The spring of the first year of Jingkang was belatedly in the rare aftermath of winter cold. What happened during this period of time is enough to change the fate of a country and a nation, and it is destined to go down in history.

Just when the Taiyuan people were fighting to the death with the Jin soldiers, the new court of the Great Song Dynasty was also extremely uncalm. Zhao Huan, the newly enthroned official of the Great Song Dynasty, was not a wise lord with extraordinary talents, and he had just taken over this mess from his father who was the emperor of calligraphy and painting, and it can be said that he was at a loss. In addition, the Jin soldiers under the city had just withdrawn, and he was often afraid of fear day and night. For these civil and military ministers in the court, Zhao Huan also lacks a clear understanding and sufficient control ability, so that now that the country is in danger, the court is still fighting with the same party and infighting, and the main battle faction and the main peace faction are biting together, and the chickens and dogs are inseparable all day long.

In fact, recently, the focus of the controversy between the two factions is against Taiyuan!

Li Gang, Chongshi Dao, and Zong Ze, a veteran general who had just been recalled to the imperial court, agreed that the Great Song Dynasty must not give up Taiyuan, a military town. Although the Jin soldiers withdrew for the time being, it can be shown from the movement of Yan Zonghan's onslaught on Taiyuan that they definitely have no small ambitions, and they want to take Taiyuan and open up this Hedong corridor to the Central Plains, so as to facilitate a large-scale southern invasion in the future!

The Lord and the faction believed that since Taiyuan had been ceded to the Jin State, if he sent troops to interfere in the affairs of Taiyuan now, he would be lifting a stone to shoot himself in the foot, and take the initiative to anger and offend the Jin people. Don't commit the taboo of diplomatic relations between the two countries because of the gains and losses of a small city!

The two factions argued endlessly, Zhao Huan was inexperienced and lacking in assertiveness, and he suffered from congenital "political infantile disease" like his father, so he couldn't make a decision at all.

If the new monarch Zhao Huan could be a little more decisive at such a juncture, the war in Taiyuan would not be so difficult.

Finally, when Yan Zonghan made the decision to "fight again for the last ten days", Zhao Huan finally neutralized the opinions of the main battle faction and the main peace faction, and decided to "send troops" to Taiyuan. The previous siege of the Jin soldiers could be regarded as scaring the little courage of the Zhao Song officials, but this time he finally mustered up the courage to decide to send troops, but he was afraid that the "division was nameless" would anger the Jin people. Therefore, he did not forget to repeatedly explain to the generals who led the troops to the battle, and asked them to declare to the Jin people that "they are not here to fight against the Jin State", but to "mediate" the battle between the Jin State and the original garrison of the Great Song Dynasty in Taiyuan, aiming to help the Jin State "collect" Taiyuan and "clean up the portal"!

Just this move, the cowardice, short-sightedness, deceit and meanness of the Great Song Xinjun have chilled the hearts of many ministers and generals - Taiyuan Wang Yu and others are desperately guarding the city of your Zhao and Song Dynasty, but you threaten to "help the Jin people collect the city" and "clean up the portal", is there anything more chilling than this?!

Rao is so, in order to rescue the military town of Taiyuan in order to save the overall situation, Xu Han, who has always been known for his loyalty and integrity, is still with the generals of the Western Army, Yao Gu, and Zhang Hao, the son of Zhang Xiaochun, the prefect of Taiyuan, led the three-way soldiers and horses to march towards Taiyuan together!

It seems that there has been a sudden reversal and began to favor the Great Song Dynasty and Taiyuan City.

At this time, Wanyan Zonghan fully reflected the true character of his generation of heroes, and also showed outstanding military talents to match!

When he found out that the Southern Dynasty had sent a three-way army to march towards Taiyuan from Henan, Hebei and other places, Wanyan Zonghan immediately reprimanded the Southern Dynasty for treachery and scolded Xu Han and others for being disgraced. Although Xu Han is a literati full of poetry and books, it is especially his strength to play lip service, but he also seems to believe that it is indeed the Great Song Dynasty who does not care about this matter, so he can only move out of the rhetoric of the official tutor and state to Wanyan Zonghan that he is here to "mediate the dispute" between Jin Guo and Taiyuan.

Wanyan Zonghan laughed when he heard it, Fang is words were enough to show the cowardice and lack of confidence of the Southern Dynasty, as well as the hesitation of the generals in front of the Song army. So Wanyan Zonghan sent people to fool Xu Han with the theory, and on the other hand, he stepped up the dispatch of the general Wanyan Gushen and others to divide their troops to deploy defense on the main road. Just when Xu Han racked his brains to "continue the theory" with Wanyan Zonghan, Gu Shen and the others turned against the guest and launched a surprise attack on Xu Han's army first!

The result can be imagined, the Song soldiers were defeated and walked dozens of miles!

After beating Xu Han severely, Wanyan Zonghan didn't forget to send someone to sarcastically mock the reinforcements of the Southern Dynasty - your monarchs and ministers of the Southern Dynasty are capricious, and they always have to pay a little price for repeatedly committing these untrustworthy and unrighteous villain acts!

When it comes to this, it is obviously a tear of the skin!

Although Xu Han is a literati, he is upright, and he has a bit of scholarly spirit and boldness, and when he encounters such a fool, fiasco, and humiliation, he can't care much about it - he lives the three-way army to go hand in hand, and fight with Yan Zonghan!

But after that flickering a few days ago, the best fighter plane has been lost, and Wanyan Zonghan has already laid an ironclad "lock city" fortification in the 100-mile territory outside Taiyuan, and he has long prevented the Southern Dynasty from killing reinforcements from the periphery. Now he has also strengthened his precautions, and the field battle was originally the strength of the cavalry of the Jin Kingdom, and they couldn't ask for it, where could Xu Han still fight? After only three days of fierce fighting, Xu Han, a civil minister who did not understand military affairs but had always been a tough command, lost his troops and did not get half a penny, so he had to temporarily retreat from the camp to rest, and at the same time wrote to the imperial court to request the "next order".

This is a typical "tactic" with the characteristics of the Great Song Dynasty, and the army on the front line thousands of miles away must also obey the command of the official family to fight. Especially a literati like Xu Han is even more obedient when leading soldiers, and he will never be good at advocating half a step beyond Lei Chi!

Taiyuan's life and death are "helpless" in the eyes of Xu Han and others, because they feel that they have "tried their best"!

Tens of thousands of troops failed to enter within 100 miles of Taiyuan. Therefore, Wang Yu, Chu Tianya and others in Taiyuan City knew almost nothing about these things that happened.

Wanyan Zonghan's outstanding military talent was undoubtedly revealed. The more tense the situation and the tighter the war, the more he commanded and did everything he could. The Jurchen army under his command has captured a lot of booty after several field battles, not to mention bottoming out, at least the army's morale has been stabilized a lot. Now Wanyan Zonghan is like having trained three heads and six arms, and his troops are divided into routes, not only to storm Taiyuan but also to resist the three-way army of Xu Han on the periphery, and to guard against the surprise attack of the righteous army on Taihang Mountain, but he is flexible and calm.

While resisting Xu Han's army with offense instead of defense, Wanyan Zonghan's offensive against Taiyuan also became tighter. Although he looked down on the Southern Dynasty and the Song soldiers from the bottom of his heart, this did not mean that he would really be arrogant and underestimate the enemy. He knew that if this battle dragged on any longer, it would only be bad for him. Only by taking Taiyuan as soon as possible and creating this established fact, the little abacus of the Southern Dynasty can be completely shattered, and Xu Han's army will retreat without a fight!

As a result, Taiyuan faced an even greater predicament - the Jurchens, who had been attacked on the periphery, attacked Taiyuan even more fiercely!

It can be said that the Great Song Dynasty court's "dispatch of troops" to Taiyuan this time, because of the imperial court's party strife and policy indecision, and the official's lack of fear, made the front-line generals also lack confidence and hesitate, directly leading to the loss of fighters and the defeat of the battle. This did not ease the tension in Taiyuan, but instead plunged Taiyuan into an even greater danger!

The Quartet Gate was almost breached; A small town, crumbling!

The battle has reached this point, and it is all about will and faith. The soldiers and civilians of Taiyuan, who lack food and clothing, have only one thought left in their hearts: after the city is broken, it will inevitably be slaughtered by the golden soldiers! Rather than being a captive and being executed, it is better to fight to the end and die a vigorous death!

When people reach a desperate situation, they can often inspire extraordinary power.

The population of Taiyuan City has shrunk by nearly half compared to before the lockdown. But now, there were even more people involved in the defense of the city - the elderly, women, and even children!

No one mobilizes, and there is no need to mobilize; In the face of the threat of death, people have the instinct to survive - Taiyuan, finally united!

In the face of the crazy attack of the Jurchens, the Taiyuan military and civilians returned with an even more crazy counterattack. As long as there are people in the city who can still move, they are all involved in the defense of Taiyuan. The elderly, the weak, women and children helped to search for food in the city, and treated and cared for the wounded, and even children under the age of ten broke through the ice to catch fish and shrimp in the city's streams and rivers to sponsor military rations, or simply picked up the knives and guns of the fallen soldiers and joined the battle to defend the city.

The old man who climbed up to the head of the city on crutches saw that a golden soldier had attacked the head of the city, threw his crutches and rushed up, and fell down the city with the golden soldiers in his arms -- they even spontaneously formed such an organized team to do this kind of thing that would end up together, and called themselves "the old decrepit army."

There is also a group of widows of fallen soldiers, together with other women, also spontaneously formed a "women's army" of thousands of people, and took the initiative to serve under the command of Xiao Linglong, the famous "Rose Yaksha" in Taiyuan City, and trained extremely hard day and night to be stronger than men. At first, they were only temporarily assigned to the army patrol to be responsible for the security of the city, but later the city defense was tight, and they also entered the battle, and in the desperate fight of real swords and real guns, they killed a resounding name of the "Yaksha Army".

The Old Rotten Army, the Yaksha Army, the Boy Scouts...... In the city of Taiyuan, all the people are soldiers!

The blood of the dragon city, which has been dormant for a hundred years, awakens passionately before the end comes.

Chu Tianya used his pen to completely record everything that happened during this time.

Too many feelings and too many shocks made him feel the powerlessness of his brushstrokes and the lack of words. He felt that the bits and pieces that happened under the narrow sky of Taiyuan in just a few days were enough to constitute a magnificent national epic!

On the title page, which had been left blank, Chu Tianya wrote this sentence with a trembling pen-

"A city may be broken, and a man will die; Only the fierce dragon soul will never be defeated! ”