Chapter 208 Liangzhou Chitose

Chapter 208 Liangzhou Chitose

Chapter 208 Liangzhou Chitose
On the same day that Shao Xun's vanguard volunteers arrived at Huanyuan Pass, Wang Mi's main force set out in batches from Yanshi County.

The vanguard Liu Ling's 20,000 troops left a day earlier.

Wang Mi's troops set out on the second day of May.

The travel of a large army, especially one of the quality of Wang Miyi's division, is even more complicated.

The first group set out before daybreak, the second group left the camp at daybreak, and the third group...

It was not until the afternoon that the chaotic volunteer army was almost completely gone - Wang Sang led more than 10,000 people to stay behind to block any possible pursuers.

However, although the righteous army was in chaos, it was much more organized than when it had just captured Xuchang in April.

Those who disobeyed orders and ran around were hit head-on by Shao Xun.

He had ulterior motives and just followed the thieves who were trying to gain benefits and left halfway.

Sending oneself to death also sends away a large number of cannon fodder.

All of this successfully made Yishi slimmer and more lean overall.

In fact, this is what bandits are like.

If you fight him and win big victories one after another, as long as you don't cause serious damage to his main elite troops and just lose a few pieces of fat from their bodies, it's no big deal, because they will continue to "lose fat" during long marches, regardless of whether they have experienced battles or not.

Marching into Luoyang was exciting for Wang Mi.

No matter how calm and capable he was before, no matter how cunning and cruel he was, he was a native of Jin after all, and naturally had a sense of awe for the emperor and ministers in Luoyang. But this awe, after being alienated in his heart, became cruel and tyrannical, and he had a special urge to destroy them.

At this time, he was riding on the back of a horse, and beside him were the "Kie Battalion" cavalry composed of more than a thousand elite old bandits.

The Yaozi Camp had various origins, with more than half of them coming from Qingzhou. In addition, there were the remnants of Jisang who had fled, the deserted official troops of Xuzhou, some powerful and elite troops of Yanzhou's small nobles, and so on.

The bandits' peripheral cannon fodder is replaced all year round, and even many people are replaced after a battle, but the personnel turnover rate of this elite backbone battalion is not that high, unless they suffer a devastating blow.

In front and behind the Yaozi Camp, there are the Taishan, Zhongjian, Xianzhen, and Wuqian Camps, each with three to four thousand people.

Of course there weren't so many people before, but the expansion in the past two or three months was really fast, which made Wang Mi feel a little worried - many people came to surrender with weapons, and their origins were suspicious at first glance. They were either deserters or bandits. They were untested and their loyalty was average.

But now they are needed to fight, so they have to be polite and reorganize after taking Luoyang.

Sometimes eating too much is not a bad thing as long as you have time to digest it.

The scale of 60,000 to 70,000 infantry and cavalry is huge, and the entire marching column stretches for dozens of miles, vast and boundless.

There are still many people in the counties and towns we pass through.

Some of them gathered together with hundreds of households and built a mud wall. Some even did not have a mud wall, but built a wooden fence and called it a "wall". At this time, someone would lead the troops to charge in and take away everything that could be captured in one go. The young and strong men would be recruited into the army and become the outer weak soldiers.

Some of the earthen walls were quite solid and the people there were quite brave, so if they couldn't be taken down in one go, they were forced to pay up some money and grain.

As for those forts that look larger, don't bother with them. It's not that they can't be taken down, it's just that it's not worth it. When they become powerful, we can deal with them. I don't believe they won't surrender.

On the fourth day of May, the vanguard Liu Ling's troops arrived at the eastern suburbs of Luoyang.

At this time, Shao Xun, Mi Huang and Chen Yan, with a combined force of more than 10,000 soldiers, also left Huanyuan Pass and advanced towards Yanshi.

At this time in Luoyang, the final mobilization before the war was underway.

******
On the sixth day of the fifth month of the second year of the Yongjia reign (308), Wang Mi's troops arrived at the city of Luoyang one after another. Because there were too many of them, the entire army had nearly people, so they were distributed in two large areas, the south and the east of the city.

Among them, Wang Mi’s main camp was set up outside Jianchun Gate, and there were about 50,000 bandits in the east of the city.

There are 7000 to 8000 troops in the north of the city, which are only used for harassment.

On that day, Liu Ling led more than 20,000 troops to move to the south of the city. He personally led 500 cavalry and 3,000 infantry to the outside of Jinyang Gate to challenge the enemy.

At this time, Shao Xun had already led his troops to Yanshi.

Wang Sang was a little anxious because he had no capable troops. After fighting outside the city, he was defeated and had to retreat to the city, not daring to fight again.

Shao Xun left several thousand men under Chen Yan to monitor the rebel army, and he himself led the Silver Spear, Long Sword, Yamen and other troops as well as 3,000 soldiers from the Sili School Lieutenant's unit and marched westward to Luoyang.

After Liu Ling challenged his opponent outside the city, the Jinyang Gate flew open, and General He Lun of the Left Guard, General Wang Hu of the Cavalry, and General Beigong Chun, the Protector of Liangzhou, led more than 3,000 men out of the city.

Liu Ling climbed onto a roof and looked down at the government troops.

He encountered the same dilemma as all the troops that had entered Luoyang before. There were too many houses outside the city, most of which were in good condition and difficult to demolish. Therefore, he could not deploy too many troops and could only fight in units of "thousands". The government army dispatched 3,000 infantry, 300 to 400 cavalry, and - hey, the first batch of infantry was so strange!
Liu Ling looked carefully and saw that the more than one hundred soldiers were extremely tall and had amazing strength. Even though they were wearing two layers of armor and holding large shields and long spears, their steps were still quite fast.

Looking at their formation, it was even more bizarre.

It was not a traditional Central Plains infantry formation - in fact, more than a hundred people could not form any formation - they were divided into groups of several people. Those holding large shields had the best strength. The shield was almost as tall as a person, which was very rare in this place. The shield bearers did not hold ring-handled swords, but swords.

Behind the shieldman, there was a man holding a halberd, who looked very powerful.

One of them was holding a long spear and there seemed to be a short spear for throwing stuck on his back.

What kind of fighting style is this? Liu Ling doesn't understand.

Well, since he didn’t understand, he didn’t think too much about it and just gave the order: Five hundred cavalrymen charge.

After the order was given, the five hundred cavalrymen went out into the battle formation, first running at a fast pace, then slowly increasing their speed, and then, relying on the fact that they had more people than the enemy and they had fewer people, they actually rushed forward directly.

It was a replica of the Battle of Jie Bridge that year, where Gongsun Zan used more than 10,000 cavalry to bully Yuan Shao's 800 infantry. It was a direct confrontation - coincidentally, Yuan Shao's 800 infantry were also inseparable from Liang Province, "(Qu) Yi had been in Liang Province for a long time, was familiar with fighting against the Qiang, and his soldiers were all brave and sharp."

Five hundred cavalrymen rushed in and directly broke up the formation of more than a hundred infantrymen.

Liu Ling breathed a sigh of relief, but his happiness did not last long as he discovered that the more than a hundred people were scattered but not in disorder, and they actually fought with the cavalry without forming a battle formation.

They were in groups of three, each with a shield stuck in the ground with legs behind it, so they could face the cavalry's charge.

One of them was not afraid at all. He wielded a heavy halberd to smash the cavalrymen on horseback, or simply hooked the horses' legs. Looking at their ferocious and roaring faces, it seemed that they were determined to exchange their lives for others'. They were extremely fierce and murderous.

The other one just took a javelin and threw it out with a "whoosh". It was so accurate and fierce that the person hit died instantly and fell off his horse with a scream.

Sometimes they would stand firmly on the ground, hold their spears and stab the cavalry with their eyes wide open - you stab me, I stab you, whoever blinks first is a coward, do you dare to risk your life?

As expected, the five hundred riders only rushed forward a short distance before they were thrown off their horses and countless of them fell to the ground.

The following cavalrymen were continuously attacked by spears and fell off their horses one after another, which was a spectacular sight.

"Kill the bandits!" Soldiers with long spears charged forward and attacked the cavalrymen who had lost their speed and were turning their horses' heads.

Whether stabbing, chopping or smashing, he is extremely brave.

Led by them, shieldmen, spearmen and javelin throwers also rushed forward and charged towards the cavalry.

A part of the enemy cavalry went around to the side, took out horn bows and shot arrows.

But the Liangzhou infantry reacted quickly. The sword and shield infantry used their large shields to block, and the spear throwers came up and threw spears one after another, as if they had practiced for many years. They could hit whatever they pointed at with incredible accuracy.

After shooting the enemy off their horses, the sword-and-shield infantry stepped forward and smashed the enemy rider, who was staggering to his feet after falling off his horse, with their shields, then stabbed out with a swift sword, killing the enemy on the spot.

Just over a hundred men, facing the siege of five hundred cavalrymen, did not show any panic and fought in an orderly manner, as if they had faced such scenes countless times in their past military careers.

The enemy cavalry quickly retreated, and it could even be said that they fled in all directions.

More than a hundred Liangzhou heavy infantrymen became furious and rushed after the cavalry.

They chased and roared, killed more than a dozen bandit cavalrymen who were left at the back, and then ran directly into the bandit army's infantry formation.

"Kill!" The fearless Liangzhou warriors knocked the thieves in the front row into pieces.

"Boom, boom, boom..." The drums sounded and General He Lun of the Left Guard seized the opportunity and pushed the imperial guards forward.

"Kill!" The three thousand infantrymen had been watching for a long time, their morale had already been boosted and their blood was boiling. Now they lined up in neat rows, following the footsteps of more than a hundred Liangzhou warriors, and rushed towards the already extremely panicked infantry of the enemy army.

Even though they were the elite infantrymen carefully trained by Liu Ling, even though many of them were fugitives with combat experience, and even though they numbered three thousand, they were still in a panic and gradually disintegrated when faced with the unreasonable fighting style of more than a hundred Liangzhou heavy armored infantrymen.

And when the infantry of the left guard of the imperial army caught up, the outcome was no longer in doubt.

In this battle, Beigong Chun selected more than a hundred brave warriors to charge into the enemy's formation, first defeating the enemy cavalry and then charging the infantry, making it almost unstoppable.

Wang Mi's bandits, who had been marching through Henan in over a month, suffered a humiliating defeat at Jinyang Gate.

In Liangzhou, the bandits were eliminated.

The owl is dancing, terrifying and killing people.

I wonder what Wang Mi would feel when the result of the Battle of Jinyang Gate reached Jianchun Gate.

(End of this chapter)