Chapter 464: Many people get help when they are in good ways, but few when they are unjust
Author: Playing with Basilisk
Chapter 464: Many people get help when they are in good ways, but few when they are unjust
At the end of the morning eclipse on February 9, Shen Chen's fleet set sail.
Go south along the Wei River to the junction of the Wei River and the Yellow River, then turn around and enter the upper reaches of the Yellow River, going backwards with difficulty.
The water in the upper reaches of the Yellow River was very choppy, and the ship was actually very slow. However, it was still possible to move forward by relying on the soldiers to row hard and pedaling on the wheel hub to turn the paddle wheels on both sides of the ship.
But almost as soon as they appeared at the mouth of the Yellow River, Cao Jun on the other side had already discovered them, and the sound of bone whistles, gongs, drums, and horns was loud.
Xu Huang's army stationed at Puban Ferry in the distance was alerted immediately.
In several camps that formed horns with each other, groups of soldiers emerged from behind the crenellations of the rammed-earth village walls, unsheathing their bows and swords.
Everywhere was the sound of the clanking of armored leaves, anxious and angry urgings, uniform shouts, short and urgent orders and sharp whistles, all of which turned the walls of the village into a mess.
Shen Chen stood on the bow of the boat and looked into the distance. He saw that Cao Jun had built a long wall along the Yellow River. Most of it was made of wooden fences, connecting the rammed earth walls and extending all the way north.
The clever thing about these fences is that they are not connected together, but are segmented by rammed earth walls, which not only effectively prevents raids, but also prevents them from being burned by fire.
In addition, there are a large number of high oars and towers behind the village wall. Many Cao Jun crossbowmen are standing on them, looking at the river from a distance, staring at the Han warships on the Yellow River with extremely vigilant eyes. Team.
"Grand Governor, their wall is built a little further from the river. It seems our ships can't attack behind their wall."
Ma Dai, the general on the side, raised his eyes and looked at him.
Shen Chen said: "Xu Huang is from Hedong, so naturally he doesn't know the terrain here. He built this section of the wall along the mountains to the north, which is more than a hundred miles long. It is not far or close to the river, so that our fleet can You can’t get close, you can’t shoot from a high position, and you can also block the river bank so that our cars and horses can’t get off the boat.”
Ma Dai frowned and said, "But if this is the case, it will be like we are attacking a city wall. If we attack by force, will there be too many casualties?"
"hehe."
Shen Chen smiled, glanced along the long defense line, and ordered: "Send the order, each school will be dispersed, and each school will be ten miles away from each other as a unit to attack Cao Jun."
"Are the schools dispersed?"
Ma Dai scratched his head and asked puzzledly: "Why do you want to beat him like this?"
Shen Chen smiled and said: "Disperse the enemy's forces."
The orthodox military system of the Han Dynasty was that one song had 500 men, and five songs constituted one, which equaled 2,500 men.
The two departments form one school, and the person in charge is the school captain.
This is not the kind of captain who is given a random title, but an important captain among the five schools of the Northern Army.
The entire Northern Army only had five schools, and it was the most elite Central Army during the period of Emperor Ling of the Han Dynasty.
In the past, when the princes fought in melee, cats and dogs were often generals and lieutenants, but in fact the person in charge of the fifth school of the Northern Army was just a lieutenant general.
Therefore, during the period of Emperor Ling of the Han Dynasty, officers such as generals, captains, and Sima were still very valuable, but now they are in decline.
However, after the establishment of the Southern Han Dynasty, it continued according to the military system of the Eastern Han Dynasty.
Now Shen Chen has brought over 50,000 people, that is, people from the Ten Schools.
In other words, his order was to have each school of the fleet launch an attack dispersed along the river, with 5,000 men every ten miles, attacking the wall in that direction.
There are many cavalry on Cao's side, and their boats are going upstream, not much faster than walking, so they can definitely keep up with their speed.
Once a fight breaks out, Cao Wei will divide his troops to fight him, which is obviously more beneficial to them.
Soon the fleet began to disperse. Shen Chen's main force dropped the anchor on the spot and stopped at Puban. The soldiers stayed on the ship, unable to move where the enemy could not move.
The rest of the troops began to move upriver.
In the distance, Xu Huang stood on a high oar and kept watching the situation of the Han army. When he saw this scene, he immediately frowned.
Seeing this situation, his general Xu Shang said quickly: "General, what is the enemy trying to do?"
Xu Huang raised his eyebrows and said: "Although we used the village wall to defend against their formation of chariots and horses, the defense line is still too long. As expected, Shen Chen must want to divide his troops to attack."
"Split up your forces and attack?"
Xu Shang was surprised and said: "He actually dares to divide his troops?"
Xu Huang pointed to the distance and said: "Didn't you see that his soldiers did not get off the ship? Although it is taboo to divide the troops, he is in a safe place and we cannot attack his ship. He uses this as a basis."
"Then what should we do?"
Xu Shang hesitated.
Xu Huang shook his head and said: "We can only divide our troops for defense."
In Sun Tzu's Art of War, dividing troops to attack on all sides is a taboo, because from an offensive point of view, the troops are dispersed and cannot effectively annihilate the enemy's effective strength. From an active defense point of view, without reserve forces, if one area is lost, the entire front may collapse.
The division of troops leads to insufficient troops, which are easy to be defeated by the enemy one by one, and the firepower is insufficient, making it difficult to defend and attack. At the same time, division of troops will also make it difficult to coordinate and command, and it is easier for the enemy to find loopholes.
But the problem is that Shen Chen's army is on the Yellow River. Without disembarking, Xu Huang cannot gather the effective forces to launch a surprise attack on him, and naturally cannot defeat them one by one.
If he did not choose to divide his troops for defense, the enemy would break through the wall from various positions and form an encirclement on Puban.
Xu Huang's military strength is far inferior to that of Shen Chen. He now has less than 30,000 troops on hand. Except for a small number of troops on the Western Front, most of them are in the hands of Cao Zhen.
With insufficient troops and being attacked from all sides at the same time, the wall he built was not a great wall to defend against the enemy, but a dilapidated house with leakage from all sides.
At the moment, Xu Huang had no choice but to divide his troops into separate groups, each with about 3,000 men, to carry out point defense.
Soon Cao's army was quickly dispatched. A large number of Cao's troops followed Shen Chen's ships from the headquarters camp to the north. The troops were dispersed. Xu Huang's side actually had less than 4,000 people left, relying on the wall of the river to die. Staring at the river in the distance.
When it was noon, Shen Chen saw that it was almost done, and then he began to order the attack.
The big ship put down hundreds of small boats, and more than ten people in each boat began to land. There were some ladders on the boats. The Han army assembled a team by the river. An army formation of about 5,000 people slowly moved closer to the village wall.
The first to take action was Cao's army. They fired sparse bows and crossbows into the sky, condescendingly beginning to oppress the Han army.
Unfortunately, Cao's army was severely divided, resulting in a shortage of archers. Most of the hundreds of arrows fell in the open space. A few of them were shot into the formation, but were only blocked by shields, causing almost no casualties.
Then came the second wave and the third wave of crossbows. By the time the fourth wave of crossbows came, the Han army had already reached the foot of the wall and began to launch a fierce attack on the wall.
After giving the order, the wailing Han army officially climbed up the wall. Aerial ladders were placed on the wall. The Cao army behind the wall stabbed down with spears and spears from above, and the Han soldiers below also used long halberds.
The spear thrust upward.
The sounds of fighting, the banging of weapons, the grunting and hissing of men as swords and guns penetrated flesh, and all kinds of sounds instantly filled the battlefield; along the one-mile stretch of the village wall along the river, densely packed
The Han army rushed towards Cao Jun like a tide, and the two sides fell into a fierce fighting.
"Right side wall! Go to the two people! Come up!"
"Kill."
"Hurry up and get some help. We'll rush forward immediately."
"Ah, someone come and give me a hand."
"Quick, quick, throw rocks outside and don't let them come up."
The lower-ranking officers of the enemy and our soldiers were shouting.
On the wall of the village, Cao Jun used rolling stones, wood, and even lime to throw out for free.
The Han soldiers under the village wall set up a cloud ladder, hung it on the wall with the barbs on the ladder, and began to climb up the steps.
They used their shields and armor to resist swords and guns, held their swords in their teeth, and under the cover of their teammates with spears, they charged back against the enemy.
From time to time, some Han soldiers fell down like kites with broken strings, but there were also Cao soldiers who were pulled down by spears and spears that were pulled downwards.
The war was extremely brutal.
The central wall has been turned into a meat grinder.
A large number of Han soldiers carried Huanshou knives, howling like wolves, and filed up like ants on the more than ten wooden ladders erected on the wall of the village.
The roars, echoes, weapons blocking, and pitiful howls and groans on the wall almost never stopped.
From noon to feeding time, the battle lasted for more than an hour.
The section of the wall that was less than 180 steps away was splattered with the blood of soldiers from both sides. In many places, the tawny rammed earth was completely soaked with blood, turning it into a dark red color.
Xu Huang stood on the high oar slightly behind and was giving instructions while watching the situation. He saw a man riding a horse on the river bank from a distance.
There are about five hundred people around that person, but as time goes by, there are fewer and fewer, because those people are reserves. Once there is a gap in the offense in some places, he will immediately fill in the reserves to exert offensive pressure.
His specific appearance was unclear because he was too far away, but he had a large banner erected behind him.
There seems to be a vague word "Shen" written on it!
Shen Chen!
Xu Huang gritted his teeth.
The man opposite is Cao Wei's great enemy.
It was precisely because of him that the Battle of Xiangfan, which determined the turning point between Cao Wei and the Southern Han Dynasty, was defeated.
Now the other party was standing arrogantly by the river, with only more than a hundred people around him. At that moment, Xu Huang was even considering whether to take the opportunity to sneak out and kill that person.
But remembering that this man had killed Cao Hong with great force, and had also fought in the north and south in his early years, and his force might not be inferior to his own, I could only give up this idea in the end.
The fighting continues.
There are two thousand more soldiers on Shen Chen's side than on the other side.
However, after all, Cao's army was on the defensive and occupied favorable terrain, so the casualties on both sides were greater than those of the Han army.
In addition to filling the gaps in the attack, the reserves also had to constantly transport wounded soldiers back and forth. The soldiers suffered heavy casualties. Many of them were exhausted, sweat and blood intertwined, and could not lift their arms.
It was not until three o'clock in the feeding hour that the sound of the Han army's golden sound was heard.
The soldiers breathed a sigh of relief, picked up their weapons and ran away. Some used shields to cover, while others backed up to prevent the enemy from chasing them out. The orderly retreat left Xu Huang without the courage to launch any counterattack.
At this time, there were hundreds of corpses under the wall, almost 80% of them were Han soldiers and only 20% were Cao soldiers.
However, some people in Cao's army were shot or stabbed to death on the wall. Although the battle loss ratio between the two sides was not exaggerated to the point where the Han army lost two and Cao's army lost one, it was still between 1.5 and 1.
Both the Han army and the Cao army seized this hard-won rest time and returned to their original positions. Some began to gasp and lie down, some began to eat, and some simply stayed where they were, just like
He was like a dead man and didn't want to move for a moment.
Such close combat is a huge test for the physical strength of the soldiers on both sides.
And not only in Puban, but also in various sections of the wall along the Yellow River in the north, this situation has been happening. The Han army divided its forces to raid, and there was a battlefield every ten miles. The two sides fought fiercely and were entangled with each other.
Waiting until the end of feeding time in the afternoon, a group of uninvited guests came to Sangquan.
At this time, there were almost no defenders in Sangquan, and the trading market outside the city had long been dispersed due to the temporary war. The Han people living in the Xiangting saw hundreds of cavalry dressed as Huns appearing outside the city from a distance.
.
An old man watched for a moment, then suddenly took steps and walked slowly towards the group of Huns.
Sangquan Waixiang Pavilion is open and surrounded by cultivated farmland. It is the busy time for farming in spring. Although the war in the west is raging, people still have to farm. Therefore, there are many farmers in the fields at this time, and there are some people coming and going from the Xiangquan Pavilion.
pedestrian.
Seeing the old man walking toward the Huns over there, someone said, "Old man, what are you doing to find those Huns?"
The old man smiled and said: "It's okay, it's okay."
Having said that, he still moved forward.
Soon the Huns were galloping closer.
Deng Ai reined in the horse and looked down at the old man without saying a word.
He doesn't speak Hun dialect.
But the old man smiled and said: "You are the Han army, right?"
Deng Ai was shocked and turned pale. He wanted to grab the knife, but he quickly stopped and said calmly: "We are the Huns."
"The Huns have been exposed to the wind and sun in the desert all year round, so their faces are not as good as yours."
The old man pointed to his knife and said: "Besides, the knives they use are all wrought iron scimitars. I have never seen them use ring-headed steel knives."
Deng Ai pondered for a moment and asked, "Why did the old gentleman stop us?"
The old man replied: "Cao's army enslaved us and allowed us to farm here. They took away more than 70% of the food. The villagers could no longer survive. Uncle Liu Huang is famous for his kindness and righteousness all over the world. We all know this, and we are willing to
As a Han citizen, I don't want to be a slave of Wei, so I came here to tell the general where Cao Jun's grain garrison is."
"oh?"
Deng Ai said happily: "Please let me know, sir."
The old man pointed to the southeast and said, "It's in Jiucheng, more than thirty miles away from here!"
"Thank you sir!"
Deng Ai bowed to him, then turned his horse's head and said, "Let's go!"
The old man looked at the direction they were leaving and murmured to himself: "It's too hard to be a slave of Wei. I was once a Han citizen, and it's time to return to the land of the Han and die."