Fenghou

Chapter 898 Chitang

The camp of the main force of the Song and Jin Dynasties was located in the area of ​​Baijingzhai about [-] miles south of Chitangguan. There were a total of [-] troops, led by Niu Gao, the governor of the capital, with Liu Qiong and Tang Qian as deputy generals.

Niu Gao led troops very steadily, but he was not pedantic. He could use tricks at critical moments. It was his stability with tricks that won Chen Qing's attention. Of course, this Northern Expedition could not be done by relying solely on generals. There must also be a military division to follow.

The military adviser was Zhang Xiao, who served as the superintendent of Shangshu Xingtai on Hedong Road, and also served as the salt and iron transport envoy on Hedong Road.

Zhang Xiaochun is the director of Shangshuxing on Hedong Road. The supervisor is a kind of supervisory official position. Every link in Hedong Road needs to be in normal operation, especially many prefectures and counties surrendered from the Kingdom of Jin. Are they qualified? It is impossible for the people's evil deeds to rely on their voluntary acknowledgment, so the capital prison is needed to investigate, mainly relying on various reports to collect clues.

Zhang Xiao took up this supervisory position. After a year of supervision, it was basically over. More than [-]% of the officials passed the customs, and those who failed were directly dismissed by Zhang Xiao, investigated for crimes, and spit out the stolen goods.

At this time, Niu Gao was about to lead the army in the Northern Expedition, so Zhang Xiao was appointed by Chen Qing as a military adviser to assist Niu Gao in the Northern Expedition.

In the afternoon, Zhang Xiao received the notification from Niu Gao and hurried to the big tent of the Chinese army.

"Niu Dutong, is there any important news?" Zhang Xiao asked with a smile.

Niu Gao sighed and said, "Just received the Eagle letter from the Taiyuan intelligence station, Jin Bing changed his plan and stopped the northern expedition to the Mongolian tribe. He probably knew that we were going to attack north."

Zhang Xiao expected the Jinbing to cancel the Northern Expedition, "I said two days ago that it is mid-September, and if there is no sufficient logistical support, it is very likely that they will be trapped in the grassland by the snowstorm, and all of them will freeze and starve to death. So I told the general, to consider the worst direction of the plan, we have to face the [-] army of Jinbing."

Niu Gao nodded, "The current weather is indeed unfavorable. His Royal Highness King Yong gave us an order to seize the Xinzhou Basin before the snow falls. We will have logistical support. We will go north to capture Datong Mansion after the spring of next year. What I am worried about now is, Will [-] Jin soldiers go south to Xinzhou?"

Zhang Xiaowei smiled and said: "Datong Mansion is much more important than Xinzhou. Since Jin Bing gave up going north to the grassland, it is to protect Datong Mansion, so Jin Bing will definitely not go south, otherwise what if we send surprise soldiers to attack Datong Mansion from the west The other party can definitely imagine this point, the biggest possibility is that the [-] Khitan army from Daizhou will go south to Xinzhou, and the two alliance armies will defend us together, so we are facing [-] people, and now we must take down Chidan as soon as possible Tangguan."

"I know, I have already sent scouts to inquire about the news, and there should be an answer in the past two days."

As soon as Niu Gao finished speaking, a soldier reported outside the tent, "Report to Dutong, the first scout team is back, and there is something to gain!"

Niu Gao was overjoyed, and hurriedly said: "Let Li Sanghuai come to see me!"

After a while, Li Sanghuai walked into the large tent of the Chinese army, knelt down on one knee and saluted, "See Dutong for humble posts!"

"How's the harvest?"

"A spy team from the enemy army was arrested. There were ten people in total. Three of them were killed by us, and the other seven were taken back to the camp. Most of them have been interrogated on the way. General Tang is currently checking the confessions."

At this time, Tang Qian and Liu Qiong walked into the big tent, Tang Qian held a statement in his hand, and said with a smile: "It has been checked, basically there is no problem, and it is about the same as we expected."

Niu Gao immediately asked the soldiers to carry up a model, which was made of mud and stones, completely imitating Chitang Pass.

The soldiers carefully placed the model weighing hundreds of kilograms on the table. To be precise, Chitangguan is a valley, with Yunzhong Mountain on the left and Xizhou Mountain on the right. The valley in the middle with a width of half a mile is the distance between the two mountains. , in fact, this valley was not alluvial by Lanshui, but formed naturally. The entire valley is about ten miles long, and it is also the smallest part of the two mountains. A city gate was built in the front and back.

Tang Qian pointed to the valley and explained the information to everyone, "The enemy's [-] troops are all Han Chinese Congregation Army, of which [-] are stationed in the valley, and [-] are stationed in the north. They are all single-layer leather armor, but the spies are double-layer leather armor. The weapons and other equipment are the same as those of the previous Confederate Army, but there are a thousand barrels of kerosene and twenty medium-sized trebuchets in the valley. The sharpest weapon, if we forcibly break through, they will definitely burn it with fire oil."

"How's the morale of the army?" Zhang Xiao asked.

"The morale has not been very good. This army was recruited a few years ago. They are all the children of the former Western Army. They have the lowest status and the lowest salary in the Allied Army. They only have a monthly salary of [-] Wen, and they have been owed almost Half a year, the food is also the worst, the soldiers are very resentful, morale is low, because they can eat enough, so there is no phenomenon of desertion, although everyone is dissatisfied, but at least they can eat, the taxes are too heavy when they go home, and the people are hungry and cold , was exploited.

But if there is no war, they will continue to serve as soldiers, but now that the war is coming, the morale of the army has begun to be unstable. Several spies have confessed that the soldiers are very war-weary and don't want to work for the golden soldiers, including them, that's why they surrendered so much Quick, there is no resistance. "

"General Li, are the ten of them really defenseless?" Niu Gao asked Li Sanghuai who was standing by the tent with a smile.

Li Sanghuai quickly bowed and said: "They did not resist, but three of them wanted to escape, but we stabbed them to death without hesitation."

Niu Gao nodded and said: "Although their morale is low, I don't expect them to surrender the city. Even if the soldiers have this idea, the generals may not."

"Then Niu Dutong decides how to fight?" Liu Qiong asked from the side.

Niu Gao slowly said: "The opponent has kerosene and catapults, we can't fight at close range, medium catapults are not scary, as long as we take out heavy catapults, we can destroy everything."

After speaking, he looked at Zhang Xiao and waited for Zhang Xiao's opinion. Zhang Xiao said lightly: "I support General Niu's plan and use our most advantageous siege weapon to take Chitang Pass!"

In the night, the camp of the Song Army rose up and began to march toward Chitang Pass in the north. Behind the team, ten trebuchets rumbled, and each trebuchet was pulled by twenty cows. Slowly, surrounded by five thousand soldiers closely guarded.

At dawn, the [-] former soldiers of the Song Army arrived at Chitang Pass and began to set up camp ten miles south of Chitang Pass.

The chief general, Zhang Zhongfu, got the news and rushed to Guancheng in the south. He stood on the top of the city, looking at the Song army camp gradually appearing ten miles to the south. As mentioned above, his Chitang Pass is not a natural danger, can they defend it?

Of course Zhang Zhongfu also knew that Chen Qing led more than a thousand soldiers to defend the Jiandao Pass, preventing tens of thousands of Jurchens from going south.

But the situation is different. The Jurchens are all cavalry. They have no siege weapons or kerosene, so they can only attack the city with death. If the defenders are strong, they can indeed hold the pass. The tens of thousands of Song troops with weapons in the city are completely different. The Song army only needs to use heavy trebuchets to destroy Guancheng.

Do you hope that the Song Army did not carry heavy trebuchets?What a naive idea.

For a while, Zhang Zhongfu had nothing to do, and the general next to him, Wang Xie, said: "Dutong, if you really can't keep Guancheng, it's good to keep your troops, at least one of the two guarantees can be kept."

Zhang Zhongfu shook his head, "That's because you don't understand the Jurchens. They don't care about the life and death of the Han people at all. They only care about Guancheng. If we lose Guancheng without losing our troops, they will definitely think that you retreat without a fight. , we must die, so we have no other way but to fight to the death."

Zhang Zhongfu looked back at the generals, each with a look of despair on their faces.

(End of this chapter)