Chapter 255 Target: Dayang
Chapter 255 Target: Dayang (Additional updates, please give me a monthly ticket)
When they set out on the 24th, Shao Xun left Li Chong with 2,000 guards, 1,000 auxiliary troops, and 2,000 soldiers from Yiyang Fort here to build fortifications and set up camps as a retreat route.
The intersection of the two dangerous slopes of East and West Gao, if you are not careful, once it is captured, if you want to return to the Luo River Valley, you will have to abandon most of the baggage and take the small road back in embarrassment.
It is not easy to rearrange the baggage train. Once food, tools, cooking utensils, medicines, vehicles, spare equipment and even money are seized, morale will inevitably plummet. In history, there have been many armies whose baggage trains were attacked from all sides, and the personal belongings carried in the vehicles were seized, leading to a collapse in morale and subsequent defeat.
When the army set out, scouts were sent out thirty miles away.
This is the limit. To be precise, one batch is released every five miles, one batch every ten miles, one batch every twenty miles, and the last batch every thirty miles.
If it is a force mainly composed of cavalry, you can even deploy it fifty or a hundred miles, but it doesn't make much sense. A warning range of thirty miles is enough, no matter whether the enemy is infantry or cavalry.
Of course, the above are all conditions during normal marching.
If it was a forced march, pursuit of the enemy, or defeat and escape, that would be another matter. Otherwise, there wouldn't be so many ambushes in history.
If everyone follows the rules and is very professional, what's the point of an ambush? Of course, this is impossible, because many military teams are just makeshift teams, and their role is to make others famous. What's more, scouts are far from being that amazing, and they often fail to detect enemies that are close at hand.
On the 25th, we arrived at Xishiwu.
This is a fortress of the Pei family, and everyone lives in peace.
On the 26th, we entered the deep earth plateau terrain.
Shao Xun deliberately climbed up a plateau and overlooked the area below.
As an extension of the Loess Plateau, Hongnong has too many loess plateaus with many deep ravines between the plateaus, and the post road is located in these deep valleys.
Many writers throughout the ages have walked this road, and they have all described the steepness of the road, with words like "the guest road is open on both sides of the cliff", "the soil stands like a deep wall", "the skylight peeks through a gap", "the cliff is thousands of feet high", etc.
If an ambush was laid on the plateau at this time, with bows and crossbows fired and rocks falling, Shao's troops traveling on the post road across the plateau would surely suffer heavy losses.
Even cities can be built on earthen plateaus. The famous Yubi City is located on an earthen plateau, surrounded by deep valleys on all sides. The Yuwen family appointed a general manager to lead their army.
In short, this terrain can actually be used. Shao Xun stroked his chin and silently thought about countermeasures.
On the 27th, the army reached the southeast of Shanxian County and suddenly began to accelerate.
The 1,200 government soldiers were divided into two groups. One group, led by Chang Can, with a total of 300 people, headed straight for the Maojin ferry four miles northwest of Shan County; the rest, led by Chen Yougen, with 900 cavalrymen, headed straight for the enemy's pontoon bridge three miles northeast of Shan County.
Zhang Gu and Yu An led a thousand guards, a thousand auxiliary soldiers, and a thousand Yiyang Fort soldiers, bypassed Shan County, and headed to a place seven miles southwest of the city.
As for the main force, it was stationed outside the city of Shan County.
There were enemies in the city, so the city gates were closed early and several groups of messengers were sent out to flee westward.
Next comes the main event...
******
The weather was sunny for only five or six days before a heavy rain came again.
On both sides of the river, the soil, soaked with rain water, groaned with pleasure.
A long floating bridge spanned the Yellow River. Perhaps the peak transportation period had passed, and there were almost no people on the bridge at this time, except for a few hundred soldiers stationed on both sides.
Nine hundred riders rushed forward in the heavy rain.
People kept falling along the way, but the rest seemed unaware and after rushing forward, they dismounted one after another.
After a while, the neat queue had been deployed on the river bank.
Heavy rain washed the armor leaves.
The heavy sword, long axe and lance were already raised high.
The soldiers of Wang Mi's army guarding the pontoon bridge looked at them in confusion.
The sound of orderly footsteps was heard.
Hundreds of Long Sword Army soldiers shouted and rushed towards the crudely built camp.
The camp, which consisted of only a low wooden fence, had no defense at all and was chopped down in no time.
Chen Yougen led the charge, dodged a spear and chopped the opponent's shoulder with his heavy sword, instantly breaking off one of his arms.
Chen Jingen held the big shield and blocked left and right.
The Chen family soldiers rushed into the enemy's crowd, and people were stabbed in the gaps between the armor plates and fell to the ground holding their stomachs. The remaining people were bloodthirsty and braved the casualties to get close to the enemy, slashing with heavy swords continuously, killing the enemy's spearmen and forcing them to retreat again and again.
The longsword warriors behind quickened their pace, sticking to the opponent and hacking at him, not allowing the spearmen to gain distance.
The enemy retreated and they chased them.
The enemy soldiers had no choice but to stop, so they moved forward bravely.
In the heavy rain, bows and crossbows were completely useless, and both sides fought with blood and courage.
"Thief!" Chen Yougen slashed his sword diagonally into the enemy soldier's body, twitched a little, but didn't move.
A long spear was stabbing at him from behind, so he simply threw away his heavy sword, grabbed the spear shaft and pulled it hard.
The enemy soldier stumbled forward. "Thief!" Chen Yougen roared, raised his fist as big as a sand bowl, and slammed it into the enemy's face.
The enemy soldiers fell backwards.
Chen Yougen didn't let him go. He grabbed his clothes and punched him again and again.
Chen Jingen led his family soldiers and rushed forward desperately, using large shields to block the spears coming from all directions.
"Haha, your head is not as hard as my fist!" Chen Yougen shook off the enemy soldier's body that was already unrecognizable, grabbed another person, and punched him in the flesh with extreme ferocity.
The enemies were frightened by his fierce fighting style. Their legs trembled and they turned around and fled after a shout.
"Don't run away, you thief!" Chen Yougen picked up a spear and rushed forward with a roar.
Hundreds of soldiers rushed forward and dispersed the already shaken enemy troops like chopping melons and vegetables.
Real battles on the battlefield are always cruel and bloody at the beginning, with people dying on both sides. After a certain threshold, it always ends with the other side's rapid defeat.
To put it bluntly, whoever has more courage and can endure more casualties will win.
One of the biggest differences between new recruits and veterans is the ability to tolerate casualties.
After clearing the ferry, the soldiers did not stop at all and rushed to the north bank along the pontoon bridge.
After such a long and fierce battle on the south bank, there were no more people on the floating bridge.
The defenders on the north bank also reacted and were sending reinforcements to the south bank.
When two brave men meet in a narrow road, the brave one wins. Hundreds of soldiers from the palace collided head-on with the enemy and fought a desperate battle on the narrow floating bridge.
There was no room to maneuver at all. What was coming towards him were either long spears or short blades, or large shields and heavy swords.
At this moment, it doesn't matter how skilled you are.
Even a new recruit could hit a body if he poked forward without any plan.
On both sides of the floating bridge, there was a constant sound of people falling into the water.
The enemy reinforcements heading to the south bank were forced to retreat step by step and turned around to flee.
Some people were unable to escape and were knocked directly into the river.
Before someone fell into the water, he stretched out his hands randomly, not caring whether it was a comrade or an enemy, and subconsciously pulled the person into the water, and he became silent in a moment.
A section of the floating bridge could not bear the weight and tilted slightly, causing more than a dozen people to fall into the water with a loud splash.
At this time, whether it was the lightly armored soldiers of Wang Mi's army or the fully armored soldiers of the Shao family, they could not struggle for a few breaths in the river and soon sank to the bottom.
Chen Yougen was also hit by the shaking pontoon bridge, and someone stumbled over and knocked him into the river. Fortunately, the personal soldiers were quick and pulled him up.
He angrily took off his helmet and smashed it on the bridge. Then he and his warriors bravely advanced with swords, driving the fleeing enemy soldiers all the way to the north bank.
There were only more than 200 people left in the camp. Seeing that the people on the south bank and the reinforcements had been defeated, they had lost all their fighting spirit.
After the palace soldiers rushed over, they only resisted for a short while before retreating.
The soldiers took advantage of the situation and chased them for more than a hundred steps on the muddy road. After beheading dozens of people, they slowly withdrew and reinforced the camp to hold their ground.
After nightfall, Wang Que'er, deputy commander of the Silver Spear Army, escorted a batch of supplies across the river.
"Shaanxi City has been breached," Wang Que'er said. "More than a thousand bandit soldiers were frightened by the sound of drums, waited until dark, and then fled at night."
"We have also captured Maojin. Your people are looking for a ferry and will be here to join us in two or three hours at most."
"When will my husband cross the river?" Chen Yougen's hand was wrapped in a piece of silk, which was soaked in blood.
When fighting, the blood was boiling and I didn't feel any pain at all, but now that I've stopped, I feel a sharp pain. Of course, Lao Chen still looked nonchalant - at least he pretended to be so.
"Soon, maybe in the second half of the night, maybe tomorrow morning." Wang Que'er glanced at Chen Yougen's hand and said.
He had heard the "boasting" of the soldiers in Chen's army, but he did not take it seriously.
Fighting in battle depends on the dedication of everyone and the cooperation of the group.
Although Chen Yougen was brave, Wang Que'er could not appreciate this style of fighting. In his opinion, a truly good army should have a strict formation, move forward without hesitation, and advance one after another, rather than a killer like Chen Yougen who relied on his fearless courage and rushed forward.
The two of them had no idea of what was going on and belonged to different systems, so they soon separated and each went to inspect their own headquarters.
There was still a steady stream of people and vehicles passing across the floating bridge.
The rain had stopped, and a long line of torches stretched as far as the eye could see. A large group of people marched directly into Hedong.
Target: Dayang.
(End of this chapter)