At the same time that Fancheng was captured, Xiangyang City also encountered a situation similar to Fancheng.
The same Song army pursued the Ming army, the same Ming army collapsed, the same broke through the blockade and approached Xiangyang City, the same morale of the soldiers in the city was boosted, the same people were angry and demanded to go out of the city to meet the army, the same opened the city gates to let the Song army attack. Go out of the city in batches to meet the army.
The defenders of Xiangyang City were also prepared to work with the reinforcements inside and outside to defeat the Ming army and win the final victory.
But the difference between Xiangyang City and Fan City is that its moat is too wide.
Xiangyang City's moat is 180 meters at its narrowest point, while Fan City's number is only a quarter of this number.
The passage from Xiangyang City to the outside in the main direction of the Ming army's attack is nearly 200 meters long. No matter how fast you run, it will take some time.
Therefore, when the Ming army and the Ming army disguised as the Song army defeated the Song army that came out of the city to meet them and began to charge towards the city gate, they were limited by the specific length and could not reach the city gate quickly.
They chose to attack the South City Gate, which was relatively the best route to attack.
But still can't arrive successfully. .
Of course, Wang Yan was frightened by this sudden change and immediately ordered the soldiers to close the city gate. It didn't matter even if the suspension bridge was lost, but the city gate had to be closed.
So all his guards were dispatched, killing the Song soldiers who tried to escape into the city and caused the city gate to be so crowded that it could not be closed.
The crossbowmen on the top of the city didn't care who they were, or whether the person under the city was their dearest relative, Paoze. At the general's request, they fired a large number of arrows to kill their own people.
As a result, the Song army under the city suffered a large number of casualties and died in large numbers.
In the end, they actually closed the city gate before the Ming army rushed into it.
After the city gate was closed, Wang Yan, who was still in shock, immediately ordered the crossbowmen to attack the Ming soldiers under the city, causing a certain amount of damage to the Ming troops under the city. Some Ming soldiers were killed or injured by arrows.
But these crossbowmen were immediately bombarded by the Ming army's general artillery.
The general opened fire with artillery, and the cannonballs came in. The crossbowmen on the city were brutally hit, and many of them were smashed to pieces.
Wang Yan was also affected by the bombardment of the general's artillery. He flew several meters sideways and hit a beam. His left arm was fractured and he fell to the ground screaming in pain. The soldiers risked their lives to rescue him and quickly dragged him to the hospital. The city was protected, but at least he did not lose his life.
Perhaps this wave of attacks did not succeed, which made the Ming army generals very angry, so this wave of artillery bombardment was particularly fierce. Three sides of Xiangyang City were bombarded by Ming army artillery. The soldiers on the city suffered heavy losses, and the soldiers inside the city suffered heavy losses. Extreme panic.
In the end, Xiangyang City was saved, but the Song Army lost control of the passage.
So much so that the Ming army could reach Xiangyang City directly through the passage, so the Song army tried to destroy the passage, but was bombarded by the Ming army with artillery and was unable to lift its head.
Just when they were planning to do something further, cheers from the direction of Fancheng attracted the attention of the Song army in Xiangyang City.
They all boarded the North City Gate to watch the situation inside Fan City, but they saw on the south wall of Fan City, the Ming Army soldiers were throwing down the Song Army battle flags and the flags with the word [Song] written on them, and then erected the Ming Army War Flags. flag.
Fancheng is gone.
Fancheng is not safe.
The hearts of the soldiers of the Song Army in Xiangyang City suddenly felt cold, as if they had fallen into an ice cave, with bursts of biting cold.
Wang Yan stood on the city wall and watched the Ming army waving the Ming army's battle flag in a mighty manner, but his body could not stop trembling.
It was the end of May, and the temperature in Xiangyang had already risen. It was already hot, but he, who should have been feeling hot and uneasy, could not feel the heat at all. Instead, he felt waves of coldness.
"General... we... what should we do?"
The pale-faced trusted general stood aside and looked at Wang Yan, his body trembling slightly.
"…………"
Wang Yan couldn't say a word, he just remained silent and trembling, as if everything in this world had nothing to do with him.
Fancheng and Xiangyang can be said to be of the same mind, standing on the water, supporting each other, but now Fancheng has been attacked...
What should we do?
That night, Zhang Yuejing and Ma Hongxing led their troops back to the outside of Xiangyang City. They learned that Fancheng had been breached, but Xiangyang City had not been breached. This made Zhang Yuejing and Ma Hongxing feel a little regretful.
"Although Xiangyang was not captured, Fancheng was captured, and the channel to attack Xiangyang was also opened. It can be said that we are only one step away from defeating Xiangyang City. All we need to do now is to stabilize the situation."
Zhang Yuejing took a deep breath and said slowly: "According to intelligence, in addition to the army from Lin'an, there is also an army from Sichuan and Sichuan coming to support Xiangfan. It would be best if this army could also come to die.
We will proceed step by step, bombard Xiangyang, wait for the Sichuan and Sichuan reinforcements to arrive, and then destroy the Sichuan and Shu reinforcements. The Southern Song Dynasty will have no power to resist at all. After that, the Ming Dynasty will attack the Song Dynasty in an all-round way. "
Ma Hongxing nodded and agreed.
Later, Ma Hongxing followed Zhang Yuejing to inspect the captured Fancheng.
However, in Fancheng, they saw some unharmonious scenes.
After the Ming army captured Fancheng, they had their hands free. After settling the prisoners of war of the Song army, they confiscated the weapons from the hands of the strong men who had been captured by the Song army in the city, so that they could regain their composure and not continue to fall into violence.
In the previous stage of street fighting, these strong men gathered in groups to attack the Song soldiers who were alone or in small numbers. The Song soldiers who fell into their hands often ended up very miserable. They were either cut into pieces or chopped into meat sauce. They were almost never seen. To one with a complete body.
The Ming army didn't know why their grievances were so strong at first, so they restrained the behavior of the strong men in the city and stopped them from killing the surrendered Song soldiers.
It wasn't until the Ming army in the city, led by strong men, went to see some houses and caves in the city that they understood why they had such heavy grievances.
They themselves want to kill these bastards.
To put it simply, the soldiers of the Ming army, led by those strong men with ragged clothes, yellow faces and thin muscles, found nearly 6,000 young and strong local women in Xiangfan who had been kidnapped by the Song army in the city.
Some of them live in houses, and many more live in holes in the ground.
These women were basically naked when they were discovered, living in a rather dirty and humid environment, never seeing the light of day.
Most of them are malnourished, and there are many skinny and skinny people who can be called dragons in drugstores. Most of them are gray and lifeless, with dull eyes. They lie motionless on the dirty beds, like zombies.
Some of them were still crying silently, while others were basically insane.
They were very afraid of the coming people. When they saw someone coming, they were so frightened that they huddled in a corner and trembled. Then they cried loudly and shouted something that the Ming soldiers could not understand.
Things like [don’t come over] and [don’t hit me].
Most of the women had scars on their bodies, with bruises, redness and swelling everywhere on their backs, legs, arms and faces.
Some women still had many bite marks on their bodies, and there were also signs of being whipped. Some women had more than half of their hair pulled out, and many of their teeth were knocked out. They were huddled on the bed and shivering.
Some strong men, who were probably the fathers, brothers or husbands of some of the women here, rushed over and hugged them and cried bitterly, or they cried silently without saying a word.
Some women are mentally disturbed and will scream in fear even when their relatives are close to them. Their faces are very horrifying, which makes people feel sad to see them.
Looking at this scene, the Ming soldiers were silent for a long time.
Afterwards, the able-bodied men took the Ming army soldiers to see the corpses of young men and women who had been tortured to death by the Song army, as well as some "mass graves" filled with corpses that had not yet been filled with soil.
For the sake of convenience, the men and women who were tortured to death by Song soldiers or died of illness and starvation were gathered together to dig pits and bury them. Some pits had been filled with soil, some were not, and some were half filled, and the pits could still be seen. Those faces full of despair.
"The Song army implemented the tactic of fortifying the walls and clearing the country, and plundered all the young and strong men and women in the local area. The men pretended to be strong men, doing dirty work and hard work. If they were not careful, they would be beaten, or even worse, they would be beaten to death, and the food they received would not even be enough. They were hungry, so a lot of them died of exhaustion and starvation.
In addition to heavy physical work, they also need to go to the city to transport supplies to the defenders. What's more, when the city wall is damaged by shelling, they have to go up to repair it and stand in front of all the soldiers. If they are not careful, they will die on the city wall. But if he didn't go to the city wall, he would be killed on the spot.
Some people tried to gather a crowd to rebel, but they were suppressed by the Song army. The Song army hung these people up, cut them into pieces and boiled them in a pot, and then forced the onlookers to eat. If they didn't eat, they would be beaten. If they didn't eat, they would be beaten. kill.
According to people's confessions, about 40,000 young and strong men were kidnapped into the Second City of Xiangfan, and 15,000 were sent to Fan City. According to preliminary statistics, less than 8,000 are still alive. In just two months, half of them died. There are more, which shows that the Song army is cruel. "
"The women who were kidnapped were not to be spared. In addition to washing, cooking, and mending, they also had to use their bodies to appease the soldiers. The Song Army set some military regulations, and they could ravage these women to any extent. some type of.
These women were placed in different houses and caves in the city. The living conditions were extremely poor. Except for a few, it was difficult for them to bathe, eat, and have no clothes to wear. They had to do menial work from morning to night. He could endure the ravages of Song soldiers at any time.
Some women were doing menial work all day long, and some women were ravaged by Song soldiers from morning to night because of their beauty, and could hardly get any rest. Moreover, Song soldiers treated them extremely roughly, not only violating them, but also beating them. Many women were beaten to death with punches and kicks.
Sickness and injury were not allowed to be treated, and many women were even dragged out and buried alive because of illness and injury, so the number of people was reduced a lot. According to people's confessions, about 30,000 young and strong women were kidnapped and entered into the Second City of Xiangfan and 10,000 in Fancheng. Now the statistics are There are less than 6,000 people alive, and in just two months, more than 4,000 people have died. "
Wen Anzhi, secretary of the Corps who was responsible for maintaining order in the city after the war, told Zhang Yuejing basically everything he learned about the situation.
Zhang Yuejing was silent for a while after hearing this, and finally spoke with difficulty after a while.
"In other words, in just over two months, the Song army in Fancheng has tortured more than 10,000 people to death?"
Wen Anzhi nodded.
"These are all dead, and there are still many who are dying. After we entered the city, we found a group of injured and sick people who were originally going to be buried alive, but now they are dying.
Our military doctors are doing their best to treat them, using medicinal materials as soon as possible, but their bodies are too weak, and some only have one breath left, because they don't know how much they can save.
In addition, there are those women who survived, almost all of whom were tortured by Song soldiers. They lived in a dark and humid place, had to defecate, and had large areas of ulcers on their bodies. Some of them were already covered with maggots when they were discovered... ...And many people who are mentally disturbed or infected with diseases have their lives ruined. "
Wen Anzhi sighed deeply and said: "Just a short time after we broke into the city and announced to these women that they had been rescued and could go home, more than a hundred people had already hanged themselves, and there were still many who were looking for death.
Our soldiers are trying hard to dissuade them, but the dissuasion effect is very poor. Many women took advantage of our people being unprepared to grab knives or daggers and stab them in the heart, or directly hit the wall and kill themselves. Now We have to deploy troops to guard closely to prevent them from committing suicide..."
Wen Anzhi could not continue speaking and was choked with tears.
