Chapter 43: The Golden Army Arrives

  At this time, the troops of Zhongjin still had strict military discipline, and all soldiers stood quietly, with not a single murmur in the entire army.

  Outside the city, a pure white armor flag with red edges was fluttering in the wind. From afar, it looked like a patch of red and white alternating colors. In the center of the Jin army's front line, a large flag stood tall, and under the flag, the leader of the Jin army was none other than Zhu Hui, who had annihilated Wang Xuan in Jiangdong.

  Upon arriving at Luoyunbao, Zhu Wei couldn't help but burst out laughing. It turned out to be just a small fortress like this. In the past, such a castle wouldn't have been worth their army's effort to plunder, it was remote, impoverished and had no wealth to speak of.

  Zhu Wei also knew a lot about the defensive forces of Xining's castle. Such a remote thousand-house city, with a circumference of only two miles, had at most three to four hundred soldiers defending it, and more than half of them were unable to fight. Even if the northwest of the castle was expanded and a new castle was built, there would be at most five or six hundred soldiers, and less than three hundred could actually fight.

  With an army of 1,500 strong, it's estimated that dispatching a few hundred brave warriors to launch a surprise attack would be enough to take the city in one fell swoop. Even if the Ning people adopt a scorched earth policy and concentrate all their population and resources within this fortress, once the city is breached, all their wealth will belong to us. The women and children inside will also become our slaves.

  He burst out laughing and swung his whip, saying a few words in Mongolian. The several bodyguards beside him also laughed together.

  At this time, among the Jin army under the city, five cow records formed a large array, and each cow record was also arranged in a small array. The soldiers were in front, the auxiliary soldiers were behind, with a total of over 1,550 people.

  In each of the five niulu, there were two officials in charge of flags and two personal soldiers. Beside each niulu, there were also two qibuyeshi soldiers, who were the precursors to the vanguard troops of the later Qing dynasty. Each wore a helmet with flying streamers, had a flying tiger flag on their back, and wore bright helmets and armor.

  In addition, there were 17 white armor soldiers, also known as white armor soldiers. They wore bright armor, with high red tassels on their helmets and a flame-edged flag on their backs.

  These seventeen white-armored soldiers were led by a middle-aged man called the leader, with bright armor and red tassels, and on their backs they wore oblique triangular flags of the same color.

  They had a cow record of 300 soldiers, with one in three wearing armor as war soldiers. They were divided into infantry armor, cavalry armor, and the rest were auxiliary soldiers. There were horse-following attendants and unarmored foot-following attendants.

  In these five cow records. In addition to the personal soldiers of each cow record, there are also 40 horse armor soldiers under each cow record, excluding some soldiers and white armor soldiers. The horse armor soldiers have bright helmets and dark armor, with 50 arrows, one bow and one knife, led by a mid-ranking military officer from the Fen De Pu Shi Ku.

  There were also 50 infantrymen, led by two infantry batoshiku, and the batoshiku all had black tassels on their helmets. They each had a square flag of about 2 feet on their backs.

  No matter how many people are in a group of ten or a hundred, one person is appointed as the leader, known to the Qing government as the "small head" or xiao duizhang.

  In this Jin army, there were more than 500 armored cavalrymen, and the rest were all attendants and auxiliary soldiers. They did not wear armor on their bodies, or only wore inner garments without iron leaves. In addition, each cow record had a dozen to dozens of blacksmiths and saddlers.

  A mighty army in front, a small and insignificant Luoyun Fort; Zhu Huan naturally didn't take it seriously, he laughed loudly for a while, gave a few orders, and immediately one of them rushed out, accompanied by several white-armored soldiers as guards. Also following along was the interpreter Zhong Jin who stood beside Commander Jia La.

  Ye Xuan couldn't help but feel a strong sense of disgust and anger towards these traitors, sighing in his heart: It seems that no matter which time and space, there will always be traitors!

  They ran to a distance of over a hundred steps from the head of Luoyunbao Castle and stopped far away.

  Zhu Wei shouted loudly at the interpreter beside him, and the interpreter trembled with fear as he came out.

  He ran a few more steps and shouted loudly at the top of the city: "People on the building, listen! You surrender. Otherwise, when the Jin army breaks into the fortress, everything will be destroyed. You should think carefully, lest you regret it later!"

  Su Zhong glared at Zhu Hui, who was over a hundred paces away, under the layered protection of the White Armor Army. Standing upright on his horse, he brazenly observed the movements on the city wall. Su Zhong looked annoyed and said, "This barbarian is too arrogant, how about we shoot him with arrows?"

  Ye Xuan Dao: "I'm afraid it's hard to hit accurately, let's observe their movements first!"

  That messenger shouted for half a day, but there was no movement on the city wall. He had no choice but to return to Zhu Hui's side and report again.

  That Zhu Hui shouted loudly, he gave a few orders, and immediately a white armored soldier came out from beside him, riding a fast horse back to the military formation.

  Soon, a commotion of wailing and crying came from the other side. Ye Xuan and others looked over to see that it was a group of Jin soldiers escorting a group of Xi Ning civilians out of the military formation. As they walked closer, it could be seen that among the Ming civilians, there were men and women, old and young, all of whom were terrified and crying out in fear, but no one knew where the Jin soldiers had captured them from.

  Those golden soldiers were elated, they whipped those civilians wantonly while shouting at the city head from time to time.

  Seeing this situation, all the soldiers of the Luoyunbao army on the city wall were extremely angry and scolded loudly.

  The reaction of the city's defenders, Niú Zǎi was even more pleased, and the Jin army on the other side of the battlefield couldn't help but burst out laughing. Zhu Wei gave a loud order, and those Jin soldiers simultaneously took action, slashing with their knives and stabbing with their spears. In an instant, all the Xī Níng civilians were killed outside the city walls.

  The city head of Luoyunbao was silent, and the communicator came forward again on orders. He shouted: "You all saw it, if you don't surrender, these civilians will be your fate!"

  Everyone on the city wall was extremely angry, and Ye Xuan shot an arrow at that traitor. He said calmly: "Tell the barbarians, if they attack the city, this will be their outcome!"

  The Jin soldiers under the city were all pounding their chests and cursing, extremely angry. The soldiers of the Lu Yunbao army on the city wall, on the other hand, were cheering wildly.

  Sun Yu stepped forward and spoke loudly in the Jin language, the Jin soldiers below the city wall became even more furious, they shouted for a while, and under Zhu Wei's leadership, they retreated far back into their large formation.

  Zhu Wei saw the sudden change on the city wall from a distance, and he was shocked. When those Jin soldiers returned, he became even more furious. The news spread, and all the Jin soldiers outside the city were shouting loudly, gnashing their teeth in anger, and they were so arrogant.

  They are determined to take down this damn castle and slaughter everyone inside!

  A fierce battle is inevitable!

  The horn sounded, and the golden army outside the city was in an uproar. After about half a time, several shield carts were pushed out from each cow recording array. It turned out that they did not set up camp, nor did they wait for lunch to be eaten, but instead came hastily to attack the city. It seemed that Ye Xuans actions had infuriated them earlier.

  Ye Xuan looked far away and saw that the shield cart was slowly approaching, counting, there were more than 20 vehicles, each with several flags erected on top of the shield cart, unable to see how many people were inside and behind. Moreover, he could see that not far behind the shield carts, there were Qing soldiers pushing nearly a hundred single-wheeled small carts loaded with mud and other materials, apparently used to fill in ditches.

  Ye Xuan roughly estimated that there were more than 200 combat soldiers and over 300 auxiliary soldiers. Although he couldn't see the movements of the Jin army behind the shield carts, he knew their battle tactics: they would use the shield carts as the vanguard to deplete the arrows of the Xining army on the city walls. Then came the dead soldiers, wielding shields, long spears and other weapons, wearing two layers of heavy armor, with chain mail underneath and quilted armor lined with iron plates on the outside.

  Even some generals wore three layers of heavy armor. The innermost layer was chain mail, the second was iron armor, and the outermost was riveted iron lamellar armor. With these three layers of heavy armor.

  These dead soldiers, mostly from the Jin army's Ma Jia. They have a wealth of battlefield experience. Behind the dead soldiers, there are also lightly armored archers who are good at shooting, used to support the dead soldiers in climbing the city and covering those auxiliary soldiers filling the moat.

  Finally, there were the sharp troops, also known as the white armor troops who pressed the formation. They too wore double-layered heavy armor and waited for opportunities to climb up and support. If it was a field battle, behind these soldiers would be some elite cavalry moving in tandem.

  ……