The Happy Life of Small Officials in Northern Song Dynasty

Yelu Hongji stood on the high platform in the south square, silently watching the people who were driven out, and felt pity in his heart. He didn't know what the act of driving people away to consume the Song Army's strength would bring to his future.

But Yelu Hongji knew one thing, that is, if the emperor was here, he would definitely do this. He might be criticized by the world as cruel and inhumane if he did so, but the emperor would never blame himself; going to Beijing is too important. To keep living in Shangjing, not to mention sacrificing tens of thousands of people, even if it costs more, it is worth it.

It is not that Yelu Hongji has no choice. He can also choose to leave Shangjing and flee to the north to avoid disaster. Under the protection of tens of thousands of Liao troops, the Song army will not rashly chase them in the ice and snow; It's not Yelu Hongji anymore. His ambition is to become the future emperor of the Liao Kingdom. He must not back down in the contest with his uncle Yelu Chongyuan, and going to Beijing is a test. The result is extremely important both to him personally and to the overall situation.

A gust of cold wind hit his face, Yelu Hongji subconsciously wrapped his cloak tightly and withdrew his messy thoughts. The soldiers pushed and pushed them into squares, so although the square was chaotic, it was not noisy.

In the northwest corner, a group of soldiers held torches and escorted over a dozen men with bleeding heads and faces. The dozen or so men were all [-] or [-]-year-old boys. .

Yelu Hongji frowned and asked Yelu Kanrong beside him, "What's going on?"

Yelu Kanrong immediately sent someone to inquire about the situation. It turned out that the dozen or so teenagers were afraid of going to die, so they agreed to hide in the ruins and were searched out by the officers and soldiers.

Yelu Hongji walked down the high platform slowly and came in front of the dozen or so teenagers. Seeing that Yelu Hongji was dressed luxuriously and surrounded by many generals, they knew that he was definitely not an ordinary person, so they stopped begging and looked at Yelu Hongji silently.

"Are you scared?" Yelu Hongji asked.

The teenagers kept their mouths shut and looked down at the ground.

"The eldest prince is asking you something, are you dumb?" the guard shouted loudly.

Yelu Hongji waved his hands and said: "Don't scare them, they are only sixteen or seventeen-year-old boys, and it's natural to be afraid." After a pause, he stepped forward and reached out to help a boy in front of him remove the grass stalks from his head and face. The dust was blown away, and he sighed, "I am a good man in Daliao, why did you choose to escape instead of fight in the face of national crisis? Do you live up to the teachings of your fathers and the kindness of the emperor?"

A young man suddenly raised his head and shouted: "Your Highness, four members of my Xiao family joined the army to serve the country. My father and eldest brother died in the battle of Helan Mountain, and my second and third brothers died in the southern battle against the Song Dynasty. Let me and my mother, I hide not because of fear, but after I die, who will take care of my old mother? How can I abandon her? "

Yelu Hongji looked at him coldly and said, "If Daliao destroys the capital and loses it, what do you want to do?"

The young man protested: "Is it our common people's responsibility for the destruction of Daliao? Why did Daliao attack Xia and Song? If they didn't attack other countries, how could they provoke revenge from other countries? How could Song soldiers come to the capital? "

Yelu Hongji shouted angrily: "Bold, do you mean that the emperor is wrong?"

The boy poked his neck and said, "I don't know whose fault it is, but it's definitely not our common people's fault. We just want to live in peace and reunite with our parents and relatives. If you don’t eat well and don’t wear warm clothing, you can at least survive, but even such a small wish cannot come true..."

There was constant scolding from around, Yelu Hongji's face was ashen, he never thought of this, in his eyes, the people are private property, they can be driven into enslavement, or even killed casually like their own livestock, he never thought Animals also have thoughts and will fight, which is absolutely unacceptable.

"Tie them to lampposts and shoot them to death with random arrows. Those who speak nonsense to confuse people's hearts, and those who run away timidly will all be shot to death with random arrows."

Yelu Kanrong agreed, and immediately ordered the soldiers to tie more than a dozen teenagers to the lampposts. The teenagers cried and begged for mercy, and some were so frightened that they spewed out shit. Only the teenager bit his lower lip and looked blank. After the order, Feathered arrows were fired at once, and more than a dozen teenagers were shot with dozens of arrows and died tragically in full view.

Tens of thousands of people were silent, and there was neither fear nor anger in their eyes, just a dead gray color, just like Yelu Hongji expected, they were a group of walking corpses.

In the early hours of the morning, more than 6 strong men took the lead, and [-] Liao soldiers set up their formations to attack Seoul. The two iron gates connecting the two cities were rolled up by nooses and passed through more than [-] feet between the two cities. The wide giant covered bridge became unimpeded, and the first group of death squads composed of a thousand people stepped onto the end of the covered bridge. They held simple weapons such as wooden sticks and iron forks in their hands, like a group of mortal souls indifferently heading toward Seoul. coming.

Due to the suppression of the bed crossbows on the enemy tower and the firepower of the Liao army on the city wall, the Song army was unable to immediately stop the Liao people who were rushing over. They could only set up a simple line of defense outside the range, more than a hundred steps away from the city wall. In this way, during the entire process of the Liao people passing through the covered bridge, they will not be able to strike the most effective blow at the most favorable time.

But all this is helpless. Su Jin never wants to expose the soldiers to the firepower of the Liao people and attack the front row of the Liao people. It's not that Su Jin can't bear to attack the people, but to reduce his own casualties .

In fact, the Liao people's strong team can't play a decisive role. The outcome of a real duel can't be changed by tens of thousands of civilians, but it can be used to strengthen the momentum or break up the formation. Psychologically, it will bring a certain deterrent force to the Song army, and more wolves kill elephants. Even if five are replaced by one, these strong men will consume ten to twenty thousand of their own troops, which is extremely detrimental to the follow-up real battle. The thing to avoid is to let your soldiers fight these worthless civilians head-on.

Su Jin also needs to guard against the rebellion of the people in Seoul. Although these people are Han Chinese, they are all native Liao people. They don’t have feelings for the Song Dynasty in their minds. Su Jin will not fantasize about the national consciousness of these people They will suddenly wake up, and it is a great privilege not to disturb them on a large scale, but when the war comes, they have to allocate part of their troops to prevent the backyard from catching fire.

Group after group of strong Liao troops crossed the covered bridge and entered Seoul, gathered in a large open space in the northern city, preparing to attack the simple fortifications temporarily built by the Song people with sundries. Su Jin did not expect that the Liao people would bring so many The strong men, seeing that the open space is densely crowded with people, will soon launch their first charge, and it is inevitable to fight with them head-on in the narrow terrain, so they immediately ordered to retreat five hundred steps, relying on houses and walls to defend All roads leading to the North City.

Yelu Hongji saw that the people of Song Dynasty did not want to waste their energy on the strong men, which is exactly what he wanted to see, the more so, the more he wanted to take advantage of this, so he immediately ordered the people in the imperial city Regardless of men, women, old and young, they drove over to disrupt the order of the Song people's defense line, which was a bit frenzied.

At dawn, the number of Liao people who invaded Seoul has exceeded 12. Except for the [-] main force, the rest are all ordinary people who were forced to stand in front. The Liao people are really beasts. There are also a lot of panicked women, all of them were terrified, and they were driven forward by the soldiers of the Liao army in the formation. Not an easy task.

Su Jin rubbed his hands anxiously, and kept pacing on the high-rise building where he could see the whole situation. He didn't want to become the executioner with innocent blood on his hands again, but he didn't want the Liao people to succeed. Once these people broke into the defense line, the damage would be huge , the soldiers of the Liao army hid behind and could shoot arrows unscrupulously as long as they entered the range. Coupled with the harassment of these people, it was almost a doomed situation; Su Jin made up his mind that once the people of the Liao people came into range, he had to order the massacre , self-preservation is the first priority.

The stairs creaked, and Ma Han's loud voice rang out: "My lord, I'm back."

Su Jin was overjoyed, hurried to the stairs, and shouted: "Did you get it?"

Ma Han wiped the ice and snow from the stubble and said: "Isn't that easy to catch? Even the queen, the princess and dozens of ministers didn't run away, and the more than 1000 Liao troops who accompanied them for protection were all slaughtered by us."

Su Jin slapped his hands and said: "Okay, well done, this time I see how the Liao people are so rude?"