The night is getting darker, it’s two quarters of the Yin hour.
Thirty miles away from the main battlefield in Hehuang, in the valley, a large-scale army was marching at night with fire.
Their strength was only four thousand, but they rode or led nearly ten thousand donkeys and mules, forming eight columns, squeezing the wide official road in the Hehuang Valley that could accommodate four carriages parallel to each other.
The lightly-armed Tang soldiers leading the war horses were ten steps apart and stood beside the team, holding up fires for lighting. The night wind raised dust and made the torches flicker. Amidst the dull sound of hooves and feet moving like thunder, one team after another quickly passed by him.
.
The torches illuminated expressionless faces. They had their eyes closed on the backs of donkeys and mules. No one could tell whether they were awake or asleep.
All I know is that the bodies of these warriors were very relaxed, undulating and swaying with the backs of donkeys and mules, sometimes moving forward, sometimes backward, sometimes to the left, sometimes to the right. Whenever they thought they were about to fall off the donkey's back, they slowly straightened back up. There were three rows of donkeys and mules, twelve people passed by, and finally one of them opened his eyes. In the light of the Tang soldiers raising fire, he tore the dried meat from his hands, mixed it with fried noodles, poured it into his mouth, chewed it, and carried it on the donkey's back as he passed.
The water bag bowed slightly to Tang Bing and passed silently.
When hundreds of columns riding donkeys and mules passed by, followed by a column leading donkeys and mules, the soldiers walking quickly had their eyes open, but most of them looked like they had their eyes closed, their pupils dull in the light of the fire.
When you are awake, your brain has actually rested, but your body is still walking mechanically.
However, this state cannot last for long. If you step on a pebble on the road or bump into someone, you will suddenly wake up. Seeing that the team is not awed and you have not fallen into the ditch, you will continue to move forward in a daze.
Repeat this process after a while.
When they were very far away and the officer gave an order, the infantry and cavalry sergeants all woke up, those on foot mounted their donkeys, those on donkeys turned over and walked, and continued marching in silence.
Wang Wenxiu rode his horse and stood on the slope outside the official road, watching the army pass by silently. Under the reflection of the guards raising fires, he lowered his head to look at the letter sent by the Tang soldiers. After a while, he handed the letter to the guard and took the paper.
He wrote a short message and gave it to Tang Qi: "Tell the commander-in-chief that the infantry camp promises to arrive at the front line at Chenshi, and can charge into the battle upon arrival."
Then, he reined in his horse and moved forward, saying: "Chuanqian Headquarters, move forward quickly, and take a rest after fifteen miles."
The letter was sent by Liu Chengzong. It was nothing special. It just informed the situation on the front line and expressed condolences for the fatigue of the infantry training camp marching all night.
This kind of march was nothing special for Wang Wenxiu. He received the transfer order eighty miles away from the front line. Although the march was at night, it was not a day and night march. They walked very casually during the day.
In the two days after Lintao's general Wang Chengen was defeated, there were still sporadic fighting in the west of the valley, but those stragglers who fled in all directions no longer needed infantry camps to deal with them.
Especially after Dai Daozi led the Mongolian cavalry to complete the encirclement, 3,000 Mongolian soldiers joined in, and cooperated with Zhong Hu's cavalry to clear out the remaining enemies.
Surrender.
What should I say about broken troops? Sometimes they disperse and form bandits, which has a great impact on local security, but sometimes there are accidents.
For example, in Hehuang today, the defeated soldiers who have lost their organization have become a truly vulnerable group.
To the west of them was Liu Chengyun who wanted to collect the defeated army; to the east was Dai Daozi who was leading the Mongolian cavalry to tie up the prisoners.
And in the mountainous areas on both sides of the north and south, there are people trying to kill them.
A defeated army is like a river. When there are too many people, it becomes a flood, and the people will be drowned by the overflowing floods. But Dayu could control the water, and the simple people can also fish in the river.
The broken soldiers carrying armor had enough items on their bodies for the common people to sell for a year's rations.
At this moment in Hehuang, compared to the common people who are full of entrepreneurial enthusiasm, the fierce Zhong Hu seems amiable.
Wang Wenxiu does not need to hunt down or guard the defeated army, so the infantry battalion sergeants are in good condition.
And because many donkeys used to resist cannons and cannons died on the battlefield, their food level in the past two days has also been greatly improved compared to usual. Everyone's morale is very high and they are ready to go into the next battle.<
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On the front line on the other side of the river valley, in the square formation surrounded by dim firelight, He Huchen, who had stayed up all night, walked back and forth in the formation, comforting the soldiers in each small formation and boosting their morale.
But He Huchen didn't know how effective this level of encouragement could be.
Throughout the first half of the night, the enemy's artillery seemed to be out of control. There was no pattern at all. In four hours, nearly two hundred blindly fired artillery shells fell into the formation, causing him and Yang Qi to lose a hundred soldiers, including a hundred commanders.
Thirty-seven soldiers and one horse were included.
When a burst of artillery shells hit the formation, the soldiers wanted to take a nap between the shells, but just when they closed their eyes, another shelling had already come; but when they widened their eyes and wanted to wait for the next shelling, a full half of the shells appeared again.
There was no sound of artillery fire for an hour.
The process of war is waiting.
Waiting for the next bombardment, waiting for the next attack.
During the long wait, the morale of the soldiers was slowly weakened, but Liu Chengzong at least helped He Huchen.
The horse that was killed by the shell made the soldiers drink a bowl of minced meat soup, which was better than nothing. Fortunately, the Huanghuang Valley was full of ditches and the Huanghe River was close at hand. But even so, He Huchen knew that his men were holding out.
It won’t be long.
He never knew that the Han people, the Mongols and the Xifan people would form such a strange combination.
Throughout the night, apart from the shelling, the most breathtaking thing was that the military formation was in all directions. At any time, from a corner, the strange overtones of the Mongols could be heard, the Xifan people were bizarrely praying to God, and there were also the terrifying suona sounds of the Han soldiers and the chariots rolling across the earth.
The sound.
When their soldiers panicked and picked up their weapons to prepare for the attack, the drums and drums outside fell silent again.
After finally waiting for people to relax, there was a crackling sound, and a particularly large lead bullet may or may not hit someone.
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But it was very irritating whether they were hit or not, because the sergeants who were shot at reported that whenever they fired back, they never heard the sound of the enemy being hit.
That big lead bullet was fired from at least 150 steps away.
It’s just terrible.
He Huchen walked around the army, returned to the center army on the right, and praised his son He: "We can't wait until morning, the morale is not enough to hold on, we have to find a way to break out."
He Zan took his servants to watch the night for his father the night before. He slept for an hour yesterday morning and was already so sleepy that he was delirious. When he heard He Huchen speak, he responded instinctively in a daze: "That's what father said.
”
When he reacted, he suddenly woke up and said: "What did father say, break out?"
Now there are enemies on all sides, this is not a breakout situation!
Even if you don't look at the front, you can see from a distance that Liu Chengzong's frontal line is to the west, making it very difficult to break through; even if it stands out to the east, there is still the cavalry attacking their camp, which means they have to break through twice.
Both the north and the south are unfamiliar mountains. Even during the day, it is difficult to break through the mountains. If you go into the mountains at night, your army will not need an enemy at dawn. It will either hang on a tree or fall off a cliff, and you will be dead.
In such a situation, He Zan asked: "Where can we break out?"
In fact, He Huchen didn't know where to break out. His determination and self-confidence had been worn away by repeated mistakes. Now was the time to be indecisive.
When He Zan asked this, he doubted himself again.
Suddenly, another burst of artillery sound echoed in the river valley. Several artillery shells fell in the formation. One artillery shell was only a few steps away from He Huchen and He Zan who were talking. The clod of soil raised by the impact on the ground even hit the two of them in the face.
Up.
Before they could recover from their sudden shock, a shrill scream came from the camp. Someone had been shot, and he was not dead yet.
Being hit by a musket and not dying is definitely good luck, but being hit by a cannonball but not dying, no one knows whether this is good luck or bad luck.
If you are lucky, you will suffer for a long time and eventually become disabled; if you are unlucky, you will work in vain for several days and eventually die.
The father and son of the He family didn't care to say anything else. They ran over to follow the sound and found many sergeants gathered near the wounded soldiers. It was a drummer in the army.
His snare drum was smashed by the cannonball, and his hip bone was also smashed through. He Huchen just stepped forward and before he could think of what to say, the drummer saw him and suddenly became full of strength as if possessed by a god, twisting and crawling over on the ground.
, tightly grasped the hem of his armor skirt, and twitched while saying: "Handsome, handsome master, take me back, back to the central defender!"
He Huchen crouched down quickly: "Go back to the central defender."
The drummer hugged the drummer with difficulty and smiled, then slowly let go.
Before He Huchen could say anything else, the low overtones of the Mongolian soldiers suddenly came from the northwest corner of the military formation. Accompanied by the high-pitched suona sound, a volley of gunshots rang out in the night, interrupting people's comfort for the hopelessly wounded soldier.<
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Immediately, a short battle began, and people fired their artillery at the place where the fire was fired in the darkness. There was a flurry of shotguns and muskets in response. He Huchen also hurriedly returned to the central army, fearing that this was the harbinger of a large-scale enemy attack.
But this was another feint attack. After a short while, the outside returned to silence.
When He Huchen went to look for the wounded soldier again, he found that the soldiers were all standing there. Even when they saw him, they didn't even salute. They just called him "handsome man" in a low tone.
By the time he walked through the crowd and walked into the middle, the soldier had already expired.
Although the drummer was brought back to the Ningxia central defender like a flashback, he couldn't bear the pain and finally tried his best to wipe his neck with a wrist knife.
He Huchen was in a low mood and said nothing. He returned to the central army and waved to the guards beside him to extinguish the torches. He was hidden in the shadows. Although he was still standing, his spine collapsed.
Take him back to center back.
He was the thirty-eighth soldier who died in this early morning, and all they had was a bloody horsehide.
Even if He Huchen searched the whole army, he couldn't find a second mat used to wrap the body. How could he bring this drummer back to the central defender!
He was not very sad, just despairing of his own incompetence.
If you can't get back to Zhongwei with the drummer in your arms, they can't get back either.
It's just that the war situation didn't give him the slightest chance to show his emotions. People in war don't deserve to have emotions. Only a quarter of an hour later, another shelling struck again.
This time, two shells accurately fell into the trench, killing one person and injuring five soldiers.
More deaths and more haze shrouded the hearts of everyone in the formation until the sky turned white.
Before the sun rose, the general stationed at the rear suddenly ran over, his face full of surprise and joy. He turned back and pointed to the east and said he saw the light of the torch.
He Huchen hurried over. In the distance to the east, it was indeed as his subordinates said. Under the dark blue light of the morning, the hazy firelight in the large shadows was slowly spreading towards this direction.
His face showed a look of ecstasy for a moment, and then he restrained himself. He hurriedly sent people over. Seeing the Mongolian soldiers wandering in groups in the east, he hurriedly asked two cavalrymen to lead six horses and rush over to see.
Did You Shilu lead his army?
But as soon as the two cavalrymen ran out, He Huchen's heart sank to the bottom... The Mongolian cavalry turned a blind eye to the two cavalrymen and had no idea of stopping them.
The hazy shadow stopped in the distance until a long time later, two men and six horses came back, and only one dejected soldier came back. He prostrated himself in front of He Huchen and said with despair on his face: "Commander, there are no reinforcements, they are enemy troops.
The enemy general said he was General Yang Yao, You Shuai... You Shuai ran away and ran back to Lanzhou."
As early in the morning approached, under the light blue sky, the visibility in the river valley was very poor. Yang Yao, who looked tired, was riding on his horse and led the team to slowly press the bridle. From yesterday evening to this morning, this night was more difficult for him.
It will be a long time for He Huchen.
How unlucky.
Yang Yao attacked eastward, but achieved almost no results and failed to capture any of the general's heads.
He knew that there was He Renlong in Yansui Town. On the Tubao City, Liu Chengzong even used a telescope to let him see what He Renlong looked like from a distance.
But he never thought that He Renlong could run so well.
He was not the one who started the fire in the army camp. As soon as he approached the army camp, the fire started, and the officers and soldiers left behind in the camp ran eastward like a gust of wind.
Yang Yao entered the mountain platform and jumped into the air, leaving Qian Commander Yang Chengzu to rescue him. He led his army to pursue the retreating officers and soldiers. After traveling for forty miles, he only caught up with two local commanders and could not catch up with the main force of the enemy who fled.
.
Recently, he could even see a man leading six horses, dragging He Renlong away with You Shilu, but he couldn't catch up.
Even after chasing him to the mouth of the river, he saw He Yong, an old acquaintance from the Lion Camp, riding his horse to the hillside and shouting loudly: "General, stop chasing, thank you for not killing!"
When Yang Yao sends a cavalry to chase He Yong, this Ding leader can run as well as the general.
Fortunately, after running back, Yang Chengzu, a former bandit, did a good job of putting out the fire in the camp. Instead of using water to put out the fire, he first asked his two men to drill the army into the river, and then rushed up the mountain to put out the burning military tent.
, put the cotton-padded jacket aside and rescued more than two thousand stones of food and grass.
This food almost made Yang Yao angry to death. The fire was severe, but less than one-tenth of the food was turned into charcoal. In other words, the army camp only had enough food to last ten days. This was the only food left.
Do the officers and soldiers dare to fight?
On the other hand, we captured a lot of weapons, armor and equipment, including horses, donkeys and mules.
For this small amount of food, Yang Yao led his army without resting at the earth fort on the way west. He took down the prisoner soldiers and asked them to carry the food and go west. On the way, he met Zhong Bao who was recruiting the wounded soldiers from the earth fort. He simply let them
The prisoners had a good meal and told them that if they followed the commander, they would not starve in the future.
After walking another twenty miles, there was not even a single troublemaker among the more than 4,000 prisoners.
When the three armies completed their assembly in the early morning and formed a large formation of officers and soldiers on three sides, Yang Yao rode his horse and ran to Liu Chengzong's side, shook his head and said: "Commander, stop fighting. Let's set up a pot and start cooking outside. Tell them to surrender!"
