While Dong Hu was leading his troops in a bloody battle with the Mongolian army in Yunding City, Huang Dagen also made progress in attacking Jintang City. Just like Jiagulong chose to attack the city at night in ancient times, the Pili Army, which also had the same superior strength, also chose to attack at night, leaving the defenders exhausted. The fierce fighting finally made several defenders unable to hold on any longer. They tried to escape in the dark, but were caught by the soldiers of the Perak Army. According to the confessions of the deserters from these newly attached troops, the defender in the city was none other than Yao De, who dedicated Yunding City to the Mongolian army. Yao De was originally stationed in Yunding City. Although he was a traitor, he was also capable. After Liu Heima transferred the 500 cavalry from Yunding City to Chengdu, he judged that the Perak Army was very likely to come down the river from Guankou Village, so he left his confidants to guard Yunding City and notified the surrounding forts to prepare for support, while he went to Jintang City Take command. This is also the reason why Jiagulong in ancient times was able to quickly gather new auxiliary troops from surrounding fortresses after Yunding City was captured by the Perak Army.
The Perak Army's attitude towards traitors was naturally clear to Yao De, and his act of killing his uncle Yao Shi'an to present the city was even more intolerable to the Southern Song Dynasty court, which respected Neo-Confucianism. For him, since he became the lackey of the Mongols, there was only one way to end. In order to prevent deserters, he implemented a squad system. That is, if there are deserters in the squad, the entire squad will be the cannon fodder at the front. If a deserter appears again, the team leader will be killed. If a deserter appears for the third time, he will be killed. The system is to randomly select one person among ten people to kill, and in this terrifying form of continuous sitting, the soldiers supervise each other. Not only that, he also organized a supervising team to kill anyone who dared to retreat. Of course, Yao De did not just use tough tactics, but used carrots and sticks. The big pie of promotion and wealth was inevitable, and he even did not hesitate to take out his concubines as bonuses.
Under coercion and inducement, although Jintang only had 500 new auxiliary troops, it unleashed an astonishing fighting power and blocked thousands of people from the Perak Army. After learning about these situations from the deserters, Huang Dagen used political offensive as the main method and military strikes as the supplement. He first sent people to shout in unison outside the city, saying that only Yao De and his confidants would be punished, and the others would surrender without killing them. At the same time, musketeers were used to snipe the new auxiliary troops that appeared on the city wall, focusing on clearing out the officers and supervisory teams. Each squad of the special brigade has a precision musket shooter who can shoot accurately at about 100 meters. Although the hit rate is only about 50%, it also suppresses the activities of the Jintang defenders. However, although this method is effective, it is difficult to capture the city in a hurry.
The military situation was tense. As the appointed time approached, Huang Dagen became increasingly anxious. Just when he decided not to care about the casualties and was about to launch an attack on the city from all sides, he saw the north gate of Jintang opened wide, and a group of new auxiliary troops rushed towards the Perak Army position, shouting "We surrender", and the city wall behind him The new vassal troops fired arrows downwards desperately, trying to stop the deserters. Just when the Jintang defenders were about to close the city gate, a dozen Perak Army cavalry rushed towards the city gate. Everyone took a closer look and saw that this was Zeng Yong, commander of the teaching brigade, and his subordinate officers. Since the establishment of the cavalry unit, the Perak Army has gradually equipped its infantry with horses for communication and reconnaissance purposes, as well as mounts for commanders above the battalion level. Now rushing towards the gate of Jintang City, it is all the officers above the teaching brigade and camp.
Just when the newly attached troops opened the city gate, Zeng Yong, who was commanding at the north gate battlefield, noticed something strange through the telescope: first there was chaos in the city gate tower, and the defenders were fighting each other, and then there were people on the moat. The suspension bridge was lowered, and then the heavy city gate was slowly pushed open. Of course he would not let go of this kind of fighter. But because the incident happened suddenly, he had to call the officers around him to charge with him. The soldiers of the teaching brigade saw the Jintang city gate open, and saw the brigade commander and other commanders charging on their horses. Although they didn't know what happened, they picked up their weapons and rushed towards the city gate. Since the Jintang defenders did not have heavy-duty trebuchets and eight-year-old crossbows, and the range of their light trebuchets was less than 200 meters, the fence of the teaching brigade had been erected half a mile outside the city. For the cavalry, the distance of half a mile is just a blink of an eye. When the city gate was halfway closed, Zeng Yong had already led his men to rush to the suspension bridge that had not yet been pulled up.
There are not many newly attached troops in Jintang County. After deducting the supervisory team and Yao De's personal soldiers, there are only more than 100 people spread on each city wall. Even if you include the minzhuang who were forcibly recruited on the wall, there are only about 300 people. . There were only a hundred soldiers in the new annex at the north gate. They killed more than ten people among themselves, and more than sixty people escaped from the city, leaving only more than thirty soldiers, and only ten soldiers guarding the city gate. The remaining people. As for the people who were strong, they took the opportunity to disperse after the internal strife in the newly attached army. When the dozen or so new soldiers guarding the city gate saw Zeng Yong and others charging towards them on horseback, they had no choice but to abandon the half-closed city gate and retreat. By the time Yao De and his men arrived, Zeng Yong and other officers had worked together to push the city gate open, and behind them were a steady stream of teaching brigade soldiers.
Although Yao De's personal soldiers and supervising team are all brave desperadoes, they are the opponents of the soldiers of the teaching brigade. At the forefront were the Miao soldiers led by Yang Bangxian. They used grenades to clear the way. A wave of charges disrupted the formation of the new auxiliary troops and drove them into the county government office in the center of the city. Yao De and his confidants knew that surrender would not yield good results, so they naturally resisted. They blocked the gate of the county government office and shot and slashed at the soldiers of the Perak Army who jumped over the wall. This inflicted heavy losses on the soldiers of the teaching brigade, killing and wounding several people. In anger, Yang Bangxian ordered people to use gunpowder to blow open the walls of the county government office. After throwing dozens of grenades, he fired several rounds of muskets. After the smoke cleared, he led people carefully into the county government office. I saw that there were corpses lying everywhere inside, one of them was very powerful and wearing iron armor. Immediately, they called the captives to come over and identify themselves. The deceased was Yao De.
Killing Yao De and capturing Jintang City does not mean that the army can immediately go down the river, because the waterway has been blocked by sunken ships. Fortunately, the channel was not completely blocked and could barely accommodate small boats. Huang Dagen had no choice but to send people to seize the time to dredge the channel. At the same time, he asked Dunzhu, commander of the first battalion of the special brigade, to lead some soldiers to Yunding City in a small boat. Most of the ships Huang Dagen brought on this trip were transport ships, and only about 20 light boats could tow through the shore of the blockage. Dunzup and others were the comrades who took these boats to support Yunding City. The first battalion under his command originally had 500 people. It was the most powerful battalion in the special brigade. Dong Hu had taken away 300 people to Yunding City. The 200 people he now leads are all that are left in the first battalion. The troops are strong.
Jintang City is only about sixty miles away from Yunding City. Because the boat went down the river, Dunzhu ordered people to take turns paddling, so the boat moved very fast. Halfway through the journey, they met the soldiers sent by Dong Hu to ask for help. Everyone saw the scars all over his body and the blood stains on his face. They also heard that the brothers guarding Yunding City were in critical condition. They couldn't help crying and paddling faster. The intensity of the attack suddenly turned into a situation where hundreds of rivals were competing against each other. Of course, Dundup understood that his subordinates were eager to rescue, but he also understood the principle of "haste makes waste", so he ordered to slow down slightly. On the one hand, he was to prevent excessive loss of physical strength, and on the other hand, he was also cautious to prevent being hit by the Mongolian army. ambush.
