Chapter 257 Besieged on all sides, Cai Mao is destroyed
At noon, the end of the day has begun, and the clouds are dark and the sun is hazy. The rain that has been falling for many days has stopped yesterday, but the sky is still gray. Today, a few long-lost sunset rays shine through the thick dark clouds.
Reflected on the rain-soaked earth.
The Guan Yu camp in Lanxi, five or six miles away from Yiyang, seemed to suddenly wake up from the deathly silence.
With the sound of ping-ping war drums and horns, groups of soldiers emerged from behind the crenellations of the rammed-earth village walls in several camps that were horns with each other.
The bow was strung up and the sword was unsheathed, and everywhere there was the sound of the clanking of armored leaves, anxious and angry urging, uniform shouts, short and urgent orders and sharp police whistles.
The gate of the camp opened with a bang, and groups of soldiers swarmed out. Amid the chaos, a large number of boats docked on the Lanxi River in the north, and groups of soldiers got off the boats. Both sides came from the west and north,
At the same time, Cai Mao's army was surrounded.
Cai Mao's army obviously did not expect that a large number of enemies would suddenly appear and surround them. Seeing this scene, the soldiers were shaken one after another. They looked nervously at the menacing enemy troops, while retreating in fear and confusion.
He looked around, anxiously waiting for orders from his superiors.
"What's going on? Why did so many enemies suddenly come?"
"What should I do? I don't want to die yet."
"Calm down, calm down!"
The soldiers were talking a lot, and the officers quickly asked them to stay calm and quiet.
At this moment, Cai Mao in the rear was also panicked and shouted: "How could this happen? Where did this army come from?"
"It's Liu Bei, it's Liu Bei's army!"
Hu Zheng looked into the distance, and he could vaguely see the banners of "Liu", "Zhao", and "Taishi" scattered among the troops rushing towards the Lanxi River.
"Liu Bei, how could he appear here? Where did he get the ship from?"
Cai Mao was shocked.
Cai Du hurriedly said: "Uncle, don't think about this now. Think about whether to fight or retreat."
"Retreat? Yes, retreat!"
Cai Mao said quickly: "Quick, let's retreat eastward. There are boats by the river."
"We can't withdraw."
Hu Zheng advised: "Ming Gong, if we retreat directly, the soldiers may be defeated. Now we are in line. Only by repelling them can we retreat calmly."
"Yes, uncle, what Duke Yu Heng said is very reasonable."
Cai Du also said: "Right now, Guan Yu's army is on the near side. Although Liu Bei's army is some distance away, it is coming soon. If we retreat directly, it will become a big rout. We have formed our military formation and must counterattack first."
Cai Hao thought about it and ordered: "Send the order to the soldiers to line up to meet the enemy."
"The Lieutenant has orders, form a formation to meet the enemy!"
"The Lieutenant has orders, form a formation to meet the enemy!"
"The Lieutenant has orders, form a formation to meet the enemy!"
Along the two-mile-long Jingzhou Army defense line, messengers galloped to spread the news. Officers at all levels immediately urged the soldiers to re-stabilize the line and prepare to fight the enemy.
Rows of swordsmen and shieldmen lined up at the front of the team, with their spears raised, while the archers at the rear were waiting solemnly for the general's order to release arrows.
Guan Yu's army was also arrayed outside the camp at this moment. The gun and shield men formed a row of formations and slowly marched forward.
The distance between the two sides is getting closer and closer, and the two armies are no longer less than a hundred steps away.
"The enemy advances a hundred steps!"
"The enemy has advanced eighty steps!"
"The enemy has advanced sixty steps!"
"Fire the arrow!"
When the distance between the two sides reached the most suitable position for the bow and arrow, both sides almost gave an order.
The overwhelming rain of arrows started first, and the dense arrows seemed to cover the sky, and the entire sky seemed to darken.
Then there was a clanking sound. Some arrows collided in the air, some fell into the crowd, and most of them fell on the ground and were shot into the soil.
Then came the second wave of arrow rain, and the third wave of arrow rain. In addition to the arrows that landed on the shields, many people were shot into the flesh by the arrows and fell to the ground with a pop. But in this kind of battle, it seems that
Became silent.
"Kill!"
"rush!"
"Surrender and avoid death!"
"Don't be stubborn and resist!"
"The Jingzhou Army will not fight the Jingzhou Army."
"After you surrender, come with us to assist the eldest son!"
The same words sounded again, and after the two sides resisted three waves of arrows, they finally fought together.
The sword-shielders and gun-shielders in the front row collided, like two torrents squeezing each other. The battlefield was instantly overturned. Soldiers fell everywhere and died in the crowd.
Tens of thousands of people crowded together is a very scary thing in itself. At this time, people are no longer people, but become sardine cans one by one. They are squeezed, trampled to death, hit, and even cold
Weapons are no longer the main tool for killing enemies.
The north side of the battlefield soon reached this point. Liu Bei's army of more than 20,000 people rushed over in an instant. The dense crowd surged. The soldiers charged against the rain of arrows. When they got closer, they fought together again. The battlefield
The sounds of shouts, echoes, weapons blocking, miserable howls and groans almost never stopped.
I don’t know how long it took, but Cai Mao’s army finally collapsed. As a gap in the northeast corner was opened, a steady stream of Liu Bei’s troops poured in, and then the soldiers in the rear began to instinctively retreat.
Then it turned into a mass rout, crying for father and mother, and the entire army formation was dispersed.
They were in chaos, and even the big formations were tired. Of course, the formation was not as simple as everyone squeezing together, but was divided into several large and small square formations. Guan Yujun and Liu Beijun had already inserted themselves into the square formations, but
These small square formations were not broken into pieces in a short period of time.
But now as the first phalanx in the front collapsed, the soldiers instinctively rolled back and fled to the rear. The soldiers behind saw the soldiers in front fleeing back, and they also instinctively retreated, just like when a snow mountain collapses.
No snowflake is spared.
"Run."
"The front one collapsed."
"Let's retreat quickly."
"Surrender, we surrender!"
"No retreat, regroup quickly."
"Behead those who retreat."
"Ooooooo, help, don't leave me."
There were chaotic shouts all around, and everyone in the chaos was in a panic, like ants who had lost their direction, scurrying around on a hot pot.
If you look down from a high altitude, you will see that the entire Cai Mao army is like a mountain collapsing. The various square formations that were originally arranged disintegrated one after another and turned into a dense crowd of people, fleeing towards the east, south and other directions.
The wilderness was full of fleeing soldiers. One of the square formations in the rear row belonged to the general Zhao Sheng. At this moment, Zhao Sheng was restraining the soldiers and ordering them not to mess up and continue fighting.
Zhao Sheng's deputy general is Wang Jie at the moment. Ever since he was suspected by Cai Hao of secretly colluding with his brother-in-law Tian Mai, Wang Jie was very aggrieved. Listening to the shouts of loyalty to the eldest son Liu Qi coming from all around, it was like a song of distress, and the soldiers were in despair.
Improved military morale.
Most of the sources of the Jingzhou Army were not actually Jingzhou people, but more than half of them came from the Nanyang Yellow Turbans, a team composed of refugees from Yuzhou in Guanzhong. They were able to survive thanks to Liu Biao taking them in and dividing their fields.
Therefore, just like Liu Yan's Dongzhou soldiers, these soldiers were loyal to Liu Biao, and because of their gratitude to Liu Biao, their loyalty was very high, so they were able to continue to serve Liu Cong.
But this time the enemy was not a foreign enemy, but Liu Qi, who was also a descendant of Liu Biao. The Jingzhou Army's loyalty to Liu Biao actually extended to Liu Qi.
Therefore, during this civil war, their morale was not very high.
The current slogan of Liu Bei's army is to ask them to surrender and fight for Liu Qi, assisting Liu Qi to regain the master of Jingzhou, which made many soldiers of Jingzhou army kneel down and surrender immediately.
However, Zhao Sheng was a close confidant of Cai Mao, so he did not submit, but organized soldiers to resist stubbornly.
Wang Jie had long been dissatisfied with Cai Mao's suspicion of him, so he said to Zhao Sheng beside him: "General Zhao, now that the situation is over, it's better to make plans early."
Zhao Sheng drew his sword angrily and said: "You guys have indeed secretly communicated with Tian Mai a long time ago to be your internal collaborator. Watch me kill you!"
"You dare!"
Wang Jie also became furious and drew his sword to confront him.
Zhao Sheng came first with a chopping knife, but Wang Jie dodged it. The two soon fought each other and fought with each other for several times. Finally, several soldiers rushed up and chopped Zhao Sheng into pieces with random swords.
It turned out that these soldiers also had the idea of surrender, but Zhao Sheng kept ordering them to resist, so they were worried and uneasy.
At this moment, Zhao Sheng was fighting with Wang Jie. Several brave soldiers came to help and killed Zhao Sheng.
As soon as Zhao Sheng died, Wang Jie became the commander-in-chief of the army and immediately ordered: "We are soldiers to repay the kindness of the late emperor. Helping the second prince is a gang, and helping the eldest prince is also a gang. Now that the situation is over, why not vote for the eldest prince and kill him?"
Enter Xiangyang to replace the eldest prince?"
"Surge into Xiangyang and replace the eldest prince!"
All of a sudden, all these soldiers shouted, raised their weapons, and surrendered to Liu Bei's army, which was rushing towards them.
Before, the soldiers who surrendered were only scattered in groups, no more than a few hundred people. Wang Jie's square formation had more than 4,000 soldiers, and it suddenly became the first large army formation to surrender. The result was that like dominoes, a large number of soldiers surrendered
.
Half of Cai Mao's more than 20,000 troops surrendered to the enemy directly on the battlefield, while the remaining half dispersed like birds and animals, fleeing in panic toward the east and south.
At this moment, hundreds of large ships came from their east side.
That is Jiangxia Navy.
Cai Mao deployed troops and horses in Nan'an and Hongkou, thinking that everything was safe, but Liu Bei's army arrived and directly defeated the defenders of Nan'an and Hongkou.
Liu Bei then sent Zhang Fei north to contain Zhang Yun in Jingling, and the Jiangxia navy was divided into 30,000 troops, of which 20,000 were under the leadership of Huang Zu to harass Jingling, and the other 10,000 were under the leadership of Shen Chen to cooperate with Liu Pan.
They attacked Hongkou together.
Han Xi in Hongkou had only 10,000 troops, and was defeated by Shen Chen and Liu Pan. After Han Xi was defeated, most of the soldiers surrendered, while Liu Pan stayed at Hongkou, and Shen Chen took a boat south to Yiyang.
At that time, Yiyang was not far from Dongting Lake. To the north and not far to the east of Yiyang was Dongting Lake, which was connected to Zishui, so ships could drive almost all the way to the outside of Yiyang city.
By the time they disembarked, Liu Bei and Guan Yu had already defeated Cai Mao's army, and the wilderness was full of fleeing Jingzhou soldiers. Seeing this, Shen Chen immediately said to Zhang Nan, Qu Gan and other generals on his left and right: "Cai Mao has collapsed, and he has made great contributions. Just today, follow me and kill!"
"only!"
The soldiers immediately charged towards the Jingzhou Army in the distance.
There were horses on the boat, and the generals got on their horses one after another and rushed towards the other side. Shen Chen was no exception, and he galloped forward.
Originally, Cai Mao's army ran to the east, thinking that there were their ships in the east and they could leave by ship.
At this moment, he saw the Jiangxia Navy approaching again and was so frightened that he fled in a hurry to the south.
"Don't run away, Nanyang has been captured by us."
"Jingzhou is about to change, and the eldest prince wants to take back his inheritance!"
"Those who surrender will avoid death and follow us to the eldest prince!"
The shouts kept coming.
Many people in the fleeing crowd heard these shouts and stopped to watch.
To the east of Lanxi is Qingcao Lake, also known as Nanhuzhou, because a branch of Zishui flows in, dividing the lake into an island.
At that time, the ship of Cai Mao's army was docked at Nanhuzhou, and the place where Shen Chen's army disembarked was also here.
They just blocked thousands of Cai Mao's troops.
Hearing the shouts of Shen Chen's army, the soldiers of Cai Mao's army were surprised and uncertain. Someone said: "Is Nanyang really occupied by them?"
"Our family members are all in Nanyang. I'm afraid we can't continue fighting with them."
"If you want to avoid death by surrendering, it seems the only way is to surrender."
"Anyway, whether you follow the second prince or the eldest prince, you are all doing it for the late emperor, so you might as well just surrender."
"Yes, vote."
"We are willing to surrender, but please don't kill us!"
For a time, Cai Mao's army was demoralized, dropped their weapons, and chose to kneel down and surrender.
Wherever Shen Chenjun passed, a large area fell to his knees.
"Gather these surrendered soldiers."
"Let them line up in an orderly manner."
"Don't panic, just treat them as our own soldiers."
Order after order was laid out.
Jiangxia Navy began to accept these defeated soldiers in an orderly manner.
At this moment, Qu Gan said to Shen Chen: "General, there are still a large number of soldiers fleeing in the south."
"Follow me!"
Shen Chen said: "Send someone to keep an eye on these soldiers, and the rest will follow me."
With that said, he led thousands of soldiers and chased south.
This area is full of dense jungle and water plants that are as high as a person's waist. In the distance, we can only vaguely see many soldiers of Cai Mao fleeing.
Liu Bei's army and Guan Yu's army in the west also gathered together, gathered the soldiers who had surrendered on the battlefield, and then sent out troops to pursue them. For a time, the entire wilderness was filled with fleeing and pursuing enemy soldiers and horses.
The south direction of Nanhuzhou is also full of swamps and numerous lakes. It is connected to Dongting Lake and is a vast body of water. In later generations, there were Baiping Lake, Gaowan Lake, Yaojia Lake, Donglanni Lake and other large and small lakes in this area. , At this time, the country was even more deserted, and even horses could hardly run.
When Shen Chen's army passed by, he saw a large number of Jingzhou soldiers trapped in the quagmire, struggling to walk southwest. Qu Gan looked from a distance, pointed in one direction and said: "General, look quickly, there is a good horse there. , must be some big shot."
Shen Chen looked over and saw a strong man riding a black BMW in the swamp in the distance, fleeing south. Although the swamp was difficult to navigate, the black BMW was still quite smart and led the strong man to avoid the mud. Keep jumping.
"Nice horse!"
Shen Chen was full of praise after seeing it, and said to his left and right: "Follow me."
"only!"
The soldiers then pursued them into the lakes and swamps.
When those Jingzhou troops saw that their pursuers were coming and had no way to escape, they hurriedly chose to surrender.
When the strong man saw the pursuers approaching from behind, he quickly urged the BMW to gallop.
But the problem is that it is surrounded by lakes and swamps, and if you are not careful, you may fall into the swamp mud.
So how can we get faster?
The strong man slapped the horse's buttocks hard, causing the horse to suffer pain, but he accidentally stepped on the ground and fell into the mud.
The war horse screamed for a moment, but was stuck in the mud and could not pull out its hooves.
Seeing this, the strong man quickly dismounted his horse and ran south, abandoning his BMW.
As a result, I didn't run very far and was also trapped in the mud.
Shen Chen's army pursued him from behind. Shen Chen first sent people to rescue the horses, and then they arrived about a few feet away in front of the strong man.
When the strong man saw someone coming, he hurriedly called for help: "Hurry, save me quickly."
"Who are you?"
Shen Chen asked.
"I am Lingling General Xing Daorong!"
Xing Daorong shouted loudly.
"Hahaha."
Shen Chen smiled and said: "Surrender or not?"
"Willing to surrender!"
Half of Xing Daorong's body sank in, and he almost burst into tears.
"Your knife is pretty good."
Shen Chen suddenly noticed the Tiger Blade in Xing Daorong's hand, and his eyes suddenly lit up.
Xing Daorong was also smart and threw the knife over and said: "I would like to dedicate it to the general."
"That war horse of yours is not bad either."
Shen Chen picked up the knife, flicked the blade, and couldn't help but marvel.
"I am also willing to dedicate it to the general."
Xing Daorong showed a smile that was uglier than crying: "General, please save the villain."
"You gave this to me voluntarily, I didn't force you."
Shen Chen waved his hand and said to the soldiers beside him: "Pull him up."
"only!"
The soldier went up and threw the rope.
Xing Daorong hurriedly grabbed the life-saving straw and was pulled out by the soldiers.
Soon there were a large number of surrenderers around. There were many grasslands, swamps and lakes, and people might be trapped if they stepped into them.
Therefore, Shen Chen immediately ordered the soldiers to explore carefully, escorted the prisoners, and quickly retreated to the safe area.
The Yuluo horse also took a lot of effort to pull him out. It was also lucky that there was dry land around it. The soldiers laid wooden boards on the swamp, then approached and trapped the rope in the horse's belly. Thirty It took several people to pull it out.
When the sky gradually darkened, almost all of Cai Mao's army surrendered. Cai Mao himself was captured by Liu Bei's general Tai Shici. This battle directly destroyed half of the Jingzhou army.
The remaining half also felt uncomfortable. The reinforcements sent by Zhang Yun were surrounded by soldiers sent by Huang Zhong and Liu Bei that day, and finally chose to surrender.
The crisis in Yiyang was resolved, and the entire Jingnan including Jiangling, Huarong and other places south of Nanjun were also occupied by Liu Bei.
On the second day, Zhang Yun hurriedly retreated from Jingling and retreated to Yicheng.
From then on, the situation in Jingzhou became instantly clear.
In addition to the more than 10,000 defenders in Xiangyang, only Zhang Yun's more than 30,000 troops and the more neutral Wenpin were left.
Most of the others surrendered to Liu Bei, and Liu Qi also arrived at Baqiu from Zhouling, preparing to formally move north to surround Xiangyang!
Bad news, I don’t know if it’s a return to positive state or something else. I had a fever yesterday and felt dizzy. I woke up at 10 am today, ate something, fell asleep again, and slept until 5 pm when I woke up in a cold sweat.
I took an ibuprofen and felt a little better, so I continued to edit the article. My physical condition was not very good. I was afraid of white lungs and it was really uncomfortable.