Ask Wudang Chapter 183

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Seeing the power of this sword, the centurion’s eyes widened in fear. Then, he swallowed hard, thinking, “If that sword struck me, I wouldn’t have a life left!”

With that thought, he immediately dropped his long saber and gave up resisting.

Guo Jing approached, looked at the centurion, and asked, “Erdou, do you still recognize me?”

The centurion looked up and his face immediately changed, “Golden Saber Consort, it’s you?”

It turned out that this man was Guo Jing’s old subordinate from his western campaign against Khwarazm. Huang Rong, inspired by Ouyang Feng, used gliding to capture Samarkand, and this man was among the first group of vanguards to fly into the city.

Guo Jing recognized him, and remembering their past friendship, he spoke to save him.

Guo Jing said loudly, “Erdou, for the sake of our past friendship, I will spare your life today. If you dare to offend again, don’t blame me for being merciless.” Then, he instructed his (zuǒyòu, attendants), “Bring a rope and lower him down.”

“Yes, Great Hero Guo.”

Two Song army soldiers quickly brought a rope, tied it around Erdou’s waist, and lowered him down to the city.

The Mongol army had already rushed to within five hundred paces of the city. Suddenly, they saw a person being lowered from the city wall. For a moment, they all felt strange, so they stopped. The arrow-shooting from the city wall also ceased. The two armies strangely ceased fighting.

Erdou reached the bottom of the city and immediately bowed to Guo Jing on the city wall, shouting loudly, “Since the Golden Saber Consort is here, this humble one would rather die than offend your might again. I will repay this life-saving grace another day.”

Guo Jing stood on the city wall, majestic and awe-inspiring, and shouted, “Mongol commander, listen! The Great Song and Mongolia once allied with one heart to destroy Jin. Why do you Mongols invade my territory and harm my people? The people of Great Song are dozens of times more numerous than you Mongols. If you do not retreat quickly, my Great Song righteous army will gather from all directions, and I guarantee that your over ten thousand Mongol soldiers will have no burial place.”

He spoke these words in Mongolian, with ample breath and a powerful voice. At this time, the two armies were about five hundred paces apart, which was a relatively long distance, but the Mongol soldiers and generals below the city heard his words clearly.

In an instant, the Mongol soldiers and generals looked at each other in dismay, and their once rainbow-like morale gradually declined.

After this battle, not only did the Mongol army’s morale suffer greatly, but even Kublai Khan felt a slight sense of defeat. He sighed, “My Great Mongol Empire’s former Western Campaign Right Army Marshal truly lives up to his reputation. Coupled with the assistance of Ye Qingfeng and other martial artists, it’s like adding wings to a tiger. It will be difficult to capture Xiangyang City.”

The monk Zicong, who was beside him, said, “Your Highness need not boost others’ morale and diminish your own prestige. As long as the time for our scheme arrives, no matter how skilled Guo Jing is, he won’t be able to stop our Mongol army.”

“Alas, I hope so.”

Kublai Khan sighed again and immediately ordered a retreat of forty li.

In this battle, the Song army lost over five hundred men, and the Mongol army lost over four thousand. It can be said without exaggeration that the Song army achieved a good start. To celebrate this good start, Lu Wendeng, the defender of Xiangyang, held a grand banquet in his residence to entertain those who had distinguished themselves.

In terms of merit, Guo Jing was undoubtedly first. Without him, Xiangyang City would definitely not have been defended. Next were Ye Qingfeng and the other martial artists. Although Lu Wendeng was a good-for-nothing, he was astute and self-aware. He knew that he could only defend Xiangyang City by relying on Guo Jing, so as soon as the banquet began, he diligently toasted Guo.

Guo Jing was an honest man and did not refuse, only speaking a few polite and humble words.

Next, Lu Wendeng toasted Ye Qingfeng and the other martial artists. Although they did not like to deal with people from the imperial court, they did not arrogantly refuse out of respect for Guo Jing, the martial arts alliance leader.

The grand banquet lasted all night, and both hosts and guests enjoyed themselves. This shall not be further elaborated upon.

In this manner, five days passed, and the Mongol army remained still.

On the sixth day, Kublai Khan again led his army to attack. It turned out that the small-scale siege that day, in addition to testing the waters of Xiangyang City, Kublai Khan also held a glimmer of hope. He hoped to capture Xiangyang City without the need for those skilled individuals. Unfortunately, with Guo Jing defending Xiangyang City and Ye Qingfeng and other martial artists assisting, the first battle ended in his failure.

Kublai Khan had two great role models in his heart: his grandfather, Genghis Khan, and his uncle, Ogedei. He had always aimed to be like these two Mongol Khans, determined to expand the Mongol Empire’s territory and establish an immortal legacy. However, the first battle of his campaign against the Southern Song had given him a taste of frustration. Although it was only to test the waters, he still found it somewhat unacceptable.

Therefore, after reorganizing morale, he once again led his army back.

This time, Kublai Khan made many preparations, confident that he could capture Xiangyang City in one fell swoop.

So, what preparations did he make?

He made a total of three preparations: first, boosting morale; second, capturing Southern Song civilians; and third, mixing the genuine with the fake.

After the setback of the first battle, the Mongol army’s morale was severely damaged. To restore morale, Kublai Khan unhesitatingly executed Erdou. At the same time he executed Erdou, he also ordered a grand burial for him with the rites of a national hero and heavily rewarded his family.

He executed Erdou because Erdou had been released by Guo Jing and had lost his will to fight. If he were not executed, it would inevitably affect morale and further lower it. He ordered a grand burial for Erdou and heavily rewarded his family because Erdou had fought to the very end and deserved heavy rewards.

With such clear rewards and punishments, the military law was distinct, and his subordinate armies naturally submitted completely, and morale was slowly restored.

The second preparation, capturing Southern Song civilians, was to implement the Mongols’ usual “herding tactic.”

The so-called herding tactic was inspired by shepherds driving sheep into a pen.

In this tactic, the captured Southern Song civilians played the role of sheep, the Mongol army played the role of shepherds, and Xiangyang City was the sheepfold. The Mongol army drove the civilians to attack Xiangyang City, and the Xiangyang defenders would certainly be hesitant to act. If they opened the city gates to receive the civilians, the Mongol army could take the opportunity to rush into the city. If they did not open the city gates, the Mongol army would execute the civilians in front of the formation. In this way, even if they could not capture Xiangyang City, they could still affect the morale of the Song army. Over time, Xiangyang City would fall without a fight.

As for the third preparation, mixing the genuine with the fake, it referred to mixing various Mongol experts among the civilians, allowing them to infiltrate Xiangyang City. On one hand, they would gather intelligence within the city, and on the other hand, they would cooperate with the army outside the city.

It must be said that Kublai Khan’s three preparations truly conformed to the style of a generation’s heroic ruler.

At this time, below Xiangyang City, thousands of civilians were gathered, crying and shouting, in a chaotic mess.

The Mongol army followed behind the civilians, waiting only for the city gates to open to rush into the city in one fell swoop.

On the city tower of Xiangyang City, seeing the critical situation, Lu Wendeng directly ordered, “Defending the city is crucial, fire the arrows!”

In an instant, arrows rained down, screams resounded, and the civilians below the city fell one after another, struck by arrows. The remaining civilians turned to flee, but the Mongol soldiers behind them formed a formation, cutting down anyone who tried to escape, forcing the civilians to move forward.

Seeing this tragic scene, Guo Jing’s eyes immediately turned red, Ye Qingfeng’s face was ashen, and Huang Yaoshi, Hong Qigong, Reverend Yideng, Yang Guo, Lu Wushuang, and the other martial artists all had expressions of grief and indignation.

Lu Wendeng ordered again, “Fire the arrows!”

Guo Jing hurriedly said, “Wait. Lord Lu, we cannot fire arrows anymore. The civilians are innocent.”

Lu Wendeng said, “If Xiangyang City falls, everyone will be finished. We can’t afford to be concerned about that now.”

Guo Jing said, “But they are all people of the Great Song.”

Lu Wendeng said, “Great Hero Guo, normally, this general would be very happy to listen to your opinion, but right now…”

Before he could finish his sentence, Ye Qingfeng interrupted in a deep voice, “Lu Wendeng, you order the city gates opened and let the civilians in. I will personally go down to defend and absolutely not let a single Mongol soldier enter Xiangyang City.”

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