General Bi galloped on the battlefield

The prefect of Zhao stuck to Xiangyang

The book continued to write about the siege of Chuzhou by Hu Shahu's soldiers.

Qiu Zongqing considered that the troops were insufficient, the defense line was long, and it was of little practical significance to defend Sizhou alone, so he ordered Bi Zaiyu's troops to abandon Sizhou and station Xuyi on the south bank of the Huai River. Previously, the imperial court promoted him to be the commander of the Zhenjiang Central Army and the Xuyi Army, and the army under him was less than 20,000.

At the beginning of November, Hu Shahu's army surrounded Chuzhou, and Bi Zaiyu was ordered to rescue him, leaving Duan Zheng and Zhang Gui to guard Xuyi. As soon as the department left Xuyi, the Jin people took the opportunity to attack Xuyi, Duan Zheng and others fled in panic, and Xuyi fell. When Bi Zaiyu heard the news, in order to avoid worries, he immediately returned to the army to recover Xuyi and divided his troops to defend. Then with the main force, he went east to Chuzhou again.

At this time, with the credit of the great victory of Phoenix Mountain, Bi Zaiyu was promoted to the history of Dazhou and the deputy capital of Zhenjiang, and he still knew the Xuyi army. At that time, the Jin army besieging Chuzhou was about 50,000, and Bi Zaiyu knew that the enemy was outnumbered and it was difficult to win, so he decided to make a surprise plan and burn its grain and grass.

The detectives learned that the Jin army had stored grain and grass in the small camp in Huaiyin, guarded by 3,000 soldiers. There are also 3,000 grain ships anchored in the Daqing River.

With a frown, Bi Zaiyu decided to send the daredevils to carry the fire and attack in the middle of the night.

The commander Xu Jun divided the death army into more than 50 teams, and rushed forward, lurking among the grain trucks of the golden camp. Take the whistle as a trumpet and set fire at the same time. The army that dares to die is mostly heroic outlaws. These warriors, who were incompetent, were a rabble, but they were subdued by Bi Zaiyu's courage, inspired by loyalty, and restrained by military law, for them to control, and became the powerhouse of the Song army at that time.

In the dark night, a Song army slammed the defenders of the Daqing River, Hu Shahu learned, thought that he was going to rob the ship and destroy the ship, and hurriedly sent troops to reinforce, the Song army saw that the Jin reinforcements were coming, and quickly retreated, Hu Shahu was afraid of the ambush and no longer pursued.

At the time of the third watch, the daring army that had been lurking in the granary heard the order, set the grain cart on fire, and the guarding Jin soldiers just fell asleep not long after, they found that the grain cart was on fire, the sky was dark, and it was impossible to distinguish between the false and the real.

Hu Shahu learned that Bi Zaiyu did it, relying on his youth and vigor, and led a group of people to chase and kill him, but found nothing.

Once, the Song army attacked Hu Shahu's department, and deliberately showed weakness while retreating, and in the evening, Bi Zaiyu suddenly turned around and waved a big knife, shouting: "General Bi of the Great Song Dynasty is coming," desperately killed into the enemy formation, and hacked to death many Jin soldiers. Hu Shahu saw that his subordinates were either dead or wounded, he raised a knife and slapped the horse, chased and killed, Bi Zai was not afraid of danger, the two of them were fighting, you came and I were on par, suddenly, Bi Zai Yu shouted, gold thief, take your life!

Hu Shahu hurriedly raised his knife to block, clang, the two knives collided together, the shock made both sides retreat two zhang away, seeing that Bi Zai was out of breath, he raised the spirit of twelve, rushed over, at this time, an arrow hit his horse's leg, the horse was injured and fell to the ground, Hu Shahu also fell down, and the deputy general around him rushed up with people to rescue him.

Bi Zaiyu knew that the other party was strong, and it was useless to fight hard, so he led the army to retreat, on the way, he sprinkled beans boiled with spices, and the Jin people had been hungry for a day, smelling the beans, and eating them, no matter how the Jin cavalry whipped. The Song army took the opportunity to counterattack, and the Jin army was only beaten, with many casualties.

In December, a large army of 5,000 troops marched to the Liuhe Waliang River and threatened Yangzhou. Liuhe, known as the Gyeonggi barrier of Jiankang (now Nanjing), the ancient capital of the Six Dynasties, was appeased by the two Huai and made the division meet the return of troops to support again.

The city of Chuzhou was besieged for many days, but the city was fortified with many soldiers, and the Jin army ran out of food, so the city was temporarily safe. Bi Zaiyu decided, and quietly led the army south at night to meet the enemy in Liuhe. In order to confuse the enemy, before leaving, the flags were planted all over the camp, and a few sheep were ordered to be tied, and the front legs of the sheep were put on the drum, and the sheep struggled, and the drum beat continuously, and for several days, the Jin people did not know that the Song army had pulled out of the camp!

Bi Zaiyu's army had just entered Liuhe City, and the Jin vanguard had already arrived in Zhuzhen, only twenty-five miles away from Liuhe.

The Song army died down, a subdued in the south gate of Liuhe City, hundreds of crossbowmen lay on the city, the Jin army thought that the Song army had fled, the city was empty, just took this opportunity to attack the city, swaggered straight to the south gate, how do you know, just close to the city, ten thousand crossbows together, when the city gate was surprised, the city gate opened the city gate, the Song soldiers raised their swords and roared out, the banner on the city was raised, the Jin army generals thought that they had encountered an ambush, panicked, and led the troops to retreat.

On the third day, Fu Shi Lie Ziren led his troops to the outside of the city and surrounded the Liuhe group. Trying to burn the wooden stakes on the edge of the ditch, breaking through the upstream of the water to flood the city, the Song army fired thousands of arrows with the bow, one after another, and could not approach at all. At the end of the day, there were few arrows left in the Song army.

The deputy general asked for instructions on what to do, and Bi Zai met and asked the deputy to come to the front to give the opportunity. The next day, the Jin army outside the city found that on the city wall, a green cover was opened, and a general, under the escort of the guards, was patrolling the city. In the Song system, the emperor will travel with a fixed guard of honor, and this cyan car cover should be used by the prime minister of more than three grades. He was familiar with the fact that he had been on an envoy to the Song capital. He judged that the person under the green cover must be the commander of the Song army, so he ordered the archers to aim and shoot wherever they went. So the arrows were like flying locusts, and they kept shooting at the walking green covers. When Fu Shi Lie Ziren found out that there was a fake and the drinking order stopped, the Song army got more than 100,000 arrows.

Seeing that the plan had not been successful, he made dozens of large water tanks for water. Bi Zai met the general to calculate, in the night with thousands of clothes and armor grass people, lined up into a formation, at dawn drums and feints, the Jin army was shocked, hurriedly released water impact, learned that after being deceived, depressed. And Bi Zaiyu took the opportunity to lead the army to attack, and the Jin people were defeated.

Jin General Wanyandu led an army of tens of thousands of people, and joined with the department of Sushi Lie Ziren, a total of 50,000 or 60,000 people, and surrounded Liuhe City, and the camp tents around it reached more than 30 miles. Bi Zaiyu was calm and calm, and let the soldiers play and sing at the gate of the city, and when the Jin army saw this, he mistakenly thought that it was leisure in the city, so he neglected to take precautions; At this time, Bi Zaiyu rode the black insect and led hundreds of elite soldiers, quietly approached the Jin camp for a sneak attack, and when the Jin general organized a counterattack, he quickly withdrew. In this way, the gods attacked the west silently, so that the Jin soldiers outside the city were on guard day and night, and there was no rest, and Su Shi Lie Ziren ordered to withdraw the camp and led the troops to the north.

Bi Zaiyu warned his generals that Jin Jiang was a feint retreat and would make a comeback, and ordered 3,000 soldiers to set up an ambush at the Dongye New Bridge in Liuhe City, and that night, 3,000 people in the rear of the Jin army really attacked Liuhe. Who knows, the Song army had been prepared for a long time, and by surprise, they suddenly attacked, and the Jin soldiers fled in embarrassment. The Jin army suffered heavy losses, the soldiers were tired, and they lost the confidence to make a comeback, so they retreated to the Huai River. Bi Zaiyu's army pursued him to Chuzhou, where it snowed heavily, so he had to return to the division. In this pursuit, 1,531 mules and horses were captured, 600 saddles, and the same amount of armor and banners.

If Bi Zaiyu is famous for his bravery and good fighting, then Zhao Chun is famous for defending the city.

Half a month after the expedition, Wanyan Kuang was appointed as the right deputy marshal, the troops went out of Tang Deng, advanced in three ways, and by the seventh day of November, the Jin army had captured Zaoyang, Guanghua and Shenmapo, and the troops were directed at Xiangyang.

The ancient city of Xiangyang, the strategic position is very important, the past dynasties for the soldiers to fight for the place, it is known for the reputation of "Xiangyang of iron fighting" and "the first pool of China". The north, east and south of Xiangyang City are surrounded by the surging Han River, and the west is surrounded by the peaks of Yanghu Mountain and Phoenix Mountain. The city wall was built in the Han Dynasty, which was originally an earthen wall, and was changed to a brick wall in the Song Dynasty. The wall is about 10 meters high, about 1.5 meters thick, 10 to 15 meters wide, and 7.4 kilometers in circumference. The moat was artificially dug on the southeast and west sides, and the average width of the city river was about 20 meters. There are a total of six gates in Xiangyang City, namely the Great and Small North Gate, the Long Gate, the East Gate, the West Gate and the South Gate. There is an urn city outside each city gate, which is also called the city of soldiers.

Xiangyang Shou was the commander of Ezhou, the envoy of Jingbei Road and the prefect of Xiangyang. The Jin soldiers who attacked Xiangyang claimed to be 200,000, while Zhao Chun's defenders were less than 10,000. Tens of thousands of soldiers and civilians inside and outside Fancheng were evacuated into the main city, and then they set fire to Fancheng and cut off the pontoon bridge.

When the Jin soldiers arrived at Fancheng, they saw that the walls had been cleared and there was no gain, so they gathered the two military horses together and showed off their might back and forth on the Han River.

Zhao Chun inspected the enemy situation along the river. After Yan Kuang invited Zhao Chun to have a dialogue across the river, and persuaded Zhao Governor to understand current affairs and surrender the city, Zhao Chun asked people to answer: Zhao had nothing to say to the gold thief, and was determined to take the famous general Wei Xiaokuan of the Western Wei Dynasty as an example, stick to the end, and live and die with Xiangyang.

A few days later, the Jin soldiers began to cross the river from Anyang Beach west of Xiangyang, and after paying heavy casualties, they broke through the outer city of Xiangyang and surrounded the city. The soldiers and civilians in the city were frightened, and Zhao Chun, in order to stabilize the hearts of the people, ordered people to fill the four gates with soil, showing his determination to defend them.

Outside the city of Chen Bing, the army of more than 100,000 tigers and wolves, hundreds of thousands of people were trapped in the city, although Xiangyang City was impregnable, but it could not withstand the long time, how to drive away the fierce enemy and keep the ancient city, this was the primary problem in front of Zhao Chun and other civil and military officials. After a meeting, 500 men were selected from among the defenders to form a brave army, and the detachments were divided into groups and went out of the city to attack the enemy army, so that it would not be peaceful.

On the second day of December, the Jin soldiers began to attack the city in an all-round way, Zhao Chun personally commanded on the city wall, and used gunpowder arrows to burn the siege equipment such as bamboo, grass oxen and cannon wood. As soon as the bows and ballistas in the city were fired, the Jin soldiers were either killed or wounded, so they had to retreat. At this time, the brave army in the city went out of the city to chase and kill, and the Jin army was difficult to stop, and fled in embarrassment, with corpses all over the field. The next day, the Jin army retreated.

Although Zhao Chun was a civil servant, he also knew that there was a huge disparity in the strength of the two sides and the enemy was outnumbered, so he could only fight guerrilla warfare, not positional warfare. During the day, the Song army could not hold out, and when the enemy came to attack the city, they bombarded it with artillery; At night, they sent brave troops to attack the Jin barracks, harass the enemy troops, and burned their grain, grass and siege equipment.

There was an accident in the initial sneak attack, due to the war, ten rooms outside the city were empty, no one fed the livestock, there were wild dogs everywhere, the death squad sneak attacked, the Jin soldiers were unaware, but the wild dogs barked, and many wild dogs inadvertently became sentinels. If you want to succeed in the sneak attack, you must kill the wild wolf. As soon as the call was made, the people in Xiangyang spontaneously organized themselves and set up a dog-fighting team to hunt those wild dogs. When night falls, the dog-fighting team quietly goes out of the city under the escort of a small number of soldiers, hunts and kills wild dogs, and brings them back to the city to be slaughtered, and dog meat becomes a delicacy for the soldiers and civilians defending the city. After the wild dog was caught, the brave army continued to sneak attack, and the flag was victorious, and it was a success.

Xiangyang City ushered in the New Year surrounded by golden soldiers. On the third day of the Lunar New Year, the Jin soldiers organized the siege of the city again. The Song army fought back with bows and crossbows and thunderbolts, and on the night of the fourth day of the first month, the crossbowmen laid an ambush on the city wall in advance, and more than 1,800 brave soldiers lurked in the sheep and horse walls under the city. On the morning of the fifth day of the first lunar month, when the Jin soldiers attacked the moat under the city, the brave army lurking in the sheep and horse wall suddenly killed, and the enemy was taken by surprise, first killing the Jin soldiers who retreated to the side of the moat, and then set fire to the siege equipment of the Jin soldiers. General Jin urgently ordered the cavalry to attack the Song army that was leaving the city. At the critical moment, the crossbowmen in the city fired arrows together, boom, boom, thunderbolt cannon sounded in time, hitting the cavalry outside the city, the Jin army could not resist it, and retreated one after another. At this time, suddenly, the city gate opened, and hundreds of brave soldiers held steel knives in their hands, like wolves and tigers, and killed the golden soldiers all over the field. In this three-day siege operation, the Jin soldiers lost thousands of people, and the siege strength was greatly weakened.

Seeing that the strong attack failed, the Jin soldiers built a mountain of earth in the Dajiao field in the southeast of Xiangyang City, trying to build it to be level with the city wall, and gradually advanced to the city wall. Where there is a spear, there is a shield, and you build it by day, and I destroy it at night, and in a few days, all the earth and mountains that you have built will be destroyed.

Later, the Jin soldiers wanted to increase and widen an ancient embankment in the northeast and south of the city, in an attempt to attack the tower. Zhao Chun tried every means to dig up the ancient embankment, so that Jin Bing's plan once again failed.

The Jin soldiers besieged Xiangyang for a long time and never conquered this isolated city. In early spring and February, there was an epidemic of disease in the army, and Wan Yan Kuang was no longer able to organize a siege.

The coach of the Jin Army, Bu San, died violently, and Yan Kuang took over after the transfer. On the 23rd, the Jin soldiers retreated and returned north.

Xiangyang City, which had been besieged for more than three months, finally opened its gates and entered and exited freely.