Chapter 669 0664 [Big Victory! ]

"Marshal, leave quickly, the front is collapsed!"

Wanyan Yanmu and Wanyan Xiyin had just left the city. Before they could organize the troops outside the city to retreat, the golden soldiers on the city wall suddenly collapsed.

The two sides were fighting on a city wall a few meters wide. The death of the commander in the rear actually had little impact. Because the golden soldiers facing each other in the front row would most likely not know who was killed behind them, so they would only subconsciously form formations to fight.

At this time, sniping down front-line officers is more effective than sniping down generals.

The collapse of the Jin army was caused by Liu Jizhong's killing of a small officer. With the grassroots commanders killed, the Jin soldiers were pushed forward by the heavy infantry of the Ming army. Their position was unstable and they retreated.

The former enemy general who succeeded Yelu Mawu was also a surrendered general from the Liao Kingdom, named Yelu Duo.

He learned from the experience and lessons of the previous two people, never daring to show his head again, crouching and hiding against the parapet, sensing the battlefield through the oral descriptions of his own soldiers, and letting the messengers wave flags to take command.

When the Jin soldiers were defeated in the battle, Yeluduo had not yet reacted, and the reserve team in the rear also collapsed.

Even though they were defeated, they could not escape effectively because there were also a large number of defensive reserves standing on the horse road and the city wall further east. The disintegrated golden soldiers were in great panic, and they rushed towards the friendly forces without thinking. The despair seemed to be contagious, and the golden soldiers turned around and fled.

Among these golden soldiers guarding the city, very few were from the Jurchen tribe. The majority were from the Khitan tribe, and there were also many Bohai and Xi tribes.

They can snipe with muskets from the side and advance with heavy infantry from the front. They have persisted until now and are very strong and brave.

Even if they were all replaced by Jurchen soldiers, there wouldn't be much difference.

Seeing several groups of Jin soldiers fleeing, Wanyan Zongwang got on his horse in panic, rode along the east city wall to the north city wall, and then ran from the horse path of the north city wall to the north city gate.

"Open the city gate quickly!"

Following Wanyan Zongwang's roar, the gates and outer gates of Wengcheng in the north opened one after another.

Wanyan Zongwang rushed out with his soldiers, and then crossed the river on the pontoon bridge northwest of Gaocheng.

After crossing the river, they did not flee again, but erected banners and blew trumpets by the river to gather troops.

Wanyan Xiyin, Wanyan Chamu, Wanyan Talan and others originally planned to retreat in an orderly manner outside the city. The Jin soldiers guarding the city collapsed in advance, leaving them no time to deploy more. They first let all the Hebei Han troops attack, and then turned around and left with the Jin Guo cavalry.

Those Han troops in Hebei were not fools. They had already noticed that something was wrong, and because of the intimidation of the Jin soldiers, they stepped forward.

When they saw the Ming army breaking up their chariot formation and rushing out, the Jin cavalry were withdrawing again, and nearly 20,000 Hebei Han troops immediately fled. Many Han generals, even with their direct troops, threw away their weapons and knelt down on the spot.

However, there were still too many Han troops in Hebei that collapsed. Even though their generals had surrendered, the soldiers still subconsciously fled in all directions.

Countless broken troops blocked the battlefield and seriously interfered with the Ming army's pursuit.

"Your Highness, I would like to ask you to hunt down the enemy!" Wang Yan knelt down and said.

Ju Ming was still observing with his telescope: "Although the Jin infantry retreated in chaos, the Jin cavalry was calm and leisurely. These cavalry retreated alternately. Once our army lost its formation in pursuit, the Jin cavalry would definitely fight back with all its strength. Send orders to all ministries and the infantry Don't pursue the soldiers, just send cavalry to capture the Han troops and defeat them."

Li Yanxian personally led five thousand cavalry and rushed out to intercept, divide and recruit the defeated Han soldiers in Hebei.

The Ming army infantry who had already chased them out also received military orders and gradually retreated to the camp.

Wanyan Yanmu led his men and horses to retreat to the river. After waiting for a while, he became a little impatient. He rode towards Wanyan Talan and said, "Prince Zhu used his troops calmly. Our army of 20,000 Han soldiers was defeated. He can't hold the camp at this time." Chase. What to do?”

"What else can we do?" Wanyan said lazily, "Give way to the riders and cross the river in batches, and then demolish all the pontoons!"

In addition to those who had died in the battle, the Jin troops who attacked the Ming army's camp also had those Han soldiers who had broken up. The rest of the infantry and cavalry all retreated from the battlefield calmly and orderly.

Li Yanxian led five thousand cavalry, surrendered and captured tens of thousands of Han troops in Hebei, and then began to divide his troops to get closer and observe the main force of the Jin soldiers.

Wanyan Talan immediately sent thousands of gold cavalry to kill him. Li Yanxian was unwilling to engage in battle and retreated while shooting arrows. The Jin cavalry did not pursue them and withdrew again to the river bank.

When about half of the main force of the Jin army crossed the river, Li Yanxian said to the messenger: "Send a message to His Royal Highness."

The messenger rode for a while and then waved the flag.

"The whole army is out!"

Ju Ming finally gave the order.

More than 20,000 Ming troops came out of the camp one after another, only maintaining their basic formation and trotting forward.

When the Ming army approached the pontoon bridges, more than two-thirds of the Jin soldiers' infantry and cavalry had crossed the river.

Strike halfway across!

Wanyan Xiyin and other Jin generals asked the remaining cavalry and Jurchen infantry to quickly cross the pontoon bridge, and separated the Bohai, Xi people, Khitan, and Liaodong Han infantry to guard the bridge.

When the Ming army began to attack, more than 6,000 infantrymen of various ethnic groups remained on the east bank.

"Bang bang bang bang!"

Nearly two thousand musketeers jumped off their horses and started shooting freely.

The Ming cavalry and infantry archers also shot arrows at the golden soldiers.

The more than six thousand Jin infantry were frightened and had no courage to fight. They turned around and rushed onto the pontoon to escape.

The sound of "plop" was heard endlessly, and the Jin soldiers pushed each other to escape, falling into the sleeping water like dumplings.

"Burn the bridge!"

Wanyan Xiyin gave an order, and the Jin soldiers who had already crossed the river ran to destroy the more than ten pontoon bridges.

Liu Yanzong, Gao Jingshan, Xiao Qing and other generals from various clans looked gloomy and full of resentment when they saw the miserable condition of their own clansmen. The Jurchen soldiers were all withdrawn, but the Han soldiers, Bohai soldiers, and Khitan soldiers in Liaodong suffered heavy losses.

More than 6,000 Jin infantrymen of various ethnic groups, except those who were captured and killed, fell into the river.

The temperature was so low that it was about to snow, and those infantrymen were wearing armor, so how could they survive?

Inside the city.

Kong Yanzhou was the first to flee, and some of his soldiers even reached out to grab the treasures in the baskets while fleeing - those treasures were used by Wanyan Zongwang to reward the soldiers defending the city.

But they didn't run far before they were intercepted by the Jurchen Supervisory Team, and more than 30 fleeing soldiers were killed on the spot.

Kong Yanzhou led his troops back tremblingly, but before he arrived at the battlefield, he encountered the collapse of the city defense troops, so he turned around and fled again in fear.

The heavily armored guards of the Ming army could not chase, so they took off their helmets and rested on the city wall.

A large number of elite Ming troops entered the city from the horse road to open the gate of the city. They found that it was already open, and all the Jin soldiers guarding the city had run away, so they quickly opened the main gate again to welcome more friendly troops from the city.

Thousands of Ming soldiers ran in pursuit, passed through the north gate and the west gate, and headed for the floating bridge over there.

Kong Yanzhou wanted to get on the floating bridge with his defeated soldiers, but saw a Xi general rushing over and slashing with his sword. The Xi general yelled: "Who are you? Go back and fight the enemy!"

"Yes... yes..."

Kong Yanzhou was crying, watching the Jin soldiers occupy the floating bridge to cross the river, and he and his soldiers could only wait on the spot.

"Kill!"

The shouts of the Ming army were approaching, and the Jin infantry accelerated their escape, and from time to time some people were squeezed and fell into the river.

A team of Ming soldiers was still more than ten steps away, Kong Yanzhou knelt down with a plop, kowtowed and shouted: "Long live the Ming Dynasty, long live the emperor, long live the prince!"

"Long live the Ming Dynasty!"

"Long live the emperor!"

"Long live the prince!"

Kong Yanzhou's soldiers also shouted in a mess.

"Get out of the way!"

The Ming army captain who led the troops to chase them raised his gun and stabbed these guys, scaring Kong Yanzhou to quickly climb over and avoid them.

These guys huddled in the corner of the wall in fear, not daring to join any side, watching the Ming army kill the Jin soldiers who had not yet crossed the river.

"Destroy the bridge!"

Wanyan Zongwang, who was riding a horse on the other side of the river, quickly issued the same order. More than a thousand Jin infantrymen who had not yet crossed the river were either buried in the belly of fish or killed by the Ming army.

The Jin people suffered heavy losses in this battle. More than 20,000 Hebei Han troops were all gone, more than 10,000 soldiers of various ethnic groups were killed and captured, and four hundred Heza Meng'an were buried.

The only thing that can be accepted is that the Jurchen soldiers suffered few casualties.

All the food and baggage in Gaocheng were seized by the Ming army.

The Jin soldiers did not dare to take away all the baggage in the camp on the west bank of the Qinshui River, and tried to burn them all.

Zhu Ming asked the craftsmen to build a pontoon bridge and immediately led his troops across the river. He found that the Jin army camp was on fire and quickly sent troops to rescue the food and grass inside.

Li Yanxian led the cavalry to continue the pursuit, but there were too many Jin cavalry to effectively detain the enemy. The main force of the Jin army successfully crossed the Hutuo River east of Zhending.

Wanyan Zongwang also brought the remaining troops to join the group and hurried to the city of Zhending, but saw the "Ming" flag flying on the top of the city.

It was last night that Guan Sheng, Yue Fei, Li Qiong, and Li Shifu, four generals, rode on horseback with two thousand soldiers to attack Zhending.

Moreover, they did not wear armor.

They crossed the river from Zhaozhou to the west bank of the Xiaoshui River, and rushed all the way to the foothills of Fenglong Mountain in the northwest, bypassing Luancheng to avoid the Jin soldiers and quickly heading north.

At dawn, they arrived at the southern suburbs of Zhending City.

They braved the freezing cold water, swam across the Hutuo River on horseback, and then set fire to a large area of ​​houses outside the city.

Due to the rampage of the Jin people and the brutality of the puppet court, even the people of Zhending Prefecture were in decline. One-third of the houses in the suburbs were empty, and many people fled to Zhaozhou under the rule of the Ming Dynasty.

After the fire, the Ming army shouted in unison: "The Jin army is defeated, and the second prince (Wanyan Zongwang) is dead!"

The people living in the suburbs woke up from their dreams. They heard the shouts and went out to check. Seeing fires everywhere, they were frightened and hurriedly fled north around the city.

The few Jurchen soldiers who stayed behind quickly took up their weapons to defend the city, and ordered the Han army in Hebei to go up to the city for defense.

When Liu Yu and his son heard the noise, they soon received military orders to lead their troops to fight.

"Father, what should we do?" Liu Lin asked.

Liu Yu was also terrified, muttering: "If the Jin soldiers had not been defeated, we would have been punished if we escaped. If the Jin soldiers were defeated, staying to defend the city would be a dead end. No matter what, we must get the little emperor first!"

The general who led the imperial guards had been replaced by Liu Yu's nephew Liu Ni.

The father and son sent soldiers to guard the city walls while riding horses to the palace, letting Liu Ni lead the troops to "protect" the empress dowager and the emperor.

Halfway through the journey, the city suddenly caught fire, and there was more than one fire.

Liu Lin exclaimed: "There are enemy forces in the city!"

Liu Yu said angrily: "What kind of internal response is there? It must be the important officials in the court who are dissatisfied with me, and sent their trusted servants to set fire everywhere."

At this moment, a group of defeated soldiers came running.

When the leader saw Liu Yu, he cried out, "Sir, Wang Shan has rebelled, and Yang Jin and Li Gui are also rebelling!"

Wang Shan, Yang Jin, and Li Gui were all leaders of Hebei bandits. In history, they surrendered to Zong Ze. In this time and space, they were recruited by the puppet dynasty. Because of their bad reputation, Wanyan Zongwang believed that they were trustworthy and left them to garrison in Zhending Prefecture.

When Liu Yu heard that the three generals had rebelled, he was so scared that he trembled all over: "Hurry up and take the Queen Mother and His Majesty out of the city!"

They ran towards the palace. The nephew Liu Ni was ready. He took the crying Queen Mother and the confused little emperor and led his troops out of the northwest gate to escape to Lingshou County, more than 30 miles away.

Wang Shan opened the southeast gate to welcome Yue Fei and others into the city.

The city gate was lost, and fires broke out inside and outside the city. The Han soldiers in the city either defected or fled. The remaining Jin soldiers were so scared that they fled back to the city to find Shi Li'ai.

Shi Li'ai was good at civil affairs, but he didn't know how to fight.

Seeing the chaos in the city, and knowing that Liu Yu had run away with the empress dowager and the emperor, he led the Jin soldiers to chase Liu Yu.

"What should I do? What should I do..."

Zhang Bangchang walked around in the study, anxious like an ant on a hot pot.

He wanted to stay and join the Ming Dynasty, but he was afraid of being liquidated by his former political enemies. There were many ministers there who had old grudges with him. If he went to Tokyo, he would definitely be pitted to death. Moreover, it was heard that the Zhang family was exiled as a whole family, and he didn't know whether this news was true or false.

It was not good to continue to escape with the Jin people. That Liu Yu was too shameless!

Zhang Bangchang seemed to have difficulty making a choice. He was struggling in his study room. He didn't want to welcome the Ming army into the city, nor did he take advantage of the chaos to escape.

Since Liu Yu attacked Huang Qianshan, more than half of the important officials in the puppet court were Liu Yu's confidants. These guys packed up their belongings and fled with their families to follow Liu Yu.

Among the remaining important officials in the central government, Zhang Bangchang had the highest official position, followed by Dong Ti, the Minister of Rites.

Zhang Bangchang did not show up, but Dong Ti took the opportunity to stand up.

Dong Ti sent people to contact officials everywhere, called a group of officials to his home, and said: "There are two big fires in the city. I sent people to set them. I have already surrendered to the Ming court. Officials below the sixth rank, immediately take people to put out the fire in the city. Officials above the sixth rank, follow me to welcome the heavenly soldiers!"