Chapter 1038 Bet Everything

Sanhe City, Khan's Golden Tent.

Zhang Hongfan, who was tied up with five flowers, finally met Yuan Emperor Kublai Khan.

"Tell me, what happened last night?"

Kublai Khan has calmed down from his rage. After all, he is a hero of a generation, and he will not be judged by his emotions. Otherwise, Zhang Hongfan wouldn't be alive now.

Zhang Hongfan felt relieved, he didn't dare to hide anything, and told everything about what happened last night. When narrating, Zhang Hongfan tried his best to be as impersonal as possible and restore it 100%.

Kublai Khan had his own judgment, Zhang Hongfan didn't dare to think carefully about it, it would only be self-defeating. It has to be said that Zhang Hongfan really understood Kublai Khan.

After hearing Zhang Hongfan's confession, Kublai Khan was noncommittal, and then asked, "What's your plan next?" These words were actually tantamount to pardoning Zhang Hongfan's capital crime and giving him a chance to make meritorious deeds.

Zhang Hongfan suppressed his excitement, and said as concisely as possible: "Last night's defeat was mainly a defeat of the army's morale. It did not really hurt our army. After all, the main force is still there. As long as the plan is proper, there will be more If His Majesty personally marches to boost morale, then Lin'an will be destroyed."

Looking at the situation, Zhang Hongfan was not discouraged at all, and seemed full of confidence.

"Be more specific," Kublai Khan said.

"Through these few days of fighting, I will finally discover that the enemy has a fatal weakness." Zhang Hongfan finally used his trump card and said slowly: "Some time ago, when we arranged for the Han people to build earthen fortresses, the Southern Song army did not stop them. They are weak in nature, have the benevolence of women in their hearts, and are unwilling to lay hands on their compatriots."

"What do you mean?" Kublai Khan gradually became interested.

"As long as we recruit another group of Han people, drive them to the front line, to the foot of the city gate of Lin'an, and then shoot them to force them to attack the city gate. I'm not afraid that Lin'an will not open the city gate on its own initiative," Zhang Hongfan said.

"Once the city is opened, Lin'an will be destroyed."

If there is a Han present here, I am afraid that he would want to skin Zhang Hongfan and eat his meat.

"This person is really bad!"

For personal life and death, honor and disgrace, Zhang Hongfan actually wanted to take the lives of countless Han people, which is really abhorrent. Don't forget that although Zhang Hongfan didn't live under the rule of the Southern Song Dynasty, his blood is of pure Chinese blood.

Kublai Khan was very happy, Zhang Hongfan's suggestion was very appetizing to him, he had already decided to massacre the city for three days after capturing Lin'an City, regardless of the opposition of the Han ministers around him.

No one can kill the Mongols without paying the price of blood.

Kublai Khan ordered Zhang Hongfan to be untied, and said, "I will leave this matter to you. If you capture Lin'an, I will not only pardon you, but also give you an official title!"

"Thank you, Your Majesty!"

Zhang Hongfan's face flushed.

"Go down and prepare. Three days later, I will go to Lin'an myself."

"promise!"

…………

On the eighteenth day of the battle, Lin'an City.

It has been two days since that raid. Since yesterday, the Mongolian army that stayed in the six bases has pulled out their camps one after another and assembled on the front line again.

After the raid was over, there were 250,000 Mongolian troops gathered in the North Camp, and there were about 45 people in the six bases including the fleeing soldiers.

This also means that in the surprise attack that night, the three camps in the east, west and south of Mongolia had a total of 300,000 troops, 100,000 people escaped to ascend to heaven, and 200,000 people died in battle. It was indeed a disastrous defeat.

The casualties of the Mongolian army in just one night were twice the sum of the casualties in the previous few days.

So far, there are only 700,000 Mongolian troops left.

Even so, it was still an insurmountable mountain for the Southern Song camp.

Yesterday afternoon, the specific battle damage has been counted.

After repeated battles, only 290,000 of the 340,000 Alien Legion remained, including 150,000 cavalry and 140,000 infantry; the 100,000 Great Song Forbidden Army was even worse, with only 50,000 left.

According to common sense calculations, there are 340,000 troops guarding Lin'an City. Facing the 700,000 Mongolian army, it should not be a problem to stick to it for 12 days. After all, the puppet army, auxiliary army and other miscellaneous troops of the Mongolian army have been exhausted, and even the returning guns have suffered heavy losses. It is difficult to replicate the original siege tactics.

In a head-to-head siege, the Mongolian army did not have the upper hand.

Just like that, after the surprise battle, there was a whirlwind of underestimating the enemy in Lin'an City, and even Chun Shenjun and others were optimistic about this battle.

But for some reason, Ouyang Shuo always felt uneasy.

As soon as the war ended, under Ouyang Shuo's insistence, the Military Aircraft Department did not really let down its vigilance. For the past two days, it has been arranging scouts to go out to investigate and keep abreast of the movements of the Mongolian army.

Soon, the Mongolian army wantonly captured the Han people and reported it to the Military Aircraft Department.

"What are they going to do? Arrange the Han people to build earthen fortresses?" Ouyang Shuo was very puzzled, how could the Mongolian cavalry dare to attack the city without puppet troops charging forward.

If that's the case, Ouyang Shuo is not afraid, relying on the captured food and supplies, Lin'an can stick to it until the end of January, and then all problems will be solved.

In the hall, the expressions of Zhang Shijie and Wen Tianxiang suddenly became serious. "I'm afraid it's not that simple." Wen Tianxiang's face was extremely ugly.

Ouyang Shuo focused his eyes and asked, "Did you think of something?"

Xiongba and the others also looked over together.

Wen Tianxiang and Zhang Shijie looked at each other, and said in a deep voice: "According to the combat habits of the Mongolian army, they coerce the people. In addition to building earthen fortresses and extracting corpse oil, they also have another tactic, which is to drive the people away and force us to open the city gates and release them." People enter the city. Once the city gates are opened wide, the Mongolian army will take advantage of the situation and enter."

Xiongba asked: "In this case, why didn't they use such a tactic early on?" No matter how you look at it, the latter tactic is more convenient and effective than the former one.

Zhang Shijie responded first: "Generally speaking, the defenders of the city would rather watch the people outside the city being shot and killed by the Mongols than open the city gate. Therefore, this tactic is very difficult to work, and it is not the first choice of the Mongols. It's just that We didn’t attack the earthen fortress before, and the Mongols saw through the falsehood.”

"..."

The atmosphere in the hall was a little weird.

Zhang Shijie said what he said, but obviously he still didn't approve of being too kind to the people outside the city. When he voted whether to attack Tubao, Zhang Shijie voted for it.

Now that Lu Xiufu had died, there were only six people left in the Military Aircraft Department. Ouyang Shuo, Guo Ziyi, and Wen Tianxiang definitely did not support the refusal of the people from entering the city, so no matter how they voted, Zhang Shijie would lose.

The best result is just a tie and a stalemate.

Unexpectedly, this time Xiong Ba took the initiative to stand up, "Since we have done it, we must persevere. If the Mongols really want to use such despicable tactics, then we can only fight them to the death inside the city."

Zhang Shijie glanced at Xiongba in surprise, his expression became even uglier. Xiongba's statement is tantamount to completely blocking another possibility. Thinking of the 700,000 Mongol troops entering Lin'an City, Zhang Shijie felt pain in his heart.

Ouyang Shuo was calm, and said with a smile: "There is a way to defend the city, and there is a way to not defend the city. If we can defeat the Mongolian army once, we can defeat them twice."

"It's easy to say, how can we fight if we don't defend the city?" Zhang Shijie was not so optimistic.

Seeing that Zhang Shijie seemed to be trying to make things difficult for the king, Jia Xu stood up decisively and said, "General Zhang, don't be discouraged. I have a way for you to consider."

"Sir, please speak!"

All of you who don't know Jia Xu's name as a "poisoner" have high expectations for Jia Xu.

Jia Xu said: "My king is right. If you don't defend the city, there is a way to not defend the city. Since we have concluded that the enemy will attack the city with the tactics of driving the people away, we should simply open a city gate and let the people in."

"After opening the door, what should I do?" Zhang Shijie asked.

"It's very simple. While opening a city gate, deploy a large army outside the city gate in advance to act as a human wall to prevent the enemy from entering the city."

Jia Xu's method is quite new.

Zhang Shijie still had doubts, "I figured it out. If the army deployed outside the city would not be wiped out by the Mongolian army, at least 200,000 people would have to be mobilized. Then wouldn't the city of Lin'an be empty? How can we defend the city?"

When Ouyang Shuo saw him, his expression suddenly turned serious. Although his voice didn't rise, he added a hint of murder out of thin air, "How to defend Lin'an City is not just a matter for the army, and it's not just a matter for our Alien Legion."

"We have to make it clear to the millions of people in the city that once the city of Lin'an is destroyed, the Mongols will definitely slaughter the city. If you want to avoid being slaughtered lambs, everyone has to contribute to the war spontaneously. "

"If people want to survive, they still have to rely on themselves."

When Zhang Shijie heard this, a trace of shame flashed across his face. That's right, the people of Lin'an, and even the entire Southern Song Dynasty, relied too much on the Alien Legion. They even forgot that the Alien Legion is just a guest, and they are the real masters of this city. There is no reason why the host is indifferent when the guests are only at the front when life and death are at stake.

Ouyang Shuo didn't care, and continued, "The defenders in the city are short of soldiers, so young and middle-aged men are recruited temporarily. If there are no weapons, go to them to find them on the battlefield outside the city; The house was demolished; there was no oil, so the vegetable oil from each household was collected; there was no iron ore to forge arrows, so the pots and pans at home were smashed."

"We must let the people of the city realize that this is not a simple battle to defend the city, but a life-and-death battle related to the survival of civilization. In order to win, we can risk everything and bet everything!"

Everyone present was deeply shocked by Ouyang Shuo's impassioned words. These words are definitely not high-sounding words, but Ouyang Shuo's heartfelt words.

One of the reasons for the subjugation of the Southern Song Dynasty in history was that the entire nation lost the determination to gamble everything.

If it were the Han and Tang Dynasties, it would be more than this embarrassment.

Ouyang Shuo was deeply touched by this battle, and that's why he said the above words. He firmly believes that only by mobilizing the power of the entire city can the victory of this battle be truly meaningful.

Otherwise, it's just a passing cloud.