Chapter 33: Fury Sets the Prairie Ablaze (8)

  No matter whether they are Khitan people or Jurchen people, as long as they are enemies, we must fight.

  Di Lie had Ah Su lead the vanguard to scout ahead, while Yang Chuo led the left flank to mobilize the Song captives, letting them participate in the battle. There were at least 7-8 thousand people here, excluding nearly 2 thousand women and some elderly artisans and monks, with at least 4-5 thousand people available for use. Although they hadn't undergone any training, as long as they had weapons in hand and were defending their camp, resisting an attack by a few hundred people shouldn't be a problem.

  But the result was beyond Di Lie's expectation, and fewer than 300 people were willing to stay and resist with them. Among them were many young men of miscellaneous duties, as well as a small number of craftsmen. The most striking were also a monk and more than a dozen women, including Ye Die'er and Bian Yunniang. As for the males of the Zhao Song royal family, not one stayed behind to fight.

  Di Lie sighed, "If Zhao Song doesn't perish, it would be unjust to heaven. Those in high positions are naturally afraid of death and cherish their lives as gold. Even the common people at the bottom are only concerned with survival, fearing the sword. Although everyone has an instinct to avoid disaster, when the knife is already at one's throat, still trying to evade, this kind of ostrich mentality is truly speechless."

  Di Lie beckoned to Ye Die'er, telling her to take these women down. Although their spirits were very brave, to a certain extent, enough to shame many men. However, war - especially the cold weapon era's warfare, is still best left to the men. Hmm, if possible in the future, letting these brave women serve as medical soldiers wouldn't be bad.

  Ye Die'er was very unwilling, but didn't dare disobey orders, and could only retreat with the women to a hundred feet away, yet not going far.

  Yang Zhechong nodded in approval, pointing a thumb at Zuo Kai: "Not bad, you chose this woman well, she really has some guts." Yang Zhechong originally didn't get along with Zuo Kai very well, but after going through life and death together for one night, and now about to fight side by side again, he wasn't so strict anymore.

  He smiled with a raised eyebrow and said, "That's also because you don't see what kind of eyesight I have." Then he laughed and waved his hand at the woman from afar.

  Only Di Lie noticed the terrified and uneasy expression of Bian Yunniang when she stayed behind, and her relieved expression after retreating to the second line. It was obvious that one of the main reasons why Bian Yunniang stayed behind was because she had just been promised to this man, if she were to abandon him immediately, it would be unacceptable even in a prisoner-of-war camp.

  But Di Lie didn't spell it out, a song girl, what else can you ask of her? No matter what reason she stayed for. At least, she's much better than those useless guys who should have stayed but ran the fastest.

  Just then, Ah Shi rushed down from the top of the hill, panting: "It's the Jurchen Golden Army patrolling the river, about a hundred men. I recognize the leader as Pu Zhen's Pu Wei. Behind them are about three hundred Khitan soldiers, probably the same troops that were ordered to search across the river yesterday. They must have received news of the attack on the main camp from the fleeing soldiers, so they abandoned their patrol and killed their way back. Currently, they are still a few li away from the village."

  Di Lie let out a loud shout: "I said, how can the Khitan army be so loyal to death? It turns out that there are still over a hundred Jurchen soldiers, and they're even elite scouts. Very good, this is just what I needed." He immediately gave an order, allowing all the militiamen who participated in the defensive battle to choose their own weapons from the armory. As a result, most people chose bows and crossbows with hand knives (one of the eight types of Song-style knives, similar to a large knife), while a small number chose long spears.

  For these people who know how to choose between ranged weapons and cavalry battles, Di Lie was still quite pleased. But upon asking, he couldn't help but cry and laugh, as it turned out that more than half of them didn't actually know how to use them, they just instinctively felt that using bows and crossbows for long-distance combat was relatively safer.

  Di Lie's face was stern, and he used a long spear to knock against the stockade, shouting loudly: "Those who can't use bows, all of you retreat and switch to crossbows! Switch to crossbows! Crossbows are simple and easy to use, just a bit time-consuming and laborious, but at least they won't cut your fingers like bows and arrows. All of you change to crossbows!"

  Di Lie let out a loud roar, startling the temporary militiamen into scrambling to switch weapons. Outside, the enemy was already at the city gates, while inside, everything was still in chaos. Di Lie couldn't help but mock himself with a laugh: "Looks like I'll have to take matters into my own hands after all, relying on these ragtag troops... Heh heh..."

  Di Lie ordered Yang Zhechong and Zuo Kaihuo to teach the righteous people how to use bows and crossbows, then called out to A Shi: "Is that Ah Mu Tai still alive?"

  "Two legs are broken, internal organs are severely injured, and he has been coughing up blood. I'm afraid he won't make it through the day."

  Di Lie said indifferently: "Alright, let him make some contributions to us before he dies. Go and 'talk' to him."

  Yang Zhechong watched the two figures disappear into the distance, and couldn't help but ask Zuo Kaicheng with a puzzled expression: "I say, Zuo Xiazi, the prince really is... someone who accepts anyone, even daring to use Jurchen people."

  He glanced at him sideways with a hint of disdain: "Don't point at the monk and scold the bald man. We small characters can't afford to use Jurchen women, but what about Your Highness? That's a descendant of the Great Han, a person with the majestic air of Emperor Wu. What's the big deal about using one or two Jurchen barbarians?"

  Yang Zhechong smiled and said, "Speaking of monks, there is one over there. To be honest, his posture when drawing a bow and shooting an arrow is quite familiar, with a bit of military air about him. I'll go check out his background..."

  At this time, within a mile of the front of Dongzhai Gate, the Jin army swarmed in like a tide. The ones wearing black armor, gray fur hats and holding short bows were Khitans; those wearing white armor (Jurchen people still wore white), green fur hats and iron helmets, holding longbows were Jurchens. The shadows were dense, the iron hooves thundered. That kind of mighty army's imposing killing intent actually added a few degrees of autumnal sternness to the clear morning of summer.

  The militiamen on the wall suddenly stood up, many of them trembling with fear, their faces pale, and some even shot arrows from a distance under pressure. Yang Zhechong and Zuo Kai shouted and scolded for a while before they were barely suppressed.

  At this time, the Jin army had already approached the gate of the camp, and saw a piece of scorched earth and many corpses dressed in Jin army uniforms. They also saw people on the wall of the camp, all dressed as Song people. Knowing that something was wrong with the main camp, they immediately ordered an attack.

  According to the convention of Jin army's siege warfare: when there were surrendered troops, they would be put in the front; when there were no surrendered troops, the Khitan people, the Jie people and the Bohai people would be put in the front; the Jurchen people would be at the back. When these cannon fodders had died out and the enemy's defensive equipment and personnel had been consumed to a certain extent, the Jurchen people would appear. At this time, it was often the weakest moment of the defending army, which could not withstand such a strong and powerful army, and as a result, they were often defeated in one battle.

  The Jurchen Jin people used such methods and became stronger with each battle, while their own population did not decrease but instead increased.

  At this moment, the Jurchen commander outside the camp was also using this conventional tactic, with 300 Khitan soldiers attacking the city first, while more than 100 Jurchen soldiers were pressing in from behind. These more than 100 Jurchen soldiers were all elite cavalrymen, and whether they fought individually or in formation, they had combat effectiveness that exceeded that of ordinary Jurchen soldiers. With such an elite cavalry force lurking nearby, watching for weaknesses in the enemy's defenses, and then suddenly launching a swift and fierce attack, even if it was a state city guarded by regular Song troops, it would probably be unable to withstand it, let alone a group of civilians who had just picked up their weapons, defending a fragile stockade with several weak points?

  In the Jin army, apart from the Han soldiers, the majority of the troops were cavalry, and the Khitan soldiers were no exception. However, when attacking cities or strongholds, the role of cavalry was not as effective as infantry. Therefore, the Khitan soldiers had to dismount, continuously shooting arrows while quickly rushing towards the gate.

  Yang Zhechong ordered the militiamen to use deer horns and wooden shields to block the damaged gate and fence openings, and then set up a shield wall to resist the arrows. This was a very simple self-defense skill, but the untrained militiamen couldn't even do this properly, either exposing their shoulders or legs, resulting in them being hit by arrows and falling to the ground with pitiful cries.

  Yang Zhechong even found that several people were shot in the buttocks, and it's really unknown how they did it. And without the protection of the shield wall, these wounded militiamen who had been shot were immediately killed by the second and third waves of arrow rain.

  Jin Bing had not yet launched a full-scale attack on the camp, but just a few rounds of arrow rain had already killed and injured dozens of people, nearly one-fifth of the defensive strength was gone. Professional and non-professional, at this moment, the difference was so obvious.

  "Loose the arrows! Loose them, damn it! What are your crossbows for?! Yang Chuo's thunderous roar was on the verge of using his long spear to pierce these clumsy fools one by one. How humiliating! He had never seen such incompetent soldiers... Oh, they weren't even soldiers, just a few hours ago they were still prisoners being bullied by the Jin people..."

  If these more than 200 people can shoot together, or even freely scatter, as long as half of them... no, even a third of the arrows hit the target, I estimate that this group of Khitan soldiers will collapse, at least they will retreat.

  The crossbow in the hands of the militia is the most commonly used Ma Huang Nu in the Song army. Compared to the Divine Arm Crossbow, this crossbow is cheap, easy to operate and easy to use, and is widely equipped with the Song army. Of course, the range cannot be compared with the Divine Arm Crossbow, which can shoot about 120-150 steps. Even so, such a range can match a strong stone bow.

  The Jin army was often equipped with both cavalry and infantry bows, the former with a maximum of eight dou, while the latter generally had one dan. The range of the two sides was equivalent, but the bow's shooting speed was faster, so they were often able to suppress the Song army.

  According to Yang Zuo's observation, this group of Khitan soldiers had only half of them equipped with infantry bows, while the other half were still carrying cavalry bows. Moreover, their strength was no match for the ferocious Jurchen people. Except for a few exceptionally strong individuals, most of them used ordinary bows that weighed between 5 to 8 dou. If it were a well-trained Western army, holding such a large number of crossbows, they could have utilized their long-range shooting to inflict maximum casualties on the enemy, making it impossible for them to approach the camp.

  But what about the performance of this group of temporarily gathered righteous citizens? Either they were busy hiding behind the shields to load the crossbows, or they closed their eyes and shot randomly. After several rounds of shooting, what was the result? Probably less than twenty Khitan soldiers were killed. Among them, three were shot by Yang Zuo, Left Open also hit two people, and that monk named Zhihe also shot three people. The other ten casualties were the result of the joint efforts of the 250 righteous citizens.

  These Khitan soldiers were all veterans who had fought many battles. As soon as they saw the enemy's counterattack, they knew that the defenders were either poorly trained or had low morale. A defense of this level could be taken down with just one charge. With all fear gone, they let out a loud roar and charged at the gate like wolves and tigers.

  Yang Zhechong and Zuo Kaixin were anxious, looking in the same direction as Di Lie's departure: "Your Highness, you must act quickly! We can't hold on for much longer!"