Wen Ruilin climbed up to the sentry post on the southern slope of Meitang Mountain and looked at the outer defense line of Shenjiaji where Tangyi soldiers were three or four miles away. Seeing Xu Mingzhen frowning, he seemed to realize that today's Tangyi soldiers were different.
.
Even though there had been many battles before, Wen Ruilin was still amazed by the resilience of the Dangyi soldiers.
In just 20 to 30 days of this battle, the fence outside Shenjiaji was broken for several rounds, but it was filled up again and again by Tangyi soldiers carrying wood and stones from the rear.
The two sides continued to attack each other, destroying the opponent's cyclone cannon and other war equipment, and constantly building new cyclone cannon and other war equipment, and throwing tens of thousands of stone bullets into the opponent's position.
He continuously broke open the nearby rocks and transported almost all the stone tablets that could be collected from the left and right.
The Nanfeishui River is dry and shallow, and the river channel with broken river ice is also filled with broken wood, gravel and other objects at this time - in addition to the tornado cannons smashed crookedly at the Tangyi soldiers' position, more were driven by the civilians to clear the troop passage in front of the formation.
, push a large number of incomplete stone bullets into the nearby area.
In addition to attacking from the front, a small group of elites was sent into the Huaiyang Mountains regardless of casualties. Although they fought against Tangyi soldiers of the same size and suffered heavy casualties among the direct line elites who had followed the Xu family for many years, they fundamentally stopped Han Qian from launching an attack.
Copycat forces and expand their troops.
The severe cold weather was very unfavorable to them.
Because of the heavy snow, in addition to causing many soldiers to freeze to death and suffer frostbite, it also delayed their attack on the front line of Wujin Ridge for more than twenty days.
In these more than twenty days, the Tangyi soldiers occupied nearly fifty villages in the main tributaries of the upper reaches of the Nanfeishui River, obtained relatively sufficient supplies, and launched successive campaigns to recruit more than 4,000 strong men to serve as their consumables. The speed was extremely fast.
It was fast and the momentum was beyond their imagination.
However, the cold weather is also good for them.
On the one hand, the thawing of streams and rivers on the eastern and northern slopes of Huaiyang Mountain has been delayed by about half a month compared to previous years. As a result, the warships of the Tangyi Navy can only wander around Chaohu Lake and cannot wait along the Longtan River.
The waterway approaches Huaiyang Mountain.
On the other hand, there hasn't been much rain in the Huaiyang Mountains since the beginning of winter, and the melting of ice and snow is much later than in previous years, so they don't have to worry about changes in the water conditions of streams and rivers.
If the war is delayed until April or May, any heavy rain will seriously affect their offensive from the lower valley.
If the current pace continues, the Tangyi soldiers' defense line at Wujin Ridge will not look like it will be able to hold on until April.
But since early this morning, the scouts have confirmed that the Tangyi soldiers are responsible for controlling the small group of elite soldiers in the rear cottage, and they are gradually gathering at the Shen family. The generals of the Shouzhou Army tend to believe that the Tangyi soldiers may see that the confrontation cannot be prolonged, and plan to launch a large-scale attack.
A massive attack.
However, the small group of elites drawn from the hinterland of Huaiyang Mountain on the opposite side did not fill the defense line in the front of the valley, but instead concentrated in the gaps in the mountain ridges on both sides. What happened?
Could it be that the Tangyi generals believed that the steep ridge roads on both sides would be more advantageous for them to launch a counterattack?
At this time, crossing the 100-foot-high ridge of Wujin Ridge, one could see plumes of smoke rising from the depths of Huaiyang Mountain. It seemed that the continuous dry weather in early spring was causing mountain fires in Huaiyang Mountain.
However, in such dry weather, it is quite easy for the small group of elites they sent in, or the Tangyi soldiers to encircle and suppress the soldiers and horses they sent in the mountains, to use dry grass and trees to ignite mountain fires.
thing, but it’s not like it’s everywhere?
It is a pity that the scouts who sneaked into Huaiyang Mountain wanted to climb mountains and ridges to get through the blockade of Tangyi soldiers to spread the news. It was not that easy. It would take two or three days at the earliest.
Wen Ruilin's mind was hanging there, unable to calm down. He followed Xu Mingzhen and ran to the front camp position. When he saw the Tangyi soldiers and generals behind the defense line, their morale today seemed to be stronger than before, which made him even more imaginative.
Xu Mingzhen summoned the generals and took many precautions and warning measures, but Wen Ruilin could not calm down his mind.
After nightfall, the fighting at the front paused. Not long after Wen Ruilin returned to the camp, Xu Mingzhen sent someone to invite him.
He rushed over to Xu Mingzhen's tent and saw several scouts covered in blood, panting heavily and disguised as mountain people. They told Xu Yin and others who had rushed over what they saw in Huaiyang Mountain today.
"Tangyi soldiers notified the soldiers and civilians in the upper reaches of Nanfeishui River and along Gaoyang River today to evacuate, saying that it was to prevent flooding. How is this possible?" After hearing this, Wen Ruilin couldn't help but asked in shock, "Even if
Tangyi soldiers piled firewood along the upper reaches of the river and set it on fire to melt the river ice. How big a flood could it cause?"
As the fierce fighting between the two sides lasted for many days, the Nanfeishui River downstream of Shenjiaji was filled with debris, which would affect the drainage of the stream. However, the problem was that except for a few heavy snowfalls, there was not much rain in Huaiyang Mountain throughout the winter.
Although the water flow in the river filled with debris has not stopped, it has always been extremely shallow, which is enough to prove this.
And they had always been wary that Han Qian might build a dam to store water in the mountains. In the past month, Xu Mingzhen divided two to three thousand elite members of his direct lineage into small groups and sent them into the Huaiyang Mountains, but nothing unusual was found.
Han Daoxun, Han Qian and his son were very good at water control when they recruited the hungry people infected with the epidemic in Qiuhu Mountain and ran Xuzhou. This is an undoubted fact. However, the question is that in the past month, so many scouts have entered the Huaiyang Mountains. Is it possible?
Don’t you even recognize a barrage?
Without building a dam to store water, even heavy rainstorms in summer and autumn would hardly have a devastating impact on their camp stationed in the river valley, right?
Or is this all just a trick by Han Qian? Seeing that it was becoming difficult for his own soldiers to defend Wujin Ridge, Han Qian deliberately released false news in order to make them disrupt their positions so as to delay the capture of Wujin Ridge?
The Zuowu Guards, led by Zhou Shu, the commander of the capital, rushed out from the gap between Tongbai Mountain and Huaiyang Mountain. Han Qian obviously wanted to delay some time so that Zhou Shu could lead his troops to penetrate deeper and force them to withdraw their troops and return reinforcements.
Bar?
This is the only reasonable explanation Wen Ruilin can think of.
Everyone was wondering in Xu Mingzhen's tent for a long time, and they couldn't figure out a clue. At the beginning of Haishi, the former camp leader Xu Jin sent someone to report: "Behind the enemy's defense line, the generals seemed to hear the ice breaking and moving.
The sound came over!"
"The river ice has broken?" Wen Ruilin was surprised, knowing that the temperature had warmed up and the water in the river had become plentiful. If there was a cold blockage downstream, it was possible that the frozen cover on the river would burst. Could it be that Tangyi soldiers were upstream?
Did the accumulation of firewood and ice in the river work? But before nightfall, he specifically looked at the river on the west side of Meitang Mountain and saw no rising water under the ice. He thought that the Tangyi soldiers were just messing around in the upper reaches, so he set up a suspicious formation
.
"Let's go take a look in front." Xu Mingzhen said decisively.
Wen Ruilin, Xu Yin and others also followed Xu Mingzhen one step at a time, surrounded by guards, and rushed to the outpost, regardless of the howling cold night wind.
The stars and moon were in the sky, but I couldn't see far.
Fortunately, Xu Jin, the leader of the front formation, was also worried about a problem. He heard from the scouts that there was a strange noise behind the Tangyi soldiers' defense line. No matter how late at night, he assembled a group of elite troops and launched an attack on the Tangyi soldiers' defense line in the south so that the scouts could get closer.
From the outer fence of Shenjiaji, you can see the upstream river channel more clearly.
Xu Mingzhen, Wen Ruilin, Xu Yin and others came over. Xu Jin immediately told the scouts what they had discovered nearby: "There is a large amount of broken river ice flowing downstream, and it is blocked by the fence wall in the river. It seems like a big
The dams piled up..."
On the one hand, the fences built by the Tangyi soldiers in the river were farther south. On the other hand, they had not thought of attacking directly up the river. Therefore, the fences built by the Tangyi soldiers in the river had always been
Not damaged.
At this time, they did not expect that Tangyi soldiers would use this barrier wall to intercept the floating river ice from the upstream and pile it up into an ice dam, and then use the ice dam to block the water.
"How high is the river ice accumulation?" Xu Mingzhen asked with a frown.
"Less than two feet." Xu Jin replied.
Xu Mingzhen looked towards an accompanying official.
"The river valley within Wujin Ridge is relatively deep and wide. As long as there is no sudden heavy rain, even if all the upstream river ice melts, it will not be able to store much water. Even if the fence blocks the broken ice and forms a temporary dam,
But raising the water level by two feet is the limit - after all, ice dams are different from earth-rock dams. A large amount of river water can still seep down, reducing the accumulation of water in the upstream stream." The official was Cao Zuoli, a worker in the Jiedushi government.
He is good at engineering and water conservancy, and is very familiar with the conditions of the streams and rivers upstream of the Nanfeishui River. He can roughly calculate the total amount of water accumulated by the Nanfeishui River in the upper reaches of Wujinling at this time.
You must know that throughout the winter, the water level under the ice cap of the Nanfeishui River is very shallow, and the ice caps of most river channels are suspended.
Judging from the situation in front of them, Tangyi Bing looked like he was bluffing.
Although their main camp was mainly built on the river beach, taking into account the flooding of the river after the war was delayed until April and May, not only a fence was built outside the front camp, but also earth was piled on both sides of the river to build berms.
If the water level is only raised two or three feet by the ice dam, there won't be anything to worry about.
"Be careful!" Xu Mingzhen said.
It was already late at night, and he had no choice but to order all the camps to be on heightened alert and ask Xu Jin to abandon some of the camps with shallow terrain.
Everyone stayed at the front camp for an hour to confirm that the ice dam was no longer high. They breathed a sigh of relief. They thought that no matter how capable Han Qian was, without heavy rainfall, he would not be able to call the upper reaches of the Nanfeishui River as he pleased.
The water has risen sharply, and what they need to worry about more at this time is the sudden change in the weather.
However, looking at the clear stars and moon tonight, it does not look like there is a sudden change in the situation.
And even if the berm needs to be strengthened, that will have to wait until tomorrow.
After tossing until early in the morning, Wen Ruilin returned to the tent to sleep, but he couldn't sleep well. He tossed and turned for more than an hour and couldn't fall asleep. When he saw the morning light filtering through the gap in the tent curtain, he brought warm water to wash up, and then rushed back
When I met Xu Mingzhen, I realized that Xu Mingzhen had not rested long before returning to the main camp and ran to the front camp half an hour ago.
When Wen Rui came out of the Chinese army's camp, he saw that the generals of the former camp were hurriedly moving to the high ground on both sides. The camp was in chaos. He felt that the situation was not good and hurried to Xu Jin's tent.
When Xu Mingzhen, Xu Jin, Xu Yin and other Shouzhou generals arrived, their faces were very bad, as if the sky was falling, and they asked in shock: "What's wrong?"
"The river ice has accumulated more than five feet behind the Shenjiajizha wall..." Xu Yin said.
"How is that possible?" Wen Ruilin suddenly turned pale, his whole body felt cold, and he asked in disbelief, wishing that Xu Yin could tell him that it was just a joke.
He went back to sleep for just over an hour. How could such a change happen suddenly in just over an hour?
Is it possible that Han Qian is so powerful that he can control the water in the upper reaches of the Nanfeishui River at will?
Then, no one in the big tent could answer his question.
In the past hour, the ice dam behind the fence has quickly reached a height of more than five feet, and it has not stopped rising.
Just before Wen Ruilin rushed over, Xu Jin had just sent an elite force to rush up to the fence wall defended by Tangyi soldiers. He saw that the ice dam was completely filled with water, as if a mountain lake appeared out of thin air, heading upstream.
It extends for more than five or six miles - in other words, Tangyi soldiers completely exceeded their imagination and controlled the inflow of water from upstream with extremely precise control.
At this time, Tangyi soldiers were pushing pieces of driftwood wrapped with iron thorns into the water, presumably to increase the impact on them when the water came over.
Retreat?
The passage opened on the west side of Meitang Mountain is only six feet wide. Even if they are given an extra day, how many more than 30,000 soldiers and 20,000 civilians gathered in the valley south of Meitang Mountain can be evacuated?
Not to mention tens of thousands of stones of combat supplies.
…………
…………
The trunk and tributaries of the Nanfeishui River south of Wujinling are winding and winding. The flow rate of the water in early spring is not high, about thirty miles per hour. Considering the depth and width of the valley inside Shenjiaji, it is necessary to form an enemy.
To control the water potential of ice dams with sufficient impact and to break down hidden dams along the coast to collect water, the timing must be very precise, but in fact it is difficult to achieve complete accuracy.
In any case, with the current technical conditions in this world, it is absolutely impossible to make the enemy completely defenseless.
All efforts are made to shorten the reaction time of the enemy after arousing sufficient vigilance.
At almost the moment when the morning sun emerged from the ridge to the east, the ice dam accumulated more than seven feet high finally collapsed, and the turbid water carried the broken river water like a galloping horse, carrying pieces of driftwood to snatch away from the gap.
Go down the embankment.
Because too much debris and wood accumulated in the river below, and a large amount of broken river ice poured directly into the river below, the cold water was forced to sweep towards the enemy's front camps on both sides.
The fence walls built outside the enemy camp and the berms on both sides of the river were too thin, and the gaps were opened in a few strokes.
With nearly two hours of reaction time, most of the enemy's front battalion soldiers retreated to the high ground on the left and right wings, but this could not save the Shouzhou Army's defeat.
Yuan Guowei climbed to the Eagle's Mouth Cliff and borrowed a bronze telescope to see more clearly the panic in the enemy camp. A large number of abandoned baggage vehicles were washed down by the flood, mules and horses were struggling in the flood, and countless supplies were swept away by the flood.
Then, as the water rolled further downstream, it rolled away.
Although Meitang Mountain, four miles away from the Nanfeishui River, is not as high as Wujin Ridge on the south side, the valley pass at the foot of the mountain is narrower, and a large number of debris, drowned mules and horses, and river ice accumulate there.
If it doesn't go down, it will get clogged again very quickly.
This will not only aggravate the flooding on the south side of Meitang Mountain, but will also completely eliminate the possibility of the enemy's rapid withdrawal from the pass on the west side of Meitang Mountain.
Of course, Han Qian would not allow the enemy troops to calmly climb over Meitang Mountain and withdraw north. The troop dispatch channel in front of the valley had been completely washed away by the flood, but the four thousand elite troops deployed to the two wings of Wujin Ridge since yesterday
Time to get started.
The northern slope of Wujin Ridge was previously a flood channel formed mainly due to the impact of rainwater. It was filled with rocks and trees. It was originally extremely rugged and could only be climbed by mountain hunters or small groups of elite soldiers and horses. However,
In order to facilitate the multi-passage attack, the Shouzhou Army spent more than a month clearing away rocks and trees. At this time, it was time for the elite Tangyi soldiers to attack down the dangerous slope.
Although the Shouzhou Army also built some trenches, fences, enclosures and other defensive fortifications on these flood channels on the north slope to prevent the Tangyi soldiers from counterattacking from these flood channels, a large number of soldiers were crowded to the two wings.
The steep slopes and chaos caused the soldiers behind these fortifications to form a chaotic mess.
The army and the people cannot be organized in an orderly manner. No matter how strong the city is, it is just a decoration, let alone a simple fortification?
The elite Tangyi soldiers who attacked down the steep slope could only carry a small number of heavy crossbows and scorpion cannons on their shoulders, but the fire oil cans and stone bullets they fired were definitely not dense, but they were able to attack the enemy from a high position.
The damage caused and the chaos created are far greater than before.
There was no hope of stopping the spread of chaos, let alone organizing soldiers to block the condescending offensive launched by Tangyi soldiers. Xu Mingzhen, Xu Jin and others saw that the situation was over, so they could only ride horses and wading through the water warehouse to Mei Tang in panic, surrounded by guards.
The southern slope of the mountain was evacuated.
Although this directly declared the defeat of the troops of the front camp, for Xu Mingzhen, Xu Jin, Wen Ruilin and others, the more than 7,000 elite soldiers and 10,000 able-bodied civilians of the front camp had to be resolutely abandoned.
If we don't want the situation to completely collapse, the key to preserving the vitality of the Shouzhou Army is how many of the more than 20,000 elite troops from the southern slope of Meitang Mountain can be withdrawn into Anfeng Village.
In the camp on the river beach, the water was more than three feet deep, and broken river ice was swirling.
Arriving at the southern slope of Meitang Mountain, Wen Ruilin looked pretty from the waist up, but his waist below was numb after being soaked in the water for more than half an hour, and his whole body was trembling uncontrollably. The guards on the left and right came over with fur coats and pulled him over.
Wrapped up and drank several sips of wine, it took a while to calm down.
The southern slope of Meitang Mountain was also in chaos. The low-lying riverbanks and valleys had been flooded by floods. Although the southern slope was not as steep as the northern slope of Wujin Ridge, 30,000 to 40,000 horses crowded over, especially the generals.
When trying to lead the war horses over the mountains to retreat north, someone or the horse often slipped and brought down a large area.
At this time, Wen Ruilin looked towards the front camp with tears in his eyes, and saw that the Tangyi soldiers had reached the foot of the mountain, driving countless generals and civilians directly into the cold muddy water, and then forced them to abandon their armor
, wading through the water and concentrating on the south wall; there were also many drowned people, and countless corpses were floating this way.
Two groups of Tangyi soldiers were fighting towards the north along the edge of the mountain where the muddy water swirled. Fortunately, the terrain was rugged and blocked by trees and insurgent soldiers. Their advance was not fast, but the soldiers along the line were in chaos and had to surrender.
, either to escape to the steeper mountains on both sides, or to be driven into the water like headless flies, struggling to squeeze into the trees for shelter. No one thought of organizing people and horses to delay the advance of these two Tangyi soldiers.
"Xu Datou, Gu Tuzi, take people to the foot of the mountains on both sides." Xu Mingzhen shouted.
Seeing that there was chaos on the southern slope of Meitang Mountain, there was no existing road but people and horses were fighting each other. It was not easy to sort them out. We had to arrange manpower to intercept the pursuers on both sides in order to buy more time.
The terrain on both sides is steep and dangerous. As long as there are three to five hundred elite soldiers who can hold on to the position without risking their own lives, it will not be a problem to delay for three to five hours.
Xu Mingzhen has been guarding the border for many years, and there is no shortage of brave soldiers around her. The two generals whose names were called immediately stepped out of the queue, leading dozens of guards, and walked to the foot of the mountains on both sides, while walking through the chaotic crowd of people.
Pull out more warriors who dare to fight.
After that, Xu Mingzhen arranged for his generals and guards to go out to sort out the chaos on the southern slope of Meitang Mountain, push the mules and carriages down the valley, and suppress the chaos of soldiers and civilians, so that Yixu would not be so chaotic.
Wen Ruilin finally followed Xu Mingzhen and others to climb to the top of Meitang Mountain. At this time, he saw that the narrow river mouth to the west of Meitang Mountain was blocked by a large number of mules and horses carcasses, heavy baggage and debris, and river ice once again formed a precarious iceberg.
The dam turned the valley two to three miles wide and about four miles long in the south of Meitang Mountain into a turbid mountain lake mixed with floating corpses and river ice.
Of course, most of the low-rise simple barracks are still above the water, and a large number of mules and horses are still standing in the cold muddy water. It can be seen that the flooding is not very deep, but the blow to the Shouzhou Army is fatal enough.
The only good thing is that the interception of soldiers and horses organized by the front and rear wings is quite effective. The rugged terrain makes it difficult for the Tangyi soldiers to pass, let alone carrying heavy weapons. The narrow terrain makes it impossible for both sides to deploy their formations.
Time stood still.
There was a loud "crash" sound. Wen Ruilin looked around and saw that a large number of floating ice might have accumulated. The ice dam on the west side of Meitang Mountain collapsed within two hours of its formation. The turbid water carried a large number of corpses.
Baggage and debris and river ice poured downstream.
Wen Ruilin groaned in pain. As he expected, a large number of corpses, baggage and sundries and ice floes were pushed forward by the water for a short time, blocking the river again and raising the water level, forcing the turbid water to carry the ice floes to both sides.
Side flooding irrigation.
The road on the south side of Meitang Mountain was also not high. A large number of people who had retreated south stayed on the road. Watching the flood coming, they hurriedly fled to the steep and steep mountains on both sides again.
Perhaps Tangyi soldiers also noticed that after the ice dam of Meitang Mountain collapsed, the water in the river south of Meitang Mountain quickly stabilized. Wen Ruilin soon saw dozens of paddle boats coming along the river. In addition to being murderous,
In addition to armored soldiers, there are also war weapons such as crossbows and scorpion cannons.
"The road to the south is not flooded deeply, so retreat!"
Wen Ruilin turned around and saw Xu Yin trying to persuade Xu Mingzhen not to persist any longer. He thought so. If the siltation below was washed away by the flood again, Tangyi soldiers might take a boat to go around them and establish an interception.
position.
There is another one. There is a mess everywhere now, and it is inconvenient to send messages. If the Tangyi soldiers go around in front of them, and the Anfengzhai side is in chaos and accepts the defeated soldiers, they are unprepared. The elite Tangyi soldiers who have been bypassed take advantage of the chaos.
Village, then they are really going to be even more desperate...
