Red Mansion: Seizing Jiangdong, starting with pirates

Chapter 169: Tragedy under the City

Fang Yong suddenly realized.

No wonder Zhai Xun and Wu Yuan came to see me together.

It was indeed my own negligence.

Because of the system entries, Fang Yong himself did not feel tired, which made him inadvertently ignore the feelings of ordinary soldiers.

It took more than ten days to break through Shandong. Despite many advance arrangements, it was still a huge challenge for ordinary soldiers.

Not to mention fighting, even just traveling would take eight or nine days!
Even with the help of system entries, Fang Yong felt mentally exhausted, let alone ordinary soldiers.

They must have reached their physical limits.

Wu Yuan and Zhai Xun observed this and came together to advise.

Fang Yong always wanted to reach the capital as quickly as possible, which led to such negligence.

This is mainly because Fang Yong has an obsession with the capital city.

It was not his obsession with going to Beijing to become emperor, but his obsession with feeling guilty towards the people of the capital.

Fang Yong believed that if he had not helped Caoyuan to transfer the Datong defenders, Caoyuan would not have attacked so quickly.

It was precisely because of this idea that he repeatedly urged the march, wanting to arrive before the grassland people wreaked havoc in the capital and protect the people near the capital.

However, he didn't expect that such thoughts would lead to his current negligence.

"I order all soldiers to rest for three days, reward the three armies, celebrate the recovery of Shandong, and strengthen the defense of Shandong's towns and the transportation routes of baggage and food!"

Fang Yong's order was quickly passed down.

All the soldiers were jubilant.

Fang Yong himself requisitioned a house in Texas for temporary residence.

"what is it call?"

"Cui Si."

"That's a good name. Let me..."

Juyongguan.

The fighting here is still fierce.

Deng Ren's artillery had been unable to capture the city for a long time and was running out of ammunition. Seeing this, Sun Huaiyi proposed the strategy of using a sea of arrows.

The so-called sea of arrows strategy is to take advantage of the large number of grassland people's archers and specially arrange a large number of archers to build turrets outside the city and shoot arrows into the city.

This strategy is not very clever, but it has been used since ancient times.

The only difference from others was that Sun Huaiyi's strategy was not only to shoot arrows into the city, but also to arrange a large number of soldiers to attack at the same time!

This will exert a strong suppressive force on the city.

The disadvantage is that it will cause a high degree of accidental injuries!
Sun Huaiyi also has a solution for this.

All they have to do is let the Han people carry out the task of storming the city. Kah Khan has captured many Han soldiers during the siege. Now if he lets these people be responsible for the siege, won't there be any loss of grassland soldiers?
Kah Khan did not adopt Sun Huaiyi's strategy.

He wanted to be the common king of the grassland people and the Han people, so he had to treat the grassland people and the Han people equally, not favoring one over the other. Only in this way could he become the common king of both.

Although Sun Huaiyi's strategy could play some role temporarily, from a long-term perspective, it would only make him dig his own grave. Therefore, Kah Khan had a very bad attitude towards Sun Huaiyi and ordered his men to beat him out of the tent with sticks.

After hearing about this, Li Hao agreed with Kah Khan's approach and offered a special plan.

It would neither damage the prestige of the grassland nor undermine the morale of the officers and soldiers at Juyongguan on a large scale.

Along the way, Kahe Khan captured Juyongguan from the grassland and captured many Han people. Some of these Han people were willing to surrender, some were willing to surrender after coercion and inducement, but some were tortured but still insisted on their integrity and would rather die than surrender.

In order to establish his own image of benevolence and righteousness, Kah Khan did not kill these people at the suggestion of Li Hao, but simply imprisoned them.

Now, these people are put to use.

The next day, Kah Khan ordered his men to drive these people to the city wall, about five or six hundred people.

Then Kah Khan ordered his soldiers to retreat three miles and sent people to inform the defenders on the city wall that these people were loyal to Daxi and would rather die than surrender. He admired their integrity, so he was willing to release them and send them all back.

At the same time, Kah Khan made a promise that when these people entered the city, the grassland soldiers would never take the opportunity to launch an attack!
Niu Jizong on the city wall looked grim when he saw this.

He knew that this was the other party's conspiracy.

These people might really be heroes who are loyal to Daxi and would never surrender, but now he is a general defending the city, responsible for the lives of all the people in the city, and he cannot let these people enter the city!

Niu Jizong quickly thought of ways to deal with the situation in his mind, but in the end he had no idea.

This is an unsolvable conspiracy. Either let the enemy enter the city and take the risk of having the city breached, or do not allow the enemy to enter the city and damage one's own morale.

Niu Jizong gritted his teeth. There was nothing he could do. Faced with this situation, he could only insist that the other party was a spy. Otherwise, if he told the soldiers the cruel truth, their morale would only drop further.

So Niu Jizong immediately ordered that these people were not allowed to enter the city, and sent his trusted confidants to spread the word among the soldiers, saying that these people were spies sent from the grassland!

Niu Jizong believed that as long as they could tell that the enemy was a spy, their soldiers would feel comforted, feel less guilty, and their morale would drop less.

But Niu Jizong underestimated people's integrity!

These people living on the border have nothing. They live in the harsh and cold border areas (now Zhangjiakou area) all year round. The only thing they have is the integrity of being the people of China!
That's the only thing they're proud of!
It is also something they cannot allow to be defiled!
After being captured on the grassland, they did not give up their integrity under the enemy's threat of life and death. How could they accept insults from their own soldiers under the city now?
A man stood up from the crowd under the city wall.

He has an ordinary appearance and is a bit short.

He heard the slander against them from the city, so he decided to stand up and prove himself!

He said sadly:

"General, why do you accuse me of being spies from the grassland? Although I am not smart or brave enough to save the country from danger, I am definitely not a traitor. Now that you have insulted me like this, I will sacrifice myself to prove my innocence!"

After saying that, Qin Jiao yelled loudly, then slammed his head against the wall of Juyong City, and died with a broken head!

After Qin Jiao died, everyone else was saddened.

They were captured by foreigners and tortured, but they did not surrender. Now they are being slandered as traitors by their own people?
Thinking of this, more than a dozen people stood up and said in a tragic and heroic voice:
"Qin Jiao is dead. How can we live in this world with dignity? The only way to clear the suspicion is to follow Qin Jiao. Let's go!"

After saying this, they all hit their heads and died!

After a few people died, dozens more followed suit!
Looking at the fortified city in front and the foreign races behind, where in the world can accommodate them?
It is better to die than to be charged with the crime of being a traitor!
These people have not surrendered despite all the torture, so which one of them is a coward?

In this way, before long, more than 500 people died outside the city.

Niu Jizong was deeply moved by what he saw and regretted his decision.

He had no choice but to order people to bring the body back to the city in a hanging basket for a proper burial.

From beginning to end, the grassland people watched this scene quietly without any movement.

(End of this chapter)