Chapter 356: There are too many dragons and there is drought
Yang Yao's cavalry attacked eastward, not only overpowering Tangtong's troops in Yansui Town on the North Road, but also overthrowing the illusion of bulk armies of frontier commanders in the three towns.
The first person to notice the change in the battle situation was Zhang Hongye, the general of Yansui Town.
He is a man of meritorious service. You Shilu, who has the highest military rank in Yansui Town, is in poor health and cannot take on the main offensive mission. He can only be in the middle army. The highest rank of the frontline commander falls on the shoulders of General Zhang Hongye.
Precisely because You Shilu could not participate in the battle, the mission of attacking Liu Chengzong's main force was left to the Ningxia Army and Guyuan Army, while the Yansui Army attacked the northern route alone without cooperating with the two armies.
Zhang Hongye's mission in this attack was to cross the river from the Beishan Trail and the northern section of Huangshui River, and the tactics used were also divided and combined attacks.
Its troops were divided into two groups. One group used Tangtong as the chopping block and led the main soldiers to stop the enemy on the narrow mountain road in the north. Later, they left surprise troops as preparations.
On the other side, Zhang Hongye acted as a war hammer and divided his troops into two groups from the west and north where the Huangshui River turned. They used rafts to cross the river on the north side and completed the encirclement of the enemy forces on the north side before Tang Tong's troops were defeated.
However, Yang Yao's cavalry was too fast and fierce. Without any hesitation, they ignored the main force of Zhang Hongye's department who was crossing the river, and rushed straight into the narrow area where Tang Tong's department was located. The big guns and chariots broke through the military formation with a single volley.
Then drive straight in.
Not to mention that Zhang Hongye, who was sitting on a cowhide raft, couldn't react. Even Biao Yingqian, the commander-in-chief who replaced Li Fuming who died in the battle behind Tang Tong, didn't make any move.
The official and the people were not as helpless as Zhang Hongye on the cowhide raft. He was just stunned. After all, his task was originally supposed to be performed by guerrilla Li Fuming. His predecessor was killed by the Marshal's horse camp, and now it was his turn.
Now that the horse camp is charging forward again with great momentum, Guan Fumin's mind is trying to block the collision and retreating to face the conflict between heaven and man. In this moment of hesitation, the terrifying Yang Yao has already left.
Yang Yao didn't intend to hit him at all, he just passed by the flank of the official headquarters and rushed towards the camp of the border troops in the three towns.
After realizing it later, the officer's cotton armor was soaked with sweat on his back. In panic, he saw General Zhang Hongye, who had just crossed the Huangshui River, waving his arms on the shore to drive back the soldiers who were crossing the river to help.
Then Zhang Hongye led hundreds of infantrymen who had already crossed the river. They picked up their swords and chased Yang Yao's horse hoof prints from the north bank in a large circle to kill him back.
The officials and the people were once again hesitant. At this moment, should he respond to the two armies of Ningxia and Guyuan, or go back to rescue You Shilu?
No one could tell him the answer. Zhang Hongye was running on the other side, cursing and panicking...
He was already guilty of a crime, and the enemy broke through his defense line, so his official position was absolutely unsafe.
Now the only chance for him to survive is to run back and rescue the commander-in-chief You Shilu from the enemy cavalry, so that he can at least save his head.
In order to save his head, Zhang Hongye led his troops to run wildly, but to no avail. When he ran along the west bank of the Huangshui River to the north bank, and reached the mountain path where Tang Tong's troops were defeated, only a few wounded soldiers rescued their unconscious guerrilla general.
The cavalry of the Marshal's Mansion has long gone to nowhere.
Zhang Hongye ignored the ongoing battle on the south road of the middle road and gathered dozens of soldiers, leaving a few to guard Tang Tong. At the same time, he ordered Guan Fumin and others to return to the division for rescue, and then led his infantry brigade of less than a thousand people to rush towards the main formation.
Go.
On the other side of the battlefield, the Guyuan Army under Yang Qi, who had experienced many hardships, finally 'drove' the enemy soldiers away. They overturned the carriages and set them up in the ditch. Wave after wave of soldiers rushed towards Tucheng. The whole army was immersed in the joy of defeating the enemy.
, place the Chinese flag on the Tucheng under the setting sun.
Yang Qi, who led more than a thousand sergeants to garrison the city, later realized that he saw six thousand-man teams of the hunting camp retreating alternately to escape the pursuit at sunset. He ordered his pursuers to stop pursuing the enemy after driving them ten miles away.<
/p>
Deep down in his heart, Yang Qi agreed very much with He Huchen's words. Liu Chengzong, who was born as a striker in Yansui, is a difficult opponent.
This battle was much easier than Yang Qi expected. The two sides had different grasps and perceptions of the battlefield situation. He did not think there was anything strange about the retreat of the Marshal's Army.
It's just that Liu Chengzong guessed that they were going to use smallpox as a weapon, so he gave up the position of the walled city to avoid fighting... quite cunning.
Although he failed to achieve his strategic goal, Yang Qi was quite satisfied with the results of the battle. He captured the ditch of the city wall, and there were reinforcements from Lintao Town to the west. When Gansu Town and the chieftain army annihilated Liu Chengzong's flanking troops in Yongdeng Liancheng, the encirclement was just around the corner. p>
The Ningxia army that crossed the river arrived late, but seemed overly cautious. They searched repeatedly in uninhabited trenches and dug three feet deep everywhere in the city.
It wasn't until he was convinced that there were no people hiding in the trenches, that there were no mines buried in the city, and that he would not be sent to the sky by gunpowder that He Huchen climbed to the top of the city in relief... Until he climbed up to the city wall, he was still dizzy, why was Liu Chengzong so unstoppable?
Already?
Just as he was wondering, his son He Zan quickly ran over and said: "Father, the North Road has retreated."
Yang Qi and He Huchen were both surprised when they heard this. Their attack was so smooth that they could not imagine that the Yansui Town border troops would retreat on their own and hurried to the north of the city to investigate.
Only then did they realize that the North Road's attack at the foot of the mountain had been frustrated. They could easily see the wounded soldiers and corpses left by Zhang Hongye, but it was already dark and they could not see the situation to the east.
"What's going on?"
The two looked at each other, but no one could explain why.
During the attack just now, He Huchen led his army to cross the river wholeheartedly, while Yang Qi faced the artillery fire of the Marshal's Mansion. Neither of them bothered to observe the situation in the northernmost part of the river valley. At this time, their eyes were darkened, and they did not know that Yansui Town was under attack.
What happened?
He Huchen called the generals who had just crossed the river on the right wing, and after some inquiring, he found out that the cavalry soldiers of the Marshal's Mansion had broken through from the north. The two generals said in their hearts: No!
At this time, the armies of the three towns were all out, and the troops left behind in the camp were extremely scarce. There were only the servants of You Shilu of Yansui Town and more than a thousand Taozhou local soldiers led by He Renlong, the Qianshi of Shaanxi Province.
Both Yang Qi and He Huchen had seen Liu Chengzong's menacing horse camp. That army could not be stopped by the Taozhou native soldiers.
In this way, a difficult question was placed in front of the two of them: to save or not to save?
Yang Qi licked his dry lips and looked around Tucheng. More than a thousand soldiers of the Guyuan Army who had just been attacking on the front line were all in Tucheng.
This Tucheng was so clean that wounded soldiers couldn't find a piece of clean cotton cloth to bandage their wounds. People could only take off their leggings and wrap them hastily, leaning against the edge of the earth wall to rest.
Yang Qi simply looked around and said to He Huchen: "Commander He, we can't stay overnight in this city. In my opinion, we still have to go back to rescue You Shuai."
In fact, for Yang Qi, saving You Shilu is just a nice way of saying... It doesn't matter whether he saves You Shilu or not. The important thing is that Liu Chengzong didn't prepare dinner for them in this earth city.
Both Ningxia soldiers and Guyuan soldiers have been hungry all day. They were not prepared to capture Tucheng today and had to go back to the camp to eat.
He Huchen also meant the same thing. He nodded and said, "Let's go ahead, Marshal Yang. I'll gather the gunpowder and blow a hole in the east of the city before leaving."
But he heard Yang Qi say: "It's up to me to do this. I have more than 2,000 people chasing the enemy in the west, waiting for them... to get killed?"
Only halfway through his words, Yang Qi stared blankly to the east. He Huchen followed his gaze and saw that under the light blue sky in the distance, the fire illuminated the mountain platform, and white smoke rose into the sky from the valley.
Starting.
At the same time, a horseman came rushing from the east. The horse's hooves walked back and forth on the bank of Huangshui for more than ten steps. The rider on the horse finally made up his mind, galloped into the river, swam across by dragging the horse's tail, and dropped the reins.
He stumbled to the bottom of the city and shouted: "Shuai Yang, Marshal He, please send troops to the east quickly for reinforcements. The enemy cavalry trampled the camp, and General Zhang returned to the rescue and was killed!"
"Zhang Hongye is dead?"
He Huchen was surprised at the top of the city. He held his hands on the pile of earth and recognized that the person who had just swam over was General Yansui Qian Fumin. He quickly asked him to come to the city. After asking, he found out what the battle was about.
Zhang Hongye did not reach the camp at all. He was eager to return aid and ran from the north bank of Huangshui River to the south bank. He wanted to quickly return to aid through the horse path left between the trenches. Unexpectedly, the cavalry of Han Shiyou's troops cut off the rear and turned around to rush them down.
Trench.
Then he was stuck in the trench like a whack-a-mole. The trench that originally faced the east to block the enemy's cavalry and blocked the horses was now used to block the infantry's formation. Instead, Han Shiyou was asked to lead the troops and gallop along the edge of the trench.
Running around.
From time to time, several cavalrymen would rush into the trench with spears, swords and bows and arrows, and rush to the end along the zigzag ditch.
When Zhang Hongye was leading his troops in the trench, he just led a few servants to turn a corner, when the enemy cavalry pierced the armor with a spear, and no one even had a chance to recover.
At this moment, there were people running back from the west, bringing back news for Yang Qi that his pursuers were surrounded and dragged down by Mongolian horsemen.
This is great, the commanders of the two towns were dumbfounded.
They are all soldiers who have been in the army for ten or twenty years. When their subordinates report the known information, they have a situation map of the battlefield in their minds. As more and more information is obtained, the situation between the enemy and ourselves becomes clearer in their minds. p>
It’s just that clarity is sometimes not a good thing. The clearer it is, the more pessimistic the two people’s judgments about the current situation will be.
Their purpose changed from returning to the camp to eat tonight, to not being able to eat tonight, to not knowing whether they would be able to eat tomorrow.
The large camp in the east needs to be rescued, and the two thousand troops in the west also need to be rescued, but the problem is how to rescue them?
He Huchen went to rescue the camp, and Yang Qi went to rescue the pursuers. The two of them thought that it was probably a life-and-death situation.
But if you don't save him, squatting in the bunker and starving all night, you will lose both ways and catch a turtle in a urn.
"Save one road." Yang Qi's eyes widened, but he couldn't make up his mind: "Which road to save, He Shuai will decide!"
Yang Qi couldn't make up his mind. If he said to save his own soldiers, it would mean that he did not give the order to save You Shilu; if he said to save You Shilu, his remaining soldiers would be very cold.
It would be better to let He Huchen say to save You Shilu, at least Yang Qi can have an excuse to explain to his soldiers.
Unexpectedly, He Huchen frowned and said: "Save Xilu!"
After the servants ran down to the city to convey the order to assemble, Yang Qi asked He Huchen: "Why save Xilu?"
He Huchen shook his head and did not explain to Yang Qi.
He didn't know how to explain it. Should he tell Yang Qi that he was just taking a gamble?
What He Huchen was thinking about was not the current small battlefield, but the entire Hehuang battlefield. He believed that this was the most critical moment in the battle for the officers and soldiers, which would determine their victory or defeat.
It's just that He Huchen didn't know which choice would lead to victory. He only knew that Xiangdong would definitely lose.
Their eastward retreat means retreating, leaving behind more than 2,000 troops. Without the trenches, the camp, and possibly the food and baggage, the originally stalemate strength of the two sides will turn into Liu Chengzong's advantage.
The most important thing is that even if they go eastward at this time, they may not be able to save You Shilu.
The leading general beside You Shilu was He Renlong, Liu Chengzong's old commander.
Although He Renlong wanted to run out and help the court, the commanders of the three towns all wanted to let him avoid suspicion, so He Renlong was there when digging holes, but He Renlong was not there when sending troops, so he was asked to guard the camp. p>
Unexpectedly, it was obviously a fast break with heavy thunder and small rain, but it turned out like this after being broken through by the cavalry on the north road.
He Huchen didn't know whether He Renlong would lead the Taozhou native soldiers to resist resolutely, but even if he resisted resolutely, the fire in the camp was already on fire. To retreat would be a failure, and the two thousand besieged Guyuan soldiers in Hexi would definitely be gone. So He Huchen's idea is to save the west side. Of course, they save the east side, but they may not be able to save You Shilu. But on the other hand, if they don't save, You Shilu may not die. He can run east.
There is smallpox at the mouth of the river to the east. Although You Shilu's physical condition is difficult to save from contracting smallpox, at least it is much better than being directly hit and killed by horse soldiers.
Secondly, there is the Lintao Army. Calculating the time, the Lintao Army should have completed the encirclement yesterday.
They could still save 2,000 troops now, and there were still 12,000 troops in the two towns. Rather than sit back and wait for death, He Huchen thought it would be better to give it a try. The worst result would be a night battle.
Night battles are fatal to everyone, and the team organization of the border soldiers in the melee is always better than that of Liu Chengzong's bandits. Although their food is not good, He Huchen knows that the bandits don't eat fish, and they are all blind. Who is afraid of a blind man fighting?
Huh?
The most important thing is that the food problem can be solved by fighting.
There was little room for maneuver in the situation faced by the two generals. After a little preparation, they dispersed the troops into rural houses to the west of the earthen fort to collect wood. Thanks to Liu Chengzong, the residents of Hezui had already fled and moved away.
, Ningxia soldiers demolished houses very efficiently.
The soldiers were very excited. This was not the first time they had demolished a house, but this was the only time in their lifetime that they had blatantly demolished the beams of Sufan Wangzhuang.
The sound of artillery boomed from the west. The sergeants from the two towns prepared for a moment, then deployed their general formation in the Hehuang Valley, and pressed forward to the west with open fire.
On the roof of a house ten miles away from the bunker, Liu Chengzong was holding a telescope and bent down to take the pancakes handed by the guards. As soon as he took a bite, he saw a bright light in the distance and quickly picked up the telescope to look over.
Under the night, a flickering fire dragon flickered in and out of the river valley, which made Liu Shizi so happy that he almost fell from the house.
He originally thought that this was just an infantry formation, so he dispatched 3,000 Mongolian cavalry, and made plans to move in three shifts, and he would torture them all night no matter what.
I never expected that even when it was dark, the officers and soldiers would come over with torches to kill people.
"Ningxia soldiers, believe it or not?" Liu Chengzong stepped on the tiles on the roof and said to Huang Shengxiao in the yard: "Ningxia soldiers like to eat my military rations. Let the brothers eat quickly. After eating, set up a pocket brazier array. Night battles are so interesting.
