When faced with several arrows that shone coldly under the firelight, and later hundreds of officers and soldiers, Shi Qian and his subordinate scouts did not show signs of panic, nor did they lose their sense of proportion. He quickly put down his weapon. Shi Qian threw the knife directly to the ground, raised his hands and stepped forward, shouting: "Brothers from Lingzhou, don't get me wrong, we are our own people, scouts from Qingzhou."
These officers and soldiers came in a hurry. They saw too many scenes that deeply frightened them along the way. At this time, they were all on full alert. As long as the opponent made the slightest move, they would shoot random arrows to kill all the enemies. But Shi Qian's performance and rhetoric left people stunned. One of the leading generals was even more puzzled: "You are the Qingzhou Army? Then why did you appear in my Lingzhou and kill so many innocent people..."
"The people were not killed by us, but other Jurchens who had sneaked into Lingzhou. They have just entered the granary. We were ordered to come here precisely because we found out the relevant things. If you don't believe it, I still have the Qingzhou Army here. I have a scouting token as proof, and I also have some friendship with Zhang Yunfeng, the regiment coach of your regiment, and he is currently serving under Sun Dujian." Shi Qian said, slowly reaching into his arms and giving an iron token to He took it out and showed it to the person in front of him.
Of course, it was impossible for the other party to clearly see the details of the token in his hand from this distance, but seeing that he acted calmly and mentioned Zhang Yunfeng, half of his doubts were eliminated. However, for the sake of safety, the general did not ask anyone to put down their bows and arrows. He just said, "Bring me the token."
"Okay." Shi Qian would not refuse, so he raised his hand and threw the token over. The man took it and looked at it in the light of the fire, and then confirmed the identities of Shi Qian and the others. He immediately waved his hand to ask others to put down their bows and arrows, and waved a few people to come closer. Then he said with a solemn expression: "You said those murderers actually ran into the granary, but fact?"
"It's absolutely true. We saw them trespassing inside with our own eyes, and the guards inside were probably in danger, and they even took away their weapons to guard the door." Shi Qian said, tilting his head deliberately, and showing the look on his face. A fresh wound was exposed.
"How many thieves are there in this group?" The general, who was already seventy-eight percent convinced, asked again.
"There were eight or nine of them, but they were extremely fierce. My brothers and I couldn't stop them at all, but they killed a lot of them. These Jurchens are much more powerful than ordinary thieves."
"Are there only eight or nine people? Come here, rush in. Don't let them destroy the food in the warehouse. It's our own ration for the winter." Although this person didn't say it directly, Shi Qian could still tell from his expression. There was a hint of disdain, and he obviously thought that the Qingzhou Army was nothing more than that. With so many people, they couldn't take down eight or nine bandits.
Shi Qian knew that the other party was underestimating the enemy, and just when he was about to give a warning, the officers and soldiers already shouted after the order, and they all rushed forward. Some of them were suitable to knock on the door, and some were leaning against the corner to climb over the wall and enter. of.
This made Shi Qian and the others, who had seen the power of the Jurchens, become nervous. They couldn't help shouting: "Be careful, they have bows and arrows..." Before they finished speaking, the sound of arrows swishing through the air was heard from the warehouse. There was a sound inside, and more than a dozen fast arrows quickly flew to the top of the wall, shooting all the soldiers who had just poked their heads out and screaming and falling down, and also caused the soldiers who were following behind to scream.
The soldier trembled in fright and subconsciously stepped back.
At the same time, the originally closed warehouse door suddenly opened. This was completely beyond the expectations of the soldiers who hit the door. The force of their forward collision was completely lost, and their bodies staggered forward. Then a cold light flashed in front of their eyes and struck them. Amidst the screams, more than ten soldiers fell to death on the spot, but the warehouse door slammed shut, blocking the corpses from outside. .
All this happened so fast that Shi Qian and the others were unable to react, let alone the Lingzhou officers and soldiers. After a while, they let out bursts of exclamations. The officers and soldiers who were about to surround them were so frightened that they hurriedly retreated. Only after exiting within a stone's throw did he stabilize. This kind of enemy was really terrifying. They had already killed twenty or thirty people without even seeing the enemy's face. This was naturally a huge blow to the morale of the officers and soldiers.
"How... how could this happen?" After a while, the general finally regained his composure and stared at the warehouse ahead with a horrified face: "Are there really only eight or nine people in here?"
"It shouldn't be wrong. We chased them all the way to this place. And they didn't enter the warehouse to set fire to the food. It seems they wanted to take the food for themselves." Shi Qian patiently explained a few more times. Sentence.
"How is this possible?" Not only the general, but also the soldiers around him looked in disbelief: "How can they, with only a dozen people, steal thousands of kilograms of food?"
"Of course they alone can't do it, but what if there are hundreds of Jurchen strongmen?" Shi Qian said solemnly: "It is because we found out that Jurchen thieves will invade Lingzhou City that we came to rescue them. . Unfortunately, they were still one step ahead, and our Qingzhou Army has not arrived yet. And judging from their actions just now, it won’t be long before the subsequent Jurchen soldiers and horses will attack Lingzhou City.”
"What? Are you telling the truth? Why didn't I know anything about it when I was waiting in Lingzhou?" The general almost grabbed Shi Qian's collar, but he still took two steps forward and asked loudly.
"It's absolutely true. This matter is also closely related to Zengtou City outside the city. There has been collusion with the Jurchens there for a long time. Now the situation in Lingzhou should be completely under the control of the Jurchens. Also, maybe we will wait. Someone from Zengtou City will come to pretend to open the city gate. It is precisely because they know that they have backup entering the city that these guys dare to defend the warehouse." After Shi Qian said these words, he said anxiously: "So this guy General, the top priority is not only to eliminate the enemies in the warehouse, but also to send people to guard the city. Otherwise, there will be a big change, and maybe the entire Lingzhou City will be destroyed tonight... "
"This... this..." The general didn't know what to say at this time. If what Shi Qian said is true, then today's crisis would be too great, but are this person's words really credible? He always felt that the other party was being alarmist. Even though the people in the warehouse were indeed Jurchens, how could hundreds of Jin people who were thousands of miles away show up here? Also, how could Zengtou City collude with the Jurchens? They have always had a close relationship with the government, so what good does this do to them
Shi Qian saw his hesitation, and his heart became tense. He shouted again: "General, we can't delay it any longer. It will be really dangerous for us if we delay him in Lingzhou any longer!"
You must first eliminate the hidden dangers in the warehouse, and then go to the city to defend it. At this time, the only way is to kill them all with arrows, preferably with rockets, so that everything is safe! "
As soon as he finished speaking, the general on the opposite side shook his head like a rattle: "No, there are still thousands of stones of grain in the warehouse, how can we set fire to it? The whole army listens to the order, attack me again and fight in! No!" Just seven or eight thieves? I don’t believe that hundreds of us can’t do anything to them. And Zhu Tao, you go back to the military camp quickly and report the news to the Chu Du Supervisor and ask him to gather other soldiers and go to the city to prepare just in case." Although he did not agree with Shi Qian's theory of setting fire to the enemy, he still sent someone to report the news.
Under the officer's order, the soldiers could only bite the bullet and charge forward again. This time they were much more cautious than before. They did not dare to try to climb over the wall again. Instead, they found a thick piece of wood and kept hitting the warehouse door, trying to completely break it open.
After a dozen or so bangs, the two warehouse doors, which were not prepared for this, fell down. The open space in front was completely exposed to everyone, and what they saw were the corpses of the guards. But there was no Jurchen thief in sight.
Under the urging of the general, more than ten or twenty people bravely walked into the door. Before they could see clearly what was going on inside, several more cold arrows were fired, directly piercing the throats of several sergeants. , was so frightened that the others quickly turned around and ran back, and all escaped from the warehouse again.
Seeing this, Shi Qian's eyes twitched. He didn't think anything of it when he was in the Qingzhou army before, but today after seeing the performance of the Lingzhou army, he finally understood why Sun Dujian had to work hard to train his troops. These officers and soldiers have no military discipline to cooperate at all. They all act on instinct. Once they encounter danger, the first thing they think of is to escape for their lives. How can they fight the enemy with such a performance
"If you kill me again, won't there be only eight or nine people with a dozen bows? What are you afraid of?" The general yelled fiercely, but he hid behind him very seriously. There was no trace of what a general should do. tolerance. And his performance was in the eyes of the surrounding soldiers, and his prestige was naturally greatly reduced. Everyone gathered around the door without moving forward, and no one really dared to enter again.
As the saying goes, a raging army means a den of raging generals. This Lingzhou general embodies the truth of this sentence very well. With his example, hundreds of officers and soldiers were stunned by less than ten women. The real person was blocked from the granary. This was obviously something Shi Qian had not thought of, and he didn't know what to say or what to do for a moment.
In fact, this is a common phenomenon among the officers and soldiers of various states in the Song Dynasty. For these soldiers, serving as soldiers and providing food is just an errand. No one has ever taught them what it means to protect their homeland and the country, and what it means to be the backbone of the country. , as long as they take off these clothes, there is no difference between them and ordinary people.
This is the reason why the Song Dynasty had an army of millions, but in just a few months, tens of thousands of Jin troops were killed at the foot of Kaifeng City, and the city was finally destroyed and the country was destroyed.
While these Lingzhou soldiers were completely restrained by a small number of enemies, a group of troops outside the city had arrived at the west gate. One person rushed up and shouted loudly: "Who are the people guarding the city above? We are Zengtou City." Our team, something big is going to happen today, please open the city quickly and let us go in to see Magistrate Weng!"