There is no doubt that the fireworks signal represents the arrival of Song Nan's army, and Bald Meng can't figure out why the Ming army came so quickly, why his cavalry arrived in Lingzhou for more than a day, and the Ming army, which was walking on both feet, had already arrived. Maybe this qiē is all an illusion, or maybe someone is bluffing?

Dozens of horsemen rushed from the streets to the south, and the people who came were the generals who had been ordered to collect supplies in the occupied southern city to suppress the sporadic resistance, and as soon as he appeared, he made Bald Mengke's heart cool in half. Sure enough, the general rode up, the look on his face changed, and his voice changed.

"Report to the Great Khan, a large number of Ming troops appeared six miles south of Lingzhou and are marching towards Lingzhou."

The bald man calmed himself down, and said in a low voice: "Can you see clearly?" How many people? What flag? ”

The general replied in a low voice: "There are at least forty or fifty thousand people, and they are fighting the Song character handsome banner, and they are the soldiers and horses of Song Nan who fought in Jingyu City." ”

"Forty or fifty thousand?"

Bald Mengke took a breath, the last hope was disappointed, if it was really Song Nan's soldiers and horses arrived, and it was the main force, there was no need to think about how they got here, and the choice to make now was to fight or go. However, there seems to be only one answer to this choice: although he still has more than 20,000 soldiers and horses on hand, he has just experienced a day of hard fighting, and in the face of Song Nan's army, which is several times his size, this battle is absolutely unwinnable.

The bald man is a decisive person, and the remnants of Lingzhou and the people in front of him all looked like they were eyeing each other when they learned that the reinforcements had arrived, and they knew that they must not be entangled by them. The distance of five or six miles can be reached in less than half an hour, and if you are dragged here, you can only wait for death, and the bald man can slowly issue orders.

"The thousand-man team launched an attack and leveled the remnants of the Ming army."

"Father Khan...... This...... We should evacuate immediately. Tulu whispered cautiously.

"You know what? Offensive! The bald man glared at Tulu fiercely, and Sen Ran ordered.

The thousand-man team of the first echelon, which was ready to attack, immediately urged the war horses, and soon rolled up the Wanfu Bridge like a whirlwind and clouds, rushed towards the Ming army on the opposite side, and exchanged hands with the Ming army in the blink of an eye. The cavalry's ability to charge is not trivial, just this thousand cavalry will break open a big hole in the remnants of the Ming army that are waiting in formation; The commander who led the first echelon was secretly happy in his heart, and the follow-up brothers charged up continuously, and the thousands of remnants in front of him and the people of the Ming Dynasty immediately became mashed meat. However, when he took the time to look back, he was shocked to find that the back of his thousand soldiers and horses was empty, and there was no follow-up cavalry rushing forward.

"What's going on?" The commander couldn't help but cry out in horror.

"We're sold, we're sold." A centurion suddenly understood, and shouted loudly.

The commander also understood, it turned out that the reinforcements of the Ming army arrived, and in order to prevent the remnants of the Ming army from dragging the back legs of the army, the Great Khan actually let more than 1,000 people charge up to entangle these Ming troops, but the army was about to withdraw immediately.

In the scolding, the raging arrogance of the thousand cavalry was suddenly extinguished into ashes, and the formation of the Ming army that was rushed away quickly recovered, and soon, the thousand people fell into the encirclement of thousands of Lingzhou soldiers and civilians.

Zhang An was actually quite anxious, and the fireworks signal rose into the air, indicating that Song Nan's army had arrived. Before, he was holding the idea of death, and he was ready to fight to break the net, but since the reinforcements arrived, Zhang An suddenly understood what he should do.

Now it is necessary to hold back the Tartar soldiers and horses, and delay until the army enters the city and annihilate them in one fell swoop.

However, the more than a thousand cavalry that the Tartars charged had already arrived in front of him, and he had to concentrate on dealing with the thousand Tartar cavalry in front of him; With the soldiers and horses in their hands and the people who are cooperating with them, they are on the flat ground, and even this thousand Tartar cavalry cannot be underestimated. While struggling to lead his troops to surround and kill the more than 1,000 Tartar cavalry, Zhang An also saw the Tartar cavalry brigade on Wanfuqiao South Street turning his butt and retreating, he was anxious, but he was helpless.

It was very effective to make a quick decision on the spot, and he didn't even wait for the gathering of thousands of soldiers and horses scattered in Nancheng, Xicheng and other places, but directly led more than 16,000 horsemen to the east gate. Along the way, there was still time to order the burning of the surrounding houses and the shooting of civilians in sight. He himself held his big iron bow on horseback, and when he was running, he saw the figure of the people of Lingzhou and shot them to the ground with an arrow like a weekday hunt.

Originally, after Bald Mengke still planned to take Lingzhou, he only cleaned up the unruly people and the Ming army, and he also planned to comfort the people of the Ming Dynasty, maybe in the future he would occupy many cities in the Ming Dynasty, and a good impression should be cultivated from now on. But now, in the face of the Ming army's pressing step by step, the beast in his heart finally couldn't be hidden, even if he wanted to leave, he couldn't let Lingzhou leave it to the Ming army completely, and on the way to escape, he didn't forget to order the soldiers and horses to slaughter the people and set fire to the city.

Half an hour later, when Jiang Bin and Xu Tai led the two Beijing battalions and the soldiers and horses of the three guards into Lingzhou City, the entire eastern half of Lingzhou City was already in flames. Zhang An and others, who had solved the 1,000 Tartar cavalry, were busy dealing with the more than 3,000 Tartar soldiers and horses who could not escape from the city, or did not know that their Great Khan had left; Jiang Bin and Xu Tai immediately ordered the remnants of the Tartar soldiers in the city to be wiped out, and at the same time asked the commander of the three guards in the northwest to immediately put out the fire and save people.

They did not choose to chase after the bald soldiers, because they understood that the pursuit was futile, and the mobility of the Tartars was not comparable to their two-legged infantry, and all they could do was to send cavalry scouts to closely monitor the movements of the Tartar army.

When night fell, the fire in Lingzhou City was basically extinguished, and thousands of corpses were parked here in a vacant lot in the East City that had been cleared, and the mourning and weeping of family members spread far and wide in the quiet night. Because of the heat, the bodies will be buried early tomorrow morning, leaving them with their loved ones for the last night. Many of the corpses lay there alone, with no family members around, perhaps their parents, wives, and children were lying somewhere like them, or they were lying under the city walls like so many corpses when they participated in the defense of the city.

War is a devil who has devoured countless lives; Death is the most ruthless thing in the world, and he can kill a qiē, killing all living emotional hopes and dreams. This is true for the soldiers and civilians of Lingzhou, and it is also the same for the Tartar soldiers who are lying here.

After a nightmarish night, the first rays of the morning sun rose over Lingzhou City, sprinkled inside and outside the Lingzhou City with lingering smoke. The whole city is dead silent, but there are countless silent and busy figures. The soldiers and civilians of Lingzhou began to clean up the corpses of both sides left behind by yesterday's battle, clean up the ruins of collapsed and burned houses, and clean up the disorderly things in their homes.

Outside the south city gate, Jiang Bin Xu Tai and dozens of military and political officials stood on a small hill and waited, and soon after, dust flew in the distance, and a team of more than 1,000 cavalry galloped over, the bright armor was covered with dust, and the horses rolled their eyes and sprayed white foam, and their steps were extremely heavy.

"Here we are." Jiang Bin shouted.

The officers gathered their spirits and straightened their clothes to meet them, and the cavalry rushed to the front to rein in their horses, and a man came down from a large black horse, and the dusty cloth and cloak were removed, revealing his true face.

"See the great general." The officials bowed and said in unison.

It was Song Nan who came, Lingzhou was attacked as expected, Song Nan had to leave behind the officers and soldiers of the Shenshu battalion and the local guard, and led a thousand cavalry of the Jinyi Guard Battalion to take the lead.

"Excuse me." Song Nan returned the salute, but his eyes looked at Lingzhou City after the war, and when he saw the city wall collapsed and the green smoke curling in the city, he couldn't help frowning.

"Who's going to sue me, what's going on here."

"General Yu, the Tartars arrived in Lingzhou in the evening of the day before yesterday, and launched an attack early yesterday morning, and Wu Zhongxiao was killed by the command of the Yan'an Central Guard, and more than 8,000 of my soldiers and horses were killed and wounded, and more than 6,000 people in the city were killed and wounded. The Tartars were roughly estimated to have suffered 14,000 dead and wounded, and more than 3,000 were captured...... was incompetent, and he failed to hold on for a day, so he asked the general to surrender. Zhang An said in a deep voice.

Song Nan stepped forward in person, helped Zhang An, who was kneeling on the ground and bowing his head, and said softly: "The old general has worked hard, but I didn't expect us to be a step late, Jiang Bin and Xu Tai led the army to come late." ”

Zhang An shook his head and said: "You can't blame the two Hou Masters, they have arrived in time, they have been marching day and night for six days to arrive here, and they have done their best." If it weren't for the fact that the general sent a large army to help before the military and rushed here after the city was broken, scaring away the Tartar army, Lingzhou would probably be a different situation now. ”

Song Nan nodded, walked towards the city gate, the generals followed him, Zhang An whispered about yesterday's battle, when it came to the collapse of the city wall, Song Nan sighed: "Man-made disasters are actually more terrible than natural disasters, such an important town, the city wall was built hastily, so that the disaster left behind, it can be said that it is the retribution of man-made disasters." Without this variable, it would be difficult for the Tatars to break through Lingzhou, and you would definitely be able to hold out until reinforcements arrived. Hey, this matter will be strictly investigated and investigated in the future, and the lives of more than 10,000 soldiers and civilians will fall on those responsible. ”

Zhang An nodded and said: "The general of this matter really wants to remind the imperial court to be vigilant, how many border towns and cities are hastily fortified, and how many hidden dangers exist, which all need to be investigated." It's a pity that it will wake up after paying the price, and Lingzhou has become a victim of the price of this blood. ”

Song Nan said: "It's not too late to make amends, it's really rare that Lord Zhang can drag on the war for a day under such circumstances, the casualties of the Tartars are heavier than ours, I will play the imperial court and ask for a reward for General Zhang and the defenders of Lingzhou." ”

Zhang An hurriedly said: "General, this battle is not the credit of my Lingzhou defenders, if it weren't for the people of Lingzhou who spontaneously organized tens of thousands of young people to help defend the city, I am afraid that they would have not been able to insist on the arrival of reinforcements." If you want to ask for credit, the first credit should be the people. ”

Song Nan sighed and said, "There is such a thing?" ”

Zhang An nodded, his eyes suddenly fell on a group of people cleaning up the corpses on the edge of the city wall in the distance, pointed to a young man and said: "Hey, what a coincidence, it is that descendant, I looked for him last night, and it is said that he led the people to help defend the city." ”

Song Nan followed his hand and looked at it, only to see that by the moat on the outside of the city wall, a young man was sitting by the murky river, with a corpse lying beside him.