On the ninth day of September, Chongyang.

The whole army of Xiaojie was launched, and Fan Zhuoyuan led an army of 80,000 troops in the middle road to the south, approaching Bianliang.

Bianliang, that is, Kaifeng Mansion, is surrounded by plains, there is no danger to defend, and it is located under the hanging river of the Yellow River.

Even if the city is tall and heavy, and it is guarded by hundreds of heavy cannons, as long as you are willing to dig down the Yellow River and rush the city with the river, you can break it.

Of course, this method is too harmful, and the people who damage it are all their own people, and Fan Zhuoyuan will definitely not use it.

Now he has an army of 80,000, and the main force of the 30,000 Xiaojie army can fight on horseback and on foot, one person and two horses, and 50,000 soldiers are all infantry, but they are also well-armed and have high morale.

The army carried as many as 100 siege artillery pieces and more than 200 field tiger squatting guns.

Even in this year and a half, Fan Zhuoyuan also ordered craftsmen from Bianliang to build an arquebus unit with a scale of 1,000 people by forging method, which together with the artillery was called the Shenji Battalion.

These arquebuses were not made of the Ming Dynasty, but with a shortened barrel, but with an increased caliber, focusing on power rather than range and accuracy.

In the face of the Song army's troops with a very high armor rate, of course, the power response is in the first place.

This 1,000-strong unit has only been training for more than half a year, and the training uses the technology of fixed gunpowder, which can be fired twice a minute, and the speed is extremely slow, which is completely inferior to the crossbowmen of this era.

However, Fan Zhuoyuan still vigorously developed despite public opinion, and he knew that this was the trend of future wars.

Although the crossbow of this era was powerful, its lethality was already very limited in the face of heavy armor, and firearms were necessary to inflict armor-piercing strikes at long distances.

The most important thing is that the firearms unit is easy to build, as long as there are weapons, a capable combat unit can be trained in three months, which is really very suitable for the government soldiers, which is half soldier and half farmer.

The army went out to fight, first on the north bank of the Yellow River with the 40,000 Western Army, 30,000 Xiaojie Army Iron Cavalry stepped out, the 40,000 Western Army collapsed on the spot, except for those who fled, most of them surrendered in public.

Zhe Keqiu himself was also captured by Fan Zhuoyuan and temporarily imprisoned in the army.

Forcibly crossing the Yellow River, Zhang Shuye led 50,000 regiments of Lian Yi army to block the danger, but the fortifications were bombarded by Fan Zhuoyuan's soldiers with heavy artillery for half a day, and they were all destroyed.

The 50,000 regimental training rebels collapsed under several rounds of arrows and guns and cannons.

Fan Zhuoyuan tried to persuade Zhang Shuye to surrender, but Zhang Shuye committed suicide by jumping into the Yellow River.

Fan Zhuoyuan didn't say anything about this, and with an order, the whole army crossed the river, and then did not encounter any obstacles along the way, and successfully reached the city of Bianliang.

This Great Song Dynasty Tokyo, even though it has a large population and complete equipment, is really like a bag in front of Fan Zhuoyuan.

The arrow shot to persuade the letter to surrender in the city, but Zong Ze burned it in front of him to strengthen the city's will to fight.

Fan Zhuoyuan looked at the famous minister in history at the head of the city, and didn't say anything, since he was an enemy, he didn't leave anything to say, and immediately ordered the siege position to be arranged.

The cavalry roamed the outside of the city, preventing any reinforcements from coming to support, completely blockading Bianjing and making it an isolated city.

The defense of Bianjing City is complete and strong, and if you want to attack strongly, you will naturally pay great casualties, and the more than 200 artillery pieces are not comparable to the Xiaojie army in terms of range and density.

However, the siege of the city is based on the attack on the heart, and the lonely city is difficult to defend, and the cavalry that appears around the city at any time, coupled with the various siege equipment that the Xiaojie army is building, all give the defenders in the city a huge psychological pressure.

Today's Great Song Dynasty is not like the Bian Dynasty in Nandu in history.

At the beginning of the Southern Song Dynasty, there were four famous generals in history, but now the two most famous and powerful of the four famous generals: Yue Fei and Han Shizhong both served in the Xiaojie army.

The long-legged general Liu Guangshi had already been killed, leaving only one money-greedy general, Zhang Jun and Zong Ze, to stay here.

Moreover, at the beginning of the Southern Song Dynasty in history, a large number of Hebei, Hedong, Western Army and other troops were all reorganized and gathered, and after years of fighting with the Jin army, they gradually accumulated combat experience and became capable veterans, so that the Southern Song Dynasty was finally able to compete with the Jin State in terms of strength.

And now, it is impossible to understand who is orthodox in the north and south, and most of the troops who would have fled to the Jianghuai region and were gradually absorbed by the southern court are staying in the local area at the moment, or simply returning to their hometowns to become farmers, and even some of them are among Fan Zhuoyuan's government soldiers.

The Southern Dynasty of this era was much weaker than in history, and because it was a civil war, the military and the people had no fighting spirit.

In addition, Fan Zhuoyuan's new policy has a strong attraction to the low-level military and civilians, and the Song army's will to resist is even less than the historical anti-Jin and anti-Yuan.

This is well known not only to Fan Zhuoyuan and other Northern Dynasties, but also to many scholars and doctors in the Southern Dynasties.

Zong Ze stood on the city wall, looking at the Xiaojie army galloping past with his might, his brows furrowed deeply, revealing a bitter face.

A tall, thin and swarthy general next to him was Zhang Jun, and he kept saying something, but Zong Ze couldn't listen to it at all.

The other party said that he abandoned the city and fled south, and repeatedly said that Bianjing could not be defended.

However, Zong Ze was extremely stubborn and never agreed, turning his head and reprimanding: "It's easy for us to flee on light horseback, but what about the hundreds of thousands of soldiers and civilians in the city?!" ”

Zhang Jun's mouth opened, and at this time, another group of scattered cavalry of the Xiaojie army galloped close to the city wall, shooting a rain of arrows into the city, which frightened the defenders at the head of the city to scream and retreat to the corner of the wall to hide.

Zong Ze was furious, "Fire back!" ”

The gunners, who still listened to the order, immediately fired more than ten artillery pieces at the cavalry of the Xiaojie Army.

However, the cavalry was running very fast, and the heavy artillery mounted at the head of the city was inconvenient to turn, and more than ten guns were all lost, and the morale of the defenders was even lowered.

Zhang Jun picked up an arrow that fell from the ground, and said curiously: "There is no arrow?" Hey, there's a piece of paper wrapped around it? ”

Many soldiers in the city picked up these arrows without arrows, removed the papers, checked the contents on them, and whispered to each other, and the atmosphere was strange.

Zong Ze sensed that something was wrong, "What is written on the paper?" Isn't it another demagogue to persuade surrender! ”

After Zhang Jun read it, he handed it to Zong Ze with some hesitation.

Zong Ze glanced at the content inside, his expression changed drastically, the content on the paper was very simple, that is, to describe the land policy of the Northern Dynasty, and said that now the northern land is vast and sparsely populated, as long as you are willing to join the household registration in the northern land, you will divide the land according to the capitation, everyone pays taxes fairly, the rich who have more land pay more, and the commoners who have less land pay less.

In addition, there are tax incentives for industry and commerce, etc., which are meaningless to the wealthy landlords, and even more harmful than beneficial.

However, it has a strong attraction for low-level figures such as displaced people and stragglers gathered in Bianjing City.

Zong Ze grabbed a few pieces of stationery to read, but the content was not the same, both propaganda policies and various examples cited, showing people how the lives of the people in Yanyun area have changed now under the new policy.

The words are all written in the vernacular, there is no writing, and even the words are crooked, and at a glance you know that it is not the handwriting of cultural people.

However, this is very close to the people, and all the defenders who have seen it will inevitably have all kinds of thoughts in their hearts.

Zong Ze immediately ordered that no one was allowed to hide the letter of surrender privately, and he took out the only remaining silver money in the treasury and rewarded it in front of the army to boost the morale of the soldiers.

Seeing the real money, the spirit of the defenders was better, and they barely suppressed the various psychological offensives of the Xiaojie army.

However, after one night, Zong Ze had a lot more gray hair on his head.

After all, Bianjing was broken, and after being robbed by the Jin army, there was not much gold and silver left in the treasury, and he only pinned his hopes on the rich families in the city, hoping to raise some silver money to support the defense of the city.