The stalks crackled in the brazier, and choking smoke rose from the flames and spread throughout the house.

Yu Guyun blinked his reddened eyes, looked through the smoke, and looked at the leaders sitting in a circle: "Tell me, what should I do?" ”

The room was quiet and there was no one to connect to. Everyone lowered their heads and watched intently at the flickering of the flames in the brazier. After the conditions offered by the Song people came, this silence has been maintained for a long time.

But it was not quiet outside the house, and the crossbow bolts were as dense as rain, shooting into the village from outside the village all the time, and the number of wounded and crazy war horses continued to increase, and the neighing made the diviner who regarded the horse as his life unbearable to listen. But in the small village, the houses can barely accommodate all the warriors, and their mounts can only be left outside, to withstand the baptism of arrows.

"Let's just kill it!" Finally, one of them couldn't bear it, so he hammered it on the ground and roared angrily: "If you drag it any longer, you won't even have to ride a horse!" ”

"How to kill?" Yu Guyun closed his eyes and said dejectedly, "Is there a good road outside the village?" Rushing out, they all had to fall into the ditch. When the time comes, the Divine Arm Bow shoots randomly, and none of them will survive. ”

At the time of the siege of Dawangzhuang, in addition to archery, the Song people also put a lot of effort on the road in order to prevent the blockers in the village from escaping. Several roads outside the village have been dug out of wide ditches that resemble horse pits.

Yu Guyun took advantage of the last ray of sunlight to look at the wide ditches from afar. It was found that on the roads dug by the Song people, there were three ravines with a width of one zhang and an interval of one zhang arranged in parallel. It is impossible to jump over with the jumping power of a war horse. Even if those ditches were only two or three feet deep, they were enough for the war horses that rushed to the edge of the ditch to become the target of the Divine Arm Bow.

Outside the road, except for a few places where the terrain is really steep and rugged, you can see the fires lit by the Song army. By the fire, there were also Song soldiers who took advantage of the firelight to continue to dig the horse pit with a shovel.

"Unless you put on your wings, you won't be able to escape at all."

Yu Guyun didn't want to accept the Song people's request, which was tantamount to letting them walk to the butcher's knife by themselves like a sheep, whether they were dead or alive depended on the mood of the Song people. If according to his idea, let the Song people incorporate them, it will still be an army that can go into battle, and if it is not satisfactory, it can still try to escape.

No one was willing to completely entrust their lives to others, and the leaders of the divination people were still hesitating, but the Great Song officials and soldiers outside the village were not so patient.

The neighing of the mounts outside suddenly became louder. There was a crackling sound in the courtyard, like hail falling, as if something heavy had fallen to the ground. Before Yu Guyun and the others could react, they heard a click from above, and a black shadow flashed in everyone's eyes, and the brazier in front of them suddenly turned over, the sparks splashed high, and the firewood and grass in the basin flew up. The sparks sparked the beards of the two leaders. They immediately rolled down the hall, and the others took off their robes to help them extinguish the flames.

The brazier had been picked up, and a hole had been smashed out of the bottom. From the overturned ashes, Han Gang found a pebble that had pierced the brazier in the middle of the village.

One day was enough time for the craftsmen of the Great Song Dynasty to build a simple counterweight catapult. Large and small pebbles fly in the air, sprinkling small villages. This is a village without even a single tiled house, and the roof is covered with bunches of thatched, fist-sized stones, and it is easy to wear the thatched roof.

Flying stones not only penetrate roof thatch, but are also more effective against war horses. The wailing of the war horses in the village became more poignant than the other. Rockets began to be used, and flaming arrows pierced the night sky, setting fire to houses in the village.

Outside was already full of red light, and Yu Guyun didn't have time to delay: "Let's let the Song people be proud for a while." ”

……………………

The officers and troops won a great victory in front.

The people of Jinning City, who had been in a state of panic for several days, finally calmed down as messengers who delivered good news from the west gate to the city government one after another.

The curfew, which lasted for seven or eight days, was also terminated with an order from the Zhijun. After being suppressed for many days, the large and small liquor stores in the city were full for a while, and the wealthy officials, peddlers and pawns congratulated the officials and the army on their victory, and several large restaurants and brothels even made a noise all night.

In the city, it is also jubilant. Under the backdrop of the defeat of Lingzhou and the current precarious situation in Yanzhou, the record of the Hedong side completely annihilating the thieves and thieves is particularly eye-catching. Ordinary

After a good night's sleep, near noon, Han Gang and Li Xian waited for the news of the surrender of the Diviners.

Trapped in a small village with dilapidated walls, the Divider finally chose to put down his bow and knife between death and obedience.

"I'm still aware of current affairs!"

Han Gang said this, but Li Xian clearly saw a trace of regret on his face that was difficult to hide.

"Does Long Tu think this is a good thing or a bad thing?" Li Xian was curious.

Ordinary bureaucrats would rather do less than more. The previous divination people had already decided to surrender, but Han Gang had imposed a requirement to lay down his arms, which made the whole thing twist and turn.

"Good thing." Han Gang said, "In this way, this group of divination blockers can be punished canonically...... A lot of thieves have been captured before, but there is still one less than enough weight to kill chickens and monkeys. ”

"Ming Zhengcanon?!" Li Xian almost jumped up, "Will Yu Gu Ming be punished?" ”

"That's right. Murder, arson, looting, all the evil things that can be done have been done. But according to the law, he will be punished severely. From the very beginning of the fight, Han Gang never thought about letting go of this group of bandits, "They surrendered honestly, just so that a few more people on the execution ground could go on the road together." ”

"Long Tu, they've already subdued!"

"So I reckoned with their previous transgressions. If the robber is caught, isn't it punished according to the law?! Han Gang's eyes were cold, "Or did I say the word Zhao'an?" ”

Li Xian was silent for a while.

Han Gang went further and said, "They are robbers, and they can't get out of the siege of the official army, so they put down their weapons, can they be regarded as self-surrender?" ”

Han Gang has never regarded the thieves as objects that can be used and saved. Killing, wounding, and even looting during war, can turn a blind eye to the past at the very least. Han Gang didn't want to see this scene, so he could only use the criminal law. But in this way, it involves the criminal law, and there are more troubles.

"Robbing people's homes should be beheaded according to the law, and recidivists will never wait." Li Xian had a headache, rubbed his swollen and aching temples, "It's not their turn to surrender and wait." But there are a few thousand people here, and there must be a number left. When the time comes, you can loosen their restraint a little. ”

"How can this generation be gullible!?" Han Gang has a deep understanding of this: "Once they are untied, what will happen to them in the last place, I can't imagine at all." can make them "

Li Xian sighed and gave up his advice to Han Gang: "If you kill it, you can clean it up, and you can give an explanation to the Son of Heaven, the court, and the people." Just don't make a mess. ”

"What mess can there be? only punish the evil, and never ask. The chieftain and the people were placed separately. In this way, you can do whatever you want......"

Before nightfall, the exact numbers came. Add up the returns of a few numbers on paper and those in other directions, and that's the result of this battle.

The attacks of the officials and soldiers on the obstruction of the thieves were beheaded by a thousand or five, and even more surrendered. The total number of troops blocking Bu's southward march was 5,000, all of them cavalry. In this battle, Han Gang was able to keep eighty percent of them, more than 7,000 war horses were intact, and the goods were countless. The divination blocker was originally going to grab the last stroke and stop it, but who would have thought that the last step would meet Han Gang.

"What happens to the seized property? Whether the captured war horses are directly returned to the public is enough"

Li Xian remembered that Han Gang had always used four, three, and three accounts. The spoils of war during the southern expedition were forty percent of the soldiers, thirty percent of the officers, and thirty percent of the returned officials, and then the bereavement pension was obtained from these thirty percent. Although it is different from the habits of the army in the past, compared with unorganized burning and looting, strict and orderly looting and distribution can make people get more. However, Li Xianzhi said that Han Gang would definitely push this troublesome matter on himself, and instead of being entangled in it later, it was better to ask at this time.

"The soldiers are all fighting hard, there is no need to take advantage of them. One of the twenty warhorses is intact, and five of them are injured and cannot be recovered. I will also take out a part of the former dynasty from the treasury to settle the people, and there is no way to calculate the loss of goods. Han Gang thought for a while and said, "It will be executed in all the villages that have been plundered by thieves such as Fengzhou and Linzhou, and the blood debt will be repaid......

Seeing that Li Xian wanted to speak and stopped, Han Gang sighed: "How to deal with this matter, it doesn't matter, or think about the situation in Yanzhou?" ”

Yanzhou, counting from the day of the defeat of the city, should have been ten days.

Han Gang always felt that the Liao people were too silent. The patience shown during this period of time was completely inconsistent with the previous performance of Yelu Yixin or Xiao Shisan. Could it be that after arranging for the divination people to help the Western Xia, they would sit down and wait for the situation to develop?

Under normal circumstances, it is necessary to take action to steer the situation in the direction of one's favor, which is an idea that ordinary people will have. And Han Gang was vigilant in his heart: "I have to send another letter to the northern states, asking Liu Shunqing and them to strengthen their front-line defense." ”

Putting pressure on the other side through skirmishes is an inevitable choice for countries that are not yet willing to tear their faces apart, but want to gain benefits from their opponents.

In the previous border clashes outside Yanmen Pass, it was the Khitans who exerted pressure. Han Gang Zhilu said that the Son of Heaven and the court would not agree to expand the low-intensity border conflict into a war under any circumstances.

The military rations that can be used in Hedong are almost exhausted, and although there is still grain in the regular positions of the military states, it is a stock of grain to prepare for emergency and famine, and unless it is a critical moment, it can only replace the old grain with new grain, and it must not be used at will.

How the current situation will develop depends on the outcome of the Battle of Yanzhou.