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

Chapter 413: Heroes Since Ancient Times Are Like Dreams

Lu'an City is not impregnable either.

Although in terms of terrain, Lu'an City is surrounded by the one-mile-wide Xingshui River on both sides.

In terms of numbers, let alone the 8,000 soldiers, all the able-bodied men in the city were contributing, which was more than enough to defend the two city walls.

As for morale, the Song troops from Guangzhou detailed the Jin army's atrocities, frightening the civilians. Seeing even the rich and powerful outside the city being conscripted as cannon fodder, they completely lost all hope of surrender. For a moment, the entire city was filled with mournful soldiers, their morale high and mighty.

Although there is a shortage of food and fodder, Bi Jin has made preparations in advance. He has fortified the city and cleared the fields, and distributed the food in fixed quotas. There will definitely be no problem if he can hold on for a year or two.

The Jin army was composed of northerners, and they were not used to the climate and water there. Bi Jin calculated that as long as they could hold out for three months, the epidemic would wipe out the Jin army.

But the key is the weapons.

In the general environment of peace and prosperity in the Southern Song Dynasty, the front lines in Lianghuai were in such a mess, not to mention Lu'an in the rear.

The fact that the army was drawing empty salaries was actually a minor issue. After all, Hui Sihai's son of a bitch was running away faster than a stray dog, and no one was backing that bunch of garbage. Bi Jin could simply remove the dross and recruit able-bodied men from the city to fill the gap.

But Bi Jin had no way to deal with the rusted weapons, the moth-eaten bows and arrows, and the decayed armor. He was not a god and did not have the ability to turn waste into treasure.

As for Yu Feiying's troops, they were in even worse shape. They were defeated soldiers, retreating all the way from Guangzhou, throwing away everything they could. If it weren't for the aid from Lu'an City, they would have been so poor that they would have almost robbed the wealthy.

Fortunately, the whole city was united. They dismantled the beams of the houses to make spears, picked up blue bricks to make stones, and melted iron pots to make weapons and armor. In the end, they did not let the Song army go to the battlefield unarmed.

But once the war broke out, the supplies for defending the city were consumed very quickly, and there was almost not enough gold juice.

So when the officers of the signing army spent all their wealth to recruit warriors to attack again, the pressure on Bi Jin and Yu Feiying on the city wall increased instantly.

The battle quickly developed into close combat.

"Bi Jin!" After the attacking troops were once again forced off the city walls, while the officers were regrouping, Lu Cheng, holding his sword at the foot of the city, shouted out an appeal for surrender: "Liu'an is an isolated city, and its situation is fragile. No one will come to save you. Surrender!"

"Bullshit!" Before Bi Jin could say anything, his son Bi Zaiyu leaned over the wall, poking his head out from under a huge helmet and yelling, "I, your father, will defend this city until your grave is covered in weeds and maggots... Ouch!"

Bi Jin angrily hit Bi Zaiyu on the head. Although his son was only thirteen years old, he was broad-shouldered and strong like a calf. If it weren't for his childish face, anyone who saw him would have praised him as a hero.

Bi Jin wanted him to take up a civilian job, so even though Bi Zaiyu was a bit of a blockhead and couldn't think straight, Bi Jin still taught him to be polite. But who would have thought that after hanging out in the army for a few days, this kid would start to swear and his voice would be as gilded as gold, and he would spit out dirty jokes every time he opened his mouth.

"Old Lu, surrender to the Jin bandits? You can even think of that!" Although he didn't allow his son to swear, Bi Jin scolded Lu Cheng as soon as he opened his mouth: "Have you ever seen the Yue Family Army surrender? Why surrender to those filthy slaves? Like you, are you not even treated like a dog?"

The Song army on the city wall laughed heartily, and foul language continued for a while. It was not very lethal, but extremely insulting, which made Prime Minister Lu so angry that he felt like he was going to heaven and two Buddhas came into the world.

"Wait for death!" Lu Cheng spurred his horse and left.

Yu Feiying climbed to the top of the city wall and saw only Lu Cheng's receding back.

"Why did this old turtle leave? I haven't even scolded him twice!" Yu Feiying smacked his lips and said with some regret.

"Have all the supplies for defending the city been delivered?" Seeing that the soldiers under the city were about to attack again, Bi Jin had no time for greetings and asked directly.

"The county government office is already being demolished. Hey, using golden nanmu wood as rolling logs and stone rockeries as stone steps is truly a sin." Although Yu Feiying lamented, his expression was one of joking. "The only thing that can be served in such a hurry is the golden juice, and it has to be cooked fresh. That smell is terrible..."

"Okay, okay... Uncle Yu, stop talking..." Bi Zaiyu straightened his helmet, patted his chest and said, "My nephew, I just finished my meal."

"Then I have to tell you the story of how the Jin thieves were killed with feces..." Yu Feiying patted Bi Zaiyu's back with his big hand, making him stagger.

"Sir, Uncle Yu, I'll go over there and take a look..." Bi Zaiyou covered his mouth and ran away.

"What a good kid..." Yu Feiying took off his helmet and adjusted his graying hair. "Old Bi, we're not well prepared this time. If nothing drastic happens, it will be very difficult."

"Old guys like us die when we die, and you have to pave the way for your son."

Bi Jin watched his sturdy son helping to secure the log to the capstan chain and couldn't help but sigh, "Old Yu, do you know who I admire most in my life?"

Yu Feiying and Bi Jin were old acquaintances, though they had only been drinking together. He was familiar with Bi Jin's resume and immediately rolled his eyes, saying, "Who else could it be? Marshal Yue is so famous, let alone you. Who among all the warriors in the world would not be convinced?"

Bi Jin, a former student of Yue Fei's, smiled slightly upon hearing this and said, "Back then, Mr. Ying (Yue Yun) was a man of extraordinary talent. He joined the army at the age of sixteen, defeated the Qi regime, fought against the Jin bandits, and defeated Yang Yao, never losing a single battle. But Marshal Yue never praised his achievements, saying that Mr. Ying was still a child and deserved no military merit. At the time, those close to him, like me, tried to persuade the Marshal, but he said, 'After all, Huixiang is his son.'"

"Deqing (Bi Zaiyu's pen name) is a good man. As a father, how could I not know that? But after all, he is my son. He can only die with me in this city..."

"Alas!" Seeing the signing army reorganized and rushed forward again, Yu Feiying put on his helmet, sighed deeply and said, "This is a damn world, this damn God."

"I'm going to South City, take care of yourselves!" After saying that, Yu Feiying bowed and strode away.

Bi Jin looked into the distance. The layers of hills were like the undulating waves on the sea, and the city of Lu'an was like a small boat in the huge waves, as fragile as an egg.

This scenery is quite common, but Bi Jin couldn't help but think of his hometown Yanzhou, which is not so crowded and mountainous, but has a vast sky and boundless land.

But in the end, there is no going back.

When the Jin army attacked again, the momentum was like a tide. Not only did Lu Cheng personally place the flag under the city, but the surrendered Song Dynasty generals also personally went into battle. For a time, the situation on the city was precarious.

All the stones and logs on the city wall were used up. Although some arrows were hastily produced, they were still not enough. The archers were only able to fire for the first half minute and then fell silent.

This also led to the fact that the personal guards of the Qian army generals could not be completely eliminated during the process of climbing the city wall. They climbed to the top of the city wall and quickly engaged in hand-to-hand combat with the Song army.

Although the number of signed soldiers was small, with only seven or eight people around each general, once they reached the top of the city wall, it would be difficult for the unarmored infantry to quickly deal with these iron cans.

"Old Bi! Why don't you die? If you die, everyone will be at peace!"

A heavily armored general and two personal guards rushed towards Bi Gong with swords. Although he was pointed at by several spears, he still rushed forward like a madman.

"Spotted Fox! Why didn't you put in so much effort when we were killing the Jin thieves?" The personal guard beside Bi Jin lifted the helmet of the general of the Qian army, revealing a pale face. Bi Jin shouted the nickname of the other party, and his men showed no mercy. The spear in his hand stabbed out like lightning and pierced into the mouth of the general of the Qian army.

"Fuck you!" Bi Zaiyou relied on his small stature, crouched down and rolled out from under the spear to the front of the soldier. He waved two bone balls in his hands and smashed the soldier's tibia with two snaps.

The two soldiers screamed and fell down. Bi Zaiyou stood up straight and the two bone flowers fell on the helmets of the soldiers of the Qian army in turn.

"I know your father..."

bang bang...

"Guarding the wall..."

Boom…

"How dare you offend me..."

puff puff...

"How disrespectful!"

Bi Zaiyou wiped the red and white thing on the hammer head on the soldier's corpse, spat out a mouthful of blood, turned around to rescue his father Bi Jin, and knocked another Jin army soldier off the two-meter-high city wall with one arm.

Li Zhongxian was standing on the east side of the city, looking at the top of the city wall with his hands on his back. He found that some generals of the Song army had already taken a foothold on the top of the city wall. Although they were quickly strangled to death, it still caused the Song army a lot of trouble.

Seeing this, Li Zhongxian knew the time had come. He turned around and shouted, "Brothers, let's go!"

After saying this, Li Zhongxian did not raise the flag, but charged forward as a marching Meng'an, and mixed in the attacking army with five Moukes of the Jin army, climbing the ladder to the city.

The other five Moukes launched an attack in the south of the city at the same time.

Bi Jin's sharp eyes saw from afar that at least three hundred armored soldiers were coming to the city walls, and his heart skipped a beat. God bless you, the people of Lu'an had to scrape together only two hundred and thirteen armored infantrymen, and yet a single Jin charge had three hundred armored soldiers. It was truly a case of comparing people to be damned, comparing goods to be discarded.

"Stop them! Don't let them enter the city!"

Taking advantage of the opportunity when the Qian army was retreating, Bi Jin quickly ordered the Song army on the city wall to throw out the last rolling logs and thunder stones, and use poles to push down the ladders.

The Song army responsible for burning the gold juice on the city wall was also a little panicked. At this time, they did not care whether the gold juice was boiled or not, and directly brought it to the top of the city wall and poured it down.

There are iron hooks on the tops of regular ladders. Once they hook onto the wall, they cannot be cut off in a hurry, so they can only be broken by swinging a sledgehammer. The Song army was busy on the top of the city and could not find any axes or sledgehammers, so they could only chop with swords and guns, and the speed of pushing down the ladders became slow.

The ladder beside Li Zhongxian was pushed over, and four or five Jin soldiers on the ladder fell to the ground with screams, making a dull sound like a flour bag. Only two people could limp to their feet, and the rest were either unconscious or died directly from the fall.

Seeing this, Li Zhongxian quickened his pace to climb the ladder and looked up through the gap in the shield. He saw a Song soldier gritting his teeth and throwing down a stone as big as a human head.

The distance was less than ten feet, and Li Zhongxian couldn't dodge even if he didn't want to. He let out a muffled roar and smashed the stone away with the round shield tied to his left hand.

Li Zhongxian's arms were even numb from the shock, but he still gritted his teeth and struggled to climb up first.

The next second, warm dung soup poured down from the air, splashing all over Li Zhongxian's head and face.

shhhhhh...

The Jin army under the city drew their bows and rained arrows, pressing down on the Song army and creating an opportunity for their own Meng'an to attack the city.

The marching Moukes were so anxious that they jumped up and down, throwing away their shields and other defensive means, and summoned the sharpshooters in the army to rush forward and shoot to death any Song army member who dared to show his head.

Although more than ten Song soldiers on the city wall were shot dead or wounded, they did not disperse. Instead, under the command of their officers, they continued to use spears to poke at the exposed Jin soldiers.

Two young Song soldiers carrying large pots were about to step forward, but they were shocked to see a smelly Jin soldier holding a round shield and jumping to the top of the city wall.

Li Zhongxian, with three spear points at his side, chopped down a Song army officer who came to fight him, and used his round shield to knock a Song soldier who tried to fight him away. Then he grabbed a long spear, brandished it, and hacked and killed indiscriminately, forcing the Song army to stop for a while.

Along the open space opened up by Li Zhongxian, four Jin army soldiers also stood on the top of the city wall, each holding a sword and shield.

Li Zhongxian did not feel any pride, he was simply furious.

Unboiled gold juice wasn't very lethal, but it was extremely insulting. While Li Zhongxian didn't have to worry about infection from the burn, being a maggot in a sea of feces was definitely not pleasant.

After he killed and dispersed the Song soldiers on the city wall, he saw two Song soldiers covering their mouths and noses and holding large pots walking quickly towards him from the inner wall. He couldn't help but get angry and roared, waving his sword to chop at them on the head.

The two Song soldiers were able-bodied men recruited by Bi Jin, and their fighting ability was already weak. When they saw the ferocious monsters rushing towards them, they threw the cauldron away and ran back crying.

The golden juice in the big pot covered Li Zhongxian's foot, causing this battle-hardened soldier to scream in pain.

This pot is boiling...

But Li Zhongxian had no time to care about the injury on his foot, because a short and strong Song army general led more than ten armored soldiers to counterattack.

Although the city wall was covered with smoke and had holes everywhere, Bi Zaiyou still targeted Li Zhongxian's troops who were the first to climb up. After swinging his hammers and knocking down two of them, the Song army's morale was boosted, and several of them stopped fleeing and turned back to fight.

The widest part of the wall was only about four steps wide, leaving no room for maneuvering. It was a place where the bravest prevailed when two met on a narrow road, and victory or defeat depended entirely on who was more ruthless.

Although Li Zhongxian's feet were weak, he would definitely not be afraid of a young child.

However, when the two men's hammers and swords collided, they were both shocked.

Bi Zaiyu had never expected the stinking golden general before him to possess such immense strength, and he was even a little unsteady in his control of his hammers. Li Zhongxian was even more astonished that this little dwarf, barely grown up and still a child, could block his powerful blow.

In a flash, the two sides had already exchanged several blows. Just as Bi Zaiyu was about to lose his resistance, a series of urgent horn calls rang out from the north of the city. Hearing this, Li Zhongxian swept his spear across, forcing the Song army to retreat. Under the cover of his comrades, he climbed to a high point and looked north.

But they could only see countless defeated soldiers pouring out from the layers of hills five or six miles north of Lu'an City. The Jin army's scouts were at the forefront, desperately blowing their warning horns until the mountains resounded.

"What's going on?" Not only Li Zhongxian, but also Pushan Gao Han, who was organizing his troops to watch the battle at the foot of the city, was also surprised and stood on a mound looking to the north.

"Those are the troops I sent upstream to block the river and store water." Lu Cheng said nonsense.

Pushan Gaohan looked at the defeated army, then at the top of the city wall, feeling a little hesitant.

He clearly saw that Li Zhongxian had opened a gap in the city wall, and the Jin army below the city had swarmed in. No one knew how many soldiers were coming in and who they were. If Li Zhongxian was allowed to withdraw, wouldn't all his efforts be wasted?

Defeating 3,000 surrendered soldiers was nothing. Pushan Gao Han was confident that he could defeat 5,000 Song soldiers on plain ground with his five Moukes. If the attacking force was only 1,000, making a fuss about it would only lead to a huge joke.

But soon, the light cavalry, which spared no effort, brought the enemy over.

At least tens of thousands of Song soldiers, fully armored and cavalry, attacked simultaneously from the west and upstream. The Qian army was unable to resist and was instantly blown back by the bead curtain, destroying the camp and retreating along the mountain road.

"Tens of thousands of Song soldiers!" Pushan Gaohan was furious: "Are you fucking blind? How could it be..."

He was speechless and couldn't continue speaking when he was halfway through.

There was no need to doubt it anymore. Right in front of Pushan Gaohan, more than a thousand armored cavalry of the Song army came out from behind the hills and formed a battle array two miles away from the Jin army.

This wasn't the end of it. Armored cavalry, numbering in units of a hundred, either joined the main cavalry formation or headed eastward, attempting to block the Jin army's retreat. Numerous Song infantry also formed rigorous formations, driving back the fleeing troops and steadily pressing towards the Jin army.

Elite soldiers, all of them are elite soldiers.

As the saying goes, an expert can tell the quality of an opponent just by looking at their formation. A veteran like Pushan Gao Han, who has spent half his life in the military, can tell the quality of his opponent just by looking at their marching formation.

But Pushan Gaohan was blind and could only see the flag of the Song Dynasty and some small flags, but he could not find the flag of the leading general.

Where the hell did all these brave soldiers come from?

"Chancellor Lu! Get your men to form a battle line! Hold on no matter what!" Pushan Gaohan gave a loud order.

"But, Commandant..." Lu Cheng protested tremblingly. Although he was a coward and a rookie, he still had good judgment and knew that this was not an army he could defeat.

In this kind of war, being cannon fodder means you are doomed to die.

"Prime Minister Lu! Song and Jin are both vastly separated countries. If I am defeated and captured, the enemy generals will have to treat me well in person. Who do you think you are? If you don't want to be cut into pieces by the Song people, then fight to the death!" Pushan Gao Han pointed his spear and cursed.

Lu Cheng cursed the Jin people's ancestors for eight generations in his heart, but he also knew that what Pushan Gao Han said made sense.

The Jin army could still surrender, but as a traitor, he had no choice but to die.

Seeing Lu Cheng spurring his horse to organize the troops, Pushan Gaohan also started to sound the retreat, asking Li Zhongxian's troops to withdraw from the top of the city wall. At the same time, he asked his men to adjust their formation and set up the Crane Wing Formation for attack.

Today's matter is difficult.

It wasn't that Pushan Gaohan didn't want to retreat, nor was it that he didn't know these soldiers were useless. He had been clear-headed from the beginning to the end: this battle was a battle between two Jin troops and over ten thousand elite Song troops, and the outcome was not something the soldiers could possibly intervene in.

But Li Zhongxian hadn't withdrawn yet. Abandoning the troops was one thing, abandoning his regular army comrades was another. If Pushan Gao Han dared to abandon the army and flee, let alone a branch of the Pushan tribe, even if he was Pushan Zhongyi's biological son, he would be beheaded.

Secondly, the two Jin army Meng'an were not all cavalry, but each had five or six heavy infantrymen. If they fled, these heavy infantrymen would be killed first. And the cavalry, having lost a large number of their troops, would sooner or later be chased and killed by the Song army's armored cavalry.

In terms of emotion, theory, military law and situation, Pushan Gao Han had to bite the bullet and fight the elite troops of the Song army.

Only when the attacking Song army is hurt and defeated, will the Jin army be able to retreat calmly.

Now we can only hope that this group of Song troops who came from nowhere are on a long expedition and that the commander is rational enough and just wants to lift the siege of Lu'an instead of planning to wipe out the Jin army.

Contrary to expectations, a moment later, the vanguard of the Song army was fully organized. Less than two thousand infantrymen, urged by the sound of drums, attacked the Qian army step by step.

The battlefield was located on a flat land east of Lu'an City. It was fair to all parties, with no dangerous terrain and no help from heaven.

Under the watchful eyes of the Song army's armored cavalry, Pushan Gaohan did not dare to move at all. He could only watch as the 4,000 men sent by the Qian army were easily defeated by the Song army's vanguard.

The Song army, however, did not cut off any heads, nor did they disperse to pursue and drive back the defeated troops to attack the formation. Instead, they remained in formation and continued to advance at a leisurely pace. After the Song army's follow-up troops formed a horizontal formation, drums sounded, and a full 8,000 infantrymen advanced in unison, pressing towards the Qian army.

The signing army immediately showed signs of breaking up the camp.

At this time, Li Zhongxian finally retreated, limped onto his horse, and after checking the number of soldiers and horses, he found that nearly a hundred people were missing. He turned his head and looked at the Song army on the top of the city who were showing off their might and cheering, and felt great hatred in his heart.

"Li Erlang!" Pushan Gao Han didn't care about Li Zhongxian's little mood and gave the order directly: "Either lead the cavalry to charge the Song army's armored cavalry, or lead the armored soldiers to attack the Song army's infantry flanks. You pick a task!"

"Give me all the cavalry!" Li Zhongxian roared, "My foot is injured and I can't fight on foot!"

"Okay!" As a close comrade-in-arms for many years, Pushan Gaohan did not doubt that Li Zhongxian was afraid of fighting. He immediately led eleven Mouke infantrymen to attack the left wing of the Song army.

He couldn't help but feel anxious. The Qian army had been attacking the city for half a day, and the casualties were considerable. Even now, there were still Qian army soldiers trapped in corners on the city walls, unable to retreat. Excluding the scattered troops, there were only 18,000 exhausted soldiers at most. They were no match for the powerful and elite Song army.

If Lu Cheng had not had a plan in mind and relied on the camps to resist, the signing army might have been scattered by now.

Pushan Gaohan did not want to rescue the Qian army, but if the Qian army was defeated, he and his less than two thousand men would have to face the entire Song army, and he would surely die without a burial place.

Li Zhongxian understood Pushan Gaohan's intentions: whoever controlled the cavalry would bear the greater responsibility. Defeating the Song army's 8,000 elite soldiers with only a thousand men was nearly impossible, so the only option was to place the bet on the battle-hardened cavalry.

Next, it depends on whether Li Zhongxian can use one thousand armored cavalry to defeat the three thousand cavalry of Song and Jin.

"Form a battle line!" Li Zhongxian raised his spear and shouted the order.

"kill!"

"kill!"

"kill!"

The Jin cavalry were not afraid at all when facing an enemy three times their size. They were invincible in the north, and both the Khitans and the Mongols surrendered to the Jin. How could they be afraid of the Song cavalry?
"Follow me!" Li Zhongxian saw that all the Moukes had formed up, so he held the spear with both hands, squeezed his horse's belly, and walked slowly ahead.

The Meng'an flag behind him fluttered in the wind.

Nine Moukes and a cavalry of up to 800 men rushed forward without reservation. They marched slowly at first and adjusted their formation while marching, forming a cone-like formation.

Suddenly, a horn sounded from the Song army cavalry formation that had been watching the battle in silence.

The armored cavalrymen in the front row lowered their copper masks and held up their spears.

The Song army's cavalry formation was launched with a bang.

It was not until this time that the flag of the chief general among the Song army's armored cavalry was raised.

The several flags were recognized as "Jingxi Hebei Recruiting Envoy", "Huaidong Control Envoy" and "Qingyuan Army Jiedushi".

The word "Cheng" was written on the large black banner in the center.

"Beiwei Army..." Li Zhongxian, who was in the middle of the charge, gritted his teeth and whispered.

"Cheng Min..."

　To ensure the reading experience, the 6,000-word chapter is combined into two parts.
　　
　
(End of this chapter)