Chapter 502 Emergency Rescue
Chapter 502 Emergency Rescue (Part )
At this time, Luo Shixin saw a wall of sand bags about two meters wide blocking the canal to the south. He pulled the reins and shouted, "Stop moving forward!"
The soldiers reined in their horses and stopped moving forward to let the horses rest. Soon, the soldiers brought up an old man. Luo Shixin pointed at the sandbag wall with his whip and asked, "What's going on?"
"Reporting to the general, it was the governor who dredged the river, blocked the water, and then dug out the silt in the river."
"How far is the mud and sand wall on the other side?"
"Ten miles to the east!"
Luo Shixin hesitated for a moment and asked again: "If the sandbags are removed, will there be any danger? Will the dam collapse?"
"General, you can see that the dams on both sides are very high. Besides, we are just dredging the silt. There is no way that the dams will collapse. It is just a government project. No one dares to destroy it at will."
Luo Shixin nodded and said to the soldier, "Go and ask if there are any officials among the fleeing people?"
The soldiers went to ask around, and soon a man in his thirties was brought up. He clasped his fists and said, "I am Li Guang, the county lieutenant of Shangyu County. I am here to see you, General!"
Luo Shixin took out the Jin King's gold medal and said, "I am Luo Shixin, a general under the Jin King. This is the Jin King's gold medal. I order you to immediately organize the people to remove the mud and sand bag walls at both ends and restore the canal. I will remember your great merit and report to the Jin King to promote you to county magistrate."
Li Guang was overjoyed and nodded, saying, "I will organize the people right away."
Restoring the canal is not difficult, the key is that no one dares to do it. This is a project arranged by Governor Yin himself, and only senior military officials like Luo Shixin would not take it seriously.
Li Guang began to organize the people to collect sandbags, and Luo Shixin led the army to continue westward. After walking less than ten miles, they saw the river rushing in and flooding the riverbed.
Soon, Li Guang arrived with hundreds of young and strong men, and pulled up the sandbags at the other end. They only took away more than 300 bags of mud and sand. The sandbag wall could not hold and collapsed. The two rivers quickly merged, and the canal, which had been cut off for nearly half a year, finally returned to normal.
As night fell, Luo Shixin led his troops to Kuaiji County. Ten miles away from the county seat, the army stopped to rest. Luo Shixin then sent dozens of scouts to explore the county seat and the banks of the Cao'e River.
Half an hour later, the scouts came to report that there was nothing unusual in the county and it was still in the hands of the government.
Luo Shixin still did not set out. He was still waiting for news from another scout group.
Another hour passed, around the first watch, when the scouts finally came back. The leading scout reported to Luo Shixin:
"General, there is indeed an army stationed on the east bank of the Cao'e River, about 20 miles from the county town. There are about 2,000 soldiers. There is also a small navy, only a few dozen small boats and 300 to 400 soldiers. They have blocked the Cao'e River, and a large number of boats are piled up on the southern river."
"Are the piled up ships official ships or civilian ships?" Luo Shixin asked anxiously.
"They are all civilian ships, and they are full of refugees. It is said that as long as we pay the other party 100 strings of cash, we can pass through."
"Is there a bridge across the river?"
"Yes! There is a large wooden bridge five miles from the county town."
Luo Shixin nodded and ordered: "The whole army, move out!"
The soldiers mounted their horses and urged them to move forward.
The Cao'e River does not flow through Kuaiji County, but turns east five miles away from the county seat. However, a small river flows into the Cao'e River from the county seat. The small river is full of small boats, stretching for more than ten miles. The people on the boats all want to escape from the Cao'e River into the Qiantang River Bay and go ashore at Yanguan County on the opposite bank.
At this time, the small boats received the news that navigation on the Xixing Canal had resumed. The news spread quickly, and the small boats turned around and headed towards the canal several miles away. There was a cheer, and the entire river was boiling.
Three miles away from the enemy's camp, the soldiers dismounted one after another. They were all infantry, not cavalry. The horses were just their means of transportation. They had not been strictly trained and could not charge into battle. Luo Shixin said to Wang Bodang: "General, lead 2,000 brothers to the east to cut off the enemy's retreat. I will lead 3,000 soldiers to attack. These 2,000 people must be their main force. Kill them all without mercy!"
The King of Jin formulated the principle of combining leniency with severity. The main forces of the rebel army who had joined the rebellion from the beginning were killed without mercy, but the servants and soldiers who were forced to rebel were shown leniency and could be spared if they surrendered.
Wang Bodang led two thousand soldiers to rush eastward, while Luo Shixin led three thousand troops to attack the enemy camp directly.
The two thousand troops currently stationed on the east bank of the Cao'e River are Lan Zhaotian's wedge troops. As the name suggests, they will drive a wedge into the vital point of Kuaiji County.
Lan Zhaotian had not yet formally raised the flag of rebellion, but he was unwilling to watch the taxes being transported away, so he first sent an army to cut off the water supply. There were not many mules and horses in Kuaiji County, so the taxes could not be transported by land and could only be transported by water.
The canal was temporarily blocked, and the only waterway was the Cao'e River. Therefore, as long as the Cao'e River was cut off, the taxes could not be transported, and the 60,000 strings of money and more than 100,000 shi of grain would be trapped.
Of course, Lan Zhaotian also wanted to prevent Yin Shangzhi from making a desperate move to restore navigation on the canal and transport the taxes away, so he wrote a letter to Yin Shangzhi, pointing out three ways to survive.
The commander of the two thousand troops was named Kuang Zhao, a Shanyue warrior and one of Lan Zhaotian's trusted generals. At two o'clock in the morning, Kuang Zhao was pushed awake by a soldier while he was sleeping.
"General, something bad is happening!"
Kuang Zhao turned over and sat up, "But Yin Shangzhi ran away with the tax?"
"No, the brothers who were monitoring the county town discovered an army of unknown origin heading towards our camp."
"what?"
Kuang Zhao was shocked and immediately ordered: "Sound the alarm bell quickly, and the whole army should rise up to fight!"
"Dang! Dang! Dang! Dang!"
The alarm bells rang in the military camp, and the sleeping soldiers were awakened one after another. They hurriedly got up and ran out of the tent. Before they could deal with the problem, they saw the camp fence on the south side collapse and countless soldiers rushed in.
The leading general was none other than Luo Shixin. He rushed into the camp on his horse, wielding his long spear and slashing left and right. His men also held spears in their hands, and each of them was extremely powerful. They killed the Shanyue rebels so badly that they screamed in fear.
Kuang Zhao was furious and rushed towards Luo Shixin with a 60-jin wolf-tooth iron rod in his hand, "Sui Dynasty barbarian, come here and die!"
Kuang Zhao was a foot soldier, which was also a characteristic of the Shanyue people. When fighting in the mountains, they were all extremely brave, but when they reached the plains, they lost the advantage of fighting at home. They were also not good at riding horses, so they were basically foot soldiers.
He rushed forward, shouted loudly, jumped three feet high, and smashed Luo Shixin head-on with the mace.
Luo Shixin sneered and used his steel spear to meet the opponent's attack. There was a loud bang and Kuang Zhao screamed. The mace in his hand flew out of his hand. Before he could land on the ground, Luo Shixin's spear blade flashed past and a huge head flew out.
Luo Shixin killed the enemy's main general in one round. He raised his spear and shouted, "Kill—"
The sound was like thunder, and the Sui army soldiers followed suit and shouted: "Kill!"
When the Shanyue soldiers saw their main general die in a single encounter, they were so frightened that they turned around and fled. The Sui army was chasing them from behind. Soon, Wang Bodang led two thousand soldiers to attack from the east, attacking from both sides. The two thousand people were completely defeated. It was no use for the soldiers to kneel on the ground and beg for mercy, as they were all killed by the Sui army.
In just half an hour, two thousand Shanyue troops were completely wiped out.
(End of this chapter)