Battle of Xiangyang (4)

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  Lin Heng ran away by himself. At this time, those martial artists were all fleeing in disarray. After all, the Mongolian army had come to their senses and started to surround and annihilate everyone. You see, the Song army was surrounded in the center. However, unlike others, Lin Heng helped the Song army before he escaped. He set fire to several thousand war horses, letting them run wildly within the Mongolian camp. This move absolutely killed many Mongolian soldiers and also rescued the besieged Song army, allowing them to break through and retreat.

  This battle was really miserable, the Mongolian army died a lot of people, they didn't know, but for themselves, not to mention those martial artists, just the new wild Song army, nearly 3,000 people died. It can be said that more than half of them died.

  Such a great loss, how the battle was won back, everyone does not know. But they knew that this war was their victory, because no one felt that the Mongolian army would lose less than them. In fact, after this war, nearly 10,000 people were killed and wounded in the Mongolian army, and more than 5,000 horses were lost. To exchange for such a great result with the lives of 3,000 people is absolutely worth it.

  Far away in Xiangyang, Guo Jing received the news at the first time and was very excited. He personally led the army to see if there was an opportunity to attack the Mongolian army again. However, when they arrived, the Mongolian army had already formed a complete formation, with two teams of 15,000 people each, surrounding XinYe and Dengzhou, while the remaining 75,000 people rushed straight to Guo Jing's army.

  Unable, Guo Jing had no choice but to retreat, and the large army also followed directly to Xiangyang City. At this time, Guo Jing had no other way except to defend the city.

  At the same time, in Lin Heng's room, he spat out a mouthful of black blood. This mouthful of black blood was the toxic blood in his body, which had now been expelled from his body. However, Xiangxiangzi's poison was very potent, and although he had successfully driven it out, he still felt weak all over. He knew that without three or four days' time, he would be unable to fully recover.

  He took a deep breath, Lin Heng stood up and tidied himself up, letting someone pour away the black blood. Then he walked alone into the courtyard. Here, people sat in groups of three or five discussing the morning's massacre. This massacre was really shocking, even for these martial artists it was the same. You see, when they went there were over 300 people, but when they came back there were only over 200 people left, and most of them were injured.

  These people, however, were not saddened by these losses, but delighted that they had ambushed a large Mongolian army. Of course, you can't say they're cold-blooded, they just felt satisfied with their own results, and for the rivers and lakes, death is a very normal thing.

  "Master!" Seeing Guo Jing and two beggar gang disciples sitting together, Lin Heng immediately went over to greet them. Guo Jing nodded at him and asked: "Is your injury healed?"

  Lin Heng nodded, and Qiu Chuji stroked his beard with a satisfied expression, pointing to the two people beside him: "Heng'er, these two are the elders of the Beggar Clan. Let me introduce them to you. This is Lu Zhanglao of the Beggar Clan, and this is Liang Zhanglao. Both of them are among the four great elders of the Beggar Clan."

  "Lin Heng has met two seniors!" Lin Heng immediately paid his respects, he knew that Lu Youjiao was the future leader of the Beggar Clan, as for the other person, he didn't know their name, but he wasn't interested in them either. After everyone had gotten to know each other a bit, Lin Heng took the initiative to leave their table and went over to where Yin Zhiping and the others were, listening to their conversations.

  Everyone here is happy, but the defenders on the city wall are anxious. This time they suffered heavy casualties, and these people were usually used to defend the city. Now that half of them have died, how can the city be defended?

  He patted his head, looking at the Mongolian army surrounding the city, with a helpless expression. Now, he could only pray that the Mongolian army would not attack the city, otherwise this city would definitely not be able to withstand it.

  "General, why don't we talk to those martial artists? Although they don't know how to deploy troops, they all have extraordinary strength. Maybe we can get them to help us defend the city?" A small general gave the defending general an idea, and he listened, thinking it made a lot of sense. Now in the city, apart from his own side, there were only those martial artists left, although not many, each with incredible strength, if they helped, their chances would be greater.

  Here is the translation:

  Thinking of this, Shou Jiang immediately stood up and rushed to the courtyard where everyone was. When everyone heard that Shou Jiang had arrived, they immediately got up to greet him. Shou Jiang didn't hesitate, directly telling them about his difficulties, and everyone listened and patted their chest to guarantee helping with defending the city. Fortunately, Qiu Chuji was calm enough, shouting loudly to quiet down the noisy crowd, asking: "We only have more than 200 people, what help can we be in defending the city? Compared to defending the city, shouldn't we think about how to drive away those large armies? If we can drive away the large armies, then the city will defend itself!"

  "Yes, what Commander Qiu said makes sense. He told me to guard the city, but I don't know how to do that. Let's just go out and fight instead."

  "What are you talking about? Although we won't be defending the city, aren't those generals capable of doing so? As long as they're willing to teach us, what's there to fear that we won't learn?"

  "Yes, going out to fight is too dangerous. If things go wrong, not only will we die outside, but I'm afraid Xin Ye won't be safe either. I think it's better for us to defend the city."

  "I think you two are foolish, don't you think that with just over 200 of us, in a war of tens of thousands, what's the use of defending the city? I think we should adopt Huang Bangzhu's method and become a scouting team to hunt down Mongolian soldiers. This way, not only can we delay their attack on the city, but also allow our commander to intensify military training. As long as we have an army, we won't need to fear those Mongolian slaves."

  "Right, right, I think this brother is reasonable..."

  "There's no reason why, I think my way is still better..."

  Suddenly, everyone started arguing again. Seeing this, Chu Zhi and Shou Jiang et al. all furrowed their brows, as if they were at a loss for what to do. At this time, Lin Heng stepped forward and shouted loudly: "Everyone be quiet for a moment..." His voice was very loud, although he didn't use much internal energy, it still startled everyone, who then looked towards him. Lin Heng wasn't afraid, and immediately said: "Ladies and gentlemen, I think we should each choose some representatives to discuss with Shou Jiang et al., and come up with a feasible plan. In this regard, we are definitely not as good as Shou Jiang et al. But as the saying goes, 'three cobblers surpass Zhuge Liang', even if we can't help much, we can still offer some ideas. What do you all think?"

  "That's right, that's right! This young brother is talking sense. With so many of us together, it's not a problem. I think we can do as this young brother says!"

  "Alright, let's do it this way, Master Qiu, we'll choose you as our representative..."

  Suddenly, everyone began to discuss enthusiastically, but what they were discussing at this time was who would be chosen. Fortunately, everyone was sensible and soon stood up in groups, with one or two people being pushed out from each group. Like the Beggars' Sect, it was Lu Zhong and Liang Zhong, while on the side of the Quanzhen Sect, it was Qiu Chuji. Lin Heng was the proposer and was also invited to participate.

  Thus, thirteen people finally came out, and everyone brought the guards and two attendants on either side of them, a total of sixteen people entered the hall, while others silently watched the hall, waiting for their discussion method.

  Sitting in the main hall, everyone was silent for a moment. Qiu Chuji looked at this and said to Lin Heng: "Lin Heng, you are the proposer of this plan, I think you can start first."

  "Ah..." Lin Heng was taken aback for a moment, then said: "Master, I think we should let General Shou speak first. If he doesn't say anything about the problem, we won't have any way to discuss it either."

  "That's right, that's right, it's this matter, General Shou, you'd better tell us clearly what difficulties there are." Chuxu Ji patted his head and said to Shoujiang.

  The general listened and didn't stand on ceremony, immediately speaking out about the difficulties he had encountered. In fact, there was only one difficulty he faced, which was that there were no people.

  For cities like XinYe and DengZhou on the front line, they do not lack defensive weapons or supplies, but what is lacking is soldiers. Especially at this time in XinYe. This time, they lost over 3,000 people, leaving only around 2,000, plus the soldiers left to guard the city, totaling less than 3,000. Less than 3,000 soldiers were assigned to the four sides of the city walls, with each side having fewer than 1,000. If the Mongolian army really attacks the city, XinYe will fall in at most three days.

  Upon hearing this, everyone's face turned unpleasant. If it were someone else, they would think they still had a way to cope, but with him, they really had no solution. After all, they were only martial arts masters, not Taoist immortals who could conjure soldiers from beans.

  Looking at everyone not speaking, the general's face didn't look good either. Lin Heng on the side was also very helpless and couldn't help it, he knew that everyone had no way out, so he opened his mouth and said: "Everyone, I think we're not in such a difficult situation. We are currently short of people and can't defend against the Mongolian army's attack, but why should we let the Mongolian army launch an attack? Just now, a friend outside said something very good, we can completely launch a surprise attack on the Mongolian army."

  "Launch a surprise attack on the Mongolian army?" Everyone furrowed their brows, clearly thinking that Lin Heng's words were not feasible. In fact, it was indeed so, considering they were surrounded by an army of 15,000 outside, and would definitely be discovered if they went out.

  "Yes, we can launch a night raid on the Mongolian army." Lin Heng nodded and explained: "During the day, we cannot go out, but at night, those Mongolian armies will not be able to see what is on the city wall. In this way, we can go down along the city wall. At that time, we will directly rush into the Mongolian army and kill them, then run away. We do this back and forth at night, and the Mongolian army will definitely not be able to sleep. By daybreak, they will not even have the spirit to attack the city."

  "This plan of yours is feasible, but how are we going to get back?" asked Lu Youjiao, the beggar gang's Ru You, furrowing his brow in inquiry.

  Lin Heng smiled confidently and said, "We can tie iron chains on the city wall. Those with good agility can climb up along the chains. If not, we'll break through to the outside. We'll agree on a gathering point later, and after assembling, we'll launch a surprise attack on the Mongolian army from behind. We'll attack them day and night without stopping. Even if the Mongolian soldiers are made of iron, they won't be able to withstand our attacks."