Traveling back to the Northern Song Dynasty: Picking up a princess as my wife

"Crack! Crack!"

Yue Peng shouted, "Are you going to talk or not! If you don't talk now, you won't have another chance to speak!"

The abducted leader was so terrified that he soiled himself and revealed everything he knew, including the chickens he had stolen from the village when he was a child.

Yue Peng was very satisfied with this and ordered his men to take the hall master down from the execution rack and throw him directly into the prison cell.

"Chief, that leader has confessed everything. They were just a branch of the Zoroastrian Church. Now the Zoroastrian army is preparing to attack Anyang City."

After listening, Li Zhen sneered, "These people have quite the appetite. They dare to attack Anyang with just tens of thousands of troops?"

Zhang Cheng, who was sitting next to him, stood up and said, "This peasant uprising is quite large. I estimate that the entire Daming Prefecture is deeply involved. But I believe that the imperial court will not ignore it and a large army will definitely come to quell the rebellion."

Li Zhen knew that the "court" Zhang Cheng mentioned was the Jin Dynasty. Given the habits of those Tartars, they would never adopt the appeasement policy of the Song Dynasty. He estimated that Daming Prefecture would suffer another bloodbath.

At this time, Wanyan Cong, who was in charge of Daming Prefecture, was also extremely anxious. Most of his soldiers had been dispatched to the front line, and he only had enough soldiers to defend Daming Prefecture. If the refugee forces were stronger, it was uncertain whether he could hold Daming Prefecture.

Wanyan Cong sighed and said to the clerk beside him, "Let's send a message to the Ming prince in Zhongdu. If we keep fighting like this, the land we've worked so hard to conquer will probably all fall back to the Song people."

It is unknown which Jin minister came up with the idea, but not only did they divide the newly occupied Song lands into different classes, they also repeatedly exploited the lower-class Song people, making their lives even worse than under Song rule.

Although the Northern Song Dynasty had fallen, Zhao Gou, the ruler of the Southern Song Dynasty, was a tough nut to crack. The Song army fought several large-scale battles against the Jin army in the Huainan region, Jingzhao Prefecture, and Xiangyang, causing considerable losses to the Jin army. This is why the Daming Prefecture Road was sparsely defended.

Fang Bucun, the leader of the Zoroastrian sect, had already arrived outside Anyang City. Seeing that the city walls were much higher than those of Tangyin City, he felt that he might not be able to take this place this time.

Putting aside everything else, the Jurchen defenders alone numbered over 20,000. Although the refugee army was said to number 100,000, only he knew that only a few thousand of them were actually capable of fighting.

Fang Bucun shouted to his subordinates, "Attack their city walls with fire, then use ladders to scale the walls."

A leader of the refugees raised his steel knife and shouted to those behind him, "Brothers, there is plenty of grain and gold and silver in Anyang City. As long as we break in, it will all be ours."

Like a tidal wave, the refugees surged toward the city wall in an instant. A dozen or so siege ladders were quickly erected on the wall, with twenty or thirty people below holding them up with all their might to prevent the soldiers guarding the city from using push rods to push the ladders away.

A Jin army centurion, watching the refugee soldiers begin to climb, shouted, "Attack with hot oil and gold juice!"

Several soldiers, their mouths and noses covered with burlap, poured scalding hot excrement down from the city wall, instantly burning and killing the men who were halfway up the wall.

The refugee soldiers below were truly unlucky. They had to endure the nauseating smell of molten gold while struggling to hold onto the ladder, making their lives miserable.

It is said that the Jin people were not good at defending cities, but it depends on the situation. Against these ragtag groups of refugees, the Jin soldiers were more than capable of defending.

After fighting for most of the day, the Zoroastrian refugee soldiers suffered hundreds of casualties, while the Jin soldiers defending the city also lost a large portion of their defensive equipment. Finally, the fighting ended after the refugees voluntarily withdrew.

At this moment, a former clerk from Sun's grain store was brought before Fang Bucun: "Greetings, Master! May you be blessed with boundless fortune!"

Fang Bucun looked at the leader who had brought him there: "What's going on?"

"Master, this man was originally a shop assistant for the largest grain merchant in Tangyin City. He said that their grain all came from Li Family Village, and they estimated that they had a grain reserve of over 100,000 dan (a unit of weight). Now that we are struggling to attack Anyang City, why don't we attack Li Family Village instead?"

The man quickly added, "Master, I guarantee with my life that there are countless grains piled up in Li Family Village, all of them top-quality rice."

Fang Bucun: "How could such a small mountain stronghold have so much grain? Are you deliberately trying to deceive us?"

With a "plop," the young waiter trembled like a leaf as he spoke.

“Every word I have said is true, and I swear it here!”

The leader leaned close to Fang Bucun's ear and said, "Master, don't worry. His mother, wife, and children are in our hands. He wouldn't dare to play any tricks."

Fang Bucun looked at the rock-solid city of Anyang, pondered for a moment, and said, "Tell my men to shift our target and attack Li Family Village with all our might."

When the Jin soldiers guarding the city saw that the refugees outside the city were beginning to retreat in large numbers, they hurriedly reported the situation to their superiors.

The prefect of Anyang, who was defending the city, was also puzzled: Why did they retreat after less than half a day of fighting? Was it because their defenses were too strong?

In less than half a day, the scouts of Li Family Village reported that the Zoroastrians were leading refugees toward them. Li Zhen immediately summoned all the leaders, big and small, to discuss how to deal with the situation.

Wang Changdao said nonchalantly, "What's the big boss afraid of? We'll just kill them and that'll be it!"

Yue Ying also strongly agreed with Wang Changdao's opinion and said that he could take the lead in charging into battle against the enemy.

Yue Peng frowned and said, "Chief, I think the enemy's strength this time is more than ten times ours. We can't possibly resist them with just the strength of our stronghold. Why don't we first withdraw our forces back to the inner stronghold and use the various fortifications we've built during this time to snipe at the enemy?"

Li Zhen looked at Yue Peng with great satisfaction and nodded, saying, "Brother Wang and Yue Ying are undoubtedly strong fighters, but you two aren't as meticulous as Yue Peng. Our Li Family Village isn't a military stronghold, but a haven for countless poor people. This time, the enemy is coming in a fierce manner, probably after our grain. We shouldn't waste our hard-won army on them. In future battles, everyone must remember that the premise of eliminating the enemy is how to better preserve yourselves; otherwise, even if you win, it will be a defeat."

Qian Dazhuang, who had previously served as a leader of the refugees, spoke up: "What the chief says is true. In fact, the refugees are just a motley crew. I heard that this incident was started by the Zoroastrians from the south. Of their 100,000 troops, only a few thousand are probably capable of fighting. As long as we can withstand the first few waves of enemy attacks, they will probably retreat in a few days."

Zhang Cheng, the magistrate of Tangyin County, coughed a few times and said, "Let me say a few words. I don't think the Jin Kingdom will let this peasant uprising go unchecked. After all, Daming Prefecture Road is an important passage for the Jin Kingdom to advance south. Once it falls, the consequences will be very serious. I strongly agree with the suggestion of the brother who just spoke. We just need to defend the mountain stronghold and wait for the Jin army to come and sweep it away."