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

Chapter 627: The Lone Army's Perseverance Brings Many Sufferings

"Commander! Commander!"

Wang Youzhi was awakened from his daze by his deputy Chen Zhongkan. His first words were: "Don't call me Jiedushi, call me General."

After Wang Youzhi started his uprising in Bozhou, he declared himself the military governor of Tianxiong Army. However, after his major defeat and subsequent defection to Geng Jing, he stopped claiming to be a military governor for a long time.

The Taiping Army believes there can only be one sun in the sky, and that there is only one Jiedushi (military governor) in their hearts. With Jiedushi Geng in power, it would be somewhat inappropriate for Wang Jiedushi to continue calling himself Jiedushi.

But Chen Zhongkan was, after all, Wang Youzhi's old comrade. He had been the second-in-command of the Tianxiong Army since the uprising began, and Wang was used to calling him that. Therefore, Wang Youzhi only gave him a reprimand before looking out at the sky through the arrow slits on the city wall.

"What time is it? Are the Jin invaders launching another night attack?"

“It’s dawn,” Chen Zhongkan replied, then grabbed Wang Youzhi’s arm and said loudly, “Commander, wake up! It’s very inappropriate that the Jin bandits haven’t launched a night attack.”

Upon hearing this, Wang Youzhi shook his head vigorously, then stood up, his armor clattering loudly.

"Damn it, sleeping in armor just doesn't relieve my fatigue." Wang Youzhi muttered as he hung the sword beside his pillow at his waist. "Those Jin bastards are no peace either. Heh, those bastards, I'll kill them all sooner or later!"

After cursing a few times, seeing that Chen Zhongkan's expression had relaxed, Wang Youzhi strode out of the city tower.

In the shadows of the city wall, Wang Youzhi's relaxed expression quickly vanished, replaced by a solemn look.

The three thousand elite troops had been holding out in Liaocheng for several days, suffering considerable casualties. If the casualties accumulated during the attack on Daming Prefecture and the retreat are included, the losses would be even greater.

At this time, the Tianxiong Army had only 2,200 soldiers at most. If it weren't for Wang Youzhi being from Bozhou and having great influence among the elders of Bozhou, and the young men in the city helping to defend the city, Liaocheng might have already fallen by now.

Kiyotomi Kagaya's fierce attack was secondary.

The saying goes, "There are no reinforcements from outside, and no cities within that can be defended." The key is that it seems no reinforcements will come to Bozhou's aid. It seems the Tianxiong Army will have to defend the city forever, which is the most despairing thing.

Therefore, Wang Youzhi could only appear nonchalant and face his superiors and subordinates with a confident and optimistic attitude.

When asked about reinforcements, Wang Youzhi would either mention Geng Jing or Liu Huai, but the central idea was always the same: reinforcements were on their way, and if they could hold out for a few more days, they could drive away the Jin invaders, and then Bozhou would be at peace.

However, this rhetoric persisted until yesterday, when Heshi Lieliangbi arrived at the gates of Liaocheng with more than 10,000 troops, and it began to crumble.

The morale of the Tianxiong Army immediately wavered, and all the commanders and even the captains came to Wang Youzhi to ask him for assurances.

But what could Wang Youzhi say?

We can only try to gloss over it.

It's not surprising that the Tianxiong Army was somewhat unstable, because the Jin army's posture was too much like that of the main force of the Jin army after annihilating the Tianping Army, coming to pacify Bozhou with the momentum of a great victory.

Yesterday, after Heshi Lieliangbi arrived at the city, Wang Youzhi was worried that the Jin army would suddenly take out the captured flags and drums to display. He was worried for several hours, but until nightfall, the Jin army did not make any other moves except to set up camp on the spot.

This gave Wang Youzhi a glimmer of hope.

It is also possible that the Jin army was driven away by Geng Jing or Liu Huai's troops, and thus returned north.

With this feeling of trepidation, Wang Youzhi arrived at the city wall, leaned against the parapet, and looked out.

When Wang Youzhi saw the thick fog covering the Jin army camp, his heart skipped a beat.

This is not morning mist, but cooking smoke.

The Jin army is about to make a big move today!
Thinking this, Wang Youzhi turned around and said to Chen Zhongkan nonchalantly, "Old Chen, you woke me up for such a small thing... yawn, do you know how sleepy I am?"

Chen Zhongkan was stunned for a moment, then said anxiously, "Brother... take another look! The Jin invaders are preparing for battle; they're about to launch a full-scale attack!"

Wang Youzhi picked his nose and casually patted Chen Zhongkan on the shoulder: "What are you afraid of? We'll deal with whatever comes our way. If the Jin invaders dare to come, is the knife in your hand just for shaving pubic hair? Just fight back!"

"Besides, are the Jin invaders necessarily coming to attack the city? Maybe they're just going to run away! Hahaha."

Wang Youzhi's voice was loud. The soldiers who were guarding the city were initially a little nervous, but after hearing his words, they relaxed and laughed along with Wang Youzhi.

"Now that we're all up, let's get cooking! Let's not skimp on the food in the city, let's use it all and have a good meal together." Seeing that morale had been somewhat boosted, Wang Youzhi immediately pressed his advantage: "If the Jin invaders attack, we'll fight them to the death! If they escape, I'll chase after them and give them a good beating!"

Chen Zhongkan had already relaxed, but upon hearing about the grain, he immediately tensed up again.

The city's food supplies were running low. Liaocheng had already experienced several wars in the past two years, and the treasury was nearly empty. Later, when the Tianping Army marched towards Daming Prefecture, they used Liaocheng as a transit point and stockpiled some food there. However, when Geng Jing withdrew his troops, he took much of the food with him, leaving only enough for the Tianxiong Army to eat for two months.

However, the people in the city were not made of iron; they also needed to eat. Since grain could not be transported in from outside the city, Wang Youzhi could only summon wealthy households in the city to collect grain, and incidentally use military rations to keep the people alive.

This resulted in the city running out of food in less than a month.

However, Chen Zhongkan thought again that no matter whether the Jin army attacked or retreated, the Tianxiong Army had no need to save food. Even if they died, they would die with full stomachs!

As dawn broke in the east, smoke rose from the chimneys of both the Jin and Tianxiong armies, and the soldiers struggled to eat their meals.

Wang Youzhi ate only a couple of bites of dry rations before turning his attention back to the Jin army outside the city.

Soon, he discovered that the northwest gate of the Jin army camp seemed to be wide open, and a group of soldiers set off from the camp and headed directly north.

Wang Youzhi, holding the dry rations, stared wide-eyed at the scene, a sudden glimmer of hope rising in his heart.

Could it be that these returning Jin troops have truly suffered a major defeat?

Should we lead our troops into battle?
Despite Wang Youzhi's confident pronouncements, his actions were mostly aimed at boosting morale, as he himself did not know whether there were any ambushes outside the city.

Moreover, the Tianxiong Army was exhausted, and now only a few hundred infantrymen could be deployed for field battles. How could they possibly stop more than 10,000 Jin troops from returning north?
As Wang Youzhi hesitated, the sun gradually rose, and the sky gradually brightened. The soldiers on the city wall also noticed the strange situation in the Jin army camp, and they excitedly whispered among themselves. From somewhere, cheers gradually rose until they resounded like thunder throughout the entire city.

"Brother, you're amazing!" Chen Zhongkan ran down from the city wall, his face beaming with excitement. "How did you know the Jin invaders were going to retreat?!"

I have no idea what the hell!
Wang Youzhi felt helpless, but still maintained a confident demeanor: "I've always advised you to read more military books, but you're all a bunch of muddle-headed gluttons! If the Jin invaders really won a great victory, why don't they have a single captured flag? Why don't they use Geng Jiedu's flag to intimidate us?"

"This must mean the Jin invaders returned empty-handed, and they're being pursued! That's why they fled like stray dogs with their tails between their legs!"

Wang Youzhi's words sounded somewhat sophistical, but in such a situation, no one dared to mock him; instead, they all praised him.

Wang Youzhi must have been a great general; his insight alone surpassed that of others.

Chen Zhongkan, still unable to hide his excitement, exclaimed, "Brother, shall we send out our troops now and give those Jin traitors a good thrashing?!"

Wang Youzhi did not immediately agree, but instead asked in a low voice, "How is the morale of the troops? Do the men still have the will to fight?"

Chen Zhongkan was slightly taken aback, but then realized Wang Youzhi's idea and immediately became anxious.

He hurriedly pointed to the Jin army camp outside the city and whispered, "Brother, it's not like you can just not send troops now. The young and strong women that the Jin bandits have been abducting from Bozhou are all in the camp below the city. If you don't lead your troops to fight the Jin bandits, what will the people of Bozhou think of you in the future?"

Wang Youzhi squinted and looked towards the outside of the city.

After the wealth and food are stolen, they can be earned back. The land is in Bozhou, and the Jin bandits cannot move it. However, the civilians who were taken into the army are truly gone once they are abducted.

Once captured and taken to Liaodong beyond the Great Wall, when will he ever be able to return?!

For Wang Youzhi, even if he didn't have the ability to take everything back, he had to at least put on a show of fighting desperately. Otherwise, how could he face the elders of Bozhou?
Wang Youzhi immediately said, "Old Chen, you're right. I was just out of my mind. We'll take as many troops as we can, and once half of the Jin bandits have broken camp, we'll immediately charge out."

"Here!"

The soldiers in Tianxiong were in high spirits, but the local elders of Bozhou were even more excited.

Those who were kidnapped outside the city were all their fellow villagers!

However, although the Jin army retreated, with Heshi Lieliangbi in charge, the retreat was carried out in an orderly manner. After the first batch of troops had retreated ten miles, they formed ranks on the spot and prepared for battle before the subsequent troops were dispatched. It was a watertight operation.

However, the price of caution was slow progress. By the time the Jin army's rear guard broke camp, it was already past 9 a.m.

Seeing this, Wang Youzhi stepped down from the city wall, stuffed the crushed dry rations in his hand into his mouth, gulped down some water, and then, supporting his waist belt, went to the city gate.

There were about 600 infantrymen here, dressed in light armor and short weapons. Of these, only about 300 were soldiers of the Tianxiong Army, while the rest were soldiers assembled from able-bodied men by wealthy families in the city.

Wang You took the long sword handed to him by his personal guard, and then roared solemnly, "Men of Bozhou, young and old, follow me, Wang Jiu, to kill the Jin traitors!"

Having said that, the city gates swung open with a loud bang.

Six hundred infantrymen swarmed out.

(End of this chapter)