Chapter 595: Battle of Yashan

For ten days, travelers No. 1, 2 and 3 lived in peace.

As a slave of the Ottomans, No. 3 worked hard, ate little and was often whipped, but he was still alive and became a small cog in the attack on Constantinople.

No. 2 lived the happiest life. I'm afraid none of the dead travelers would have thought that the poor Toqi village, where people couldn't even afford rice, was actually a paradise for travelers.

With his height and strong body, he was regarded as a mountain god in that ignorant and backward village, and there were sacrifices to eat.

Not only that, the natural ecology there was almost undeveloped. The area within a radius of ten miles was simply a ghost land. There were only two small villages, no roads, and no idea what the outside world was like.

No. 2 made a trap and easily caught some mountain dogs and pheasants. He was full of grease, but the villagers were even more in awe of him.

It turned out that this place was close to mountains and rivers. The reason why it was so poor was that they hardly hunted in the mountains except for fishing.

Even though they were so poor, they still followed the vegetarian diet... They didn't eat any wild game. On the one hand, it was because of the ban issued by the nobles outside the mountain, and on the other hand, the monks also claimed that the wild animals in the mountains were protected by gods.

From bees to elks to pheasants, wild dogs and wild foxes, they all followed gods and demons.

The only thing that was not protected by gods was fish weighing no more than two kilograms.

They believed that if they went to hunt pheasants, they would attract the revenge of the "dog phoenix" and cause a fire in the house...

And No. 2 was the mountain god in their eyes, so eating chicken would definitely be fine.

As long as there was no fire, No. 2's "godhood" in the eyes of these fools would become more and more stable. On the contrary... If there was a fire, No. 2's majesty as a mountain god would collapse instantly, and what would happen to these obedient fools at that time? The consequences were unpredictable...

Mo Qiong also had a brief exchange with No. 2 and left him a piece of paper and a photo of the grave communication.

Then the main focus was on Jiangcheng.

Because the Yashan naval battle broke out.

On the sixth day of February, Zhang Hongfan saw that the Song army had iron chains connecting their ships, so he followed Zhou Yu's fire attack on Chibi. However, the Song army was not stupid.

Zhang Shijie ordered people to apply wet mud on the warships and prepare long wooden sticks on the ships to resist the Mongolian army's fire ships.

Zhang Hongfan saw that the fire attack did not work, so he mobilized a large number of Huihui cannons to bombard the Song army warships with cannons.

When Jiangcheng was pressed to Yashan, the war had been going on for six days.

The two sides fought on the board many times, and the shouts of killing shook the sky!

The Song army still had room to fight back in the bow and crossbow battle, but they were defeated and suffered heavy losses in the hand-to-hand combat.

Jiangcheng was taken to a tower ship and could see the fierce naval battle in the distance.

The Song army's warships were connected to the sky and the ground, and the number of people was ten times that of the Mongolian army, but under the recruitment system of the Song Dynasty, the army often dragged their families when they moved, and more than half of the 200,000 people were civilians.

In other words, the actual army was only a few tens of thousands, and faced with 20,000 elite Mongolian soldiers, they were killed and suffered heavy losses.

Almost every day, both sides had to fight a big battle, from sunrise to sunset, from high tide to low tide.

The floating corpses on the sea increased day by day, and were washed ashore by the tide. There were Mongolian soldiers, but most of them were Song soldiers.

It can be seen that the morale of the Song army was low. On the one hand, supplies were in short supply, and many soldiers had not drunk fresh water for several days... If it weren't for the occasional rain from God, they would have died of thirst.

On the other hand, no matter who was in this situation, the morale would not be good. It was not a battle with their backs to the water, but a battle standing on the water.

Everyone in the Song army knew that it was a fantasy to fight against the Mongols in Yashan, a small place.

The vast land of Jiangnan could not stop the iron cavalry of the Mongols, let alone the small Yashan. But at this moment, victory or defeat was no longer important, because the defeat was already decided. What was important was how to choose in the face of failure?

When Zhang Shijie, the commander of the Song army, connected the ships with iron chains and completely gave up the maneuverability of naval warfare, he had already made a choice.

He refused three attempts to persuade them to surrender, burned letters, and beheaded envoys.

This included the edict of surrender written by the captured Emperor Deyou, which was also burned by him.

Since the Mongols went south, the Southern Song Dynasty has changed three emperors in succession, one surrendered, one died, and another just ascended the throne on a ship, the oldest was ten years old, and the youngest was only seven years old.

At this point in the state of affairs, it was no longer a fight for any emperor.

Perhaps at another time, the morale of the Song army would have collapsed, and there would be countless deserters.

But now there is no way to retreat, they have all retreated to the sea, where else can they go? They can only fight to the death and put an end to the Zhao Song Dynasty.

In a blink of an eye, it was March, and Jiang Cheng no longer cared about the war situation, after all, he already knew the outcome.

At first, seeing the mountains of corpses and the sea of ​​blood, I was touched and sad. Put yourself in the shoes of the 200,000 people, who are on the sea, with shaking boats under their feet, lacking water and food, and having no way to survive, how desperate they are.

The history books say there were 100,000 floating corpses. Jiang Cheng saw it with his own eyes and realized what an unimaginable scene it was.

It was because Mo Qiong told him that there were only 7,000 or 8,000 floating corpses on the sea these days. Jiang Cheng realized that the scene that gave him the visual impact of "100,000 floating corpses" was only created by a few thousand people.

When 200,000 soldiers and civilians were completely killed, how terrifying would the scene of 100,000 floating corpses be? Only then did he have an idea.

But later, for another ten days in a row, 7,000 or 8,000 floating corpses washed ashore every day, or fed to fish and shrimps. He gradually became numb and only felt how lucky he was to be on the side of the Mongolian army.

And the unlucky things soon found him.

"Wha...what? Do you want me to write a letter to persuade him to surrender?" Jiang Cheng was brought to Zhang Hongfan by the Mongolian army. Hearing what Mo Qiong translated, he was not only nervous.

Originally, there was nothing to be nervous about. The Song army was bound to be defeated. He just wrote the letter of surrender when he was captured. It was important to save his life. Anyway, the last exiled court of the Southern Song Dynasty refused to surrender many times, so he was no exception.

Fortunately, there is an old man on board the flagship. He is energetic, wearing a green shirt, and has no loss of elegance. He stands between the officials on the left and right.

Mo Qiong told Jiang Cheng: "As expected, this is Wen Tianxiang."

"Nah!" Jiang Cheng looked at Wen Tianxiang with a sullen face. The old man was also looking at him, with unclear thoughts in his eyes.

There is no doubt that Wen Tianxiang must have recognized Zhao Mengqin. Zhao Mengqin was not only a member of the clan, but had also been commanding the army under Wen Tianxiang not long ago. It’s a ghost if you don’t know him!

Wen Tianxiang neither exposed him nor saluted him. He looked at him for a while and then looked away blankly.

"If he doesn't expose me..." Jiang Cheng thought to himself.

"Why did you expose you? I wasted your life in vain, but let the Mongolian army continue to search for Zhao Mengqin. When he sees you, he will know that the real Zhao Mengqin has escaped. At this point in the country's affairs, it is always good to leave a root for the clan." Mo Qiong said.

Jiang Cheng just breathed a sigh of relief when he heard the officials on the left and right shouting at him.

Mo Qiong translated: "They asked you to kneel down to the coach."

Jiang Cheng caught a glimpse of Zhang Hongfan, the commander-in-chief of the Mongolian army, who was sitting in the main seat. His face was majestic, but his knees were a little weak.

It can be seen that Wen Tianxiang next to him was calm and composed, but he looked at him and complained in his heart.

There is no doubt that Wen Tianxiang will not worship him. This old man wants to die.

"Zhang Hongfan and even Kublai Khan respect Wen Tianxiang. They are used to seeing him resist and don't care. But you and I don't know... maybe I deliberately kill you to force Wen Tianxiang." Mo Qiong said.

"...But it's not good for me to worship. If I kneel down and ask others to look down on me, they will only abuse me more. And maybe Wen Tianxiang will expose me when he gets angry." Jiang Cheng also refused. Instead of kneeling down, Chu remained expressionless. In fact, his heart was pounding, hoping that the other party would not treat him differently.

Fortunately, Zhang Hongfan didn't care about such a trivial matter and just asked him again to write a letter to persuade him to surrender.

At that time, Jiang Cheng, as a clan member, will not only not die, but will also live out the rest of his life with the courtesy of a prince.

This was a great blessing for the fake Jiang Cheng... He was eager to write quickly, so that his life could be saved, and he would be able to live a good life even though he would not be free in the future. For a death row prisoner, this is enough time.

However, he was very rational. He found that Wen Tianxiang said: "From the clan to the soldiers and civilians, everyone has the desire to die to serve the country. As a minister, the country is destroyed and cannot be saved. Is it okay to rebel against others?"

As he spoke, tears rolled down his cheeks, but he never looked at Jiang Cheng.

But inside and outside the words, he mentioned the clan, the army and the people. At this point, they were all ready to die to serve the country. How can we teach people to give up sacrificing their lives to serve their country and surrender to the enemy when they cannot save the country from its fall?

After Mo Qiong told Jiang Cheng, his heart immediately skipped a beat, knowing that if he dared to write, he would die within minutes.

"He valued his integrity more than his life. Zhang Hongfan repeatedly forced him to write letters persuading him to surrender, but he refused. Finally, he wrote an article "Crossing the Lingding Ocean" to Zhang Hongfan..." Mo Qiong said.

"Of course I know... I even recited and wrote the entire text silently in middle school..." Jiang Cheng was about to cry but had no tears.

"He is staring at you now. If you insult the clan, he will definitely expose you." Mo Qiong said.

"This damn old man is so annoying! He won't let me write if he doesn't want to write. Damn it!" Jiang Cheng's heart was filled with chills.

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