Dawn of the Empire

Chapter 63 The Abandoned Sea (2)

While people in Bianjing were panicking, there was a strange calm inside and outside Hejian City.The cavalry of the Liao Kingdom who were approaching the city were not in a hurry to attack the city. They just went around to loot the countryside and captured the people to build camps.The north and south sides of Hejian are criss-crossed by rivers and canals. It was difficult for the cavalry of the Liao Kingdom to deploy, so they camped in the east of Hejian City.

Not far to the west of the Liao army camp is the bifurcation of two tributaries of the Yellow River into the sea. Every time the marching Sima Wang Yan patrols the city and looks at the continuous Liao tents, he sighs. Make a noise to press the Liao army westward, and because of the narrowness between the two tributaries of the Yellow River, these Liao cavalry can be driven down the Yellow River to feed the fish.

The Liao army did not attack the city for a long time, but only focused on building camps and fortifications, and even the traffic between Hejianfucheng and the Yellow River Wharf was not cut off.The soldiers and horses were in chaos outside, and the tall mansion city of Hejian gave the people in the surrounding villages a false sense of security. After more than 20 days, as many as 10,000+ people fled into Hejian City.Juren Zhu from Baozhou said that because he fled in a hurry, he almost ran out with only single clothes and empty hands. Wuheng's tenant farmer Wang Shisan lived by digging rat food all the way, and some hid in the wild during the day to avoid the Liao soldiers. Liu Mazi originally wanted to cross the newly thawed river in the dark and flee south, but in the morning, he was frightened by the drowned corpses in the Yellow River, so he fled north to Hejian City.The Liao soldiers even drove the people of the Song Dynasty to Hejian on purpose, leaving behind the middle-aged men and women, driving the old and the young into the city, consuming the food and grass of the Song army, with vicious intentions.

Since retreating to Hejian, Tong Guan has almost completely handed over the defense of the city to Wang Yan, Han Shizhong and other generals. Together with a group of clerks, he has been thinking about the military report sent to Bianjing every day. It seems that as long as the Khitans do not completely surround Hejian , This military report will continue.

During this period of strangely peaceful days, according to Hejian’s military newspaper, the Hebei camp and the Liao army were fighting each other every day. There were several battles, killing tens of thousands of people. Tong Guan would take the lead in every battle. , because he was too close to the front line, he was hit by several arrows from the Liao soldiers. Tong Gonggong Judas fought fiercely, and finally inspired the soldiers to fight back from the Liao soldiers. Mainstay.

In the memorial, Tong Guan vaguely mentioned that the mutiny in the Hebei camp was related to the deduction of rewards. Prince Zhao Ke was too fearful of the enemy and did not want to go to the frontier to risk arrows. The morale of the army is depressed, and Tong Guan is willing to confront the coward who led to the death of his teacher and humiliation of the country in front of the officials.

Tong Guan also claimed that Wang Yan, Sima Wang Yan of the Hebei marching army, is worthy of great use. At present, the Liao people's attacks have been repeatedly repelled, and the situation in Hejian has gradually stabilized, enough to take on the responsibility of guarding Hejian. At present, there are tens of thousands of defeated troops in the Hebei camp. Scattered outside Hejian, he is willing to clean up the defeated army, expel the Liao soldiers from Hebei, and manage Youyan for the official family.

On the night when the camp in Hebei was attacked by Khitan cavalry, most of the civil officials and scribes were lost.Together with the secretary in charge Zhou Dingchen, Tong Guan summoned all the civil servants with Xiaochang's writing style to draft the daily military newspaper.

Therefore, the marching Sima Wang Yan, who was coordinating the city defense, was short of people. Zhao Xingde, who had nothing to do, became Wang Yan's clerk. The subordinate staff of the big camp were arranged to give porridge to the old and the weak every day.Zhao Xingde is proficient in mental calculations, he can often calculate the days of ration distribution and support for the whole city just by closing his eyes and concentrating on it.

When the armies asked for supplementary military supplies, Wang Yan often asked casually, "Is the storage in storage still available for use?" or, "Is the previous distribution really used up?" he.

With this opportunity, Zhao Xingde can be regarded as one of the people who know the situation in Hejian City best.In the city, there are more than 4 imperial troops from various ministries, 22 Xiang troops, and 6 common people. Among the common people, there are 4 young adults and [-] healthy women. The rest are unusable. Food for the old and the weak.There are a lot of military reserves in the city, but due to the influx of people into the city, there is a shortage of food and grass.Some scribes have already reminded Wang Yan not to fall into the tricks of the Liao people and stop letting the fleeing people into the city.

"These are the people of our Great Song Dynasty," Wang Yan pointed to the endless stream of people supporting the old and the young under the tower, and the Liao soldiers burned all the nearby villages that could be burned. "What you eat in your mouth and wear on your body are all people's fat and people's ointment. Now our people are in deep water and fire, and we can bear to abandon them. How is it different from humans and beasts? How is it different from me and Liao thieves?"

Wang Yan was usually unsmiling and quite serious, and his staff dared not persuade him any more.

Zhao Xingde could only calculate repeatedly to distribute gruel to the people in the city so that no one would starve to death, and the food and grass could still last for three months.Zhao Xingde reckoned that the Liao army had no foresight to burn down the villages, and it was at a time when they were in a desperate situation. The logistics of the 10,000+ Liao soldiers who invaded the invaders were also worrying. However, the Liao soldiers had an advantage over the Song army in the besieged city. They could always find something to eat in the wild Yes, if it is not possible, you can still eat horse meat.

Although the Liao army did not attack the city, Song and Liao also had confrontations. Every few days, Liao general Yelu Dashi would send people to send letters to persuade Wang Yan to surrender. When Zhao Xingde read it to Wang Yan, Wang Yan didn't bother to reply. All the envoys, whether Khitan or Han, cut off their ears and put them back, and Yelu Dashi stopped trying to persuade him to surrender.

"This Wang Yan is really disgusting. My lord, I would like to bring a fine cavalry and burn down the wharf outside Hejian City first." Brother Yelu Tie, the commander of the soldiers, said angrily.

"Don't worry about this moment." Yelu Dashi looked at Hejian City, two wide rivers flowed through its north and south sides, and there were ice edges floating on the river, "Hejian is a great city, even if we have giant artillery bombardment If the defenders try their best to defend it, it will be difficult to conquer it in a short period of time. The art of war calls encircling three ques and opening one side, so let's keep this pier."

This time, the elite soldiers of the Nanjing Road in the Liao Kingdom will come out in full force. There are [-] elite cavalry just under the Hejian City, plus the entourage who raided the grass valley and plundered the people, a total of more than [-] cavalry. Most of these cavalry are not in the fork of the Yellow River. In the big camp, but in units of thousands of people, spread out around a wider ground.

The cavalry and entourage of each Khitan cavalry captured two or three Hebei civilians and forced them to look for fodder and food.At night, the Khitan camps and bonfires are as overwhelming as the stars in the sky.At the same time, people from the north kept coming here, and the camps built by the Khitan people were busy, but at night, most of them were empty and pitch-black.

The night was cold, and Wang Yan was still patrolling the city wall with his followers. Since he served as the commander of Jinyan Mansion, he had subdued many bandits and bandits, but this was the first time he led troops to defend the city under the pressure of the Liao army. He urged Tong Guan to retreat to Hejian, and Tong Guan took advantage of the situation and entrusted him with the task of defending the city.

The generals were frightened by the power of Jinyan Mansion, although they didn't dare to disobey their orders, they always seemed to secretly read a joke, Wang Yan had to force himself to do everything by himself, Zhao Xingde was tired by him, after twenty days, he was also black She lost a lot of weight, and looked like a clerk who had been in the army for many years.

When they came to a cave where soldiers were hiding behind the city wall, they saw the fire brightly and extinguished, as if the soldiers were warming to the fire.Because the soldiers often dozed off at night, Wang Yan and others also approached quietly, but they heard someone talking in the cave of the soldiers, Wang Yan felt strange, so he asked Zhao Xingde and others to lower their footsteps and listen to the conversation of these soldiers something.

But a voice slowly said: "During the Yongtai period of the former Tang Dynasty, there was a scholar surnamed Wang in Yangzhou Xiaogan Temple. This scholar was drinking too much, just like today's cold night. The bed fell down, and the hand was still hanging on the ground. The guy was worried that he was suffering from the wind and cold, so he lifted the hot blanket and was about to pull the scholar's hand up. I saw a big withered hand in the dark, tightly grasping the scholar's arm, and pulling it violently into the ground." This man seemed to be a thick and narrow ghost, and when he told such scary stories in the cold night, his tone seemed to be With a heavy ghostly aura, he suddenly made a loud noise at the critical moment, which was really scary.

"The 'woman' was weak and couldn't bear it, so the scholar's body was pulled into the ground by the giant hands. But the whole family was frightened, and they called the servants to grab the scholar's thigh together, not letting him go. He sank to the ground, but he was no match for the strength of the withered bones. In the end, the scholar disappeared into the cracks. The woman lost her husband, crying and making noises. She called the whole family to move the bed and dig down more than two feet. The bones of the dead were only dug out in the depths of the city, and it seems that it has been hundreds of years. But the scholar surnamed Wang has never been found again.” At the time when the cold wind was howling, everyone thought about it, and after that night, a big living person died Being dragged into the underworld by the ghost like this, I can't help feeling a little chilly on the back of my neck.

Then a soldier said: "Su Wenyu, let you tell stories to wake you up, but don't always talk about these ghosts and ghosts. This drowsiness is awakened, but can people sleep again?" Laughing, mocking the soldier just now for being cowardly.

Zhao Xingde didn't expect that this group of soldiers would gather in the cave to listen to ghost stories because of the long night, recalling the past, he couldn't help but smile knowingly.At this time, Wang Yan's brows were also slightly relaxed, he coughed lightly, and led the army to step in. When the eight soldiers on duty at night saw Wang Sima patrolling the night, they all got up and saluted him.

"Who was talking just now?" Wang Yan looked around. They were all young soldiers, most of whom were tall and burly, but their clothes were different from ordinary Hebei soldiers. "The last general, Su Wenyu, please forgive Wang Sima!" the one in the middle bowed his head and said.

Wang Yan looked up and down, his eyes fell on a plaque on his waist, and he suddenly smiled and said, "It's from the disciple of the bow horse? Zhou Tiju is good, why don't you teach the seven books of martial arts, but look at 'Youyang Miscellaneous Zu'?" 'coming."

This school for bow and horse disciples is the school that specializes in teaching bow and horse generals in Bianjing Middle School. Wang Yan was also born here. He has been in the army in Hebei for more than ten years. , also touched the old feelings, raised his hand to let them all sit down.

Seeing that Wang Yan didn't seem to reprimand them, everyone sat down together. After hearing that Wang Yan was also a disciple of the bow horse, Su Wenyu even laughed and said: "Zhou Tiju didn't teach it, so I will find myself to pass the time."

Although these horse archers in Beijing were not as knowledgeable as the Tai students, they had read a lot of miscellaneous books and were bold in nature. The winter night was cold, so Wang Yan and these soldiers gathered around the fire to warm up the charcoal fire.Zhao Xingde has always been unassuming, and when it comes to the free school, he plans to continue to open it in the besieged city of Hejian, and also print the stories of the troops fighting the enemy bravely, so as to boost the morale of the troops.