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

The villagers of Lijiazhai were migrating to the inner village. In fact, most of them already had their own residences in the inner village, but for the convenience of working, they set up simple dwellings in the outer village.

In response to the influx of refugees, in addition to the defending soldiers, the villagers, led by several officers, began to form militias. Their weapons and equipment were almost identical to those of professional soldiers; this was because Li Zhen possessed ample supplies and equipment. He had enough storage space for not only a small village like Li Family Village, but also for tens of thousands of people.

Zhao Yingluo said to Li Zhen with great concern, "Husband, if all else fails, we can head south. I will go and beg them for a place to rest."

Li Zhen gently patted Zhao Yingluo's shoulder: "Don't worry, they're just a bunch of rabble, not even enough to fill my teeth. Do you know that your husband's ideal is to conquer mountains and seas? What are these mere refugees to fear?"

In less than two days, Fang Bucun, the leader of the Zoroastrian sect, led a large number of refugees to attack the outer perimeter of Li Family Village day and night.

With Li Zhen deliberately letting the enemy off the hook, the refugee army, after losing nearly a thousand men, rushed into the outer perimeter of Li Family Village. They believed they had already breached the village and shouted loudly as they desperately charged forward, fearing that if they were too slow, they would miss out on the good stuff.

Li Zhen stood in the dense forest on the hillside, observing the enemy's situation through binoculars. After seeing nearly ten or twenty thousand people rushing in, he said coldly, "Tell Yue Ying that you can set it on fire."

Yue Peng, who was standing nearby, called out into the walkie-talkie, "Yue Ying, Yue Ying, please respond if you hear me."

After a series of hissing sounds, Yue Ying's voice came through the walkie-talkie.

"Yue Ying, what are your instructions?"

Yue Peng pressed the call button on the walkie-talkie: "The chief has ordered ignition."

"receive."

Soon a wall of fire was lit, instantly surrounding the fleeing refugee army that had rushed in.

"Ouch! That hurts so much!"

"Retreat! There's an ambush here!"

Unfortunately, even if they wanted to break out, it would be impossible for them now. Li Zhen had arranged for people to bury gasoline in disposable pipes along the only way, so that once it was ignited, it could separate the enemies who rushed in.

The three- or four-meter-high firewalls kept the enemies outside the stockade from getting out, so they didn't know what was happening inside and could only hear the howling and wailing coming from within.

Yue Peng commanded his squad of soldiers to continuously shoot down the enemies who rushed in with composite bows. Although some people tried to break through despite the fire, they would be burned to death or shot even if they managed to get out.

After burning for an hour, the remaining few hundred people took advantage of the fire's slight weakening to tear off the clothes of the dead refugees and wrap them around themselves before rushing out of the fire.

Inside, the bodies of refugees lay scattered on the ground. Most of them hadn't died from the fire, but from suffocation due to prolonged lack of oxygen. The fire was so intense that it depleted all the oxygen around them, causing them to suffocate.

Once the fire subsided, Wang Changdao led his soldiers to charge in. Countless soldiers emerged from all directions of Li Family Village, rushing towards the fleeing refugees.

These soldiers, clad in modernly produced armor and wearing security helmets, charged forward like tigers descending a mountain, wielding long steel spears.

"Kill! Kill! Kill!..."

The deafening shouts of battle terrified the refugee soldiers, who retreated in droves, without even a thought of resisting or fighting back.

Wang Changdao himself held a double-barreled shotgun and kept shooting at the refugees who dared to resist. He shouted, "Those who surrender will be spared, those who dare to resist will be killed without mercy!"

At this moment, the refugee troops outside the village wall also sent troops in to provide support. After seeing the formation of the soldiers in Li Family Village, their momentum of charging forward slowed down slightly, leaving those behind unaware of what was happening ahead.

"Armor! They actually have armor! How are we supposed to fight this battle?"

These refugees didn't even have decent weapons, let alone heavy weapons capable of penetrating armor. The soldiers from Li Family Village didn't care about that; they plunged their long steel spears into the bodies of the refugee soldiers. They quickly pulled them out and then stabbed the next one. Even if the wooden sticks and rusty steel knives were used to cut them, they couldn't cause any damage.

The spearmen's formation had successfully halted the refugee caravan, a fact that even Li Zhen hadn't anticipated. Because the breach in the outer wall was so small, the refugees couldn't utilize their advantage.

At this moment, Li Zhen was sitting in a grand chair, drinking the hot tea that Yue Peng had brought him, and checking the situation outside through binoculars.

"Yue Peng, how do you think Wang Changdao's spear team is doing? I never expected that a few hundred men could hold off tens of thousands of men."

Holding binoculars, Yue Peng said, "This is nothing. My men are just as capable. If you had asked me to take my men up there, I might be fighting on the outskirts right now."

"Boom boom boom..."

A drumbeat sounded outside Li Family Village, and the fleeing people who were fighting breathed a sigh of relief upon hearing it, finally relieved that they no longer had to fight so desperately.

Wang Changdao noticed that these refugee soldiers were retreating much faster than they had during the attack, so he ordered, "The chieftain said, 'Don't pursue a desperate enemy.' Let's call it a day!"

Fang Bucun sent people to count the number of dead. Not counting the wounded, the number of dead and missing refugee soldiers in Lijiazhai alone reached more than 10,000 today.

Looking at the statistics in his hand, he confirmed again and again: "Are you sure the number is correct? How come there are so many people?"

The clerk answered in a low voice, "Reporting to the leader, I have confirmed this repeatedly. This only includes those who died in battle. Including the wounded, we have lost a total of 20,000 men."

"hiss......"

This was only the first attack, and unexpectedly, the small Li Family Village was even more difficult to attack than Anyang City.

Fang Bucun said with a dark face, "Take out all our grain and give Erlang a good meal. We'll launch a final attack on them at dawn tomorrow."

After saying that, he turned to the few protectors beside him and said, "Call those holy maidens to my tent. I have exhausted too much of my power today, and I need to replenish my yin energy."

Immediately, someone arranged everything, and even a thoughtful protector brought over a bowl of ginseng chicken soup to replenish their leader's energy.

Meanwhile, Wang Changdao and Yue Ying's troops withdrew into the inner village of Lijiazhai. Apart from leaving a few sentries, the soldiers in the inner village were eating roasted meat around dozens of large pots.

Because it was wartime, Li Zhen didn't distribute any alcohol; he only steamed rice and ate braised pork. This kind of life was incredibly decadent. You have to understand that the refugees outside the village could only drink thin porridge that was so watery you could see your reflection in it, and they weren't even full, only getting half a bowl each.

While eating, Zhang Cheng said to Li Zhen, "Brother Li, life here is simply wonderful. As far as I know, even the best soldiers in the Jin Kingdom don't get to eat such sumptuous food. No wonder your soldiers are willing to fight so hard. Even I don't want to leave your village."