Chapter 663 0658 [Yue Fei and Li Shifu Go to Battle]

Zhaozhou and Gaocheng are only 60 miles apart, and the land is flat, separated only by the canal.

Zhu Ming and Wanyan Zongwang each chose a place to attack the city, which strictly speaking belonged to the same battlefield. For the cavalry, they could rush to rescue in half a day, and Wanyan Zongwang was not worried about the fall of Gaocheng.

Wanyan Zongwang had 20,000 cavalry under his command!

He first led the cavalry to Zhaozhou, and used cavalry to cover the battlefield vision in the area of ​​20 to 30 miles around Zhaozhou, so that the Ming army could not figure out the main movement of the Jin soldiers.

Even more than ten miles southwest of Gaocheng, there were Jin cavalry, who could contact Sarihe at any time and know the progress of Zhu Ming's siege at any time.

Yue Fei set out early and successfully returned to Zhaozhou.

Guan Sheng, Li Qiong and other generals were suppressed by the Jin cavalry and did not dare to go straight back to Zhaozhou. They could only go south along the Qinshui River to Ningjin first.

In other words, the Zhaozhou Ming army had been divided into two places. If Guan Sheng and Li Qiong continue to go back to help, they will most likely be surrounded and killed by a large group of Jin cavalry on the way.

After all, cavalry is more mobile!

"Will Zhaozhou be okay?"

In Ningjin City, Li Qiong was worried, his whole family was there.

Guan Sheng shook his head and said, "It will definitely be okay. There are Yue Fei and Li Shifu's troops, and we can also recruit the people in the city to give them weapons and armor. Zhaozhou City is only slightly inferior to Zhending Prefecture City. How can the Jin soldiers easily conquer it? The two of us are stuck in Ningjin, and we must not easily rescue Zhaozhou. We will be attacked by Jin cavalry on the way!"

"Just sit here and watch our friendly army being surrounded without saving it?" Li Qiong was a little unwilling.

Guan Sheng said, "Ningjin is also very important. We stay here to respond to Zhaozhou and protect the grain station in Xinhe Town."

...

Outside Zhaozhou City, another Jin infantry arrived, and the craftsmen have begun to build Huihui cannons.

"That group of Ming troops entered Ningjin City?"

"Their baggage was loaded on ships and headed south. The troops marched along the east bank of the Qinshui River. At that time, they were protected by Prince Zhu's cavalry. Our Jin cavalry was afraid of being attacked halfway across the river, so they did not dare to cross the river to attack and kill easily. When we crossed the river after going around a long way, the Ming troops had gone far away and all retreated to Ningjin City."

"Intensify the attack on Zhaozhou. As long as Zhaozhou is in danger, we can lure the Ningjin Ming troops to rescue. We just need to wait for the siege and reinforcement."

Wanyan Zongwang took hundreds of personal soldiers to personally check the city defenses of Zhaozhou.

He had been here two years ago. At that time, he was eager to kill Kaifeng. The Zhaozhou defenders were unwilling to surrender, so Wanyan Zongwang did not attack with all his strength.

In fact, as long as the Zhaozhou defenders at that time had the ability to camp and defend in the wild, they could block the fastest retreat route of the Jin soldiers. In that case, the Jin soldiers would either have to take a long detour or abandon the robbed boats and bring the looted goods and people back by land.

But it is impossible to assume. If we really assume, if Zhu Ming had enough troops at that time, Wanyan Zongwang would have to stay in Kaifeng!

The scale of Zhaozhou City, which was expanded in the early Northern Song Dynasty, was basically the same as that in the Ming and Qing Dynasties. The circumference of the city wall had reached 13 miles. The overall shape is rectangular, and the northwest corner is deliberately recessed. This is to use the natural river as a moat.

The Xushui River flows through its southwest side. The famous Zhaozhou Bridge is built outside the South Gate and on the Xushui River.

The city is 11 meters high, the foundation is more than 8 meters thick, the rammed layer is close to 50 centimeters, and the rammed hole is more than 30 centimeters.

This kind of structure of the city wall, let alone the Huihui cannon wants to collapse, even Zhu Ming's artillery is enough. Even if you bring heavy artillery, you have to bombard it continuously for more than one or two months.

There are also urn cities on the east and west sides!

With the siege ability of the Jin soldiers, if there is no internal response to open the city gate, they can't think of breaking through it for a full year.

The Hebei Han army arrived one after another, and under the cover of the Jin soldiers, they began to fill the moats in the northwest and north.

After only half a day of filling, they gave up filling the northwest. The irregular concave walls there could be used for crossfire shooting at the enemy, and the Hebei Han army responsible for filling the soil was shot and fled many times.

Wanyan Zongwang did not expect to break the city. Those cumbersome Hebei Han army were brought here to be consumed as cannon fodder.

He really did not dare to put the Hebei Han army in the city for defense, as they might defect on a large scale one day. It is best to use them as siege cannon fodder now, and it can also consume the supplies and physical strength of the Ming army.

Wanyan Zongwang's attention is always on the east and south.

To the east is the main force of Zhu Ming ninety miles away, and to the south are Guan Sheng and Li Qiong thirty miles away. He will fight whoever comes to rescue, and besieging the city and attacking the reinforcements is the right way.

Time gradually came to mid-October, the lunar calendar.

Although it has not snowed yet, the temperature has dropped sharply.

Many parts of the moat in the north, northeast and east have been filled by the Hebei Han army, and the Huihui cannons are constantly bombarding the city walls every day.

At midnight on this day, Li Qiong found that there would be heavy fog the next day.

After asking Guan Sheng for instructions, he led more than 3,000 soldiers under his command and hurried along the west bank of the Xiaoshui River. Early in the morning, taking advantage of the foggy weather, he crossed the river to the southeast suburbs of Zhaozhou, perfectly avoiding the Jin cavalry to return to Zhaozhou City for assistance.

Yue Fei was overjoyed: "Brother Li came at the right time to supplement the troops defending the city. Where is General Guan?"

Li Qiong said: "General Guan is guarding Ningjin, he will not come."

"General Guan is really generous!" Yue Fei sighed.

Not bringing troops to rescue Zhaozhou is not because Guan Sheng is greedy for life and afraid of death, but because he does not want to steal the credit of defending the city from Yue Fei and other generals. And Ningjin is also extremely important. Guan Sheng's task is heavy and he cannot highlight his achievements. It is rare to make this decision.

In fact, Guan Sheng also has his own little thoughts. He is the general of Hebei appointed by Zhu Ming, and Yue Fei and Li Qiong are nominally his generals.

But Guan Sheng had not been transferred to Hebei for long, and needed to rely on the generals here. He took the opportunity to show his goodwill to Yue Fei and Li Qiong, so that he could give orders when commanding troops in the future, and there was no need to compete with his own generals for merit.

Some people wanted to make merit!

Li Shifu and his father led more than 2,000 beggar soldiers. After changing their equipment, they were eager to try. They had no idea of ​​being left to defend Zhaozhou, but they did not expect Wanyan Zongwang to come and kill him in person.

"Marshal Zong, it's foggy today, just right for going out of the city to harass!"

Li Shifu found Zong Ze: "The Jin people don't take us seriously. The place where they built the cloud ladder and the female wall is very close to the city wall. I have prepared the fire starter, please lead 800 warriors out of the city to fight!"

Zong Ze nodded in approval: "I'll give you 800 horses, go and come back quickly."

Yue Fei was also ready, and also ran to Zong Ze to ask for a fight.

Zong Ze felt that the army's morale was available, so he asked them to go out from different city gates.

Large siege equipment, if water transportation is convenient and the battlefield is not far from the rear, can be transported to the front line for assembly after being disassembled.

But most of the time, they are temporarily built before the siege.

Zhending Prefecture is 100 miles away from Zhaozhou, and you can only take a boat in Luancheng, so Wanyan Zongwang built the equipment on the spot.

And their camp is several miles away from the city. In order to save manpower and material resources, they usually set up some fortifications not far from the city and send soldiers to protect the craftsmen near the city wall.

This is also the reason why the defenders often went out of the city to destroy siege equipment in ancient city defense battles.

Yue Fei's cavalry had only a few hundred people and no proper cavalry armor. They used infantry armor to remove a row of armor plates, modified them into cavalry armor, and put leather armor on the key parts of the war horses, which was also considered to be a cavalry.

Li Shifu looked even more shabby, all of them were infantry guarding the camp, and the horses he rode out of the city this time were all spare horses left by Yue Fei and his men.

The two generals did not choose to gallop on horseback. They took advantage of the fog to quietly leave the city and move towards the enemy's fortifications little by little, with kerosene cans all hung on the backs of their horses.

Opposite was a small camp, where the Hebei Han army, civilians and craftsmen were stationed, and there were 3,000 Khitan and Xi infantrymen guarding the camp. The task of these people was to fill the moat, pile up the lookout platform, and build siege equipment.

In order to facilitate the push of siege equipment, not only did they not build barriers, but they also opened many gates.

"Today is foggy, beware of enemy attacks on the camp!"

The guard Xiao Zhonggong personally rode on horseback to inspect and warned the troops to be careful and vigilant. He was such a conscientious person.

This person was the cousin of Emperor Tianzuo. Emperor Tianzuo fled east and west, and Xiao Zhonggong stayed with him all the way. He was the last general to command troops before the demise of the Liao Dynasty.

Wuqimai appreciated his loyalty very much, promoted him to a higher position, and asked him to lead troops to follow Wanyan Zongwang. To put it bluntly, he was a pawn planted by the Jin emperor. There was no wax ball incident in this time and space, and Xiao Zhonggong had not really risen to prominence in the Jin Kingdom.

"Send out 200 cavalrymen, don't go too far, just guard around the camp!" Xiao Zhonggong continued to give orders.

The camp commander was dedicated to his duties, but the soldiers under him were just muddling along.

Especially the Han army, civilians and craftsmen in Hebei, who were exhausted these days. When Xiao Zhonggong came to inspect, they pretended to be energetic, and when Xiao Zhonggong left, they all found a place to lie down and rest.

The Khitan soldiers and Xi soldiers were not far behind. They were split into tribes and migrated to Youzhou last year. In the first year of reclamation and farming, they confiscated no food. This year, they finally grew more food, but were ordered by the Jin Kingdom to hand over most of it.

Moreover, the conscription of more people than required as soldiers made all the ethnic groups resentful.

It would be fine if they could go south to plunder, but the Han people along the way were all poor ghosts, and they didn't know whether they could defeat the Ming army. The morale was visibly declining day by day.

After Xiao Zhonggong left the camp, the Khitan and Xi soldiers also found a place to lie down. Some soldiers felt uncomfortable with their armor and even took off their armor to rest. After many days of siege, there were no accidents. They didn't think the defenders would dare to come out.

The 200 riders sent by Xiao Zhonggong, facing the fog with visibility of only two or three meters, also had no intention of running around. They just rode back and forth near the wall of the village.

"Is there any movement?"

"It seems to be footsteps. Listen carefully."

"Enemy attack! Blow the horn quickly..."

The moment the horn sounded, Yue Fei and Li Shifu, who were two miles away, almost got on their horses at the same time and shouted: "All troops get on their horses and charge in!"

"Kill!"

The two brought less than 2,000 soldiers. With their shouts, the enemy couldn't figure out how many had come.

The Han army, civilians and craftsmen in Hebei were the most direct. They got up and fled to Wanyan Zongwang's camp. Some even fled in the direction of the Xiushui River, planning to take advantage of the foggy weather to run along the Xiushui River to the southern suburbs of Zhaozhou, and then join the Ming army in Zhaozhou City.

"Those who flee from the battlefield will be killed!"

Xiao Zhonggong reacted very quickly, personally leading the law enforcement team to kill the fleeing people, and at the same time asked the messenger to blow the horn to summon the Khitan and Xi people.

The sound of the horn also alarmed Wanyan Zongwang's camp in the distance, and Wanyan Zongwang immediately sent thousands of cavalry to help.