Angry Banana
Chapter 833 Plundering (IV)
The towers atop the city walls had already collapsed in the explosions, the crenellations were breached, and banners lay toppled. Before them, the vanguard of the Jurchen attack, over fifty thousand strong, massed below the city, hundreds of catapults launching hollow stone bullets filled with gunpowder like a rainstorm upon the walls.
Inside Tianchang County, thirty thousand troops under the command of Jie Yuan, a general under Han Shizhong—stationed in Tianchang County, the front line north of Yangzhou, bore the brunt of the Jurchen advance. Though small, the city was easy to defend. The garrison of thirty thousand soldiers, supplemented by over two hundred iron cannons, formed a more than adequate defense. However, with the arrival of Wanyan Zongbi’s Jurchen vanguard, the initial assault proved far more intense than anyone had imagined.
More than a decade had passed since Ning Yi championed the "Investigation of Things," allowing cannons to shine during the Jurchens' first southward invasion. In those ten years, the Huaxia Army became the pioneers of this philosophy, accumulating the most technical knowledge under Ning Yi's guidance. The Wu Dynasty had Emperor Junwu, and the Jurchens had Wanyan Xiyin, who oversaw the Great Crafting Institute. Both sides researched and manufactured in parallel, but in terms of overall scale, the Jurchen side possessed the largest technical force.
Over ten years, the Jurchens launched three southward invasions, capturing millions of Han Chinese from the Central Plains. Among them, the Jurchens treated ordinary Han Chinese as slaves and women as livestock, but valued various artisans the most. The Wu Dynasty, with its two centuries of accumulation, was once the most prosperous and developed in the Central Plains. These artisans were taken to the north and divided among various factions. Although they lost their creative spark, they could still perform ordinary manual labor.
In contrast, although the power of "Investigation of Things" had been partially demonstrated in the Wu Dynasty, scholars and Confucianists still avoided it due to Ning Yi's act of assassinating the emperor, calling it a temporary expedient. They turned a blind eye to Emperor Junwu's efforts, but there was no support in public opinion. Without encouragement in public opinion, Emperor Junwu could not forcibly conscript artisans from all over the world to work for war preparations. Although the research vitality was higher than that of the Jin, in terms of scale, the assets that Emperor Junwu had accumulated in Jiangning were ultimately no match for the national strength of the Jurchens.
The crude hollow-shell blasting technology had been available to the Huaxia Army for several years, and they naturally sold it, using it in cannons. However, Wanyan Xiyin was even more radical. Over the years, he had workers precisely control the burning speed of the fuse, using hollow stone bullets with fixed fuses, ten rounds per bundle, and launching them with longer-range catapults, strictly calculating and controlling the launch distance and steps. Before firing, they lit the fuse, striving for the explosion to occur upon landing. These types of siege stone bullets were called "Celestial Maiden Scattering Flowers."
Upon arriving in Tianchang, Zongbi immediately used these shells on the battlefield.
After the first three rounds of test shots for calculation, half of the hundreds of catapults began to launch the "Celestial Maiden Scattering Flowers." Thousands of stone bullets fell simultaneously. Because the method of controlling the fuse was still too primitive, half of them went out or exploded in the air. Only about one-seventh or one-eighth actually landed on the city walls and then exploded. The small stone bullets did not have much power, but they still caused many defending soldiers to be injured and fall to the ground in the first instant.
Severed limbs and broken legs scattered everywhere, and the smell of blood and gunpowder filled the air. Zongbi stood in the battle formation, watching the explosions on the city walls like blooming flowers, with smoke and wailing engulfing the entire wall.
His fierce eyes relaxed slightly.
Among Aguda's sons, the fourth, also known as Wushu, Wanyan Zongbi, was the most valiant and aggressive. He was younger, and when he first went into battle, the Jurchens had almost wiped out the entire Liao Dynasty. Wushu had plenty of courage but lacked strategy. In the eyes of some veteran generals who had conquered the world, he was just an ordinary prince.
Wushu was not content to be an ordinary prince. After his second brother, Zongwang, passed away, his third brother, Zongfu, was too cautious and moderate to maintain the prestige of the Aguda clan, unable to compete with Zonghan and Xiyin, who controlled the "Western Court." Wushu, who had always regarded Zongwang as a role model, stepped forward without hesitation.
The Jurchens had been attacking the Wu for more than ten years, and Wushu was the most enthusiastic. He inherited the bravery of the Wanyan clan, always leading the charge. By the time of the third southward invasion, he had become the dominant figure in the royal family. During the entire "Mountain Search and Sea Sweep," Wushu fought fiercely south of the Yangtze River, with hardly any generals to match him. However, Zhou Yong hid at sea and dared not return. At that time, the Jurchens could attack but not defend the southern lands, and Wushu had to withdraw his troops north. This time, he suffered a slight setback in Huangtiandang, where he was trapped for more than forty days before breaking out.
Who can win every battle when leading troops? The Jurchens had a long history of warfare. Even Aguda, Wanyan Wugunai, Zonghan, and Zongwang occasionally suffered minor setbacks. No one took Huangtiandang seriously. However, the people of the Wu Dynasty were very excited about it. For years, they had been proclaiming Huangtiandang as a great victory, saying that the Jurchens could be defeated. After a long time, when this situation was passed on to the north, those who knew the inside story were dumbfounded. For Zongbi, it was a bit depressing.
Great victory my mother, what great victory! He was surrounded for more than forty days and didn't kill many people. In the end, he used fire to counterattack and chased Han Shizhong for more than seventy miles. The southerners dared to shamelessly claim it as a great victory!
Although Zongbi thought so in his heart, he could not stop the boasting of the Wu Dynasty. So, by the time of this fourth southward invasion, he was holding back a fire in his heart, which finally erupted in the Battle of Tianchang. This was because Jie Yuan was also a vanguard general under Han Shizhong, and with the arrival of the Jurchen army, he was still desperately publicizing the so-called "achievements" of defeating his side at Huangtiandang. Wushu's anger could not be suppressed at that time.
In his heart, both Jie Yuan and Han Shizhong were just worthless trash. This southward invasion would require the fastest speed to defeat this group of people, in order to deter the nearly one million Wu Dynasty troops in the Jiangnan area and secure the victory.
After three rounds of bombardment on the city walls, more than four thousand stone bullets had been consumed in the attack on this small city. Coupled with the bombardment of half-solid boulders, it seemed as if the entire city and the earth were shaking. Zongbi on his warhorse waved the flag and announced the order to attack.
In the thick smoke, the Jurchen banners began to spread towards the city walls.
The Jurchen's fourth attack on the Wu was a war that determined the fate of the Jin Dynasty. The trendsetters who rose in this era, with their still-rising bravery, rushed towards the land of the Wu Dynasty. A moment later, the sound of artillery fire rang out on the city walls, and Jie Yuan led his troops to rush to the city walls and begin to fight back.
On the second day after the start of the Battle of Tianchang, under the Jurchens' unusually strong offensive, Jie Yuan led his troops to abandon the city and retreat south. Wushu ordered the cavalry to pursue. Han Shizhong led his troops out of Yangzhou to meet Jie Yuan into the city, and a fierce battle broke out along the way. On June 27th, Sun Peizhi, the former general of the puppet Qi, led 100,000 people to besiege Gaoyou. North of the Yangtze River, fierce flames of war spread across the vast land.
On June 27th, on the same day that Sun Peizhi besieged Gaoyou, the attack of more than 100,000 troops also began at Liangshan Marsh, more than 1,000 miles north of here, thus opening the prelude to the long and arduous Battle of Liangshan.
More than 1,300 miles west of Yangzhou, Ali Guli, a Jurchen general who originally guarded Bianliang, led 20,000 elite troops to arrive in Nanyang, preparing to cooperate with the more than 100,000 Han troops originally stationed in Nanyang, Dengzhou, and Xinye to press on Xiangyang. This was an order issued by Wanyan Xiyin to cooperate with the Eastern Route Army's attack. The main force of the Western Route Army led by Zonghan had also crossed the Yellow River and was approaching Bianliang. Xiyin's vanguard of 60,000 troops was not far from the direction of Nanyang.
On the same day that Ali Guli's army arrived in Nanyang, Yue Fei led the *Beiwei* Army to take the initiative to attack Dengzhou, and that night, the Dengzhou guard sent an emergency report to the north. Ali Guli led his army to Dengzhou to relieve the siege. On June 29th, the 20,000 Jurchen elite troops, including 9,000 heavy cavalry, and the *Beiwei* Army led by Yue Fei, which was waiting in formation to encircle and strike reinforcements, came into contact twenty miles north of Dengzhou.
The bleak autumn was about to arrive. Jiangnan, the Central Plains... flames of war were spreading across the vast, undulating land spanning thousands of miles.
At the same time, the north was also not peaceful.
In Yunzhong Prefecture, where the Jin Dynasty's Western Court was located, the hottest weather at the turn of summer and autumn was coming to an end.
A tragedy that few people noticed was brewing in secret.
At the Gaoyue Teahouse, Zou Wenhu, a Han Chinese from Liaodong dressed in luxurious clothes, went up the stairs and met the person he had arranged to meet in the private room at the end of the second floor.
The person he had arranged to meet was a woman, dressed plainly but with stubborn eyes, and a mole-like scar on the corner of her left eye. The woman's surname was Xiao, the Xiao of the Liao Dynasty's "Empress Dowager Xiao." "Red Maiden" Xiao Shuqing was one of the famous bandits in Yunzhong.
After the fall of the Liao Dynasty, the Jin Dynasty suppressed and enslaved the Khitans for a period of time, and several massacres were carried out. However, the Khitans were brave and fierce, and it was impossible for the Jin to govern such a large area by massacres. Soon after, they began to use appeasement measures. After all, the Jin now had a more suitable target for enslavement. More than ten years after the fall of the Liao Dynasty, some Khitans had entered the high levels of the Jin Dynasty court, and the Khitan people at the bottom had also accepted the fact of being ruled by the Jurchens. But even if this fact was true for the vast majority, after the disaster of the country's demise, there were always a small number of Khitan members who still stood on the side of resistance, either not planning to get out or unable to get out.
Xiao Shuqing was a descendant of the original Xiao clan of the Liao Dynasty's Empress Dowager. Her husband was killed by the Jurchens when she was young, and later she was also humiliated and enslaved. After that, she was rescued by the surviving Khitan resistance forces, became a bandit, and gradually made a name for herself. Compared to the Han Chinese, who found it inconvenient to act in the north, even though the Liao Dynasty had fallen, there were still many former residents who missed the benefits of that time. Therefore, Xiao Shuqing and others were active near Yunzhong, and had not been wiped out for a long time. Some also suspected that they were still being protected by certain Khitan officials who were currently in high positions.
Seeing Zou Wenhu coming, the usually ruthless female bandit looked indifferent: "How is it? Has your young master made up his mind?"
"My master is somewhat tempted." Zou Wenhu moved a chair and sat down. "But the stakes are too high at this time. Have you thought about the consequences? Have you thought about how the entire court above might be shaken?"
Xiao Shuqing's eyes flashed with disdain: "Hmph, coward, your young master is, and so are you."
"Hey, Concubine Xiao, don't say that. Let's talk about the matter. It's not right to ruin people's reputation. Over the years, no one has ever said that Zou is a coward. But don't try to provoke me like that. I'm not a fool." The Xiao clan once ruled the world. After Xiao Shuqing made a name for herself, she was gradually referred to as Concubine Xiao. Facing the other party's disdain, Zou Wenhu picked his nose and didn't care.
"I know you're not a coward, but you're poor."
"Look what Concubine Xiao is saying." Zou Wenhu looked at the other party, and after a moment, smiled, "...You're right on the spot."
"Stop being glib." Xiao Shuqing glared at him. "I told you about this matter a long time ago. The Qi family is making such a big splash in the Jurchens' territory. What kind of scholarly family and century-old family? Which of those Jurchens have any face? It's okay to play with him, but it's not a big deal to see him unlucky. What's more, the Qi family has accumulated wealth in the Wu Dynasty for a hundred years. This time, the whole family is going north. Who doesn't covet it? Your young master is said to be the son of a duke, but it's a pity that the duke's father didn't leave anything behind, and he can't fight wars. The courageous people have gone south this time. In the future, when rewards are given for merit, another group of people will rise up. Your young master, and you, Zou Wenhu, will have to stand aside...
She played with her fingers as she spoke: "This matter is beneficial to everyone. And honestly, it's very dangerous for my men to risk their lives to move the Qi family. Your young master's duke's badge, don't say we're counting on you to deliver the goods, we definitely won't let anything happen to you. Even if something happens, you can't bear it? There won't be any more battles after the south is finished! Your young master, and you, have a bunch of children at home, watching them live a dusty life in the future?"
Listening to her words, Zou Wenhu's face showed a smile, but it gradually became fierce. Xiao Shuqing licked her lips: "Okay, I won't say any more nonsense. This matter is very big, and the Qi family is also very big. I can't swallow it, and we can't swallow it together. There are many people who nod their heads, and you know the rules. If you can nod your head on behalf of your young master, I'll tell you what I can tell you to keep you at peace. What I can't tell you is to protect you. Of course, if you shake your head, the matter ends here... Don't talk about it."
Speaking of this last sentence, a real murderous intent flashed in Xiao Shuqing's eyes. Zou Wenhu tilted his head to look at his fingers, and pondered for a moment: "The matter is so big, are you sure everyone who participates is clean?"
"Clean? That depends on how you say it." Xiao Shuqing smiled. "Anyway, if you nod your head, I'll tell you a few names to guarantee that they all have faces and identities. Besides, I've also said that everyone will only be happy to see the Qi family in trouble. As for what happens after the trouble, even if things come to light, can't your young master bear it? By then, the Qi family will have arrived, and a group of wolves in Yunzhong Prefecture will only pounce on them. If they have to catch someone and kill them to explain, then it's just us desperate bandits... Zou Wenhu, people say the older a *jianghu* person gets, the smaller their courage gets. The way you are, I really regret inviting you over."
The opposite side was quiet for a moment, then laughed: "Okay, good... Actually, Concubine Xiao, you can guess that since I can come to see you today, my young master has already nodded before I came out. I'm here to handle it..." He spread his hands, "I can't be too careful. You're right. Even if something happens, what is my young master afraid of? But can my young master still protect me?"
"Okay, little woman understands Zou Gong's difficulties." At this point, Xiao Shuqing finally smiled. "You and I are both desperate people. We'll take care of each other more in the future. Zou Gong knows the business and has connections everywhere in Yunzhong Prefecture. In fact, many things in the middle still need Zou Gong to help with the details."
Zou Wenhu also smiled.
"I'll do my best... It's also strange that this Qi family is too flamboyant. They offended a group of wealthy young masters, offended a poor ghost like me, offended a rebel like Concubine Xiao, and offended those desperate Black Flag bandits. Who else but him would die? Anyway, he's going to die, and his family property has to belong to someone else. If it belongs to you and me now, it's also doing a good deed, hahaha..."
In the room, both of them laughed. After a moment, another sentence came out.
"By the way, as for who will do it, it's that desperate Black Flag, right? He even dared to kill the emperor in the south. Helping him take the blame, I think he definitely wouldn't mind. Concubine Xiao, is that right, hahaha..."
Autumn is coming...
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