Chapter 26: The Rekindling of War

The men in the military, like Zhang Bofen, listened with their blood boiling. Over the past two years, the Song imperial court had been fawning over the Jin.

To what extent? At the beginning of this year, during the first defense of Dongjing, a few Song soldiers captured a Jin soldier and brought him to the city. The people cheered, but when the court found out, they executed the soldiers who made the capture, hung their bodies on the city gate as a warning, and obsequiously returned the Jin prisoner. Only those who had endured such humiliation could understand how satisfying it felt to hear the Emperor rebuking the enemy from atop the city walls.

Zhao Ning cleared his throat and continued to shout: "Wanyan Zonghan, you are destined to fail!" He spoke with such confidence that it sounded as if he were reciting a mathematical formula.

Wanyan Zonghan was furious. He had come to humiliate Zhao Ning and crush the morale of the Song army, yet he had not expected the Song Emperor’s tongue to be sharper than a blade. Moreover, the man’s skin was thicker than the city walls themselves. After being surrounded by over a hundred thousand troops for a month, where did this confidence come from? He was clearly the one under siege, yet he spoke as if he held every advantage.

"Emperor of Song, listen well: open the gates now and welcome me into the city. I will not touch a hair on your head, and I will treat everyone within these walls with kindness."

"Hah! You are nothing but a barbarian!" Zhao Ning looked at his generals and soldiers. "Remember this: barbarians are devoid of faith; they fear power but do not cherish virtue!"

The men replied in unison: "We shall keep this in our hearts!"

Zhao Ning rolled up his sleeves, put his hands on his hips, and rested one foot on the battlement. "Zonghan, how much grain do you have left? If you cannot take Kaifeng within two months, what do you intend to do?"

"I have plenty of grain, so you need not worry about me. Instead, how much is left in your city?"

"My Dongjing is the wealthiest city under heaven; we have more grain than we can eat. You would do well to worry about yourself."

Wanyan Zonghan countered, "My logistics teams are collecting grain all across your Song territory. You don't need to worry about me—worry about yourself!"

Zhao Ning retorted, "The soldiers and civilians in Hebei and Hedong continue to resist and stand united. Your logistics teams won't find it so easy to gather the supplies your army requires. Take my advice: retreat to the north immediately. Once the relief armies from the various prefectures of Hedong and Hebei arrive, you won't be able to leave at all."

Seeing that the Song Emperor showed not a shred of fear, Wanyan Zonghan found it deeply strange. He had been dealing with the Song court for a year now, and since the beginning of the year, the weakness of the Zhao-Song royal family had been legendary. How was it that the man on the city wall today seemed like a completely different person?

There was only one conclusion: this man was not the real Emperor of Song.

It was much like when the Jin had demanded the Song send a prince as a hostage earlier that year. When Emperor Qinzong sent Zhao Gou, the latter had spouted grand rhetoric and scolded the Jin in their own camp, leading the Jin to believe that Zhao Gou was not actually a member of the Zhao family. In their view, every man of the Zhao clan was more cowardly than the last. Someone so brave certainly could not be a Zhao.

This realization had a history. A few years ago, during the Alliance on the Sea, the Jin had little understanding of the Song and assumed this Central Plain dynasty was incredibly powerful. Yet, when the Song army attacked the Liao territory of Yanyun, Tong Guan’s hundred-thousand-strong force was crushed by mere thousands of Yelu Dashi’s men. The Jin, as allies, were dumbfounded when the Song came begging for reinforcements. *You have a hundred thousand men, and the Liao have only a few thousand left in the south, struggling for survival—and you come to us for help? Are you mistaken?*

From that moment on, Wanyan Zonghan had seen through the facade of the Song—a dynasty that was gold and jade on the outside but rotten to the core. The idea of destroying the Song became deeply embedded in his mind. Throughout the first year of the Jingkang era, the series of bizarre and incompetent moves by the Song court had only convinced Wanyan Zonghan further that the Song could be destroyed.

No longer bothering with Zhao Ning, Wanyan Zonghan turned his horse around, unwilling to waste more time. "Prepare to attack!"

The war drums of the Jin army began to beat.

"Your Majesty, please, you must return inside."

Zhao Ning shook off his sleeves and said, "Everyone saw it, didn't they? Wanyan Zonghan isn't as terrifying as they say."

After descending from the wall, Zhao Ning hurried away. The battle was about to begin, and this was no joke. Even if he were brave, he could not stay; if a Jin trebuchet stone landed and hit him, it would all be over. However, he did not rush back to the palace. The most important thing now was to maintain the momentum he had just ignited.

Before long, the Jin vanguard had formed their ranks, and the main force followed closely behind. Soon, the sound of thousands of Jin soldiers shouting rose from outside the city—a roar like a crashing tide. The Song army did not show weakness; Zhang Bofen, with his gravelly voice, led the shouts from the ramparts. After Zhao Ning’s rebuke, the morale of the Song soldiers had surged. Now, the two sides roared at each other. The meaning was simple:

Jin: "Come down here!"
Song: "Come up here!"
Jin: "Come down here!"
Song: "Come up here!"

The Jin war drums grew more intense, and their banners danced in the air like clouds. Looking out, the armored ranks of their soldiers appeared as an ocean of steel. The three-thousand-strong vanguard was the elite of the Jin army, composed of Jurchens, Khitans, and Han Chinese. Behind them were ten large trebuchets, built by Han craftsmen whom the Jin had captured and forced into labor.

Wanyan Yinsuke looked at the city walls with contempt and ordered the assault. Five massive siege ladders were pushed forward, each manned by dozens of strong soldiers. They marched in time, chanting in rhythm. The five ladders moved toward the city like five giant monsters, exuding an overwhelming sense of oppression.

These were not ordinary ladders; they were combined with "Goose Carts." A Goose Cart was essentially a large, iron-plated box designed to shield soldiers from enemy arrows. In the Song era, gunpowder began to see military use, necessitating the extra layer of iron. These carts had four wheels and holes in the front, allowing soldiers to hide inside until they were close enough to scramble out and onto the ladders. It was the pinnacle of cold-weapon-era siege technology, a transitional point between cold and hot weaponry.

A horn sounded from the city walls. Zhang Bofen shouted, "Ready the fire arrows!"

The Song soldiers immediately drew their "fire arrows," ignited the oil-soaked arrowheads, and pulled their bows, unleashing a volley toward the climbing ladders below. Suddenly, the sky was filled with a dense, rain-like downpour of fire.