Fenghou

Chapter 1195 Oriole
At one o'clock in the middle of the night, the [-] Song troops who were retreating were overtaken by the main force of the signing army who came after their tails. The morale of the Song army had collapsed, and they had no intention of fighting at all. Fifty thousand Song soldiers were killed and countless surrendered. Li Cheng showed no mercy this time, and chased him for nearly two hundred miles, and stopped when he reached the Huaihe River.

In the end, only a few thousand people were able to escape across the Huai River, and the rest of the [-] army was wiped out.

Li Cheng was also worried about Haizhou's loss, so he left a small number of soldiers to guard Suzhou and Sizhou. He led the main force and escorted more than [-] captured Song troops back to Haizhou.

As soon as Li Cheng's army broke out of the city, they were discovered by the scouts of the Western Army deployed outside the city. The scouts rushed back to the island to report.

At this time, the [-] Western troops on Donghai Island were ready to fight. Since the Song army launched the largest attack this morning and suffered the heaviest losses, the generals of the Western army all agreed that things must go against each other, and the Song army must withdraw.

From the afternoon onwards, the [-] Song troops had dinner early, readying their troops and waiting for the opportunity to attack.

Liu Qiong and Tang Qian stood on the pier, staring at the dark shore of the bay. Behind him, teams of western troops began to board. Tang Qian would lead three thousand soldiers to attack the western city. After Tang Qian succeeded, Liu Qiong Then lead the [-] main force into the county.

At this time, a small boat came from the darkness, and after a while, the boat docked, and the scouts jumped ashore. Liu Qiong went up to meet him and asked, "How is the situation?"

The scout saluted and said: "Report to Dutong, the Song army has retreated, and the main force in the city is chasing and killing them!"

Liu Qiong was overjoyed and asked anxiously, "Are there any defenders in the city?"

"There are also defenders, but not like the whole army, like militia soldiers, all wearing hats, corsets and cloth armor, and holding ash-tasseled guns."

Hats, corsets, and ash-tasseled spears are typical militia soldiers' equipment.

Tang Qian said in a deep voice: "The humble officer led the army to attack!"

Liu Qiong nodded, "After I lead the army to gather on the shore, I will launch a rocket."

Tang Qian saluted and left in a hurry. Not long after, ten large ships full of soldiers left the pier and sailed to the opposite bank.

Liu Qiong also issued an order, and the [-] troops immediately assembled at the dock and boarded the ship.

Qushan County is about five miles away from the sea, separated by a small hill. From the sea to the county town, you can go around the hill. The distance is relatively long, and you have to walk more than ten miles, but you can also go directly across the hill, which is only three miles. .

Tang Qian led three thousand soldiers in a straight line, directly across the hills.

At this time, a scout rushed to report, "General Qi, many militia soldiers came out of the city to pick up the corpses, and they are in Nancheng."

This news really surprised Tang Qian, and he asked anxiously, "Can the city gate be opened?"

"The gates of the city are wide open, and the suspension bridge has been lowered, but there are also many soldiers on the top of the city, more than a thousand people."

Tang Qian realized that this was an excellent opportunity. Although according to the agreement he would not launch an attack until all Liu Qiong had crossed the sea, it was a pity that he did not use this opportunity.

He pondered for a while and asked, "How many people came out to clean up the corpses?"

"About two thousand people."

"Are there any defenders in Beicheng?" Tang Qian asked again.

The scout shook his head, "It's pitch black in the northern city, so there probably aren't any patrolling soldiers, and so is the eastern city!"

Tang Qian nodded, and he quickly made a compromise, which was to wait until the opponent was about to end before launching an offensive, thus buying time for Liu Qiong's army to cross the bay.

Tang Qian sent the defenders back to the island and asked Liu Qiong to send troops to support immediately.

The militia soldiers had been busy all night. They had just moved the entire Song army camp into the city, and then they had to clean up the bodies of the Song army soldiers who died in battle. This hard work finally fell to the militia soldiers. But there was no choice but to bear the nausea, shoveled the charred corpse into a mat with a shovel, rolled it up, threw it into a cart, and sent it to a distant place for burial.

Two thousand people started at the second watch, worked until the third watch, and then went back to rest and sleep.

Everyone was busy cleaning up under the city wall. It was the last hundreds of charred corpses, and it was about to end. The soldiers on the top of the city stopped watching and sat down, yawning, and prepared to squat for a while.

No one noticed that an army of dozens of people had approached the gate of the city without a sound. This army naturally came in line, walked on the suspension bridge, and entered the city.

Finally, more than a dozen militia soldiers saw them, and someone scolded loudly: "I haven't finished my work, I'm in a hurry to go back and seek death!"

"Who are you?" Someone noticed that their armor was different.

The soldiers of the Western Army ignored them and went straight into the city gate.

The chief commander was called Chang Long, and when he heard the shout, he rode over and scolded, "You guys, what are you shouting for?"

"General, an army has entered the city just now. It's completely different from our armor. It's a bit like the armor of the Song Army."

Chang Long urged his horse to run towards the city gate, but only halfway through, an arrow shot out from the night, "Poof!" It hit Chang Long's neck, Chang Long let out a muffled cry, turned over from his horse and fell down.

A dozen or so soldiers were taken aback, and looked back together, only to find that countless soldiers had come to kill them in the dark night.

They yelled in fright, turned around and fled, and many soldiers working outside the city also noticed the enemy's situation and started yelling.

The soldiers on the top of the city were startled, and they got up one after another, trying to close the city gate and pull up the suspension bridge.

At this time, they found that the suspension bridge could not be pulled up, and the city gate could not be closed. The bottom of the suspension bridge was hooked to the embankment by a big iron hook.

The soldiers on the top of the city were in a mess, and the alarm bell rang, "Dang! Dang! Dang!" After a while, it stopped abruptly, and the Western Army killed the top of the city, but the alarm bells of the other three cities also sounded immediately. .

The urgent sound of alarm bells spread throughout the city.

At this time, [-] soldiers of the Western Army rushed into the city. The first batch of [-] reinforcements came, which increased Tang Qian's troops to [-]. The second batch of [-] reinforcements was crossing the hill to the south city. door to kill.

Tang Qian led his army into the city gate, but encountered militia soldiers rushing in densely. The rapid alarm bells all over the city alarmed the [-] militia soldiers in the whole city. They did not dare to take off their clothes and sleep. Gun fell asleep.

The alarm bell rang suddenly, and the militia soldiers woke up from their sleep one after another. The general yelled and forced them to rush out of the barracks, just in time to meet the [-] Western Army that had entered the city, and a fierce battle broke out between the two sides on the street.

It's a pity that this fierce battle was completely one-sided massacre. Most of the militia soldiers didn't have much training, let alone saw blood. They were killed by the fierce and brave elites of the Western Army. The second batch of [-] reinforcements from the Western Army rushed into the city. The militia soldiers completely collapsed and fled in all directions in the city. They took off their armor and weapons and fled home.

Tang Qian immediately divided his troops into five groups, occupied the gates and walls, warehouses, barracks and other key points in the city, and imposed a curfew in the city to prevent the people from going out.

Half an hour later, Liu Qiong led the third batch of [-] troops into the city, and Qushan County, which Li Cheng had defended for nearly a month, fell.

(End of this chapter)