Dozens of men, women, and children were pushed and pushed against the edge of the city wall by the Song army. Everyone had a look of fear on their faces, with tears streaming down their faces, and they cried and begged for mercy. And these people were surprisingly the nobles of the Liao Kingdom who were originally in Youzhou City, and some of them were even familiar to Yelu Dashi, such as Yelu Xiongge's two sons, and other officials.
A group of Liao soldiers below the city were stunned for a moment, and soon realized who was appearing above them. They all started shouting and cursing loudly, scolding the Song people for being despicable, and actually threatening them with captives, old and weak. Many people even shouted loudly. He clamored to let the Song army go out of the city to fight and decide the outcome in an open and fair manner.
But for these curses, not to mention that Sun Tu couldn't understand them. Even if he could understand them, he wouldn't take them seriously. He just looked down at Yelu Dashi and said slowly: "Dashi Linya, I don't know if you can do it now." Do you want to change your mind? I might as well tell you the truth. There are seven or eight hundred hostages related to Liao officials alone. In addition, I also asked people to kidnap thousands of women, children, old and weak people in the city and wait under other gates. Come on, once you ignore the order and attack the city, they will be the first to bear the brunt!"
Hearing this, Yelu Dashi's face turned livid, he looked up at each other with hatred, and said loudly: "Sun Tu, I originally regarded you as a rare hero today, but I didn't expect that your methods are so despicable. Such disregard for morality..."
"In the war between the two countries, the only difference is the winner. As for morality, we can only put it aside." Sun Tu said calmly: "And their life and death are actually in your hands, and I did not order them to be killed. !”
"You...don't forget that most of the people in this city are your Han family. If you do this, you won't be afraid of being cast aside by the world and criticized verbally and written by the literati of your Song Dynasty?"
"Although they are Han people, they have long regarded themselves as people of the Liao Kingdom, so this is not a problem at all. As for those so-called articles that are sarcastic and Confucian, I don't take it to heart at all. The winner is the king and the loser is the bandit. Now that I Those who captured Youzhou City will be the heroes of the Han people for hundreds of years. This is a fact that no one can change. Those people will only hide everything that happened here." Sun Tu was not moved at all, and he did not even have half of it. We must give up any decision to take these people as hostages.
This time, Yelu Dashi really had no choice. Youzhou is already a fortified city with high walls, thick walls and deep pools, which is easy to defend but difficult to attack. Now the Song army has pulled so many hostages to line up at the top of the city. Even if he has more soldiers and horses, it is useless. The place of martial arts. Not to mention that the army behind them was improvised and had unstable military morale. Even a group of elite Liao soldiers would not be able to attack by force in such a situation. After all, the arrows fired in the first round all killed them. Chinese people. I'm afraid that once these people fall, the morale of the army will completely collapse.
After a period of confusion, Yelu Dashi finally did not dare to order an attack on the city. He could only lead his troops back angrily and stationed themselves several miles away. The current situation is truly a dead end. He never imagined that just because he was a step late, he would be put into such a situation, with no room for recovery.
What's even more frightening is that the further time goes by, the worse it will be for them. Because it won't be long before the main force of the Song army that captured Zhuozhou will arrive. They can even defeat the elite Liao soldiers led by Xiao Qian. How can this miscellaneous Liao army be their opponent
For a while, Yelu
Dashi was caught in a dilemma. He couldn't close his eyes for the next whole night, and his whole body became even more anxious.
But Youdao is a man of unparalleled blessings and misfortunes never come alone. The day after he was blocked at the foot of Youzhou City and could neither attack nor retreat, an even greater bad news came again -
At noon, Yelv Dashi took a closer look at the city head and found that there were still Liao officials forced to stand behind the city head. He sighed again, and then he saw several fast horses galloping from the north. Come. He originally thought that the defenders of the northern cities were planning to send troops to help after learning about the incident in Youzhou, so he quickly asked people to open the gate of the village and let people come closer.
But when those cavalry horses arrived, they knelt on the ground with a thud, and said with panic on their faces: "Dashi Linya, there has been a big change in the north, Shangjing, Shangjing city has been destroyed by the Jurchen army, Your Majesty is here He fought his way out of the city under the escort of his own army, but his whereabouts are unknown now..." As he said that, he raised the secret message in the bamboo tube high and presented it to him.
At this moment, Yelu Dashi felt as if his soul was trapped by gods and ghosts. He was completely unresponsive and just stood there in a daze without even moving his eyes. It wasn't until the guards around him called out repeatedly and pushed him twice that he came back to his senses. A very strange smile appeared on his face: "What, what did you say?" But he had no intention of taking the bamboo tube.
The messenger was also frightened by his reaction. He was stunned for a long time before he stuttered and said it again.
"This is impossible! We have a hundred thousand elite soldiers and more than ten good generals in the capital. How could the Jurchens attack the city so easily?" Yelu Dashi shouted loudly at that time: "You, you must be a Jurchen Or they are spies from the Song Dynasty who want to use such despicable means to demoralize our army, right? Come here, capture all these spies for me and torture them severely!"
At that moment, the soldiers on the side quickly rushed forward after hesitating for a moment, pushed several people to the ground, dragged them up and walked out. This frightened several messengers, and they all shouted that they were wronged. The leader struggled even harder, waving the bamboo tube in his hand and shouted: "Lin Ya, you are wronged. I am indeed a messenger from the imperial court. I have an order." The card serves as evidence, and there is also this letter that was stamped by the Privy Council. It can never be forged, Lin Ya knows it well... "
"Lin Ya..." Seeing this, the subordinates around him also hurriedly commented, how could they deny such a big event at will
Yelu Dashi shuddered violently, and then regained some composure. He waved his hand to ask the soldiers to stop dragging people, then took two steps forward, leaned over and took the small bamboo tube from the hand of the messenger.
Although the bamboo tube was no more than the thickness of an arm or about the length of a foot, it seemed to be extremely heavy to Yelu Dashi at this time. It actually made his hands tremble for a while, and it took him a long time to raise it to his chest. And after seeing the fire paint seal on it, his face turned pale again.
After gritting his teeth and encouraging himself, Yelu Dashi split the bamboo tube in half along the seal and took out the letter inside. After tremblingly opening the thin silk book full of words, he glanced at it and knew for sure that it was an urgent document issued by the imperial court. No matter the wording or sealing, there was nothing wrong with it.
However, after he read the above content, he was still unable to
Believe that all this is true! When he went to the capital, he was actually attacked by the Jurchen army. Even his majesty abandoned the city and fled. Now his life and death are unknown, and his whereabouts are unknown!
Suddenly, Yelu Dashi's body trembled violently, his face became paler and whiter, with almost no trace of blood. Then in the eyes of everyone's fear and concern, he suddenly opened his mouth, and with a "wow" sound, a mouthful of blood came out of his mouth. out…
"Lin Ya..." The people on the side were even more panicked. They rushed forward to help him, patting him on the back to calm him down, and shouting urgently, asking the military doctor to come over for diagnosis and treatment. Nowadays, Daliao is facing constant disasters. If he suddenly falls down, it will be completely over.
Before the military doctor came over, Yelu Dashi, who was already sitting in the tent, calmed down and waved his hand: "It's not serious, it's just a moment of anger that attacked the heart and hurt the internal organs." He said again. He smiled miserably: "How unfair is God to destroy me, Daliao, with such cruelty?" After saying this, his throat felt sweet, and traces of blood spilled from the corners of his mouth, which frightened all his subordinates. light.
However, once these two mouthfuls of bruised blood were spit out, Yelu Dashi's thoughts became much smoother, and he immediately said: "Everything in this tent today must be kept secret. It must not be known to the sergeants below..." As he said that, his eyes were like The sword swept through everyone present at once.
The generals around them all understood the importance. Although they were also flustered, they still nodded in agreement. They also knew that once the news spread that Shangjing had been captured, the entire army would inevitably collapse. In the city opposite them, there was still Song Jun watching.
"Then quickly go and hold the military doctor back. Just say that the messenger is fine and does not need treatment." Yelu Dashi ordered again.
"But Linya, your body..."
"It's no longer serious, and the fact that I vomited blood must not be leaked, otherwise I'm afraid it will still shake the morale of our army." Yelu Dashi said very forcefully: "Now our army must not be in chaos here, let alone retreat. "
It wasn't until someone was ordered to come out of the tent to stop the military doctor that he relaxed a little, but at the same time he felt miserable in his heart. I thought that with the Liao family's wealth of more than a hundred years, I could still support it for a while, at least I could defend the capital until I could repel the Song army, and then turn around to deal with the Jurchens. But now it seems that he underestimated the Jin Army's combat power and overestimated the strength of his main force in the north.
Daliao is now experiencing a series of disasters, reaching a critical moment of life and death. Shangjing and Nanjing were lost one after another, and the defenders also lost troops and generals, but what should they do? In all this, I must make a decision as soon as possible, at least to save the last main force in the south...
Thinking of this, Yelu Dashi struggled to sit up straight again, pulled out a piece of cloth, and wanted to write a letter to Yelu Xiongge, asking him to stabilize the situation and find an opportunity to withdraw his troops. Now it seems that Nanjing is impossible to win back. Preserving strength is the key. As for how to deal with Song and Jin's two-sided attack next, we need to consider it in the long term.
Thinking in his mind, he started writing very quickly, and soon wrote a secret letter. Just as he was about to hand it over to his close associates, and quickly sent it to the south, he saw the curtain raised, and a soldier came out with a strange look on his face. Come in and report: "Lin Ya, the Song people in Nanjing City suddenly sent an envoy, saying that they want to invite Lin Ya to the city to discuss important matters, and there is also a letter to send!"