The Jin army was shocked by the powerful stone bullets that had never been seen before falling from the sky, and they fled one after another, even the generals and officials, and hurriedly avoided the areas that the stone bullets were difficult to cover for the time being.

And near the south gate is the first area covered by stone bullets, there are no gold soldiers here at this time, even if there are still a few living people, they are also frightened and weak, unable to move, spread in place and wait for death.

At this time, there is also a place near the south city gate where there are a large number of Jin troops, that is, under the city, within five zhang behind the city wall, the area where the stone bullets are difficult to attack, but these people see the powerful stone bullets whistling overhead, and they do not dare to move at will, neither dare to return to the city, nor dare to retreat to the north of the city, they can only wait for the Song army to run out of stone bullets.

However, it is impossible for the Jin Army to know how many stone bullets the Song Army has, even within the Song Army, which is also a secret to the vast majority of people, and only a few can know.

Of course, the Song army would not wait until the stone bullets ran out before attacking the city.

Therefore, when the generals and soldiers of the Jin army were hiding in the area under the city where the stone bullets were difficult to attack, and they were vainly waiting for the stone bullets to run out and launch a counterattack, what they didn't want to wait for was the Song army soldiers who came over the city wall.

Immediately, a bloody battle unfolded under the city, swords and knives saw blood, and guns killed people!

At the beginning, the two sides were still evenly matched under the city, but as more and more Song soldiers crossed the city wall through the ladder to join the battle group, a large number of Jin troops were blocked by stone bullets, and it was difficult to get close to the south gate to support, and the battlefield situation quickly reversed.

In less than a quarter of an hour, the Jin army near the South City Gate was either dead or fled, and the Song army's siege vanguard soon took control of the South City Gate.

The gates were opened, and the drawbridge was lowered.

Pingzhou City, broken!

Luo Cong, who was in the middle army array, clearly saw the open city gate and the red flag waving on the city through the telescope in his hand.

"The Terifech stops attacking! The west camp and the south camp are attacking the city with all their might! ”

The military order was issued, and the herald quickly conveyed the order to the standard-bearer.

Moments later, the Stonehenge attack ended.

Then, the soldiers who had been waiting for a long time outside the south gate and the west gate quickly launched an attack under the orders of the commanders of the various armies and launched an assault on the city gate.

There was no resistance at the south gate, and the army quickly rushed into the city through the lowered drawbridge, spreading along the main street to the center of the city, and the Jin soldiers were directly killed, and soon they met the main force of the Jin army, and a large-scale melee immediately began in the city.

The Jin army on the west gate was not attacked by stone bullets, and the damage was small under the cover of ordinary bows and crossbows, and it was very stubborn, and the army outside the west gate was difficult to cross the moat for a while, so it could only be under the cover of the shield hand, and first put the cloud ladder on the moat to pave the way, from the point of view of attack speed, it was a lot slower than the southern camp.

Although the commander of the Xiying was anxious, he did not give the order to the soldiers to risk their lives to attack, because he knew that the main battlefield of the Battle of Pingzhou was not in the Xiying, but in the Nanying.

Moreover, both Luo Shuai and Yang Shuai have repeatedly emphasized that if the battle can be won at a relatively small cost, the soldiers should not be allowed to die for no reason, and only by preserving the vital strength and cherishing the lives of the soldiers can the troops have lasting combat effectiveness.

The western camp did not attack violently, because they knew that the southern city gate had been breached, and they only needed to attract the defenders of the city, and it would not be long before the Song army that attacked the city could capture the west city gate, and then the two armies would meet and completely destroy the Jin army in the city.

Under the protection of the shield bearers, the soldiers of the vanguard of the Xiying battalion flew many ladders on both sides of the moat, but they did not rush to cross the moat, but gathered by the river to wait for the order of the rear general.

After waiting anxiously for a long time, the bow and crossbow arrow array in the rear disappeared, and when he saw the rear order flag unfurled, the general of the vanguard immediately ordered all the soldiers to cross the river and go to the city!

At the sound of the order, the soldiers quickly leaped over the moat, and in the blink of an eye, the ladder went up the wall, holding shields, and resisting the bows and arrows of the city, and climbed up.

At the same time, in the midst of the chaos, the soldiers climbing on the ladder heard the sound of swords and soldiers coming from the city.

The soldiers of the southern battalion have attacked the west gate!

The back of the Jin army in Xiying City was attacked, and the blocking formation was immediately chaotic, and the blocking force was greatly reduced.

The soldiers of the Song army under the city climbed onto the city in the blink of an eye, jumped into the enemy's army, swept with long knives, stabbed with spears, and the Jin army's blocking formation was instantly chaotic, and the two sides were in a scuffle on the city.

The Pingzhou Jin Army, which was not strong in combat effectiveness, was attacked by the enemy on its belly and back, and after suffering a combined attack, the army was immediately disheartened and abandoned the battle and fled.

The west gate opens and the drawbridge is lowered.

"Rush!"

The lord of the Xiying gave an order and personally led nearly 20,000 soldiers under his command to enter Pingzhou City from the West Gate.

An hour later, the battle ended.

Except for the remnants of nearly 10,000 Jin troops who fled from the north gate, the rest were all left in Pingzhou City.

Two hours later, the initial clean-up of the battlefield was completed, and more than 13,000 Jin troops were eliminated and more than 24,000 Jin troops were captured.

The First World War captured so many prisoners, whether to kill or release, Luo Cong, as the former marshal of the army, could not make a decision immediately, nor did he fulfill his pre-war promise, and when the city was broken, there were no chickens and dogs.

The slaughter of the city was not done by the Song army, after all, the Northern Expedition of the Great Army was not here to plunder, but to unify this area, and killing people was not conducive to the rapid stability of this area.

But what to do with the more than 24,000 captives has become a big problem for Luo Cong.

can't kill, and Luo Cong can't use military rations to feed more than 20,000 people, and for a while, he can't decide.

After the capture of Pingzhou City, the former army of the Northern Expedition immediately turned to the defensive, repairing and strengthening the city, while clearing the remnants of the Jin Kingdom in the city, stabilizing Pingzhou City, and preparing for a long-term garrison.

When the war report for the capture of Pingzhou City reached Yang Congyi, Yang Congyi had just led his army to Jinan Prefecture.

Knowing that Luo Cong had captured Pingzhou City as planned, and that Shihe Pass had also fallen into the hands of the Song army, Yang Cong made up his mind and immediately ordered Luo Cong to clean up the surrounding counties and towns of Pingzhou according to the established plan, deploy sentry scouts, and closely monitor the movements of the Yanjing defenders.

At the same time, the operational deployment was adjusted, and the Dengzhou Navy was ordered to go north to Laizhou to assist the Shihe Song Army in capturing Laizhou City and blocking the Jinzhou direction to aid the enemy.

Then Yang Congyi personally led an army of 50,000 from Jinan Mansion to Hejian Mansion, one to fill the defense gap after Luo Cong's department went north to Pingzhou, one to drive directly to Bazhou, and the rest of the troops were on standby in Hejian Mansion.

On September 25, the Eastern Route Army of the Northern Expedition sent a battle report, and the army successfully captured the city of Laizhou, and has been making every effort to strengthen the city of Laizhou and build defensive facilities, and twice repelled the enemy army that came to help!

On September 29, 40,000 troops from Jeju and Xuzhou arrived in Hajian Province, and after a short rest, they set out north to Pyongju on the second day of October.

On the fifth day of October, the Jeju and Xuzhou armies took over the defense of Pingzhou City, and Luo Cong was ordered to lead 40,000 of his subordinates to garrison in Jinzhou and Liaoyang Prefecture to block the enemy who came to help from Jinzhou and Liaoyang Prefecture.

As for the more than 24,000 captives captured in the previous battle of Pingzhou, except for a part that remained in the city as laborers, the rest were all sent to Shandong and handed over to Shen Jin for disposal.

On the seventh day of October, the 40,000 Northern Expeditionary Army from Guide Province arrived in Hajian Province.

On the tenth day of October, an army of 50,000 set out from Hejian Province and headed north to Zhuozhou.

On October 15, the Northern Expeditionary Army occupied Zhuozhou, Gu'an, Yongqing and other places, separating Yanjing from Zhendingfu.

However, for Baozhou, which did not have many troops to defend, the Northern Expeditionary Army did not send troops south to seize it, because Yang Congyi had a strict order before the war, prohibiting all armies from taking the initiative to attack Baozhou and Zhending Mansion before taking Yanjing, so as not to abandon the city and go north to Yanjing.

After the loss of Zhuozhou, Gu'an, Yongqing, Pingzhou and other places, the Yanjing Jin army adopted the previous strategy, quickly shrinking the front, and almost all the peripheral troops were retracted back to about 20 miles around Yanjing City, and they were very confident in holding Yanjing City.

Yanjing City was once the hundred-year-old capital of the Liao State, and later the capital of the Jin State, although it has experienced many wars, but Yanjing City has never really been broken from the outside.

The city is more than three zhang high, and the city wall is more than two zhang thick, which is daunting, enough to resist any attack, not to mention that there is a moat around the city that is four or five zhang wide, and it is difficult to break through by ordinary means.

It was with the high city and wide moat that the Liao State blocked the siege of the Song and Jin armies for several months, and later because of the large population in the city and the lack of food and grass, it had to break through and abandon the city.

For more than ten years, Yanjing was first threatened and attacked by the Zhending Mansion and Baozhou Xijin troops, and then attacked and harassed by the Song army in Shandong.

Once the strength of Yanjing shrinks, whether it is the Xijin army in Zhendingfu and Baozhou, or the army of the Great Song Dynasty in Shandong, without 200,000 troops, it will be basically difficult to conquer Yanjing City from the front.

Therefore, whenever the Yanjing army shrinks the front, the other party can only plunder on the periphery and retreat.

As long as they do not blindly send troops to attack, but do a good job of defense, whether it is the Jin army of Zhending Mansion or the Song army of Hejian Mansion, no one can attack Yanjing. Taking a step back, even if the Song army attacked on a large scale and sent 200,000 troops to surround Yanjing, the grain and grass in the city would be enough for them to hold out for six months, but the 200,000 Song army would definitely not be able to hold out for six months.

Therefore, Yanjing's remaining and commanding generals have great confidence in Yanjing, and in their opinion, as long as the front is contracted, Yanjing will not be able to lose at all.

It was precisely because Yanjing adopted a defensive strategy of shrinking the front that the Song armies of the Northern Expedition encountered little resistance in Zhuozhou, Bazhou, Gu'an, Yongqing and other places, except for the fierce battles in the direction of Pingzhou and Laizhou.

Yang Congyi had a clear speculation and judgment on the situation of the Northern Expedition before the war, and judging from the current results, everything is going very smoothly, as long as Laizhou and Pingzhou are stable, the troops are divided into west, and the army from Hedong and Guanzhong is transferred to Hebei, and the army can besiege Yanjing.

Originally, according to the established deployment, Yanjing was mainly taken by peaceful means, supplemented by a strong attack, and it would naturally take a long time, but Zhao Yan wanted to drive the expedition in person, and this battle could not be delayed for a long time.