Chapter 29 The Twenty-Ninth Day of the Twelfth Month

On the twenty-ninth day of the twelfth month, as dusk approached, Taira no Kiyomori, weary from a day spent arranging matters for the Rear Army of the Imperial Guard, returned to camp with other members of the Akagokoro-tai (Red Heart Brigade), in small groups, trudging through the snow.

After a slight hesitation, or rather, after remembering that Niho no Tadamochi was of advanced age, and had spent the day ingratiating himself with the Dangxiang auxiliary soldiers as a close retainer of the Emperor, diligently coordinating various matters while encouraging them to serve the Emperor loyally, and that the Dangxiang leaders, regardless of military rank, all regarded Niho no Tadamochi as their leader, treating him with childlike respect, Taira no Kiyomori decided to visit his wounded compatriots.

However, given that he was going to visit so many wounded, and wished to bestow favors like Niho no Tadamochi, it wouldn't do to arrive empty-handed. But as he was serving with the army and the imperial retinue, his gold and silver reserves were all in his official residence in Dongjing, and he didn't have much money on him.

Although young, Taira no Kiyomori had learned a thing or two from following Emperor Zhao, and wasn't easily stumped. He simply took the Persian emerald he had received as a reward in Xiangling that day, and after consulting with his colleagues, pawned the stone to a wealthy officer, easily gathering a substantial sum of money and silk.

Not content with having cash in hand, Taira no Kiyomori conscientiously sought out Liu Yan and Niho no Tadamochi, explaining the situation to them in turn. His superior, Liu Yan, was upright and diligent, and naturally agreed. Niho no Tadamochi, knowing that Taira no Kiyomori was a useful foreign hostage favored by the Emperor, was eager to oblige, and directly helped him obtain documents from the logistics department.

Armed with these documents, Taira no Kiyomori went to the logistics camp and, with the help of acquaintances, bought a large quantity of medicine, dried meat, and winter clothing at a fair price. He then spent a few more coins to hire some laborers to transport the goods in carts, before finally visiting the wounded Japanese warriors.

What kind of experiences had these surviving wounded warriors had back in Japan, and what were they experiencing in Great Song? From the moment they landed, they had been treated with kindness, authority, and respect. Any hint of arrogance they might have had was shattered in the recent battle, and they were now in a state of awe and obedience.

In this state, they were, of course, nothing but grateful for Taira no Kiyomori's visit.

As for Minamoto no Tameyoshi, whose arm had been struck by a *guduo* (mace), although he had always been jealous of Taira no Kiyomori's father, there were no fundamental conflicts between the two families at this time. The camaraderie of being fellow soldiers was still important, especially in a foreign land. He had no reservations about Taira no Kiyomori, and grabbed his arm with his good hand, inviting him to speak privately in his tent.

He poured out all the questions he had accumulated along the way, from the size of the Song army to the organization of the Jin army, and the diplomatic relations between the surrounding countries. Minamoto no Tameyoshi had asked others about these things, but his Chinese was poor, and the information he received was superficial. This was a genuine opportunity for communication.

After their conversation, Minamoto no Tameyoshi learned that the Great Song had four hundred military prefectures, of which three hundred were still in their control, an active army of three hundred thousand, countless auxiliary troops and defense forces, and an annual income of tens of millions of strings of cash, which left him speechless.

He was also impressed to learn that the Jin was a vast and powerful country, with twenty *wanhu* (ten thousand households) of formidable Jurchen heavy cavalry, and another ten *wanhu* of new troops still being formed.

Finally, they couldn't avoid discussing the current war.

"If what you say is true, Kiyomori, then the Great Jin also has a fighting chance. Does this mean the war will continue?" Minamoto no Tameyoshi asked earnestly in Japanese, propping up his arm as he sat on the cot under the lamplight.

"Of course it will," Taira no Kiyomori replied without hesitation. "When great nations clash, the loss of a few dozen prefectures is nothing... In Hedong, there's Taiyuan Prefecture. In Hebei East Circuit, there's Daming Prefecture. And in Hebei West Circuit, there's Zhending Prefecture. These three cities must be taken before they can even reach Yanjing. And besides the cities, there will have to be a major battle somewhere, a clash of hundreds of thousands, or at least tens of thousands, all heavy-armored warriors."

Minamoto no Tameyoshi hesitated, then lowered his voice and asked again, "Can Great Song really win?"

"It's inevitable," Taira no Kiyomori said without hesitation.

"Why are you so sure?" Minamoto no Tameyoshi pressed. "Is it because the Song Emperor is a great warrior? Or are the Song soldiers stronger and the generals braver?"

"Both. Especially the Emperor himself, who is recognized as a peerless general, far superior to the Jin commander, Prince Wushu." Taira no Kiyomori still didn't hesitate. "There are even rumors that the Emperor has received military strategies bestowed by the Daoist Ancestor, but it's more than that. He's a sage ruler of Heaven's Mandate, skilled in both civil and military affairs, with a thorough understanding of the past and the future."

Minamoto no Tameyoshi grew even more curious.

Taira no Kiyomori, being young, couldn't resist showing off. "Tameyoshi-ko, let me ask you, do you know how many consorts our Emperor has now?"

Minamoto no Tameyoshi naturally didn't know, but he understood Taira no Kiyomori's general intention, so when the other man held up two fingers, he instinctively lowered his guess, blurting out, "Only twenty?"

"Only two," Taira no Kiyomori replied with a cold smile. "One Imperial Consort Gui, one Imperial Consort Xian. After the Empress passed away, he never established a new Empress... And this is not just for show, because all the princesses and princes born in the ten years since the Emperor ascended the throne were born to these two..."

Minamoto no Tameyoshi was shocked.

"That's not all," Taira no Kiyomori continued, his smile growing colder. "The Emperor's palace was originally almost as large as half of Heian-kyo (Kyoto), but after the war with the Jin began, the palace was either awarded to meritorious officials as residences, or to warriors for studying military strategy, or offered to the Empress Dowager. Even the Imperial Garden where the Emperor himself lives is planted with mulberry trees and dug with fishponds... The most honorable person in the world is working so hard, and it's been almost ten years... Tameyoshi-ko, tell me, how can such an Emperor not win?"

Minamoto no Tameyoshi hesitated, clearly still doubtful.

But Taira no Kiyomori seemed to have anticipated this, and continued with a smile, "Tameyoshi-ko, you don't believe me, do you? I didn't believe it when I first came... My father and you are both from the Northern Samurai. Not to mention the current Cloistered Emperor, but when you two were serving the former Cloistered Emperor Shirakawa, you probably knew better than anyone about the scandalous affairs between Shirakawa and Taikenmon-in. You're used to the scandals of the royal and noble families in Japan, so you naturally don't believe that someone with even greater power and wealth than the Cloistered Emperor would be like this... But after serving as the Emperor's Northern Samurai for several years, I also know the truth about this Emperor."

Minamoto no Tameyoshi grew even more bewildered.

Although Minamoto no Tameyoshi and Taira no Kiyomori didn't know what the late Heian period was called, there was no denying the corruption of the Japanese nobility at this time. For example, there was a huge scandal between the two Cloistered Emperors served by Minamoto no Tameyoshi and Taira no Kiyomori's father, Taira no Tadamori... The former Cloistered Emperor Shirakawa was the grandfather of the current Cloistered Emperor Toba, and Shirakawa had an adopted daughter, Taikenmon-in, who was married to his grandson, Emperor Toba, who was then the reigning Emperor, as his Empress.

Why would he marry his adopted daughter to his grandson?

Because when Emperor Shirakawa wanted to marry his adopted daughter to the son of the noble Fujiwara family, the Fujiwara family firmly refused... They felt they couldn't afford to lose face... So Emperor Shirakawa could only wrong his grandson, and also seek a good future for his adopted daughter.

That's right, Emperor Shirakawa had an affair with his adopted daughter and granddaughter-in-law from the beginning, which was almost an open secret among the Japanese elite.

At that time, the Japanese nobility was corrupt to this extent.

In this situation, how could you expect Minamoto no Tameyoshi, who had spent decades navigating the Japanese aristocracy, to believe that the Zhao Song Emperor would be so frugal and restrained? He wouldn't even believe you if you told him about Aguda's simple lifestyle, okay?

Of course, Taira no Kiyomori didn't bother to prove anything, he just said calmly, "Tameyoshi-ko, that's how it is. Although Great Song couldn't beat the Jin in the early years, and even suffered the humiliation of having most of the royal family captured, it's like the story of Wu and Yue in the ancient books. Now they have the momentum of 'three thousand Yue soldiers can swallow Wu', and our Emperor has three hundred thousand Song armored soldiers!"

With that, Taira no Kiyomori didn't say much more, and didn't even bother to explain what the 'story of Wu and Yue' was, or whose words he was plagiarizing for "three thousand Yue soldiers can swallow Wu," and simply bowed in the Song style and took his leave.

Minamoto no Tameyoshi came back to his senses, realizing that although Taira no Kiyomori was young, he was already the Great Song Emperor's 'Northern Samurai,' and his status was no less than his own, so he wanted to return the bow, but when he raised his arm, he aggravated his injury and could only nod his head with difficulty as he struggled to sit up.

As Taira no Kiyomori was about to leave, he reached the tent door before remembering something, and turned back with a smile, "Tameyoshi-ko, if we were to talk about our Emperor's stories, we wouldn't finish in a month, and I don't want to say too much... I'll just mention something about another person. Do you remember the rough-clothed monk who personally dug the pits and performed the sutras for the dead soldiers that day?"

"Of course I remember," Minamoto no Tameyoshi immediately understood who he was referring to after a moment's thought. "He came to see us yesterday and helped us apply medicine... He seems to be highly respected in the camp?"

"Of course he's respected. That monk is the direct successor of the Linji School, the most honorable purple-robed Dharma Master in the Song Buddhist community, bestowed with the title of Great Wisdom Zen Master." Taira no Kiyomori's cold smile didn't stop. "The entire Great Song, is it just the Emperor who is so sincere and frugal? Today I won't mention the marshals who are unwilling to eat a single chicken, but even the monks behave like this, so why shouldn't we win this battle?"

Minamoto no Tameyoshi was completely horrified, not even caring that the other man had left.

After a long while, he finally came back to his senses, but then suddenly realized who the other man's cold smile was directed at, and a feeling of fear arose in his heart... But it was only fear, without the slightest room for refutation.

Late at night, the snowfall gradually dyed the earth of Hedong with a layer of white before slowly stopping. At the same time, thousands of miles away in Daming Prefecture, Hebei, it had not snowed, but instead there was a fierce wind.

For several days, the cold wind howled incessantly.

Yue Fei had pulled a tooth from the tiger's mouth on the fourteenth day of the twelfth month, defeating Wang Bolong and frustrating the Jin army's first large-scale offensive. On the fifteenth day of the twelfth month, Gao Qingyi used political and military arguments to persuade Prince Wushu, the Jin ruling prince who was in a dilemma, to fight on and not give up Yuancheng.

On the same day, Zhao Jiu, far away in Hedong, learned that Niu Gao had broken through Yangliang North Pass and opened up the Que Shu Valley. That night, he issued an order for a full-scale rapid advance. He spent eight days advancing to Taiyuan City, and then immediately began to set up siege positions.

Back in Daming Prefecture, if the Jin wanted to continue their offensive, they had to boost their morale, so they had to reward those who had fought bravely.

The Han Chinese supplementary troops were given opportunities for advancement, with some exceptionally outstanding individuals being directly promoted to *xingjun mouke* (acting military Mouke), *xingjun meng'an* (acting military Meng'an), or even hereditary *mouke*, hereditary *meng'an* on the battlefield. The original Meng'an and Mouke were promised the restoration of many privileges.

Of course, they also requisitioned the surrounding granaries and generously rewarded them with wealth, gold, and silver.

At the same time, they didn't forget to conscript troops on a large scale from the surrounding areas... In the past, it was "a club of Han," now it was "conscripted troops with registers." The difference was that one came from Song territory, and the other came from Hebei, which was considered Jin territory.

These actions were essentially in conflict with the previous sinicization reforms. It could even be said that the efforts of the previous three to five years had been wasted. But now, after the death of Wang Bolong and the loss of his army, and after Gao Qingyi's reminder, Wushu had keenly realized that, although the decisive battle had not yet taken place, the balance of power between the two sides had fundamentally shifted, and he could no longer worry about anything else.

Now, it was a matter of survival.

But even these extraordinary actions took time. It took six or seven days for the troops to gradually regain their momentum, and for new supplies to be gathered.

Then, the cold wind came, followed by an even more brutal war of attrition in the cold wind--because the fierce wind brought great trouble to both sides.

For the Song army, with the supply lines largely cut off, the supplies were stored items brought in before the freeze. Before the thaw, every day counted, and it was a typical case of "sitting and eating the mountain empty."

In particular, the problems of fuel and food, with the arrival of the cold wind, the consumption of both increased sharply, and then it really exceeded everyone's expectations. After all, Yue Fei and his staff were not immortals, and they had never experienced a long-term winter camp for an army of this size, while still maintaining combat operations... They could not understand that the people were the same people, and many had even died in battle, but just because it was a little colder, the consumption had changed dramatically. This was not the same as winter camping in peacetime.

In desperation, Hu Yin came forward and personally made a division, starting to carry out planned food distribution.

Combat personnel were given priority, and non-combat personnel below Hu Mingzhong were given a slight reduction. Everyone began to have a quota to avoid not being able to survive in case the freezing period was too long.

In this case, it was inevitable that the Song army was slightly discouraged and less effective in combat.

But the Jin army was not much better off.

Although the Jin army was fighting on the inner line, and the manpower was theoretically endless, and they did not care about the lives of the laborers, some things would still be a problem even if they were not restricted.

For example, the Song army, at the repeated request of Emperor Zhao, had included earmuffs, gloves, and even masks in the military supplies. This time, the preparations for war were one of the military supply reserves, just like the military food, all of which Emperor Zhao had personally inspected. And this thing was not expensive compared to other military equipment and armor, and it was basically in the millions, everyone had it. Yue Fei also had reserves here.

What about the Jin army? Although the Jin army had long known about this matter through normal folk circulation, and had actually begun to distribute it in the army, and even the earmuffs and gloves made of fur in Jin were recognized as more effective than the linen products of Great Song... But the Jin army did not have the awareness to store millions of them on a unified scale.

It wasn't obvious before, but now that the cold wave had arrived, whether or not they had those things was a big problem, and although they had countless gold and silver in Yanjing, and countless military equipment and armor reserves in Zhending Prefecture, and even a large amount of fur stored in Zhending for protection against the cold, they could not turn them into large-scale gloves and earmuffs in a short time.

A small amount of storage could only satisfy the combat troops, and even the combat troops could not be fully satisfied.

In short, because of similar small things, the combat effectiveness of the Jin army, which was passively fighting, began to rapidly differentiate.

The elite and combat soldiers could barely maintain their combat effectiveness, but the lower-level auxiliary soldiers and conscripted troops fell into hardship... But the scale of this war had already exceeded the original cognition of everyone, and the auxiliary soldiers and conscripted troops had unknowingly become a necessary part of the war. When the latter could not effectively exert their effectiveness, the war would also be affected.

The most direct manifestation was on the river defense line. No matter how hard the Jin army tried, these auxiliary soldiers and conscripted troops could not play an effective consuming role. Often, the preparations for an offensive would consume most of the day, and if these conscripted troops and auxiliary soldiers could not play an effective consuming role, who would be willing to invest the combat soldiers on a large scale again on the Song army's defense line full of ice edges?

Therefore, after the arrival of the cold wave, the Jin army was surprised to find that, although the morale was gradually recovering, the speed and ability of their own to organize large-scale offensives became more and more difficult.

On the twenty-sixth day of the twelfth month, the day when Emperor Zhao began to cut off the Fen River channel next to Taiyuan City, although the Jin army's second large-scale offensive did not have a serious defeat like Wang Bolong's, it was not surprisingly supported by the Song army with gritted teeth.

However, from a broader perspective, this result seemed to put the Song army in a more dangerous and awkward position, and also put the Song army's high-level officials into some kind of unease.

"Marshal Yue."

Late at night on the twenty-ninth day of the twelfth month, Hu Yin, with a dark face, appeared in Yue Fei's tent, and then directly stretched out his almost frozen hands next to the brazier, and said directly, "I have something to say."

Yue Fei did not dare to be negligent, and immediately got up and respectfully saluted, and then signaled the left and right attendants and staff to leave together.

As soon as the people left, Hu Yin immediately opened his mouth: "I heard that the Jin State has begun to cut off the Yellow River channel on both sides in the south at the same time, is it true?"

"Yes." Yue Fei did not mean to hide anything. "So that Lord Hu Shangshu knows, the Jin army was frustrated in the attack the day before yesterday. About yesterday, they directly changed their plan and concentrated a large number of laborers in the south to try to cut off the two river channels on our side by digging through the East Fork of the North Yellow River and the West Fork of the East Yellow River... Because of the huge scale, the scouts only figured out the other party's intentions early this morning, and then reported back."

"What do you think?" Hu Yin did not question the other party why he had not told himself in time, but directly pressed.

"It's hard to say." Yue Fei rarely sighed. "I am from Hebei, and I know the local hydrography... It is no problem to say that the cut-off is complete, but the key is that this move consumes a lot. Now it is almost the New Year, and I don't know if there is enough time... If they can complete it before the thaw, then they can succeed, otherwise, if the project is not completed and the river channel has already thawed, then they will be courting death."

"So, this means that the success or failure will be handed over to the Jin people?" Hu Yin said coldly.

"Speaking of this matter alone, it is indeed the case." Yue Fei said frankly.

"This is also what I came to you for." Hu Yin put down his hands that were roasting by the fire, and said seriously, "If the Jin army can succeed, our logistics will be cut off, and we must make long-term plans... From tomorrow onwards, we will change the food distribution again... How about it?"

"Lord Hu Shangshu." Yue Fei took a few steps forward, squinted his eyes, lowered his voice, and breathed slightly. "Lord Hu Shangshu, to be honest... I think you're wrong, even the opposite."

Hu Yin was slightly stunned.

Yue Fei quickly explained: "First of all, after the Jin people suffered a setback, they took this action. On the surface, it was to cut off our logistics, and it may be true that they had this intention, but considering the time, they are actually nine times out of ten too late... Eight or nine times out of ten, they have other intentions."

Hu Yin was first at a loss, but suddenly became alert and looked at the general with big and small eyes in front of him in astonishment, and then slowly said: "Are you saying... they more intend to destroy the Yellow River dam, and then flood Hebei after the spring... so that we cannot properly advance? But what about Hebei, do they not want it?"

"This is disregarding everything." Yue Fei sighed. "If they can't stop me and the Emperor from advancing on two fronts, Hebei will be Song territory, what do they have to worry about?"

Hu Yin could not speak for a while... Not to mention that if this battle is defeated, Hebei will no longer be Jin territory, to put it bluntly, the mess of the Yellow River changing its course three times, could it not be done when the Great Song Dynasty controlled Hebei?

It was ridiculous to condemn the Jin people at this time.

Moreover, this matter is really impossible to prevent... Unless the other party is driven away before the ice melts, and then the dam is blocked in time. But that only saves the immediate situation... Four or five river channels, extending all the way to Yanyun, can be dug anywhere, unless they are pressed from tomorrow onwards, so that the other party can't breathe, otherwise it is scalp numbing to think about it.

With this thought, Hu Yin felt cold in his heart.

"What else?" After a long while, Hu Mingzhong came back to his senses, and forced down the unease in his heart and asked through gritted teeth. "Marshal said first of all, so there must be after, right?"

"After..." Yue Fei stared at Hu Mingzhong in front of him and said seriously, "The more this is the case, the more we cannot make long-term plans, but should release the distribution, so that the soldiers and laborers have enough strength to attack instead of defend, and restrain their strength, and even scare them with an offensive!"

Hu Yin thought for a moment and immediately woke up: "Attack Yuancheng fiercely?"

"Yuancheng has been besieged for forty or fifty days, and has also been attacked for forty or fifty days. In the previous battle of Wang Bolong, Gao Jingshan even sent nearly half of the elite in the city out, and it has already been crumbling." Now, Yue Fei did not have the need to hide it. "If I wanted to break the city, I would have broken it long ago. The reason why I didn't break it is only for two things... One is to involve the main force of the Jin army in Hedong, and the other is to try to break the city together with the Emperor tomorrow as much as possible, as agreed with the Emperor!"

"Tomorrow?" Hu Yin responded absently.

"Tomorrow." Yue Fei calmly cupped his hands. "Only because the Jin army only started to try to dig the river dike yesterday, it's not bad today, so I didn't say much to Lord Hu Shangshu."

Hu Yin was silent for a moment, and then asked again, "What city is the Emperor trying to break tomorrow?"

Yue Fei rarely smiled: "What does Lord Hu think?"

Hu Yin shook his head slightly, unable to believe it for a while.

The night was already half over. Outside Taiyuan City, after the snow had stopped for a long time, Wanyan Zhehe, a veteran general of the Jin Dynasty, came to the tower of the south gate of Taiyuan City in full armor to look at the Song army camp, but he was speechless for a long time because of the strange scene in front of him.

It turned out that in the cold winter season, in the middle of the night, not long after the snow had just stopped, the Song army camp suddenly became misty, forming a sharp contrast with the surrounding white snow and the dark night sky.

"Wanhu (ten thousand households)..." The confidant Meng'an in charge of the south gate could not help but interject, "It should be that there are too many Song troops, or maybe Wu Jie led his troops over today. It's going to be the New Year again, and the army is opening up to eat and drink, and the banquets are excessive."

"That Zhao Song Emperor is not a person who excessively drinks and entertains." Wanyan Zhehe looked at the strange fog in front of him and said coldly, "It's just that there are too many people. The south is the main camp, and 20,000 more people came today, and it just snowed... Breathing becomes clouds, and exhaling becomes fog."

"That's right, it must be so." This Meng'an nodded heavily, and then carefully asked, "Then do you want the last general to take the opportunity to rob the camp?"

"No need." Wanyan Zhehe shook his head without hesitation. "There is no crisis in the city defense, and there are also famous and veteran generals of the Song army under the city. There is no need to easily scatter troops... However, I do have the preparation to rob the camp when the other party is exhausted or has no choice, but I am prepared to personally lead troops to rob the Yongli prison."

"That's right, if you are going to rob the camp, you should rob their rear camp." The subordinate Meng'an suddenly realized, and then smiled, "But, maybe it will be Commander-in-chief and the others who will do this, or General Salihe?"

Wanyan Zhehe looked at the other party and said seriously, "Salihe will not come, and Commander-in-chief is only fifty-fifty."

The Meng'an's face suddenly changed.

"I don't want to hide it from you." Zhehe continued seriously, "If Salihe had the courage and ability to rob the camp, he should not have let the Zhao Song Emperor come so quickly, and he should not have let Wu Jie come so quickly... Since the Song army came so quickly, Salihe has been useless and there is no hope at all." Speaking to this point, Zhehe's face remained unchanged. "As for the Commander-in-chief... I have personally seen the Commander-in-chief draw the situation map of Daming Prefecture for me. Either he will annihilate the Song army under the city and then go to Tokyo to cross the Heluo River; or he will be at a loss and be tied to Daming Prefecture... But no matter which one, we have to rely on ourselves to support it."

"That's right, since we are defending the city, we should support it ourselves." Meng'an tried to smile, "Can't we defend the city for a hundred days if the Song people can defend it for two hundred days? In a hundred days, the Commander-in-chief will have already turned to Tokyo, and the Song army should have retreated on its own."

Wanyan Zhehe nodded and remained serious: "The Song people specialize in attacking and defending cities, and we take field battles first... Although this Taiyuan City is strong, I really don't plan to defend it for a hundred days, and it's enough to defend it for fifty days... If I lose the city fifty days ago, it is my Zhehe who has failed the Commander-in-chief and I will die with regret. If it is fifty days later, then it is the Commander-in-chief who has failed me, and I, Zhehe, will die without regret... This is the original words I said directly to the Commander-in-chief after accepting this task."

The Meng'an next to him finally gave a helpless grin and said nothing more... Meeting such a general, not to mention fifty days or a hundred days, the key is that talking to him is so boring that it's unbearable!

Time passed easily, but only a few hours later, the thirtieth day of the twelfth month quickly arrived in the midst of the cold wind. In the huge camp under Yuancheng, Daming Prefecture, early in the morning, Yue Fei, together with Hu Yin and Zhang Rong, held a military meeting and announced the decision to attack the city on a large scale today. Then, Hu Yin announced that the distribution would be temporarily suspended due to the New Year, and the logistics would be opened up to reward the reserves of dried meat and rice wine.

When the news came out, the three armies cheered even though they knew that they were going to attack the city today.

Next, the Song army did not panic, but calmly had breakfast, and then started cooking again to prepare meals for the siege.

Unlike the humidity in Taiyuan City caused by the melting snow, the dry and cold Yuancheng could only turn the rising water vapor into clouds. Seeing the smoke and steam on the other side of the river and hearing the constant movement on the opposite side, the Jin army knew that the Song army was taking action, and they also hurriedly reassembled their troops.

Then, Wushu and Balisu led the generals to climb the tall earthen mountain that had just been built on the west of the river a few days ago to observe the situation from afar, and immediately realized that the Song army was going to attack the city today.

However, these senior officers looked at each other in dismay, but they did not have any particularly unexpected meaning... They had decided to cut off the river channel a few days ago because the news of Zhao Song Emperor's rapid progress in Hedong came, and then they attacked in a hurry and failed. At that time, they knew that the Song army would react.

And the Song army's most direct reaction, of course, was to attack the city.

However, since the military meeting made that decision that day, everyone actually knew that they had the intention of giving up Gao Jingshan and Yuancheng.

However, these words were destined not to be spoken, especially since there was still a Shaoh and a Pusu Yue in the army.

In this way, the four-character marshal flag of the Song army and the five-color sun-holding marshal flag of the Jin army each fluttered on the earthen mountains on both sides of the river channel. The commanders of both sides had a clear view of the situation. In addition, Gao Jingshan should also have climbed the city wall in full armor, but in order to avoid being recognized and point-cleared, he did not use any flags and did not wear any particularly obvious attire.

Of course, the Song army also had a hot air balloon, but it had not been raised because it had not yet been put into battle.

In this state, the Song army prepared various siege matters in a grand manner, and then used additional meals on the position in a grand manner. The Jin army in the city also gathered behind the city wall early to prepare for the battle. The main force of the Jin army in Hexi took the initiative to attack before the Song army launched a formal attack.

However, this kind of attack was undoubtedly easily suppressed by the Song army relying on the river dike fortifications.

In the afternoon, as the Song army's hot air balloon rose, the battle officially began. The artillery roared first, bombarding the few remaining corner towers and temporary fortifications on the city wall. More cannon stones fell directly on some weak points of the city wall that were already crumbling. Then, under the cover of the artillery, the Song army on all sides moved out almost at the same time. Under various flags, the light of armor and bayonets was like sparkling waves. Countless Song troops holding bows and crossbows advanced and suppressed non-stop, and the "goose cars" also started one after another and went straight to the city.

The so-called "goose car" refers to a siege vehicle with four wheels and an outer layer of iron sheet. A ramming wood can be installed under it, or no ramming wood can be placed. It can directly protect people to the weak point under the city for construction operations, such as digging tunnels, digging walls, or even just setting up a safe point under the city to facilitate subsequent siege. It is considered the basic configuration for siege.

Back to the present, in this situation, Gao Jingshan, who was wearing ordinary plate armor of a low-level officer, did not choose to go down the city, but stood on the bare north wall with his knife in hand... Since sending Pusu Yue out, he had taken off that armor, and no longer wore fur to climb the city, but had been standing on the front line in ordinary armor like today to stabilize the military's morale in the city.

However, cannon stones were overwhelming, and goose cars went straight to the city, but Gao Jingshan's eyes were always wandering... because he had not yet found the main siege method of the Song army today.

If the Song army was to carry out a saturation attack, then they must have cooked at four o'clock and started attacking the city early in the morning. Since it was winter when it got dark extremely early, they had dragged it until noon to attack, so there must be a core, main, and key trump card.

But the artillery rumbled, but it was just a general attack, and it did not concentrate on a certain direction to target a certain weak city wall. The same was true for the goose cars. There were them in front of every city gate, and there were also them in front of several city walls where the fortifications had been destroyed, but there was no backup goose car prepared in front of any city gate or a specific city wall. There was only one... Like here on the north side, seven or eight goose cars were dispatched together, almost parallel to the city, and there was no depth to continue.

"There are movements in the tunnels that were detected everywhere before." An officer came to the city to report, "The east and west sides of the city are very obvious."

This made Gao Jingshan even more dazed... The Jin army had dug inner moats in the city early on, so what was the use of tunnels? If this was the Song army's trump card, then it could be said that it could be supported today.

However, would Yue Fei, who was so decisive and neat in eating Wang Bolong that day, and Yue Fei, who was so ruthless and directly moved his camp under the city that day, put his hope on the tunnels?

Did the other party think he was a fool who didn't know how to dig inner moats?

Could it be that there were insiders?

Amidst hundreds of thoughts, the Song army's goose cars had approached the city wall. Gao Jingshan did not have time to think too much, and turned around and ordered his subordinates to go up the city to defend, and prepare to attack with stones... The stones were very precious, and basically all of them were gradually fired into the city by the Song army these days. The Song army was very cunning. When the fortifications on the city were smoothed out, most of the projectiles became hard mud pills that had been polished and dried. These projectiles were still very lethal to people, and once they landed, they would explode and could not be used by the Jin army in reverse.

However, it was mostly useless to use mud pills against goose cars, and stones and grappling hooks were still needed, and more importantly, gunpowder and oil were used for burning.

"Marshal, let's use a little more force!" A few miles away to the west, Wanyan Wushu, who could not help but speak his mind as he