When the Seventh Army of China ignited the flames west of the Hanzhong Plain against Wanyan Zonghan, the beacon fires of Jiange (Sword Pavilion) also blazed fiercely for days.

Qu Zhengyan did not complete his planned capture of Jiange within three days as expected.

Facing Bali Su, who had embraced a death wish and defended the territory with extraordinary determination, Qu Zhengyan, whose forces did not have a numerical advantage, made slow progress in climbing the mountain. Historically, being able to break through the forward passes and steadily advance was already a unique achievement. Moreover, in subsequent battles, the Chinese army, as the attacking side, consistently maintained a certain advantage. Considering the current troop strength and firepower comparison at Jiange, it was already close to a miraculous situation.

With the miniaturization of iron cannons not yet achieving a decisive breakthrough, it was difficult for the unit led by Qu Zhengyan to drag a large number of artillery pieces through the narrow mountain roads of the southwest for siege warfare. The few dozen rockets brought along could indeed gain a certain advantage in long-range duels, but their limited number could not determine the overall direction of the battle.

Bali Su scattered the cannons in various locations on the mountain ridges. Once in a losing position, he would ignite the gunpowder barrels and destroy the cannons. This resolute resistance made it difficult for the Chinese army to seize the cannons and then launch a successful assault upwards.

Apart from the increasingly scarce "Dijiang" rockets, Qu Zhengyan's only advantage was that the troops under his command were the elite of the elite. Once engaged in melee combat, they could suppress the enemy forces. However, even so, the Jin soldiers, aware that they could hardly return home and that surrender would not lead to a good end, did not easily lay down their weapons.

Qu Zhengyan, who was always good at walking a tightrope and employing surprise tactics, abandoned the plan to carry out overly risky surprise attacks in this battle after seeing Bali Su's resistant stance. Playing tricks in front of an old general of Bali Su's caliber was very likely to lead to a fall on the battlefield.

Considering these factors, the battle of Jiange subsequently became a fierce but relatively methodical operation. The Chinese army identified a point in each attack, then eliminated it, advancing step by step towards the summit. Once Bali Su organized a counterattack, they would calmly organize a defense, countering each other's moves. Qu Zhengyan did not gain much advantage in terms of military strategy, but Bali Su's several sudden counterattacks, and even large-scale bombardments, were calmly blocked and resolved by Qu Zhengyan.

Many years later, this defense and offense involving several thousand soldiers on each side would appear in military history again and again. Both sides exhausted all their means in this fierce and frequent confrontation.

This was the last battle in the life of Bali Su, a veteran general of the Jin Dynasty. On the one hand, he faced everything with a do-or-die attitude, calmly facing the retreat step by step, the death of soldiers, and the compression of the defense line. On the other hand, despite the fact that the reversal of combat power was like Mount Tai pressing down on him, he still organized fierce resistance at several key points and set up clever traps and ambush countermeasures.

Just like many Jurchen generals who followed Aguda in the uprising decades ago, although they had indulged in pleasure when everything went smoothly in the conquest of Liao and the subjugation of the Wu Dynasty, they still showed the same spirit as they did in resisting this world, calmly resisting in the face of huge disadvantages, and trying to tear a glimmer of life in this world.

But this time, Qu Zhengyan calmly extinguished every spark of hope he had.

At the same time, Qu Zhengyan and the Fifth Army of China inside Jiange were actually facing an extremely anxious psychological state.

The Seventh Army of China outside Jiange had already reported Wanyan Zonghan's restless state and intentions, and the staff headquarters of the Seventh Army was prepared for a head-on confrontation. On the one hand, this was the last chance for the Seventh Army to directly confront Zonghan's forces. On the other hand, it was also to cope with the partial setbacks in Xiangfan and other places caused by Dai Mengwei's rebellion. If this battle was not fought, including Qi Xinhan and the resistance forces of the Han army in that area, would be very uncomfortable.

Ning Yi could understand the necessity of this, but on the other hand, although the combat power of the Seventh Army had been estimated in earlier martial arts competitions and tactical demonstrations, exercises and discussions were one thing, and being truly pulled onto the ever-changing battlefield was another. Fighting 90,000 with 20,000, if they fell into the enemy's trap, there was a possibility of complete annihilation, and it was not small.

As Qu Zhengyan's siege of Jiange unfolded, the troop strength inside the Fifth Army of China in the southwest had already been adjusted bit by bit. Ning Yi, like a miser, made further deductions from the already extremely tense troop structure. On the one hand, he tried to organize more militia to go forward. On the other hand, he took out more than a thousand soldiers from the already stretched troop strength and prepared to advance to Jiange.

The whole process was done against the clock, and the deduction and new arrangements were completed within three days. In the middle of this, some unspeakable arrangements were criticized in later generations. Ning Yi concentrated the reduction of troops on the guards of several prisoner-of-war camps, and at the same time strengthened the armed status of nearby troops in a targeted manner. When the staff headquarters reported that this might allow the prisoners to seize the opportunity and cause a mutiny, Ning Yi's answer was: "If there is a mutiny, then deal with the mutiny."

Facing the tension and uncontrollability of the situation outside Jianmen Pass, such a response showed that Ning Yi had, to some extent, prepared for a large-scale massacre of prisoners, especially his actions of strengthening epidemic prevention forces and distributing epidemic prevention manuals near the prisoner-of-war camps where the troop strength was reduced, which further corroborated this speculation. This was to deal with the situation when a large number of corpses appeared in the humid mountains. The Chinese soldiers who noticed this trend raised the level of tension to another level in the following days.

Simultaneous with the troop transfer, Hou Wu, Hou Yuanyong, and other personnel responsible for guarding the prisoners deliberately revealed the entire troop deployment framework to the "leaders" among the prisoners. In particular, Ning Yi's understated order to "deal with the mutiny" was exaggerated in various ways.

The troop strength of the Chinese army was indeed stretched, but the demon of the heart had put down his mercy and was ready to take more cruel countermeasures... This news spread among some middle and high-level Jurchen prisoners who still had prestige, and the atmosphere among the prisoners became more tense and murderous. Death or resistance, this was the last free choice faced by some Jin prisoners in their lives.

On April 20th, Qu Zhengyan did not capture Jiange as scheduled. Ning Yi lost his temper and asked someone to send a message to the front line: "Ask him, do you want me to come myself?"

The end of the Battle of Jiange was on the afternoon of April 22nd. Bali Su, who had been forced to the end, allowed the remaining Jin soldiers to surrender to the Chinese army, and then led eight guards to launch an attack.

This was his last charge. The Chinese soldiers nearby launched a frontal defense. His guards were killed one by one by the Chinese army. A Chinese platoon leader named Wang Dai fought Bali Su in a one-on-one battle. Both sides had been injured in the previous battle, but Bali Su was eventually killed by Wang Dai in a pool of blood.

Ning Yi led more than 1,200 people and arrived at Jiange that afternoon. Jiange is more than 300 miles away from Hanzhong in a straight line. Considering the winding roads, it would probably take about 500 miles to reach the battlefield. He ordered more than 1,200 fresh troops to set off first and attack Zhaohua as quickly as possible: "Tell Wanyan Zonghan, I'm coming to kill him."

On the same night, he also received the initial battle report from the Hanzhong Plain in Jiange. Ning Yi and Qu Zhengyan looked at each other in shock: "What a joke, how can Nianhan play micromanagement like this!"

Qu Zhengyan didn't quite understand the meaning of "micromanagement," but he sighed: "The will of these Jurchens is very firm." When the battle situation is at a disadvantage, either a brave man cuts off his wrist or it's a complete defeat, but Zonghan didn't do that. He threw out troops wave after wave, just wanting to exhaust the Seventh Army of China. If such a will were placed on the people of the Wu Dynasty in those years, there would have been no second invasion of the Jin Dynasty.

"...Zonghan doesn't want to conduct a large-scale decisive battle, throwing out his troops like this. Each unit will only have some combat power in the first engagement. Once defeated, he can only rely on how firm the will of these Jurchens to go home is. I estimate that Zonghan may have set a medium-term goal, telling these people where to gather after being defeated, and then using middle-level generals to collect the defeated soldiers, but the combat power of the defeated soldiers is limited... I think, he may make people feel that the troop strength is endless at first, but to a certain extent, the whole structure will collapse... General Qin also saw this possibility, so he simply chose to respond to all changes with the same approach, fighting slowly time after time..."

Qu Zhengyan speculated on the direction of the entire battle on the map. The distance was too far, and such speculation might not be useful, but overall, the Seventh Army did not fall into a trap and collapse directly, and was able to fight calmly overall, which somewhat alleviated Ning Yi's anxiety.

"These spendthrifts..." When he cursed like this occasionally, his tone was much kinder.

At dawn on the 23rd, before dawn, 1,200 Chinese troops took advantage of the darkness to sneak attack and break through the ancient city of Zhaohua, which was currently guarded by the Han army.

After the Jurchens left, there were about 20,000 Han army troops guarding here, but the attack encountered almost no resistance. They seemed to have expected the Chinese army to come. When the vanguard of the Chinese army quickly climbed the city wall with ropes, almost without much fighting, the Han army guards in the city had already knelt down at the sight of the black flag.

According to subsequent interrogations, some Han army leaders had already escaped from the city with the remaining gold and silver last night.

After the troops who captured Jiange rested briefly, Ning Yi and Qu Zhengyan transferred 800 fresh troops who still had combat power to Zhaohua to join the vanguard.

At noon on the same day, Fan Hong'an, the battalion commander of the Second Battalion of the Third Regiment of the Second Division of the Seventh Army of China, led his team to deceive the southern gate of Hanzhong open: From a macro perspective, the tens of thousands of troops led by Zonghan at this time were generally being smashed into pieces by the heavy hammer of the Chinese army. Some Jin soldiers who were defeated and scattered were escaping towards Hanzhong. Since failure had been considered in advance, the Jurchens could not refuse these defeated soldiers.

The circulation system woven by Zonghan in a short period of time still had problems in some operations. Fan Hong'an took advantage of this loophole and began to build fortifications after capturing the city gate. That afternoon, Chen Hai led more than 700 people and rushed towards here - he was also eyeing Hanzhong, but Fan Hong'an had taken the lead.

After that, Gao Qingyi led his team into the city from the west gate. Zonghan, Saba, Sheyema and others were also transferred here. When the world was

In the afternoon, Qin Shaoqian also arrived in Hanzhong. The crowd was constantly gathering. Street fighting broke out in Hanzhong City, and preparations for positional warfare began outside the city.

That evening, Wanyan Xiyin led a mighty fleet to appear on the Han River east of Hanzhong. The army he led was the last 10,000 or so active forces that the Jurchen Western Route Army could use. Upon learning of the signs of war here, he immediately abandoned the plan to besiege Qi Xinhan near Xiangfan and mobilized the fleet to advance westward against the Han River. At this moment, his appearance brought great pressure to the Seventh Army on the Hanzhong battlefield.

From last year to this year, Wanyan Xiyin's existence has indeed been the most troublesome thing for the Seventh Army. Even though the Seventh Army was strong in combat power, Xiyin's response was always the most correct and the most difficult to deal with. At first, the Seventh Army Yuqiang attacked Zhaohua and launched a round of fighting with the Tushan Guard, but Xiyin mobilized hundreds of thousands of Han army cannon fodder, which made the Seventh Army's attack fruitless. This year, he manipulated the situation in Xiangfan and caused tens of thousands of Han troops to be destroyed after rebelling. Even Qi Xinhan's long-distance march at great risk finally fell into a trap, and the resistance forces of the Green Forest near Xiangfan were swept away.

Dealing with such an enemy is like dealing with Ning Yi. Although they are not afraid in terms of combat power, no one knows when they will fall into a pit. Psychologically, there will always be pressure.

But fortunately, another round of news has also arrived.

The Fifth Army of China broke through Jiange, killed Bali Su, and then broke Zhaohua. Ning Yi and Qu Zhengyan are leading their troops and rushing towards Hanzhong. Once this demon of the heart catches his tail, the defeat of Wangyuan Bridge may be repeated again on the banks of the Han River.

On March 24th, the Han army troops in Xiangfan and other places east and south of the Han River were unable to judge from the intelligence which side, the Seventh Army of China or Zonghan's main force, had the upper hand, but the news of Ning Yi killing out of Jianmen Pass had already spread within a thousand miles.

At this time, Dai Mengwei and others had not completed the reception of a large number of Jurchen supplies and personnel south of Xiangfan, and the deeds of him "saving" millions of people were only in the early stages of publicity. On this day, the various Han army generals who had gathered near Xicheng County and had just pledged allegiance to Dai Mengwei met and exchanged news in private.

"The demon of the heart killed out of Jiange... and is heading towards Hanzhong..."

When people talked about this, their faces and tones were pale and serious...

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