choke element

Chapter 1032 Roar (Part )

When the Mongolian army invaded, Liu Ran was caught off guard and had to fight and retreat. All his subordinates died in the first few days. After he retreated to the vicinity of Kaifeng, he launched several attacks on the Mongols in succession in order to relieve the pressure on Kaifeng City. By this time, the officers around him had been replaced by two batches.

There is no doubt that the Mongols are strong. Since last night, the scale of the battle has been large, and the casualties of the soldiers have been very tragic. In fact, Guo Alin's words were still euphemistic. Not to mention a thousand-man team, even a Mongolian team of a hundred would be difficult to fight.

The biggest difficulty was that the temporarily assembled team lacked tactical coordination. Although the ordinary people who joined the army temporarily were brave, they found it difficult to follow orders and almost impossible to achieve the commander's intentions. Liu Ran arranged ambushes and encirclements three times, but twice someone in the team couldn't hold back and took action in advance, alerting the Mongols.

As a result, what should have been a battle of annihilation turned into a battle of rout. The Mongols were unpredictable, so how could they care about a temporary disadvantage? They took the initiative to retreat, and the encirclement failed. Then the Mongols relied on their cavalry advantage to repeatedly destroy the exposed ambushes, and many experienced soldiers died in the process.

Liu Ran had seen brave soldiers fighting to the death in formation, but were suddenly shot through the bodies by Mongolian arrows and had their internal organs and bones crushed by horses.

He had seen a young farmer finally muster up the courage to go to the battlefield, but collapse when he was dozens of steps away from the enemy. As a result, he dropped his weapon and became alone, chased by the Mongols like hunting, and shot like a hedgehog.

He had seen ordinary people rejoicing over the government army's counterattack, coming out of their hiding cellars or jungles to cheer, only to be rushed by the Mongols on horseback, hacked and stabbed with swords and guns. They waved their hammers or rakes in resistance, but their broken arms and limbs flew into the sky.

Half an hour ago, in an encounter, the warrior Cai Baer, ​​who led hundreds of strong men from Pangang, was also killed in the battle. Among his remaining troops, most of the wounded of varying severity were now being led by the scholar Yuan Haowen to a hidden ditch for rest.

Now, almost all of the people around Liu Ran were new recruits who had struggled out of the bloody sea and were promoted temporarily because of their bravery in combat. There were only two officers with more experience, and Liu Ran hoped that they would not die. If they died, there would be no one to teach them the basic rules of the army.

The 800 men under Guo Alin were the biggest contributors to the victory over the two Mongolian 100-man teams in one go. However, in order to achieve the result of annihilation, more than half of the 800 men were killed or wounded.

Several capable generals under this dignified Xuanwu Army Jiedushi have been killed one after another, and now only his deputy general Tang Jiulai is following him.

Tang Jiulai also had several knife and arrow wounds on his body, and his right calf was pierced by an arrow. He was now leaning against a cart to rest, his face pale with pain, and his eyes were as scary as will-o'-the-wisp.

The army of the Great Zhou was huge, but in the Central Plains, on the one hand, many old members of the Red Coat Army continued to be cleared out and repelled, and on the other hand, some of the original backbones were transferred to other government offices as officials, or retired and returned home to enjoy a peaceful life. The number of old soldiers retained in the army was very limited.

Guo A-Lin's trusted headquarters was his reliance for suppressing the entire town. The subsequent impact of losing more than half of them was simply unbearable. That was why Guo A-Lin had doubts about the subsequent operations.

But Liu Ran was not worried about the lack of manpower on his side.

"We have fought six battles, but the Mongols around Kaifeng are slow to react. They want to gather now, but can they really do so? We have discussed this before. From Guide Prefecture to the west, Suizhou and Qixian to Xingyang and Zhengzhou to the west of Kaifeng, the Mongols who should have taken action have all been slow. They are being held back! Don't worry, we are not the only ones fighting the Mongols! These are the only Mongols, and we will have more and more people!"

Guo Alin was from the Central Plains after all, and soon after he joined the army, he served under the command of the Great Zhou Emperor. He was used to relying on himself and the Great Zhou army as the only reliance against foreign enemies. People like Liu Ran, who were born in the Liaodong border, always believed that the army and the people were one, and that only he could rely on himself at critical moments, and everyone should be prepared to fight for his life on the battlefield.

The reality was just as Liu Ran had imagined. This vast land was boiling, as if red-hot magma was constantly gushing out from beneath the land and gathering into a river.

In the intervals between the fierce battles, people kept crossing the fields and bushes covered with a light snow and gathered around him.

Among these people were vagrants, minor officials, farmers, craftsmen, merchants, a group of coastal fishermen and shipbuilders who formed a family unit, and even a few who claimed to be bandits from Lizhou East Road in the Song Dynasty. They said with bloodshot eyes that they wanted to fight the Mongols to avenge their companions.

They kept gathering in a very short time and then fought against the Mongols. Some died in the battle, while others were promoted by officers such as Liu Ran. This caused the army to be repeatedly dispersed, but it was restored to its original size again and again.

Liu Ran was a soldier who had been through many battles and was accustomed to all kinds of bloody scenes, but those scenes still brought him a strong shock, deeply moved him, and even made him dizzy from time to time.

He took off the sword from his waist and placed it on the ground with the scabbard to support his overly tired body, while thinking about how to arrange the next battle.

When he was in Liaodong in his early years, he knew that many Mongols did not know that the majority of the people in the Jin Dynasty were Han Chinese. The Mongols only knew the Jurchens, and used "Khitan" to refer to all the ethnic groups enslaved by the Jurchens. The Mongols did not care about other ethnic names and were too lazy to remember them.

Liu Ran has many relatives and clansmen who are brave and good at fighting. He himself has practiced martial arts since he was young and is very agile. However, he cannot change the ethnic group he grew up in, he cannot change the status of Haner, and he cannot prevent Haner from being regarded as a cowardly, incompetent and timid nation by his brutal opponents.

But how could the Han people be what the Mongols imagined?

The Han people were reserved and weak because they saw no future and had no hope. But now they have a future and hope, and there are no more Jurchen nobles squatting on them and sucking their blood, flesh and marrow.

On the contrary, the newly born Great Zhou Dynasty constantly encouraged the Han people to be aggressive and adventurous. In order to achieve this goal, the Great Zhou used crude means, which often surprised the Southern Song Dynasty.

Why, your warriors are so highly respected and so weakly controlled? Why, you indulge merchants so much that you can sit back and watch the local farmers decrease in order to recruit workers for the mines and factories that have sprung up everywhere? Why, your schools teach all kinds of miscellaneous knowledge, and teach more about arithmetic, geography, business, and martial arts than the teachings of saints? Why, not only are your troops equipped with weapons, but even your caravan guards and village militias can come up with a few strong bows and crossbows?

If this continues, there will only be tigers and wolves under the rule of the Great Zhou, and no obedient people.

In the eyes of many outsiders, each of these incidents was a sure way to death. Originally, the people of Song were very afraid of the name of the Zhou Dynasty. In recent years, some people felt that the Song Dynasty could just sit back and wait for the makeshift government in the north to fall into chaos and fall.

Although Liu Ran was born a warrior, he loved reading. He had some such worries earlier. But now he fully understood that this was exactly what the Great Zhou Emperor Guo Ning wanted.

Perhaps His Majesty does not care about his status as the founding monarch, nor does he approve of the long-term peace and stability of a country where the people are obedient like grass. As an emperor on horseback, he has always been concerned about how to defeat the enemy, and what he expects is how to make his dynasty full of martial virtues.

The emperor's expectation came true.

The Central Plains, which should have been filled with obedient people, erupted when faced with a powerful enemy invasion. The Han people in the Central Plains showed amazing ferocity, and they dared to fight any enemy, even the Mongolian army that killed people like cutting grass.

After the surprise attack, the panic of the military and civilians in the Central Plains lasted for about five or six days. After five or six days, the people in this vast land began to roar at the Mongols with their fighting. They told the enemy that as long as there was a slight opportunity, they would resist and would inevitably cause heavy losses to the enemy.

"Judge, Marshal, look!"

A soldier came running over, panting, and pointed his hand in the distance.

Liu Ran and Guo Alin looked up and saw smoke and dust rising in all directions and heard a huge roar like a volcanic eruption.

They saw countless cavalrymen coming from the west. The knights rode their horses and charged in waves. The sound of their horses' hooves hitting the ground was like a mixture of wind and thunder. Under the sun, the armor on the cavalrymen shone coldly, and the iron stream rushed, interlaced, and advanced like a surging wave, like a painting with thick ink and heavy colors.

They saw a large number of people first in twos and threes, then in groups, and finally appearing from the end of the southern plains like a tide. To be honest, the people did not march in formation, and they did not look like they could resist the Mongolian army. Liu Ran even saw some angry people marching at the front of the formation, stripping off the clothes and armor of some dead people along the way, gathering their horses, and holding their weapons.

But how could their numbers be so large, and their pace so fierce!
At some point, a group of people gathered around Liu Ran and Guo Alin, all with fiery eyes.

"Kaifeng! Look in the direction of Kaifeng!" suddenly a soldier shouted.

The two men turned around suddenly and saw that the soldiers on the top of Kaifeng City were getting agitated, as if a drastic troop movement was taking place.

"Is Governor Guo going to lead his troops out of the city?" a soldier asked happily.

On the top of the city wall, Guo Zhongyuan had been looking out for a long time. He confirmed that the situation around him had suddenly changed, so he praised calmly: "The boys have done a good job, and the elders and villagers are all good men... It's almost our turn."

In fact, the people and materials that could be used for fighting in Kaifeng City had already been gathered yesterday. But for a certain decisive moment and a certain special weapon, he had waited until now.

Guo Zhongyuan nodded to the officer beside him, and then he saw a soldier waving a flag.

At the bottom of the city wall, the soldiers who were ready to go moved closer to the city gate subconsciously. And people on more than ten battlements near the tower responded, and they all raised torches and lit the fuses.

Guo Zhongyuan suddenly thought that he had a connection with things like fuses. He made great achievements in Zhongdu City because he accidentally lit an iron cannon and killed a trapped enemy. These weapons that use fuses are different from the iron cannons that have been preserved for decades. They are much more complicated, and the central government has never allocated funds for them in recent years.

In the chaotic situation, Guo Zhongyuan spent a lot of energy to bring the team researching this weapon to the city in time and equip them with everything they needed. But it was meaningful. A strong army cannot rely solely on the bravery of the soldiers. Being in Kaifeng, a place with prosperous industries and with the support of so many craftsmen, they should use their strengths.

It seemed that they had made additional preparations before lighting the fuse, so some time had been lost. Guo Zhongyuan waited patiently, watching the fuse closest to him sizzle with sparks and burn into the huge metal structure.

Only then did he raise his hand and slam it heavily on the battlement.

It was as if this action had released some terrifying force. After a huge roar, the people inside and outside the tower could no longer hear any sound. Thick white smoke covered the sky and blocked their sight.

Sorry for the slow update. I had a severe attack of costochondritis a couple of days ago. I felt like my sternum was going to explode and an alien was going to jump out.

(End of this chapter)