Volume 1: Zhu Xian Town Crisis Chapter 30: Breaching the City

  In the dead of night, the Jin soldiers on the walls of Suzhou had all dozed off. Although this place was not far from the Song-Jin border, the Song army had long since withdrawn to Chuzhou and Huizhou south of the Huai River, and no signs of the Song army had been seen for over a month.

  However, the guards on the east gate tower of Suzhou discovered that a group of cavalry was rushing towards the city, flying the Jin army flag. They seemed to be in a state of panic.

  "Halt! Who goes there?" The commander of the east gate tower immediately shouted.

  At this time, the cavalry team heard the question and hastily restrained their horses. The captain of the cavalry team shouted loudly: "We are the personal army of the Ninth King, and our grain depot on the front line in Chuzhou was suddenly attacked by the Song army, and more than half of the grain was burned. The Ninth King asked us to inform General Li to quickly allocate a batch of grain to Chuzhou for emergency relief!"

  The city gate guards were shocked upon hearing the order, although they were under Wan Yanliang's command, but they knew that the commander-in-chief of the Jin army in Chu State was actually Prince Nine Wan Yan Zongmin, and Wan Yanliang had always been extremely respectful to him, how dare he be slow.

  He took a closer look at the golden armor worn by the soldiers under the city, and indeed everyone was wearing clothes with gold trim, which only the imperial guards could wear.

  Then, the commander was about to order someone to open the city gate and let these cavalrymen in. A captain saw this and felt that something was not right, so he hastily reminded his superior to ask for the password, but instead was scolded by the commander: "The password of the Ninth King's personal army is different from ours, what's the point of asking?"

  He ordered the city gate guards to open the gates and let the cavalry in. Then he himself hurried down to the city gate, ready to escort them into the city to meet Li Cheng.

  With just a creaking sound, the city gate opened and the drawbridge was lowered. The twenty or so horsemen rushed in. The commander-in-chief stood at the front of his horse, looking ahead to see that the one leading the way was a slender young general with thin lips and narrow eyes, but with piercing gaze.

  He hastily stepped forward, bowed and said: "Everyone please follow me to see General Li Cheng! The matter of transporting grain to the front line must be done after General Li Cheng sees the military order from King Wang!"

  "Haha! No need! I'll go see Li Cheng myself! You stay here instead!"

  Everyone who heard this immediately knew something was wrong and their hearts skipped a beat. Unconsciously, they reached for the hilt of their waist knife.

  But unexpectedly, he only felt a flash of cold light in front of his eyes, and a severe pain in his chest.

  He widened his eyes and saw that he had already been shot in the chest, with fresh blood flowing out along the arrow tail. And the thin little general in front of him was drawing a bow and shooting at his own soldiers.

  "Bad! I've been tricked!" Just as he was about to call out in regret, a cavalryman raised his sword and charged straight at him.

  Just as he was about to shout out, a flash of knife light appeared in front of his eyes, and the head suddenly rolled to the ground.

  At that moment, the cavalry that rushed into the city had already killed more than 20 Jin soldiers at the city gate and cut off the ropes of the suspension bridge, controlling the city gate.

  "Hurry! Send the signal! Inform the young masters that they are entering the city!" The thin and weak general wiped the blood from his face, revealing a smiling face as he spoke to his subordinates.

  A red firework shot into the sky, and the burst of sparks could be seen clearly for dozens of miles around.

  "Brother Yue, it's done! Guan Zhong has taken down the East City Gate!" Niu Tong exclaimed with great joy as he saw the red firework blooming in the sky.

  "Everyone charge! Strive to take Suizhou in one move!" Yue Yunzhong said after taking a deep breath.

  With a thunderous sound of horseshoes, the surrounding area was filled with cries of killing, and more than 1,000 elite cavalrymen rushed into Sichuan City from the east gate like a whirlwind.

  At this time, Guanling and others had already been attacked by the Jin army who came to hear the sound in the city, and some were unable to hold on. But seeing that Yue Yun had led a large army to arrive in time, he immediately exclaimed with great joy: "Our main force has arrived! Brothers, let's go kill our way to the City Guard Mansion!"

  In the dark of night, Jin Jun didn't know how many enemies had arrived, but under the flashing flames, he saw that they were all cavalry, densely packed together, and his heart was also greatly shocked.

  They have been fighting against the Song army for many years and are well aware that the Song army has very few cavalry, basically all infantry. But this time, the cavalry that rushed into the city had at least nearly a thousand horses, doesn't that mean there were at least 20,000 to 30,000 Song army infantrymen behind? Can the mere three thousand old and weak soldiers in Suzhou City withstand it? Moreover, the city gate has already been breached.

  The defender of Suzhou, Li Cheng, was also greatly shocked when he received the report, especially when he learned that the Song army had entered the city with a large cavalry force and that their leader was a young general in white armor holding a shining silver spear. He was even more frightened afterwards. He had fought against the Yue family's army several times before and had even crossed swords with Yue Yun, so he deeply understood the ferocity of the Yue family's army.

  "Retreat! Quick retreat! We'll retreat to Chu State and join forces with General Wanyan. With so many cavalry, the Song army must be the Baibei Army of the Yue Family Army. That young general in white armor is probably...Yue Yun...This is strange indeed, how did they end up killing their way to Xuzhou?"

  Li Cheng hastily ordered a retreat. He had previously been defeated by Yue Fei during the Miao-Liu mutiny, and afterwards he had successively defected to the pseudo-Qi and the Jin states, engaging in dozens of battles with the Yue family army, yet never winning once, and even being defeated several times at the hands of the younger generation Yue Yun. He had long been afflicted with "Yue-phobia".

  However, he was not afraid of losing Suzhou and being held accountable. The first general of the Jin army, Wuzhu, led the most elite "Iron Floating Diagram" and "Hooked Horse", but they were no match for the Yue family army. How could he lead three thousand old, weak and disabled soldiers to defeat them?

  By dusk on the second day, Li Cheng finally ran back to the Jin army's large camp outside Chuzhou City.

  He led these old, weak and disabled soldiers to run on two legs for over a hundred miles, and they actually arrived in just one day and night, which can be considered a miracle. Of course, only more than 100 strong men ran with him, and most people were lost along the way.

  Wanyan Zongmin, who was guarding the Golden Army's camp, was shocked and dismayed when he learned that Xuzhou had fallen. He hastily summoned back Wanyan Liang and Xieli Zhining, who were in the midst of attacking a city, to discuss this sudden disaster.

  At this time, Li Cheng did not dare to report the truth and only saw over a thousand Song soldiers. He quickly turned his mind and reported to Wanyan Zongmin: The Yue family army has launched a major attack on Quzhou, and Yue Yun led the Ba Wei army, Tuo Bai army, and Xuan Feng army with more than 30,000 people to strongly attack Quzhou. After fighting all night, he was unable to resist and was forced to retreat.

  "Li Cheng, did you really see the Song army come with so many people?" Wanyan Leng sternly asked. He was more anxious than any other Jin general, as Xuzhou was his garrison, and now that Chuzhou had not been taken, Xuzhou had been lost instead. Moreover, attacking Chuzhou was an unauthorized action, without reporting to Wu Zifu's approval. Even if he was a prince, he feared he would be punished severely.

  Moreover, although part of the grain and fodder for the Jin army had already been transported to the front line in Chuzhou, most of it was still in Xuzhou. Now that the Song army has captured Xuzhou, all the grain and fodder have been lost, and the plan to march south can no longer be carried out. His dream of achieving great merit has also been shattered, and he has taken on such a huge responsibility, how can he not be anxious.

  "Yes! The leader is indeed Yue Yun, and they have thousands of cavalry and tens of thousands of infantry. Our general was no match for them and had to retreat." Li Cheng said this while intentionally revealing the wound on his arm.

  "Alright! I understand! You go down and rest first! Remember, the fall of Suzhou is not to be mentioned to anyone! Do you understand?" Wanyan Zongmin said calmly, despite being shocked in his heart.

  Li Chengyi listened and felt a great sense of relief in his heart, secretly congratulating himself on his foresight. On the way, he deliberately cut a few wounds on his arm with a knife to show that he had gone through a "brave resistance" before being outnumbered and forced to retreat.

  As soon as Li Chengyi left, Wanyan Liang hastily said: "Ninth Uncle Huang, you actually believe what Li Cheng said?"

  Wanyan Zongmin sneered and said, "I see Li Cheng's eyes darting back and forth, his gaze wavering, I know he must be exaggerating. Yue Fei is still in Zhuxian Town resettling the people, busy to the point of exhaustion, and with the 100,000-strong army of my fourth brother facing off against him in Bianjing, where would he find the spare troops to send 20,000-30,000 men to attack Xuzhou 700 miles away? This Li Cheng can't even come up with a decent lie. If he said it was Zhang Jun's troops, maybe I'd believe it a bit. Hmph! I knew these fake Qi surrendered generals would be experts at running away with their tails between their legs, and when the battle starts they'll be paralyzed!"

  Just as he finished speaking, he saw Kong Yanzhou standing in front of him with an awkward expression. He suddenly remembered that Kong Yanzhou was also a general of the original Qi. Hurriedly clearing his throat, he said: "General Kong fought bravely and is naturally not included!"

  Kong Yanzhou's expression looked a bit better at this time.

  Wanyan Liang could not help but step forward and say to Wanyan Zongmin, "Ninth Uncle, the fall of Suzhou is my fault. Now that Chuzhou is also difficult to take for the time being, please let me lead my troops back to retake Suzhou. Otherwise, Fourth Uncle will investigate this matter, and I fear it will be hard for me to explain."

  Wanyan Zongmin shook his head and said, "Liang'er, my fourth brother will investigate your responsibility, I'll go plead for you! Moreover, the attack on Chuzhou was my decision, what are you afraid of? It's just that Xizhou is an important place for our army, we can't not take it back. Let Zhi Ning go!"

  "What? Let Zhi Ning go?" Wanyan Liang heard this, his eyes flashed with anger, and he immediately shouted: "Ninth Uncle Huang, do you think I am not worthy of this task?"

  Xishi Zhining also had some doubts. It's probably not very appropriate for him to take back the city guarded by Wanyan Liang.

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