From many, many years ago, a stone had been on that ridge. Remember in one second \[Complete Book God Station] Mobile users enter the address:
That was an insignificant, nameless low ridge, with no noteworthy scenery or attractions. The stone was just one of many, witnessing sunrises and sunsets, experiencing changes and the passage of seasons. The Yellow River had flooded over it several times, and occasionally, children herding cattle would rest on it as people came and went. For a very, very long time, it hadn't moved from its spot.

When people in armor dragged it away, snow had just begun to fall from the sky, as it had for many years prior. It was dragged, along with many other stones, to a flat area. Just as the snow was about to cover it, the people who had dragged it began to hammer on it, rounding it out a bit more. Then, it was piled among countless other stones.

Ahead of it was a rough, wooden camp, and further in the distance, a massive high wall stretched out towards both sides of the sky.

Snow fell slowly and steadily. The sun rose and set. Sometimes the stone's surroundings were lively, sometimes desolate. People hurried back and forth, sometimes moving away its companions, sometimes stuffing more stones around it. Light and darkness alternated, and then suddenly, the surroundings became even more lively. The footsteps of people and horses shook the earth, and more wheeled contraptions were pushed in from all directions. A restless atmosphere mixed with the falling snowflakes.

As the sky darkened and then brightened again, a huge buzzing vibration enveloped everything. People shouted and ran, and all sorts of rough, strange sounds filled the air. Around it, large numbers of stones were quickly moved away, those stones cut through the sky, and disappeared. Finally, footsteps came rushing over, and it was picked up and placed on a wooden plank. They rushed quickly across the difficult, snowy ground. The road was bumpy and uneven, sometimes high, sometimes low. Someone jumped over it when rushing over, and then the sound of many horses running filled the air. The plank hit a low-lying area with a bang, and the stone rolled off. A man also fell beside it, but after a moment, he got up and pushed it back onto the plank.

This short journey ended beside a huge wooden contraption. When the plank stopped, two people lifted the stone and placed it in a sunken container. The stone settled, and the sound of a winch and people shouting filled the air.

After a short period, it soared into the sky. Fluffy snowflakes stretched out towards the endless distance. It collided with snowflakes, pierced through the cold wind, and a team of horsemen galloped below it. Below, there were also fallen people, blood and fire, and hysterical cries. The massive high wall in front rapidly magnified, and arrows with sharp tips flew past in the opposite direction. In that fleeting journey, an arrow flew swiftly from the front, collided with it, and bounced off into oblivion.

The huge gate tower, the words "New Suanzao Gate" flashed past. The stone crashed into the giant wall, sending stone chips flying. Then came a huge drop, it fell from the top of the high city wall with a bang, once again sending ice chips and water splashing. The stone landed on the edge where the moat and the city wall intersected. Half of it crashed into the ice, and half of it was still outside.

On its left and right sides, more stones crashed into the city wall and then fell, and along with them fell snowflakes, arrows, and other things. While it was quietly staying there, strange things always rained down on it. Arrowheads bounced off, water pouring down from the high wall gradually froze into ice on it, and then was smashed open by another falling stone. Snow fell, and then huge pieces of wood also fell, creating a rumbling sound.

The restless and violent scene paused somewhat as the sky darkened. Snow was still falling. There was light on the city wall, and also a long stretch of light in the back. More water poured down from the city wall. Before dawn, when the surroundings were still silent, at a certain moment, the restless sounds suddenly rose again. Stones flew, arrows flew, fire approached, and huge wooden towers and ladders also approached. One ladder was erected above the stone's position, and then people's bodies fell down, crashing next to the stone, in strangely shaped flesh and blood, followed by a black, sticky liquid.

A whistling sound swept past with light. Fire spread down, and the stone was submerged in the blazing fire. Then people who were burning also screamed and fell down. Soon after, the ladder also fell down...

The light of the sun rose in the east, sweeping over the massive high wall. It changed its position, and then fell again. Countless lights and shadows were in conflict around it. In the stone's journey, everything around it was both fleeting and eternal. It was on the other side of vast changes, and was one with everything around it, whether it experienced huge explosions, divisions, or transformations, whether the surroundings were Qi, water, hard gems, or sparkling pearls, whether part of it became lush trees, or living flesh and blood, whether it flew or merged into the soil, everything was like the changes of sand and dust blown by the wind, and this change was part of eternity.

It was quietly embedded in the melting and re-freezing ice, and falling objects shaped it again and again. Cavalry galloped, arrows flew, swords and spears clashed, blood and flesh splattered, heavy snow danced wildly, flames burned...

…The corpse fell down with a scream, smashing its hard bones to pieces on it. Viscous flesh and blood slowly slid off the stone, and then continued to freeze…

All of this was part of eternity, but perhaps in a short time, they had some different meaning for these briefly transformed objects called living beings…

\*************

"Aaaaaaah—"

A huge, hysterical sound filled everything. Blood was in his eye sockets, making his head ache. The wooden frame was being pushed wildly amidst the chaotic dance of blades. The Jurchen was pushed backward and crashed into the battlements. He didn't want to be pushed down, and reached out to grab onto the battlements. The blade came down forcefully and chopped off that hand. Xue Changgong used all his strength to kick the man off the city!

"Where are the others! Where are the others!"

Xue Changgong roared loudly at the adjutant beside him, whose face was half covered in blood. He rushed to the crenel and leaned out to take a look. For miles, the Jurchens were swarming towards this side. The siege towers and cloud ladders were all being erected. The moat at the city gate had been filled in, and battering rams were being pushed forward by soldiers holding shields. Someone was pouring fire oil from the city tower, drawing a long fire dragon in the wind and snow. Arrows were being shot down madly. It was another wave of strong attacks.

"There are only this many people! All the other brothers are dead! The Jurchens charged up just now—"

"The Yaksha logs aren't enough, someone cut them down, quickly get people to bring them up! And fire oil, don't be stingy with the fire oil—don't just focus on the main gate! Check section E-3, quickly come with me! The Jurchens are going to attack over there—"

Outside the stretching city walls, the Jurchen offensive was like a tidal wave, while inside the city walls, soldiers and volunteer citizens defending the city were like ants scurrying up and down. Even with the greatest forces mobilized, the defenses on the city walls sometimes still seemed inadequate. The Jurchens launched a fierce attack on the entire northern city wall, the ferocity of which was enough to make the defenders of each section of the city wall feel terrified. However, the Jurchen generals were using this furious offensive to probe for weak points on the city walls—or more accurately, to actively create weak points, attempting to break the entire city wall's defense with their soldiers' astonishing combat awareness.

During the fierce attack, the Jurchen cavalry also raced quickly below the city, suppressing the city walls with a high density of arrow fire. Once the defenses of a certain section of the city wall appeared slightly exhausted, the attacking forces would surge madly towards this side. Once Jurchen soldiers charged onto the city walls, the opened gap would immediately bring about terrifying casualties. In the three days of the siege, the Jurchens had already done this four times.

On one occasion on the afternoon of November 23rd, more than fifty Jurchen soldiers successfully climbed onto the wall. They killed the surrounding defenders, along with the civilians assisting in the defense of the city, causing a large-scale retreat. In the short time that it took to forcefully kill these fifty-odd people and retake the city wall, more than five hundred soldiers and civilians were sacrificed, a large portion of whom were killed directly by the Jurchen soldiers and fell to their deaths from the inner side of the city wall.

And on the afternoon of the 22nd, when the Jurchens first climbed onto the walls, they used their powerful combat strength to repel three efforts by the Wu Dynasty soldiers to retake the walls. At that time, they held that section of the wall, and large numbers of Jurchens were surging up. The Wu Dynasty soldiers' attempts to retake the wall turned into piecemeal tactics. Later, it was Zhong Shidao who personally led the Divine Bow Battalion over, covering the city walls with arrows, and then using more than three thousand elite troops to pile up lives at both ends of the city walls, finally temporarily repelling the Jurchens. This wave resulted in 1,500 deaths. At that time, the Jurchens and the Wu Dynasty's defending generals had not yet adapted to this kind of high-intensity rhythm, but the Jurchens' keen sense of combat awareness was astonishing. Of course, in the subsequent battles, mid-level generals on the Wu Dynasty's side, such as Xue Changgong, finally gradually became able to adapt to this kind of battle.

Flying stones and arrows occasionally flew over the city walls and smashed into the crowds inside the city walls—not many of the Jurchen's siege weapons could launch stones, and even if they could, they often ventured into the range of arrows. But almost every time, they had the potential to cause casualties. Compared to the Jurchens, who as the attacking side could set up ladders anywhere outside the city, the Wu Dynasty people, as the defenders, often had fixed stairs to go up and down the city walls. When the intensity of the battle above the city walls was too high, the defensive equipment needed to be replenished at any time, which led to a large crowd of people crowding the stairways, who would often become victims of stray arrows or stones.

But apart from instinctively dodging or finding a wooden plank to hold up, there was no other way to retreat, because once their work stopped, the defense of the city walls would be in grave danger.

In fact, the Jurchens' crazy attacks and amazing fighting power had already taken away some of the defenders' fighting spirit. This taking away of fighting spirit did not mean making people run away, but simply making people truly realize the power of this army. That kind of amazing fighting spirit made the Jurchens, once they broke through the city walls, require several times the lives to push them back. The Wu Dynasty soldiers were not subconsciously dodging, but subconsciously felt when they went up to meet them: We can't win.

At this time, the Wu Dynasty's defending army was all the most elite imperial army of the Wu Dynasty. Their usual training and salaries were sufficient. They wouldn't run away—it would be useless to escape—but that was it. Faced with the founding army of a dynasty, the difference in subjective initiative was almost impossible to make up. For three days, on this defense line stretching for several miles, this string of defense had always been stretched to the death. People were hastily and hectically dealing with everything. The city defense gave the feeling that it could collapse at any time.

But after all, it hadn't collapsed yet.

Rolling logs and boulders were thrown down from the city walls like raindrops, mixed with fire oil, hot water, and arrows. The stretching city walls were covered with Yaksha logs inlaid with sharp knives or barbs. Soldiers wielding long pitchforks were occasionally hit by stray arrows and fell into pools of blood, while civilians who came up to deliver things occasionally picked up the pitchforks and waved them around, shouting and trying to stop the Jurchens coming up from the cloud ladders. The intense and surging shouts and fighting sounds were mixed with the heavy wind and snow, spreading across the entire city wall.

Large numbers of wounded were carried down and sent to the wounded soldiers' camp. The weather was too cold. The wounded from the previous two days quickly contracted colds due to the decline in their body resistance. The weak were dying at any time. All the doctors in the city had been mobilized. Li Shishi was helping among them. She hadn't rested for a day and a night. Her clothes were dirty and messy, and her hair was also messy. There was other people's blood on her forehead and face, and there was plant ash from boiling medicine. Surrounded by countless wounded, she was just mechanically helping with things in the wounded soldiers' camp.

This sudden tragic situation had made her a little dazed. In addition to the almost non-stop work these days, and being with blood, made it difficult for her to think about the things in front of her, and she could only deal with it by doing endless things—Hou Jing had told her about the casualties when the Jurchens attacked strongly, but in the current situation, perhaps Hou Jing was a little dazed.

In just three short days, under the Jurchens' strong attack, perhaps the entire Bianliang City had been dazed.

Panic about the war swept in.

\***************

Twenty miles northwest of Moutuo Ridge, Guo Yaoshi, Zhang Linghui, and Liu Shunren led more than 40,000 of the Ever-Victorious Army, had left the Jurchen camp.

Wanyan Zongwang wanted to strongly attack Bianliang, and at the same time further train the Jurchens' siege combat power, which had been constantly improving during the destruction of the Liao Dynasty. He did not think about the possibility of failure. In this large battle, he did not let Guo Yaoshi's army participate. Of course, there were reasons for arrogance and confidence. On the other hand, along this road, the Jurchens' Eastern Route Army had never really fought together with the Resentment Army.

In the process of going south, there were no enemies that required them to merge their two armies to defeat. On the other hand, and most importantly, once they fought side by side with Guo Yaoshi on the battlefield, a large part of the reason for the victory or defeat of the battle would be handed over to Guo Yaoshi.

Wanyan Zongwang had indeed surrendered the Ever-Victorious Army, but there was no "domestication" process for this army. Assuming that both sides attacked Bianliang together, if Guo Yaoshi contributed, the city would undoubtedly be captured, but if at the most critical moment, he defected on the battlefield, even his strongest Jurchen army would probably be certain to die.

The Wu Dynasty Confucian scholars liked all kinds of conspiracies and tricks. Who knew if Guo Yaoshi was playing a bitter trick, waiting to give himself a knife at the most critical moment.

If the Wu Dynasty people really had such a sinister idea, let their army drive straight in until under Bianliang City, and then defected and attacked, it would be as written in that letter, and no one would be able to suppress Nianhan anymore.

Out of such considerations, Zongwang would not let the Ever-Victorious Army enter the battlefield range of the siege. Guo Yaoshi also understood this point. After Zongwang arranged the task for him, he quickly launched an investigation to determine which Wu Dynasty team wanted to breach the Yellow River. After that, he discovered that the most likely was the Western Army troops now led by Zhong Shizhong.

Of course, such a conclusion was a bit reckless, but it didn't matter. Zongwang had already begun to attack Bianliang. He didn't want to wait until everything was completely implemented before acting. Maybe Bianliang would fall by then. On the other hand, he had defected to the Jurchens, but he couldn't get more credit now. Before Zongwang captured Bianliang, he felt that there must be a battle record. Under this consideration, the Western Army was the best battle record—the other guys were all soft persimmons. If he was still in the Wu Dynasty, defeating such an army could be used to ask for credit, but now in the Jin Dynasty, casually bragging about such a battle would only be laughed at.

Because of this consideration, when the rumors from the outside said that it was the Western Army who wanted to do this, he immediately believed it, and pulled out his troops and marched, and groped towards the current garrison point of the Western Army—too lazy to stay in the military camp and eat idle food.

\***************

Outside Bianliang City, further away from the Jurchen military camp, Ning Yi was riding on horseback, holding a telescope, watching the shocking siege scene. Hong Ti was behind him on his side, and Qin Shaoqian was on the other side. In addition, there were Han Jing and a few others.

After putting down the telescope, Ning Yi swallowed. "If we fight like this, how long can Bianliang hold out?"

No one answered. After a while, Qin Shaoqian said, "...I don't know." His voice was so low that he had no confidence.

Seeing that no one was speaking, Han Jing pointed to Bianliang. "In all siege battles, if you can't surround it ten times over, you also have the strategy of attacking one side strongly and attacking the east to distract from the west. The Jurchen attack is so fierce, concentrated on one side. If they can't take it for a long time, I guess Zongwang will definitely divide his troops and launch a surprise attack on the other city gates. If we can anticipate the enemy's movements, maybe we can catch them off guard and eat a wave."

Ning Yi frowned. Yue Fei, not far away, didn't have a very high position among these people, but he had become familiar with them these days. At this time, he said, "General Han is right, but the Jurchens here are all Zongwang's elite troops. Even if it's one-on-one, with a surprise attack, I'm afraid we won't gain too much advantage, not to mention that the response on the battlefield is fast. Zongwang's soldiers dismount to fight on foot, and mount their horses to be cavalry. I'm afraid they won't sit idly by and watch us escape. We must not fail to observe this."

Han Jing said, "Brother Yue is right to remind us."

"However, there are at least 12,000 people in the Moutuo Ridge camp, although most of them are infantry, and there are also artisans, but with our numbers, it's still difficult to attack," someone said from the side.

"No matter what, we can't delay any longer." Ning Yi exchanged glances with Qin Shaoqian, Hong Ti, and others. "Let's go back first, we have to make a decision tonight... Prepare to take action!"

The group turned back, going in the direction that was not Xia Village, but a deserted village in the snowy plains of Bianliang at this time. A total of 4,300 people had come out of Xia Village and were stationed here.

Among the team that Hong Ti brought from Mount Lüliang, there were nearly 2,000 people in total, including a total of one hundred and sixty-four heavy cavalry painstakingly saved up, and the rest were light cavalry. In the Wu Rui Camp, there were originally more than a thousand soldiers that Qin Shaoqian had asked Ning Yi to train in Dulonggang, but after the great defeat at the end of September, there were now less than five hundred left. The Wu Rui Camp originally barely pulled up more than two thousand cavalry, but suffered heavy losses. Now Qin Shaoqian had less than five hundred cavalry left in his hands, plus the remaining veterans available, which was the current number here. There were 2,500 cavalry and 1,800 infantry.

As for what was left in Xia Village, there were now more than 15,000 people in total, including some elites used to hold the line, Zhuji management personnel, or martial arts masters, but this group's morale had only been stirred up for more than a month, and they could only be left in Xia Village to deal with future defensive battles. Pulling them out and fighting the Jurchens head-on would basically be courting death.

The wind and snow kept falling on the cold village. Ning Yi and the others discussed the situation and calculated the battle situation, arguing for a while from time to time. The Jurchens were too strong. No one knew to what extent they could use this force at hand. But there was no time left. They had to make a decision this night.

In Bianliang, the heated battle continued to rage...

Wanyan Zongwang was going to finalize everything within a few days...

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