Chapter 270 The tragedy at Jianmen Pass
There were tens of thousands of defenders in the city. The main general, Li Mo, the golden eagle divine arrow, was dead. The Song army soldiers under the city looked ashen, their bodies were stiff, their scalps were numb, and they had lost all their fighting spirit.
I don’t know who started it, but
they threw their weapons on the ground, knelt down and cried bitterly. The psychological defenses of the infantrymen attacking the city collapsed one by one, and they threw down their weapons, knelt down and hugged their heads, and surrendered.
Deputy General Hao Liang, who was watching the battle in the rear, saw that the three thousand soldiers beside him were also shaken and rioted. He looked up to the sky and sighed: Alas! ... I didn’t expect that I, Hao Liang, would become a surrendered general!
"Get off the horse, throw down your weapons, kneel down and hug your head!" Hao Liang gave the last order in grief.
………………
The narrow and steep stone steps in front of Jianmen Pass were covered with brown blood and burnt black. The unpleasant smell of blood and burnt flesh and hair in the air was so strong that it made people sick!
Pan Mei, the commander of the imperial army, looked up at the majestic pass that still stood as tall as before, feeling anxious and worried. Jianmen Pass, which had never been breached from the north, was indeed extremely easy to defend and difficult to attack. He had truly experienced the reputation of "one man guarding the pass against ten thousand men"!
On the narrow and steep stone steps, it was impossible to arrange the troops and deploy the battle formation. The only way to attack was to use a vertical formation of thirty or forty people in a row. The angle of the attack was too big, and every step forward would cost the lives of the soldiers.
Although there were only two thousand soldiers guarding the city wall, they were all archers and strongmen. Not to mention the seemingly endless arrows shooting at the city wall, and the endless ridged stones smashing at them, the elliptical boulders that were pushed down would roll down the stone steps, hitting and crushing dozens of lives.
"Marshal, our casualties have exceeded ten thousand. Otherwise,... should we suspend the attack?" Pan Mei's nephew stepped forward and said cautiously.
Several other lieutenants quickly agreed, "Yes! Marshal, there will be no achievement if we continue attacking like this. No matter how many lives are lost in front of Jianmen Pass, it will not be enough. Let's suspend the attack?" "
Marshal, the soldiers are scared of siege warfare. Let's suspend the attack and wait for the news of General Li Mo's success?"
Pan Mei pondered for a moment, then slowly said, "Use another team of a thousand people to launch a fierce attack to cover the assault troops to capture Xiaojianmen Pass. If we still can't break through the pass, we will wait for news from Li Mo!"
Seeing that the marshal finally wanted to withdraw his troops, several lieutenants gladly accepted the order and organized the last fierce attack.
The 1,000 selected soldiers, holding shields and weapons in fear, lifted the siege ladders and climbed up the steep stone steps step by step.
The young general Yunlong on the city wall waved his hand, and
two large oval stones were lifted up by the soldiers, lifted over the battlements and thrown down.
Two large elliptical stones were thrown down from the city wall, smashing up a ground with a "bang!", and then they jumped and rolled down the steep stone steps towards the Song army that was attacking upwards...
"Run!..."
"Ah!..."
"Get out of the way!..."
"Ah!..."
The siege infantry screamed in fear and tried to avoid the deadly stones. Those who could not avoid were hit by the stones, and flew backwards with screams and blood spurting out of their mouths...
Pan Mei, who was watching the battle from afar, counted with a heavy heart the thirty-two lives taken by the two stones as they flew along, blood and flesh flying all the way, before they changed direction and crashed into the mountain next to them and stopped.
"Bang!..."
"Bang!..."
Two more boulders fell, bringing with them screams of ghosts and blood...
Two more... Two more... Until twelve boulders were thrown down from the city wall, Yunlong, who was standing timidly, waved his hand, "Archers, slingers, get ready!... Fire!"
The Song army, which had already climbed within the range of the bows and arrows, was hit by a rain of arrows. The terrified soldiers used their shields to block the arrows, and pieces of jagged stones were thrown down by the strong men on the wall.
The Song soldiers who were hit by arrows and stones fell to the ground howling, and the soldiers behind them were urged by their superiors to continue climbing forward in fear...
Pan Mei closed his eyes in pain, "Mingjin, withdraw the troops!..."
The remaining 400 soldiers heard Mingjin's order to withdraw the troops, and threw the bodies on the ground as if they had been pardoned, and turned around and ran back!
The attack on Jianmen Pass was fruitless, and the team of soldiers who raided Xiaojianmen Pass was of course also recalled.
At night, ten rope ladders were lowered from the city wall with countless torches lit, and dozens of rebel soldiers went down the rope ladders to the bottom of the city wall and cleaned up the battlefield.
They quickly picked up the weapons scattered on the ground, stripped the armor off the bodies and carried them to the bottom of the city wall, throwing the bodies into piles far away.
Pan Mei also made a final effort. In the dark night, he gave an order: "Attack!"
Hundreds of sturdy figures emerged from the darkness, and quickly and swiftly moved towards the rebels who were cleaning the battlefield.
A series of gongs sounded on the city wall, and the rebel soldiers who were busy working turned around and ran back. After reaching the bottom of the city wall, they turned around and leaned against the wall, picked up the bows and arrows prepared on the ground, and aimed at the bottom of the stone steps...
"Alas! I missed catching up by a few steps. This young rebel commander is too cunning!" Pan Mei had no choice but to order the troops to withdraw.
Several hundred Song soldiers hid outside the range of arrows on the city wall, worried that rocks would be thrown from the city wall at any time. When they heard the call to withdraw troops, they breathed a sigh of relief and turned around and ran back.
The rebels under the city wall put down their bows and arrows and continued to work to clean up the battlefield...
Just before the Song army troops who had failed to sneak attack returned to the camp, a raging fire and thick smoke ignited at the Jianmen Pass behind them...
The Song soldiers knew that the enemy had already cleaned up the weapons and armor on the battlefield and cremated the bodies of their dead colleagues. Although he was grieving, he did not curse the enemy. The weather was warm, and it was better to cremate the bodies to prevent them from spreading the plague after decay. This was a kind of protection for the soldiers on both sides.
Pan Mei returned to the marshal's tent and said helplessly to the several lieutenants who followed him: "Stop attacking Jianmen Pass and wait for news from General Li Mo!"
The lieutenants felt relieved, but they became nervous again after hearing another sentence from the marshal.
Pan Mei frowned and said, "Logically, General Li Mo should have led 20,000 troops out of the primeval forest and headed straight for Jiangyou Pass. Why hasn't he sent back any information?"
"Marshal, maybe the defenders of Jiangyou Pass are fighting desperately to defend the pass, and General Li is unable to capture it for a while?" Deputy General Wu Jiang pondered over this sentence, and even he himself didn't believe it.
Even if Jiangyou Pass could not be captured for the time being, General Li Mo should have sent a messenger to deliver a message to the commander Pan Mei!
The atmosphere in the commander's tent was heavy and depressing, and all the generals were panicking and felt that something was wrong.