On the seventh day of the Ming army's full-scale siege, on the sixth day of June in the fifth year of Hongwu, in the afternoon after the Ming army had lunch, the siege launched by the enemy's third division finally succeeded in defeating the south city wall after half an hour of fierce fighting. Stand firm on the ground.
Liang Tiancheng, deputy commander of the Third Division, personally led his troops to climb the city wall and fight to the death, creating an excellent opportunity for subsequent soldiers to climb the city.
As a result, a large number of Ming soldiers descended on the city, and the musketeers tried their best to provide cover, so much so that several gun barrels were exploded and several musketeers were injured.
The Song army retreated steadily, and the Ming army gained the upper hand. A wave of waves pushed the Song army off the city wall, contributing to the collapse of the Song army below the city and the loss of the city gate.
Liang Tiancheng personally led troops to attack the city gate, seize the city gate opening, kill all the Song Army crossbowmen on the barbican, and open the city gate.
The Ming army outside the city had been waiting for a long time and immediately poured into Xiangyang City like a tide, giving a decisive blow to the Song army in Xiangyang City.
The fierce fighting reached dusk, when the Song army completely collapsed and the street battle failed.
Liang Tiancheng was more unlucky. During the battle, because he charged too hard, he protruded directly from the front, and the soldiers behind him failed to follow. After he killed a Song soldier with a knife, he was hit on the head with a stick by a Song soldier, and he fainted. He was unable to participate in the next battle to annihilate the Song army.
Pang Yu, the commander of the third division, personally led his soldiers to charge forward and attacked directly towards the core area of the city, vowing to capture Wang Yan alive. .
At that time, the entire Xiangyang City was in fierce fighting, both above and below Xiangyang City. The Song army was collapsing and fighting at the same time, while the Ming army kept in mind the general's order - not to take prisoners, so it didn't care at all that some Song soldiers tried to surrender. If you don't accept surrender, you will kill with a sword.
What happened in Fan City also happened in Xiangyang City. Seeing that the Song Army was in bad luck, the Ming Army came in. The anger in the hearts of the strong men who had been enslaved by the Song Army for a long time burst out like a volcano erupting.
They took up weapons to chase Song Bing.
The lone Song soldiers and small groups of Song soldiers fell into their hands and had no chance of survival. They were either chopped into pieces or quartered, and died miserably.
So much so that some soldiers of the Ming Army were initially red-eyed, but when they saw these thin and ragged men killing Song soldiers, they quickly regained their senses and did not continue to kill. Instead, they maintained order after these strong men vented their anger. .
After entering the street fighting stage, a considerable number of Song soldiers were killed by various means by the strong men in the city after being dispersed by the Ming army.
Of course, these Song troops would not be captured without mercy, and they also caused casualties among some strong men.
This will often trigger an all-out attack by the Ming army, which will annihilate all these Song soldiers, leaving no one left.
The fighting in the city lasted all night, until dawn the next day, when Pang Yu, who was covered in blood, carried Wang Yan, who was tied into a rice dumpling and gagged, out of the city and came to Zhang Yuejing.
Wang Yan closed his eyes and remained motionless.
"This is Wang Yan, still alive."
After saying this, Pang Yu fell asleep due to excessive fatigue and fell unconscious.
He personally led his troops to storm Wang Yan's mansion, spearheaded the attack on the commander's mansion, killed five Song soldiers with his own hands, and kicked Wang Yan in the lower abdomen, causing Wang Yan to lose his combat effectiveness and pass out.
Zhang Yuejing sent someone to settle Pang Yu properly, and then sent someone to pour cold water on Wang Yan who had fainted.
When Wang Yan woke up, he found that he had been caught. After struggling desperately, Zhang Yuejing had someone pull off the cloth that blocked his mouth and let him speak.
"Let me go! Let me go! Ming Gou! Fight to the death with me!!!"
"What qualifications do you have to ask me to let you go?"
Zhang Yuejing suppressed his anger.
Wang Yan was furious.
"What qualifications do I have? What qualifications do you think I have? I am the magistrate of Xiangyang and the commander of the army! I have this qualification! If you want to kill me, kill me now. If you don't kill me, let me go and be with me. Fight to the death! Don’t imagine that I will surrender! No! Never!”
"Who said you should surrender?"
Zhang Yuejing laughed angrily: "You don't think I captured you alive just to make you surrender, do you? What's the use of asking you to surrender? Xiangfan has been occupied by us, the backbone of the Southern Song Dynasty has been interrupted, and our army has completely gained the advantage. If you want to destroy the Song Dynasty, just go down the river. Why do you need me? I can tell you clearly that you will definitely die."
Wang Yan was stunned for a moment, his lips moved, as if he wanted to say something, but he didn't say it.
But his momentum did decline at a speed visible to the naked eye, as if he realized that his failure heralded the demise of the Southern Song Dynasty, and he felt resentful but helpless in his heart.
In desperation, he seemed to admit his failure and accepted the fact that the entire Southern Song Dynasty was about to collapse.
After a while, he spoke again.
"Who are the people who come to support us? How many troops are here?"
"Li Xianzhong is here to support you, with 80,000 troops."
"Li Xianzhong? Eighty thousand people?"
Wang Yan was obviously shocked: "Li Xianzhong is so good at fighting and has 80,000 troops under his command. How did you defeat him?"
"Is he some kind of heavenly soldier and general who is invincible? Why can't we defeat him?"
Zhang Yuejing shook his head and said: "The Ming Dynasty's army is invincible and has no rivals in the world. You are not the first to be defeated, and you will not be the last. Don't worry."
Wang Yan was speechless.
Based on his understanding of Li Xianzhong, he can be sure that Li Xianzhong is the strongest general currently available to the Lin'an court.
He was also aware of Li Xianzhong's abilities. When Li Xianzhong led tens of thousands of people from south Shaanxi to break away from the Jin Kingdom and defect to the Southern Song Dynasty, he was one of the witnesses.
If even Li Xianzhong was defeated, then the Southern Song Dynasty would indeed have no hope.
Wu Lin of Sichuan and Shu can indeed fight, and the Wu family army is also quite good at fighting, but the problem is that there is only one Sichuan and Shu, how can it resist the Ming army that controls the world?
The Southern Song Dynasty as a whole still has the possibility of resistance, but if Jinghu and Jianghuai are lost, it will prove that the Southern Song Dynasty really has no hope.
It's over.
Wang Yan lowered his head in defeat.
"Kill me, don't humiliate me. I am already a defeated general. I cannot surrender or subjugate my country."
"Don't worry, you will die."
Zhang Yuejing sneered: "I'm ready for how you want to die, but before you die, I have one more question to ask you."
"question?"
Wang Yan took a deep breath: "Since you want to kill me, what else do you have to ask? I may not know what you want to know. Even if I know, I won't say it. I have decided to die. Don't pester me anymore, and don't humiliate me anymore. ”
"Don't worry, it doesn't involve any major military affairs of yours, it's just a small issue."
"piece of cake?"
"Well, a small question."
Zhang Yue nodded and looked at Wang Yan very seriously: "Wang Yan, answer me, are you a human?"
"………………"
It is no exaggeration to say that Wang Yan was thinking about a lot of things at that moment.
For example, Zhang Yuejing would ask about news about Song Ting's reinforcements.
But he definitely didn't expect Zhang Yuejing to ask this.
"What's the meaning?"
"Literally, are you human?"
"certainly!"
Wang Yan felt he was insulted: "Aren't you insulting me? Why am I not a human being?"
"No, you're not human, you're definitely not human."
Zhang Yuejing shook his head repeatedly and said: "People cannot do such things."
"whats the matter?"
"Before the war started, you kidnapped 40,000 strong men and 30,000 strong women from the Xiangfan area and transported them to Fancheng and Xiangyang respectively. Is this true?"
"That's natural. This is a tactic used to strengthen walls and clear fields. It has been around since ancient times."
Wang Yan said confidently: "If we don't implement such tactics, how can we give you a heavy blow?"
