The fire in the city was raging, and Liu Zhixue sent people to try to enter the city several times, but they were all forced out. He could only order to postpone entering the city, and at this time, even outside the city, he felt the heat wave in his face, the entire Shouzhou city seemed to be burning, the sky was red, and the smoke was stirring and circling in the air, like a fire dragon flying in the air, rising and falling sparks splashing everywhere, and even falling outside the city.

Liu Zhixue realized that the fire in the city could not be extinguished, and it was likely to affect himself, and his position was full of gunpowder, and the soldiers were also carrying ammunition, which would burn and explode once it caught fire, and could not be controlled, so he ordered to retreat three miles and stand by, and only send sentry scouts around the city to check the situation. In the afternoon, the fire showed no signs of extinguishing, but intensified.

In the evening, the sentinel reported that someone in the city had jumped out of the city and was captured by our troops. Liu Zhixue hurriedly asked the fugitives to be brought to the tent for personal interrogation, only to see that the dozen or so people who were brought were all in rags, their hair and eyebrows were burnt, and they couldn't see their original faces clearly. And these people all looked dull, with horror in their eyes, and they couldn't speak clearly.

Liu Zhixue asked for food and water, and then asked again after reassuring him. In this way, after the battle began, the defenders of the city suffered heavy casualties under the bombardment of artillery fire, and their morale was extremely low and almost collapsed. The Ding Zhuang who helped the war also suffered a lot of casualties, and people continued to take advantage of the chaos to escape, and at first there were soldiers to intercept and pursue, but later no one cared about it.

Later, when the rockets bombarded the city, the rockets flying everywhere caused a fire, and at first the government organized people to extinguish the fire, but with the increase of the number of fire points, it was impossible to extinguish it, and the fire gradually got out of control. The bombardment of rockets also caused chaos in the city, people took refuge in all directions, and the fire also came to a standstill, so that the fire spread and could not be extinguished. Later, the city became like a furnace, and the people fled to the pond for shelter, but they were crowded into the water and drowned.

Those who could not avoid it flocked to the city gates, trying to escape outside the city, but in order to prevent the siege, the city gates were blocked everywhere, and they could not be opened for a while, and they were stopped by the defenders, and many people were shot and killed. And those who were anxious to flee for their lives could not take care of it, and rushed forward one after another, and even broke the soldiers defending the city, but countless people were trampled to death, and the people still climbed forward and climbed one after another, so that the corpses were piled up, and the city gates were almost as high as the city, and the road was blocked.

Then the people rushed up to the city wall, and the people couldn't stand the scorching waves of fire, so they jumped off the city to escape, but the city was so tall that those who jumped down were all killed. And they searched for ropes and went down the city, so that they could escape from the city. The family members who remained in the city were either killed by the bombing, burned, fallen, drowned, or died on the way to escape.

Liu Zhixue and the others were silent when they heard this, and they didn't expect this result, a fire turned the impregnable Shouzhou City into a sea of fire, and they went down without a fight, but the heavy casualties of the people made them unhappy. At this time, there was a return, saying that some people in the city had left the city through the east gate, and he thought about ordering the east gate to be opened, so that the people who went out of the city should not be hindered, and let them flee for their lives.

The fire in the city did not subside until the next morning, and burned for another day and a night before it was gradually extinguished. Liu Zhixue sent troops into the city, but at this time, Shouzhou City was like a dead city, exuding a scorching smell everywhere, covered with a thick layer of black ash like a black snow, collapsed buildings everywhere, plants and trees turned to ashes, charred corpses could be seen everywhere, and people who escaped death were also at a loss.

Liu Zhixue ordered the wounded to be treated, and the dead were transported out for burial, trying his best to pacify the people and arrest the officials and defenders in the city. Two days later, according to rough statistics, about 60,000 of the nearly 100,000 soldiers and civilians in the city died in the battle, and most of them died of smoke and fire; Seven or eight out of ten of the houses in the city were damaged, the yamen warehouses were burned down, and the property losses could not be counted; The defenders in the city were less than a thousand people, and they couldn't afford to fight again, so they surrendered like the walking dead......

"Du Shuai, report to the court truthfully, I'm afraid that something will happen!" There was no joy after the big victory in the handsome tent, and the generals also had gloomy faces, and the second army looked at Liu Zhixue and said.

"There is no impermeable wall in the world, let alone tens of thousands of people who know about this, can you stop everyone's mouth?" Liu Zhixue shook his head and sighed, "This battle plan was formulated by Ben Shuai, and the order to open the cannon was also issued by Ben Shuai, but all the punishments are borne by Ben Shuai, you just follow Ben Shuai's orders!" ”

"Du Shuai, the battle was fought by all the officers and men of our Second Army, does Du Shuai want to take the credit alone?" Yan Feng, the commander of the first division, was very 'dissatisfied' when he heard this.

"Hehe, that's, that's, how can Du Shuai monopolize the credit!" Li Ting, the commander of the three divisions, also took over and echoed.

"I thought that if it was reported truthfully as the commander said, the Sprinkle family would not believe that we would capture Shouzhou City without injuring a single soldier, and they would just reward them, and they would punish us for the death of more enemy people!" The two divisions were all unconvinced.

"Alas, you don't know the thoughts of those Wenchen, what they are worried about is that we have made a monstrous achievement and stole their limelight, and there is nothing to do, and we are indeed killing too much in this battle!" Ma Ying looked at Zhou Fu and sighed. Although he fought with the army, he belonged to the civilian officials and was under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of War.

"There are no eyes on the battlefield, either you die or I die, where is there so much care, and it is not our intention to cause so many casualties in this battle, mainly because the enemy defenders blocked the city gates, resulting in the people unable to escape, how can we blame us!" Zhou Fu was still indignant.

"Du Shuai, I think we can report it like this, and I said that after we attacked the city and opened fire, the enemy general saw that he could not defend it, and set fire to the city. But before, I was worried that the soldiers and civilians in the city would flee and close the city gates, which would lead to the people being burned in the fire! Ma Ying seemed to get a hint from his words, and her eyes lit up and she suggested.

"Hehe, no need!" Liu Zhixue smiled bitterly and said, "Marquis Yu had also advised Ben Shuai to use artillery cautiously before, so as not to hurt the innocent, but Ben Shuai's insistence on going his own way led to the current situation. Ben Shuai will not implicate Yu Hou, and will say in the recital that when Yu Hou is like a fan in the future, and when he is about to enter the phase, don't forget my love for the robe! ”

"Du Shuai laughed, this official is now a thorn in the side of some people in the court, and I don't disdain to be in the company of Fan Xiwen, who only knows how to boast about himself, and I don't want to be Jia Jichuan angry and unwilling!" Ma Ying snorted coldly.

"What does that mean?" Liu Zhixue was originally a compliment, but he didn't expect it to make Ma Ying dissatisfied, and asked strangely.

"Does Du Shuai think that this dynasty is just promoting literature and suppressing martial arts? In fact, they are also very wary of Wenchen and leading troops......" Ma Ying sighed and said the reason.

It is said that during the war between the Song Dynasty and the Song Dynasty, there were two civilian officials, Shiheng and Zhang Kang, who were converted to military positions because they cared about national defense and repeatedly proposed the strategy of using troops. Chong and Zhang were rare promising border ministers in the Northern Song Dynasty, but they were eventually suppressed, and their careers were bumpy, and they failed to show up until their deaths. Okay, okay, if you don't change it, you won't change it, is it okay to fight and expand the border as a civilian official? Theoretically, yes.

In fact, many people think, but it just didn't work out. Fan Zhongyan said to the emperor: "Under the observation envoy class, the ministers have guarded the border for several years, and the Qiang people are quite dear to the ministers, and they call the ministers 'Longtu Laozi'. Now that he has retired and joined Wang Xing and Zhu Guan (both of whom are generals with the rank of observation envoy), he is afraid that he will be despised by thieves." Fan Zhongyan's incident opened up the atmosphere of Wenchen being ashamed of changing his force.

Fan Zhongyan also just made up some ballads of "there is a fan in the army, and the western thieves are shocked when they hear it" to boast about themselves, and let a few poets praise themselves for "wisdom and fame and brave feats are not eye-catching, and you can use a broken basket to flog Qiang Hu", saying that the soldiers who surrendered without a fight sent people to build a few fortresses and mixed up with the military exploits and entered the court. If you want to learn from Xie Xuan of the Jin Dynasty and Wei Gao of the Tang Dynasty, form a strong army to stand on one side and go to the battle array to sweep away the strong enemy. Then Jia She's fate is a good example.

In the Song-Jin War during the reign of Jin Xuanzong, the Song's counterattack was very limited. Whether it is An Bing and Zhang Wei on the west road, or Zhao Fang and Meng Zongzheng on the middle road, the actual authority is only a few state armies along the border, and there is more than enough counterattack, and there is not enough progress. According to Prime Minister Shi Miyuan's idea, it would be thankful that he could beat the Jin people back. On the eastern route, they fought almost entirely on the Shandong rebels recruited from the territory of the Jin State, and were unwilling to expand their own field army.

At that time, the highest official of the Song Dynasty in Huaidong was Jia She, the envoy of Huaidong, who was not a civil official like Fan Zhongyan, Pang Ji, and Han Qi who would only hide in the rear and let his subordinates repair forts and melee battles. At that time, the Southern Song Dynasty handed over Chuzhou to the rebels to garrison, but the rebels had their own leaders, and the imperial court did not have enough control. Jia Shi recruited 10,000 displaced people from the north and formed a loyal army in front of the tent, which was personally commanded by himself, and mobilizing them to attack the Jin State was quite effective.

But Prime Minister Shi Miyuan was very annoyed when he got the news. Jia She, what do you mean by recruiting the army without authorization? Do you want to get out of the prime minister and establish military exploits to take my position as prime minister? So whenever Jia Shi had a conflict with Li Quan, the leading boss in the rebel army, Jia Shi wanted to limit Li Quan's power, and Shi Miyuan helped Li Quan.

Shi Zhun Regent Qiu Shoumai originally thought that the loyal and righteous troops in front of the account were all northerners and were not easy to manage, so after asking Shi Miyuan for approval, he actually handed over the 10,000 people to Li Quan. The elite forces that Jia Shi painstakingly built up directly belonged to the Huaidong Theater and eventually fell into the hands of others. So Jia Shi resigned angrily, and he was angry to death not long after.

"In this way, we will first explain the facts to Your Majesty, and then report to the court. In this way, even if someone takes advantage of this to make a living, Your Majesty will be able to defend us and avoid being counted by villains! Liu Zhixue was also stunned when he heard this, but he felt that the two of them were really unladylike, and the little emperor was not a faint king, and he was familiar with military affairs, so he would definitely be able to distinguish the truth and give them justice......

Reborn at the end of the Song Dynasty, the mountains and rivers moved