In the Southern Song Dynasty, I competed with Mongolia for the world

Chapter 458 The situation is quite dangerous

It was February, and it was still quite cold in Hebei. The Mongolian prisoners were huddled together to keep warm, and they were crowded together.

The expressions on everyone's faces are similar to those of the walking dead. Some people will freeze to death and no one will care.

Gao Zhong led a large number of recruits to the right along these prisoner circles. The recruits looked at the prisoners with curiosity. When they got to the front, they found that there were three to four hundred prisoners here digging a huge deep pit.

There was a Song army watching them all around.

When Gao Zhong arrived, someone from the opposite side came over and whispered to Gao Zhong.

The two quickly separated, and Nadu turned around and ordered his subordinates to go to the circle to recruit people.

High and heavy are also distributed here.

"In a group of ten, go to the pit and get a spear."

"Hao Youfu."

"arrive."

These Song soldiers are all elite soldiers who have fought in many battles. Their sharp eyes looked at the Song army recruits holding spears behind them.

They were in a group of ten, and their hands were tied with hemp rope, which they had just tied before coming here.

"Ah -" a prisoner next to him immediately started crying: "Master, please forgive us, we are also Han people -"

There were originally ten people here, but now that he stabbed one, there were only nine.

"Xiao Ding, are you mentally ill? This place has been ruled by the Jin Kingdom for hundreds of years. Many people consider themselves northerners and do not regard themselves as Song people at all." A companion beside him said.

Ding Nianbao was scolded so badly that Hao Youfu forced him to take action.

"Look at me." Hao Youfu picked up the spear and pointed it at the back of one of the prisoners.

"It's better to surrender." Song Jun said cautiously.

It can be said that before the rise of Zhao Yurui, the northerners never thought of themselves as Song people, and they never had a sense of identity with the Han people.

They were ruled by the Jin Kingdom and grew up in the Jin Kingdom. In the past, the Jin Kingdom completely suppressed the Southern Song Dynasty, and the northerners looked down on the southerners.

Song Jun behind him was not even twenty years old and looked quite young. He immediately turned around and asked Hao Youfu hesitantly: "Hao Dutou, are they all Han?"

At this time, the Song army on the opposite side called a halt and let the prisoners come up first.

The scene was soon filled with screams, and the Song Army recruits stabbed each of them twice, and they could stab two.

Holding a gun in both hands, he kicked the prisoner in the back with his left foot.

"I'm sorry." Ding Nianbao had no choice but to grit his teeth and stab the prisoner in the back with a single shot.

"Here on the left, in the back of the heart, a shot to the heart."

They stood by the pit and looked at the scene in the pit. Some of them could not help but feel a slight chill in their bodies.

Many county towns around Gucheng surrendered. The resistance in Gucheng was fierce, and the Song army also suffered a number of casualties.

"Military men, spare your lives, we are all Han -" several prisoners kneeling on the ground cried.

"promise."

The two of them must have been soldiers for more than a year or two, so they didn't hesitate. They picked up their spears, looked at each other, pounced, and stabbed a prisoner at the same time.

With Song Jun helping them pin them to the ground, it was relatively easy. After stabbing them, they kicked them into the pit.

Everyone seemed to know what they were going to face. Some were expressionless, some cried all the way, and some wanted to run away. They were beaten hard by Song Jun a few times and then became honest.

"Kneel down." The first group of ten prisoners were escorted to the edge of the pit, with a Song soldier holding them down next to each one.

So let the two recruits stab each other.

The ten recruits had different expressions. The youngest one looked to be eighteen or nineteen years old. He should have been recruited last year.

As they thrust it in, the two of them couldn't help but tremble.

The first two groups went relatively smoothly. When it was the turn of the third group, a prisoner kept begging for mercy, saying that he was also a Han and was forced to join the Mongolian army.

"I'm a Han." Hao Youfu yelled: "They used to be Jin people, but now they are Meng people."

Hao Youfu was a general, so he immediately ordered ten new soldiers, then ran to the pit, and the Song Army issued a spear to each of them.

Hao Youfu ignored them and pointed at the first and second recruits: "You two stab each other, get ready-"

Hao Youfu was very happy: "Why don't you go tell the brother who died in Dagucheng?"

Now that he is a prisoner, he starts to say that he is Han?

"You go and demonstrate."

After a while, twenty Mongolian prisoners were pulled from the circle to the edge of the pit by the Song army.

The pit was five or six steps deep, and many of the prisoners were unable to climb out, and had to be pulled up with earth-moving ropes.

With a bang, the prisoner's body slowly rolled from the edge of the pit to the bottom of the pit.

But being a soldier is being a soldier, and killing is killing.

The recruits had different expressions and were slightly nervous.

This pit is very large, about a hundred paces long and thirty or forty paces wide. The pit is full of people, all prisoners of the Mongolian army digging it.

Phew, after Hao Youfu finished speaking, he stabbed hard with his gun, and then said: "Kick with your feet——"

But he didn't hit the target with the gun, and it didn't hit the back of the heart. The prisoner screamed and fell forward. The panicked Ding Nianbao clutched the spear tightly with both hands. Rolled down the pit.

Hao Youfu, who was above, stamped his feet and turned red.

The Song soldiers who were escorting the prisoners all wanted to laugh, but did not dare to laugh.

There were already a lot of corpses below. Ding Nianbao just got up after falling and suddenly bent over and said "vomit" and vomited directly below.

Someone quickly threw a rope to pull him up.

Hao Youfu said angrily: "Don't pull him, let him find his own way to get up."

Then he pointed at Ding Nianbao and said, that man is not dead yet, so he continues to poke.

Ding Nianbao had no choice but to turn around, find his own spear, and shoot again.

That day, senior subordinates stabbed people outside the city for about an hour. Each man stabbed two prisoners to death. Then the whole army returned to the camp and replaced them with recruits from other battalions.

When they went there, the Song army was very neatly organized, but when they came back they were a little messy.

It was the first time for everyone to kill someone, and everyone felt different.

Some people will be excited, some people will be scared.

But after such a wave of killings, the momentum of the entire team seemed to be different.

After returning to the camp, Gao Zhong immediately began to make arrangements.

According to the needs of Song Jun's wharf, they must occupy an area of ​​at least three hundred steps long and one hundred steps wide around the wharf.

In this way, when the Song Army's transport ship reaches the shore, the Mongolian Army's cavalry cannot shoot at it from the outside.

But there are not enough high-level men and horses, only more than 800 people. You have to divide them evenly on the ground 300 paces long and 100 paces wide, and only two people can be placed on each step.

Gao Zhong first surrounded all the military camps along the river bank in a "凵" shape, with the dock to the north and about one mile from the north city of Gucheng to the south.

If the Mongolian army attacked them from the south, they would definitely be hit by the Song army's artillery on the north wall of the city. Each Song army tent is about five meters long and can sleep one group of people, about eleven or twelve, for a total of about ninety tents.

Then there are tents where equipment, supplies, etc. are stored to protect against rain and snow. These tents are slightly smaller, numbering a hundred, and there are close to two hundred tents here in Gaozhong.

All connected together are less than one thousand meters long. The Song army was divided into four rows to form a channel, and transported away, and was built on the shore in an orderly manner.

In this way, it has occupied three hundred steps of the pier.

Then a large area needs to be cleared for gathering and fighting.

In this way, the length to be defended by the high and heavy troops is five to six hundred paces, and the width is three hundred paces.

His men and horses didn't even have enough space to spare a single step.

But it doesn't matter. Gao Zhong first needs to bring hundreds of prisoners, then dig pits around them, build horses, pull ropes, dig traps, and build low walls, one after another.

Two months later, his defense was starting to take shape.

Starting from the innermost side, there is a circle of low walls. At that time, the fusiliers and the Song Army's crossbowmen can all hide under the low walls.

Because they knew that the Mongolian army had artillery, the Song army's low wall was also quite thick. They packed soil in sacks and piled it up to effectively prevent artillery.

Outside the wall are lines of horse ropes, about twenty paces wide. There are also deep pits dug here and there on the ground. Each pit is larger than a horse's hoof and more than ten centimeters deep. If a war horse steps into it, it will definitely break its bones and fall. .

Twenty steps away are a large number of traps, one after another, all the way to forty steps.

Forty steps away is Juma, and there is a shallow ditch. The soil dug out of the shallow ditch is piled under Juma. After crossing Juma, you have to be careful about falling into the shallow ditch.

Sixty paces away there were deep pits, one after another, until two hundred paces away, they were everywhere.

There are so many pits at the scene. If the cavalry wants to gather and charge, it is easy to fall. They can only move forward slowly.

When the Song army was building fortifications, the Mongolian army also had sentries and riders to look over, but the Mongolian army remained silent.

People in Gucheng in the middle will also go out to farm.

Gucheng and Gaocheng are twenty or thirty miles apart. The Mongolian army comes almost every day, and the people in both cities are also working outside.

It's not the harvest period yet, so everyone seems to have a tacit understanding and doesn't care about each other.

But the Mongolian army is definitely not as unburdened as the Song army, because in the past, the people here were ruled by Mongolia. The Song army dared to let the people go out to farm at will. The Mongolian army might not be able to kill them when they came, but when the Song army came last year , when the Mongolian army asked the people to go out to harvest in November, the Song army came to burn, kill and loot.

It's not yet the harvest period, so both sides are standing still and observing each other every day.

In April, Gao Chong finally managed the outer defense line and killed all the prisoners, and another wave of prisoners arrived in front.

It is said that the Song Army just captured Raoyang. Raoyang is close to the Hejian Mansion of the Mongolian Army. Hejian Mansion is also the most important military town of the Mongolian Army in the north of Gucheng. The Yudai River passes through the middle of Hejian Mansion. The city is tall and strong, and there are There is a wide moat. The Song army has just captured Raoyang, and it is estimated that they will not attack Hejian next time.

Raoyang's defenders were very tenacious, and they were all Han troops. They were local landlords' troops, mainly because they were afraid that Song troops would come in and raid their homes.

After capturing Raoyang, the Song army killed all the troops in the city without leaving any one behind, which once again shocked the whole of Hebei.

Of course, some prisoners were killed after returning to work.

The High and Heavy Department obtained another 300 prisoners and took them to continue to strengthen the fortifications outside the camp.

In early April, another large number of transport ships arrived at the dock.

Many Mongolian army sentry cavalry appeared that day, probably to see what the Song army was transporting.

This time the Song army brought 3,000 soldiers and horses, as well as a whole shipload of flintlock guns, and fifty artillery pieces.

Because he was stationed at the dock, the High and Heavy Department was assigned 200 flintlock muskets, and more than 200 people from both cities were assigned to him.

At the same time, the superiors suddenly issued an order to be promoted to temporary general, and to temporarily rule more than a thousand people.

At this time, he had two battalions under his command, and there were two battalion commanders. Because of his seniority, Gao Zhong was temporarily appointed as the general, and he was overjoyed.

There will be only one level difference between command and preparation. One can be called a general, but the other is not.

Of course, the prepared generals in Zhao and Rui's army are usually temporary, unlike the Song army that had prepared generals in the past.

As long as you perform well in high-level and heavy-duty positions, it won't be a big problem to be promoted to deputy general after the war.

At this time, Gao Zhong's subordinates numbered more than 1,000 people in ten cities, among which the fusiliers in five cities were considered strong.

It was quite difficult for Gao Zhong and the others to live outside these days. Fortunately, a ditch was built on the bank beside the camp and connected to the Hutuo River. If it rained, the rainwater could flow directly into the Hutuo River through the ditch.

The sound of artillery can often be heard sporadically, and there should be Mongolian and Song armies fighting within a few dozen miles nearby.

When Gao Chong had nothing to do, he ran to Gucheng to inquire about the news.

The Song army gradually encroached, compressed the living space of the Mongolian army, and was destroying the small counties of the Mongolian army bit by bit.

The main forces of the Mongolian army are concentrated in several key towns, such as Zhending, Hejian, Gaocheng, Baoding, etc.

These cities have one thing in common. They are relatively large, with more troops and food reserves. All of them have moats and have been reinforced in recent years. They all have crude Hongwu cannons built by the Mongolian army themselves.

The Song army had obtained artillery from the Mongolian army. Zhao and Rui jokingly called it Hongwu artillery, but their subordinates didn't know what it meant.

Just because the artillery of the Mongolian army and the Hongwu cannon are cast in the same way, with rolled tubes and spliced ​​joints, the quality is quite poor, and it is probably not as good as the Hongwu cannon.

The Mongolian army originally wanted to rely on these fortified cities to let the Song army invade and focus on killing the Song army. Unexpectedly, the Song army did not attack these fortified cities. They first cleared out the county towns and then occupied them.

What does the Song Army have the most?

Nowadays, the Song Dynasty has a large number of people, and the Song army has many soldiers and horses. It can continuously draw people and horses from various places to garrison.

Because the Mongolian army now does not have the strength to penetrate deep into the belly of the Song army.

For example, the garrison of Jinan City has changed from two armies with 12,000 people to one army with 6,000 people.

It is obvious that they are not afraid of the Mongolian army going to attack Jinan.

Not to mention Jiangnan and Fujian, which are further away, the troops there can be drawn over.

The Song army currently has 3,000 troops stationed in every county it occupies in Hebei.

Currently, from north to south, it includes Dacheng County, Qing County, Xingji County, Cangzhou, Nanpi County, Yanshan County, Dongguang County, Jiaohe County, Fucheng County, Wuyi County, Shenzhou, Shulu County, etc. The Song army has occupied eighteen counties and states.

More than 40,000 troops came to the garrison alone.

Among them, Zhending, Hejian and the east of Gaocheng were almost all occupied by the Song army.

Gao Zhong heard the news that the main force of the Song army was heading towards Zhending, south and west of Gaocheng. After a few more counties, Zhending and Zhengaocheng would become isolated cities, surrounded by counties and states occupied by the Song army.

At that time, the Mongolian army will either retreat or defend.

The Song army does not need to attack the city at that time, as long as they wait for their food to run out, they can force them to break out and leave the city.

The Mongolian army initially disapproved of the Song army's gradual encroachment tactics, but soon found it was a bit troublesome.

As long as the Song army's cities are not short of supplies, it will be difficult for the Mongolian army to recapture them.

As more and more counties and states are lost, several important cities will eventually become isolated cities.

At this time, Dong Jun, the general guarding Gaocheng and the Han army's ten thousand households, had realized the seriousness.

The counties east of Gaocheng were basically occupied by the Song army, and the Song army was attacking the south of Gaocheng.

According to his latest news, the Song Army's 60,000-strong Left Army, led by Zhu Rong and Yang Cheng, had just surrendered Zhaozhou and were attacking Luancheng.

After Luan City was captured, the east, south, and north sides of Gaocheng were all occupied by Song strongholds. Only the Zhending to the west was controlled by their Mongolian troops.

The situation is already quite dangerous.

(End of this chapter)