With the destruction of Weiyang City, the Huns soldiers who were already a little impatient about continuing to stay in the Song Dynasty were not only replenished with supplies, but also a great boost to their spirits.
If the big city cannot be conquered, you can attack the small city first.
In the next month, the Xiongnu army attacked everywhere, and soon wiped out the remaining cities in the Hedong area that had been invaded. These cities were isolated and helpless and could not withstand the Xiongnu siege for long.
If the top officials in the city have any backbone, they will live and die with the city and die for the country.
But there are fewer spineless people in the world than there are spineless people, and there are even fewer people who are willing to die to serve the court, but this also highlights the integrity of those officials who sacrificed their lives for the country.
In just one and a half months, the thirty cities in Hedong, except for the seven behind Heyuan City and the three that were heavily guarded near the Hedong Corridor, the remaining twenty cities were all destroyed by the Xiongnu. Seventeen city officials abandoned the city and fled. Officials from the three cities burned themselves to death in the county government office after the city was breached, vowing not to surrender.
It can be said that the officials from these three cities saved the last face of the Song Dynasty court.
After the Xiongnu mobilized troops to return for reinforcements, they fought a battle with the Forbidden Army who was attacking Hetong and Suyun cities. Both sides suffered injuries to each other, but they were evenly matched.
Originally, the Forbidden Army had the combat power to suppress the Huns, but this time all the Huns sent back were wearing half armor. It was due to the batch of iron materials that had been smuggled to the grassland by the Ding family before. The imperial army that was ahead of the Huns could not suppress the Huns even in terms of equipment.
It can be said that you are not afraid of opponents who are like gods, but you are afraid of teammates who are like pigs.
At this point, although Daliang City was lost, the Xiongnu still retained the two cities of Tongguan and Suyun.
The retreat route was not blocked. On the contrary, after reinforcements arrived, the Huns' strength had reached as many as 140,000.
And there are less than 100,000 imperial troops here!
The imperial army of the Song Dynasty, which was originally on the offensive side, instantly switched from offense to defense and exchanged offense and defense with the Xiongnu.
They could only rely on Daliang City and the Xiongnu army of 140,000 to maintain a stalemate.
After the Xiongnu completely captured twenty cities, they gathered a large number of craftsmen due to Tila Shanyu's reputation as a foresight and forced them to build a large number of various siege weapons, which greatly improved the Xiongnu's ability to attack cities. Improved a wave of siege capabilities.
At the same time, they also gathered a group of surrendered Song troops to form a begging army. They controlled the siege weapons and used the Song people who were good at siege to attack the Song people.
The strategy of using barbarians to control barbarians is considered to be a perfect one for Tila.
Immediately after being replenished and restored to their condition and improving their siege capabilities, the Huns gathered another 400,000 troops and headed towards Heyuan City.
But at this time, the defender of Heyuan City was no longer Chen Duling.
The Xiongnu used this more than a month to complete a short-term replenishment of logistics supplies and upgrade their own siege capabilities.
The Song Dynasty also used this time to re-deploy a new defense line with Heyuan City as the center.
Chen Duling's mission was completed, and the court did not break its promise and indeed gave him the title of Duke Zhenbei.
Originally, he would still guard Heyuan City, but there are always people who will be jealous of others in this world, and the Hedong defense line has been re-established.
Heyuan City has become a new important town. If the defenders of Heyuan City can hold the defense line, otherwise the Xiongnu will break through, it will be a great achievement.
Greedy people always look at what's in other people's bowls.
Chen Duling, who had no background, was replaced after some work, and his replacement was actually Ding Cheng, the former Yangcheng guard!
It turns out that Ding Cheng wrote to his family immediately after escaping from Weiyang City. In addition, there were many generals who escaped from other cities. Now it is war time. The court cannot deal with so many generals at once, so it will be lenient. Punishment, coupled with the operation of the Ding family.
In the name of committing a crime and meritorious service, Ding Cheng was asked to replace Chen Duling, and Chen Duling, the newly promoted earl, was on his way to Bianjing to be crowned king.
When I first arrived at Heyuan City, I saw that the city was well-equipped with soldiers and armor. There were also a group of soldiers who already had rich experience in defending the city. In addition, the imperial court had added a group of soldiers to Heyuan City.
Now Heyuan City alone has hundreds of thousands of soldiers, making it a veritable military garrison city.
The food originally stored in Heyuan City was originally planned to be transported away, but the time was too tight and there was no time at all, so only part of it was transported away.
Now there are still 500,000 shi of food in Heyuan City that have not been transported out in time, which is enough to feed the defenders in the city for a year and a half.
In Ding Cheng's view, he was just here to transfer gold. The Huns had already come to Heyuan City before and failed to break it. Now that Heyuan City has been greatly strengthened, I believe he can't break Heyuan City either. He is simply Come to pick fruits and take credit to make up for your previous mistakes.
With this mentality, Ding Cheng came to Heyuan City.
Less than half a month after he took office, the strengthened Xiongnu came again with a mighty army!
This time they came prepared.
As soon as they arrived at the city, this kind of ladder, siege vehicle, crash car, etc. were all prepared and pushed to the city.
As for the faces of those who took the lead in attacking the city, they were all from the Song Dynasty.
When Ding Cheng saw this scene, his heart suddenly sank, his face changed, and he immediately broke his guard and started to curse.
"You and other people who have forgotten their ancestors are greedy for life and afraid of death. They just surrender to the Huns, but you actually dare to help the Huns attack your city.
Do you have ancestors in your heart? Do you know where your roots are?
As long as you still have a little bit of conscience in your heart, you should kill yourself now instead of standing opposite us and embarrassing your ancestors!
I'm sorry for your mother!
…”
Ding Cheng's scolding was unpleasant, using almost all the unpleasant vocabulary he had learned throughout his life.
The beggars who were driven down below didn't dare to look up at him because they also felt that their behavior was embarrassing.
But when Ding Cheng's scoldings became more and more unpleasant, the anger in their hearts was aroused, thinking of the way these officials drank the blood of soldiers in the past.
Then he thought about the scene where he worked hard for the imperial court but ended up living in poverty, often not even having enough to eat.
His mentality suddenly changed. Anger towards Ding Cheng and other senior officials instantly took over his heart. When he looked up again, his eyes turned red when he looked at Ding Cheng!
kill! Kill this dog officer!
Why did we surrender? It wasn't because you dog officials abandoned the city and abandoned us first!
This is not our fault, it was you who betrayed us first!
Kill all of you guys! kill!
The beggar army, which was originally sluggish, was scolded by Ding Cheng, and its combat effectiveness doubled instantly, and its morale reached its peak!
Tila Shanyu, who was riding in the middle of the army, couldn't help laughing when he saw this change.
This Song official was so insane that he should not be able to defeat the Huns!
…
Woohoo! ! ! !
The high-pitched attack horn sounded, and the red-eyed beggar army roared and launched an attack on Heyuan City!
An arrow suddenly arrived a hundred steps away, and with a whoosh, it shot straight next to Ding Cheng. The sharp edge brought by the arrow instantly made Ding Cheng, who had been yelling just now, turn pale!
He quickly left the city and commanded the city defense!
…
(End of chapter)
