With a loud bang, a hole appeared in the heavy city gate that had been burned beyond recognition, and many bandits cheered and shouted as they crawled out of the hole.
The legs of the Daqian soldiers hiding in the dark were shaking, but they also knew that now it was either him or me who would die.
Arrows rained down on the bandits, who fell one after another, but new ones kept coming in.
Fortunately, Mrs. Zhang had people build a corridor wall to block them and trap them in the corridor.
Although some people broke through the rain of swords and ran out of the corridor, they fell into a huge trap.
Seeing that more and more bandits fell into the trap, Mrs. Zhang stood on a high wall not far away and ordered people to pour tung oil into the trap and set it on fire.
For a moment, flames shot up into the sky and screams were heard everywhere.
The bandits finally realized something was wrong and had to retreat through the city gate.
As people on the city wall kept shooting arrows down, the bandits finally retreated back to their base to rest temporarily.
Governor Zhang was overjoyed upon seeing this, and immediately ordered his men to clean up the enemy corpses at the city gate and collect the arrows, weapons, etc.
The barbarians were also cunning. When they saw anyone moving at the city gate, they would rush over on horseback, making the collection work very difficult.
Fortunately, the breach in the city gate was sealed again. Governor Zhang ordered his men to count the bodies of the bandits and found that more than 200 people were killed or injured in the corridors and traps.
The people on the river also resisted the attack. More than 2,000 civilians gathered on both sides of the river and used stones and bricks to smash back the enemy's rafts.
"Well done!" Zhang Taishou was delighted and shook his wife's hand and said, "Thank you for your help, Madam."
Madam Zhang smiled and said, "Without the help of the common people, I alone would not be able to defeat the bandits. You should thank the noble families and common people in the city."
"My husband knows."
Prefect Zhang went home to rest for a while, and then went to the conference room to discuss matters.
At this time, the Grand Marshal and several officials were sitting in the hall drinking tea. When they saw the prefect coming, they stood up and saluted.
After returning the greeting, Governor Zhang sat down in the main seat.
Sima was the first to speak: "Sir, just now Wanyan Hasi from the Jurchen tribe sent someone to deliver a letter of persuasion to surrender, take a look..."
As he spoke, he handed over a letter.
Zhang Fangshan took it, pulled out the letter and read it, his brows instantly furrowed.
The letter said that Daqian had run out of luck, and that the Jin army was unstoppable and had already surrounded the city of Dongjing. From now on, this place would belong to them, and even if Governor Zhang defended to the end, there would be no way to save the situation, so it would be better for him to surrender to the Jin.
He also said that Marshal Wanyan Hasi admired Governor Zhang's character and wanted to recruit him, saying that his family would enjoy endless wealth and glory in the future, and his official position would not be lower than it is now.
Sima observed the governor's expression and said, "The messenger also said that if we stubbornly resist to the end, when the city is broken, no one will be left alive. Sir, do you have any ideas?"
Zhang Taishou slowly tore up the letter and said in a cold voice: "Don't believe the bandits' lies. Even if we open the city gates and line the streets to welcome them, they will not let the people in the city go.
Did you see the heads hanging on the bandits' horses? They were all innocent people from our Great Guizhou. What did they do to offend anyone?"
Throwing the fragments of the letter in his hand into the incense burner beside him, Governor Zhang swept his eyes over the crowd and said, "You and I are both officials of Daqian, parents of the people. We are paid by the emperor, so we must be loyal to our duties and never take any chances.
How can those barbarians occupy the vast rivers and lakes of our Great Guizhou? We must defend this city. I believe that as long as we hold on for a while, reinforcements will arrive soon. "
Sima and several officials looked at each other and saw helplessness in each other's eyes.
They stood up and bowed to Governor Zhang, "We obey your orders."
A few days later, the poor people in the city began to run out of food, and not only the grain shops in the city were closed, but even the restaurants and hotels were closed one after another.
Only a few teahouses are still open, but the daily tea has turned into plain water.
Many people gathered in the teahouse to discuss the war, and some even considered surrendering to the enemy.
Of course, the middle-aged man who expressed his thoughts was beaten up and kicked out of the teahouse.
A few days later, the Wanyan army suddenly had several thousand more people. This time they concentrated their forces to attack from the main gate and used ladders to climb the city wall.
Ladders were placed on the city walls one by one, and then pushed down by the soldiers defending the city with long forks.
But the enemy had too many people, and we pushed each other forward and fought a round-robin battle with the Daqian soldiers.
In addition, the city gate was breached, and countless bandits poured into the corridor. Some of them even pushed down the corridor wall under the cover of their companions.
The people of Jingzhou were also very tenacious. They fought against these people with iron forks, carrying poles and sticks, and both sides suffered heavy casualties.
Hu Zi and Jiang Wuben also wanted to go over to help, but were stopped by Mrs. Zhang.
These two are still children. Even if they have learned martial arts, they cannot beat those desperadoes. They will just die if they go.
So, relying on their good aim, they used cowhide slingshots to hit the bandits' heads, and if they were lucky, they could even hit their eyes.
Invisibly, it saved a lot of people.
Yingbao also held a slingshot and stood on the second floor of a nearby restaurant with his younger brother Huzi, throwing bricks at the people who were swarming towards them, hitting their targets with every hit.
Madam Zhang was also on this floor, being protected by her servants. She was frightened when she saw the bandits not far away.
"Madam, let's go quickly. We can't stay here." The housekeeper was a little anxious.
Mrs. Zhang nodded, called Yingbao and the others to leave the restaurant through the back door, got on the carriage and rushed back to the prefect's mansion.
After returning home, Mrs. Zhang ordered the maids to set up several large pots to cook rice, adding salt and diced meat to the rice.
Upon seeing this, Yingbao knew that the food was to be given to the soldiers, so she secretly poured Pupil Spring into the water tank and the well.
At the city gate, Zhang Min and his father, Governor Zhang, saw that the city gate had been breached, and immediately dispatched many soldiers to surround and kill the enemy.
Officials such as the Sima and the Sinong Changshi each led a group of people to guard the north and south waterways.
The eldest son of Zhang Taishou, Zhang Wen, was twenty years old and had just gotten married. He was leading his men on the city wall to block the enemies who were climbing up the ladders, and had no time to pay attention to the situation outside the city.
This stalemate battle lasted for a whole day. The soldiers and civilians didn't even have time to eat, as the enemy troops continued to pour in.
Mrs. Zhang came with her servants and brought buckets of rice to the city walls and the roadside for the fighting soldiers.
The retreating soldiers ate voraciously, and as soon as they finished, they rushed back to the battlefield with their weapons raised to replace their comrades.
What's more, after eating, they felt full of energy and all their previous fatigue was swept away.
Afterwards, Mrs. Zhang ordered the women in the city to carry the injured soldiers and civilians to a courtyard in the rear and have the doctors from the medical department treat them.
Yingbao also asked her brother and Huzi to help here. When she saw those who were seriously injured, she gave them Wudingzhi.
Hu Zi and Jiang Wu wanted to go out and join the battle, but were sternly rejected by Ying Bao.
"Now is not the time to show off. The two of you are here to help and save people, do you understand?" Yingbao glared at her brother and Huzi sternly.
Hu Zi and Jiang Wu had never seen Ying Bao like this before, so they had no choice but to lower their heads and agree.
However, these wounded were really horrific. Broken arms and legs were common. Some had big holes in their abdomens with their intestines flowing out, which were then stuffed back into their stomachs and sewn up by the doctors.