In the twelfth lunar month of winter, even if the weather is fine, standing on the north gate tower of Kuocheng and having the cold wind blow on your face is like being blown by a knife.
In the distance, the frozen Yellow River is like a plain white cloth belt winding between the vast brown fields. It is full of cool colors and has no green at all. More than a dozen groups of refugees retreating from the north are sparsely visible.
, looking at their staggering appearance from a distance, one knows that they have suffered a lot along the way, and there is not much life in their ranks that are crawling like ants.
The war got tighter, and as Donglu outposts entered Jinan Mansion more frequently for reconnaissance, the clouds in everyone's hearts grew heavier and heavier. Occasionally, a few birds flew out from nowhere, as if they were the only remaining birds in the wilderness.
Living thing,
Suddenly, a group of cavalry came out from the side of the hills facing the river to the north and galloped quickly in the wilderness. The refugees who were crawling like ants seemed to have been poured boiling water, and they immediately stirred up. They did not bother to pack up their belongings, and scattered in panic.
Get away.
There were only over sixty cavalrymen in that group, each with two or three horses, a bow on his back and a sword on his back, and brown armor. They were the Donglu outpost rangers.
"Damn it!" Lu Jing scolded sternly. Donglu's outpost riders relied on their many horses, strong legs and superb riding skills. They were two to three hundred miles deep, with dozens of riders, and more than a hundred riders dared to cross in and out as if there was no one.
However, there is no good solution here.
Most of the Eastern Fujian soldiers were infantry, with only a few hundred cavalry guards, and they could not be sent out to chase the Donglu outposts. The key was that the horses they brought from the south could not adapt to the severe cold in the north, and they all withered.
There are more than 2,000 cavalry in the local garrison in Jinan Prefecture, but they are all one man and one horse. They can still catch them if they are chased over a short distance of ten or twenty miles, but they will be easily thrown away no matter how long the journey is. The horse power weakens and the cavalry
Their skills are not as good as those of Donglu. They chase out with three or four times the enemy's cavalry. After chasing a distance, they are often chased and beaten by Donglu's outpost rangers. If there are two or three Donglu's outpost rangers nearby, the number of casualties will increase.
Even more chilling.
The Donglu Outpost Rangers had just arrived to harass the Jinan Prefecture. During the reconnaissance, the garrison sent cavalry out to drive them away. After suffering several heavy casualties, they watched the Donglu Outpost Cavalry coming to kill the refugees outside the city and remained indifferent.
Just close the city without leaving.
Before the Eastern Fujian soldiers finally decided whether to leave or not, Lu Jingyan took the initiative to take over the task of guarding the North City. When he saw the Donglu sentries and cavalry appearing, he didn't dare to use them, so he planned to send a group of infantry out of the city.
:There is no way we can just sit back and watch the Donglu sentry cavalry killing refugees so rampantly just outside the city. This will do too much harm to the morale of the soldiers defending the city...
Just when Lu Jingyan was about to give the order to send troops out of the city, another group of cavalry came from the northwest direction of the fork of the Yufu River. There were about 1,780 people. They first formed two lines and galloped side by side, about two meters away from Donglu's sentry cavalry.
Li Xu, spread out in a fan shape to surround the Donglu sentry cavalry's rear. At this time, a group of more than a hundred cavalry also galloped out from the northwest of the city and headed toward the Donglu sentry cavalry to greet them.
"Jiangdong Left Army!"
Hearing this exclamation, Lu Jingyan looked back and saw that one of his subordinates was making a fuss.
Lu Jingyan did not say anything. The only troops stationed outside the west city were the fifth battalion of Jiangdong Qinwang Division's Zuo Army, commanded by Lin Fu. Although the two cavalry units currently sent to meet the enemy did not raise their flags, he knew that except Lin Fu, no one
To be able to send out the cavalry so quickly, the cavalry at the fork of the Yufu River must have been ambushed long ago.
Lu Jingyan gave up the plan of sending troops and stood under the city gate tower looking at the cold wind-like wilderness to the north.
The captive sentry cavalry who broke into the wilderness north of Jinan City did not panic because nearly three hundred cavalry came to encircle them. Instead, they first routed the refugees on the road, ignored the way back, and gathered to rush out to the northwest of Jinan City.
This group of cavalry arrived, intending to defeat the three separate groups of cavalry.
"Too flattering!"
Lu Jingyan looked back and saw the generals guarding the north gate of Jinan City. He didn't know when Yue Lengqiu came up the city gate tower from the other side of the city climbing road. He also looked at the wilderness to the north with a solemn expression and whispered.
Evaluation, I don’t know whether he was dissatisfied with Lin Fu’s tactical arrangement of dividing nearly 300 cavalry into three groups to surround the Donglu sentry cavalry, or with Lin Fu’s decision to lead the left army from Jiangdong into Yannan alone.
The sentry cavalry sent by the Donglu to penetrate deeply were all elites. Even the left army in Jiangdong also had some elites. Lu Jingyan thought that Lin Fu divided the 300 cavalry into three groups to encircle them in the field and the tactical arrangement of the elite Donglu cavalry was somewhat overstated. Even Jiangdong
Each team of cavalry has a numerical advantage of 100 cavalry against 70 cavalry, but there is a large gap in the quality of the soldiers. Moreover, the gap between the three teams of cavalry is too large, leaving enough time for the enemy cavalry to defeat them one by one.
Lu Jingyan also didn't have much fondness for Lin Fu, who was a rising star of the Chu Party. A few days ago, he openly purchased the armor of the remnants who fled south in the west of the city. It was clear that he was poaching the Jinan Mansion - these remnants should have been recruited by the Shandong Admiral's Mansion.
.However, since Lin Fu declared that he would lead troops into Yannan alone and then sent troops to meet the enemy, Lu Jingyan had a slightly better impression of Lin Fu. At this time, there were not many officials and generals who were leading the battle in Jinan and actively fighting the enemy.
He also didn't know whether Lin Fu could achieve good results against the small groups of enemies that came in front of him.
The cavalry clashed within four or five miles in just the blink of an eye. Lu Jingyan saw the Jiangdong left army cavalry galloping out from the northwest of the city to meet the enemy, holding large crossbows. Before connecting with the enemy cavalry, they left the road and turned to the left wing.
In the wilderness, when the flanks met, more than a hundred crossbow arrows were shot out from the crossbow slot.
No matter how elite the Donglu sentries are, in the first round of battle, crossbows are much more convenient than riding bows. Although it is difficult to reload arrows on horseback with a crossbow at arm's length, Lu Jingyan saw this Jiangdong team
The cavalrymen of the left army had no intention of engaging in a fight with the enemy. After firing empty arrows, they hung up their crossbows and charged towards the north, regardless of whether the formation was in chaos.
"This is quite a plan..." Lu Jingyan thought to himself. With the support of two teams of cavalry from the north, the Donglu sentry cavalry who disrupted the formation did not dare to let their horses go wildly to pursue. Besides, they were hit by more than a hundred crossbow arrows from the side.
, there were many casualties, including men and horses.
At this time, Lu Jingyan saw countless groups of infantry slowly marching out from the northwest corner of the city. Dozens of "flying contradiction vehicles" were running rampantly in front of them. They paused for a moment to reorganize their formation every hundred meters and pressed against the east and west stagnation on the road.
Riding a whistle.
The number of outflanking cavalry in the north increased to more than 300. Except for the two groups of cavalry who initially outflanked the Yufu River branch, they were still sitting on their horses. The more than 100 cavalry who had penetrated diagonally from the flanks all dismounted and started to fight.
The crossbow was reloaded and strung, and he did not mount his horse again, but formed a formation between the two groups of cavalry.
On the back of a fast-moving horse, the accuracy of the crossbow arrows is greatly reduced, but when dismounting and forming a formation, there are less than 70 Donglu sentries who can ride. Naturally, they dare not charge against the crossbow formation from the front, but the flanks of the crossbow formation
He also protected the two groups of cavalry and did not give them any room to make a detour.
Although there is still a large gap on the side of the entire northern battlefield for the Donglu sentries to penetrate and protrude into the encirclement, this group of Donglu sentries obviously did not suffer any pain. They stayed on the road and hesitated. Depending on the situation, they still wanted to attack the current situation.
of infantry and chariot formation.
Since the Donglu cavalry broke through the border, especially after the Jinzhong soldiers led by Yang Zhaoqi were completely wiped out, they have not encountered a decent opponent. It is normal to have such a mentality.
At this time, Lu Jingyan also knew that Lin Fu was taking advantage of the enemy's arrogance and underestimation to lure the enemy into the inside line, so he could calmly set up an encirclement...
The Donglu sentry cavalry tried three times to break into the Jiangdong Zuo army's soldiers from the flank, but they were all repelled by the infantry array of spears, swords, shields, swords and crossbows. After waiting for this group of Donglu sentry cavalry,
When they were covered in wounds and wanted to break out of the encirclement, a battalion of Jiangdong Zuo Army soldiers and horses had already completed the encirclement of them, and the remaining gap was only an arrow shot away.
This group of Donglu Shengbarians were really brave. When they were determined to break through, they attacked the corner of the flank of the infantry array regardless of casualties, pushed the infantry array inward to make the formation disperse, and then followed the infantry without hesitation.
The edge of the array rushed to the outer line and fled towards the bank of the Yellow River.
Jiangdong Zuojun detached a group of cavalry to pursue them, and chased them to the bank of the Yellow River, shooting several people and falling off their horses.
At this time, the Donglu Sentinel Cavalry had also been killed cleanly and leveled.
When the pursuing cavalry returned, a group of cavalry was separated from the Jiangdong Zuojun formation in the northwest corner of the city. Each man carried a few severed bloody heads and threw the heads down at the north city gate.
For this reason, the bearded man shouted towards the city gate tower: "The first battalion of Jiangdong King Qin's left army cut off fifty-seven raw barbarian heads. Please send someone from the Shandong Admiral's Office to check..." Immediately afterwards, the cavalry team again
He rode back to his original position, gathered his formation, and headed for the Sanyu Village camp.
"The rider on the horse seems to be Ao Huzi under General Chen. I heard that when General Chen led his troops to the north, he encouraged dozens of people to escape with him. The sea arrest documents even came to Zhaowu - how could he be in the Jiangdong Army?
?" the captain behind Lu Jingyan said softly.
"Don't say anything nonsense." Lu Jingyan ordered in a deep voice. It was not a big deal for Lin Fu to take in a few deserters in the Jiangdong Army. When the matter broke out, it made Chen Zhihu's face ugly. Lu Jingyan wanted the soldiers behind him to be more careful.
Don't mention this matter again. He also has some impressions of Ao Canghai, the deputy commander of the forward battalion of Chen Zhihu's tribe. He is not a person who is greedy for life and fear of death. Seeing that he was very brave when he led the cavalry just now, he may have other reasons for leading people to leave Chen Zhihu's tribe.
Of course, Lu Jingyan was also very puzzled by Ao Canghai's defection to Lin Fu. Lin Fu had only been promoted to the seventh-grade governor, and several of his battalion commanders had only been awarded the rank of ninth-grade low-level military attache. However, Ao Canghai had not left Chen Zhihu.
He was already a mid-level military attache when he was in the army.
Yue Lengqiu walked down from the city gate tower with a sullen face. The North City guard sent someone out of the city gate to take back the Donglu Sentry Cavalry to record their merits.
Lu Jingyan looked thoughtfully at the dozens of bloody heads in front of the city gate, thinking that Lin Fu throwing more than fifty Donglu heads in front of the city gate was probably to show his determination to enter Yannan alone. No wonder.
Yue Lengqiu's face was ugly. He originally planned to move to Jinzhong with Lin Fu; Lin Fu had no intention of giving him face at all, and proposed to enter Yannan alone, which embarrassed him even more.
Such a small victory had little impact on the entire northern war situation. From Lu Jingyan's point of view, Jiangdong's soldiers were still very young. They lured more than 70 Donglu sentry cavalry into the encirclement of a battalion of troops. Before completing the encirclement, they were still close to the enemy.
Twenty people successfully broke out, which is far from being considered a strong force in the world. But among all the garrison, guest troops and deserters who were stranded in Jinan Prefecture, who were afraid of the enemy and fearful of fighting, they showed a firm will to fight and even arrogance.
The Jiangdong Left Army, which wanted to advance alone into Yannan, was so dazzling.
Lu Jingyan looked from a distance and saw the refugees who had been scattered by the Donglu sentry cavalry on the north road but had escaped the fate of massacre. Many of them were kneeling on the road and faced the Jiangdong left army officers and soldiers who were returning to the Sanyuzhuang camp.
Kowtow. The soldiers watching the battle on the left and right sides of the city gate tower witnessed the battle at the northwest corner of the city and seemed to have regained some courage. The guard of the north gate also sent a team of soldiers and horses to drag back the headless corpses scattered on the field.
They shouted loudly to take the body and the headless corpse to the city and hang them up for public display.
Lu Jingyan ordered the military attachés on his left and right: "Study carefully and don't look down on the newly recruited soldiers. The fifty-seven levels under the city are not all made of paper. There are also enemy cavalry attacking, so you have to use your brains to fight them.
You can’t even get thirty or fifty level ones back, right?”