This was the fourth day after Cao Cao's defeat. Le Jin retreated to Niyang, and at the same time the scouts sent out to find out the news also returned.
When he learned that Cao Cao had retreated to Wuyin, he immediately prepared to cross the river and go east to join Cao Cao.
In mid-spring and February, the grass grows and orioles fly.
The weather has been good these past few days, the sun is shining brightly, and everything is taking root and sprouting.
Since early in the morning, when the sky had just dawned and dew was still hanging on the leaves of the weeds outside the city, Le Jin had already left the city.
He sent people to inquire around and found that no Xiliang army was around, and the bridge leading to the other side of the river from Nanjiuju was not damaged and could be passed through.
However, for the sake of safety, he did not choose to cross the river immediately. Instead, he sent several small groups over and patrolled the other side of the river to confirm safety before setting off this morning.
The army prepared food at midnight and marched at five o'clock. After walking for almost two hours, near noon, they finally arrived at the bank of the Feishui River, about 20 kilometers away from Nieyang County.
Le Jin was riding on horseback and had been observing the surrounding situation. There were countless pavilions on both sides of the Meishui River, and endless villages and farmland on both sides of the road.
It is the time of spring floods. Heavy rains have recently occurred in the upper reaches of Funiu Mountain. The water level in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River has risen, which has led to an increase in the flow of water downstream. People in nearby villages are currently working in the fields.
At this moment, seeing an army approaching, all the people put down their hoes and consciously walked away from the road.
From the Yellow Turban Rebellion to the present, so many years of experience have told them that no matter whether they are a good army or not, it is better to stay away from them than to lose your life for no reason.
Le Jin was too lazy to pay attention to the people in the village. He followed the official road and approached the river. He saw the wooden bridge on the river from a distance, pointed to the front and said: "The front part goes over first and occupies the bridge head."
"only!"
The generals at the front responded and left.
Although the water level of the river has risen, the Baihe River in later generations is still a relatively large river with relatively wide banks, and the bridges have not been washed away.
The 1,500 people in the front reached the river and began to cross the river one after another, occupying the positions on the other side of the river.
Since the bridge is used by people from nearby villages and pavilions to cross the river, it has poor bearing capacity and is not wide enough, so the speed of crossing the river is very slow.
It took almost half an hour for 1,500 people to walk through.
After the front section passed, Le Jin observed that there was no movement on the other side of the river, and prepared to personally lead the 2,000-strong Chinese army across the river.
There were fifteen hundred people behind him.
This is a very conventional front, middle and rear three-army model, suitable for marching and setting up camp.
"Hurry up!"
Le Jin rode on horseback by the bridge, constantly urging the soldiers to cross.
A deputy general beside him said: "General, this bridge is too narrow and not very strong. If too many people cross it at once, it may become unstable."
Le Jin saw that the wooden bridge was indeed swaying, and then looked up at the sky. He was also very anxious, but he had no choice but to be anxious and said: "Try to ask the soldiers to hurry up and don't delay. We have to arrive before dark."
Jingyang."
"only."
The lieutenant general followed the order and made arrangements.
After waiting for a while, when the two thousand troops were almost halfway gone, several black spots appeared on the upper reaches of the Qishui River.
Immediately afterwards, the scout cavalry deployed by Le Jin for reconnaissance on the periphery galloped back like crazy. Only two of the dozen people sent out were left, and one of them still had an arrow stuck in his arm.
"Enemy attack!"
The scout's shrill shouts pierced the entire sky, and Le Jin's heart suddenly tightened!
He instinctively looked to the north and saw countless dark shadows appearing densely in the wilderness to the north. An army was rushing towards them. Although it was far away, it was impossible for them to survive in a short period of time.
The river goes.
"Oops!"
Le Jin suddenly remembered something, and turned around to look. Sure enough, he saw the vastness of the river, and four stern boats rushing towards the bridge like flying.
Later generations of Nanyang people may know that the width of the Feishui River in the Han Dynasty and the Baihe River in the new era are still very wide.
Its narrowest point in the upstream is fifty meters, while the average width in Nanyang urban area and downstream is between 500-700 meters, making it the largest river in the Nanyang Basin.
However, the Feishui River in the Han Dynasty did not expand its channel as many times as it did in later generations, so the width at this time was still much narrower than in later generations.
But precisely because it is much narrower, during the spring floods, the water level rises so much that it almost reaches the river bank.
Four stern boats on the river came as fast as arrows, and there were dozens of brave men on the boat. They rowed the boat quickly, and when they were less than a mile away from the bridge, they abandoned the boat and jumped into the river.
It stands to reason that an ordinary person would be drowned in such a fast-moving river, even if the water was good. However, these people were all Jinfan bandits under Gan Ning, and they had run rampant in the Yangtze River in history.
The Yangtze River is much stronger than the Feishui River in terms of width and water flow speed. Even in the Yangtze River, they are like white stripes in the waves, let alone in this small Feishui River.
Therefore, after jumping into the water, they took a deep breath, dived to the bottom of the river, felt for the river bed, and climbed up the bank from the west side of Feishui River.
"Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!"
More than ten seconds later, before anyone could react, four huge collision sounds suddenly resounded. Under the terrifying force, the wooden bridge collapsed instantly, sending sawdust flying everywhere.
A large number of soldiers on the bridge who had no time to retreat rolled over into the river as the wooden bridge rolled over and were submerged by the huge waves.
Seeing this scene, before Le Jin could even curse, the villagers in the distance stood on the edge of the fields with hoes, and they were all dumbfounded.
The people gathered in the surrounding villages and towns were feeling miserable, and they were all clamoring to sell the food.
Because this bridge is the only way for them to travel between the east and west banks, and the only communication channel between Niyang and the opposite Jiyang County. Once it is destroyed, they will have to walk dozens of kilometers to go to the other side of the river.
So everyone was extremely angry.
But what can they do? They can only dare to be angry but dare not speak out, and watch in silence.
At this time, no one cared about the idea of ​​gathering people in the surrounding Xiangting villages, and a large number of troops from the north were attacking Lejin like a rushing tide.
In desperation, Le Jin immediately issued an order to form a formation on the spot.
The number of people around him was less than half, only about 2,000. Facing the wolf-like enemy army, escape was inevitable. The only way out was to fight to the death without retreating.
"If you run away, you will perish. Only by fighting to the death can you survive."
Le Jin was a brave man and roared loudly: "Soldiers, kill the enemy!"
"Kill the enemy! Kill the enemy! Kill the enemy!"
The morale of Cao's army was high, and they fought to the death with their backs on the Feishui River.
Gan Ning was riding on horseback, and he was the first one. Looking at Cao Jun who had formed a formation in the distance, he waved his sword and roared: "Kill!"
"kill!"
The Huyang garrison was originally under Liu Biao's command, but under Gan Ning's training it was already a qualified force. With its large number of troops, it surged towards Cao Jun.
Le Jin's eyes were red, he clenched his teeth, and held the long knife in his hand tightly. He saw that the roads and fields to the north were densely packed, and the overwhelming enemy troops were rushing towards him like a tide. Then he looked around him.
There were only about two thousand people alone, huddled together one by one. Although they were all elites with hundreds of battles and no shortage of morale, they were still weak, and there was a big gap between their strength and the enemy's.
"Prepare!"
Seeing the enemy getting closer and closer, Le Jin roared angrily, and Cao Jun, the spearman standing in the front row, pointed their sharp spears at the enemy. In an instant, it was like a flood, and the two sides suddenly collided.
In an instant, the sounds of fighting, the banging of weapons, the grunting and hissing of people when swords and guns penetrated flesh... all kinds of sounds echoed on the battlefield.
"There is a gap to the west. A few people have to go. Come up quickly. Come up quickly."
"Retreat first, retreat a little further."
"Don't go to the river."
Le Jin sat on the horse and kept shouting commands. In the past, he often served as the deputy general of Cao Hong, Cao Ren, Yu Jin and others. They would do the battlefield command, and he would lead the charge into the battle.
But this time he was sent by Cao Cao to lead a team of troops to attack Anzhong for the first time. In addition to the fact that this task was not too difficult, it was not without the intention of training him.
If it had been in the past, Le Jin would have already gone into battle to kill him personally, taking the lead and watching the crowd.
But this is no longer the time to trap the enemy. Once he gets in, the entire command system will inevitably collapse.
Therefore, he could only sit by the river, observe the overall situation of the battlefield, and constantly direct the soldiers in the rear to fill the holes.
Compared with him, Gan Ning's burden was not that heavy.
Because Gan Ning was not actually the commander of this battle, or in other words, this battle did not need anyone to direct it.
In the rear, Deng Hong and Shen Chen were riding on horseback. All they had to do was sit there.
The gap in strength between them is still very large. More than 6,000 soldiers and horses beat more than 2,000, which is three times the number of troops. I have the advantage. I only need to go out and wait for a big victory.
Soon Gan Ning was the first to rush into the enemy formation, slashing left and right with his broadsword, cutting a bloody path out and creating the first gap.
After the gap appeared, a steady stream of Gan and Ning troops rushed in from behind.
From the very beginning when the two sides collided like a torrent, to when the soldiers at the front fell off their backs one by one, to when Gan Ning rushed through the gap, to when Cao Jun's northwest formation was scattered, less than five minutes had passed.
Seeing this scene, Le Jin felt extremely anxious and immediately shouted: "Block the gap in the northwest quickly. Get a group of people. Where are the people in the rear? Where have they all died?"
"General, we don't have many people on hand anymore, everyone is fighting."
The lieutenant next to him lamented.
In the final analysis, Le Jin still had too few soldiers. Half of his troops crossed the river and the other half stayed here, so the bridge was destroyed.
Gan Ning's troops numbered more than 6,000. In addition to his 5,000-strong Huyang garrison, more than 1,000 Huangmenting soldiers also participated, led by Deng Zhao and Shen Zhen to assist Gan Ning in attacking Cao's army.
The gap in numbers between the enemy and ourselves was nearly three times that of Cao's army, even when they formed a formation, they did not hold out for long. They were quickly broken by Gan Ning's army and fell into disarray.
So now the situation on the entire battlefield has become that after Cao's army's formation was broken, they had no choice but to fight Gan Ning's army in a chaotic battle without formation.
Le Jin quickly turned around and looked around.
He saw that his army was being slashed and stabbed with spears and swords by the Gan Ning army on the outside. Alone and weak, Cao's army inside kept retreating. After the outside was broken through, they could only be forced to fight with the enemy.
Close combat.
Soon, the wilderness by the river bank was filled with fighting Cao Jun and Gan Ning Jun. Some of them were rolling in the fields, some were pushed into the river, and some threw themselves together like stacked arhats.
Cutting with knives, stabbing with spears, even biting with teeth, gouging out eyeballs, hitting heads with rocks. In order to kill the enemy on the battlefield, as long as you can survive, you will do anything.
"Damn it, come with me!"
Le Jin knew that the current situation was very unfavorable to him, so he turned his horse's head, pointed to the northwest and gritted his teeth: "We must block that gap, the formation can no longer support it."
At his shout, dozens of guards around him immediately followed his pace and headed towards the gap opened by Gan Ning.
Gan Ning's charging position was misaligned with Le Jin's. He rushed into the formation one man and one horse, surrounded by dozens of Jinfan soldiers to protect him, and ran rampant through the crowd.
A Cao soldier on the left saw the opportunity and stabbed his horse's leg in a low voice. The horse stumbled and Gan Ning was caught off guard and fell off the horse.
Although he later had the experience of having hundreds of cavalry rob Cao's camp, Gan Ning's riding skills at this time were actually not as proficient as they would later be.
Therefore, after falling off his horse, he immediately rolled on the spot. While releasing his strength, he came to the side of several Cao soldiers and slashed with his sword. One of his swords struck one Cao soldier on the cheek, knocking him to the ground.
Immediately afterwards, another Cao Jun on the right struck at his neck with a ring-shaped sword. After Gan Ning dodged it, he struck twice with his backhand, killing the Cao Jun who wanted to sneak attack him.
The surrounding Jinfan thieves swarmed up, cleared away the enemies around Gan Ning, and led them to kill deep into Cao's army's formation.
"General, look, someone is rushing towards us."
At this moment, a famous Jinfan thief suddenly noticed a famous general on horseback on the river bank not far away, with dozens of personal guards, who were also killing their soldiers wantonly. He rushed towards them and pointed at that man.
Gan Ning said: "This man must be a general of Cao's army."
"This person should be happy to enter."
Gan Ning bit the knife in his mouth, and then wiped his hands with the brocade cloth on his body. His hands were full of blood, and the handle of the knife easily slipped when he held it. After cleaning up the blood, he picked up the knife and stared at it fiercely.
Le Jin said: "Let's go and kill him."
"Kill!"
The Jinfan thieves roared and attacked in Le Jin's direction like wolves and tigers.
Le Jin's team over there fought hard towards them.
Now the battlefield is in chaos. Gan Ning and Le Jin are far away from each other. Even if they see each other, they have a hard time walking.
However, both of them were warriors on the battlefield. Under the cover of their personal guards, they charged left and right, killing dozens of the other side's soldiers, and finally met.
Although Le Jin was riding on horseback, he had no advantage in charging. The crowd gradually dispersed. There were corpses and obstacles everywhere, and it was impossible for the horse to run.
Therefore, when the two sides met, Gan Ning jumped up and slashed at Le Jin with his sword. Le Jin also raised his sword and aimed at Gan Ning who jumped up and launched a jump slash at him, and slashed head-on!