Chapter 617 0612 [Swearing in Front of Zhanggong Temple]

By the Canglang River, tens of thousands of Chu soldiers surrendered.

There were even more defeated Chu soldiers who jumped into the river, waded to the other side, and fled to their homes.

Why wade across?

Because the river was so shallow that it was chest-deep.

In the previous battle, Liu Heng, the defender of Chenyang, was seriously injured and captured. Liu Heng's son, who was responsible for defending the city, opened the gate and surrendered.

Bai Qi asked Lin Chong, who was exhausted, to lead his troops to defend the city, leaving some of them here to guard the prisoners, while the rest of the main force was chasing the defeated soldiers to Dingzhou.

Looking at the Canglang River, which had little water left, Bai Qi muttered on horseback: "Water washes the tassels, turbid water washes the feet, what should I wash with this shallow water?"

"Marshal, Zhong Quan has been caught!"

Gong Yi rode back from the south on horseback and shouted to Bai Qi across the river.

Several cavalrymen behind him quickly dragged Zhong Quan to the shore.

Zhong Quan also waded across the Canglang River and was caught up by the cavalry while escaping. His legs and feet were covered in mud, his helmet was missing, and his hair was disheveled and in a state of disgrace.

Bai Qi was shocked and ordered: "Take him to Dingzhou and let the Chu army there open the city and surrender!"

"Yes!" Gong Yi took him away immediately.

Bai Qi looked at the densely packed captives, called the generals to give a few instructions, and then took a boat from Yuanjiang to Dingzhou.

These captives must be released as soon as possible!

They cannot be killed, at most the generals can be killed.

Because the population of Hunan in the late Northern Song Dynasty was not large. These captives are Han people from Dingzhou and Chenzhou. If they are killed on a large scale, the Han population will drop sharply, and it will be difficult for the court to control the Wuxi barbarians in the future.

And the faster the release, the better. First, Bai Qi does not have so much food to feed, and second, he can go home early to irrigate the dry farmland.

If the grain harvest fails, the court will have to transport grain for relief.

That night, Bai Qi took Zhong Quan to the city of Dingzhou. People here are already in panic, and thousands of defeated soldiers have fled back to the city, bringing news of a great defeat on the front line.

After more than an hour of delay, the garrison commander finally opened the city gate.

Bai Qi left two thousand soldiers to garrison, took away all the weapons and armor of the surrendered soldiers and prisoners, and let all the Chu troops disband and go home to farm.

He also promised these Chu troops that after the autumn harvest in Sichuan, if Dingzhou was short of food, Sichuan grain would be transferred to help the people. If a township rebelled, the entire township would not be helped, and taxes would be increased next year!

Then, Bai Qi led his troops back to Dongting Lake and arrived outside Yuanjiang City two days later.

The garrison commander Quan Cong had surrendered.

A few days later, Bai Qi's troops arrived in Yiyang.

At this time, Yiyang was only 20 miles away from Dongting Lake, and there was a large lake in the northeast.

Camps were set up in the south and north of the city. Bai Qi took Zhong Quan and a group of captured generals and officers and walked to the city to persuade them to surrender in person.

There was a wide official road in the south of the city, with tall pines and fir trees on both sides of the road.

Outside the moat, next to the official road, there was also a temple.

Bai Qi was somewhat surprised, because Zhong Xiang destroyed temples everywhere, and all the temples of the three schools of Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism were destroyed, but this small temple in front of him could be preserved.

There was no one in the temple, and they all ran away.

But it was obvious that someone had been cleaning it, and from the unburned incense on the altar, it could be seen that sacrifices had been made recently.

Bai Qi sent soldiers to "invite" a nearby citizen and asked, "Whose temple is this? Why is it not destroyed, but people come to worship instead?"

The farmer replied, "This is Zhang Gong Temple, and praying for rain is very effective. Four years ago, someone was stopped from destroying the temple, and the people from all over the country refused to let it be demolished. The pine and fir trees next to the official road were also planted by Zhang Gong himself. When they wanted to cut them down when building warships last year, the people rushed over to stop them."

"Which Zhang Gong?" Bai Qi asked.

The farmer shook his head and said, "I don't know, it has been here since I was a child. It must be some kind of immortal who came down to earth."

Bai Qi strolled around the small temple and soon found a stone tablet. After splashing water, the handwriting could be clearly seen.

This turned out to be the ancestral temple of Zhang Yong, Zhang Tong's ancestor. It was renamed Zhanggong Temple after Zhang Yong's death.

The inscription clearly states that Zhang Yong first served as an official in Chongyang County. Because he saved countless people, the people of Chongyang donated money to build a ancestral temple for him.

He was then transferred to Yiyang. At that time, Yiyang had just experienced the Meishan Barbarian Rebellion, and people's livelihood was in decline and the people were in distress. In order to govern Yiyang well, Zhang Yong gave up the opportunity to go to Beijing for promotion and did not leave until people's livelihood was restored.

It is said that praying for rain at Zhanggong Temple is effective because Zhang Yong once governed floods and droughts here.

After reading the inscription, Bai Qi was inexplicably moved.

The people of Yiyang no longer remember Zhang Yong, but their ancestors have known that Zhang Gong is a god, and Zhang Gong has always stayed here to bless them. Therefore, the people do not allow Manichaeism to destroy the temple, nor do they allow the pine and fir planted by Zhang Yong to be cut down to build warships.

"Marshal, the enemy general is still unwilling to surrender!" The soldier ran to report.

Bai Qi left Zhanggong Temple, looked at the wall across the moat, and asked the farmer, "Is this Yiyang defender Li Shi a local of Yiyang?"

The farmer replied, "He is a local, and used to be a boatman in Qiaokou Town."

Bai Qi immediately found some soldiers with loud voices and asked them to escort Zhong Quan and other captives across the moat to take turns shouting.

"Don't shoot arrows, this is your Western Saint King Zhong Quan!"

"The soldiers of Yiyang know that the Zhanggong Temple outside is the ancestral temple of Zhang Yong, a good official of the previous dynasty."

"When my Ming Dynasty was founded, five marquises were conferred. One of the marquises is Zhang Tong, a descendant of Zhang Gong. Zhang Gong can govern Yiyang well, and Zhang Gong's descendants can definitely..."

"As long as you open the city and surrender, and promise not to kill anyone, all the soldiers can go home to irrigate the rice fields!"

"My Ming Dynasty Shuguogong is here, and Shuguogong swears to the sky that if he breaks his promise, Zhang Gong will be struck to death by lightning..."

"If you don't surrender today, we will attack the city tomorrow. There is no water in the moat. It will be filled up in a few days. I don't know how many people will die by then. If you die, what will happen to your wives and children at home? How can the rice at home survive? Put down your weapons quickly..."

Huang Zuo, Liu Rui, Quan Cong and others who surrendered before also took turns to shout: "Brother Li, don't defend anymore. We all know that you have no food. Even if you besiege but don't attack, how many days can you hold on? If you defend for another month or two, I'm afraid you will have to eat human flesh..."

After shouting for half an hour, the defending general Li Shi finally wavered and said to a personal soldier: "You go out of the city and watch that Shuguogong. Come back after swearing in front of Zhanggong Temple!"

The personal soldier immediately went out of the city with a basket and found Bai Qi to explain his intention.

Bai Qi said seriously: "Come with me."

Back in the small temple again, Bai Qi swore to the statue that he would not kill those who surrendered and would release the soldiers to go home as soon as possible.

This childish move actually won the trust of the Chu army in the city.

After a while, Li Shi led his troops out of the city, surrendered by offering his household registration and map.

Bai Qi dismissed most of the Chu army in Yiyang, but also left 500 soldiers for Li Shi, and took him to besiege Xiangyin.

It was impossible to persuade Xiangyin to surrender. Prime Minister Zhong Yi was stationed there personally, and the soldiers were well-trained and well-fed, so it was necessary to attack by force.

Wang Yuan had been besieging the city for many days, and all kinds of siege equipment had been built.

The county town of Xiangyin in the Northern Song Dynasty was called Baimao City, which was 40 miles away from the Xiangjiang River.

The city wall by the Xiangjiang River in front of us was built by Zhong Xiang in a large commercial town. It is more like a fortress like Lujiaozhai, with a water fortress, a castle, and a three-dimensional defense of land and water.

"There are two water forts and three castles in Xiangyin," Wang Yuan pointed to the opposite side and said, "The two water forts have been completely destroyed by iron cannons and burned by rockets. The remaining three rammed earth castles have moats that are natural tributaries of the Xiangjiang River. It is very troublesome when the water rises, and it is difficult to fill the moats. God has opened his eyes. After more than a month of drought, there is not much water left in the moat. Our army has filled several places."

Bai Qi sighed: "When the time comes, the heaven and the earth are on the same side. Zhong Xiang's defeat is not unjust."

Wang Yuan added: "Several earth platforms have been built outside the northernmost castle, and wooden cannons can be deployed to bombard the city. If iron cannons are used to bombard the city wall, one or two places should be destroyed within ten days."

Bai Qi only used thirty wooden cannons when fighting in Chenyang.

Wang Yuan's side had more, first using iron cannons to attack the water fort, and then deploying a large number of wooden cannons to protect his own people to fill the moat and build earth platforms.

The elite Chu army in the city rushed out several times, but they were repelled by wooden cannons using shotgun shells across the moat. The Chu army in the other two castles came to support, also using a large number of wooden cannons, and cooperated with bows and arrows and infantry formations to repel.

"No need to wait, let's attack the city tomorrow." Bai Qi said.

There are eight earthen platforms, the same height as the city wall. Not only wooden cannons are placed on the platform, but also archers and spearmen to prevent the enemy from suddenly coming out of the city to kill.

Eight wooden cannons fired small stone shotgun shells at the city wall dozens of meters away.

The first batch of siege equipment pushed out was the wooden parapet and dust cart.

There were a large number of soldiers hiding behind the wooden parapet, and under the cover of wooden cannon shotgun shells, they protected the dust carts to approach the castle.

The Chu army on the top of the city was bombarded by wooden cannons and dared not stand up. When they heard the sound of the cannons, they stood up and shot arrows, but they were all blocked by the covered wooden boards.

The dust truck stopped four or five meters away from the city wall. The top had already been ignited. The thick smoke not only interfered with vision, but also mixed with irritants that could make people close their eyes and cry.

Dozens of dust trucks, the smoke caused the defenders to cough repeatedly, and they covered their mouths and noses with cloth soaked in water.

At the same time, more than ten Huihui cannons threw thunder bombs into the castle. After landing, they did not explode, but burned violently to produce a large amount of irritating smoke.

The castle was filled with smoke inside and outside, and anyone who dared to open his eyes would cry.

Under the cover of smoke, battering rams, ladders, sky rams, flying ladders, hungry falcon rams... More than ten kinds of siege equipment were pushed forward.

The hungry falcon ram was the first to engage the enemy. With a long pole with a big axe, it repeatedly hit the arrow tower on the top of the city and the wooden rack where the defenders poured gold juice and boiling oil. Of course, they all used telescopes to observe in advance and estimated the approximate direction to hit, because the Ming army attacking the city was also blocked by smoke.

Yang Hua, the general of the Chu army, led thousands of elite troops to come to the rescue from another castle.

The wagons had been connected with iron chains to form a wall on both sides of the castle, and more than 200 wooden cannons in the back bombarded the enemy reinforcements together.

Bai Qi did not use so many cannons in Chenyang, and gave the wooden cannons to Wang Yuan to guard against the elite enemies in Xiangyin.

This thing will not last long. There was plum rain some time ago, and it is summer drought again during this period. There was a large number of cannons fired in the alternating dry and wet weather. Many wooden cannon barrels have cracked, and they are fixed by the leather and iron hoops outside to prevent them from falling apart.

Today's siege is not the ultimate goal, but to lure out the elite enemy troops!