Water Margin: The opening scene involves assassinating Emperor Huizong of Song and forcibly taking L

A fierce battle is raging there!

The city has been occupied by the rebels, but the Jin army's supplies are inside. Wanyan Zongfu must take it no matter the cost.

Wang Zheng led the families of all ethnic groups to the city wall and pointed to the Jin soldiers besieging the city, saying, "Take a close look, are there any Bohai soldiers or Han soldiers here?"

After looking for a long time, the group still couldn't find the relevant flag.

But it's also possible that it's too far away to see clearly.

Gao Jingshan said, "The armies of all ethnic groups in Hesuguan City must have all surrendered to the Ming and driven the Jurchen soldiers out of the city."

"The military leaders in your tribe have all rebelled. Once the Jurchen army captures Liaoyang, do you think they will show any mercy and spare you all?"

"It will surely lead to the extermination of the entire family!"

The Jurchen soldiers outside the city were dismantling houses near the city walls to obtain timber, which they used to build siege ladders with nails and even ropes.

As the person left behind by the most powerful clan in Liaoyang, Zhang Xuanzheng immediately understood what to do.

He told the other prominent families, "I will be in charge of coordinating the city's supplies, while Generals Gao and Wang will command the battle."

“Go into the city and organize the people. Tell them that the Jurchens have suffered a great defeat and have reached the point of desperation. Once the city falls, not a single one of them will be spared.”

"Anyone who fails to defend their homeland will face a massacre by the Jurchen soldiers!"

"We will do our utmost."

Since it concerned their lives and fortunes, all the prominent families were on high alert; if they couldn't defend Liaoyang, they would all die.

Inside the city were over 800 elite troops from Bohai brought back by Gao and Wang, over 300 Huangtou Shiwei (who suffered heavy casualties in the attack on the city gate), and over 2,000 Han and Xi soldiers.

The total strength of the defending troops was only 3,200.

More than 10,000 Jurchen soldiers surrounded the city!

All the powerful clans and noble families were mobilized, dividing into different areas to spread the word, telling everyone they met that the Jurchens were going to massacre the city.

Moreover, Wanyan Zongfu has already suffered a major defeat, the Ming emperor will arrive soon, and the destruction of the Jin dynasty is only a matter of time.

From elderly people in their fifties and sixties to teenagers as young as fourteen or fifteen, all men were incorporated into the army.

Women and children helped transport supplies and cook and deliver meals to the soldiers.

The three Ming spies each led a new army, and they were all ordinary people who had never fought a war.

Anyway, the city was piled high with military rations. In order to boost the morale of the entire army, both the soldiers who participated in the battle and the women and children who were responsible for logistics could eat as much as they wanted at every meal.

Military pay is paid daily.

Anyone who guarded the city wall that day, transported supplies, or even just helped deliver meals could collect their pay after the handover.

Those who achieve merit in battle will be rewarded.

...

outside the city.

Wanyan Zongfu led his army to the scene in the middle of the night. Exhausted, the army did not attack immediately but retreated to rest.

Meanwhile, a group of Jurchen soldiers guarded the bridge to prevent the garrison from leaving the city and damaging the moat bridge.

The next morning, half the soldiers rested while the other half dismantled the houses. In the afternoon, they took turns continuing to dismantle the houses.

On the third day, the entire army used the wood obtained from dismantling houses to build thousands of simple siege ladders.

Climbing a fortified city using these siege ladders is pure suicide.

Fortunately, there weren't many regular troops in the city, and the civilians would definitely be in a panic before the battle.

Chapter 3437 Encirclement from Three Sides

A troop of light cavalry suddenly arrived; they had come from the southern mountains.

"Marshal, Posulu is on his way to withdraw his troops. The main force should arrive by noon tomorrow at the latest," the light cavalryman in charge of delivering the message said.

Wanyan Zongfu asked, "Have the Ming troops across the Yalu River pursued us?"

The light cavalry replied, "We sent our elite troops with carpenters along the way to cut down trees on the mountainsides and roll them down the slopes to block the roads."

"It is estimated that this can delay the Ming army by one or two days."

"We only have one or two days left, time is of the essence."

Wanyan Zongfu looked southwest, where the main force of the Ming army was located, and estimated that they would arrive in a day or two.

If the Ming army had abandoned its artillery, they probably could have arrived today.

But Wanyan Zongfu had to stay here; he either had to quickly break through the city to obtain supplies, or wait for Jin Wuzhu to withdraw his troops and bring supplies.

"Prepare to attack the city! Attack from three sides simultaneously!"

All the veterans in the city were responsible for guarding the city walls near the city gates, or staying at the horse track as a reserve force.

The new recruits were stationed on all four sides of the city wall, fighting with a variety of weapons.

Hundreds of forked poles were urgently made to be used to push down the siege ladders.

It would be best to overturn the siege ladders; otherwise, once the Jurchen soldiers scaled the city walls, the new recruits would be very likely to collapse.

Those ten thousand Jurchen soldiers only carried a few days' worth of rations, which would be gone in another two or three days.

Defeat or the destruction of their country are no longer issues for them; these guys only want to enter the city and seize grain.

They were all ready to die!

A team of dozens of people carried siege ladders and charged forward.

The defenders didn't have many arrows, and the Jurchen soldiers quickly rushed to the base of the wall.

Once they began to climb, the defenders would use forked poles to push the siege ladders, or throw down rolling logs and pour molten gold.

The previous attacks all failed, and the squads that suffered too many casualties were immediately replaced to rest, while another squad continued.

The fighting continued until evening, and Wanyan Zongfu showed no intention of withdrawing his troops.

Finally, several Jurchen soldiers climbed the city wall and slaughtered dozens of new recruits nearby.

Those new recruits were civilians just a few days ago, and they came to help defend the city out of fear of being massacred.

Although they were well-fed and their morale was high, they were completely clueless when it came to actual combat. They lacked both armor and weapons and were not well-trained.

A few fully armored Jurchen soldiers could easily scatter a large group of enemies once they scaled the city walls.

Wang Zheng was observing the battle situation from the city tower, and he was in charge of directing the construction of the city walls on both sides of the tower.

Upon seeing Jurchen soldiers scaling the city walls, he immediately ordered, "Transfer the Xi soldiers over there!"

A command flag waved atop the city wall, and a messenger near the Xi soldiers, upon receiving the message, immediately shouted, "Xi soldiers, hurry to the rescue!"

This Xi soldier unit is a reserve force. Although they have a grudge against the Bohai people, they are now all in the same boat.

Meanwhile, the Jin army was also mobilizing troops towards the vanguard, attempting to capture the city walls in one fell swoop.

The Xi soldiers' reserve force was delayed by the retreating troops, and by the time they rushed over, more than fifty Jurchen soldiers had already scaled the city walls.

Meanwhile, another group of new recruits was also routed, and nearby Han army reserves went to their aid.

The fighting continued until nightfall, when the Jurchen soldiers who had scaled the city walls were finally driven back completely.

Left with no other option, Wanyan Zongfu had to withdraw his troops under cover of night.

"Follow me!"

Gao Jingshan led 500 elite Bohai cavalrymen who had been waiting for orders, and took advantage of the darkness to open the barbican and charge out when the Jurchen soldiers retreated.

The Jurchen soldiers, who were carrying siege ladders to retreat, were caught off guard and fled in disarray.

The Jurchen cavalry didn't arrive until they had chased the city for half a mile across the moat. Gao Jingshan quickly led his troops back to the barbican.

...

Jin Wuzhu was still traveling in the mountains. His biggest headache now was not the pursuers, but the deserters who appeared every night.

He ordered all the tribes south of the Yalu and Tumen Rivers to leave their homes and guard the city of Posulu.

It is true that these mountain tribes submitted to the Jin Dynasty a long time ago, but their leaders had long since been promoted and moved away.

The rest were all poor people, and there weren't many able-bodied men. Only the Jurchens of Helanlu were considered elite.

With a city to defend, they were relatively safe.

They were unwilling to abandon the city and evacuate.

The Jurchen people south of the Yalu River, in particular, had not benefited from following the Jin Dynasty, yet now they were being forced to leave their homes and flee for their lives, even facing constant danger to their safety.

On the very night that Jin Wuzhu retreated north, some Jurchen soldiers deserted.

The emergency evacuation in the mountains was fraught with narrow mountain paths, leaving no time to even set up camp; they simply planted long spears on both sides.

In this situation, how can we stop deserters?

Often, a team of soldiers would be sent out to collect firewood, but only half of them would return, with the rest taking the opportunity to slip away.

Or they could wait until most people were asleep and then quietly sneak into the mountains.

Some of the bolder ones even went back the way they came to join the pursuing Ming army.

Because they had no food and were afraid of encountering wild animals in the mountains, they decided to defect to the Ming Dynasty, which gave them a better chance of survival.

When Jin Wuzhu led his army out of the mountains, his troops numbered less than 20,000 (including the grain transport teams).

Although horses can carry armor and food, in some places the mountain roads are rugged and horses cannot carry too much weight.

To transport most of the grain from the Possuri route, a group of laborers would be needed specifically to carry the grain.

Chapter 3438 Seizing the Time

The two Jin armies met outside Liaoyang City.

Jin Wuzhu asked, "Haven't you taken it yet?"

"It'll be soon. We've already climbed the city walls several times since yesterday," Wanyan Zongfu said.

Jin Wuzhu then asked, "Where is the main force of the Ming army?"

Wanyan Zongfu said, "This morning, we spotted Ming light cavalry twenty miles away. Their main force is probably arriving soon."

Jin Wuzhu said, "I left several thousand soldiers to guard the mountain pass and prevent the Ming army pursuing us from the Yalu River from leaving the mountain."

"Should we bring them over for the final battle?"

Wanyan Zongfu turned his head to look at the city, his mind torn between whether or not to continue the attack.

If they still cannot capture Liaoyang within a day, they will face the main force of the Ming army personally led by Zhao Yuan.

Wanyan Zongfu asked, "I still have more than 11,000 soldiers at my disposal. Including the soldiers you brought, how long can our food supplies last?"

“A month,” Jin Wuzhu said, “if we eat sparingly, we can last forty or fifty days.”

"How come there are only these left?" Wanyan Zongfu asked.

Jin Wuzhu explained, "I traveled swiftly through the mountains, encountering many deserters and wounded soldiers who fell behind."

"In the latter half of the journey, there weren't enough laborers to carry the grain, so warhorses had to be used to transport it as well, and a lot of the grain was burned on the spot along the way."

There was nothing that could be done; if Jin Wuzhu hadn't acted quickly, the main force of the Ming army would have arrived first.

Just then, several cavalrymen came galloping from the east, their armor stained with blood.

The warhorses were already foaming at the mouth from running, and one of them collapsed from a great distance.

The cavalryman at the forefront was led to Wanyan Zong, dismounted, and reported: "Marshal, Shenzhou (Shenyang) is lost!"

Wanyan Zongfu was shocked: "How come Shen Zhou is gone?"

The Jurchen cavalryman said, "The Ming army has several thousand cavalrymen. Last night, they launched a surprise attack on Shenzhou, and many of them were carrying muskets."

"Shenzhou's forces were weak, and there were spies in the city, so it fell in no time."

Wanyan Zongfu stood there dumbfounded.

It turns out that the Ming army's main force was moving slowly not because the artillery was slowing down their march, but to lull Wanyan Zongfu into a false sense of security so that they could secretly send troops to launch a surprise attack on Shenzhou.

Zhao Yuan sent all his cavalry to Jinzhou and Baozhou, leaving only Yang Zaixing's heavily damaged troops to rest and reorganize.