Chapter 358: The Test from the Jin People

“not see?”

Wanyan Zong stared with his eyes wide open, his face filled with anxiety that was difficult to conceal.

He quickly took out a heavy, golden ingot from his sleeve, then carefully and quietly put it into the hand of the expressionless messenger in front of him, and said in a low voice: “My brave man, could you please help me report it again…”

No matter how hard Wanyan Zonggan begged, the soldier remained like a sculpture, motionless, and even the expression in his eyes did not change at all.

He waited until Wanyan Zonggan’s mouth was dry before he said calmly, “I advise you to go back and inform your leader as soon as possible.”

Seeing this, Wanyan Zonggan was helpless and had to turn around and slowly walk back to the city wall.

When he came in front of Wanyan Sheng, he lowered his head and said in a trembling voice: “Your Majesty, I am incompetent and failed to meet the other side’s commander. The other side specifically asked Your Majesty to go and negotiate in person.”

At this moment, Wanyan Sheng’s face was as blue as the winter frost.

Now, they were all standing on the high city wall, and they could see clearly everything that was happening below – the other party had no intention of letting Wanyan Zonggan and others enter.

“You bastard!” Wanyan Sheng punched the city wall in anger.

“Since the founding of our Great Jin Kingdom, we have never been treated with such contempt!”

The atmosphere around them suddenly became a little tense.

The civil officials looked solemn, with their brows furrowed, as if a heavy burden was pressing on their hearts.

On the other hand, the generals were very excited at this time.

Everyone was filled with righteous indignation, their eyes blazing with fire, and they wished they could rush out and fight the enemy immediately.

They were all rubbing their hands, eager to try, waiting for the emperor’s order to draw their swords and mount their horses to rush to the battlefield.

“Your Majesty, I am willing to lead an army of 100,000 out of the city to fight the bandits to the death!” A general as tall and strong as a mountain stepped forward first. He clasped his hands together, knelt on one knee, and loudly requested a fight to the emperor on the dragon throne.

The sound is like a loud bell, and the power is astonishing.

Before the emperor could respond, another general shouted loudly: “Your Majesty, I only need 50,000 soldiers and horses to break through the enemy’s defense line in one fell swoop and kill them all!” This general was also tall, and his beard made him look more majestic.

Before he finished speaking, the third general stepped forward and said in a loud voice: “Humph, why do we need 50,000 troops? Just give me 30,000 elite cavalry!” This man had a slender figure and a firm and sharp gaze, like an eagle, making people dare not look directly at him.

Just as everyone was volunteering, the last young general said loudly, “Five thousand. I only need five thousand elite cavalry to attack the enemy camp and take the enemy general’s head!” Although he was young, his words were full of confidence and heroism, and he was in no way inferior to those veteran generals who had been on the battlefield for a long time.

During this period of time, the Jin army’s cavalry galloped across the vast battlefield, unstoppable and unstoppable!

Wherever it passed, it was reduced to ruins, and no one could stop its advance. It could be said that it was invincible and unstoppable.

Along the way, I have almost never tasted the taste of failure.

First, it destroyed the powerful Liao Kingdom in one fell swoop, and then at the beginning of this year, it marched south with great momentum and stepped into the border of the Song Dynasty.

Faced with the fierce offensive of the Jin soldiers, the Song Dynasty court was defeated step by step and had no choice but to cede territory and seek peace, and offer large amounts of gold, silver and treasures in exchange for peace.

However, this did not satisfy the Jin people’s greedy desires.

Not long after, the Jin army once again marched south, defeating all enemies along the way and advancing rapidly, sweeping in like a violent storm, and finally succeeded in besieging the capital of the Song Dynasty.

At this time, all the Jin generals were arrogant, looked down on everyone.

In their eyes, soldiers from other countries are not worth mentioning at all and are completely vulnerable.

Although Anning Mansion was surrounded by water, these arrogant and domineering Jin people did not feel much fear in their hearts.

On the contrary, everyone is extremely excited, rubbing their hands and eager to try it out.

In their view, outside the city were not vicious enemies, but glorious military exploits and endless glory waiting for them to reap.

“My dear ministers, please be patient!”

Wanyan Sheng turned his head slightly, his eyes fell on Wanyan Zonggan beside him, and asked: “In your opinion, what is the other side’s morale?”

Upon hearing this, Wanyan Zonggan slowly closed his eyes and began to carefully recall the scene he had observed before.

After a while, he opened his eyes and answered solemnly: “On the surface, the enemy is well-equipped and well-organized. Moreover, their morale is high, and everyone is full of fighting spirit and murderous intent. Compared with the Song troops we have encountered before, this team is obviously much more elite. It is particularly noteworthy that all the soldiers are wearing uniform armor, and their actions are orderly, which shows that they are well-trained. However…”

At this point, Wanyan Zonggan paused for a moment, frowned slightly, and seemed to have thought of something confusing.

Then, he continued, “The only thing that is a little strange is that they have relatively few swords, bows and crossbows. Most of the soldiers actually carry a strange weapon that looks like a wooden stick on their backs. As for what this weapon is used for, it is still unknown.”

“A stick-shaped weapon?” Wanyan Sheng asked with a puzzled look on his face, frowning slightly, as if he was very surprised by this strange weapon. “As far as I know, the Buddhists in their place often use sticks as weapons. Could it be that these people are all disciples of Buddhism?”

Wanyan Zonggan, who was standing at the side, immediately bowed and replied, “Your Majesty, judging from their formation and momentum, I feel that they are not Buddhists. These people all exude an aura of having been through many battles, and can be concluded that they are a group of elite troops as fierce as wolves and tigers!”

After hearing this, Wanyan Sheng fell into a brief contemplation.

His sharp eyes stared into the distance, as if trying to see through the enemy’s true face through the thick fog.

After a while, he suddenly turned his head to look at the young general who had just claimed that only 5,000 elite cavalry were needed to defeat the enemy, and said loudly: “Just now, it was you who said that only 5,000 elite cavalry were needed. Good! In that case, I will grant you 8,000 elite cavalry to go out of the city to fight!”

Upon hearing these words, Wanyan Kang was stunned for a moment, feeling extremely regretful.

The bold words I uttered just now were only spoken on impulse. I was inspired by the tense atmosphere at the time and shouted them out involuntarily.

No matter how confident he was in himself, he knew that using 8,000 elite cavalry to fight against the enemy was obviously like hitting a rock with an egg.

After all, looking from afar on the city wall, the enemy had at least 30,000 cavalry alone, not to mention the hundreds of thousands of infantry ready for battle.

Even though the Jin cavalry had always been invincible, it was almost an impossible task to defeat such a large enemy force in a head-on confrontation.

However, the words had already been spoken and could not be taken back, just like water spilled.

Just as Wanyan Kang was getting anxious, like an ant on a hot pot, Wanyan Sheng’s majestic and loud voice sounded again: “Wanyan Huan, obey my orders! I order you to lead an army of 50,000 elite soldiers.”

Following this order, Wanyan Huan immediately clasped his fists and accepted the order, preparing to lead his 50,000 soldiers to fight the enemy.

When Wanyan Sheng learned that the enemy had almost no long-range attack weapons such as bows, arrows, swords, and crossbows, his tense nerves relaxed a little.

He thought to himself, “These enemies only have sticks as weapons? Humph, no matter how powerful their sticks are, their lethality is ultimately limited.

However, it is better to be cautious to prevent fraud.”

After careful consideration, Wanyan Sheng decided to send out some troops to test the situation first.

If, as expected, the enemy is only armed with simple weapons such as sticks, then the army can be mobilized immediately to launch a full-scale attack.

After all, being hit by a stick would only hurt for a while. For the brave and fearless grassland men, it was not a big deal to endure a few such blows. At the same time, on the side of the Wanchao coalition, Zhu Di was standing quietly in front of the battle formation, his eyes fixed on the slowly opening city gate.

I saw teams of Jin soldiers coming out of the city one after another with neat and powerful steps.

Faced with the approaching Jin army, Zhu Di did not speak out to stop his own soldiers from taking action. Instead, he watched calmly as tens of thousands of troops on the opposite side marched out of the city in an orderly manner and quickly formed into battle formations, staring at his side with eager eyes.

Zhu Di raised the corners of his mouth slightly, revealing a barely perceptible smile, and whispered to himself: “Sure enough, it is exactly what I guessed before. It seems that these guys will never surrender easily. We have to fight a tough battle no matter what. In this case, let’s have a good fight with these ignorant guys!”

Zhu Ming smiled and said, “That’s normal. They have to test our strength. They can’t just offer gold, silver and jewelry immediately because we have more people. Besides, showing off their muscles will make negotiations with the other party smoother.”

“Zhu Laosi, I will lead the troops to fight in person later, what do you think?” Old Zhao looked at the Jin soldiers who were coming aggressively not far away, and his hands unconsciously tightened the reins. A strong desire to fight in his heart burned like a flame. He wished he could rush forward immediately and have a good fight with those Jin soldiers to relieve his itch.

“Haha, since Brother Zhao is so interested, I will naturally not stop you!” Zhu Di smiled heartily, staring intently at the approaching enemy formation in front of him, with an imperceptible coldness flashing in his eyes.

At this time, the Jin soldiers on the opposite side formed a neat square formation, and the sound of horse hooves resounded through the sky, like a violent storm sweeping in.

In this tense atmosphere, Zhu Di just sneered slightly, and then shouted loudly: “Machine gunners, gunners, quickly take your positions! Today, let these golden dogs see the power of our Ten Thousand Dynasties coalition army, and let them know what true crushing means!”

“I will obey your orders!”

As Zhu Di’s order was issued, a group of artillerymen quickly adjusted the direction of their guns and aimed at the Jin soldiers who were galloping towards them.

At the same time, a dozen gunners armed with machine guns also took their positions with excitement on their faces. They held their weapons tightly, their eyes revealing an incomparable determination and confidence.

If we talk about the type of soldier who loves fighting the most on the battlefield, it must be the machine gunner.

Whenever a battle breaks out, the machine guns in their hands are like sickles reaping lives; with just a slight pull of the trigger, dense rain of bullets can pour out in an instant.

The enemy often has no time to react before they are beaten to the ground, with corpses strewn all over the ground.

As long as the machine gun does not malfunction and the ammunition is adequately supplied, every machine gunner feels that the saying “one man guarding the pass against ten thousand” applies to him.

A low and long horn sounded suddenly, as if it was a call from the abyss of hell.

Hearing this sound, the Jin cavalry on the opposite side suddenly became excited as if they were injected with chicken blood. They waved their spears and scimitars in their hands and frantically urged their horses to increase their speed to the extreme.

Only by fully leveraging the powerful impact and mobility of the cavalry charge will there be a chance to break through the Ming army’s defense line.

Faced with the aggressive Jin cavalry, the Wanchao coalition forces appeared unusually calm and composed.

Especially the gunners, their faces were as calm as water, and they were not moved at all by the rapidly approaching enemies.

It seemed that in their eyes, these so-called powerful enemies were nothing more than a group of lambs to be slaughtered.

“fire!”

As the roar resounded through the sky, it was followed by a deafening bang.

“boom!”

I saw the shells streaking across the sky like meteors, whistling straight towards the Jin cavalry on the opposite side with a fierce momentum.

The Jin soldiers opened their eyes wide and looked at the rapidly approaching black spots in horror. They didn’t even have time to react and had no idea what these terrible things were that suddenly attacked them.

The next moment, a shocking explosion resounded throughout the battlefield.

“boom!”

Accompanied by billowing smoke and blazing flames, the shells accurately fell into the Jin cavalry formation.

In an instant, blood and flesh flew everywhere, shrapnel splashed everywhere, and wherever the shells hit, both people and horses were blown to pieces in an instant, it was a horrific sight.

Within a radius of ten steps, even those Jin soldiers and horses who did not die on the spot were seriously injured and fell to the ground groaning and wailing in pain.

The cavalrymen at the back had no time to dodge because the incident happened suddenly, and were tripped to the ground by their fallen comrades in front. For a moment, people and horses were thrown to the ground, and the originally neat and orderly cavalry formation suddenly became chaotic, like a pile of loose sand, and fell down in large groups.

Wanyan Sheng and the civil and military officials of the Jin Dynasty who were standing on the city wall witnessed this scene with their own eyes. They were all stunned and speechless for a long time.

An official asked in a trembling voice: “What on earth happened? Why did such a shocking thunder sound?”

Another official looked pale and guessed: “Could it be that the Song people performed some weird tricks?”

At this time, someone shouted anxiously: “Oh no, our formation is about to collapse!”

But someone immediately retorted: “Don’t panic, Wanyan Kang is not the kind of dandy who only knows how to eat, drink and have fun. How can a few tricks of the Song Dynasty be difficult for him?”

After hearing this, everyone felt a little relieved, but their eyes were still fixed on the tragic scene on the battlefield, secretly praying that Wanyan Kang could turn the situation around as soon as possible.

Wanyan Kang, who was at the center of the battle, looked in horror at the broken arm that hit his face.

Trying hard to control the frightened warhorse.

“A trick? No, it’s definitely not a trick. What the hell is this?”

His eyes quickly scanned the surroundings.

I saw many soldiers with fear on their faces.

Wanyan Kang frowned and shouted, “Don’t panic, these are all tricks of the Song people. As long as we rush over, they will be like two-legged sheep waiting to be slaughtered!”

These Jin cavalrymen are truly the elite of this era.

Upon hearing this, he immediately suppressed the fear in his heart, adjusted his horse and continued to gallop forward.

The formation that was about to fall apart stabilized.

On the city wall, the Jin people suddenly burst into cheers.

“it is good!”

“As expected of General Wanyan Kang, he is indeed very capable at a young age!”

“I didn’t expect that they could still maintain their formation after such a sudden change!”

“Haha, see, this is the Jin cavalry, invincible!”

Little did they know that Zuo Zongtang in front was even happier than them.

“Okay, okay, that’s great. I almost thought our heavy machine guns were useless. Let’s just shoot the horses first!”

(End of this chapter)