Chapter 1152 Hunting

Chapter 1152 Hunting

Chapter 1152 Hunting
"Shoot!" With a command from Xie Siming, the governor of Ba County, thousands of arrows were fired on the flat ground.

Dense arrows covered the edge of the forest, knocking down a large number of Liang soldiers who rushed out. The remaining people saw that the situation was not good and retreated back to the forest behind them.

It was obvious that they had been discovered when they were crossing the mountains and forests and trying to go around the enemy, and then fell into the enemy's pre-set battlefield, resulting in heavy casualties.

The dense arrows continued to fly until there was no one left standing at the edge of the forest.

"Boom boom..." The drums sounded, and more than 2,000 Bandun barbarians from Ba County rushed forward with bows, crossbows, shields, and short weapons, chasing and killing the defeated enemy.

The tactics are good, but aren’t there fewer people chasing after us?

Xie Siming felt something was wrong immediately and called the county commander to ask, "Where are the people from the Lan family?"

The county commander was also confused and said, "It seems that he didn't come."

"Go ask!" Xie Siming said with a gloomy face.

"Yes, sir." The county commander took the order and left.

Xie Siming looked at the battlefield ahead, without any sense of pleasure in his heart from thwarting the Liang people's plot to launch a sneak attack from behind.

The Lan family is a large family in Fuling County.

In order to win them over, the Li Cheng court called them the Bantun Barbarians, but the Liang Dynasty said that they were the same as the other tribes in Badong, all of which were Baihu Yi. Anyway, each said something different, all for political purposes.

Although there were five counties in Fuling (today's Pengshui), the local tribal leaders basically had the final say - the tribal leaders called themselves "Yi Jun" because they built cities and lived together.

Whoever people side with, that's who they side with.

During the Shu Han period, the largest powerful family in Fuling was the Xu family. Because of their rebellion, they were suppressed, and then 5,000 families of Xu, Lin, Xie, and Fan were relocated to Shu, and their leaders became "hunting officers."

Once these families left, the Lan family, which was originally inconspicuous, began to expand its influence, and now they are the number one "lord" of the five counties of Fuling.

To be honest, Xie Siming never thought much of the Lan family before.

This family was savage, fierce, crude and uncultured. Their ancestors had no surname, but because they admired the Lin family of Fuling, they took this surname. However, when they registered, they made a mistake in writing "Lin" instead of "Lan", so they took Lan as their surname. Everyone who knew about this laughed so hard.

But the Lan family actually disobeyed the order? How could this be possible!
While feeling angry, Xie Siming also felt a sense of worry: recently a leader of the Liao people had run away with his men. Fortunately, General Zhengdong reacted in time and tried his best to block the news, minimizing its impact on the morale of the army.

The Liao people ran away first, and then the Fuling Qiang people ran away. Why?
Xie Siming knew the reason in his heart. Wasn't it because the Liang army suddenly entered Dangqu and attacked towards the rear of Jiangzhou?
On the first day of February, the Right Cavalry Guard of the Liang Army burned part of the military supplies piled up near Dianjiang County.

Li Zhengdong received the news the next day, and then, on the pretext of changing defense, he selected thousands of young men from the six counties and went to Dianjiang to stabilize the situation.

Just yesterday, this group of people took the initiative to attack and defeated the Liang army, resulting in more than 2,000 casualties or desertion. The rest fled directly back to Dianjiang County and the surrounding land and water camps, and dared not fight again.

As a result, land transportation was greatly affected, and countless food and military supplies were intercepted, burned, and looted. This not only affected the Jiangzhou front line, but also fattened up the large group of Liang troops that broke into Dangqu, making them no longer short of food.

With no other options, Li Zhengdong could only order the navy to withdraw some small boats to provide support, not to fight the Liang people, but to transport supplies. After all, the reason for the combined land and water transportation was because of the shortage of ships.

By this day, the Yangguan Fortress was badly damaged, and the casualties were heavy. There was an endless stream of barbaric soldiers lying behind the city, groaning and wailing. A large number of people were taken away every day, and new ones were added every day. It was shocking to see.

To be honest, Li Zhengdong personally commanded the troops from the city walls many times and spent his family wealth to reward the soldiers. The young men from the six counties also worked hard and managed to thwart the Liang army's two attempts to bypass the forest, one water raid, and countless attempts to attack the city walls. They even repelled an attempt to circumvent the barbarian settlement area in the southern part of Ba County. They had already worked very hard.

It would be a real shame if the entire army collapsed because of the cutoff of food supply and strategic locations like Yangguan and Jiangzhou were lost.

Thinking of this, Xie Siming sighed deeply and felt confused about the future.

******
In a narrow and dark brick house in Yangguan City, Li Shou grimaced and let the doctor clean and bandage his wounds.

Admiral Luo Heng, the shogunate's Sima Cai Xing, the Yangguan governor Shangguan Dan, the cavalry commander Li Bao and others surrounded him and complained.

"Luo Yan is such a loser. His sneak attack was pushed back by the enemy." Cai Xing couldn't help cursing, "Once Dangqu is lost, the whole line will be shaken. What's the point of us fighting to the death here?"

"He is the prince's uncle." Li Bao said quietly.

He was Li Xiong's illegitimate son, so his chances were slim to begin with, but that didn't stop him from feeling jealous.

If the emperor had appointed his legitimate son as crown prince, he would not have said anything, but he chose to appoint his nephew, which was simply unbelievable.

Of course, this has nothing to do with him. There is no possibility for him to become the crown prince or even the emperor, and he has given up long ago.

"What nonsense are you talking about!" Luo Heng thought to himself, "Are you guys blind? I, a member of the Luo family, am still here."

"It's all right." Li Shou waved his hand, which caused his wound to tug, causing his face to wrinkle. After a long while, he said, "I heard that Lord Luo has recruited thousands of Bantun Soldiers and Liao Soldiers in Langzhong and Xichong. They are loyal and brave men. Without the Luo family, how could the Bantun Soldiers serve the court? In the past, the Gong brothers served Luo Shang (Luo Xian's nephew, from Xiangyang)."

After Li Shou set the tone, everyone realized their mistake and stopped complaining.

Luo Heng was originally the chief secretary of Li Shou and held a high position. The nobles and clan members of the six counties were originally very polite to him, but in such a critical situation of war, they could not help but shirk their responsibilities and speak without thinking - in fact, everyone was responsible for the outcome of the war.

"Your Majesty has ordered us to defend Jiangzhou firmly and drive out the enemy who is harassing our rear." Li Shou said, "He has..." At this point, Li Shou's expression was a little sad, and he said, "He has personally led the army despite his illness, vowing to annihilate the stubborn bandits and clear out the enemies who have penetrated into the heart of the city."

When Shangguan Dan heard this, he thought to himself that he had to fight to the death at Yangguan.

The Liang bandits' attack was too fierce, the army's morale was somewhat unstable, and the casualties were too great. How long can they hold out?

However, as a descendant of the Shangguan family of Tianshui, he shared the success and failure of the imperial court, so he had nothing much to say. At this point, he had to hold on even if he had to bite the bullet.

The General who Conquers the East had to stand on the city walls several times and was even shot and wounded. What reason did he have not to fight to the death?
"Your Majesty, can you drive out the enemy army? If not, can you transfer the Hanzhong garrison to the south? My lord only needs a letter..." Cai Xing said.

"No." Li Shou said with a gloomy face: "In the past, it would not be impossible to withdraw the Hanzhong garrison, but this time it is not possible. If we don't withdraw, we can still hold on, but if we withdraw, we will lose our temper and collapse thousands of miles away."

The one guarding Hanzhong was General Zhenbei Ren Diao, who was born in the Ren family of Tianshui. His wife, Li, was the sister of Li Shou.

"Sima Ke, please count the food, armor, horses, and soldiers to make a long-term plan." After the bandage was completed, Li Shou asked the doctor to leave and said, "If we can hold on to Jiangzhou, we still have a chance. If we can't hold on, even if the emperor wins, he will still lose in the end."

"Yes, sir." Cai Xing bowed.

It's a very clear logic. If you can't defend Jiangzhou with its terrain, city passes and even navy support, and you let tens of thousands of Liang troops in, how are you going to fight in the flat wilderness?
Now we can only hold on, and at worst we can withdraw some troops to the north.

But can they really mobilize a lot more? Cai Xing silently calculated that there were less than 35,000 people in Jiangzhou. This morning, Xie Siming reported that the Fuling Bantun Man had left without saying goodbye, and he was sending people to intercept them. Lan's move might cause a turmoil, causing more people to flee, and there would be even fewer soldiers available.

At best, we can squeeze out a few thousand more people, but that will only be a drop in the bucket.

Just as he was calculating with a frown on his face, passionate drumbeats were heard outside the city again, and a new round of attack began.

Everyone looked at each other in bewilderment, there was really no chance of breathing.

******
The Jialing River was formed from the ancient West Han River.

More than ten years after the founding of the Former Han Dynasty, the West Han River was diverted, making it impossible to connect Guanxi and Shuzhong. The West Han River cut through the terrain and gradually formed the Jialing River system in later generations.

The name of Jialing River comes from the Jialing Valley in Wudu. Even on the maps of Sima Jin and Li Cheng, Jialing River is still written as "Xihan River". Unfortunately, it has changed its course and can no longer flow into Mian River (the upper reaches of Han River), but into the Yangtze River - this section of the Yangtze River is also called "Shu River" by locals, but this name is not widely spread.

On the seventh day of February, Huan Wen received a reinforcement force and sent it out immediately.

These are the Xiongnu cavalry from Kelan County, a total of 2,500 cavalrymen, recruited from Xiurong, Jingle and other counties, and commanded by the county commander Wanqi Ke.

After receiving the order, they crossed the river from Dangqu, headed west, and reached the east bank of the Jialing River.

The Zan clan of the Bandun barbarians sent out a large number of young and strong men, including 7,000 soldiers from their own tribe and the small families affiliated with the Zan clan, to cooperate with the light cavalry of Wanqi Ke.

At this time, there were already thousands of soldiers on the west bank of the Jialing River. They were the shield soldiers and 獠 soldiers recruited by the brothers Luo Yan and Luo Gu, about three to four thousand people, and they were stationed in Nanchong State - this was a county under the jurisdiction of Baxi County, not called "Nanchong County" or "Nanchong State", but "Nanchong State County", a historical problem, roughly located in the area of ​​​​present-day Nanbu County.

Luo Yan seemed quite timid, especially when he saw a large group of cavalry on the opposite side. He was a little afraid and decided to confront them across the river and never take the initiative to attack.

Wanqi doesn't have the patience to get entangled with them.

On the eighth day of the second month, he ordered the Zan family to cut down trees and build a bridge so as to attack Nanchong State.

Although Zan was reluctant, she agreed reluctantly due to various considerations.

Thus, a civil war among the Bantun barbarians is about to begin.

Wanqi Kezhe quietly moved south on the night of the eighth day, and used the explosive power of his cavalry to travel dozens of miles south. With the help of the surrendered tribes, he forced his way across the Jialing River on the ninth and tenth day and reached the west bank.

He had no interest in dealing with the Luo Yan brothers. In fact, after learning that Li Xiong was leading tens of thousands of troops to personally lead the army, Huan Wen already knew that if he didn't stop this army, he would not be able to completely destroy the enemy Jiangzhou army, and his target was already on Li Xiong.

On February 13, after receiving supplies for the last time, Wanqi Ke finally received news of the army's formation.

So he walked quickly all the way.

When Wanqi Ke climbed up a high slope and looked at the road ahead, he saw flags like a forest and weapons shining in the sun several miles ahead.

finally found you!

It was noon on February 14, the sixth year of Kaiping in Daliang, and it was located more than ten miles north of Guanghan County (now south of Shehong).

On the same day, Huan Wen received the third batch of reinforcements from his military advisor He Lun: 2,000 light cavalry from the miscellaneous Hu counties of Xihe and Pingyang.

He did not wait any longer and led 2,500 cavalrymen from Feilong Mountain and other miscellaneous Hu people to come all the way to Xingye, trying to hunt down Li Xiong with these 5,000 cavalrymen.

There is no doubt that this is a battle that determines Li Cheng's fate.

(End of this chapter)