Guide to traveling through the Northern Song Dynasty

"Dong dong dong dong!"

The drums were beating loudly in the camp, and even Deng Chun, with his light cavalry, ran on foot to chase down the defeated Chu army.

Instead, the heavy armor soldiers and fire gun soldiers who had just made great achievements chose to retreat silently to the camp.

The Chu army was not an elite golden army, and was defeated several times in a row. Without a decisive force to join the battle, the rest of the battle would be completely one-sided.

However, it was said that the unlucky Gong Bin encountered a crazy enemy army and suffered nearly a hundred casualties among his swordsmen and shieldsmen (more injured and less killed), which had reached a one-third ratio. Because among the three thousand soldiers, there were only two hundred and fifty sword and shield bearers.

While Gong Bin was fighting hard, the Chu army on the left was killed and routed.

The friendly troops on the left who escaped from the battle immediately attacked the flank of the crazed Chu army, and worked together with Gong Bin to defeat the enemy in front of them. Gong Bin also quickly got rid of the hard fight and rushed forward to cooperate with the friendly forces on the right, continuing to form a pincer attack.

Attacked from both sides, defeated.

Attack again, then collapse.

The advantage of the Chuanxia Rebels in the entire battlefield expanded like a snowball.

Because the Chu army had too many defeated troops, the reserve team that rushed to respond was overwhelmed by the defeated troops.

Zhong Xiangqin led his troops to join the battle. Everywhere he looked, they were surrounded by defeated troops, and he didn't know where to save them. Even if he knew it, he couldn't get through it. The way forward was blocked by defeated troops. His own soldiers held him and tried to persuade him.

"Your Majesty, leave quickly, we have been defeated!"

Zhong Xiang glanced at Ju Ming's camp, felt resentful and powerless at the same time, turned around and fled back to Jiangling City with his soldiers.

The deserters and pursuers ran hard on the mud, and from time to time someone fell to the ground.

It's a pity that I couldn't use cavalry to chase and kill me, so I could only watch a large number of troops retreat and just flee towards Jiangling City.

Ju Ming asked the heavy cavalry retinue and some civilians who returned to the camp to clean the battlefield and control the prisoners. He smiled and said to the people behind him: "The south is stable."

Zhang Boring asked: "There will still be many enemy troops fleeing back to the city. Do they want to stay and continue to attack the city?"

"It's best to be able to negotiate," Ju Ming looked to the north. "Our enemy is not in Jinghu, so there is no need to increase unnecessary casualties. However, for this negotiation, one Jiangling will definitely not be enough. Yidu and Changyang must also be captured!"

Yidu is on the south bank of the Yangtze River, and Songzi can be attacked by land. If Zhu Ming takes it, Zhong Xiang will have even more trouble sleeping and eating.

Gu San's chest continued to bleed, and he came back with a strange spear: "Marshal, look at this, it can pierce heavy armor."

Ju Ming glanced at it and said: "The Iron Cone Spear is not that rare. It is in the "Martial Arts General Essentials"."

It is impossible to pierce heavy armor by relying on manpower to attack with a gun, but it can pierce the gaps between the armor plates.

Yue Fei's son Yue Yun did not use a hammer as written in the novel, but a weighted version of a special iron cone gun. In the early Northern Song Dynasty, in order to deal with the heavy armor of the Liao Kingdom, the Song army once equipped the iron cone gun on a large scale. Later, it was gradually used less and it was not picked up again until the Southern Song Dynasty to deal with the Jin soldiers.

This is not some strange weapon. There are so many of them in existence that later generations of archaeologists unearthed more than two hundred weapons at one time.

"The blade is four-edged, quite strong and sharp, and cannot be broken. It is shaped like an ear of wheat, so people call it a wheat ear gun." This is the written record of the iron cone gun.

When repeatedly stabbing heavy armor, the spear tip and spear tip will slip, sliding from the armor to the gap.

When an ordinary spear slides towards a gap, its strength is much weakened, and it is difficult to penetrate even a gap. The special structure of the iron cone gun can use the remaining power to easily pierce the gaps between the armor plates.

If it were stabbed deeper, the wound left by the square pyramid would cause the enemy to bleed profusely.

Wang Xun glanced at it and said: "It may be that the military staff warehouse in some state or county in Jinghu stored some iron cone guns from decades ago. The bell thieves obtained them and ordered the craftsmen to imitate them. The Song army has rarely used them because It is not easy to make, and even if it is made, it will be disliked by the soldiers. Because in the past few decades, the Song Dynasty has made a large number of weapons using filled steel. The tip of the iron cone gun is too thin, and the filled steel is not hard enough, so it is easy to break during combat."

"Hurry up and bandage it!" Ju Ming scolded.

Gu San was stabbed by a square pyramid, but fortunately it didn't go deep into his flesh, otherwise the wound would be really difficult to treat.

Prime Minister Zhong's headquarters was the first to flee back to Jiangling. As soon as he entered the city, he shouted: "Only open the north gate of Wengcheng!"

He asked the remaining troops to stand on top of the urn city, ready to throw rocks and logs at any time, and he led his troops to ambush on both sides of the gate of the inner city. As long as the enemy dares to follow the defeated troops and pursue them, they will immediately attack from all directions.

Gong Bin chased the enemy to the moat. The water level in the moat had risen sharply, but the water flow was not too fast.

Some of the Chu troops he was chasing fell down and were captured on the way, some lost their strength and knelt down to surrender, and some were trampled to death. Nearly half of them fled here and jumped into the moat.

The moat was densely packed with people.

No matter how good the water is, you can't swim away. There is no room for your arms to paddle, so you can only keep treading the water with your feet.

The Sichuan Gorge rebels who chased him here stood on the shore and repeatedly poked into the water, and bright red blood began to boil in the water.

There were also some Chu soldiers who were out of strength, unable to support their feet in the water. They subconsciously hugged the people next to them, and then sank to the bottom of the river together.

Those who can get close to the other side are the lucky ones. There is no need to climb at all. The river has risen close to the river bank. All you need to do is lie on the shore with both hands and push hard, then turn over and roll up.

The several bridges on the moat were also crowded with broken soldiers. From time to time, people were squeezed into the river. There were also many trampled corpses on the bridges.

The barbican city was already crowded with defeated troops, and latecomers could not enter at all, so they could only run around the wall without their lives.

Sporadic broken troops could be seen everywhere on the outskirts of the city. They were fighting in the wrong direction and could not escape towards the city. They could only flee wherever there were no pursuing troops.

"Go away quickly and don't bother me anymore!"

Yingxuan, the hero of Dongting, roared angrily. He had a deep wound. He was bleeding too much and was weak. After running for a while, he couldn't hold on any longer. He was almost dragged all the way by his own soldiers.

"When we first became sworn brothers, we said we would live and die together. How can we abandon my brother now?"

"A man is nothing more than a righteous man in this world. Today he will accompany his brother to death!"

"We can't speak. Anyway, this life is sold to my brother."

"..."

There are about twenty or thirty people left around Yingxuan, all of whom are rangers from the waters of Dongting Lake.

Armed with weapons, they surrounded Yingxuan and tried to pull a few backers to die together.

More and more rebels were chasing after them, and some of the Yuanyang team had already dispersed. Upon seeing this, they immediately formed a temporary formation. One after another, hundreds of people formed formations here. I felt that Yingxuan was a big shot. Once captured, it would be more cost-effective than ordinary troops.

Yingxuan was indeed a big shot. He brought capital into the group and captured two counties to join Prime Minister Zhong.

After Zhong Xiang proclaimed himself emperor, he granted rewards to the leaders of various ministries, originally intending to confer the title of county king to Yingxuan. However, Yingxuan did not want to be too showy and resolutely declined the title of king, and finally he was granted the title of Northern Holy Gong.

Yan Qi, whom Han Shizhong and Chen Ziyi defeated in Zhijiang, was only titled Xishenghou.

Yingxuan couldn't bear the unbearable death of these rangers, so he pushed away the two men who were protecting him, and said to the besieging pursuers: "I am the Holy Duke of the North of the Chu Kingdom. If I surrender, can I spare their lives?"

An officer said: "Since he is the Holy Duke of the North, he must be taken into custody and handed over to the generalissimo for disposal."

Yingxuan said: "Mr. Zhu's name has been well known to me for a long time. Today I just go to meet the hero."

Although the ranger was not afraid of death, he did not want to die either. He honestly threw away his weapons and was escorted back to the camp by the soldiers.

"Beishengong?"

Ju Ming looked at this man carefully. He had some impression of Yingxuan. He was a capable general of Prime Minister Zhong and died in the battle before Yang Yao became the leader.

In the early stages of the uprising, Prime Minister Zhong and Yang Yao were still very popular among the people.

There were even heroic deeds in which the government troops robbed the people, while the rebels fought tooth and nail to protect the people.

At that time, the Southern Song Dynasty general Kong Yanzhou (who later paid gold) suppressed the uprising and sent troops to plunder small towns and villages along the way. Although the rebel general Xie Baoyi had few soldiers, he fought hard with the officers and soldiers, and the villagers also came to help. Kong Yanzhou was killed and defeated, and his strength was greatly increased by seizing the officers and soldiers' warships.

"It is the Holy Duke of Northern Chu of Great Chu who is here!"

Yingxuan could hardly stand, so he raised his hands and said, "They are all wanderers, please Mr. Zhu let them live."

Seeing that his face was pale and the wound was bleeding, Ju Ming ordered: "Call the military doctor and bandage this Northern Holy Gong."

The Sichuan Gorge rebels had already withdrawn their troops and were escorting prisoners back one after another. More civilians were called back to clean up the battlefield.

Ju Ming was sitting next to him, watching the military doctor clean the wound with strong liquor, then apply ointment and wrap it with linen.

"There are four Holy Dukes over there in Chu State, right?" Ju Ming asked.

Yingxuan said: "One prince, four holy kings, four holy dukes, four holy princes."

Ju Ming smiled: "With the titles of north, south, east and west, and adding the word "sacred", this title is a no-brainer. Do you believe what Prime Minister Zhong said?"

Yingxuan said: "I believe in equality between rich and poor, high and low."

Ju Ming asked: "In other words, you don't believe in Manichaeism?"

Yingxuan remained silent.

Ju Ming asked again: "When Zhong Xiang became the emperor and you became the Holy Duke, how could he be equal to the common people?" Ju Ming pointed to the prisoner camp and said, "I don't have enough strong wine and ointment, and I have to treat my own soldiers. You are seriously injured. They can be treated, but other prisoners can only be simply bandaged. Let alone the common people, even the soldiers cannot wait for the nobles."

Yingxuan was speechless and could only go around and say: "It can always make the poor live better."

Ju Ming said: "I can also make the poor live better."

Yingxuan said: "I have read Mr. Zhu's "Chao Ji Xi"."

"Are you willing to submit to me?" Zhu Ming asked directly.

Yingxuan said: "It is difficult to betray the old master."

Ju Ming said with a smile: "If you surrender, if you don't want to fight with Prime Minister Zhong's army, you will follow me to fight with the officers and soldiers from now on."

Yingxuan was still hesitating.

Ju Ming pointed at the rangers: "If you don't want to submit, they will all die!"

Yingxuan and the rangers looked at each other. After a moment, he endured the severe pain of his wounds and knelt down: "Greetings to Ming Gong!"

"Okay!" Zhu Ming happily helped.

Not long after, the soldiers came back carrying a corpse: "Marshal, when we were cleaning the battlefield, we found a high official who was suppressed by the corpse and had not been seen before."

Ju Ming asked: "Who is this person?"

Yingxuan took a look and said with a sad expression: "Dong Shenggong Xia Cheng."

Ju Ming immediately ordered: "Send Xia Cheng's body to Jiangling and say that I want to talk to the person named Zhong!"