Battle of Huangtiandang (Part 1)
The next day, the weather was fine and the sea was calm. They had been drifting on the sea for more than four months, and everyone was looking forward to ending their drifting on the sea and returning to land as soon as possible.
That day, news arrived: Wanyan Zongbing was leading the looted gold and silver northward along the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal. Han Shizhong led 8,000 soldiers to Zhenjiang, intending to stop Wanyan Zongbing, who had an army of 100,000, at sea.
The ministers all discussed this. One said, "If the Jin people want to leave, just let them go. If we try to stop them, we'll probably anger them. What if they come back again?"
Liang Hongyu advised, "The Jin army carries a large amount of gold and silver, which makes it difficult for them to move, so they use the water. Moreover, the Jin army is not good at fighting on the water. If we command them properly, it is not impossible to let them die in the belly of the fish."
"Sir, please allow me to lend a helping hand to General Han. Please agree." Liang Hongyu knelt down and begged.
Zhao Gou frowned slightly, thinking that Liang Hongyu's words made sense, so he agreed, "It's okay."
Liang Hongyu let the boat drive to the shore, then left the boat with Qiu Feng and headed for Zhenjiang.
"Where are Asen and Jinxiu going?" Liang Hongyu asked Qiu Feng.
"We have arrived in Yuezhou."
"Send a pigeon to tell them to meet General Han in Zhenjiang." After receiving the order, Qiu Feng opened the pigeon cage she brought with her, stuffed the note into the small bamboo tube on the pigeon's leg, and then released the pigeon.
After receiving the message, Asen and Jinxiu immediately took people from Liang Mansion to Zhenjiang.
Wanyan Zongbing learned that Han Shizhong planned to intercept him on the Yangtze River. He had just suffered a loss at the hands of the Song Dynasty navy, so he urgently ordered his men to speed up their journey, hoping to cross the river and head north before Han Shizhong intercepted him.
After Han Shizhong arrived at Zhenjiang with his troops, he examined the terrain. Zhenjiang bordered Jiankang to the west, the Yangtze River to the north, and Jiaoshan and Jinshan Mountains to the east and west, giving him commanding control of the nearby river. He ordered his men to dock some old, dilapidated boats across the river to block the Jin army.
There is a Jinshan Dragon King Temple here, which is the entrance where the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal flows into the Yangtze River. He ordered Hu Yantong to lead 400 soldiers to ambush at the Jinshan Dragon King Temple.
Hu Yantong asked in confusion, "What do you mean, General?"
Han Shizhong chuckled and said, "If Wanyan Zongbi wants to cross the river, he will definitely send people here to check the terrain. You can capture them."
After Wanyan Zongbing led the Jin army to Zhenjiang, he saw that there were ships blocking their way, so he took four personal soldiers and climbed up Jinshan.
Huyan Tong led his men to ambush in the temple. When they saw the Jin army coming up, just as the general had expected, he led his troops to rush out. Wanyan Zongbing saw that he had fallen into an ambush, so he immediately turned his horse's head, raised his whip, and spurred his horse down the mountain. Since the soldiers at the foot of the mountain had not yet formed a siege, he led his troops to rush out early, thus missing the opportunity to capture Wanyan Zongbing alive, and only captured two of his personal soldiers.
Hu Yantong placed his sword across the neck of a personal guard and asked, "Who was the red-robed commander who accompanied you to scout the terrain?"
"It's His Royal Highness the Fourth Prince." The personal guard said in panic.
Huyan Tong's eyes widened, realizing that it was his mistake that he had let the enemy leader Wanyan Zongbing go, so he went to Han Shizhong's tent and knelt down to apologize.
"General, I accidentally let Wanyan Zongbi go. Please punish me!"
Han Shizhong sighed softly and said, "Get up! Wanyan Zongbi's fate is not to end here. You must gather your strength immediately and make sure he never returns."
"Yes, General!" all the soldiers echoed in unison.
Wanyan Zongbing ran down the mountain in panic and luckily saved his life. He was angry and furious. He thought that he had fought for many years and had never been defeated, but this time he almost became a prisoner of the Song army. He would make Han Shizhong pay the price for this.
So he gave the order: "Tomorrow we will fight Han Shizhong to the death here."
The next morning, the Song and Jin armies spread out on the sea, and the huge number of ships occupied the entire river. Wanyan Zongbing stood at the bow and finally saw Han Shizhong, who had made him flee in panic. He saw that the man had a handsome face, with sharp facial features like those carved by a knife, a slightly dark complexion, and a tall and strong figure.
Wanyan Zongbi shouted, "You must be Han Shizhong. Yesterday, due to my negligence, you gained the upper hand. Today, I, the Crown Prince, will make sure you are eaten alive by the fish."
Han Shizhong sneered, "Your Highness the Fourth Prince is quite impressive today. Has he forgotten the humiliating appearance of fleeing in panic yesterday?"
Upon hearing this, the Song army burst into laughter and ridiculed him.
"Yeah! That can only be described as running away in panic."
One of Wanyan Zongbi's men said, "Don't be so arrogant. You Song people are only good at talking. Even your Emperor Zhao Gou was chased by us and had to flee everywhere, spending the New Year at sea. Who do you think you are to be compared with His Royal Highness the Fourth Prince, the greatest general of our Great Jin?"
Wanyan Zongbing's face had been sullen just now, but now he had finally managed to save some face. His expression improved slightly, and he heard Han Shizhong say, "Is that so? Then I will meet your Fourth Prince today." After that, he gave the order, "Shoot."
Millions of rockets were fired at the Jin army's fleet in an instant. Wanyan Zongbing had suffered a loss in the last naval battle, so he was prepared and the soldiers on the ship raised their shields.
Although the rockets only injured a few Jin soldiers, the masts and sails on the ships caught fire. The Jin people were immediately in a panic and rushed to put out the fire. Wanyan Zongbing then realized that he had missed the opportunity to take the initiative, allowing the Jin soldiers to shoot rockets at the Song army's fleet.
The Song army's warships were tall, and the rockets fired at them had no killing power at all. Instead, the tall Song ships rammed directly into their ships, overturning several ships in a row. The Jin people who fell into the water were not used to swimming and drowned in the water one after another.
Although Wanyan Zongbing had many ships, they were all small ones. When encountering the tall warships of the Song people, they were at a disadvantage. What's more, there were countless gold, silver and jewelry on the ships. Wanyan Zongbing was afraid of the consequences and could only order his men to burn all the broken ships blocking the river mouth, so that the ships in front could crash into a channel, and the rest of the ships retreated along this channel.
After this battle, the Song army suffered no casualties, but the Jin army lost countless ships and hundreds of Jin soldiers.
Wanyan Zongbing led his people to escape to a sea area, and found that no Song army was chasing them, so he breathed a sigh of relief.
On this day, Liang Hongyu, Asen and a dozen of her female military guards rode to Zhenjiang to meet up with Han Shizhong's army.
Han Shizhong had just won a battle, and when he saw the woman he had long admired standing before him, he was so excited that he didn't know what to say.
Liang Hongyu was the first to speak: "I heard that the general had defeated Wanyan Zongbi. How heartening! I have come here today to lend a hand."
Han Shizhong glanced at the guards Liang Hongyu brought with him and said, "General Liang is really generous. He only brought such a small number of people to help me. The Jin army has a full 100,000 men."
Liang Hongyu understood what Han Shizhong meant, and then chuckled and said, "These few soldiers are my private soldiers. The emperor only allowed me to come and help you. If the general despises me, I will leave now." After that, she made a gesture to leave.
When Han Shizhong heard that she was about to leave again, he hurriedly grabbed Liang Hongyu's arm and said, "It's okay if there are fewer people. You can defeat thousands of troops alone." He wanted to say that you can defeat thousands of troops in my heart, but when the words came to his lips, he omitted the words "in my heart". He thought that he, a great general, was not so timid when facing the Jin people, but he was nervous when facing Liang Hongyu.
Qiu Feng then signaled for the female guards to leave. Only Asen remained, so Qiu Feng had no choice but to drag him out of the tent.
When they reached a deserted spot, Qiu Feng glared at them and said, "Asen, don't you have the foresight to do this? General Han clearly has something to say to our girl."
Asen said angrily, "What can I say? I think General Han is clearly plotting something bad towards the girl."
Qiu Feng chuckled when she heard this and said, "But what does this have to do with you?"
Asen was speechless for a moment, "I-----"
Seeing that Asen was still standing there, Qiufeng left first. As intelligent as she was, how could she not know his feelings for the girl? But compared to General Han, he clearly had no competition, not to mention the official.
When she thought of this, she felt sad. There were so many people who liked the girl, even the person she admired also admired the girl. How lucky the girl was. If she could find someone who understood and cherished her in this troubled world, she would have no fear of death.
She was no longer a virgin and should not have had any delusions about this. However, ever since she escaped from Bian Jing and returned to Jingkou, when she saw Asen again, her eyes seemed to be glued to him. The boy's bright smile was like thousands of white lotuses blooming, and the dazzling light blinded her instantly.
She sighed and didn't dare to think about it anymore. Knowing that the boy deep in her heart loved someone else, why bother herself with troubles?
After seeing Qiu Feng leave, Asen went back outside the tent and secretly listened to the conversation inside.
Liang Hongyu glanced at Han Shizhong's hand, tugging at her arm, and slowly turned around. She seemed to catch Han Shizhong's affectionate gaze, and her heartbeat quickened. Then she realized it was all just her imagination. Even though she was now a general, it didn't change the fact that she had once been a prostitute. An upright man like General Han would never accept that. Better to nip her feelings in the bud.
So she said coldly: "General, what do you mean? Have you changed your mind?"
Han Shizhong felt her gaze pierced with swords, and displeased with his frivolous treatment of her, he quickly withdrew his hand and said, "I am rude, General. Please forgive me. I was just joking, and I didn't mean to offend you."
Han Shizhong frowned. Clearly, the conversation just now seemed a bit ambiguous, but now the atmosphere suddenly changed, which made him shrink back the idea of expressing his feelings. He suddenly felt a little annoyed with himself. He was obviously a warrior, but he was so timid.
Liang Hongyu changed the subject: "Then does the General have any plan to defeat the enemy?"
Han Shizhong's face was solemn, "No."
Liang Hongyu added, "We only have 8,000 soldiers. If we want to defeat an enemy force of 100,000, we can only outmaneuver them, not by force."
"How to outsmart them?" Han Shizhong asked.
Liang Hongyu was about to say that she hadn't figured out a plan to defeat the enemy when she heard a guard outside the tent announce, "General, there are civilians outside the tent who want to see you."
When Asen saw the guards coming, he thought that Han Shizhong didn't say anything, so he left quickly with peace of mind.
The two people in the tent were a little surprised when they heard this. Why would ordinary people come here at this time? They looked at each other in confusion.
Han Shizhong said, "Let him in."
A commoner carrying a basket walked into the tent and bowed to Han Shizhong, saying, "I pay my respects to the general."
Han Shizhong waved his hand. "No need to be so polite. What do you want from me?"
The commoner placed the basket in front of Han Shizhong's desk and was about to lift the curtain when Liang Hongyu grabbed his wrist tightly. "Are you a spy sent by the Jin people? Are you planning to assassinate General Han?"
The man immediately knelt on the ground in fear and said, "Please understand, General, I am only here to deliver some cakes."
Upon hearing this, Liang Hongyu lifted the curtain from the basket and said, "It's Dingsheng Cake." She glanced at the man kneeling on the ground and asked, "What does this mean?"
The man truthfully reported, "This Dingsheng Cake symbolizes victory in this battle. On behalf of the people here, I hope the general will achieve a great victory and drive the Jin people out of this area. The Fourth Prince is a cruel and ruthless person. He kills anyone he sees and steals anything he finds. The people here are overwhelmed by his annoyance and hate him deeply."
Han Shizhong smiled and said, "I see. Please stand up immediately." He glanced at Liang Hongyu beside him and said, "I was not sure about this battle. But General Liang has come to help me today. Just as you hoped, this battle will be won."
The man stood up and took a look at the female general who was wearing a red robe, with a sharp gaze and extraordinary demeanor. He then remembered the strength with which she had grabbed him just now, which was more powerful than that of a man, so he said with relief: "In this case, I will wait for good news from the general." After that, he bowed and walked out of the tent.
Liang Hongyu glared at Han Shizhong and said, "General Han, if you speak like that, how are you going to explain this to the people if we lose this battle?"
Han Shizhong smiled and said, "I believe General Liang will definitely have a way to defeat the enemy."
Liang Hongyu couldn't help but frown. Where did Han Shizhong get his confidence from? There was no point in saying more. Since he had already made such arrogant remarks, she could only think of a way to repel the enemy first.
She looked at the Dingsheng cake, which was big at both ends and thin in the middle, and suddenly thought: the enemy camp is like a Dingji, with a big head and a thin waist; if it is cut in the middle, the two ends will be shapeless.
Then he thought of a plan to defeat the enemy and said to Han Shizhong: "General, you can order the troops to march out tonight and charge straight into the center of the enemy camp and cut them off in half."
Han Shizhong thought this plan was feasible, so he sent Hu Yantong to lead a fleet to launch a surprise attack on the Jin soldiers according to this plan.
Wanyan Zongbing was about to go to bed to rest when he heard shouts of killing outside the cabin. Knowing that something was wrong, he rushed out of the cabin without even putting on his shoes.
The Jin army had been beaten to a pulp by the Song army during the day, and now the Song army launched a surprise attack at night, cutting their fleet in half. The Jin army was immediately thrown into disarray and had no choice but to flee in panic.
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