In the middle of August of the thirty-sixth year of Qin Shihuang, the boat Han Xin was riding on was sailing on the turquoise water of Jinnan Water. Dozens of boats lined up in a row, creating a long wave. Crocodiles floated and sank in the water.
There are towering ancient trees on both sides of the strait, and the sound of apes is constant.
Jinnan Water, later known as the Zuojiang River in Guangxi, was nearly a hundred paces wide, and the fleet could travel without any worries. The former was a faster paddle steamer, which was at least a technology from the Tang and Song Dynasties. The paddles were
The paddle wheel is pedaled and rotated, and the speed of traveling against the current does not decrease, and it can travel dozens of miles a day.
Most of the people on board were veterans who had participated in the previous war. They had gone deep into Luo Yue territory. The person in charge of the army at that time could even remember the direction of the river...
"A husband's righteousness can anger a soldier. A soldier's righteous anger can lead to hundreds of wars."
Han Xin couldn't help but sigh with emotion when he saw that these veterans, who were terrified of the forest just a few days ago and had not yet recovered from the trauma of the war, had now overcome their fear and were willing to serve as guides for the army.
A good general can indeed turn decay into magic.
"Soldiers are not always brave, nor are they always timid; if they have energy, they are strong, if they have no energy, they are empty, and if they are empty, they are timid. The Marquis of Changnan collected the corpses of his dead soldiers so that the souls and ghosts of the dead could have a place to live, and as compensation with the immortality of their names, not only did the deceased
Being able to rest in peace also inspires the living.”
When the army is gathered together, the main thing is to arouse Qi. Hei Fu's method of arousing Qi is really just right. No matter the new soldiers, veterans, Guanzhong people or Chu people, they all share the same hatred of the enemy.
"I also want to learn from the Marquis of Changnan on this point."
Han Xin was proficient in the art of war, especially at the tactical level, and could be called a genius, but he knew very little about people's hearts. Although he could deduce situation and strategies, when it was magnified to the current situation of the entire world, he was confused again.
However, there were also things Han Xin couldn't understand in Changnanhou's operations.
For example, the Marquis of Changnan issued a series of emergency bans, strictly prohibiting soldiers, especially the generals who were sent to attack Luo Yue, from saying three sentences:
"Go to Bei Xianghu to celebrate the New Year."
"After the war, we will return to our hometown to get married."
"Destroy this morning meal."
The reason why Changnan Hou forbade these words was: "Those who say this will often lose their armies and die in battle."
After more than a year of building momentum, Heifu's prestige in the Southern Expedition Army has reached its peak. His words are like golden rules in the south of the Five Ridges. Although the soldiers were puzzled, they still obeyed his orders, and optimistic remarks in the army suddenly disappeared.
Han Xin disagreed and secretly cursed: "I didn't expect that the Marquis of Changnan also believed in the Yin Yang family's statement!"
Many years ago, the old military strategists who taught Han Xin the art of war once said that there are four types of military strategists: military yin and yang, military skills, military situation, and military strategy.
Han Xin prefers to be a master of military situation. The master of situation is a person who is thunderous and windy, comes late and comes first, turns away from his hometown, is unpredictable, and can defeat the enemy with light illness. Excluding Yu Lin's devastation of Ou Yue, Han Xin in the strict sense
It's only been one battle, but I know the taste by eating the essence, and I believe that the way to win is to combine the odd with the right, and win by surprise.
As for the Yin and Yang family of soldiers, they go with the times, push the punishments and virtues, and attack according to the battle. Because of the five victories, fake ghosts and gods will appear as helpers. In other words, they engage in feudal superstition and play divination and astrology before or during the war.
Sacrifice, pray and curse, hate victory, etc., to curse the enemy and pray that our army will win!
For another example, the Bing Yin Yang family also believed that women should not be brought into the war. If a woman is brought along, the commander will be killed, and if he is a boat commander, the boat will capsize.
It was also their style to emphasize that certain words were taboo before the war.
However, in Han Xin's view, the role of the Bing Yin Yang family is not to really please the ghosts and gods for blessing, but to stabilize the morale of the army and improve morale. After all, the soldiers are mostly ignorant and believe in divination by ghosts and gods.
But the Marquis of Changnan had already inspired the three armies by paying homage to the dead. To do this again would be superfluous...
"Although there are shortcomings, the Marquis of Changnan uses an orthodox army, uses strange troops, plans first and then fights, takes into account the situation, takes into account the yin and yang, and uses skills. He can be called the most comprehensive military conspirator among soldiers!"
Han Xin had a very high opinion of Heifu.
In short, with this group of veterans as the forerunners, the march went very smoothly. In addition, the river near Nanshui was nearly a hundred paces wide and had a small natural gap, making it suitable for shipping. It only took three days for the Qin fleet to leave.
One hundred and fifty, we are only two days away from the old battlefield of Linchen (Chongzuo, Guangxi)!
While lamenting the convenience of the waterway, Wei Yang, Heifu's nephew and the ship commander in charge of the fleet, also said:
"I'm afraid the captain who traveled overland has only traveled less than a hundred miles, right? Although Ou Luo has been sending people to monitor the forest for several days, even if they deliberately stopped the ship to expose the weakness, they did not attack us. I don't know who he is.
Did you follow the orders of the Lord and pretend that your soldiers were infected with the epidemic and retreated midway?"
Han Xin, on the other hand, was more patient: "The Yue people walked on foot in the forest. Even if they rushed to tell each other, the news was slow to spread. Just wait."
The two of them went there to implement the same strategy that Han Xin proposed to Heifu more than half a year ago: use two armies to advance westward, pretending to be defeated along the way, so that the Vietnamese thought that the other arm was alone and penetrated deeply, and launched
Attack, and the Qin army took advantage of its own military formation and equipment to complete the victory in one battle!
Everyone knows that this may be the last battle of the Southern Expedition. In order to compete for the qualifications of the main attacking general, Heifu's cronies are fighting fiercely.
Just when everyone thought that the candidate was either Gong Ao or Dongmen Leopard, Heifu unexpectedly chose Han Xin, who had a lower title and had just been promoted to an official, and handed over this important task to him.
It's a bait.
As for the boat division that carried the army westward, there was no doubt that it was commanded by Wei Yang.
Everyone has nothing to complain about Wei Yang. Ever since Heifu sent him to the building ship a few years ago, Wei Yang has worked hard and accumulated merit little by little before he was promoted to a mid-level officer.
But who is Han Xin? A Huaiyin incompetent young man, a coward who got into the crotch, but was highly appreciated by the monarch. Although Gong Ao, Dongmen Bao and other old troops did not doubt the decision of Changnan Hou, they were still quite dissatisfied.
.
Therefore, all the captains said that Wei Yang was Heifu's biological nephew and Han Xin was Heifu's nephew. They joked that this battle was "nephew's expedition to the west"...
Of course Heifu knew these rumors, but when Han Xin went to say goodbye, he smiled and said:
"Then tell them with your record and tell everyone that Han Xin has real skills."
Han Xin was a little flattered, but Heifu said that there were considerations in letting Han Xin be the general who mainly attacked the waterway: he had defeated the South Vietnamese who robbed grain ships on the waterfront, and cooperated with Weiyang to defeat Ouyue in Yulin.
Familiar with the naval landing battle.
"When a general is appointed, he must first know his talents, their bravery and timidity, and their skill and skills. Then each of them should be assigned their duties. This is the good governance of this army."
"The reason why I want to use you is because you are the most suitable person. I have no doubts about the appointment. Don't say anything else. Just go!"
Not only that, Heifu also personally sent Han Xin, and Weiyang and his two men boarded the ship, threw their golden belt hooks into the Jinnan River, and swore:
"The double dragon flag of this lord is placed at the intersection of Yushui and Jinnanshui."
"If what floats down the river is the corpse of a Luo man, I would like to congratulate you and others for ending this battle and making a great contribution to the victory."
"If the blood floating down the upper reaches is the blood of the Qin army's oars and shields, then I, the general, will open a way to bring you back even if I burn this forest."
"Life or death!"
These words moved Han Xin to tears. Thinking about it now, he still sighs.
"The Marquis of Changnan raised Han Xin among his soldiers. He did not mind my reputation as a coward in the past, and gave me the seal of Sima. He sent thousands of soldiers to his command..."
Han Xin is only 22 years old this year. A year and a half ago, he was getting into people's crotches on the streets of Huaiyin. Everything he got today seemed like a dream.
To Han Xin, Xiao He was the Bole who realized that he was a talented person.
And Hei Fu is like King Zhao of Yan who trades horse bones for a thousand pieces of gold.
Although I am grateful to Bole, a thousand-mile horse must be used by a big man like King Yan Zhao after all, so that he can make the best use of his talent and leap thousands of miles!
For a moment, Han Xin forgot Heifu's strict order in the military camp: "No optimism" and secretly said:
"Those who ride in people's carriages carry people's troubles, those who clothe people's clothes carry people's worries, and those who eat people's food lead to death. Whether it is for himself or for the kindness of the king, in this battle, Han Xin will
You have to win! And you have to fight beautifully!"
The retribution came very quickly. Han Xin had just finished thinking about it, and then the boats in front of him suddenly stopped and their speed was greatly reduced!
Wei Yang quickly reported with a dark face:
"Han Sima, something happened. The paddle wheel on the ship has stopped!"
…
The problem was quickly discovered. The reason why the paddle wheels of the dozen or so ships ahead were difficult to rotate was because countless water plants, vines and twigs were drifting down from the upstream.
"How come there are so many branches and grasses?"
As a guide, Chen Ying felt strange.
"It's a monkey."
Wei Yang inherited his father's humor. When everyone was surprised, he smiled and explained: "Luo Yue monkey."
Perhaps after being informed by the Ouyue people and peeping on both sides of the Taiwan Strait for a long time, the Luo people discovered the weakness of the paddle steamer so quickly: the reason why it can travel freely against the current is because the pedal wheel increases the power, but once
If a branch of aquatic plants gets caught in the wheel, it will get stuck and become difficult to operate.
Do you want to go into the water for repairs? It is also difficult. From time to time, a big crocodile appears in the water. Although the soldiers hit the water to threaten it and even shot it with crossbows, they did not have the courage of the East Gate Leopard. The craftsmen looked at the crocodile's white skin.
Sharp teeth, no matter what, they won’t go into the water to repair them.
As the commander, Han Xin fell into deep thought. After a while, he became optimistic again.
"Our setback is not necessarily a bad thing, but a good thing. Now think about it, the Luo Ren'ou people are trying to slow down our army. What do you think they want to do?"
Wei Yang's eyes lit up: "Did the Communist Commander on the land route pretend to be defeated? Did the strategy of going deep alone work?"
"Yes."
Han Xin said: "There is no need to repair it, and if we slow down the fleet, we will fulfill their wishes and give them a chance to gather their troops to catch up and harass us!"
That night, Han Xin once again asked people to camp beside a winding river beach. This was intended to expose the weakness to the Luo and Ou coalition forces, but they still were not fooled.
So Han Xin thought of another way and sent people to dig through the bottoms of the two ships. Shortly after they set out on the road the next day, they sank in the water. Although people rescued them, the "food" full of the ships sank to the bottom of the river.
For a while, grains of rice and flour floated everywhere. Han Xin ordered the fleet to dock again and repaired it. There was no sailing for a whole day.
All this was seen by the Luo people in the forests on both sides of the strait...
On the third day, they were not far from Linchen, but they made the fleet stop many times, and sent people to pick up the fruits for consumption in places where the wild fruits were not completely rotten...
This undoubtedly sent a signal to the Luo and Ou people that the Qin army was about to run out of food.
On the fourth day, Han Xin came with more tricks. After arriving in Linchen, he saw that the Luo people settlement here was empty, so he immediately turned the fleet around and sailed downstream. This was the rhythm of retreat...
Sure enough, it was night, and when we stopped at a flat river bend, the scout reported that the number of Yue people moving around had increased dramatically!
"This group of fish finally took the bait!"
But these fish just circled around the bait and still didn't bite.
After nightfall, Han Xin asked the entire army to stand ready, but the Luo people just kept gathering and did not rush to attack. After the first battle and the lessons of Xiou, they already understood that attacking the Qin army's camp barrier was just asking for death!
It wasn't until the Qin army pretended to break up the camp and dismantled the simple camp, and the soldiers were scattered, that in the forest far away from the river beach, bronze drums suddenly sounded loudly!
The Luo people and Ou people who had been hiding from Han Xin for many days finally showed their shadows. They were covered in green mud, squatting in the grass and blending into the background. Now that they came out of the forest, they seemed to be endless...
"I'm afraid there are as many as 30,000 people." Wei Yang was a little worried. Because of the insufficient number of ships, the total number of lone troops invested by the Qin army was only 5,000, which was far less than the "10,000" expected by Han Xin.
One against three is okay, but six, can we win?
Even though the number of enemies was several times that of the Qin army, Han Xin was not afraid of backlash. He stopped the cook who had just started to cook.
"Stop spreading the word and let everyone assemble."
He even said to Wei Yang very optimistically: "Today, we will fight on an empty stomach. After defeating the Yue people, it will not be too late to eat again!"
"Han Sima, you can't say this!" Wei Yang was shocked and warned him repeatedly. This is a taboo strictly prohibited by the Marquis of Changnan!
But what I didn't expect was that Han Xin got worse and committed an even bigger taboo that even Wei Yang knew about!
"Wei Sima, please pretend to be panic and lead the fleet to leave in a hurry before we can board the ship. The faster the better..."
Immediately, he looked at the Luo people and Ou people soldiers pouring out in a steady stream in the distance, with a resolute and determined look on his face.
"All soldiers, back up the water, form a formation!"
…
ps: After moving to a new house, I have been busy for a day, and there is only one chapter. Goodbye 8102, hello 9102, and Happy New Year everyone. I will try to finish writing the last battle of the Southern Expedition tomorrow.
