In the Song Dynasty, there was no law or order.

Hundreds of Liao soldiers formed a square formation more than ten steps outside the city gate, waiting for the opportunity to attack; more Liao soldiers came from all directions, holding scimitars and howling like wolves.

More than 30,000 Song soldiers attacked the city, but there were more than 50,000 Liao soldiers in the city, which was more than their number. Everyone could only crowd near the city gate to fight to the death.

Soon, the Song army rushed to the outside of Tongtian Gate, then formed a battle formation and fired in the direction of the city gate.

"Bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang!"

After the dense gunfire, dozens of people in the square formation of the city gate fell in an instant. If it was in the wild, it would be difficult to fight, but in the narrow city gate, the Liao army formation was a live target.

Seeing that it was not feasible to defend the city gate in the previous way, the surrounding Liao army immediately dispersed and ran to both sides.

Fortunately, although Yelu Begut was unreliable, his middle and lower-level generals and officers still had certain military qualities. They hurriedly shouted to stop their troops and maintain order.

And someone had already shouted: "Quick, prepare rolling stones, wood, lime, and grenades, and throw them down."

A large number of Song soldiers crowded at the gate of the city and were charging inside.

Under normal circumstances, if they encountered a mob, the enemy would have been defeated by now, and Xijin City had been captured.

However, the most elite Pi Shi Army of the Liao Kingdom was responsible for the rearguard.

The Pi Shi Army was not simply the guard of the Liao royal family, but a part of the guard.

The Liao Kingdom was established with the elite Khitan soldiers, and all the Khitan soldiers who were good at fighting were gathered together, collectively known as the Suwei Army.

The most elite part of them was called the Pi Shi Army.

So the Pi Shi Army only symbolized a part of the Liao army, but not all the soldiers of the Liao were Pi Shi Army.

This means that the Pishi Army is the elite among the elite, with very high tactical qualities.

Even at this moment when the commander's command ability is insufficient, the officers of the middle and lower-level Pishi Army can still maintain the situation and order and start to counterattack spontaneously.

Soon, all kinds of city defense equipment originally piled on the city wall began to be used, and various rolling stones, wood, lime, and grenades on the city wall were thrown down without cost.

The city gate hole was originally narrow, and the Liao army threw things down from both ends of the city wall. Even if they rushed into the entrance, the exit was full of dangers. For a time, they actually blocked the offensive of the Song army.

But it didn't take long for the Liao army to hold on, because the artillery fire outside the city was fierce, and they bombarded the city wall above the city gate. Many Liao soldiers who threw things down were killed by artillery shells.

The so-called infantry rushed, artillery bombarded, artillery bombarded infantry rushed, and infantry rushed and artillery bombarded. Once the Song army mastered the fire suppression, the infantry below quickly rushed into the city.

Under such circumstances, the Liao army and the Song army launched a fierce street battle.

The shouting, roaring, and throwing of things on the wall, the echoing, weapon blocking, and miserable howling and groaning under the city wall almost never stopped.

From the third quarter of Shenshi to the end of Shenshi and the beginning of Youshi, more than an hour later, the front of Xijin City was under test at any time. The Song army had already rushed into the city, and the fierce fighting was simply endless.

While the two sides were fighting to the death, a burst of shouting, yelling, and various gunshots and screams suddenly came from the direction of Qingjin Gate in the west city.

Some Liao people shouted loudly in Liao language: "Qingjin Gate has been breached, Song dogs have entered the city, we need reinforcements, we need reinforcements!"

There are also Han people shouting: "Those who surrender will not be killed, those who surrender will not be killed! Now put down your weapons and surrender!"

"Run! The Song army is coming."

"Don't kill me."

"I surrender!"

"Chase!"

All kinds of miscellaneous voices kept coming, making the already chaotic North Gate Tongtian Gate even more chaotic.

Although Tongtian Gate is the north gate, it is actually located in the northwest of Xijin City, close to the west. The nearest gate to it is not Gongchen Gate, which is also the north gate, but Qingjin Gate in the west city, which is also located in the northwest.

So once Qingjin Gate was breached, the rear of Tongtian Gate would be lost. For a time, the Liao army was panicked, and many people had completely lost the will to resist and fled like birds and beasts.

After about a quarter of an hour, the resistance on the city wall had been completely cleared, and the Song army occupied the Tongtian Gate. A large number of Song soldiers rushed into the city. At this moment, the direction of Tongtian Gate became quiet.

When Zhou Mei rode into the city on horseback, he saw that the blood of soldiers from both sides was splattered everywhere from the city gate to the stone steps on both sides of the city wall. The messy corpses were all over the ground. The bricks in many places were completely soaked in blood and turned into a dark red.

Iron helmets and leather hats were visible on the top of the wall, and feather arrows with bald tails and broken weapons were thrown all over the ground.

Most of them were corpses of the Liao army, and there were also some corpses of the Song army. The broken limbs and arms were kicked and trampled under people's feet because there was no time to move them. The battle was too intense, and both sides did not have enough manpower to clean up the battlefield.

There were sporadic gunshots nearby, and the farther away was in chaos. On both sides of the street, the Song army was escorting Liao prisoners and tying them together with ropes.

The sunshine in early February has lifted the warm veil of spring, revealing its scorching face, spewing out passion and scorching the world.

It was already afternoon, the sun was setting, and gorgeous flaming clouds hung in the sky. The dusk crow returned and overlooked the vast land. There were countless crowds of people on the ground. Some were coming from all directions, some were running away in a hurry, and some were slowly chasing after them.

"General, we caught a big fish."

Just as Zhou Mei entered the city, a group of Song soldiers nearby pushed a Liao man who was tied up by Wuhua Da.

He was wearing Han Chinese clothes, tattered and dusty.

But in his busy schedule, he actually forgot to change his shoes, revealing his pair of gold-patterned brocade boots with beads and pairs of horses, and gold threads on them. It was difficult not to recognize that he was a powerful person.

"Who are you?"

Zhou Meihe asked.

Yelubegut moved his lips but said nothing.

"Snapped!"

Song Jun gave him a slap in the face and shouted: "General, what are you asking?"

This Xiaozhi is still useful in physics. Yelvbegut woke up after a slap in the face and whispered: "I am the king of Liucheng County Yelu Zongjian."

Zhou Mei's eyes lit up, she waved and said cheerfully: "Send it to Mr. Zhang quickly. Mr. Zhang must be very happy."

The soldiers took Yelubegut away.

After the others left, Zhou Mei said to the lieutenant: "Di Hanchen, like us, started his career following Prime Minister Zhang. But later, Di Hanchen made great achievements and became equal to Prime Minister Zhang. Now he has captured Xiao Xiaomu, the king of Liao Kingdom. , we can’t let Di Qing be more beautiful than before.”

As he was talking, a raging flame suddenly ignited in the distance in the direction of Nancheng. He looked around and saw the Song army passing by on the streets in the distance. No one knew what had happened.

"Old Zhoutou, Lao Zhoutou."

Zhe Jimin, who came in from the Qingjin Gate, came on horseback and ran up to him quickly.

Zhou Mei rolled her eyes.

In terms of age, he is thirty years older than Zhe Jimin. He once participated in the Battle of Chanzhou at the age of seventeen or eighteen, and is now over sixty years old.

But it is a pity that his background is not very good. He was a big soldier in the battle of Chanzhou, and he was only a Yuhou of the Tianwu Army for so many years. It was not until the Song-Xia War that he made meritorious service with Zhang Kang in his fifties and was promoted to a high position.

Zhe Jimin, who was only 20 years old at the time, entered the military camp and held a higher position than him. Who could let someone from a general family be able to directly take over the positions of his father and brother as soon as he entered?

So even now Zhe Jimin's official position is still half a level higher than his, even though he is much older than him, Zhe Jimin still calls him Lao Zhoutou.

"Xiao Zhezi, what happened?"

Zhou Mei's eyes showed cunning. If you call me Lao Zhoutou, then I'll call you Xiao Zhezi.

Zhe Jimin also rolled his eyes. Fortunately, he had a good relationship with Zhou Mei. If others called him that, he would definitely fall out, so he said: "Something happened, the Liao people started a fire."

"I saw it."

Zhou Mei raised her head and looked into the distance, frowned and said, "The Liao people are digging their own graves."

"Let's unite our forces and put out the fire first."

Zhe Jimin said: "It is a great achievement to protect Xijin City."

"You know how to make meritorious deeds."

Zhou Mei's capture of Yelubegut was also a great achievement, but she didn't care about competing for credit.

But Zhe Jimin was right.

Fan Xianggong sent troops in this surprise attack in order to kill two birds with one stone. It not only disrupted the Liao army's strategy of retreating step by step and luring the enemy deeper, but also saved the city of Xijin. Therefore, this fire still needs to be put out.

Therefore, even though Zhou Mei said this, she still ordered the lieutenants around her to summon the army immediately and head towards Nancheng.

At this moment, Jinnan City is burning with raging flames.

Yelvbegut was guarding the North City. He did not dare to order a fire. After all, as the son of the pampered Liao Shengzong and the true half-brother of Yeluzong, he only had one life. If he died, he would be completely gone, so he would rather be captured than to perish together.

The direction of Nancheng has also reached its limit.

Fan Zhongyan still has more than 20,000 troops left in his headquarters, and is currently attacking Jinnan City Gate. After the rear was lost, the South City Gate is also in chaos, and the Song army is rushing into the city.

Yelv Renxian was different from Yelubegut. As a true loyalist of Yelu Zong, he knew that the situation was over and the Song army would definitely attack Xijin, so he simply took the risk and ordered his soldiers to set fires everywhere in the city.

Fortunately, Yelubegut did not give the order. Otherwise, the north and south sides would have burned together. The fire would have taken advantage of the wind and could have swept across the city in a short time.

"Kill!"

"Arrest the people first."

"Surrender and avoid death."

"Your Majesty has an order, and those who stubbornly resist will be killed without mercy."

"Quick, quick, scoop water from outside the city."

The city was in chaos. Some Liao soldiers surrendered on the spot, some fled in all directions, and some resisted resolutely.

Thick smoke billowed from the south city gate, and flames formed in the surrounding houses.

When Zhou Mei and others arrived, Zhang Kang had also entered the city through Gongchen Gate. After Tongtian Gate was opened, Gongchen Gate quickly fell and fell.

"Ms. sir!"

Zhou Mei and Zhe Jimin raised their heads and looked at the sparks rising in the distance, as if they were heading towards Beicheng.

The good thing is that the wind is blowing from the north. Although the wind is not strong, it does not quickly spread the flames from south to north with the help of the wind, so it is only burning in the south city gate area.

"It's not easy to extinguish such a big fire. Send me an order. Except for those escorting the prisoners, everyone should go south, cross the central axis, destroy the houses, and dig out a fire break."

Zhang Kang said immediately.

Firebreaks have been one of the main means of fire prevention since ancient times.

"Dongjing Menghualu" records that the Bianliang fire brigade, in addition to using water trucks to put out fires, routinely used the method of demolishing surrounding houses immediately after the flames started to prevent the fire from spreading further.

So when the surrounding generals heard Zhang Kang's order, they hurriedly took the order and a large number of Song soldiers rushed to the streets and alleys in the south with guns.

The Liao Dynasty's Nanjing City was very large, five or six kilometers long from north to south. The square northeast area was Shihefang and Xianlufang, and further south was Tanzhou Street, which was the cross street of the central cross street, which was the central axis of Liao Nanjing Xijin City.

The place where Yelu Ren first set fire was located at the Xijin General Administration Office, which was a building next to the Danfeng Gate of the South City Gate, and to the west was the Xijin Palace, where Yelu Zongzhen lived when he was in Nanjing.

After the flames burned, the first direction they spread was the cherry orchard east of the office, and the Nange and Niujie in the north. The streets were crisscrossed, flames were burning everywhere, and a large number of Liao soldiers fled in panic, fleeing towards Yaochi and Guanyin Lake in the southwest of the city, away from the sea of ​​fire.

"Hahahahahaha."

Yelu Renxian stood on the Danfeng Gate Tower of the South Gate, with raging flames behind him. He opened his hands and laughed loudly: "Even if we can't defend it, you Song people can't even think of getting Xijin."

"Bang bang bang bang!"

The muskets below the city fired, and Yelu Renxian was beaten into a sieve, falling heavily from the city wall and breaking into pieces.

"Enter the city and put out the fire!"

Fan Zhongyan sat in a small car outside the city.

He is already 59 years old this year, and his bones will be broken if he rides a horse again, so he can only sit in this kind of small car.

Nowadays, the rubber of the Song Dynasty is mainly used for steam engines. Before the rubber trees grow out, the rubber brought back from South America is used less and less.

So the car still uses wooden wheels. Although it is a bit bumpy, it is still better than riding a horse without even a backrest.

Looking at the raging flames at the South Gate, Fan Zhongyan waved his hand and said, "We must save Xijin City."

"Yes."

The generals shouted immediately, and a large number of Song troops behind them began to charge.

There was a continuous fire near Danfeng Gate, and the Song army entered from Kaiyang Gate in the east, and the Liao army inside surrendered one after another.

At this moment, the sky had darkened, almost at the end of the Youshi, which was about seven o'clock in the evening. There was only a trace of sunset in the western sky, and the land of Youyan was dark, as if it was about to fall into a deep sleep.

Only the raging fire in the south city of Xijin was burning, and the billowing smoke covered the sky. Even the rising moon in the east, the bright moonlight, seemed to be covered by the clouds and smoke.

"Recover Xijin and recover Yanyun!"

Fan Zhongyan stood up from the cart, with his hands behind his back. The gentle north wind blew his robe and beard. Although his face looked a little old, his eyes were firm.

The land of Yanyun, which had been lost for a hundred years, was finally going to return to the embrace of the Han people!