cavalry rushed into Baicheng County, and the people in the city suddenly felt like they were in hell. In one night, more than 6,000 people in the city were slaughtered, and the man was killed.
, women were raped, raped and killed, and children were not spared. After a night of crazy evil, when the Jurchen cavalry left, the originally peaceful small county town had become a scorched earth. Except for the escaped people, the rest
Almost all the people were slaughtered, and all the houses were set on fire and burned. This group of evil wolves set their sights on the next small county, Wangdu County, eighty miles away.
The same was the fate of Wangdu County. After Yalu Buhua and Hulu arrived with their armies, they easily invaded the city. This small town quickly became a hell. Next came Ding County and Xinle County, from north to south,
The Jurchen attack route was all the way southeast, heading straight to Bianliang. Along the way, they killed people, set fire to rape, raped, raped, and looted, and they wiped out all the unscrupulous things.
To the northwest, the Liao army also defeated the two prefecture cities of Dingxiang and Yizhou within a few days, and its 160,000 troops rushed directly towards Taiyuan Prefecture.
…
In Bianliang, the capital city of the Great Zhou Dynasty, news of the Liao and Jurchen attacks on the Great Zhou Dynasty has spread throughout the streets for many days. The whole city is enveloped in an atmosphere of panic. The Liao people are the faint fear in the hearts of the people of the Great Zhou Dynasty, and now
With the addition of a Jurchen army, how could it not make the people panic?
In addition, various news kept coming, true and false flying all over the sky. Some said that the Liao army and the Jurchens' troops had rushed straight to Bianliang, burning, killing, looting and killing countless people along the way. Some said that the Liao and Jurchens had
The Jurchen army was less than ten days away from Bianliang. The imperial troops had been defeated miserably, and the emperor was already preparing to leave the capital to escape. What's more, it is said that this time the emperor offended the Jurchens and the Liao people. They originally signed a tripartite friendship agreement, but
The emperor was rude to the envoys of the two countries, refused to save the people, refused to fulfill the agreement, and betrayed his trust. Therefore, the two countries united to attack Zhou's unkindness.
There are many kinds of news, but they have one thing in common, that is, all the news is bad news, and none of them is good news. And with the increase in the number of refugees fleeing from the north, these news have been further supported. It is said that the entire
The East-West Road and Hedong Road in Hebei Province are raging with war. The refugees say that the Liao and Jurchens are like devils and extremely cruel. Some people describe the Jurchens killing people. They hit people on the forehead with maces.
, as soon as the stick was hit, the head split open like a watermelon, without even a chance to grunt. They also said that they were cannibals, holding children like lambs on bamboo poles and roasting them over the fire, and then eating them bite by bite.
In short, in just half a month, the capital city was like a pot of boiling water, and no one could feel at ease.
After coming down, I was in panic every day. The wealthy families who had the conditions had begun to send their families and children to the state capital in the south. Of course, the vast majority of the people could not leave. This was not because they were unable to leave their homeland, but because
They had nowhere to go after leaving the capital. In such cold winter years, they did not want to become people who froze to death and starved to death outside. If they stayed in the capital, at least they would not die. After all, the emperor is still there and the imperial army is still there.
, the imperial court is still there, will the imperial court ignore his people?
In this state of mind, many helpless self-deprecating and comforting words sprouted. For example, among the words of comfort that people in the capital recently used to comfort each other, there was the saying "He has a mace, and I have a heavenly cap". This is also
It reflects the helplessness and helplessness of the people, and even has the meaning of breaking a jar.
The court was also in chaos. The news of the brazen attack by the Jurchens and Liao people finally shattered Guo Xu's luck. He knew that the consequences of his previous rejection of the other party had come. The calmness of this month was not that the other party swallowed his anger, but that the other party
Gearing up and getting ready to attack.
But Guo Xu breathed a sigh of relief. It's incredible to say that Guo Xu really felt a sense of relief. The big stick hanging above his head finally fell. It had been hanging above his head before, and he didn't know when it hit him hard.
Come down. Now that we have finally defeated it, we no longer have that anxious feeling of being about to fall. Now things have become simpler. We can fight the invading enemies with all our strength, and we no longer have to think about everything.
It's just that it's easy to say, but it's not easy to fight against the invading enemies with all their strength. The battle reports from the border towns arrived in the capital one after another, including the fall of Bazhou, the fall of Yanmenguan Daizhou, and then several counties and state capitals that were getting closer and closer to Bianliang were bloodbathed by the opponent.
. Taiyuan Mansion was besieged again by the Liao people, and the situation seemed to have collapsed. The entire court was panicked, and the officials and ministers were at a loss what to do. In this situation, Guo Xu also panicked.
What's abominable is that since the last time Guo Xu insisted on rejecting the terms of the Jurchens and Liao people, and had some disputes with Lu Zhongtian, Lu Zhongtian has been treating things passively with a cold-eyed attitude. Lu Zhongtian has even been silent for more than ten days.
At the morning court, he chose to let Guo Xu know how much he was worth. Guo Xu didn't care about this at first, but when all the courtiers in the morning court recently couldn't provide any plans,
Guo Xu could only ask his grandfather again for permission. In this situation, only his grandfather could take charge of the overall situation, and he really couldn't do without him. In other words... he couldn't even mobilize troops now, even if he had some
The idea cannot be put into practice. Those ministers are obviously silent because their grandfather does not express their opinions. No one really thinks about themselves. In fact, he is a loner. He must recognize this fact.
So Guo Xu went to see Lu Zhongtian in person and asked for his forgiveness.
