Guide to traveling through the Northern Song Dynasty

Chapter 649 0644 [Eight-Character Cage]

There are a large number of Hedi towns and Hedi villages in Shanxi. This is because naturally formed villages and towns are often located in flat and low-lying areas of river valleys.

Hedi Town in the northern border of the Pingding Army has been called Qinglong Town, Qingzhen and so on in the past dynasties.

Wanyan Loushi led his troops here, but suddenly stopped because the terrain ahead was too dangerous.

Like a hunter's innate intuition, Wanyan Loushi looked at the northern ridge extending from Fangshan Mountain and the narrow valley passage between the ridges. His first reaction was that if he went any further, he would slip into the hunter's trap.

There are also many Fangshan Mountains in Shanxi, and Fangshan Mountain here is the Liubei Mountain in later generations.

A Jin man of about thirty years old lay on the ground and drew a map on the spot: "There is a Fangshan Mountain in the southwest. If the Ming army established a stronghold on Fangshan Mountain, they could observe and intimidate all the surrounding hills and plains. Fangshan Mountain extends to the northeast, and at the foot of the mountain There is a river, which is the river in front of us. The intersection of this river and another river is the valley entrance channel in front of us. The other river flows southeast, following another big mountain..."

To put it more intuitively, the remaining veins of the two mountains extend diagonally to the north, forming a very regular horoscope.

The top opening of the horoscope is the river valley passage, and within the horoscope are open hills and plains.

The tail of the horoscope is the square mountain that controls the entire battlefield.

The figure-eight-shaped mountains are not steep, and there are some passages that can be passed through. In some places, infantry can even run in large groups, but the running of cavalry will be seriously hindered.

This is a natural battlefield and a natural cage. As long as Wanyan Loushi dares to come in, it goes without saying that he will win the battle, but if he loses, the whole army may be annihilated.

Wanyan Loushi asked: "Can we go around to the southeast?"

The Jin man who drew the map said: "If you can go around it, there is a village called Juchengdu (Big Town). It was a walled city a long time ago. After the Song Dynasty established the Pingding Army and Chengtian Village, the walls of Jucheng collapsed and were abandoned. ”

That is, along the outside of the eight-character curve and down the river valley, you can reach the end of the eight-character curve.

There is another valley mouth, which can go around into the interior of Bazi to the west, and belongs to the northern passage of Jingxing to the east.

Wanyan Loushi said: "Set camp here and send Qingqi to the southeast to explore."

The Jin man who drew the map out of thin air was called Wen Du Sizhong. When the Jin Kingdom was founded, military secrets were all dictated, and Wen Du Sizhong was the best among the heralds.

It can be called a humanoid memory!

This person served as the herald of Aguda when he was a boy, and later followed Wanyan Zonghan. Later, he was favored by Jin Wushu. Even when Liu Yu was canonized as the pseudo-emperor, it was this guy who was responsible for delivering the order. When Wanyan Liang became emperor, this man was even more powerful, ranking above the prime minister of the Kingdom of Jin. He was left out in the cold because he opposed Wanyan Liang's southern expedition.

The Qingqi sent by Wanyan Loushi to explore the road quickly traveled southeast along the river valley. After running for more than ten miles, they encountered an ambush.

Arrows rained down from the mountains on both sides. They climbed the mountain with the arrows on their head. More than 20 people were killed and injured. They finally climbed up, but all the archers who were ambushing there ran away.

These Jin cavalry returned to the valley and continued to advance on horseback. They were attacked again before they had gone far.

More than fifty people were killed and injured before and after. Jin Guo Qingqi did not dare to go in anymore and ran back in despair to report the situation.

The situation has been made clear. The Ming army has a trap within the eight characters, and the Jin soldiers are only allowed to enter from the top of the eight characters.

Wanyan Loushi had never been to this area in person, so he asked, "Detour from the southeast, what's the terrain like along the way?"

Wen Du Sizhong replied: "It's all in the river valley, so it's difficult for the cavalry to fight."

"In other words, the passage in front of us is the widest and most conducive to cavalry combat?" Wanyan Loushi asked.

Wen Du Sizhong nodded: "That's true."

Wanyan Huonu said: "Why should father be afraid? No matter what ambush he has, we have more than 10,000 elites. We can ride horses and shoot arrows to defeat him all the way!"

Wanyan Huonv was the eldest son of Wanyan Lou's family. She fought with Aguda at the age of seventeen. Every time he defeated more with less, he has never been defeated so far. In history, when Zhongshi saved Taiyuan, he was defeated by this man and the whole army was annihilated.

Since the day of the army battle, Wanyan Huonu has been fighting hard battles, using three hundred to defeat two thousand, one thousand to defeat eight thousand, and one thousand to defeat twenty thousand.

With such combat experience and being less than thirty years old, Wanyan Huonv was extremely confident. He believed that there was no enemy in the world that he could not defeat.

Wanyan Lou's family owned the Iron Buddha (Hezha Meng'an), and Wanyan Huonv was the strong general who commanded the Iron Buddha, and later inherited all the Iron Buddhas of the Jin Kingdom's West Route Army!

"It's better to be careful." Wanyan Po Lu Huo said.

Po Luhuo was also a fierce general who was moved to Taizhou by his entire clan to rule the vast grasslands there. Including the Hulunbuir Grassland further north, it is also nominally ruled by Balu Fire. This time he not only brought Jurchen cavalry, but also many prairie tribe cavalry.

Wan Yan Huo Nu sneered: "Are you so courageous?"

Bo Luhuo was extremely unhappy. After all, he was older and a member of the Jin clan. His ancestor was a cousin to Aguda's biological father. His nephew was also adopted as an adopted son by A Gu.

What kind of thing is a beautiful girl? The bloodline of the clan is so thin that it can be ignored!

Similarly, Wanyan Huonv did not take Balu Huo seriously, and the strategy he set up to fight threw Balu Huo out of the eight streets.

Moreover, Po Luhuo was obviously a member of Wanyan Zonghan, but he had a close friendship with Shizu. Po Luhuo's current identity can even be said to be one of the supervisors sent by the Jin Dynasty court!

When Bo Luhuo was about to speak to retort, Sheng Guo beside him winked at him, signaling him not to argue again.

Both of them are military supervisors and are not welcome here in Shanxi.

The Jurchen name of Wanyan Shengguo has the same name and surname as Wanyan Zongjun, the son of Aguda, but they are not the same person.

Like Balu Huo, his territory was at the junction of the Jin Dynasty court and Wanyan Zonghan. It is unclear which faction belongs to the buffer of the two major forces. They are both supervisors sent by the Jin Kingdom's imperial court and generals under Wanyan Zonghan.

There was a clan member named Wanyan Saili nearby, who stood obediently and listened to the quarrel.

Although he has been fighting for many years, he has always been a little transparent and has not made much military exploits. Later, he captured Zhao Gou's biological mother, wife and two younger sisters, and became the left prime minister of the Jin Kingdom. Only then did he become famous in the Southern Song Dynasty and was called the "King Gaitian". (It is said that Zhao Gou’s biological mother was this man’s concubine.)

After quarreling for a while, they finally had to fight, so the generals began to discuss the war again.

Most of the senior generals of the Jin Kingdom suggested continuing the march and sending more light cavalry for reconnaissance.

Wanyan Loushi said: "The Ming Dynasty is different from the Liao Kingdom and the Song Dynasty. Two years ago, Prince Zhu once ate a thousand Hezha Meng'an. I heard that he relied on some kind of firecrackers and artillery. The Xia Kingdom also explained the army's firearms It's amazing. They suffered a huge defeat last year, and there might be firearms lurking ahead. Han Chang, you Han craftsmen are very powerful, can you tell me what you can do to deal with firearms?"

Han Chang was born as a Han Chinese in the Liao Kingdom. He paid gold with his father and was rumored to be able to shoot a three-stone bow. At present, he is still following Wanyan Zonghan, and later he was under Jin Wushu's command, and he must be the forward for Jin Wushu in every battle.

Han Chang said: "Marshal (Wanyan Zonghan) also asked about this matter, but I have never seen Ming army firearms. I only learned from others that there are two types of firearms: firecrackers and artillery. They are all made of iron tubes and ignited. When the medicine is sprayed out, its power can break gold and stone. The marshal was doubtful about this, thinking that the Eastern Route Army and the Xia people were making alarmist claims."

Wanyan Loushi shook his head: "Only one party said this, and it may be an exaggeration. Both the East Route Army and the Xia people said so, those firearms must be outstanding. When we go there this time, the reconnaissance cavalry must be careful and leave the battlefield Make inquiries everywhere and avoid being ambushed with firearms.”

The next day, Wanyan Loushi, with a large number of light cavalry as the vanguard, penetrated into the pocket array deployed by Zhang Guangdao.

And he was careful every step and moved extremely slowly.

Shouyang County.

The tunnel dug by Wanyan Zonghan was destroyed by Guo Yaoshi's flooding.

Although Yaoshi Guo did not have muskets and artillery, he did have a lot of rockets, which could focus on burning large siege equipment.

Moreover, Shouyang County is surrounded by mountains and backed by a natural river with no shortage of water.

The most suitable place for Wanyan Zonghan to attack the city is the valley plain more than three miles wide on the west side. Guo Yaoshi personally led the troops to defend this place. The city can also be sieged in the north, but large siege equipment is inconvenient to advance.

The siegeable area in the east is narrower and has to be bypassed over the mountains. There are not many siege troops there.

Further east, there is a river valley leading to Zhang Guangdao's army, which is cut off by a Ming army fort that is easy to defend but difficult to attack.

Wanyan Zonghan has become impatient now. Due to the long-term inability to attack, the morale of the Shanxi puppet Han army is low, and even the cannon fodder in the siege feels that they are in the way. These cannon fodder can indeed tire out the defenders and consume the defensive materials, but every time they retreat, they will affect the morale of the friendly forces.

The Bohai soldiers and the old Liao and Han soldiers also didn't want to fight. They fought bravely at the beginning, but even now they don't want to die.

The hard Jurchen army was sent to attack several times, and they attacked the city seven times, but they were unable to gain a foothold and were all killed by Guo Yaoshi's elite troops.

Both the offensive and defensive sides suffered heavy casualties.

at night.

There was a noise in the east, and Wanyan Zonghan quickly restrained his troops and climbed up the mountain to check the situation in person.

After a while, the remaining soldiers fled back one after another.

A Jurchen general gasped and said: "Marshal, Dong Daying was attacked at night!"

Wanyan Zonghan asked: "Aren't you told to guard the camp?"

The Jurchen general explained: "The enemy did not attack from the west (Guo Yaoshi), nor did he attack from the east (Zhang Guangdao's reinforcements), but suddenly came out from the mountains in the south!"

But it was Zhang Guangdao who sent brothers Zhai Xing and Zhai Jin to return by boat with 6,000 elite troops.

They found out that Jin Bing's Dongda Camp was on guard, and spent another three days climbing over the mountains and detouring to the southern mountains to conduct a night attack on Jin Bing's Dongda Camp, which had only a few thousand troops.

It was not only the work of the Zhai brothers, but also Guo Yaoshi who took the risk and sent troops.

"Father, there was a fire in the Jin Camp in the east of the city, but it started from the south of the camp."

"Move troops out of the city quickly, reinforcements must be coming!"

"Could it be a scam?"

"Even if there is a scam, go ahead!"

Pharmacist Guo personally led eight hundred warriors from the east city of Shouyang County to cooperate with the Zhai brothers in a joint attack.

Most of the golden soldiers in the camp had no time to put on their armor.

The elites of the Zhai brothers, as well as the defensive troops of Guo Yaoshi, were all equipped with armor. Under such circumstances, coupled with the night attack from two sides, Dong Daying, who killed the Jin soldiers, was defeated and fled.

The defeated troops fled into the mountains in the northeast. Wanyan Zonghan sent people to respond, but the Ming army retreated without pursuing them.

In this battle, more than a thousand Jin soldiers were killed, hundreds were captured, and more than 6,000 were defeated. The enemy camp was torn apart and the way for reinforcements to enter the city was opened.

"Brother Zhai, you are finally here!" Pharmacist Guo held Zhai Xing's hand and wanted to cry.

Zhai Xing said: "The pacification of the military city has been captured by our army. General Guo is able to hold on to Shouyang, which is a great achievement!"

Pharmacist Guo sighed: "Just come back. My old brothers from Liaodong are all wounded, and more than 600 people have died in the battle. The remaining soldiers and civilians have also suffered more than 4,000 casualties. If we fight for a few more days, we may not be able to hold on. But the Jin people can’t please them either, they have more casualties!”

More reinforcements came from the direction of the river valley and entered Shouyang City on the afternoon of the second day.

Six thousand elite troops were added, and most of the original defenders were replaced to rest. Shouyang City was already impregnable.

Wanyan Zonghan tried to organize an attack, but soon gave up the idea of ​​taking Shouyang. He ordered the army to retreat, and retreated in a swaggering manner, trying to attract the defenders out of the city to pursue them.

But Yaoshi Guo, Zhai Xing, and Zhai Rang ignored them and just guarded the city.

In desperation, Wanyan Zonghan could only say: "The whole army marches eastward and meets up with Oriyan (Wanyan Loushi)!"

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