Xiangyang and the Fan city across the Han River are collectively called Xiangfan, since ancient times it is the place where the soldiers of the north and the south are at war, and it is also the only way for the soldiers to take the south of the Yangtze River, during the Three Kingdoms period, Guan Yu, the general of the Shu Han Dynasty, died here.

Therefore, after the Song Dynasty crossed to the south and set the capital of Lin'an, Prime Minister Zhu Shengfei strongly advocated the collection of the six counties of Xiangyang and guarded Lin'an. Emperor Zhao Gou also knew the importance of Xiangyang, and specially dispatched Yue Fei to serve as the chief general to take Xiangyang. This is also the only time after Zhao Gou ascended the throne that he took the initiative to attack and regain the lost territory. Since then, Xiangyang has become Yue Fei's defense area. Later, the Imperial Front Garrison Division was set up here. After the restoration of the Great Song Dynasty, a large-scale adjustment was made to the Imperial Garrison Division, and Xiangyang is also one of the few Imperial Garrison Divisions that still remains.

Now the imperial garrison of Xiangyang Mansion is under the command of Shi Jun, who is also one of the few remaining veterans of the Great Song Dynasty military. However, it is said that he is a veteran, and he is only in his early forties, just in the prime of life, but now most of the young people in the Great Song Dynasty are about thirty years old to sing the leading role, so they seem to be older. The imperial garrison of Xiangyang Mansion was 30,000, and 10,000 horses were led by Zhang Hanying, the deputy commander of the capital, and were stationed in Fancheng. Only 20,000 horses remained in Xiangyang.

Although the Jin army completed the sweeping of the perimeter of Xiangyang, Xiangyang itself was a fortified city, with a height of more than four zhang and divided into two layers, the front and back, and there were also places for bed crossbows and trebuchets in the back row. The city tower is as high as five zhang and has She, and the Fancheng on the north bank of the Han River is communicated with a pontoon bridge, leans on each other, relies on each other, and is an excellent strategic place for attack and defense.

However, Jin Jun also did a lot of preliminary work,

After Yan Changzhi led the army back to Nanyang, he immediately began to make arrangements for Xiangyang. First of all, he ordered the servant to lead an army of 20,000 to garrison Gucheng to curb the upper reaches of the Han River, and ordered the general Shi Zhan to lead 10,000 horses to garrison Yicheng and cut off the lower reaches of the Han River. He also sent Pu Chading to lead 20,000 horses and horses to guard Suizhou, in case Yang Yan brought troops back to help. He and Shi Mo Yanshan led Wen Gusun, Gu Lijia, Shulu, Tang Guorui, Shang Jingliang and others to lead 80,000 Jin troops and launched an attack on Xiangfan.

Wanyan Changzhi knew that the two cities of Xiangfan must be broken one by one, first set up a pontoon bridge in the upper and lower reaches of the Han River in Xiangfan, to ensure the Jin army on both sides of the Han River, and then sent Shi Mo Yanshan to lead 20,000 horses and horses, cross the Han River, and go down to the village in the northeast of Xiangyang City to contain the Song army in Xiangyang.

Fancheng is only the sub-city of Xiangyang, and it is backed by Hanshui, whether it is the city defense or the terrain, it is much worse than Xiangyang, and the materials and equipment of the Jin army to attack the city are very complete. Now there is the experience of monk Wanyan Chen in capturing Haozhou for reference. Therefore, at the beginning of the siege war, the Jin army's offensive was very fierce, and it attacked the city wall many times on the first day, but fortunately, the defender Zhang Hanying commanded the Song army, fought hard to defend, and repelled the Jin army many times, and finally kept the city. At the same time, it is also like Xiangyang's Shi Jun asking for help.

But the first day of fighting was only a tentative offensive for the Jin army. Although Wanyan Changzhi gained a lot of beneficial experience in siege from Monk Wanyan Chen, after all, he lacked personal practice, and the main purpose of the siege battle on the first day was to test the practical effect of these experiences and measure the defensive strength of Fancheng.

The next day, the Jin army began to officially attack the city with all its might, both in terms of strength and strength, it was much greater than the last time, and the Song army suddenly felt much more pressure than yesterday, Zhang Hanying, Fan Tianshun, Niu Fu and other defenders all went into battle in person, leading the Song army to defend the city.

And Shi Jun, the guard general of Xiangyang, also personally led his men and horses to rescue Fancheng, but he sent troops twice in a row, but he was stopped by Shimo Yanshan, and was defeated by the Jin army for the first time and retreated to Xiangyang.

But after returning to the city, Shi Jun also knew that the military situation was critical, so he immediately organized a second rescue, and this time Shi Jun also learned wisely, divided the men and horses into two groups, with 5,000 centaurs as the front team, and after encountering the interception of Shi Mo Yanshan, the two sides immediately launched a fierce battle. However, the 3,000 men and horses of the second team of the Song army took advantage of this opportunity to step on the pontoon bridge, cross the Han River, and rush to Fancheng.

At this time, Fancheng was about to be unable to support it, and the reinforcements of the Song army rushed to the city and killed for a while, while the Jin army was also prepared, but it only prevented the defenders in the city from killing, but did not pay much attention to the outside of the city. And I don't know how many men and horses the Song army came, so I had to give up continuing to attack Fancheng and turn around to meet the reinforcements first. Later, although only more than 1,000 of the 3,000 men and horses returned to Xiangyang, Fan Cheng breathed a sigh of relief and finally held the city again.

And Wanyan Changzhi was also very annoyed by this, and reprimanded Shi Mo Yanshan fiercely. At the same time, he ordered Shimo Yanshan to burn the pontoon bridge of the Song army the next day and completely cut off the reinforcements of Fancheng.

Shi Mo Yanshan also held back the fire in his belly, and the next day, he immediately sent troops, led 10,000 horses to attack Xiangyang, and sent another 10,000 horses to burn the pontoon bridge. Although Shi Jun also led the army to fight and fought with the Jin army, after all, he could not use two purposes, and between defending Xiangyang and protecting the pontoon bridge, he could only choose to defend the city, and finally the Jin army burned the pontoon bridge and cut off the contact with Fancheng.

Fancheng, which had lost its support, finally could not resist the attack of the Jin army, and was breached by the Jin army the day after the pontoon bridge was destroyed. The main general Zhang Hanying and the deputy general Niu Fu both fought and died in the city. Only Fan Tianshun was proficient in water, and crossed the Han River with a small number of Song troops and fled to the city of Xiangyang.

Shi Jun put Fan Tianshun and other defeated troops into the city, at this time, the barrier of Xiangyang was lost, and the defenders and the civilian army were only more than 20,000 people, and the people were panicked and the army was unstable, so it can be said that the situation was dangerous. But Shi Jun also knew the importance of Xiangyang, and he must not give up easily, so he gathered all the soldiers and said: "I am ordered by the imperial court to guard Xiangyang, the city is in the people, the city is broken, and I swear to live and die with Xiangyang." I hope you will work together to protect Xiangyang. ”

Xia Gui, the commander of the system, also stepped forward and said: "Soldiers, most of your parents, wives and children are in the city, once they abandon the city and flee, they will take men, women and children with them, and they will move slowly and be easily caught up by the Jin army, while the city wall of Xiangyang is high and thick, the grain and grass are sufficient, it is easy to defend but difficult to attack, so it is better to defend this city and fight hard, or you can survive the death." ”

When all the soldiers heard this, they all shouted in unison: "We are willing to defend Xiangyang to the death and never retreat." ”

Shi Jun saw that Shi Shi was still able to fight, so he was relieved. At this moment, someone came to report that the brothers Zhang Shan and Zhang Gui had recruited 3,000 militiamen and rushed to reinforce the guards in Xiangyang. Although it was only a militia, it was a support army after all, so the morale of the Song army was greatly improved, and it was not as depressed as when he first learned that Fancheng had been lost.

Seeing that the morale of the army and the people was inspired, Shi Jun immediately began to arrange the matter of defending the city and preparing the city. He assigned men and horses to defend the four gates, and recruited more than 20,000 civilians in the city to pay for the transportation of equipment and materials. At the same time, thousands of houses outside the city were burned down to prevent them from being used by the Jin army.

After capturing Fancheng, Wanyan Changzhi only repaired for two days, and immediately launched an attack on Xiangyang.

Fancheng has just been captured, and the morale of the Jin army is also very high, everyone is brave, all of them are vying for the first, and they can't wait to finish Yan Changzhi's siege order, and attack Xiangyang City like a tide.

However, the city defense of Xiangyang is much higher than that of Fancheng, not to mention the high city wall, which is a moat with a width of five or six zhang around the city, and the introduction of the Han River water, which is an extremely difficult barrier to break. If you don't conquer the moat first, you can't attack Xiangyang at all. At this time, Wanyan Changzhijing received the news that Yang Yan Yijing led an army of more than 100,000 people from Gwangju to rescue Xiangyang. Of course, the 60,000 follow-up men and horses of the Jin army were also advancing in the direction of Xiangyang, and they were also one day ahead of the Song army.

However, Wanyan Changzhi didn't dare to take it lightly, if he waited for Yang Yan's army to arrive, the situation would become complicated, it was best to capture Xiangfan before Yang Yan arrived, but he only had about ten days.

And the first thing to solve is the moat of Xiangyang. Therefore, Wanyan Changzhi immediately ordered that more than 60,000 people of the Great Song Dynasty were forcibly conscripted for civilian service, and they were responsible for the work of filling in the moat.

This move is very vicious, as if the Jin soldiers are doing this work, they will inevitably be attacked by the Song army defending the city, and before the siege officially begins, they will lose a lot of troops, and they will also hurt the soldiers. However, the people of the Great Song Dynasty did this work, but the Song army could not kill the killer, and could only watch the moat being filled in little by little. Of course, Wanyan Changzhi also knew that his own approach was cruel, but in order to achieve the final victory, he couldn't care much about it.

The civil service was divided into two batches, one to cut off the passage of the Han River into the Fangcheng River, and the other to fill the moat. Without the intervention of the Song army, the work was carried out very quickly, and it only took two days to not only block the Han River, but also fill in many moats, at least enough to start a siege battle.

Because it is very convenient to use the people of the Great Song Dynasty as civilian servants, before the siege war began, Wanyan Changzhi also considered whether to force the people of the Great Song Dynasty to be the forerunner, so that it would be easier to capture Xiangyang. This tactic was often used in Dajin's campaign to establish the country.

But after thinking about it again and again, he finally gave up on this tempting plan. After all, more than 60 years have passed since the founding of the Jin Dynasty, and the Jin State has also accepted many Han people's benevolence, righteousness and morality, and forcibly conscripted the people to fill the moat, although it has gone too far, but after all, it can be borrowed and used civilian service, and forced the people to lead the siege, that is another matter.3 On the other hand, Wanyan Changzhi's self-esteem also forced him to give up capturing Xiangyang in this way.

Therefore, after the moat was filled, Wan Yanchang ordered all the civilian servants to be released, and then began to attack Xiangyang.