Chapter 243 Never Forget (Part 1)
The summer rain is heavy.
Besides, summer is a time of heavy rain, and the fact that there had been no rain for many days before seemed to be just the accumulation of rain clouds for this heavy rain. The heavy rain was basically a forced truce document representing God's will for the two warring parties.
It is indeed God’s will.
First of all, as Xiaolin scholar reminded me before, no matter how fierce the battle was, it was just a field battle that lasted half a day, and there was no encirclement. The main force of the Jin army had sufficient livestock, and there were more than 10,000 fresh troops of Wanyan Huo Nu and Wanyan Salihe as backup in the north, so if the Jin army really wanted to withdraw to the north, the Song army would be helpless.
In addition, in this battle, from the foot of Yaoshan Mountain to Dongpoyuan, the Song and Jin armies suffered countless casualties. Although the specific figures have not been verified, it is easy to conclude that the Song army suffered heavy casualties, two to three times that of the Jin army.
This can be seen from the situation of the famous generals of the Song army... Excluding Zhao Zhe, the general who was punished by military law on the battlefield, there were five senior generals who were able to go directly to the emperor, including Qiao Ze, Li Yongqi, Jiao Wentong, Li Yanqi, and Murong Wei, who were directly killed in battle. This figure accounts for almost a quarter of the generals of the same level who participated in the war.
By this calculation, the brutality of this battle was so great that even if we thoroughly research the war leading to the founding of the Zhao Song Dynasty, we may not be able to find any evidence of it.
However, precisely because of this, when the main force of the Jin army moved north and the Song army was powerless, facing the Jin army's detachment led by Wanyan Wushu, which still had a chance of being encircled and suppressed, the Song army was determined to swallow up this force at all costs in order to expand the results of the battle and make up for their losses.
The effect was very direct. On the second afternoon after the battle, in the rain, Zhang Xian's troops of the Song army finally encountered the last large-scale battle group of the Jin army in the marshland on the east side of Wulong Mountain and the west side of Beiluo River. At that time, they were gathering together and trying to cross the Song army's defense line and go north to the Jin army-controlled area. When Zhang Xian arrived here after hearing the news, he did not hesitate and immediately ordered the entire army to abandon their horses and fight the Jin army on foot in the marshland in the rain.
This Jin army obviously had a senior general in charge, and they knew that going north was the only way to survive. In addition, they fought in the rain, so the battle was particularly fierce at the beginning. But soon, with the continuous reinforcement of the Song army, Xu Shi'an came from Wulong Mountain, Cheng Min, Liu Yan, and Li Yongqi's son Li Shifu led almost all the cavalry forces of the Song army to surround the north at the cost of casualties. The last effective resistance of the Jin army was easily extinguished.
Among the reinforcements, except for Liu Yan's troops who were willing to surrender, the rest were slaughtered wantonly. After one battle, a small number of the Jin army surrendered, and most were killed. Only a very small number of people desperately crossed the Beiluo River which had not yet risen, and continued to move eastward, trying to escape.
Amid the wanton slaughter by the Song army, Liu Yan, who held a low official position but obviously had a higher political status, learned from the captives that Wanyan Wushu and Han Chang were likely to escape to the east. He then commanded Li Shifu, who had the most murderous instinct, to lead his Dangxiang light cavalry to continue crossing the river in pursuit... He must cooperate with Dong Min, who had already locked the Beiluoshui-Liangshan passage long before this, to capture the latter two and bring them before the emperor.
Not to mention that Liu Yan's mentality as a scholar was never the same as that of other military leaders, nor how Li Shifu was blinded by bloodshed because of his father's death in battle. It was just that the fourth prince of the Jin Dynasty, Wanyan Wushu, and the Jin army's Wanhu Han Chang barely crossed the Beiluo River under the protection of their confidants. They hurried all the way in the rain, but still saw no way to survive. They could only continue to move eastward to avoid being hunted down by the Song army.
Another day passed, and on this afternoon, they heard the sound of waves rolling ahead in the rain, and then saw a yellow and turbid body in the rain. Only then did they realize that they had been walking eastward all the way and had escaped for more than a hundred miles in two days and nights, and arrived at the bank of the Yellow River.
At this time, Wuzhu looked around and found that there were only more than ten riders left by his side, and all of them were injured. Thinking of the heroism of leading 20,000 people to cross the Longmen River to the west just a few days ago, and the hardships of the march along the way, the shock of the battle that day, and the subsequent tragedy of being searched in the mountains and swamps and pursued relentlessly, as well as the dead end now, he could not help but feel sad and burst into tears facing the surging Yellow River.
When Wuzhu started crying, the dozen or so remaining Jurchen soldiers around him also started crying. The more they cried, the sadder they became, and the weaker they felt. They cried until they were hoarse, until they were completely powerless, and until they were just waiting to die.
But just this cry woke up a man tied to a horse.
"Why are you crying?" Han Chang was in a mess, with half of his face swollen. He had been tied to a horse's back because he had a fever and was unconscious before arriving here. When he heard the crying, he woke up slowly, but he struggled to straighten up and asked on the horse.
"Let General Han know." A soldier wiped his tears and took the initiative to explain. "We crossed the Beiluo River, but still couldn't escape. The Song army was everywhere, looking for us. We ran north several times but only got killed. We could only run east, but ended up running to the Yellow River, and there was no way out..."
Han Chang nodded, but then he looked at Wushu who was crying the saddest: "The soldiers are at a dead end, they can cry if they want, but why is the Fourth Prince also crying?"
Even though Wanyan Wushu was feeling miserable, he was stunned by the question. He wiped away his tears and looked at the man blankly: "Why can't I cry? Am I different from them and not at a dead end?"
"Dead ends are dead ends, but facing dead ends, people are not the same as they should be." Han Changzai immediately tried to shake his head, but even this action was difficult. "They are ordinary soldiers. No matter how desperate the situation is, it's just their own lives. They can do whatever they want. But you are the fourth prince of the Great Jin Dynasty. Do you think your life is just your own?"
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