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

Chapter 805 The South of the City is Now Encircled by Multiple Encirclements (Part 1)
"Prime Minister, the Shandong bandits are indeed nearing exhaustion!" Jia Gu Qingchen rode up and shouted to He Shi Lie Liangbi, "This humble general believes that we will likely be able to breach the city today!"

The clerks and officers surrounding Heshi Lieliangbi were momentarily agitated, but Heshi Lieliangbi's expression remained unchanged. He merely frowned and asked, "What makes you say that, Qingchen?"

Jia Gu Qingchen pointed to the city wall: "Left Prime Minister, please look. Just at the north city wall, there are already two troop units on the wall. The Shandong bandits are already powerless."

Heshi Lieliangbi looked up at the sun and his brows relaxed slightly.

But just then, as if to slap them in the face, a huge commotion broke out on the two city walls where the Jin army was standing.

Immediately, several banners of the Loyal Army surrounded them from both sides. The few Jin soldiers who were defending the city were quickly overwhelmed by the Loyal Army soldiers. Only a few jumped down from the city wall and escaped.

The ladders that had been used to reach the top of the city wall were also pushed to the ground, and a burst of cheers and shouts of battle erupted from the top of the city wall.

The attack was thwarted in front of everyone, which naturally made people change their expressions, but not only did Kiyotomi Kagaya's expression remain beaming, but even Heishi Retsu Ryohsuke seemed to breathe a sigh of relief.

Upon seeing this, a military advisor asked directly, "General Jiagu, forgive my ignorance, but I don't know what's so good about the current situation. Didn't we face the same fate yesterday, being driven down after climbing the city walls?"

Everyone was exhausted from the heat and casualties of the past few days, so the staff officer didn't care about etiquette and asked the question bluntly.

Kiyotomi Kagaya didn't seem to care, and simply pointed to the sun in the sky, saying, "The key is time."

Everyone looked up, only to hear Jia Gu Qingchen continue, "Yesterday, our army did indeed have a foothold on the city wall for a while, but we had been fighting for almost a day and only managed to gain a foothold in the afternoon, which was almost evening."

Today, after only an hour of attack, such results have been achieved, proving that the Shandong bandits are truly hopeless. Grand Chancellor, the city falls today!

Everyone was stunned.

Heshi Lieliangbi, however, showed no joy. Instead, he asked seriously, "Qingchen, you said the city will be captured today. Do you have a specific timeframe?"

Kiyotomi Kagaya's smile froze, his heart filled with unease: "Left Prime Minister... this is just a guess by me."

Heshi Lieliangbi nodded slowly: "Since it's just a guess, not a matter of destiny, we can't expect victory to fall from the sky. In the end, we still have to fight for it. Don't you think so?"

Kiyotomi Kagaya chuckled and said, "Of course."

Heshi Lieliangbi waved his hand: "Then why don't you hurry up and go?!"

Kiyotomi Kagaya immediately turned his horse and left, returning to his main camp.

The officers and scholars beside Heshi Lieliangbi were all unaware of why their Left Chancellor had suddenly become angry, and they all remained silent in fear.

Heshilie Liangbi took a few deep breaths, as if to relieve the stuffiness in the sweltering weather, and then turned to look north.

The land north of the Huai River is all plains. Looking north, the view is flat and unobstructed.

On the horizon where the sky meets the earth, a dark line has already faintly appeared. As time goes by, the dark line grows larger and larger, gradually covering a small patch of sky in the north.

After gazing at that spot for a long time, Heshi Lieliangbi's warhorse seemed to sense its master's anxiety and began to pace back and forth, neighing uneasily.

Heshi Lieliangbi pacified his warhorse, then said to the military commander, "Tell all the attacking units that it's about to rain. Don't hesitate, go all out and don't waste this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. You must break through the city!"

Only then did everyone realize the reason for Heshi Lie Liangbi's sudden anger.

If it's just a light rain today, that's fine. But if it's a torrential downpour, then we'll have no choice but to call a truce. If the Loyal Army gets two days to rest and the soldiers are ready again, then all our previous hard work will have been for nothing.

Just then, Kiyoshi Kagaya came along and started boasting and bragging, which was exactly what he did. If he didn't get scolded, who would?
Just as Heshi Lieliangbi's military envoy set off, another military envoy, weary from his journey, arrived from afar to report on the military situation.

"Report! Several thousand soldiers are coming from downstream of the Huan River! They seem to be Shandong bandits from Pizhou, all of them militia and bandits. My general wants to request five strategists as reinforcements to wipe out these Shandong bandits in one fell swoop!"

"Report! More than four thousand Shandong bandits are heading this way from Fuli. They are Zhou Xinglie's troops, but the one leading them is a Wei-character banner, which seems to belong to one of Wei Sheng's sons. My general has also come to request reinforcements. If we can send five more strategists, we can present the heads of all the Shandong bandits to the Left Chancellor!"

Heshi Lieliangbi lightly tapped his palm with his riding whip, looked at the two military envoys, pondered for a moment, and then slowly said, "You two seem to be dealing with two different matters, but they are only one matter. I will not separate them."

"Tell your general to find a way to keep the Shandong bandits in front of them occupied. Don't inflict too much casualties; just keeping them from coming here will be a great achievement!"

"Conversely, even if you fight bravely but ultimately fail to stop the Shandong bandits, you will still be punished according to military law, and the consequences will extend to your descendants!"

Both military commanders were capable Puliyan (fifty-man commanders), so how could they dare to put on airs in front of Heshilie Liangbi?
One of them immediately bowed and agreed, while the other hesitated to speak.

"What do you want to say?" The military envoy who came from the direction of Fuli hesitated before answering: "Left Prime Minister, the Shandong bandits from Fuli are no ordinary people. Although we have five strategists, we only have less than four hundred armored cavalry. We really can't hold out."

Heshi Lie Liangbi gave a cold glance: "Then it's settled. As the current Left Prime Minister and Chief of the Heshi Lie tribe, I hereby order that the Sixth General of the Weiyuan Army of the Great Jin Kingdom, Langdu, must die in the battle against the Shandong bandits."

The military envoy shuddered, not daring to utter a sound, and immediately turned his horse and rode away.

After the two military envoys left, Heshi Lieliangbi turned his head and looked at the battlefield, where the battle had suddenly become more intense since the order was given, and sighed softly.

He looked up at the Wei banner that was still flying high, and a slight ripple finally appeared on his face.

For many days, Heshilie Liangbi had used extremely drastic measures to force Shi Ju to rebel, causing widespread suffering in southern Henan. He had also forced the elite Jin army to attack the city. By this time, both Han and Jurchen people had suffered heavy casualties. Now, they were finally about to get what they wanted. Even with Heshilie Liangbi's composure, he became somewhat excited.

"It's almost here! It's almost here! Master Gu Shen, I'm finally going to grasp the last glimmer of hope for the Great Jin and the last chance of survival for the Jurchens."

Heshi Lieliangbi looked at the sun, which had risen to the center of the sky, again, as if he were muttering to himself, or as if he were talking to the dead.

But these words eventually faded into the wind, drowned out by the battle cries.

"Go! Go! Push the oars forward another twenty steps!"

Shi Dunzhong shouted loudly, "Zhuo Lu Ali! Charge!"

Zhuo Lu Ali, however, calmly took out a wine flask from his waist, took a few big gulps, poured the remaining wine over his head, and then ordered the dozens of elite armored soldiers behind him: "Let's go!"

These elite soldiers shouted battle cries at the same time, then passed by several siege towers. When they got close to the base of the city wall, they drew their bows and fired arrows, exchanging fire with the loyal soldiers on the city wall.

The elite troops who were able to fight at this time were naturally not ordinary people. Proficiency in archery and horsemanship was a basic requirement. They were all skilled in rapid-fire archery. A dense barrage of arrows rained down on the city walls, knocking down a number of the defenders who were leaning out to shoot or throwing logs and stones.

After shooting seven arrows, Zhuo Lu Ali felt a sudden burst of energy and his arms were a little sore. He immediately retreated to the side of the oar cart and used it as cover.

After this happened three times, more than twenty of the defenders on the city wall were killed or wounded. Screams and cries for help filled the air, and all the projectiles launched from the city wall stopped.

Zhuo Lu Ali hid behind the oar cart, took a handful of arrows from his quiver, put them into his empty quiver, and kept moving his arms.

The Jurchen heavy arrows, paired with strong bows, were incredibly lethal, capable of piercing armor within five paces as easily as breaking leather. However, this also placed extremely high demands on the archers' arm strength; it was already quite remarkable for an elite force to fire twenty arrows in a single battle.

Of course, Zhoru Ali's forces consisted of the sharpshooters of the entire thousand-man squad, so they were able to hold out.

However, just as these armored archers were about to launch another attack, the several row of oars suddenly came to a halt and could no longer be pushed.

Shi Dunzhong looked down and saw that this place should be the location of Qixian County's moat. Although it had been filled in, there were still some bumps in this section. The wheels of the oars were not very big, so it was normal for them to get stuck.

Seeing this, Shi Dunzhong put down his helmet and shouted to Zhuo Lu Ali, "We've come this far! Now! Charge!"

Zhuo Lu Ali was still stretching his arms when he heard this, and looked up at the sky.

By this time, dark clouds had drifted in from the north, covering half the sky, and the sun was already setting in the west. It was about 2:45 PM. As a veteran general who had fought for many years, Zhuo Lu Ali knew that he could not wait any longer.

Thinking this, he said to Shi Dunzhong, who was behind another oar cart, "General, protect me, I'm going to be the first to board!"

Having said that, Zhuo Lu Ali put down his helmet, slung all his bow and arrows over his back, and then fastened two of his usual iron whips to his waist. He then blew the whistle in his mouth with all his might.

The dozens of elite armored soldiers who had just followed Zhuo Lu Ali in advancing and retreating all took off their iron masks and rushed out from behind the chariot again.

The defenders on this city wall had already suffered heavy casualties, and now was the perfect time to scale the walls!

As Zorua Ali had predicted, the arrows from the city walls became sparse, and the density of the rolling logs, stones, and molten gold also decreased.

Although hooks continued to extend and push down the siege ladders, they ultimately could not stop the Jin army from scaling the city walls.

Zhuo Lu Ali was the first to climb onto the city wall, and roared loudly: "I am Zhuo Lu Ali, a Han slave, dare you come and fight me to the death?!"

"Fuck your grandma!" The defenders roared in fury.

(End of this chapter)