Guide to traveling through the Northern Song Dynasty

The Jin infantry who were left behind could not hold on for long either.

They lined up and blocked the streets, and some even climbed onto rooftops to shoot arrows. In other words, bows and arrows can cause sporadic damage to the Ming army, and frontal confrontation cannot withstand the impact of a mixture of hot and cold weapons.

"Woooooo~~~"

"Get out of the way, get out of the way!"

But it was Chen Ziyi who led the cavalry and entered through the city gate of Chitangguan. After learning that the Jin soldiers on the main road in Guancheng had been defeated, they immediately rushed out with their cavalry, trying to leave more retreating enemy troops behind.

Thick smoke came out of the granary in the city. Since the Jin soldiers set the fire in a hurry, at least half of the grain and grass could be saved with the quick rescue of the Ming soldiers.

At the north gate of Guancheng, many Jin infantry were blocked.

There were Jurchens, Bohais, Khitans, Xis, Hans... They were all frightened. Their fear of the unknown outweighed their bravery. At this moment, they only knew how to run for their lives. Instead, they blocked themselves at the city gate.

Chen Ziyi could only lead his cavalry to attack with arrows repeatedly. The defeated Jin troops on one side of the city were so frightened that they fled to both sides and scurried along the walls. Their weapons had long been thrown away.

The defeated soldiers in the city gate had nowhere to escape and could only squeeze forward even more crazily.

The crowds became tighter and tighter, and there was no room to even turn around. A large number of defeated soldiers were squeezed to the ground and then trampled to death alive.

The defeated soldiers were very anxious, and so was Chen Ziyi. He still wanted to chase them out, but now they were completely blocked by the defeated soldiers.

"Put down your weapons and kill only the Jurchens!"

"Put down your weapons and kill only the Jurchens!"

Chen Ziyi shouted twice, and his cavalry followed suit.

In order to survive, the defeated Jin soldiers on the inside of the city wall, who were not Jurchens, knelt down and surrendered. Some even took the opportunity to kill Jurchen soldiers to perform meritorious deeds.

The defeated soldiers in the city gate cave found it difficult to surrender. They shouted for mercy while involuntarily pushing out.

After struggling for a long time, the city gate was finally opened. There were corpses everywhere inside, and ninety-nine percent of them were trampled to death.

Outside the northern city wall of Chitang Pass, the broken soldiers who had broken free were running away, stretching out for two miles in small groups. Chen Ziyi led his cavalry to kill all the way, shouting "Only kill Jurchens" along the way, but in fact he only killed the unlucky ones who blocked the road.

More and more defeated soldiers leaned against the mountain walls on both sides, leaving the valley passage and kneeling down to surrender.

After running for several miles, the valley entrance was already in front of us, and the outside of the valley suddenly opened up.

Wanyan Zonghan had long since escaped with his cavalry, and even brought a large number of spare horses for the infantry who had escaped from the valley to ride away.

Chen Ziyi continued to run for ten miles, with tens of thousands of gold cavalry arrayed in front of him.

Jin Bing, who had been psychologically affected, was frightened, scared and tired at the moment, but he could still form a formation in the field, and even organized cavalry to launch a counterattack against Chen Ziyi.

"Retreat to the valley!"

Chen Ziyi's thousands of cavalrymen ran all the way to pursue the defeated troops. Now that they had made enough money, there was no need to trade lives with the top elites of the Jin Kingdom.

Seeing the Ming cavalry withdrawing, Wanyan Zonghan also breathed a sigh of relief.

He can't retreat anymore, he must block this place. Because once they get out of the way, the Ming army can turn to the southeast, block the retreat of the Jin soldiers at Shiling Pass, and then attack Shiling Pass from the north and south together.

…

Several Jin light cavalry galloped towards Shiling Pass, which was twelve miles away.

Wanyan Loushi was responsible for guarding there. Since the terrain was easier to defend and harder to attack, the number of Jin soldiers here was only a few thousand.

As for the Ming army attacking Shiling Pass, Li Jinyi was the main general, and Yao Pingzhong and Guo Yaoshi were deputy generals.

This is also a valley terrain, but at the mouth of the valley in the north, a ridge of earth and rocks rises across the valley. Shiling Pass is built on the ridge. The artillery can only shoot at an elevated angle, and it is very difficult to hit.

After two months of shelling, Shiling Pass remained unmoved.

If the military rations are sufficient, Wanyan Loushi believes that he can defend it for several years.

The light cavalry entered Guancheng and asked Wanyan Loushi to lead the troops to evacuate quickly.

"Why is Chitang Pass gone? There were 20,000 troops there!" Wanyan Loushi said in horror.

The light cavalryman responsible for delivering the message said: "The enemy has a kind of firearm that can explode in the crowd. Our warriors can't stop it. The marshal only took more than 10,000 soldiers to evacuate, and our army lost seven to eight thousand people at Chitang Pass." Evacuate north here quickly, the marshal is leading troops to support us in the north, if we delay any longer it will be too late!"

Wanyan Lou's room immediately organized the infantry and civilian men to carry the baggage, and sent all the cavalry to join Wanyan Zonghan, while the soldiers at the top of the city pretended that nothing happened.

After nightfall, all the troops in the city withdrew northward and left Shiling Pass to chase the transport troops.

The next morning, Li Jinyi, Yao Pingzhong, and Guo Yaoshi came out to bombard the city as usual. They didn't notice anything strange. The Jin flag was still erected on the top of the city, and the Jin soldiers couldn't see it even if they usually hid behind the female wall.

From the mid-morning shelling to noon, several Ming army light cavalry rushed from the south.

The reason why the Ming army's messengers were slower was because the journey was much longer and they had to go south and then east in a large circle.

The messenger came to Li Jinyi and said: "Li Hou, Chitang Pass has been broken, Shiling Pass may be empty!"

Li Jinyi was overjoyed: "I will immediately send troops to test."

The soldiers of Yao Pingzhong and Guo Yaoshi sent two teams respectively to test the attack from the east and west sides, and soon occupied the city wall without any surprise.

"Chitang Pass, which is heavily garrisoned, can be captured by our army. The Jin army is not far from defeat." Guo Yaoshi smiled happily.

He is now a Viscount of the Ming Dynasty, with a military rank of General Ningyuan, fifth rank, and a military position of Deputy Division Commander. The veterans under his command suffered a lot last year by sticking to Shouyang, but they have all been replenished and expanded.

Yao Pingzhong said: "You have to chase him quickly, maybe you can catch him."

Li Jinyi left a thousand soldiers to garrison Shiling Pass, leaving all the civilians in the pass to help defend, and personally led the army to pursue the attack at full speed without any baggage.

…

"How much of Zhentian Lei is left?"

"I couldn't hold it back for a moment, so I threw it all away."

"Next time... save it."

It's really hard for Zhang Guangdao to criticize. After all, the grenadiers fought brilliantly in this critical battle.

The thunderbolts used in the Shanxi battlefield were manufactured by the Cizhou Ordnance Factory.

Cizhou is the second iron smelting base of Ming Dynasty, and its steel output is second only to Xuzhou. Porcelain is also produced here, as well as natural magnets. Legend has it that the earliest compass in China came to Cizhou.

In addition, Cizhou is the end point of Fukouxing in Hebei Province, and weapons made there can be quickly transported to Shanxi.

After most of the Ming army entered Guancheng, Zhang Guangdao left the attacking troops to defend the city, asked doctors to quickly rescue the wounded soldiers, and then led the rest of the troops out of Guancheng to pursue.

All the Jin soldiers who escaped were on horseback, even the infantry.

After Wanyan Zonghan appeased the troops, instead of continuing to retreat, he fought back to block the entrance of the valley.

It wasn't until nightfall that Zhang Guangdao arrived with the main force, mixed the artillery soldiers into a large formation, and tried to fight his way out of the valley before the artillery arrived.

The two sides were just fighting in vain.

All the Jin soldiers were on horseback, fighting and retreating, which was just to buy time to get to Wanyan Lou's room and withdraw safely.

At dawn, a scout came to report that Wanyan Lou's room had led his troops to withdraw to the predetermined location, and Wanyan Zonghan quickly left with his army.

Zhang Guangdao couldn't figure out what was going on on the other side, and was afraid of being ambushed by the Jin cavalry in the dark, so he sent light cavalry to look around, waiting for the artillery to arrive at dawn before pursuing him.

But after Yan Zonghan and Wanyan Lou's family had reunited, before the troops withdrew into Xinzhou City, a messenger suddenly came from Dingxiang County in the east.

The messenger said: "Marshal, Wutai County is gone!"

Wanyan Zonghan said in surprise: "Aren't there heavy troops stationed at Yangxinggukou? Could it be that Wutai County was breached by a group of rioters?"

The messenger explained: "The Ming army did not come from the valley in the south, but came from the east along the Hutuo River."

"Nonsense, the Hutuo River Valley cannot pass the army at all!" Wanyan Zonghan was furious.

The messenger said: "They really came from the Hutuo River. The Ming army was carrying the flag with the character Yue."

Wanyan Loushi sighed: "We can no longer stay in Xinzhou. We must abandon this place and withdraw the entire army to Shuozhou."

The two Ming armies in the south will pursue Xinzhou City in the blink of an eye.

The Ming army in the east that conquered Wutai County will definitely join forces with the local rebels and will soon reach Dingxiang County. They will attack the Jin soldiers at Yangxinggukou from the rear and help the Ming army and the rebels in Shouyang County open up the valley. .

By that time, if Jin Bing still stays in Xinzhou, he will encounter the dilemma of being attacked from three sides.

…

Wutai County.

Yue Fei's soldiers were exhausted, leaving only one third to maintain public order and clear out the Jin soldiers and Xizuo in the city.

The rest of the troops lay down to rest.

Their attack route did not belong to Taihang Baxing, but was forced to march along the Hutuo River Valley. From time to time, they had to cross mountains and ridges, and they couldn't carry any luggage at all. Even medium-sized armor seemed cumbersome, so the entire army simply put on light armor and rushed on the road.

Monk Zhenbao from Mount Wutai served as a guide, and Wutai County rebels supported him along the way.

After traveling for more than a month, all the food and grass I carried with me were gone. The rebels in Wutai County did not have much food. They took out the only rations they had and then ate grass roots and bark with the Yue family army, and finally successfully arrived in Wutai County.

There were not many Jin soldiers stationed in Wutai County, only a few hundred, and the rest were all Shanxi Han troops.

Just after Yue Fei led his troops out of the mountains, several monks among the rebels went to Wutai County to report to the defenders. It was not a case of collaborating with the enemy and betraying the country, but of liaising with the Han troops defending the city to defect.

The next night, the tired and hungry Yue Family Army and the Wutai Rebel Army fought towards the county seat.

Many people noticed along the way, but no one informed Jin Bing.

Even the local gentry family hoped that the Ming Dynasty would regain Wutai as soon as possible so that they would no longer have to be repeatedly plundered by Jin soldiers and rebels.

Countless torches were lit outside the city, and Han soldiers inside the city took the opportunity to set fire to it. There was chaos inside and outside Wutai County.

Hundreds of golden soldiers were shocked.

They woke up in the night and hurried to defend the city. As a result, the city was also on fire, and then the Han soldiers defending the city defected on a large scale. In such a situation, Jin Bing could only abandon the city and flee.

The Yue family army was too tired and all hungry. They had no physical strength to pursue them, so they could only let the golden soldiers escape.

"General, there is a group of bandits coming to surrender."

"But the local rebels?"

"It's not the local rebels, it's the Liaodong Han'er. The local rebels hate them to the core, and every one of them wants to kill them."

"Restrain them quickly and don't let them fight. I will deal with it immediately!"

When Yue Fei rushed outside the city, the Liaodong Han army who came to defect had been surrounded by local rebels.