Mengzhuze is a lake that has disappeared in later generations. It is located north of today's Shangqiu and south of Shan County and Cao County. It was the birthplace of the Yu tribe in ancient times and the place where Shang Tang flourished.
In addition, Mengzhuze is also an ancient swamp with the same reputation as Yunmengze. It can be connected to Surabaya to the east and Kaifeng to the west.
During the Spring and Autumn Period, Mengzhuze Lake alone could provide irrigation water for the entire Song Dynasty.
It can be said that Songzhou, also known as Shangqiu in later generations, became a prosperous place in the Central Plains because of Meng Zhuze.
However, around the time of the Shang Dynasty, the water surface of Meng Zhuze has been shrinking. By this time, the circumference of the lake was only forty or fifty miles.
.
.
Although it is already early March, there is a late spring cold this year, and the weather is actually a bit colder than in late winter.
There was only a waterway of more than 300 miles from Xuzhou to Songzhou, but by the time the Southern Tang army reached the vicinity of Meng Zhuze, it could be said that they were exhausted.
Because this was a journey upstream, Liu Yanzhen was not prepared, so she relied entirely on civilian men to sail upstream.
More than 30,000 civilians who were recruited from the army died of illness and exhaustion due to high-intensity physical labor and poor food and accommodation conditions, and tens of thousands of them fled.
Halfway to Dangshan Mountain, we actually couldn’t go any further.
Liu Yanzhen had no choice but to let the soldiers carry their own armor and stomach and move forward.
As soon as this order came out, the soldiers and generals immediately complained. In addition, although Liu Yanzhen had a good reputation, his actual management ability was not good, and his prestige was not spread among the soldiers. A large number of soldiers were unwilling to obey the military order at all, and still put the stomach on the boat.
Liu Yanzhen sent people down for inspection, and the generals tried to bribe the inspectors, creating a mess in the army.
Noisy fights, bullying and other things happened from time to time along the way, and the boat moved even slower.
Liu Yanzhen had no choice but to see that after issuing the order for the soldiers to bring their own armor and stomachs, the boats still could not move, so they had no choice but to ask the prefecture and county soldiers and the Tuanjie Township soldiers to also slim down the boats. This barely alleviated the crisis.
When everyone thought they could relax, they discovered that without the support of state and county soldiers and united rural soldiers, the forbidden army suddenly had more work to do.
Especially along the way, the Zhou cavalry kept compressing the exploration space of the Southern Tang cavalry, and would rush in to fight whenever they saw an opportunity, which made the Southern Tang army extremely exhausted.
Without the help of the state and county soldiers and the united rural soldiers, the Imperial Army of the Southern Tang Dynasty could only continue to dispatch, forming formations to drive away the Zhou cavalry, which was even more tiring than their own armor and stomach.
As for the prefecture and county soldiers and the Tuanjie Township soldiers, they undertook the extremely arduous work of fiberlining the boats. They had basically lost their combat effectiveness due to heavy physical labor and constant attacks.
On the third day of March, the Southern Tang Army, which had been bumpy and exhausted along the way, finally arrived at Mengzhuze. Well... strictly speaking, only part of the Southern Tang Army reached Mengzhuze.
Because there were more than 70,000 soldiers and civilians dispatched from the Southern Tang Army this time, it was not an easy task to command such a large army to march.
Not to mention more than 70,000 strong men and a large amount of food and baggage, even 7,000 primary school students on a spring outing, without considerable ability, can easily make a mess.
For example, now, Liu Yanzhen has arrived at Mengzhuze with 20,000 people and has begun to unload the supplies on the boats and set up camp, while Zhang Yanhan, who is in charge of the rear army, is still more than 40 miles away.
What is even more troublesome is that due to the fatigue caused by being attacked along the way, the reconnaissance and shielding capabilities of the Southern Tang cavalry were extremely limited.
This is not to say that the cavalry skills of these cavalrymen from the south of the Yangtze River are not good. In fact, except for the fact that the horses are indeed much inferior, the cavalry skills of the Southern Tang cavalry are actually quite good, and their shooting skills are even more superb.
But there is a problem. Since ancient times, the knights in Jiangnan have certain skills, but they lack inheritance and generals who can train ordinary knights into cavalry.
This is also an important reason why Southern Tang Dynasty wanted to offer a lot of benefits to win over Hu Ci Le. This can only be regarded as a mid-level cavalryman on Zhang Zhao's side, but in Southern Tang Dynasty, he is an expert in cavalry warfare, and even the power of Hu Ci is rare in Southern Tang Dynasty.
Talents.
However, the tiger thorns had only been in the Southern Tang Dynasty for a short time, and they did not have unlimited trust from Li Jing, so the Southern Tang cavalry still lacked tactics.
In terms of covering the army, roaming and fighting with dogs, and patrolling and exploring, they basically rely entirely on their personal abilities and daily habits.
If you encounter an opponent of the same level, you can barely cope with it. Historically, when you encountered Hou Tang, you were often beaten violently in the Later Zhou Dynasty.
Now that they encountered Zhang Zhou, whose cavalry was even more powerful than the Khitans, the cavalry of the Southern Tang Dynasty had basically been reduced to mounted infantry, completely losing the role of cavalry.
As soon as Liu Yanzhen arrived at Mengzhu Lake, before the army had settled down, he immediately set up several tables of wine and meat, invited three or five generals he liked from the military camp, and started drinking and singing by the lake.
Drinking and hunting in Meng Zhuze has been an elegant affair since ancient times. Li Bai, Du Fu, Gao Shi and other celebrities like to hunt here.
As the second generation of Quan Dynasty, Liu Yanzhen, who grew up in fine clothes and beautiful clothes, naturally wanted to go hunting here to show off her elegance.
After drinking the wine to the point of high spirits, Liu Yanzhen even ignored the cold weather in spring and took off her clothes and went swimming around Meng Zhuze for several laps, which attracted loud cheers from the surrounding officials and generals.
As for setting up camp and setting up camp, all matters were left to his confidant Cheng Shilang.
But Cheng Shilang is just a reckless man who has no use for courage but no knowledge or skills.
If on Zhang Zhao's side, being a pro-military general is the end, how can he have the ability to set up camp in a stronghold and settle down all 70,000 people?
However, even with Cheng Shilang's ability, he keenly discovered that something was wrong, that is, he sent several waves of cavalry out, but none of them came back.
They claimed to have an army of 100,000 people and brought more than 10,000 cavalry. They arrived only more than fifty miles away from Songzhou City, but they could not even find out any news about Songzhou City.
At this time, Zhang Quanyue, the governor of Chizhou in the Southern Tang Dynasty, who had been working hard to supervise the work of the fiber boat, also came in. Before he had time to greet him, he grabbed Cheng Shilang's sleeve and said.
"Hurry up and go see the capital deployment with a certain person. The area around Meng Zhuze is as quiet as a ghost, and even the birds and beasts seem to have disappeared. A certain family heard that there were many birds and beasts in Meng Zhuze in the past, which is really abnormal.
Most of the fertile fields in Songzhou are around Meng Zhuze, but there is not a single farmer there, so there must be fraud, because the Zhou army is probably waiting for us around here."
Cheng Shilang was touched by Zhang Quanyue's words. When he used to follow Liu Yanzhen everywhere, he felt that commanding an army was just an easy task. It was nothing more than yelling, looting and killing, which was very satisfying.
Only now did Master Cheng feel that it didn't seem to be the case.
The two of them hurried to the place where Liu Yanzhen was giving a banquet to the generals, but it was already too late.
This journey has exhausted Liu Yanzhen, an old man who has lived in fine clothes since childhood.
After he had eaten and drank enough and flexed his muscles for a leisurely swim in Meng Zhuze, he couldn't hold himself back and went to sleep before the sky got dark.
The servants of the Liu family were afraid of Liu Yanzhen's punishment and refused to report it.
Zhang Quanyue stamped his feet twice and sighed anxiously.
"No wonder Hu Cile is pretending to be crazy and is unwilling to follow. In this way, how can he defeat the Zhou Kingdom's cavalry? These tens of thousands of athletes may never return to Jiangnan again."
It was true that they could not return to the south of the Yangtze River. As soon as the Southern Tang Army crossed the Bianshui River section north of Yucheng County, Zhang Zhao retreated to the hidden army south of Shanfu and immediately dispatched.
Liu Yanzhen had barely seen anything about the Zhou army, but Zhang Zhao had already thoroughly modeled the Southern Tang army from top to bottom.
To the north of Yucheng and on the north bank of Bian River, there is a small city called Tucheng. Zhang Zhao personally led 20,000 troops and had set up an ambush here for a long time.
The reason why the Southern Tang Army only had a total of 70,000 troops but stretched for dozens of miles was because the manpower of the fiber boats was insufficient.
After the more than 20,000 people in the front army arrived at Mengzhuze, the more than 30,000 people in the back were still waiting for the trackers in front to come and track the boats.
From what Zhang Zhao could see from Tucheng, there were thousands of trackers on both sides of the Bian River, being driven back and forth on their boats.
Then the rear army's boats loaded with large amounts of grain and fodder were waiting for their arrival in the river.
What else is there to wait for? More than twenty miles away, the cavalry can arrive in an instant.
Zhang Zhao gave an order, and more than 10,000 cavalry including the Yulin Guards on the left and right attacked from the north.
Bai Congxin's 6,000 cavalry, which had been besieging Songzhou City, also charged from the south of Bian River.
Zhang Yanhan, the commander of the Southern Tang Dynasty's rear army, was not prepared at all, because these days, the Zhou army's cavalry raids were basically based on two to three hundred cavalry, and more than five hundred cavalry were rare.
Therefore, the Southern Tang Army also summed up some methods, that is, using more horses, equipped with strong bows and crossbows, relying on boats in the river as fortresses, and shrinking the soldiers to the riverside.
Wherever they are attacked, they shrink back, and then use the cavalry to support and contain them along the river, waiting for the army to make a detour.
But this time, instead of hundreds of cavalry, there were nearly 20,000 cavalry. Smoke and dust rose into the sky from both sides of Bianshui River for a while, which looked particularly terrifying under the setting sun.
Although the Southern Tang Army had resisting horses, it was impossible to cover the entire team that was more than ten miles long.
Moreover, the first direction of the cavalry's attack was not the soldiers of the Southern Tang Dynasty who formed formations to follow the boats, but the civilians and state and county soldiers who were forced to continue down the boats.
These people had long been exhausted to the extreme. When they saw the Zhou army's cavalry rushing over like a sudden storm, whoever took the lead cried out and immediately ran away.
Six to seven thousand civilians, plus an equal number of state and county soldiers, collapsed before the Zhou army could reach them. Even the soldiers and generals of the Southern Tang Imperial Army who escorted them to work were mixed in with the crowd and ran around.
At this time, Zhang Yanhan saw the incoming Zhou army on the boat, and quickly ordered people to sound the big drum on the boat as a warning, and the Imperial Army of the Southern Tang Dynasty hurriedly gathered along the river.
Zhang Yanhan was afraid that the soldiers would not dare to fight the enemy but would climb onto the boat, so he ordered the boat to sail away from the shore.
It's just that in this way, the soldiers of the Southern Tang Dynasty really couldn't get on the ship, but they didn't know what to do.
Murong Nobunaga's Zuoyu Linwei was always the first to arrive on the battlefield.
The configuration of the left feather forest guard is different from that of the right feather forest guard. The right feather forest guard is more of a hussar with light armor, while the left feather forest guard is a semi-heavy cavalry wearing iron armor and the horse is only armored on key parts.
This was requested by Zhang Zhao, because he found that the competition between Murong Nobunaga and Li Cunhui had created a gap between the left and right Yulin Guards, and even started to form factions.
This didn't work, so before the Yanshi War, Zhang Zhao made extensive adjustments to the officers and configurations of the left and right Yulin Guards, and then designed a combat mode for the two guards to complement each other during the war.
Therefore, although Murong Nobunaga's left-wing forest guard arrived first, they took the initiative to slow down when they were two hundred steps away, allowing the light-armored right-wing forest guard to go up first and harass them.
Lin Wei, who was on the right wing, rushed forward without stopping and rushed to the sixty-step mark. The Hou Tang army in front of them was already in a panic, but it did not collapse. There were even crossbowmen who dared to make mistakes.
Li Cunhui decisively gave up charging into the formation with light armor, but instead made a detour in front of the Southern Tang Army's formation, and at the same time poured a large amount of arrow rain onto the Southern Tang Army's head.
These Southern Tang troops were raided while on their way, so not many of them wore armor at all. Therefore, even if the arrows shot from their horse bows were missed, the damage they would do to them would be great.
At the same time, the Southern Tang Army also began to fight back. Bows and arrows didn't matter, but occasionally they were mixed with crossbow arrows, which still posed a threat to the right feather forest guard. War horses or people kept falling to the ground, causing a certain amount of chaos.
At this time, Zhang Yanhan saw the slight confusion of the Lin Guards on the right wing on the boat, and immediately waved the flag and ordered the Southern Tang cavalry who had been hiding in the infantry formation to attack and attack the Lin Guards on the right wing.
You say he is incompetent, but he can see this flaw, so you say he is capable. In fact, this flaw is fake, just to lure out the Southern Tang cavalry.
A small opening opened on the side of the infantry of the Southern Tang Dynasty, and two thousand cavalrymen quickly drove out. Li Cunhui immediately commanded the Lin Guards on the right to run away in an even more embarrassing manner.
After they were about a hundred steps away from the infantry of the Southern Tang Dynasty and lost the protection of the infantry, the right feather Lin Wei immediately made a beautiful flick and turned the corner.
The cavalry of the Southern Tang Dynasty originally had much inferior horses, so they did not get close to the right feather Lin Wei. In addition, they could not imagine that the Zhou army's cavalry could complete the turn in such a small radius.
Don't underestimate this action. When galloping with a pursuer behind, the whole army is united, and the horses are like arms. They can turn as a whole when told, which is something that ordinary troops cannot do.
Therefore, the pursuing Southern Tang cavalry immediately collided head-on with Lin Wei, who had adjusted his direction to the right.
As soon as they collided, they discovered the power of the Zhou army's cavalry. Damn it, the guns of these cavalry can spit fire!
In an instant, the sound was like firecrackers and flames were shooting out. The Southern Tang cavalry turned on their backs and did not bother to pursue. The men and horses were frightened and turned around and ran away. Many people directly collided with them.
At this time, Murong Nobunaga's Zuoyu Linwei arrived. Most of them were heavy cavalry. With a thunderous strike, the Southern Tang cavalry was cut in half and immediately ran around in panic.
Then the hussars on the right wing of the forest guard put on sabers and chased them and harvested them casually.
But in just over a quarter of an hour, the two thousand cavalry of the Southern Tang Forbidden Army were completely defeated!
Li Cunhui led the right feather forest guards in pursuit. Murong Nobunaga's left feather forest guards did not pursue, but regrouped. At a distance of 80 steps, they tried to charge at the Southern Tang infantry again.
Murong Nobunaga divided the thousand cavalry into two groups, the front group was 200 riders, and the rear group was 800 horses.
At this time, the infantry who saw that the cavalry was almost completely annihilated became even more panicked. When Zuoyu Linwei was about seventy steps away, they fired their crossbows almost in no particular order.
By the time they reached thirty or forty steps, the crossbows, especially the crossbow arrows, of the Southern Tang Imperial Guards were almost still being cocked.
It turned out that in the panic, this large formation of more than 6,000 infantry actually fired almost all the crossbow arrows. However, although there was smoke and dust on the opposite side, there were only 200 cavalry, so the hit rate could be imagined.
There was a short crossbow arrow stuck in Zhang Xiaobiao's cloth mask. He vaguely felt as if it had pierced the nail leaf because his stomach felt warm.
However, he felt that he could hold on, and while taking advantage of the smoke and dust, he led his men to run across the Southern Tang formation again, causing the Southern Tang army to fire another volley of bows and crossbows.
At this moment, the Little Leopard Man's mission was completed. He blew the copper whistle with all his strength, and the 1670 riders who could still move retreated immediately after him.
The Southern Tang Army, who was rejoicing in their hearts, had not had time to cheer. In the smoke and dust that had not yet fallen, eight hundred left-wing Lin Xiaocai gathered into a pig assault formation.
The speed of the Liangzhou broken-eared horses and the Han-blooded horses under their legs suddenly accelerated to the fastest speed. Like a bolt of thunder and lightning, they suddenly crashed into the junction of the two battalions of the Southern Tang Army.
There are no temptations because all the temptations are over.
At this time, the Southern Tang Army still relied mainly on wooden single crossbows or the large yellow crossbows of the Han Dynasty, which were powerful but slow to cock.
Zhang Xiaobiao and others had just been shot away before they had time to wind the string. At the same time, a lot of physical strength and energy were consumed in the extreme tension.
They didn't even shoot many arrows at the eight hundred cavalry. Just when the cavalry was about to crash in, the soldiers in front of them collapsed.
They squeezed to both sides as hard as they could. The soldiers on both sides didn't know what was happening, but they were pushed around by their violent comrades.
The formation collapsed instantly. In addition to running away in fear, many people did not even see the enemy, and they were defeated in confusion.
For a time, such battles were constantly taking place on both sides of the Bian River. Most of the Southern Tang troops that relied on large ships and gathered on the riverside collapsed after being squeezed three or four times.
In less than an hour, under the attack of more than 20,000 Southern Tang troops and more than 10,000 Zhou army cavalry, only a few people were left to resist.
Most people threw away their weapons and swam desperately to the middle of the river, hoping to get on the boat and save their lives.
It is a pity that although their water properties are generally good, the Bian River is not wide. The so-called big ships at this time are not the large ships of hundreds or thousands of tons in later generations. It is considered good to be able to carry dozens of tons.
It can't float either.
The Zhou army was on the shore, shooting with bows and crossbows in a leisurely manner, while the Southern Tang army was left with corpses floating in the water. Even Bianshui was soon dyed red.
Zhang Yanhan was scared out of his wits and loudly urged the boat to turn around and run directly downstream.
No one cares about the victory or defeat, and does not care about Meng Zhuze's superiors and colleagues who have already arrived. It is most correct to run away on his own.
Unfortunately, at this time, there was a sound of camels, and Zhang Zhao had already deployed the Shenji Camp on their retreat, and more than a hundred small trebuchets were waiting for Zhang Yanhan.
Downstream, the Camel Cyclone Cannon with calibrated firing parameters and a small number of medium-sized catapults were ready.
First, the flexible camel cyclone cannon hit the boatman so hard that he didn't dare to come up to maneuver the boat. Once the speed slowed down, the medium-sized trebuchet hit with precision.
There were also divine-armed archers on both sides of the strait standing at the water's edge, shooting at anyone who dared to show their head on the boats. They only ran less than two miles of water, and the boats in the Southern Tang Dynasty were in tatters and their speed slowed down.
Zhang Zhao waved his hand, and Du Lun Chixin personally led the Zhou army's sailors, tied short weapons to their bodies, jumped naked into the boat, rowed to the center of the river, climbed onto the Southern Tang ship with grappling hooks and other tools, and fought hand to hand.
After training on the Yellow River and recruiting Yellow River fishermen and boatmen with Li Jianchong's help, Zhang Zhao finally had more than a thousand talents capable of fighting water battles.
Du Lun Chixin was the first to climb onto the Southern Tang ship at the front. He held a hatchet and a hammer and killed a few Southern Tang soldiers who dared to surround them. After that, a group of people directly cut off the mast.
Placing this largest ship across the Bian River directly blocked the escape route of the Southern Tang fleet.
Zhang Zhao was beaming with excitement. These people and boats were all precious to him!
To play with the navy, people from the south are still better at it. Capture them to the north, and then recruit fishermen from both sides of the Yellow River. With such a mix, plus these boats, the future navy will be ready!
"Send a signal so that Wang Shenqi doesn't need to prepare the fireship, and order the sergeant to shout surrender without killing."
Zhang Zhao issued a series of orders, then looked at Zhao Yanjin beside him and said: "My son is familiar with water warfare. You will review the Southern Tang Navy generals. Anyone who has a little knowledge of water warfare can be recruited and surrendered."
Although the Southern Tang fleet was blocked, the battle did not end immediately. The search and elimination of ships continued almost until dawn.
Zhang Yanhan, the commander of the Southern Tang army, was killed during the hunt. Counting the soldiers and civilians on board the boats, the entire Southern Tang army of 35,000 was almost wiped out.
Only some soldiers who were particularly good at water fled through the water, and more than thirty generals above Du Yuhou were captured.
There were more than 160 ships on Zhang Yanhan's side, but only about 30 of them successfully escaped back to the lower reaches of Bian River. The rest became Zhang Zhao's spoils of war.
There were countless provisions, grass, clothing and armor on the boat, which greatly eased Zhang Zhao's food shortage.
Now that the rear army has been destroyed, the 20,000 elite soldiers of the Southern Tang Dynasty are blocked in Mengzhuze, and they have no chance of escaping.
