Chapter 353 Growth
Chapter 353 Growth (Added for Alliance Leader Wang Zhiyi 0524)
It was nearly June, and the long-abandoned farmland was covered with weeds.
Wild ducks soared into the sky from the dense reeds on the river bank.
The earthen plateau is full of graves. Although the Qingming Festival has passed, no one comes to visit the new or old graves.
This place seems to be a forgotten land.
Suddenly, the sound of horse hooves came from far away, occasionally mixed with the sound of weapons clashing.
Rushing in the front were more than a hundred riders, all riding at the top of their horses, as if they were trying to escape.
The people running in the front were fine, but the dozen or so riders at the back were more or less pierced by several arrows.
A few dozen steps behind them, the cavalry, whose number was almost three times theirs, shouted and roared loudly.
Some held spears, some held halberds, and some held horn bows, ready to sneak up and shoot arrows.
The two sides were chasing each other and fleeing, and in a blink of an eye they had run several miles away.
At this time, more than 200 cavalrymen rushed to the southeast of the fleeing party. Judging from their attire, they did not look like people from the Central Plains, but more like Wuhuan and Xiongnu. However, their target was precisely the miscellaneous Hu cavalry fleeing in front of them. They moved quickly and fiercely, without mercy, and it seemed that they had been lying in ambush here for a long time.
Yes, the place where they started out was a forest.
After coming out of the woods, he disappeared into the wormwood that was almost one meter high, slowly accelerating. When he heard the continuous sound of horse hooves, he suddenly rushed out, cutting into the enemy's flank, using swords and spears, and horn bows to kill and knock down all the enemy soldiers in an instant.
The pursuers rushed over, cut off and surrounded the enemy from the rear, slaughtering them at will.
A successful ambush!
There is no doubt that the two groups of people cooperated with each other, consciously driving the enemy into the preset battlefield, and then gathering to encircle and annihilate them.
A slight mistake occurred during the execution, allowing the Huns to avoid the first ambush area. Fortunately, the plan itself had redundancy and a large number of troops were mobilized. If one failed, there was always a second one.
The battle now entered its final stages.
The Hun cavalry knew that they could not escape. Some of them fought desperately, some begged for surrender in unfamiliar Mandarin, and some were determined to meet the enemy cavalry and charge forward regardless of the consequences, trying to break through a gap and escape.
But all in vain.
The Wuhuan cavalry of the Qihuo Army were patrolling the periphery.
The shock cavalry of the Yicong Army were armed with long spears and halberds. They charged and attacked fiercely after getting close to the enemy, and soon knocked off the last group of enemy cavalry who dared to resist.
Occasionally, when the Huns broke through the blockade and tried to escape, the Qihuo Army's cavalry would immediately surround them and shoot the bandits, both their horses and men, like hedgehogs.
The battle was over quickly.
The Yicong Army cavalry dismounted, first rescued their own wounded, then finished off the Huns and cleaned up the battlefield.
The beggars could also pick up some benefits. They could take the meat of injured or dead horses and hand over their leather, especially the best quality horse hip leather.
The enemy is allowed to take away damaged weapons, which can be repaired and used again.
The young men who joined the Yicong Army looked down upon these things.
These Hun light cavalry were slippery and very fast. Most of them wore fur coats, and only a few of them wore leather armor.
It’s not that I don’t have melee weapons, but my skills are poor and I’m not very good at them.
Their greatest features are their mobility, speed, and accurate archery on horseback, making them a real pain in the ass to harass.
To deal with them, we can only mobilize several times the number of troops as much as possible, use ambushes, luring the enemy and other means, use superior forces to encircle and annihilate part of them, make them fearful, increase their costs, and curb the enemy's rampant arrogance.
"It's really not easy to catch such a group of thieves." Yicong Du Manyu climbed up a small earthen slope and looked at the corpses of soldiers and horses scattered on the ground, sighing.
Behind him followed three cavalry generals, Deputy Governor Qiao Hong, General Duan Xiong, and General Yin Qi.
Qiao Hong was a Xiongnu who was a surrendered general. Most of the more than 300 cavalrymen in the early days of the Yicong Army were brought by him.
Duan Xiong was from the imperial guards and once ambushed the Huns at Qiliai. At that time, he was leading armored cavalry. After being pulled out of the town by Sima Yue, he went to Yanzhou, and then returned to Chen Gong's camp.
Yin Qi was a newcomer from Liangzhou. After recruiting a thousand Liangzhou cavalry, their faction occupied a large share in the Yicong Army.
To be honest, Man Yu was under tremendous pressure.
As the chief officer of the Yicong Army when it was first established, Chen Gong had never moved his position, perhaps out of affection or for other reasons. But in any case, as the army grew in size and factions became more and more complicated, his ability was put to the test.
He spent almost all his time with this unit.
I often feel overwhelmed and inadequate, and then force myself to engage in painful learning. Just when I have made some progress, I find that there are people with better abilities, so I try every way to learn and ask for advice again - I cannot be looked down upon, otherwise how can I lead the entire army?
The decision to ambush the Huns was made after he had rejected many objections. He mobilized nearly a thousand cavalrymen just to annihilate two or three hundred enemy cavalrymen. However, he alerted the enemy at the beginning and more than a hundred cavalrymen escaped.
Fortunately, the final result was not bad. More than 170 enemy cavalry were captured and killed, which greatly dealt a heavy blow to their arrogance.
"General, fighting like this is bound to lead to harassment." Yin Qi said bluntly, "We mobilized a thousand cavalrymen, but only surrounded and killed less than two hundred. In Chenliu, Puyang, Dongping, Jibei and other places, the Xiongnu are still looting and destroying crops and houses. The people are displaced and lying in the wild. If this continues, it will cause great damage to Lord Chen's reputation."
"What good ideas do you have?" Manyu asked.
"No." Yin Qi said, "I just told the commander-in-chief that this is not a solution."
Fuck! Man Yu was resentful. He had no other tricks but to ask questions, right?
"You are the commander-in-chief, but I am not." Yin Qi smiled and went to gather his troops.
Qiao Hong laughed awkwardly and said, "General, this guy has a sour face all day long and doesn't like anyone. Next time, send him across the river to harass Shi Le." Upon hearing this, Duan Xiong looked at Qiao Hong in surprise.
Why would you go to this extent among comrades? How many men could Yin Qi take to Hebei? Even if you took a thousand Liangzhou cavalrymen, if you were surrounded and shot at from all sides in a wilderness, you would not be able to use your advantage in close combat. Wouldn't your entire army be wiped out?
Moreover, he did not believe that the Xiongnu did not have any cavalry capable of charging and fighting. The Xianbei had many heavy cavalry that were good at charging, and Liu Han had imperial guards, so they should have both heavy armored infantry and heavy cavalry. This was a threat.
Damn, the Huns are unreliable!
"Stop talking behind people's backs." Man Yu glared at Qiao Hong, then pointed to the distance and said, "Send the beggars away for me."
"General, calling beggars like that to fight is a sign of respect for them, why bother?" Qiao Hong said disapprovingly.
Man Yu looked around and said, "The Qihuo Army came to help in the battle on the orders of the Donghai Concubine."
"By order of the Concubine Dowager?" Qiao Hong was somewhat puzzled: "Where is the heir to the throne?"
"The heir to the throne is studying at home. The dowager concubine is in charge of all matters in the palace. I guess the dowager concubine will not relieve herself of this responsibility until the heir to the throne gets married. Go quickly and don't ask any more questions."
Qiao Hong left with a question mark on his face.
Manyu climbed on his horse and went down the hill.
The cavalry gradually gathered and walked along the bank of the canal.
In front of us is Putian Lake, one of the famous lakes in ancient times, three miles east of Guancheng.
It is limited by the Great Wall (Zheng-Han Great Wall) in the west, Guandu in the east, and Peiqu River in the north. The longest point from east to west is about 50 miles, and from north to south is 26 miles. The water area is very vast.
Putianze connects to the Yellow River in the north, and to the Jishui River and the Xudangqu River in the east, and also connects to the Bianqu River and Honggou River systems.
It also has the function of regulating flood peaks and water volume. "When the water is high, it flows north (to the Yellow River), and when the canal overflows, it flows south (to the Bian Canal)."
At this time, there were only a few sand dunes in Putian Lake. Perhaps because it was connected to the Yellow River and there were many years of war, and the water conservancy facilities could not be maintained, during the Northern Wei Dynasty, Putian Lake gradually silted up, and the sandbars increased. The entire lake was divided into 24 lakes, which were connected by waterways.
During the Tang Dynasty, a lot of areas were developed around Putian Lake, so the government seat of Zhengzhou was moved there.
During the Qing Dynasty, Putian Lake gradually disappeared due to the construction of farmland around the lake.
At this time, there were a large number of ships anchored in Putian Lake.
Several sand dunes in the marsh were transformed into docks, crowded and noisy.
Manyu and his men stopped at a temporary base southwest of Putianze.
In the wetlands, the aquatic plants are extremely lush.
Especially after the flood receded, the muddy ground was covered with lush grass.
The horses strolled among them, chewing the food happily.
Li Ju, commander of the fort, was appointed as the magistrate of Xingyang. He brought a group of people from his own fort and had them graze cattle, sheep and horses outside the Putian Lake, while cutting grass, drying it, and chopping it up as reserve fodder.
This is also an advantage of fighting inside.
There are forts and military cities everywhere, and supplies can be provided at any time. If the number of horses increases in the future, they can even be replaced, which will greatly increase combat efficiency.
When the Huns came south, they would face such disadvantages.
When the people of Jin went north, they would also encounter the problem of insufficient supplies.
Attacking deep into enemy territory is always more difficult than defending.
"Ding ding..." A clear bell sounded from a sand hill in the swamp.
After a while, a ship left the dock and slowly headed north.
Then came the second, the third...
This was the fleet of Yang Bao, the lieutenant of the Ministry of Revenue, loaded with food and silk sent from Guangling and transported to the capital.
The transports sat nervously on the front and rear decks, holding bow tips, quivers, and crossbows in their hands.
The fleet might encounter an enemy surprise attack, so they had no choice but to take it seriously.
I heard that the deputy commander of the Silver Spear Army, Jin Zheng, led more than 8,000 horses, carriages and auxiliary soldiers to Ao Cang, probably to escort these grain ships to Luoyang.
From Ao Cang to Luoyang, boatmen were needed to pull the boats. The Huns might not be able to do anything to the boats on the river, but they could still attack the boatmen, so it was necessary to send troops to escort them.
"Jin Zheng..." Man Yu muttered silently.
It seems that Mr. Chen wants to focus on cultivating their ability to stand on their own.
Jin Zheng, Wang Que'er, Hou Feihu and others have great prestige in the Silver Spear Army, are familiar with each other and are adept at commanding. They should be the first group of people to take on the important task.
Manyu felt a sense of crisis.
Life is like rowing against the current, if you don’t move forward you will move backward.
Thinking of the many people in the Yicong Army who disobeyed him, Man Yu felt a headache. He had no choice but to improve himself.
Neither martial arts nor military strategy can be neglected.
He was young - or too young - and had plenty of opportunities.
(End of this chapter)