In the middle of the night, the rain stopped and the clouds opened, and the stars twinkled in the sky.
The mountains and fields near Dushi City were peaceful and peaceful after the heavy rain. The forest and vegetation moistened by the rain stretched out their branches and leaves. The dry mountain streams between the mountains roared with water. On both sides of the Dushi River, in the ravines between the large and small mountains of the Yanshan Mountains,
The flash floods formed after the rain rush into the Dushi River.
The Dushi River is an ancient mountain river washed by flash floods. There is less rain in the north, so the river is usually gentle and the depth of the water is no deeper than an adult's chest. However, once it encounters seasonal rainfall or when the snow melts in winter, the river will
Subsequently, changes in depth and width occur.
At this moment, after a heavy rain, a large amount of rainwater poured into the Dushi River. In just seven or eight hours, the water depth of the Dushi River doubled. The width of the river also became wider from the previous twenty feet.
.
In the early morning, when Asbath's soldiers and horses woke up from their sleep. When the soldiers stood on the south bank of the Dushi River and looked at the turbid and turbulent river in front of them, they were dumbfounded.
After receiving the news, Asbath quickly rushed to the shore. When he looked at the low roaring whirlpool and the turbulent river water, Asbath cursed loudly. He was so angry that he had committed such a low-level act.
He made the mistake of not realizing that heavy rain would cause the river to swell, thus preventing the army from crossing the river. This was really stupid.
"Commander, what should we do? There is no bridge or boat, and the river is so fast. How can we cross the river?" A captain beside him asked anxiously.
Asbath squinted at the other side of the steaming mist. On the high side of the gentle hillside, the monolithic city was looming in the mist, like a fairyland in the mist, quiet and peaceful, but out of reach.
"Otherwise, let's wait for the water to fall and cross the river. This is the water flow gathered by flash floods after the rain, and it will fall in a day or two. By then, the river will be shallow and the current will not be so fast, and it will not be too late to cross the river." Another
A captain suggested.
Asbas said solemnly: "There can't be any delay. Ming army reinforcements are definitely coming. Before they arrive, we must cross the river to capture Dushi City and capture the Ming Dynasty's little emperor retreating from the northern pass. Otherwise, once they are defeated by them,
If we are blocked here, the consequences will be disastrous."
The generals nodded slightly after hearing this. Indeed, this is not alarmist. No one knows the situation in the west at present, and no one knows where the Ming army is now. But one thing is certain, Dushi City must have asked for help, and the Ming army is on the way.
Come on. If you delay for a day or two, you will be taking a huge risk.
"Great Commander, there are no bridges for more than ten miles up and down. The river banks up and down are so steep that we can't even get down to the river. The only place suitable for a large army to cross the river is here. But the situation here means crossing the river may be very risky. We need to
Otherwise, let's go up and down to find a place to cross the river?" Chi Wen, the commander of the former army, said in a deep voice.
Asbath pondered: "The water flow here is the gentlest, otherwise the Ming army would not have built the stone bridge here. It is precisely because the water here is gentle and open. There is no need to look for it anymore, we can only start from here
Cross the river. If you can’t cross here, you can’t cross anywhere.”
Chi Wen and others nodded silently. They knew that the commander-in-chief was afraid that he would force his way out.
"Send an order to the whole army to immediately cut down the trees, make rafts, and forcefully cross the river. Chiwen, pay close attention to the situation on the other side and be careful of the enemy's attack." Sure enough, Asbas gave the order in a deep voice.
Thousands of Tatar soldiers immediately began to take action. Recently, the hillsides were densely forested, and the trees were not worried. The Tatar soldiers began a rapid felling and transportation operation. In the valley outside Lixu, a group of Tatar soldiers discovered a large area of
Bamboo forest, this discovery greatly accelerated the progress of building tools for crossing the river.
A large amount of wood and bamboo were hauled to the river bank, and the soldiers quickly began to bundle the rafts.
The sun slowly rose and the mist on the river gradually dispersed. Asbasi, Chiwen and others paid close attention to the movements on the other side. Under the sunlight, the situation on the opposite river bank could be seen clearly and clearly.
Not a single defender was noticed. Asbath's eyes were sharp, and he even saw a few jumping hares in the woods on the other side. From this, it can be seen that there should be no one guarding there.
At 6 o'clock, the crossing of the river officially began. For the sake of caution, Asbasi asked Chiwen to send five large bamboo rafts to carry more than a hundred Tatar soldiers with good water properties and set out to cross the river. First, to verify the feasibility of crossing the river, and secondly, to test
Is there an ambush on the other side?
More than a hundred Tatars rode five bamboo rafts into the water a hundred steps away from above. As the vast river quickly went down, with the help of the current and the power of the poles, they quickly reached the center of the Hehe River.
Although the river looks turbulent and scary, in fact, because the river is wide, the whirlpool waves are not large. Although the bamboo rafts bumped up and down, there were no accidents. They bumped diagonally all the way to the gentle landing on the other side. Until
They successfully docked, and Asbath breathed a sigh of relief. It seemed that not only was it possible to cross the river, but there seemed to be no one blocking them on the other side.
More than a hundred Tatar soldiers landed ashore, and they walked dozens of steps forward along the gravel road. According to the order, they were to go forward on guard and search for any enemy ambush. The forest in front of the road was extremely lush, and the rain
The ground in the woods behind was very muddy. They did not want to enter the muddy woods. They just walked slowly and looked through the woods to both sides.
After more than a hundred steps, they came to a small open space. The trees were tall and gloomy all around, and the road ahead slowly led to the high mountains, which was the direction of Monolith City. The leading centurion did not want to move forward and ordered a few
The soldiers returned to the shore to report safety.
At this moment, countless crossbow arrows shot out from the surrounding dense vegetation. The arrows penetrated the trees, shattered the dripping water droplets, and came through the air. The Tatars just realized that dozens of people were already among them.
Arrow wails.
"There's an ambush, there's an ambush. Get back to the river bank and report it." The Tatar Centurion shouted.
With a pop, a powerful arrow shot through his throat, and his body fell to the ground.
The second round of powerful arrows hit like a storm, and most of the more than a hundred Tatars fell. The remaining thirty or so Tatars turned around and ran away. From the dense forest in front of them, dozens of armed men rushed out.
The bodyguards of the Han generals in imperial robes and long swords blocked the road. From the woods on both sides, thirty Ming army crossbowmen also sprang out.
Chen Shi stood up with a knife and shouted in a deep voice: "Kill them all!"
The crowd swooped on them quickly, and in less than a moment of tea time, all the hundreds of Tatars who came ashore were beheaded.
Soon after, dozens of Tatar soldiers returned to the shore and waved to the other side. Seeing this, Asbas breathed a sigh of relief. It seemed that everything was safe. So, Asbas issued an order to fully cross the river.
After giving the order, the Tatar soldiers began to cross the river one after another. In order to avoid crowding and disorder, they could not all cross the river together, otherwise the rafts were likely to be hit by the current in the center of the river and collide with each other. The gentle slope to land on the other side was also very narrow and had to be crossed.
Calculate the speed of the water flow and cross the river from a fixed distance a hundred steps upstream to ensure that you reach the gentle slope on the other side.
Therefore, there were only a thousand people in the first group to officially cross the river, and they set off in fifty wooden platoons. Chiwen's wooden platoon took the lead. After they set off, the following soldiers and horses set off in an orderly manner. For a time,
Dozens of bamboo rafts began to forcibly cross the wide river, and the scene was very grand.
Asbath stood on a high place on the shore, watching the scene with satisfaction and feeling quite pleased. Everything seemed to be going well. As long as the former army arrived on the other side and quickly established a defensive alert, the subsequent troops would be able to calm down.
And cross.
Chi Wen and others have already carried ropes across the river. Once they reach the other side, they can immediately fix the ropes and establish rope passages on both sides. Subsequent soldiers and horses can pull the ropes across the river, and the speed will be much faster. There is no need to consider the water flow anymore.
Due to the factors, the river can be crossed at the same time. It may not take more than an hour for the eight thousand soldiers and horses, and they can complete the crossing by noon at most.
However, Asbath's sweet dream was awakened by a roar. There was a roar from the other side, which was still so clear even across a large river. The rising smoke and dust were visible to the naked eye, and it was a pile of unusually rich smoke coming from the shore.
It came from the bushes.
Following this roar, there was a loud roar on the other side. Puffs of smoke emerged from a dozen bushes above the river bank that Asbath and others had observed countless times before.
Asbas suddenly realized that hidden under those strange-looking and unusually lush trees were Ming army ambush soldiers. They were using firearms to shoot at the soldiers and horses crossing the river.
Asbasi was shocked to see that amid the huge roar, the wooden raft at the front where his former army commander Chi Wen was riding was empty.
On the other side of the monolithic bridge, in the shooting bunker built overnight last night, thirty gunmen were skillfully shooting targets on the river. The reason why this bunker was built was of course to protect their safety and allow them to
It was safe to shoot the enemies crossing the river. In addition, Zhang Yanling was not sure whether the rain would stop. He was worried that the rain would wet the gunpowder and make it impossible to launch, so he sealed the top.
But no matter what, the frustrated gunners on the battlefield in Beicheng yesterday could finally enjoy shooting at the Tatars on the river. They are the protagonists at this moment. No matter how high your martial arts skills are or how good your archery skills are, in this kind of
At that time, the gunmen were the killers at this moment.
The maximum range of the reinforced paper-packed bullets is two hundred steps. In fact, the Tatar rafts entered the firing range shortly after they were launched into the water. However, Zhang Yanling's order was that they must wait until they cross the center of the river, and in the most turbulent
Shooting could only be started in the rapids. Therefore, they waited patiently until they reached the center of the river, and then started shooting after captain Zhao Yuancheng's gunshot.
After two short rows of gunfire, all the Tatars on the two closest rafts were hit and fell into the water. Among them was Chiwen Qianhu.
The most valiant general under Asbas, he didn't even see where his enemy was or what he looked like before he was hit in the forehead by a steel ball and fell into the surging river without saying a word.