Zhuozhou City, which was dominated by wars and hustle and bustle during the day, finally regained its tranquility when night fell. Although the lights in the city were brilliant, almost reflecting the stars and the moon in the sky, there were not many people visible on the street, except those who were guarding the city. Except for the soldiers at the head, almost everyone was drinking wine and eating large pieces of meat in the Yamen compound, enjoying this rare pleasure.
More than half a month's long journey over mountains and ridges, as well as today's bloody battle, have already exhausted these tens of thousands of Jin Kingdom elites. Now that the big thing has been accomplished, it is natural to take a good rest and reward yourself. So, with Aguda's order, all kinds of wine, meat and food in the city that were originally prepared for the Song army became the food for their celebration banquet. All the Jin soldiers could feast on this night, which was very comfortable.
Aguda even called together all the generals who came with him, raised their glasses with their own hands, paid tribute to each other, and smiled so hard that the corners of their mouths reached to their ears: "Everyone, this battle is not the end, but only the beginning. After today, we will defeat the Liao and Song armies one by one, and then go straight to the Song Kingdom in the south, turning all the treasures, wealth, population and food there into the property of our Great Jin Kingdom!
"Originally, when Wu Shu mentioned this idea, I was still a little hesitant, thinking that it might not succeed. But now, I can tell everyone with certainty that this is no longer an idea, but a fact! I, Dajin Destined to rise, our Jurchen clan will become the most noble and powerful existence in the world. The Khitans and Han people, they can only crawl at our feet, just like the hounds we raise, living by the look in our eyes!
"Come, let's drink to the rise of our Great Jin Kingdom and the long-term prosperity of our Jurchens!" At the end of his sentence, he raised the wine bowl in his hand high, gestured to all directions, then raised his neck and drank the wine in the bowl in one gulp. All.
The surrounding Jin generals were already excited about this great victory. Now after hearing the impassioned speech from their own emperor, they were even more excited. They all stood up with their drinks and shouted: "Hundreds of years... The humiliation has become a thing of the past. After today, our Jurchen Kingdom of Great Jin will definitely become the most powerful existence in the world, making everyone our dogs and horses, and they can only obey our orders!" After the roar, they all The wine in the bowl was drank, and then there was another burst of laughter, and then the wine bowl was filled up again, and they continued to drink while respecting each other.
Born in a bitter cold land of white mountains and black waters, Jin people are good at drinking. Even when they have nothing to do, they will take pleasure in drinking, let alone the situation where they have won a big victory. So tonight they drank crazily and commented on the seized wine from time to time: "Although the wine of the Song Dynasty tastes good, it is too bland and cannot be compared with the strong wine we brew." In comparison, it tastes like water when you drink it.”
"Haha, don't say such big words. Among us brothers, you are the worst drinker. If you don't drink a few more drinks, you will collapse."
"Nonsense, how can this water-like drink make me drunk? I will drink another bottle tonight, and then I will compete with you to see whose fist is harder!" As he spoke, the golden general stood tall and tall. He seemed to want to compete with his brother who was laughing at him. But when he got up, he felt dizzy, his steps became weak and messy, and he almost fell down.
This time, it was confirmed that he was too drunk, which caused a burst of laughter from the people around him. Even Aguda at the top laughed.
He stood up and said, "It seems that you are really bad at drinking. I'd better prepare a few more women for you when we fight against Song Kingdom."
Amid another burst of laughter from the others, Wu Shu, who had also drank a lot of wine and felt his head was a little dizzy, felt something was wrong: "Why am I so bad today? I usually drink even stronger wine. , it won’t make me feel uncomfortable so quickly, and although today’s drink tastes good, it’s not strong enough after all, so why does it have such great stamina, could it be... "
This terrible thought suddenly arose in his heart, and then he looked to the side, and Wu Shu's heart sank suddenly. He saw that although everyone in the hall was still excited, their eyes and expressions had changed. He looked a little groggy, and it was obvious that he would fall down soon.
"There is something wrong with this wine! But how could it be so? Why would the Song people tamper with their own wine? Or was it that they had expected this day early in the morning, so they prepared so much wine for us early?" His uneasiness is getting stronger and stronger, but his whole mind is getting heavier and heavier. He wants to dissuade others from drinking too much, but he can no longer say anything.
Finally, Wanyan Wushu, like the others, lay down on the desk and fell into a drowsy state after feeling dizzy for a while. After him, more people in the hall fell down one after another, even Aguda fell asleep.
At the same time, at the top of the North Gate of Zhuozhou, the soldiers who stayed here looked enviously at the brightly lit and joyful place in the city, wishing that they could participate in it instead of being like Now Ban is standing guard at the top of the city, doing nothing.
This made the soldiers completely absent-minded. They did not even pay attention to whether there was any movement under the city. Naturally, it was impossible to find that in the darkness in the distance, a large number of people were approaching Zhuozhou.
This is a Song army, and the leader is none other than Sun Tu. At this time, his eyes are shining with a strange light. He is constantly using his telescope to check the situation in Zhuozhou City more than ten miles away. At the same time, he reaches out to feel the movement of the wind tonight. He muttered something: "God is really helping me. I didn't expect that the north wind that is rare in summer will blow tonight. In this way, all the conditions are ripe, just in time to wipe out all these golden men!"
At this point, he turned back suddenly: "Where is the scout camp? Are everything ready?"
Someone in the stopped army quickly whispered back: "General, everything is ready, just waiting for your order."
"Then light the fire and take off!" Sun Tu ordered decisively, and at the same time said to Dong Ping beside him: "You will command the army to surround the city later. If the Jin people are not attacked and escape from the city when the fire breaks out, It’s up to you to surround us with a large army. We must complete this battle and we can’t let the Jin people escape!”
"General, what about you?" Dong Ping asked with a surprised look on his face.
"Of course I have to act with the scout battalion. How can I, Sun Tu, be missing out on killing the enemy?" Sun Tu said, and without waiting for his subordinates to dissuade him, he strode to the rear and walked towards each strange person. In front of the huge bamboo basket, people have already stepped into it in just one step.
After seeing Sun Tu, as the general, lead the way into the bamboo basket, the soldiers and soldiers from the scout camp no longer had any flinch or worry, and they all followed them into the bamboo basket. Then, as the lights lit up, bursts of mechanical roars that should not belong to this era filled the night.
As the sound continued to expand, the thing hidden in the darkness beside the bamboo basket began to reveal its shape - at first, it seemed to be pieces of cloth, but slowly, it swelled up again , like pig urine bubbles, getting bigger and bigger, and finally blooming like huge mushrooms about twenty miles away from Zhuozhou City, and then suddenly, these "grinding mushrooms" bloomed like pig urine bubbles. "Mushroom" slowly floated upwards.
All the soldiers of the Song Army stared at this strange scene with eyes full of awe. Although they had seen such weird artifacts several times before, they were still in awe of it, just because of what this thing would do next. A change that no one can believe.
In a burst of suppressed whispers, as the "mushroom" soared into the air, the bamboo basket containing about ten people below actually floated swayingly, and began to rise toward the sky, and finally became more and more The higher you go, the more everything becomes integrated with the night sky except for that little bit of firelight.
These strange objects that could carry a dozen Song Army soldiers into the air and head straight towards Zhuozhou at a not too fast speed were exactly the large number of hot air balloons Sun Tu discovered from the warehouse system!
In later generations, hot air balloons were nothing new. When some large corporate shopping malls held celebrations, they would put some in the air to carry people or pull out horizontal strips to spread the word. . But when this thing appeared in the Song Dynasty across a thousand years of time and space, its role was infinitely magnified, and it became the biggest trump card in Sun Tu's hand.
At this moment, Sun Tu, who was standing in the bamboo basket, had a calm expression on his face. His gaze had been directed towards Zhuozhou City in front of him, and he kept issuing orders: "Go to the right to take advantage of the wind. Yes. , we can turn down the fire, so that the hot air balloon can float towards the city ahead according to our intention. Remember, before we get to the top of the city, we have to stop ourselves at an appropriate height before releasing this Hold the fire, don't let the Jin army guard the city shoot down with their bows and arrows."
The soldiers beside him were not as calm as him. Although they kept agreeing, the movements of their hands seemed quite tight and stiff. Even though they had tried flying many times before, the experience of flying like birds in the sky still gave them a very unreal feeling, as if they were worried that they might fall from the sky at any time.
Fortunately, they had enough trust in Sun Tu, and at the same time, they were all the most elite scout battalion soldiers in the Shandong Army. Therefore, even in the air, they did not completely lose their minds and continued to act according to Sun Tu's instructions. The hot air balloon was controlled and slowly floated forward.
As he continued to approach Zhuozhou, Sun Tu's heartbeat began to accelerate, and he began to mutter something: "Victory or defeat depends on this battle, and the key to this battle is whether my amazing army can burn Zhuozhou with one fire. Kill the soldiers and horses of the Jin Kingdom in this city! Wanyan Wushu, no matter how shrewd you are in calculating, you will never think that your so-called scheming will be used by me. In the end, you still fell into my trap of luring the enemy deep and trapped to death in Zhuozhou. Make a plan in the city! In just half an hour, victory will be mine!"
It turned out that all the Jin army's counterattacks were entirely within Sun Tu's expectation, which was why the incident at Lulongsai happened and the scene tonight where Sun Tu led the main force of the Shandong Army to attack Zhuozhou at night.
And all of this, in the final analysis, all comes from the trap that Sun Tu laid out many years ago...