Destroy Jin and conquer Song, and carry the Northern Expedition through to the end

Chapter 217: Travelers Always Carry Heavy Loads

On the morning of September 1st, the weather was clear and suitable for fighting.

Above the county seat of Ju County, Kai Zhao stroked the parapet with his dark hands, gazing at the Jin army camp outside the city, in silence.

He felt he wouldn't make it through the day.

If reinforcements don't arrive, then the only option left is to die in battle or to escape.

As for the escape route, thinking of this, a bitter smile appeared on Kai Zhao's dark face.

The terrain of Ju County is quite dangerous.

The Shuhe River waterway is disordered in this section, and it is divided into several small rivers, including Songgong River, Xiuzhen River, Maobu River, Yuangong River, and Luo River. The county seat of Ju County is located between Songgong River and Shuhe River. It is a city surrounded by rivers on three sides, and there are mountains and hills on the east and west, making it easy to defend and difficult to attack.

As the seat of Juzhou, Ju County has relatively tall and neat city walls. The rammed earth walls, which are about two meters high, can definitely serve as a barrier for the defenders.

Moreover, as Ju County is a major thoroughfare connecting the north and the south, it has a large population, so it is not difficult to organize young and strong people to defend the city.

But for Kai Zhao at this moment, saying this actually doesn't make any sense.

Because he was the attacking party two days ago. In order to cut Juzhou governor Wanyan Zijin into pieces, the Dongping army had almost completely destroyed the city defense facilities during the siege and suffered considerable casualties.

If Kai Zhao was given a few more days, perhaps he could have prepared the city's defenses, recruited strong men from the surrounding areas, and replenished the army.

But the two Meng'an of Wuxing Army arrived too quickly.

Ming Chun's troops stationed outside the city were almost completely defeated, and Ming Chun was also seriously injured. Fortunately, his personal guards fought to the death to cover their retreat, and finally they waited for Kai Zhao's support, allowing the remaining troops to escape into the city.

After a chaotic battle, Kai Zhao counted his troops and found that there were only 1,700 people left.

Except for He Wenzheng, all the powerful people in Ju County who had fought alongside him before almost fled into the mountains. Some of them even changed their flags and surrendered to the Jin army again.

As the Wuxing Army occupied the camp outside Ju County and tied the surrender documents that only the main culprits should be executed to arrows and shot them into the city, Ju County became unstable.

Rumors flying around are a small matter. Some wealthy families have obviously started to collude.

Kai Zhao had no other choice.

He had not been a general in Juzhou for a long time and did not have great prestige. He wanted to use his military power to intimidate the enemy, but because he had just suffered a great defeat, his troops were too few compared to the entire city.

We want to kill the chicken to scare the monkeys, but maybe the chicken and the monkey will unite and give him a hard time.

If He Wenzheng had not been completely placed on the chariot of the Dongping Army and came out to appease and intimidate the people in the city, it is possible that Kai Zhao would not have been able to stay on the city wall yesterday.

Amidst the internal and external tensions, Kai Zhao also began to consider retreating.

This is not because he did not take Liu Huai's military orders seriously, the key is that he really could not hold on any longer.

If we need to retreat, where is the best place to escape?

The first choice is naturally to cross the river and sail out from the city. The Jin army is all cavalry and cannot enter the river anyway. They can reach Haizhou by going downstream.

The second option is to go out of the city to the east. After crossing the Xianggong River for about ten miles, there are vast hills and mountains. Then, if you flee in all directions, you will have a way to survive.

But this is where it gets really frustrating.

Would the dead prefect of Juzhou, Wanyan Zijin, not have thought of the escape route that Zhao Neng had come up with?
Could Wanyan Zijin have imagined that Kai Zhao would not block these escape routes?
For example, when crossing the river inland, Kai Zhao had no navy at the time, so he simply found two boats, filled them with earth and rocks, and sank them outside the sluice gate, blocking the waterway completely.

Now the two canal boats are still outside the water gate and have not been fished out!
Kai Zhao even set up his own military camp at the east gate of Ju County in order to block Wanyan Zijin's escape route to the mountains in the east.

The Dongping Army's previous camp outside the city has now been fully accepted by the Wuxing Army.

As the saying goes, every sip and bite is destiny, and the cycle of cause and effect will inevitably bring retribution. Zhao Kai felt a sense of both laughter and tears.

"Fifth brother...Fifth brother..." Just when Kai Zhao was hesitating, he heard Ming Chun, who was lying on the mat beside him, calling him.

Kai Zhao hurried forward, held Ming Chun's hand and said, "Seventh Brother, you're awake, but are you hungry or thirsty?"

Kai Zhao placed Ming Chun on the city wall, not because he didn't care about his brothers' lives.

On the contrary, he cared too much about Ming Chun's life, so he didn't dare to tell her to place him in the city's Chinese medicine clinic, for fear that someone would harm him.

After all, they are all remnants who survived the founding Zhao Da Uprising. They are all friends for life and death, so how can they differentiate between them?
Ming Chun glanced around and found himself in the city wall, surrounded by his trusted aides. He no longer concealed his feelings and shook Kai Zhao's hand, saying slowly, "Fifth brother... this is urgent. Don't fight any more. Let's run away..."

After speaking incoherently, the man suddenly ran out of breath and began to cough repeatedly. Kai Zhao wanted to use his hands to help Ming Chun breathe, but then he remembered that the man was injured in the chest and quickly stopped. He could only wipe the blood from the corner of his mouth with his sleeve.

"Don't panic, Seventh Brother. Young Master Liu of the Loyal Army has already agreed to send troops to aid us." Kai Zhao repeatedly consoled him. "Whether reinforcements arrive today or not, I will lead you to retreat under cover of darkness. If we can hold out today, we have already done justice to Lord Zhang and Lord Wei, and to the conscience of heaven and earth. Even before the gods, I have no right to be wronged!"

Ming Chun struggled a bit, but quickly became weak. "Fifth brother... that's not what I meant. What I meant was, don't worry about me anymore, and don't worry about the rest of the brothers anymore... Just open the four doors and flee in all directions. Let as many escape as possible... We are no match for the Jin thieves..."

After taking a few more deep breaths, Ming Chun's face turned pale. "Fifth brother, I didn't do anything wrong the day before yesterday, but we were beaten to a pulp by the Jin bandits... It's no wonder that Tao Wangsun turned against us... These Jin bandits are too strong, we can't stop them..."

Tao Wangsun was a powerful man in Juzhou. He had been besieging Ju County with Kai Zhao. When he saw the Jin army arrive the day before yesterday, he surrendered to the Jin army after fighting for a short while.

He was also one of the main culprits in the defeat of Ming Chun's troops.

Kai Zhao continued to comfort him: "Seventh Brother, don't say such discouraging words, I will definitely..."

Ming Chun interrupted Kai Zhao's words directly: "Fifth brother, I advise you again. After you escape this time, don't go back to the Dongping Army, and don't join the Feihuzi. Just find a place, hide your identity, find a wife and live... Don't fight against the Jin anymore... I told you before, who are we? A bunch of peddlers and peasants. How can we become kings, princes, generals or ministers? Now that you are gone, you must survive..."

When Kai Zhao heard Mingchun mention his brother Kaishan Zhao, he felt a pang of sadness in his heart. Then he thought of the Zhao family members who died in the uprising a few years ago. He could not hold back his tears for a moment.

At this critical moment, Kai Zhao still remembered his responsibility as a general. He could no longer show weakness in front of his personal guards. He quickly held back his tears and said, "Seventh Brother, you..."

Just as he was about to continue comforting him, he heard the sound of drums and horns outside the city. Kai Zhao let go of Ming Chun's hand, patted him on the shoulder, and after a few more words of comfort, he hurried out of the city wall and looked towards the east of the city.

However, they saw soldiers and horses coming and going in the Jin army camp, the four gates of the camp were wide open, and the noise of drums was deafening.

Kai Zhao originally thought that the Jin army was about to attack the city, and immediately became a little panicked.

But he soon discovered that the Jin army had neither pushed out the siege equipment left by the Dongping army from the camp, nor had a large group of troops set up positions under the city. Only small groups of cavalry were patrolling back and forth, seemingly looking for a place to climb the city walls, or just on guard.

Soon, Kai Zhao's doubts were answered.

The Jin army had about two thousand regular troops, one thousand infantry and one thousand cavalry.

Because the Jin army's infantry also traveled on horseback, if the Jin army was just marching, Kai Zhao would not be able to tell who was the cavalry and who was the infantry.

In addition, the Jin army probably also took with them about 3,000 signed troops. These people came from various sources, including powerful people from Juzhou along the way, young and strong people from villages and towns, officers and soldiers who were defeated from various counties of Juzhou, and even local tyrants from Ju County who surrendered several times in the past few days.

These signed troops are basically cannon fodder to fill the ditches. They can't even ride a mule, let alone a horse. They are all infantry.

After Kai Zhao took a look from a high position, he found that there were more than two thousand cavalrymen coming out in full force, and even the Qian army had two thousand infantrymen in a sparse formation heading south. An inexplicable hope arose in his heart.

Sure enough, just a moment later, scouts came from the south of the city to report that cavalrymen carrying the Tianping Army flag had arrived at the foot of the city and loudly announced to the city that tens of thousands of Tianping troops had arrived and had seized the pontoon bridge on the Xianggong River. The entire army had crossed the river to fight a decisive battle with the Jin army.

Leader Xin of the Tianping Army ordered Zhao Jin to leave the city and not to go out to provide support, so as to avoid being taken advantage of by the enemy.

Kai Zhao was overwhelmed with joy and surprise, and immediately wanted to head directly to the south of the city. However, after taking two steps, he turned back to the tower and said, "Seventh Brother! Reinforcements..."

The excited voices stopped abruptly. Kai Zhao saw that the two guards in charge of serving Ming Chun in the city wall both looked flustered. One of them seemed to be about to go out and bumped into Kai Zhao.

Kai Zhao's face changed drastically. He pushed aside his guards and came to the mat, but saw Ming Chun's eyes were wide open and he was already dead.

"Lao Qi..."

At this moment, Kai Zhao felt mixed emotions, but he did not burst into tears immediately. On the contrary, his calmness surprised even himself.

Kai Zhao felt that it was difficult to breathe, as if he was carrying a thousand-pound burden on his back again, causing his waist to collapse. However, the next moment, he forced himself to lift his chest up again.

When his brother, Kaishan Zhao, died, he knew that he, the survivor, would have to shoulder the wishes of many dead people and the expectations of many living people. But now, after shouldering another burden, he still felt a little overwhelmed.

But what else could Kai Zhao do? He gritted his teeth and ordered two guards to take good care of Ming Chun's body on the city wall. Kai Zhao then walked down the city wall, jumped on his horse, and galloped straight to the South Gate.

"What's the situation?" Kai Zhao threw the reins to his personal guard and said to He Wenzheng with a smile.

He Wenzheng first bowed to Zhao Kai, then paused for a moment before speaking, "Reinforcements have arrived. There's indeed smoke and dust billowing at the southern ferry crossing. A large army is approaching, and the Jin thieves have already gone there... General Zhao, you, you're not worried..."

Kai Zhao shook his head: "Of course I'm fine, why do you ask?"

He Wenzheng pointed at Kai Zhao's face.

Kai Zhao felt it and found that his hands were wet. Until now, tears still fell uncontrollably.

In order to stabilize the morale of the troops, Kai Zhao wiped his face and continued with a smile: "Tears in the wind, an old problem."

(End of this chapter)