"I have a way," Ouyang Xuan said as he walked to Li Shuang and took out the climbing rope from his backpack.
"Hurry up, tie the trees on both sides of the river with ropes, grab the ropes and cross over", Li Shuang gave the order loudly.
Everyone hurriedly filed across the river. At this time, Li Shuang led ten soldiers to form a defensive formation facing the direction of the cavalry. Five men squatted in front and set up wooden shields, and five men set up spears diagonally behind to block the official road. The Mongols were coming quickly. When Ouyang Xuan grabbed the rope and followed the others to the other side, the faint sound of horses neighing could be heard in the distance. At this time, the officers and soldiers arrayed for defense had not yet crossed the river. Except for Li Shuang, the rest of the soldiers looked fearful, and the team began to commotion.
Li Shuang loudly ordered the remaining soldiers to cross the river one by one while untying the rope from the tree. The soldiers who had crossed the river formed a defensive formation with wooden shields. Behind the shields were soldiers holding bows, and the soldiers holding spears stood far away from the range of the bows and arrows. Ouyang Xuan took a closer look at the team of 50 people. The main weapons were wooden shields and spears more than three meters long. Less than half of the people had long knives, and there were only a dozen bows. At this moment, Yu Zhu was leading the archers, drawing their bows and strings, facing the other side of the river.
When Li Shuang jumped into the water holding the rope, the sound of horse hooves sounded rapidly behind him, and a sharp hoot sounded in the air. Arrows were fired one after another at high speeds with great force from the horses, making the wooden shields of the officers and soldiers on the other side of the river bang. The arrows sank into the wooden shields, and the arrow feathers were still shaking wildly. Yu Zhu led the archers to also start a counterattack, but were soon suppressed by the fierce rain of arrows, and could only occasionally shoot cold shots from the gaps in the wooden shields. At this time, Li Shuang and two soldiers were still swimming along the rope in the river. Among the three people in the river, the soldier at the front was shot in the back by a Mongolian cavalry who was still a hundred meters away as soon as he climbed up the river embankment. Hold on to the rope tightly, and if you let go, you will be swept away by the rapids.
Seeing this, Yu Zhu hurriedly led the archers to stand behind the wooden shield and took the risk to shoot at the Mongolian Rangers. This slightly frustrated the Mongolian Rangers and they all dismounted and looked for hiding places. The soldiers hiding behind the shields pulled the rope together and pulled Li Shuang to the river bank. Li Shuang rolled over and hid behind the shield formation. Even so, there was still an arrow stuck diagonally in his back. Thanks to the protection of his leather armor, his skin was very shallow and his muscles were not injured. However, an archer standing next to Yu Zhu was Not so lucky, he was hit by an arrow in the forehead, groaned and died immediately. Yu Zhu lamented when he saw this. This archer was his deputy, the supporter of the team, and a good brother who had been with him for many years.
Everyone retreated slowly under the cover of the shield formation. At this time, the soldiers who had been washed away were already standing in the gentle water a hundred meters downstream, standing in thigh-deep mud, slowly moving towards the shore. Seeing this, the Mongolian rangers drew their bows and shot at them. The soldier turned into a hedgehog covered with arrows.
After retreating beyond the range of bows and arrows, the soldiers turned around and ran wildly without waiting for Li Shuang's order. At this time, the Mongolian horsemen were blocked by the river and restrained their horses in front of the broken bridge. Ouyang Xuan looked back hurriedly while running and found that there were only 10 Mongolian cavalry and no less than 20 horses. Seeing the Song soldiers leaving, a moment later the Mongolian cavalry also turned their horses and headed upstream of the river.
When Ouyang Xuan and others ran to Yongkang County out of breath, it was already dusk and the gate of Yongkang County was closed. Just when Yu Zhu and Li Shuang went to call the door loudly, the sound of rapid horse hooves came from the distance again. This made everyone who was about to take a breath anxious and anxious. It also made the soldiers at the top of the city change their faces and refused to open the city gate. Li Shuang held the document high under the city and tried his best to declare to the city gate guards that he came to Yongkang County on the order of Pan Tongzhi of the Chongqing Prefecture. He also called out the name of Yongkang County Magistrate Xie Jinyong loudly. The others also cried out for help, but Yongkang County The city guards remained unmoved and refused to open the city gates. During the commotion, several soldiers walked to the top of the city surrounded by an officer. The person who came was Cao Zhengyong, the captain of Yongkang County. According to the official system of the Southern Song Dynasty, both the patrol inspector and the county lieutenant were officials responsible for public security. However, the patrol inspector was responsible for rural affairs, while the county lieutenant was responsible for public security in the city. Li Shuang and Cao Zhengyong knew each other from the beginning. At this moment, Li Shuang was like a drowning man encountering a life-saving straw. He shouted loudly: "Master Cao, the Tatar soldiers are chasing you in a hurry. Open the door quickly." "We are here on Master Pan's order. Open the door quickly." Cao Zhengyong first looked at the official road in the distance, then looked around at the anxious people in the city, twirled his beard under his chin, and said unhurriedly: "Master Li, according to the military system of the Song Dynasty, I'm sorry that I can't Open the city gate and please help yourself." After saying this, he bowed his hands to Li Shuang, and then walked down the tower amidst the pleadings and curses of the soldiers outside the city. As for Cao Zheng's reason, it is in line with the official regulations of the Southern Song Dynasty, that is, the city gate cannot be opened rashly when the enemy's situation is unknown. It's just that although it's dark now and there are cavalry attacking again, Cao Zhengyong can obviously hear the sound of horse hooves and can only ride more than twenty horses. Yongkang City has at least hundreds of soldiers. With the city wall, it is definitely capable of fighting, even if it is opened Mongolian cavalry at the city gate may not dare to rush into the city. In addition to unwillingness to take unreasonable risks, the more important reason for such unwillingness to save lives is the long-standing chronic disease of the Southern Song Dynasty bureaucracy - internal discord and mutual criticism. As long as officials from different factions do not stab each other in the back and add insult to injury, it will be fine. Risking his life to save you? Don't even think about it. Since the war actually destroyed the Southern Song Dynasty's ruling order in western Sichuan, although Yongkang County was nominally under the jurisdiction of Chongqing Prefecture, Xie Jinyong, the magistrate of Yongkang County, was actually a confidant of Yunding City Guards Yao Shi'an, and never considered Pan of Chongqing Prefecture. Control is in sight.
Seeing the sound of Mongolian horse hooves getting closer and closer, Li Shuang gritted his teeth and stamped his feet, and had no choice but to lead his men along the moat and ran towards the mountains behind the left side of Yongkang City. On the right side of Yongkang City is the wide Weijiang River, and everyone is running towards the mountains and forests on the left, which is only more than 200 meters away from the city gate.
The Mongolian cavalry came very fast. From the moment they appeared in front of the defenders of Yongkang Village to the time they started shooting arrows, they shouted and borrowed their power to fire arrows at the defenders in the city. The Song troops on the city also responded with a few sparse arrows. arrow. Seeing that the city gate was closed and there was no chance to take advantage, the Mongolian cavalry turned to pursue the Song army who was fleeing along the mountainside. Fortunately, when the Mongolian army drew their bows and fired, Ouyang Xuan and others had already followed the path into the forest in the mountain. The forest was deep and dense. , the feathers and arrows were blocked by the trees and were not shot. Everyone continued to climb up the mountainside, but only about ten meters forward when they encountered an unreachable cliff blocking their way, so they had to continue turning to the left and heading towards the forest. At this time, the Mongolian cavalry had arrived at the foot of the mountain, but they did not go up the mountain. They pursued the Song army at the foot of the mountain in a direction parallel to the walking direction. They followed on horseback and fired arrows into the mountain. Although the grass was deep and dense and it was late, the Mongolian army just fired arrows randomly at the sound, but two soldiers were still shot and were immediately carried forward. Fortunately, after a while, the Mongolian cavalry stopped pursuing after seeing that the sky was too dark, but Li Shuang still did not dare to stop. It was not until the sky completely darkened that he stopped in a clearing on a hillside with sparse grass.
