Chapter 398: Enemy at the Gate
The iron cavalry swept through the formation, and the autumn waves hit the mountains and returned.
In the second half of the twelfth lunar month, the Song army suddenly went from slow to fast and from small to large. The speed of its advance and the size of its forces shocked the Jin defenders in the Taiyuan Basin. They had no time to make a systematic response and were easily divided and surrounded in various cities by the Song army. The dragon flag of the Zhao Song official himself reached the heart of the Taiyuan Basin, the city of Taiyuan, in just eight days and nights.
In a moment, the army was at the gates of the city, and the Jin army in the city was inevitably terrified.
At this time, the defending general Wanyan Zhehe led hundreds of brave cavalry to break out and plunder the enemy camp, which greatly stabilized the morale of the troops in the city.
The victory of this surprise attack was beyond doubt... The Jin army had only more than 700 cavalrymen, and they took advantage of the gap when the Song army's large cavalry moved north and the infantry formation was not yet stable to launch a surprise attack, killing and wounding more than 400 to 500 people, and only lost more than 70 cavalrymen themselves.
What's more, before most of them retreated, they actually approached within two or three hundred steps of the dragon flag of the Zhao Song government.
If this isn’t a big win, then what is?
However, the Song army was not too discouraged by this battle... Firstly, in such a grand occasion, a battle of this scale did not have much significance, and these losses were not proportional to the casualties caused by the forced march in the dead of winter; secondly, most of the casualties caused by the Jurchen cavalry were newly arrived Japanese samurai, and it was difficult for any system of soldiers to identify with these samurai. Even the imperial guards could only shout "good men who do not care about their lives" at most, and then the matter was left unresolved.
In the end, isn't this still a gain of 70 or 80 cavalry? In the eyes of quite a few middle-level officers, this is not a loss.
However, these are the considerations of the middle and lower levels. For the top leaders of the Song army, this battle revealed some other information.
First of all, under the attack of such a scale and speed by the Song army, Wanyan Zhehe's attitude was clearly revealed through this show of force, which was completely different from Wanyan Salihe on the west bank of the Fen River.
Secondly, there is Taiyuan City, especially the three pass cities outside Taiyuan City, which are indeed tricky... At that time, although the Japanese samurai's raid failed, it undoubtedly gave the scattered Song cavalry time to assemble, and the capture of more than 70 cavalry was also achieved by these Song cavalry.
However, when these Jurchen cavalry realized the problem and tried their best to escape at the first opportunity, and arrived at the angle between the Guancheng and the city wall along the passage reserved by the sheep and horse wall, the hunt had to stop. The Song army could not even use the magic arm bow to kill the enemy... because the Jurchen cavalry turned directly from the alley between the Guancheng and the city gate, which was basically a blind spot for shooting. Instead, the powerful crossbows on the Guancheng threatened the pursuers.
In the end, the Song army could only watch helplessly as the Jin army turned back into the city.
"The most fatal thing is to close the city gates, cover the city gates, and turn weakness into strength."
"Besides, the fort is too big, covering half of the city wall. I can only guess that the giant crossbows on the corners of the fort should be able to intertwine with the giant crossbows on the corners of the wall. No matter where the attack comes from, it will be impossible to escape..."
In the evening of that day, in the hastily erected Song army camp, Zhao Guanjia, who had already taken off his armor, was holding an exaggerated Japanese longbow and playing with it in the open space beside the central army tent with great interest. At the same time, some military officers who had come from martial arts and squads were called together and were arguing about something nervously and seriously. Han and Li were not there, but Wang Yan was in charge of the overall meeting, and many close ministers listened and participated.
Moreover, these people, including Emperor Zhao himself, were not idle the previous afternoon. After the situation was under control, basic reconnaissance was inevitable. Although Emperor Zhao himself rejected Han Shizhong's proposal to use the Beiwei Army for protection, after pacifying those Japanese warriors, he still took his dragon flag and circled the city for a long distance, and only turned back just now as a gesture.
With the emperor's words, the officers of the various departments under the city naturally had to be a little careful. However, no one expected that Emperor Zhao did not immediately summon the generals and commanders to discuss military affairs, but instead suddenly summoned a group of officers from various departments who had served in the imperial court to inquire about the city defense issues.
"Crossfire."
Zhao Jiu muttered to himself but kept silent as he played with the longbow in his hand. When he really got it in his hand, he realized that the Japanese longbow was not symmetrical. This undoubtedly aroused his interest... In any case, this official was also an expert in playing with bows, but he was not good at actual combat.
"The sheep and horse wall is also complete, basically surrounding the city." Someone else spoke up. "But judging from the distance, it should be newly built by the city's defenders."
"There is not only the Sheep and Horse Wall, but also a moat outside the Sheep and Horse Wall, as well as an outer trench and a deer fort." Another person mentioned. "And the passages are also quite complicated. I saw with my own eyes today that the Jin army sneaked in under the guidance of the flags on the city wall."
"There are also artillery carts." Another person spoke up. "Prince Anhua (Wang Bing was posthumously conferred the title) was the first to use artillery in this city... Wanyan Zhehe has taken over the city defense for more than 40 days, so there is no reason not to follow suit. Therefore, I guess that there should be artillery cart positions in the east, south, and north triangles of the city at this time. It's just that there is no need to use them today for demonstration. But if we set up artillery cart positions nearby, we will fall into his trap..."
"If so, although the emperor has always braved the arrows, he must not rush to the battlefield this time."
Just when the discussion was gradually gaining momentum, Ren Baozhong, who was in charge of military affairs among the close ministers, suddenly turned around, saluted respectfully and spoke seriously to Emperor Zhao, which caught everyone around him off guard and interrupted the rhythm of the discussion.
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