choke element

Chapter 1023 Reinforcements (Part )

Pangang is located on the Yellow River embankment. There is a series of warehouses and hotels on the flat top, overlooking the road from Kaifeng to Guide. The warehouses and hotels have now been trampled to the ground, leaving only broken walls and fences. The Mongols used this ruin to accommodate the people they could not kill for the time being, and from time to time they would send some people out to serve the Mongolian army.

Not long ago, a Mongolian guard in one of the fences beat several people to death with an iron whip, which suddenly caused the people to explode. I don't know who started it, but someone picked up a small brick and threw it at the Mongolian, knocking him down in one go. Then there were constant shouts and cries of fighting and killing. Some people rushed over to fight; some grabbed weapons and dragged other Mongolians into the crowd to hack and slash; some climbed over the fence and tried to escape.

There was no need for Tolui's orders at this time, as a hundred Mongolian troops had already rushed to suppress the rebellion.

As the sound of bowstrings being plucked continued to sound, the Mongolian knights rode forward and shot arrows with their bows. Almost every one of them was a sharpshooter, and soon the people who were close to the fence were covered with arrows, as if a large patch of reeds had suddenly grown on their bodies.

The pungent smell of blood immediately spread, and screams and cries were heard from within the crowd. Women and children who saw their relatives being shot to death began to wail.

The Mongols became even more ferocious after smelling the blood, and rushed forward with shouts. There was an old soldier among the captives, who was waving his hands and shouting repeatedly, signaling his companions in a certain direction to avoid the arrows, but he was hit in the neck by the lasso thrown by the Mongols.

The Mongolian holding the lasso raised his arm and whistled, causing the horse to stand up. The huge pulling force from the lasso was transmitted to the human body, instantly lifting the old soldier up like a cloud, flying six or seven feet away. His body fell heavily to the ground, and was trampled by iron hooves, and he could no longer be seen.

The Mongols were better at suppressing captives than at fighting. In their eyes, captives were no different from cattle and sheep that they graze every day. They were trained from a young age to know when to whip them, when to kill them, when to allow them to eat grass, and when to cut their meat.

Even in a noisy environment, they were quick to notice the leader and deal with him immediately, just like when suppressing a scattered flock of sheep, they would directly shoot the lone wolf that alarmed the flock.

With the death of the old soldier, the prisoners who had gathered and tried to break through the fence immediately broke out into chaos. After all, most of them were ordinary people, and their brief burst of courage out of fear and resentment was already remarkable, but they had no resilience at all.

After the Mongols shot and killed hundreds of people through the fence, the remaining people ran back and forth in panic, each time they moved away from the fence where the Mongolian cavalry was approaching, they would move closer to the other fence. When the Mongols surrounded them and continued to shoot arrows, they left this fence and ran back to their original place.

In less than half a minute, everyone had lost their strength and stood closely together in a small area in the middle of the fence. The Mongols stopped advancing and rode their horses around, as if waiting for something.

After about half an hour, a cavalryman came galloping from a distance and shouted a few words. Then many Mongolian cavalrymen jumped off their horses, climbed over the fence, and swung their swords from the outside of the crowd, killing people one by one. Occasionally, a few people roared and tried to resist, but they were immediately besieged by many people and chopped into pieces.

With the dense crowd as the center, blood flowed out layer by layer. In the deep winter, the sky darkened early. When the killing began, there was still light, but it was dark in the blink of an eye, but the blood could still be seen flowing.

The blood flowed all the way to the outside of the fence, to the turbulent land that had been trampled by the war horses, and then seeped down, dyeing the land black and purple.

Such a situation made people feel like they were in hell. In another camp more than a hundred steps away, many people watched everything happening in front of them, many of them trembling as they watched, and women and children cried in suppressed voices.

"The Tartars are going to kill them all!" A man suddenly squatted down and pounded the ground hard.

Someone nearby asked fearfully, "What about us? Will they kill us too?"

Another person said angrily with a sullen face: "Those are the Tartars! They kill without blinking an eye! Wherever they go, they will kill everyone there!"

As soon as these words were spoken, some people around began to tremble.

A tender voice came from the crowd, like a child: "Oh, it's getting dark, they won't come to kill us today, will they?"

The man with a sullen face sneered, "If we don't kill you today, we will be killed tomorrow. Even if we are not killed tomorrow, we will be forced to move the goods and then be tortured to death... Or maybe, we will be forced to fill the soil and attack the city, and die under the swords and guns of our own people."

"I'm not going!" someone in the crowd shouted.

"You're not going?" The man who had spoken earlier continued to sneer. There was no need to answer such a stupid question. What had happened in the past few days had made most people understand the cruelty of the Mongols. If you don't go, the Mongols will not only kill you, but also your parents, sleep with your wife, and cut out your children's hearts and livers to feed the dogs!
Many of the people present had fled from Hebei to Henan during the last Mongol invasion. They had seen this scene with their own eyes a few years ago, but they never thought they would see it again!

As night falls, the wind becomes colder and a whistling sound can be heard from time to time.

Everyone was silent for a long time until a Mongol centurion rode over with a torch in his hand and shouted a few times across the fence.

There was a young man named Yuan in the crowd. He was from a scholarly family in Taiyuan Prefecture, Xijing, and knew a little of the Tartar language. He said, "The Mongols want ten strong men from us to strip the dead of their good clothes and search for their belongings."

Everyone remained silent, some stood up and took a few steps back, trying to get away from the Mongolian. But in the end, ten people were selected, led by a young man named Yuan, and went out of the fence to work.

The ten men did not return until late at night. When they requested to open the fence, the shepherd slaves, who were holding iron whips, were dissatisfied. Each of them was whipped several times and crawled in.

Among them, the young man named Yuan kept nodding and bowing and smiling. When Bo'ole sat down with a grumble, he tiptoed into the crowd, found the irritable man with a livid face in the dark, and called out in a low voice: "Old Cai! Old Cai!"

The irritable man had been suppressing his inner turmoil and the pain of failure all day and night for the past few days. It was not until today that he was exhausted to the limit and reluctantly fell asleep. Now awakened from his sleep, he became even more irritable and slapped the young man surnamed Yuan: "Yuan Haowen, why are you making a fuss? We are all going to die, why don't you just have a good night's sleep!"

He hit Yuan Haowen with great force, causing his head to tilt back. Yuan Haowen endured the buzzing in his ears and hugged his arm tightly: "Old Cai, your real name is Cai Baer, ​​and you are the fourth general of Nandun Bandit Suppression Town, right?"

Cai Baer's waving hand suddenly turned into a pulling hand, grabbing Yuan Haowen's neck and pulling him to her side: "How did you know?"

Yuan Haowen panted heavily, not knowing whether he was excited or afraid: "Among the companions who came back here with me, one has been replaced... The one who came in said he recognized you."

Cai Baer was startled and stood up suddenly. Then he stretched his waist and squatted down again: "Where is that person?"

Yuan Haowen took Cai Baer and carefully crawled through the crowd. As expected, they saw several men quietly gathering on the side of the camp near the river. Cai Baer had sharp eyes and recognized that those men were all unlucky guys who had served as soldiers or even officers in the prisoner camp.

Taking a few steps closer, Cai Baer saw the faces of the people gathered in the middle of the crowd in the dim moonlight. He was shocked: "Judge Liu?!"

For some reason, Liu Ran, the military judge of Tokyo, had a red face, but his eyes were unusually bright. He pressed his finger to his lips, indicating that he would speak softly: "Time is running out, so I will be brief. The Mongolian army came through the Song Dynasty, and we were caught off guard and embarrassed. It was not our fault. But now, the Mongolians have decided to kill all the people here to intimidate our army gathering on the north bank. So we either fight the Mongolians tonight or die tomorrow. Others have chosen, Cai Baer, ​​which one do you choose?"

Cai Baer said without hesitation: "Let's fight tonight."

"it is good."

Liu Ran continued: "How many soldiers can you motivate and dare to die?"

"Ten!" Cai Baer paused, then said, "If there's a commotion, anyone will die!"

"I will arrange people to deliver weapons as soon as possible. Please wait patiently for my orders." Liu Ran said this and nodded to Yuan Haowen.

Yuan Haowen immediately crawled along the fence to the other side. Not long after, the Mongolian's lewd laughter and words suddenly came from the other side of the fence. The voice was neither loud nor low, which just startled the shepherd slave who was guarding. Seeing that the shepherd slave excitedly went in the direction of the voice, Liu Ran draped his jacket over his shoulders to cover his figure and walked quickly to the shadows.

"Judge Liu!"

Cai Baer suddenly shouted.

Liu Ran turned around: "What?"

"The Mongols have been attacking us for ten days. When will your Majesty's army arrive? When will they come to rescue us?"

"Your Majesty's army will arrive sooner or later. What I have to do is to seize every opportunity to contain the Mongols and drown them in the vast ocean of countless soldiers and civilians in Henan Road. As for you, you eat the food and enjoy the salary given by Your Majesty, and you only need to kill the enemy."

Liu Ran's words were very straightforward, and this straightforward attitude immediately gave Cai Baer a backbone. Cai Baer immediately said generously: "Don't worry, Judge. Dying for the country is exactly what I want."