Chapter 507: Rapid Advancement
Chapter 507: Rapid Advancement (Part )
"Splash!" A boat was pushed into the Baigou, splashing large amounts of turbid water.
In the open space outside the south city of Fangtou, craftsmen built boats day and night and piled them on the shore.
The wood of the ship was not dried for a long time, so the newly built ship would deform, leak and even rot after a short time. But as long as it can be used temporarily, it is enough, isn't it?
In the dredged Qishui Gudu, the trackers pulled the boats to Nancheng River Port. After unloading the cargo, some of the boats returned south, while some stayed and were prepared to be transferred to Baigou.
Xuchang Shibing stood on the shore and worked closely with the boatmen to unload the sidecars and baggage carts onto the shore. After a rough inspection, the team headed east and arrived at the temporary base on the south bank of Baigou.
Yang Bao followed the last fleet to Hepu.
As soon as he got off the boat, he heard a loud "rustling" sound.
The sound came from far away and became louder and louder.
The followers all looked in surprise not far away. Yang Bao turned around suddenly and saw a group of people walking on the river bank.
This group of people were in neat formation and in high morale. They were wearing iron armor, holding bows in their left hands and swords in their right hands, and holding tall spears in their hands.
People kept walking down the river bank and following behind.
They were scattered at first, and then gradually gathered into clusters.
After a slight alignment, the groups of people slowly regrouped into a larger group, and the queue became more orderly.
It is like streams flowing into a big river, and like fine soil piled up into a high mountain.
They said nothing and quickly passed by Yang Bao and the others.
The tip of the gun flashed a dazzling cold light.
The armor plates are covered with scratches from sharp objects.
The sound of collision filled his eardrums, and Yang Bao even smelled a hint of blood.
They were silent, with indifferent expressions, as if they were not going to fight for their lives but just completing a very simple task.
The rustling sound of footsteps gradually faded away.
Yang Bao felt a bitter and salty taste at the corner of his mouth. He raised his hand to wipe it and found that it was sweat from his forehead running down his face.
Seeing that his followers looked distraught, he was about to say a few words to liven up the atmosphere, but he heard a desolate horn sound.
The vehicles rumbled by, raising large clouds of dust.
In the smoke and dust, the big banner was held high.
As soon as the cheers began, someone reached out and suppressed them, showing his strong control.
Hundreds of riders walked out from the smoke and dust, led by a man wearing golden armor, holding the reins in one hand and stroking the sword in the other.
Wherever he went, everyone looked at him with attention.
"Mr. Chen!" Yang Bao whispered.
"Has Lord Chen gone to war?" someone asked.
"Go to war." Yang Bao sighed softly, not knowing whether he was talking about Lord Chen or Yang Qin, his son, who was a member of Lord Chen's personal guard.
He said no more and went straight into Fangtou South City and headed for the branch of the Duzhi Yamen located there.
Compared to the last time he arrived, the area outside Fangtou South City was much cleaner. It seemed that the area had already passed the most chaotic stage of supplies and personnel.
All the supplies that should be delivered have been delivered, all the troops that should be assembled have been assembled, and everyone has completed their assigned tasks. All that remains is to wait for the outcome of the battle.
To be honest, he was a little nervous.
If he were in Shao Xun's position, he would be satisfied with being a warlord in Henan and would not have any other ideas. Although he knew that he would be dead if he was trapped in Henan and did not fight out, he just didn't want to take the risk and was determined to get by one day at a time.
"No wonder he can have such a big situation." Yang Bao shook his head and prepared to find the shogunate clerks who stayed behind to hand over the supplies.
******
It's June now, and the melons and beans in the fields are ripe.
The mulberry leaves grew very lush, but no one picked them.
There were a few brave farmers who were picking fruits and vegetables in the fields. When they saw the army passing by, they were trembling with fear, but they did not move away.
There were not many soldiers on the north bank of the Baigou River. Occasionally, some cavalry passed by, but they were in a hurry and did not notice them.
On the Baigou River, one boat after another goes downstream.
Someone looked up to the west, where there were dark clouds, baring fangs and claws, like a ferocious beast.
Ships were spit out from the mouth of the ferocious beast, one after another, in groups, without stopping, and without end.
The farmers subconsciously lowered their bodies and kept silent, as if they were afraid that the passing army would hear their voices.
On the south bank of the Baigou River, flags blocked out the sun and smoke filled the sky.
Chariots, horses, soldiers and generals were like a long dragon, stretching from east to west, filling the space between heaven and earth.
If you don’t see it with your own eyes, it’s hard to believe that there are so many people in the world!
Yes, these farmers only know a few hundred people in their lifetime, but how many people are coming from the other side?
It was a huge black mass, boundless and countless.
"The castle lord doesn't raise so many sheep, right?" someone murmured.
"The castle owner only has a thousand sheep at most."
"When I released them, there was a huge field of them. I thought there were tens of thousands of them."
Several people laughed.
The person who spoke blushed a little. To him, one thousand or ten thousand were the same number and there was no difference.
"Whose soldier is this?" someone suddenly asked.
"He's a bearded man, right?"
"No. If they were Dahu soldiers, they would definitely be Jie cavalry. They wouldn't be so kind."
"I indeed didn't see any Jie people." The Jie people were easy to identify, with their curly beards, high noses, and deep eyes, and their appearance was different from theirs.
The most important thing is that they are rather barbaric and brutal, killing people without a trace, and their methods are extremely ruthless. Even the big beards cannot control them well.
"Let's go, they might be people from Henan who are here to fight the big beards." Someone got scared and looked to the west, the dark clouds seemed to be getting darker.
"Let's go." The few of them had no objection, packed up the farm tools, fruits and vegetables, and disappeared among the fields.
Not long after they left, a group of cavalry rushed up to them.
The leading officer pointed, and dozens of riders rushed out, conducting in-depth searches and inspections in all directions.
The others stopped there and rested for a while.
The horse lowered its head and nibbled on the grass and vegetables in the field.
Drums were heard on the other side of the river.
A group of people who had just formed a team moved forward again in neat steps.
Having entered the enemy-occupied area, the veterans of the Silver Spear Army resumed their alert posture, with bows strung, swords unsheathed, spears in hand, and armor on, they walked inside the side carriage.
When they were tired, they sat in the car to rest. Another group of people who had finished resting got off the car and continued to remain alert.
Every day, when the sun was still mid-sky, the entire army would stop and set up camp. They were extremely cautious and were willing to sacrifice their marching speed for this.
There was a sound of arrows breaking through the air from the front.
Everyone became nervous and mounted their horses.
A moment later, the sound of chaotic horse hooves was heard, and several Hun cavalrymen came galloping over with arrows on their backs.
The Jin army cavalry who were resting rushed forward without any hesitation, attacked from the front and back, and killed the enemy cavalry off their horses.
The vegetable fields were trampled into a mess, and even the farmland next to it was trampled to pieces by dozens of cavalry from both sides.
This is war, there is no mercy.
To put it bluntly, if we encountered Shi Le's army at this moment, both sides would deploy on the spot and fight in battle array. The farmlands and vegetable plots near and far would be filled with densely packed soldiers, and the mulberry forests that hindered the movement would be completely cut down.
This is not something that should or should not happen.
Even if the army has the best military discipline in the world and the commander cares deeply about the people, in this situation, should he order his troops to deploy from the marching state and arrange in battle formation?
The post road was so wide that once the soldiers were deployed in formation, they would soon be standing in the farmland.
As the army advanced and retreated, the crops within a radius of several miles or even more than ten miles were all destroyed.
From the other side of the river the sound of marching drums was heard again.
"Let's go and rest at the next place." The leader waved his hand and rode away.
"Yes." The others followed closely behind, passing through vegetable fields, native fields, bypassing forts, crossing rivers, and following the army all the way.
******
On the night of June 6, the army camped near Suxukou.
The so-called Suxukou is the place where the ancient Yellow River burst its banks (located in the southwest of today's Jun County), twenty miles east of Fangtou and fifty miles southwest of Liyang.
The Yu River (the Yellow River during the era of Dayu's flood control, now the lower reaches of the Yellow River) originally flowed north from here, and began to flow east in the fifth year of King Ding of Zhou.
Cao Cao built Fangtou, diverted the Qi River to flow eastward, and dredged Baigou, which is actually the ancient Yellow River.
On the seventh day of June, the army marched northeast along Baigou. It was at this time that the two thousand cavalrymen serving as the vanguard arrived outside the city of Liyang.
One thousand Yicongjun cavalrymen dispersed on the spot and circled the city.
The soldiers of the mule army, which had expanded to a thousand people, dismounted their mules one after another, took off their armor and weapons from the back of another mule, and put them on each other in pairs.
Jiang Ke, former leader of the eighth branch of the Silver Spear Army and current commander-in-chief of the Mule Army, stood outside the city, looking at the dilapidated city.
Since the war among the kings, Liyang has changed hands several times.
The most tragic one was when Liu Jing, the great general of the Huns who destroyed the Jin Dynasty, attacked Liyang. After breaking into the city, he drowned 30,000 civilians and refugees from the county town and surrounding areas into the river.
This place has changed from an important river defense town to a dilapidated ruin.
"Woo——" the horn sounded suddenly.
Qiao Hong, deputy governor of the Yicong Army, was startled and turned his head to look, only to see that thousands of soldiers of the Mule Army had already lined up outside the city.
The first hundred people were wearing leather armor and were as light as a swallow. They aimed at the gap in the city wall, threw out their flying claws, and climbed up.
The flying claw is a climbing device with a grappling hook at the front and a rope at the back. It has been used in the military since ancient times and was very popular in the Tang Dynasty, but has rarely been seen since the Song Dynasty.
At the end of the Tang Dynasty, Huazhou was in internal strife and the soldiers had no will to fight. It was snowing heavily and extremely cold. Zhu Zhen did not allow his soldiers to rest and rushed into the city at night. One day, he went straight to the city, climbed up, and captured An Shiru, the governor of Yicheng.
This is not a special forces weapon. Like ladders and ladder trucks, it is one of the various means of siege.
When the Mule Army soldiers were climbing up, a few heads popped out from the top of the city wall, and saw them using the gap in the wall to climb up, and they cried out in surprise.
The follow-up soldiers of the Mule Army rushed forward, drew out their long arrows, and shot them on foot while wearing armor.
Their accuracy was far inferior to that of the Silver Spear Army, but they had the advantage of numbers. Under the simultaneous firing of hundreds of people, the enemy soldiers who stuck their heads out of the city walls screamed in pain.
The first hundred men roared and climbed to the top of the city wall, and a fierce battle broke out between the two sides.
A moment later, another hundred people climbed up along the ropes.
The sound of killing gradually moved into the city.
"Squeak--" the tattered west gate of Liyang, which was inlaid with a few "patches", opened wide. The mule army, who had been waiting impatiently, rushed in and rushed inward along the street.
The cavalry were eager to try, and after making sure it was safe, they ran into the city in small steps.
Hundreds of strong men in the city could not resist the enemy and most of them surrendered. The rest rushed out and disappeared into the wilderness.
Liyang changed hands in one day.
"Send people to occupy the ferry, collect boats and return to the south bank to report the news." Jiang Ke, who had won the first credit for breaking the city, was in high spirits and gave the order.
(End of this chapter)