Dawn of the Empire

Chapter 67 Learning the Sword and Turning Itself (1)

They all deployed Tong Guan to escape, which dealt a blow to the soldiers and civilians in the city of Hejian.Seeing that the way of life was cut off, Zhao Xingde was a little dazed and fell asleep in the tower.There were always suppressed cries outside the city tower, Xingde tossed and turned, secretly regretting in his heart, if there was a person in the city who deserved to die, it would be me in a daze, knowing that Tong Guan was a big traitor with a bad reputation for thousands of years, but he was full of faith His falsification.Gentlemen can be deceived by methods. When they come to the world, they blindly follow the light and dust, and the rotten articles and academics are not much less, but what is the use?Now, it is impossible to survive.Is the only way to survive in this era is to become as unscrupulous as Tong Guan?

Later, he thought of evil, and viciously missed machine guns, gas bombs, germ warfare, and atomic bombs. He wished that the whole world would be destroyed, and the good, treacherous, stupid, and cunning would all end together.If the Khitan people and Eunuch Tong were really lucky enough to see these things, there might not even be dust left.It's a pity that the scholar rebelled and failed in three years. These things are too far away.Zhao Xingde was so regretful that he almost pulled out his hair, and his head was feverish in the cynical curse, his energy was exhausted, and finally he fell asleep unknowingly.

There was a din of people, and Zhao Xingde woke up to the roar of cannons.The sound of shouting and killing filled the eardrums, the sky was twilight, and the Khitans had already driven the captured Hebei people to form the front team to attack the city.

"It's a pity, if it's escorted to Shangjing, it's worth at least one tael of gold. The servants in Shangjing are getting more and more expensive." Liao General Yelu Tiege stood on his horse and watched as Khitan cavalry escorted thousands of Song people to the city with iron shovels on their shoulders. Going forward, there were a few who would rather die than attack the city earlier, and killed the owl's head on the spot to show the public, and the rest had no choice but to obey in order to live longer, like carrying a heavy burden like Hejian City. Moving away, many people in front have already fallen under the crossbow arrows and stones of the Song army. For these people, a happy death may be a kind of relief instead.

"Nanjing Road is the same. Before going out, some nobles asked me to take more southerners back." Guo Baoyi waved his horse whip and pointed at the city of Hejian, "It's all because of this rebellious southern barbarian. Cutting off the riches of the men, if that Zhao Xingde who wrote the article is caught, he will definitely be quartered."

"It's better to light the sky lantern, and burn it slowly." Brother Yelu Tie laughed, he almost forgot Guo Baoyi's identity as a Haner.

The vulgar words of these two subordinates made Yelu Dashi frowned slightly, but taking the southerners as slaves was originally one of the main purposes of the Liao Kingdom's southern invasion, so he couldn't reprimand him too much. Observe Hejian City Head.

The bombardment of iron barrels and cannons has caused a large area of ​​wall bricks to bear the brunt of the western city wall to peel off, exposing the rammed earth wall and wall foundation, which is convenient for excavation. The base of the city wall.The comrades-in-arms on the top of the city, the crenels, and even the city tower were knocked down by the heavy stone bullets from the giant cannon, which greatly weakened the defense strength of the Song army. Yelu Dashi estimated that after several days of digging like this, there will be a few more spring rains , this section of the city wall of Hejian City is about to collapse, and that is when the city will be slaughtered.As for how many Song people would be killed or injured during the excavation of the city wall, Yelu Dashi, who was not interested in slaves, was also not interested.The people used to be the greatest wealth of Song, but not anymore.

Huang Laoqi of Suicheng was shot in the shoulder by a crossbow arrow before he reached the bottom of the city wall, and the soil bag fell off. Just as he turned around to pick up the shovel again, the Khitan cavalry passed by quickly behind him, and an arrow shot In the middle of the heart, "Father, mother, the child is not filial!" Huang Laoqi fell to the ground with his face facing the loess.Qiu Yu from Jinghai managed to get to the bottom of the city wall, and the arrows from above fell like rain, "Dig quickly, dig quickly, as long as you have a shovel of wall soil, you can survive today."

The rammed earth was very hard, and there was only a mark when the shovel went down. There were screams around him one after another. Not only did some people fall in a pool of blood, Qiu Yu was so stimulated that he stabbed the city wall with the shovel once, twice, and three times. Just when the city wall was a little loose, a piece of rock fell from the top of the city, hitting his sky cap, and fell to the side, dead in sight.

Just after Qiu Yu fell, Chen San'er who was behind was driven to the bottom of the city wall by the Khitan people. He just shoveled on the wall that Qiu Yu had loosened just now. Now he was ecstatic, and was about to put the wall soil into the cloth bag, when suddenly he was hit hard on the back, lying face down in the mud soaked in a pool of blood, and stomped heavily on him, Chen San'er saw Hei, I don't know who picked up the clod and ran back quickly.

The Khitan cavalry guarded the front line, and a Han official urged the Han soldiers to line up to stop every civilian who survived by chance, and opened the cloth bag. The rammed earth of the city wall was made of lime and river sand mixed with glutinous rice juice. It is firm and not easy to collapse, and it can be seen at a glance, which is different from other soils. "Okay, let's go down and eat something." The horse and donkey of the Han army camp said, patting a sweaty commoner, looking at the city wall in front, and sighing. If you don't live, it's time for the Han army camp to work hard.

Under the city tower, the corpses of the common people have already been covered with a thick layer. Because of the pool of blood and trampling, it is already a piece of purple-red mud, and more are still rushing forward under the driving of the Liao army. Although the Liao army's offensive Not fierce, not even a single Khitan approached the city wall between the rivers.

Wang Yan walked into the city tower with a livid face, and put his helmet on the table, "We must attack the enemy!" He said in a deep voice, "Otherwise, if we continue to dig like this, the city wall will be difficult to protect."

"My lord!" Zhao Xingde was shocked when he saw Wang Yan's appearance.

"what happened?"

"Your forehead, why..." Zhao Xingde saw clearly, there were four blood-red tattoos, "Oath to Shouhejian".

At that time, the army soldiers were despised and humiliated by the world, and the tattoo on their faces was a major reason. At the beginning, Di Qing was assigned a high position in the camp, and some people even laughed at him as Ban'er.Only the tattoos were specially tattooed for soldiers. The descendants of hereditary generals, such as Wang Yan and Su Wenyu, who were born in bow horses, were officers as soon as they joined the army, so they didn't have tattoos on their faces.

Wang Yan is also the commanding officer of Hebei's various armies. He holds two important positions in Jinyan Mansion Hebei Commanding and Controlling. He usually has the most important appearance, and even has a gentle and refined demeanor. Zhao Xingde couldn't but be taken aback by the tattoo of his status as a lowly soldier.

"In order to cheer up the morale of the army, I have to do this." Wang Yan stroked his forehead and said without saying anything more.

He handled military affairs in an orderly manner in the city tower, sometimes encouraging the generals who came forward, and sometimes sternly reprimanding the military officials who could not move the offensive and defensive equipment in place in time. Generals Bi Sheng, Feng Mei and others have already accepted After Tong Guan abandoned the city, Wang Yan became the supreme commander of the city. He personally came to ask for instructions on the city defense, and Han Shizhong, who had just woken up from a coma, was also supported by his own soldiers to greet the new commander. .

The soldiers brought by Wang Yan also followed suit. In addition to the original tattoo, a new tattoo of "Oath to Shouhejian" was tattooed on the forehead. Zhao Xingde also gradually understood why the generals like to ask for instructions and report here, because the soldiers and civilians in Hejian, who were just ashamed because the commander escaped, can find hope again here.Many people had sad faces when they came in, but they were much calmer when they went out.

"Since you're awake, go out with me to inspect the city wall." Wang Yan finished his military affairs and said to Zhao Xingde who had been sitting beside him. "By the way," he clasped his forehead with his hand, took out a confession from the file on the desk, and handed it to Zhao Xingde, "These days, Yuan Zhi has helped me a lot, and the eunuch is not easy to do things when he is here. Now that the 'traitor' is gone, I ask you to take over the title of my Jinyan Mansion for the time being."

Zhao Xingde took the notice and took a look, the writing on the already yellowed paper "Secretary of Quantu Qizhang of Hebei Jinyan Mansion of the Imperial City of the Great Song Dynasty" was old, but the words "Zhao Xingde" were newly added.

According to the imperial court system, the frontier commanders would bring some such blanks when they took office, so as to promote the generals with meritorious service in time without reporting to the capital.And because Jinyan Mansion wanted to subdue the Han people in the Liao Kingdom, the horse thieves on the border of the Liao and Song Dynasties, and the bandits in the Taihang Mountains as the imperial court's help, there were also many blank "battalion commanders", "dutou", "a certain army" in the hands of the officials. Du Yuhou" such a blank report.Just fill in the name when you want to use it.

Wang Yan also briefly introduced to him some of the components of Jinyan Mansion, which can be roughly divided into three parts: the special operations for detection, the short-term assault cavalry, and the feathers for assassinating the enemy. Loyalty, a reckless righteous man who helped the court resist Di Yi, or a thief.And Xingde's secretary in charge is different from other military positions, he is an internal affairs official of Jinyan Mansion, and the people in the mansion can tell at a glance that their identities are different from those outsiders who recruited security.

"Here, thank you Commander!" Zhao Xingde took the confession, this confession is different from others, in addition to the gold seal, there is also a signature of the commander Wang Yan, you know, many heroes in the world do not recognize the official seal, But recognize the name of the king's rule.

"Your writing is outstanding, your skills are good, your mind is very careful, and you are very decisive in your actions. You killed that Hu'er with two arrows with Han Shizhong. If it weren't for you to participate in Qiu Wei in the future, and you will be a noble civil servant in the middle school, I would be very disappointed." I want to keep you in Jinyan Mansion and help me manage the overall situation in Hebei." Wang Yan said with a smile, "It's a pity that if that's the case, your master Chao Wujiu and father-in-law Dr. Li will definitely not divorce me."

Zhao Xingde was tongue-tied, unexpectedly, in a short time, Wang Yan found out that it was he and Han Shizhong who did it.

"Although Han Shizhong is careful, he is unfamiliar after all. If you check carefully, you will always 'reveal' some flaws. Don't worry, I will let you clean up all the clues." Wang Yan said, taking the iron Helm, got up and went out, Zhao Xingde hurriedly followed behind him.

The soldiers outside all bowed respectfully to salute when they saw Wang Yan. Zhao Xingde was surprised to find that in just the middle of the night, quite a few soldiers had tattoos on their foreheads, just like Wang Yan, although the handwriting was unbearable. , but they are all four words, "swear to guard the river".