Sanhe City, Khan's Golden Tent.
Zhang Hongfan, who was tied up, finally met the Yuan Emperor, Khubilai.
"Tell me, what happened last night?"
Khubilai had already calmed down from his rage. After all, he was a great ruler and wouldn't let his emotions affect his judgment. Otherwise, Zhang Hongfan wouldn't have been able to live until now.
Zhang Hongfan relaxed. He didn't dare to hide anything and told Khubilai everything that happened last night. Zhang Hongfan tried his best to not bring in any personal feelings when he told the story.
Khubilai knew that Zhang Hongfan wouldn't dare to play any tricks on him. That would only backfire on him. It has to be said that Zhang Hongfan really understood Khubilai.
After listening to Zhang Hongfan's explanation, Khubilai didn't say anything and asked, "What do you plan to do next?" This was equivalent to pardoning Zhang Hongfan's death sentence and giving him a chance to redeem himself.
Zhang Hongfan suppressed his excitement and said in a concise manner, "Last night's defeat was mainly a loss of morale. It wasn't a huge blow to my army. After all, we still have our main force. As long as we have a good plan and the emperor personally leads the army, Lin 'an will definitely fall. "
From the looks of it, Zhang Hongfan wasn't discouraged at all and seemed very confident.
"Be more specific." Khubilai said.
"Through these few days of fighting, I have discovered a fatal weakness of the enemy." Zhang Hongfan finally used his trump card and said slowly, "A while ago, when we arranged for the Han people to build forts, the Southern Song army didn't stop us. This shows that the Song people are weak and don't want to attack their own people."
"What do you mean?" Khubilai's interest was piqued.
"As long as we gather another group of Han people and send them to the frontlines at the gates of Lin 'an, we can shoot them and force them to charge at the gates. We won't have to worry about Lin' an not opening the gates." Zhang Hongfan said.
"Once the gates are opened, Lin 'an will definitely fall."
If there was a Han person here, they would probably want to skin Zhang Hongfan alive and eat his flesh.
"This person is too evil!"
For the sake of his own honor, Zhang Hongfan was willing to sacrifice the lives of countless Han people. How despicable. Don't forget, although Zhang Hongfan didn't live under the rule of the Southern Song Dynasty, his blood was pure Chinese.
Khubilai, on the other hand, was very happy. Zhang Hongfan's suggestion was to his liking. He had already decided that after conquering the city of Lin 'an, he would ignore the objections of the Han officials around him and massacre the city for three days.
There was no one who could kill a Mongolian without paying the price in blood.
Khubilai ordered his men to untie Zhang Hongfan and said, "I'll leave this matter to you. Once we've conquered Lin 'an, not only will I pardon you, but I'll also raise your rank!"
"Thank you, Your Majesty!"
Zhang Hongfan's face turned red.
"Go and prepare. Three days later, I will personally go to Lin 'an."
"Yes, sir!"
…
On the eighteenth day of the battle, in Lin 'an.
Two days had passed since the ambush. Since yesterday, the Mongolian army that remained in the six bases had moved out one after another and gathered at the frontlines again.
After the ambush ended, there were two hundred and fifty thousand Mongolian soldiers gathered in the Northern Camp, and if the six bases included the soldiers who fled, there were around forty-five of them.
This meant that in that night's ambush, out of the 300,000 Mongolian soldiers in the Eastern, Western, and Southern Camps, only 100,000 managed to escape, and 200,000 died in battle. It was indeed a terrible defeat.
In just one night, the Mongolian army had suffered double the number of casualties over the previous few days.
Now, only 700,000 of the one million Mongolian army remained.
Even so, to the Southern Song army, this was still an insurmountable mountain.
Yesterday afternoon, they had already finished calculating the losses.
After a series of battles, only 290,000 of the 340,000 mutants remained. Among them, 150,000 were cavalry and 140,000 were infantrymen. The 100,000 Great Song Imperial Guards were even worse off, only 50,000 were left.
Logically speaking, with 340,000 soldiers guarding Lin 'an, it shouldn't be a problem for them to defend the city for 12 days against the 700,000 Mongolian army. After all, the Mongolian army's puppet soldiers and auxiliary troops had all been used up. Even the return cannons had suffered heavy losses. It would be very difficult for them to replicate their initial siege tactics.
In a head-on siege, the Mongolian army did not have the upper hand.
Because of this, after the ambush, Lin 'an was filled with people who underestimated the enemy. Even Lord Chunshen and the others were optimistic about this battle.
But for some reason, Ouyang Shuo felt uneasy.
After the battle, under Ouyang Shuo's insistence, the Grand Council did not let down their guard. For the past two days, scouts had been sent out to investigate, keeping track of the Mongolian army's movements.
Soon, the news of the Mongolian army capturing the Han people was reported to the Grand Council.
"What are they going to do? Arrange for the Han people to build more forts?" Ouyang Shuo was very puzzled. Without the puppet soldiers leading the charge, how would the Mongolian cavalry dare to attack the city?
If that was really the case, Ouyang Shuo was not afraid. With the seized rations and supplies, they could defend Lin 'an until the end of a month. At that time, all the problems would be solved.
In the hall, Zhang Shijie and Wen Tianxiang's expressions suddenly became solemn. "I'm afraid it's not that simple." Wen Tianxiang's expression was extremely unsightly.
Ouyang Shuo's eyes narrowed and he asked, "Did you think of something?"
Xiong Ba and the others also looked over.
Wen Tianxiang and Zhang Shijie looked at each other and said in a deep voice, "According to the Mongolian army's combat habits, besides using them to build forts and extract corpse oil, they also have another tactic, which is to drive the people away, forcing us to open the city gates and let the people in. Once the city gates are opened, the Mongolian army will take advantage of the situation and enter. "
Xiong Ba asked, "If that's the case, why didn't they use this tactic earlier?" No matter how he looked at it, the latter tactic was more convenient and effective than the former. Xiong Ba could not understand why the Mongolians gave up what was close at hand and chose to go further.
Zhang Shijie rushed to reply, "Generally speaking, the defending side would rather watch the people outside the city being shot to death by the Mongolians than open the city gates. Therefore, this tactic is very difficult to achieve and is not the first choice of the Mongolians. It's just that we did not attack the forts previously, so the Mongolians saw through our plan. "
"…"
The atmosphere in the hall became somewhat strange.
From Zhang Shijie's words, it was obvious that he did not agree to be too kind to the people outside the city. When they were voting on whether to attack the forts, Zhang Shijie had voted in favor.
Now that Lu Xiufu had been sacrificed, there were only six people left in the Grand Council. Ouyang Shuo, Guo Ziyi, and Wen Tianxiang would definitely not agree to stop the people from entering the city. Therefore, no matter how they voted, Zhang Shijie would lose.
The best result would be a tie and a stalemate.
Unexpectedly, Xiong Ba took the initiative to stand out this time. "Since we have already done it, we must persevere. If the Mongolians really want to use this despicable tactic, then we can only fight them to the death in the city."
Zhang Shijie looked at Xiong Ba in surprise, and his expression became more and more unsightly. Xiong Ba's statement was tantamount to completely blocking the other possibility. At the thought of the 700,000 Mongolian army attacking Lin 'an, Zhang Shijie felt a sharp pain in his heart.
Ouyang Shuo, on the other hand, was calm. He said with a smile, "There is a way to defend the city, and there is a way not to defend the city. If we can defeat the Mongolian army once, we can defeat them twice."
"That's easy for you to say. How can we fight if we don't defend the city?" Zhang Shijie was not so optimistic.
Seeing that Zhang Shijie seemed to be deliberately making things difficult for the king, Jia Xu decisively stood out and said, "General Zhang, there is no need to be discouraged. I have an idea that I can share with all of you."
"Mister, please speak!"
Everyone present knew Jia Xu's title of 'Poison Warrior', so they all had very high expectations of Jia Xu.
Jia Xu said, "My king is right. There is a way not to defend the city. Since we have concluded that the enemy will use the tactic of driving the people to attack the city, then we might as well directly open a city gate and let the people in. "
"What should we do after opening the gate?" Zhang Shijie asked.
"It's very simple. At the same time we open a city gate, we will deploy a large army outside the city gate in advance. They will act as a human wall and prevent the enemy from entering the city."
Jia Xu's idea was quite fresh.
Zhang Shijie still had doubts. "I have calculated it. If we don't want the Mongolian army to take the opportunity to annihilate the army outside the city, we have to transfer at least two hundred thousand soldiers. If so, won't Lin 'an be empty? How can we defend the city?"
Ouyang Shuo's expression suddenly became solemn when he saw this. Although he did not raise his voice, there was a hint of killing intent in it. "How to defend Lin 'an is not only a matter of the army, but also not a matter of our Mutant Army."
"We have to make it clear to the millions of people in the city that once Lin 'an is breached, the Mongolians will certainly slaughter the city. If we don't want to be lambs at the mercy of others, we have to voluntarily contribute to the war."
"In the end, people still have to rely on themselves to survive."
Hearing this, a trace of shame flashed across Zhang Shijie's face. Yes, the people of Lin 'an and even the entire Southern Song Dynasty were too dependent on the Mutant Army. They had even forgotten that the Mutant Army was just a guest and they were the real masters of this city. How could there be a reason for letting the guests charge at the front when the host was indifferent when it was a matter of life and death?
Ouyang Shuo did not care and continued to say, "If the defending army in the city is insufficient, then we will temporarily enlist young and strong men into the army. If there are no weapons, then let them go to the battlefield outside the city to find them themselves. If there are no wood and stone to defend the city, then we will demolish the houses in the city. If there are no oil, then we will gather the vegetable oil of each household. If there are no iron ore to forge arrows, then we will smash all the pots and pans at home. "
"We must make all the people in the city realize that this is not a simple battle to defend the city, but a battle of life and death that concerns the survival of civilization. In order to win, we will risk everything and bet everything!"
Ouyang Shuo's impassioned speech deeply shocked everyone present. This was not some high-sounding speech, but Ouyang Shuo's heartfelt words.
In history, one of the reasons for the fall of the Southern Song Dynasty was that the whole nation lacked the determination to bet everything.
If it was the Han and Tang Dynasties, they would not be in such a sorry state.
This battle had left a very deep impression on Ouyang Shuo. That was why he said these words. He firmly believed that only by mobilizing the strength of the entire city could the victory of this battle have real meaning.
Otherwise, it would just be a fleeting cloud.
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