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

Chapter 409: Attacking the City and Killing the Generals
The facts were exactly as Liu Huai had expected.

Considering the strength of the Jingnan Army today, three hundred unarmored Jin cavalrymen blindly entering the city are indeed not a big problem.

The person commanding the battle was not even the main general of any army, but just a commander named Ding Daxing.

Less than a moment after the battle started, the 300 cavalrymen were blocked in a street and were killed by the swarming soldiers of the Jingnan Army.

"Where's Chen Ruhui? Tell Chen Ruhui to come out and see me!"

Wanyan Guo rushed into a courtyard with a dozen armored guards and took up position there. He was extremely sad and angry and roared loudly outside.

Ding Daxing looked at Chen Ruhui beside him and said, "Mr. Chen, do you still want to reminisce with this Jin thief?"

Ding Daxing meant well by saying this, because he was organizing the next wave of offensive and it was a good opportunity. He was a straightforward person and thought that Chen Ruhui and Wanyan Guo had some old friendship.

However, when these words reached the ears of someone like Chen Ruhui, who would turn every thought over in his mind a thousand times, they took on a completely different meaning.

Chen Ruhui believed that he must have chosen to spread this information last night, causing the officers of the Jingnan Army to feel somewhat indignant and to mock them at this time.

"I don't have any old friendship with this Jin thief," Chen Ruhui said with a dark face, "but I've wanted to give this thief a good scolding for a long time."

As he spoke, Chen Ruhui stepped forward and said, "Your Grandpa Chen is here, you little bastard! I've been wanting to skin you alive and eat your flesh for a long time. If I don't chop you into pieces with my own sword, I'll never be able to vent my anger!"

"You bastard..." Wanyan Guo was furious, fuming through the gate. "I thought you were someone who understood the general situation, and I treated you well..."

"General Ding, I have nothing more to say to that thief. Attack!"

After Chen Ruhui finished speaking, Ding Daxing nodded indifferently, then waved his hand, and the soldiers under his command lit the thunder bombs and threw them into the yard.

Soon, the yard was filled with thick smoke. The Jin soldiers could not hold on any longer and tried to rush out, covering their mouths and noses. However, they were knocked to the ground with axes and swords by the Jingnan soldiers who had been guarding the door.

Liu Huai, who was standing on the third floor of a nearby restaurant, watched the fighting on the street subside and nodded, saying, "Zhang Silang."

"The end will be here."

"With your three hundred Flying Tigers, we will attack first. According to the strategy we agreed on yesterday, we must rush to Chao County as quickly as possible!"

"Here!"

Zhang Baiyu immediately left with his knife in hand.

"Send a message to Zhang Xiaoyi, have him lead the defeated enemy soldiers aboard the ship and depart with General Yang. Lan Junhao and Gong Erchuan will also go with them. As agreed yesterday, we must manage the time well."

"Here!"

"Manager He." Liu Huai turned and looked at He Boqiu.

He Boqiu bowed calmly.

"Your mission is the most important. The outcome of the battle in Chao County is still unclear. The East Gate must be defended. The captured supplies must be counted, and the thousands of soldiers we have gathered must be reorganized. I will leave Shi Qilang, Luo Shenyan, Wang Shilong, and Lei Ben in your care. Please hold the East Gate for me for the time being."

He Boqiu nodded solemnly in agreement.

This is a necessary division of troops, and even heavy troops must be left behind at Dongguan.

Although judging from the captured military orders, the next opponent the Jingnan Army would have to fight against was the Wusheng Army from Hefei, the battle situation was dynamic, and no one could predict whether Wanyan Liang would suddenly change his mind and abandon Cai Shi to attack Dongguan.

At that time, He Boqiu will have to rely on Dongguan to resist.

The time is tight and the task is heavy.

"Send a message to Xin Qiji: The Tianping Army has made great contributions and has been given priority in selecting soldiers from the signed army. Later, the distribution of armor and rewards will also be given preference."

Yesterday, Xin Qiji fought his way from Yuxikou to Dongguan, which can be regarded as his greatest achievement besides Liu Huai's personal contribution in cutting off the retreat. In addition, his status as a guest general was enough to make the Jingnan Army treat him preferentially.

After giving the order, Liu Huai put on his armor and left.

Capturing Chao County was crucial to the choice of battlefield for the next decisive battle with the Wusheng Army and even the main force of the Jin Army, so it had to be chosen with caution.

Zhang Baiyu's march was extremely fast. In just one hour, he had already arrived at Chao County.

However, before Zhang Baiyu arrived, the Jin army in Chao County had already discovered something was wrong.

Among them were the urgent military orders from Da Huaizhen of Luzhou, as well as the reports from the scouts. In particular, there was no news from Wanyan Guo's army after they left. All of this gave Guo Feng a bad premonition.

The food is spoiled!

While Guo Feng was sending out scouts, he reported the possible situation to Da Huaizhen.

The Song army that crossed the river may have already reached the East Gate and blocked the grain transportation channel!

Although Wanyan Liang still has more than twenty days' worth of food and fodder left, Da Huaizhen must make preparations early. If Your Majesty goes hungry, it would be a grave sin.

After Guo Feng personally arranged the city defense, he just returned to the south of the city, but saw a group of cavalry galloping towards the city.

Six or seven of them, disarmed and disarmed, arrived at the city gate. Seeing the gate, they shouted, "Where is General Guo? We have urgent military information to report!"

Guo Feng sat upright on the top of the city wall, looking indifferently at the knights below.

After a while, a burly man with shaved hair leaned over the parapet and poked his head out: "I'm Guo Feng. Which unit are you from?"

"My family's Mouke is Wanyan Guo. We were ambushed outside the East Gate. Those damned rebels actually occupied the East Gate!"

As soon as these words were spoken, there was a small commotion on the city wall.

It is one thing to have a guess, another to be certain.

"Oh? You are Wanyan Guo's subordinate? Why have I never seen you before? Where is Wanyan Guo?" The big man on the city wall did not change his expression at all.

"Our Shangguan has both legs broken, so we're the ones keeping us at the front." The soldiers below the city pleaded, "Captain Guo, we've been traveling all day. Can you please let us in first and give us something to eat and drink?"

The big man on the top of the city wall was impatient: "You Song dog, open your dog eyes and see, is Ye Ye your Guo Taiwei?"

"Fire arrows!"

A hail of arrows rained down from the city wall, sending the cavalrymen knocking at the gate into a panic.

The Flying Tiger cavalryman shielded his head with his shield and fled back a few steps, feeling lucky he hadn't gotten too close. At the same time, a surge of rage rose within him. He turned his horse, pointed his spear at the top of the city wall, and cursed, "You wicked golden dog, you don't want the honor you've given me? Remember this! I'll chop you into pulp sooner or later!"

After saying this, the armored cavalry whistled and turned south with the cavalry that had come with him to attack the city.

"Woo~~~"

The horn sounded mournfully, and a cavalry of three hundred people appeared in the sight of the big man on the city wall. They had already put on their armor and raised a white fish flag, rushing towards Chaohu County.

"General!" The big man on the city wall saw Guo Feng approaching and bowed, "Do you want us to wait..."

"Don't rush. Liang Ji still has two thousand soldiers outside the city. Let him test the quality of these rebels first." Guo Feng waved his hand and said, "Yuan Wei, I know what you are thinking, but we only have five Mouke soldiers left. We must be cautious at all times."

"Yes!" The military commander named Li Yuanwei was a close friend of Guo Feng and he did not think there was anything wrong with it.

The two thousand people outside the city were signed soldiers organized from the surrendered soldiers of the Song army. To put it bluntly, they died and no one cared.

Liang Ji led two thousand men to form a battle array in the west of the city. Zhang Baiyu just stayed where his horse was, watching coldly, and waved his hand when the final battle array was deployed.

The three hundred armored cavalry of the Flying Tiger Army pounced forward like wolves and tigers, and then shot arrows in groups of ten.

The vanguard of the Qian army retreated one after another. Although they only moved in small steps, they had already destroyed the battle line.

"Hold on! Hold on!" Liang Ji led the supervisory team and lined up at the back of the battle formation, trying hard to force the front-row troops back.

But to no avail.

Then more than a hundred Flying Tiger Army cavalry gathered together, formed a horizontal formation, and shouted and pressed forward.

When they were twenty or thirty steps away from the Qian army's position, they could no longer withstand the pressure and fled without even a drop of blood on their swords or guns.

Liang Ji swallowed his saliva, threw the flag with a pale face, and was knocked off his horse just after he shouted. The Flying Tiger Army's armored cavalry rushed over without stopping.

"They are really a bunch of trash. It's a waste of food to keep them!" Li Yuanwei was furious and kept cursing.

Although they are all signed troops, this group of soldiers formed by the Song army is simply incompetent.

"Are these all the elite troops of the Song army? The general told us that thousands of Song troops crossed the river? Could they all be this elite?" Another marching commander named Wang Zhixia said in surprise and doubt.

Guo Feng shook his head. "That's impossible. If Song had thousands of such elite cavalry, they would have been better off taking Hezhou's 30,000 troops and engaging in a decisive battle. There's no need to risk attacking Chao County."

"What are they doing here? Are the commanders all fools? Thinking they can take the city with just armored cavalry? Putting everything on a deceptive city?" Li Yuanwei scratched his bald head, completely baffled. An army like this, without even baggage, feared a setback in its attack. It was almost dark, and if they couldn't capture Chao County tonight, these armored cavalry would have to sleep in the fields.

There is no village in front and no shop behind, and we don’t even have a tent. Aren’t we seeking death?

If you dare to camp in the wilderness, I will lead a desperate attack on your camp in the second half of the night.

Let’s see who dies first!
Guo Feng's face was as pale as water. He rested his right hand on the parapet, tapping his fingers lightly on the blue bricks, thinking about the loopholes in the city defense.

"Pass my order. Guard all four gates. I want to see what tricks they can come up with tonight." Guo Feng stretched out a hand and said, "Have Gao Fei guard the dock. Don't move even if the sky falls. If anything goes wrong, set fire to all the food and supplies!"

"General!" Li Yuanwei stepped forward, clasped his hands, and said anxiously, "Then Wanyan Guo..."

"Those five Moukes of Wanyan Guo are done for. If they were still alive, they could have made it through the night." Guo Feng was heartbroken after losing half his troops, but as a soldier, he couldn't show any signs of weakness: "What if they..."

There is no chance of that happening.

When the Flying Tiger Army's armored cavalry saw that they could not take the city, they took out the shaved heads from their horses and threw them towards the top of the city. As arrows flew back and forth from both sides, most of the heads hit the wall, but there were still people with greater arm strength who threw the heads over the wall.

After all, the city wall of Chaohu was newly built after the Song Dynasty moved south. Although the city wall was built with blue bricks and stones, it was only about two meters long. With enough strength, it was not difficult to throw it to the top of the city.

If this was the appetizer, then when the Flying Tiger Army below the city held up five Mouke flags and displayed them back and forth in front of the Jin army, the uproar on the city wall finally reached a level that could no longer be suppressed.

You have to know that the Jin army only had 500 regular troops, and the rest were all signed soldiers. Regardless of how strong the auxiliary troops recruited from the Central Plains were, it was hard to say whether the signed soldiers, who were organized from surrendered troops and recruited from the local area, would be the first to defect.

"Silence! Silence!" After all, the officers on the city wall had all boarded the Jin pirate ship. No matter how panicked they were, they knew what to do. They used whips and swords to suppress the riots in the city.

The afterglow of the setting sun finally dissipated over Chaohu Lake.

……

The warriors who had been lying silent and dormant on Yuxi River raised their heads.

"let's start……"

……

"Raise the fire!" Braziers and torches were lit on the city walls, illuminating the city like daylight. The armored cavalry outside the city were not to be outdone, lighting torches one after another and galloping back and forth, like a dancing dragon of fire.

Until now, the Flying Tigers have only made intimidating gestures, and the most intense siege was nothing more than suddenly rushing to the city and shooting dozens of arrows.

Except for a few unlucky ones, the Jin army on the city wall was unharmed.

Guo Feng's brows were furrowed tighter and tighter, and he was already in a panic. He always felt that things could not be so simple, but the big heart forged by years of fighting was constantly giving him warnings.

Where does the danger come from?

Are there any soldiers who want to defect? Impossible. If they had the guts, they would have done it long ago.

The Han people of Chao County want to cause trouble? No, they need the capital to cause trouble. The Han people of Chao County, who have been tortured several times, don't have the ability to do so.

Guo Feng was becoming more and more panicked, so much so that when he heard shouts of killing and flames rising from the west water gate of the city, his first reaction was not fear, but a long sigh of relief.

The most terrifying thing is when the bow and arrow are drawn but not shot. Once it is shot with a purpose, it gives people a feeling of a huge rock falling to the ground.

"Yuan Wei, bring your men and follow me! The rest of you will guard your own towns!" After Guo Feng gave the order, he waved his hand and went down the city wall, and rushed to the west of the city with the two Moukes of the Jin army.

Chao County is not small. Outside the city, there are villages and settlements. The city wall alone is seven miles long from north to south and six miles long from east to west. The city is adjacent to Yuxi River and Chaohu Lake, which means it has two natural moats.

At this time, the once prosperous city has turned into a dense and haunted den of evil.

Fresh corpses lay on the streets, the remains of Han Chinese who hadn't made it home when martial law was declared, hacked to pieces by the passing Jin troops. In the darkness, a few residents suppressed their tears, dodging the patrols that came to collect the bodies.

Seeing the neatly-lined Jin cavalry coming like the wind, the people could only throw the corpses of their loved ones aside, hide in the alleys or ditches, and cast murderous eyes at Guo Feng.

Guo Feng certainly knew that there were enemies everywhere in the city, but he didn't care.

Not everyone can be called a human being. In Guo Feng's eyes, the lake dwellers still engaged in guerrilla warfare in Chaohu Lake were considered human beings, as were the Song army that came to besiege Chao County, and the county magistrate Hu Yu, who was hanged on the city wall, was considered a human being. The rest were not considered human beings.

Kill all the Han people who dared to resist, and take whatever they wanted from the rest. It's like sharpening the knife to kill pigs and sheep. Can the meat on the chopping board be considered human beings?

Guo Feng was lost in thought as he urged his horse to the water gate.

When he turned the corner, the sight he saw almost frightened him to the point of falling off his horse.

The water gate had been smashed to pieces by small catapults and eight-ox crossbows. Six large ships were parked at the dock. The soldiers of the Jingnan Army waved large flags, blocked the dock gate, and chased the Jin army troops inside and killed them.

A Mouke's Jin army had been disbanded long ago and was chased like a stray dog, almost to the point of jumping into the river.

"Don't let any of them go!" A burly man blocking the door shouted, "Even if they're hiding in the gutter, pull them out and strangle them to death!"

"Captain Zhang, don't worry, we'll take action!" On the dock, countless voices echoed, followed by a burst of laughter.

"Gong Erchuan of Chao County killed one of the Jin bandits' marching troops!"

"The Song Dynasty's Heavenly Army has arrived. Those who surrender will be spared... Fuck you, yeah, I'm talking about signing the army."

"The Jin thieves' army will be killed without mercy!"

Zhang Xiaoyi saw the large Saker Falcon flag representing Meng'an coming towards him and immediately ordered: "Defeat the enemy and form a battle formation!"

The drumbeats paused, then became more intense again. Nearly five hundred enemy soldiers, forming a square formation, suddenly rushed forward under the guidance of a large flag.

Guo Feng was also not vague. He knew that the streets were narrow and this was not a place for cavalry to gallop, so he blew the horn and ordered his men to dismount and form a heavy infantry formation commonly used by the Jin Dynasty, with sword and shield soldiers in front and archers in the back, pressing towards the dock gate.

When the two armies approached, more than one hundred archers of the Jin army stopped and shot. The Jurchen heavy arrows flew into the air, and after reaching the highest point, they smashed heavily into the enemy army.

According to experience, such a dense rain of arrows would often cause casualties that the ordinary Song army could not bear within a round. Once the Song army's offensive momentum was stopped, the Jin army soldiers in the front row would run straight over and turn the advantage into victory.

However, the enemy army that was defeated was not an ordinary Song army. They were elite troops who had fought all the way from Shandong to Huainan. With Liu Huai personally in charge, their combat effectiveness and fighting will were not inferior to any Jin army, not to mention their huge advantage in numbers.

After only a short moment of direct fighting, the Jin army's formation was torn to pieces under the leadership of several fierce generals. The Jin army, which had at least a hundred armored soldiers, turned into green smoke like a snow lion encountering fire and fled.

"Kill the gold thief!"

Guo Feng's Meng'an flag was held high in the air.

"The Jingnan Army is coming!"

"The Golden Thief has been defeated!"

Three hundred soldiers guarded the supplies on the dock, while the remaining five hundred Song soldiers rushed into the streets and headed straight for the east gate.

Outside the east gate, the Flying Tiger Army's armored cavalry had gathered and were continuously firing rockets onto the top of the city walls in an attempt to contain the Jin army.

"The Jin thieves have been defeated... The Jin thieves have really been defeated..." Countless Song people who were clinging to the cracks in the walls and doors, looking out, seemed to be in a dream.

Were those arrogant Jin thieves who acted tyrannically in Chao County defeated?

"Let's kill the gold thieves together!"

"Brothers from Hebei and Shandong, don't endure it anymore! Why should we be soldiers who are worse than pigs and dogs?" The soldiers continued to shout while marching.

"Do you recognize me, Gong Er? I, Gong Er, am back!"

"Does anyone still remember me, Liang Zichu? Liang Zichu from Chaohu! Anyone with balls, follow me and drive these damned thieves out of Chao County!"

At first, only one or two people responded. When the soldiers marched to the county government office, hundreds of people were following them. When they could see the east gate, the whole city of Chao County was in an uproar, and the cry of "Kill the Jin thieves" resounded through the sky.

"Anyway!"

Whether it was the signed troops from Hebei and Central Plains, or the signed troops formed by surrendered soldiers, they all felt tremendous pressure at this time.

Finally, perhaps it was just a scolding from the Jin army, perhaps it was because they saw familiar faces in the attacking Jingnan army, or more likely they could no longer bear the atmosphere of being surrounded by enemies, so all the signed troops rebelled.

I don't know where it started from, but shouts and cries of killing rang out at the three city gates at the same time. After a series of short but bloody battles at the east gate, several bloody men opened the gate, lowered the drawbridge, and tremblingly guided the Flying Tiger Army cavalry to come in like a tide.

"Men! Get off your horses!" Zhang Baiyu saw that there were still dozens of Jin soldiers on the top of the city wall, and he sneered. He led the Flying Tiger Army's armored cavalry and infantry to climb the city wall and besiege it.

Soon, a fierce army guarding Chao County was wiped out.

Chao County was liberated.

(End of this chapter)