Chapter 58: The Yingzhou Army Collapses and Suffers a Crushing Defeat

Forget it, since Wang Xiaojie has a clear plan in mind, there is no need for Zhang Xun to remind him of anything. By the way, this name Hong Qiyei sounds so familiar; this person must have had some reputation in later generations.

I remember now. This man defended Runzhou and Zhenjiang City, declaring with righteous indignation, "My home is in Lin'an, and my duty lies in Jingkou. If the northern cavalry come, I will die rather than flee." Yet as soon as Bayan's massive army arrived, he fled immediately. The proclamation he had posted was still plastered clear as day right on the city gates. Outraged, the local townsfolk changed his "I will die rather than flee" to "If you won't surrender, you'd better run."

When the Yuan soldiers entering the city saw this, they roared with laughter and asked who could have written such a thing, finding it utterly comical.

So this fellow is still serving his post in Suzhou right now; he will probably be transferred to Runzhou very soon. To mess up so badly on duty and still be shifted to another place to continue serving as an official—he truly is a fine protégé of Prime Minister Jia Sidao.

Unlike Zhang Xun's side, which could make preparations in an orderly fashion, the situation in Ezhou, Hubei, was terribly tense. The armies of both the Song and the Yuan were gathering their forces, rushing back and forth in contention.

Directly down the Han River from Xiangyang lay two crucial military strongholds: Yingzhou and Ezhou. At this time, they were respectively garrisoned by Wang Anjie and Zhang Shijie, both generals of profound loyalty who resolutely defended their fortified cities, refusing Bayan's summons to surrender.

Meanwhile, Xia Gui's naval force upon the Han River lined the waterways with layers of warships chained together, covering the entire surface of the water. Furthermore, they coated the sides of their towering flagship towers with thick layers of wet black mud, rendering them impervious to damage even when the Yuan troops dispatched numerous fire ships.

Commander Liu Shiyong, coming from Yangzhou, led brave warriors and archers to patrol the river surface day and night, striking the enemy on sight. Watchtowers and warning signals were erected everywhere, making it utterly impossible for the Yuan naval forces to breach the Song defense line.

For a time, it even seemed as though victory was within their grasp.

Of course, this merely meant no signs of defeat had yet appeared. The mighty Yuan army of 210,000 pressed down with heaven-shaking momentum, fighting with an abundance of manpower simply in terms of numbers. Moreover, the entire Jinghu region, especially the geographical layout along the Han River route, was mapped out clearly inside Lü Wenhuan's mind.

The resistance the Yuan forces were currently encountering was merely due to the concentrated convergence of various Song naval fleets, which had temporarily revived their military morale. Once a little time passed, logistics and provisions from the rear proved insufficient, the various generals began forming factions, and upper-level officers vied for power, the leaderless Song army would inevitably reveal its flaws.

At that moment, whenever a tactical opportunity arose anywhere, it would be seized by the Yuan forces, subsequently escalating into a catastrophic defeat for the Song.

The imperial court was not entirely blind either. To encourage the officers and men, Emperor Zhao Qi bestowed one hundred golden tallies and one thousand silver tallies to reward extraordinary feats. Simultaneously, he ordered that two million strings of cash—derived from the daily rental income of both public and private properties in Hangzhou—be distributed as rewards to all the armies.

I beg you all, I, Zhao Qi, am emptying out the House of Zhao's rental income for everyone to spend; I only ask that you do your utmost to defend the city and hold back this wave for the House of Zhao.

When money is available, battles are always somewhat easier to fight. When the funds arrive, the various Song army factions bearing arms and going into battle naturally possess a stronger fighting spirit.

Additionally, the imperial court finally argued its way to a consensus, appointing the seventy-year-old elder Zhu Suisun as the Pacification and Pacification-Curbing Ambassador of Jinghu, commanding the various armies of Jinghu to put up a desperate resistance against the southward advance of the Yuan forces.

This elderly gentleman harbored a blood-deep feud with the Mongols; his family was originally from Chengdu, Sichuan. When the Yuan army broke into Chengdu and massacred the entire city, Zhu Suisun's father, brothers, relatives, and neighbors were strung together in groups of thirty or fifty by the Mongols and butchered with spears. Because there were simply too many people being killed, the indiscriminate stabbing failed to end his life.

After nightfall, when the Mongols temporarily ceased their slaughter, Zhu Suisun was revived as the blood of his own family members splashed across his face and poured into his mouth. Taking advantage of the darkness, he escaped from the pit of corpses and fled to safety.

Clearly, the court believed that Zhu Suisun would never surrender to the Yuan, which was why they appointed him as the supreme commander of the forces across the two circuits of Jinghu.

By the way, Zhu Suisun was the previous Prefect of Chongqing. The court had summoned him to the temporary imperial quarters, consulted him on Sichuan military affairs, and only then let Li Zhu replace him as Prefect.

However, Zhu Suisun's taking office also gave rise to another problem. Xia Gui was a favored general of Jia Sidao, whereas Gao Da had repeatedly defied Jia Sidao and had even been dismissed by him previously. Originally, the defender of Xiangyang City was Gao Da, and Lü Wende had nothing to do with it. It was simply that Jia Sidao stripped Gao Da of all his posts and even executed brave generals such as Cao Shixiong and Xiang Shibie.

Along the Ezhou and Yingzhou fronts, the two men had originally fought their separate battles; you could not interfere with me, nor could I deploy you, maintaining a sort of peaceful coexistence. Yet precisely because the court had sent a grand commander, it now sought to mobilize both of their forces to fight in cooperation.

They refused!

With utmost clarity, both men told Zhu Suisun quite bluntly: don't even think about dragging me off to fight a war alongside the other guy. Their tone of refusal was practically identical: anyway, I have soldiers and generals under my command, and the court is bound to rely on me. At worst, I'll just turn around and leave right now; whoever wants to defend Ezhou can go ahead and do it.

These words left Zhu Suisun utterly dumbfounded. No matter what, national affairs could never be treated with such childish frivolity.

Consequently, the dispatch of the commander by the court instead drove an even deeper wedge between the two already estranged armies, creating a disjointed fracture between Gao Da's forces—which fought across the regions of Yingzhou and Ezhou—and Xia Gui's forces.

This fracture was instantly detected by Bayan and Ashu, whose scouts were deployed far and wide. Overjoyed, Bayan immediately instructed Ashu to besiege Yingzhou. Yingzhou was built straddling the Han River, featuring stone walls on both banks and outer fortifications. The two cities flanked the Han, connected by iron chains spanning the river, while wooden stakes were densely driven into the riverbed, providing extremely solid defenses.

Ashu, on one hand, dispatched troops to launch fierce assaults on Yingzhou, while on the other, he uprooted Yingzhou's outer fortifications, with strongholds such as Huangjiawan and Zhuxiedi falling one after another.

Naturally, Zhu Suisun had to allocate troops to reinforce Yingzhou. Gao Da, who was patrolling outside, was immediately dispatched thither, while Xia Gui remained in place.

A Song army force of one hundred thousand was split into two: forty thousand under Gao Da appeared on the outskirts of Yingzhou, while Zhang Shijie's ten thousand were stationed to the north and south of Yingzhou City. Xia Gui's forty thousand troops were stationed in Hankou, Hanyang, and Ezhou, and Wang Anjie's four thousand men were also in Ezhou.

A monumental tactical opportunity!

Watching the tactical opportunity unfold precisely as he had anticipated, Bayan was wild with joy. He dispatched the four routes of Mongol and Han chiliarchs and myriarchs to lead cavalry and infantry to cut off Gao Da's rear, block the routes for Xia Gui's army to advance toward Yingzhou, and surround Yangluo Fortress, preventing Xia Gui from dividing his forces.

When Gao Da advanced to reinforce the southern wall of Yingzhou, the Yuan army intentionally feigned weakness, temporarily withdrawing their siege troops to draw out Zhang Shijie, Zhao Wenyi, Fan Xing, and other generals who were desperately defending the city.

The generals assumed that the only force at Yingzhou was Ashu's army, and they attempted to crush Ashu, win a minor tactical victory, and break the siege of Yingzhou.

To their utter astonishment, the moment the generals sortied from the city, the central army of the Mongol-Han forces commanded by Bayan struck simultaneously from all four sides. The upstream naval forces also launched a fierce assault on the iron chains of Yingzhou, preparing to sever the floating bridge chains and uproot the wooden stakes.

The Song army instantly plunged into a heavy encirclement; Zhang Shijie led his troops to charge left and right, but failed to break through. Deputy Commander of Yingzhou Zhao Wenyi fought bitterly and died for his country. A Yuan soldier hoisted Zhao Wenyi's severed head on a spear and galloped back and forth before the battle lines, loudly shouting for their surrender.

The army had collapsed...