On May 15th, on the mountain road at the junction of Xinyang County, Suizhou County and Tongbai County, nine thousand officers and soldiers marched forward steadily and vigorously.
The generals under Shen Shuren also changed from the loose manner when they marched separately a few days ago and first encircled and occupied the counties in Suizhou. They reunited into an iron fist and moved forward as a whole.
In front of the official army, the space for the bandit troops to move has been compressed to an extreme. It seems that if there is a little spark, it will be completely detonated.
Horse scouts came and went to search for Mercedes-Benz, creating an increasingly chilling atmosphere.
"Report! The former army scouts have detected that He Yilong's troops retreated into Pingjing Pass and did not move forward. The enemy's situation in the distance ahead is unknown, but they can faintly hear the shouts of killing and see the smoke."
As the latest military information was sent back, the generals were gearing up, and Zuo Zixiong took the lead in calling for battle:
"Sir, He Yilong's way out of Tongbai Mountain must have been blocked by Liu Guoneng, and he has been unable to break through for a long time! Let our army advance quickly, or we can attack Liu Guoneng as soon as possible."
However, Chen Shuren raised his hand and calmly ordered: "Explore again! The rear army camped, and the front army advanced slowly. From now on, every five miles forward, they will stop to dig a trench and build earth walls to cross the valley, and then advance again. Take every step of the way! ”
Although Zuo Zixiong didn't fully understand it yet, he had been following Shen Shuren for so long and was already used to following his advice. He knew that there must be some truth in it, so he didn't say any more.
However, Zhang Mingzhen was more assertive. In addition, Jin Shenghuan was a guest general who had just come to support, so he had a sense of empathy for Liu Guoneng's situation. The two men joined forces to persuade:
"Sir, the art of war emphasizes concentration of troops to defeat them individually. Liu Guoneng comes from afar to reinforce. If we advance slowly and let him bear He Yilong's fierce attack for many days alone and fight a tough battle alone, I am afraid it is not the way to treat a guest army."
"Yes, it doesn't matter to me, General. I'm afraid that the news of this battle will spread out in the future, and the friendly generals who don't know the reason will be as timid as Zuo Liangyu and refuse to reinforce your lord."
Chen Shuren smiled and shook his head: "You have been fighting for many years and leading soldiers for many years, so you should know the common sense of military art. I don't blame you for saying this this time.
After all, you have never fought in Suizhou or Xinyang before, and you do not understand the geography around Tongbai Mountain. Especially those of you who were originally from suppressing pirates, you may have never fought in mountain warfare.
This Xinyang Road is extremely narrow and difficult to navigate. We blocked both ends and there is no exit elsewhere. He Yilong dared to take this road in the first place because he underestimated Liu Guoneng and felt that Pingjing Guan was in his hands.
Even if Liu Guoneng wanted to block the exit of this valley, there was no danger to defend it. The two sides were just fighting a fair fight at the bottom of the valley. He could break through with several times the number of troops in the field.
But in my opinion, Liu Guoneng could have done the same as us, with high walls and deep ditches. Even if there were no passes available, he could just cut down some trees and dig some soil on this mountain road to block the road.
In such a terrain, the army cannot be deployed. Although there are many soldiers, there are only a hundred or ten people lined up in the front. It is too advantageous for one side to defend. In this case, of course whoever is anxious will suffer."
Chen Shuren narrated that although he had not seen the battle with his own eyes, he could describe the situation so clearly that the generals became more confident.
Working with such a wise coach, I am not anxious at all, it is really very comfortable.
"The general will obey your orders! We will advance step by step! Don't give the bandits a chance to counterattack!"
After all kinds of affairs were arranged step by step, Shen Shuren also became very popular in poetry, and he had a bad taste of tracing back to the ancients.
Taking advantage of the slow advance of the troops, he took Zuo Zixiong and others to find a nearby gentle slope. With the support of his guards, he climbed up the mountain and had a bird's-eye view of the overall terrain.
He also brought a telescope, which gave him a rare sense of imperial aura.
After working hard to get to the top, he took a telescope and looked around at the node of Tongbai Mountain that bifurcated in a herringbone shape. Shen Shuren pointed to the distance beyond the reach of his eyes and told the generals a morale-boosting joke:
"As you know, eighteen hundred years ago, when Lu Buwei ordered people to write "Lu Shi Chun Qiu", he summarized the beauty of the world's mountains and rivers, and recorded it in the chapter "You Shi Lan":
What are the nine fortresses in the world? Dafen, Ming'e, Jingruan, Fangcheng, Wei, Jingxing, Lingzhi, Juzhu (Yanmen), and Juyong.
Among the nine fortresses, the last three are the dangerous passes of the Great Wall today; Jingxing is the key point between Jin and Hebei; Hangu Pass is at Xiao, which divides the world from east to west; and the first four are all on Tongbai Mountain.
Among them, we occupy the first three fortresses between Suizhou Prefecture and Xinyang Prefecture, Dafen, Ming'e, and Jingruan. The fourth square city is between Tongbai and Funiu Mountain, and is located at the junction of Nanyang Prefecture and Henan next door.
The road we are blocking He Yilong on right now is the dangerous road called "Ming'e" in the Spring and Autumn Period of the Lu family. Sun Wuzi led the Wu army to defeat Chu more than 2,000 years ago, and this is where he originally walked.
This Ming'e Road has three key points. From north to south, it was called the Great Tunnel in ancient times, Zhiyuan, and Ming'e. The Great Tunnel is the northernmost valley exit, which is now blocked by Liu Guoneng. The Pingjing Pass in the middle is the 'Zhiyuan', and The southernmost Ming'e is our current location, which has blocked all possibilities for He Yilong to return south.
At that time, Sun Wuzi lured the enemy here, but when he was pursued by the Chu army, he finally did not dare to return to Tongbai Mountain. Instead, he abandoned the waterway baggage and retreated to the east with light equipment, pretending to take a small road to Baiju. It is now Macheng County in Huangzhou.
The chapter "Sun Tzu's Art of War. Nine Places" says, "Throw yourself into the ground of death and survive; fall into the ground of death and survive." This is derived from Sun Wuzi's move. It is his summary of his military experience this time.
It's a pity that He Yilong didn't study. As a warlord, he didn't even know the deeds of Sun Wuzi. He insisted on taking the road that Sun Wuzi didn't dare to take. Isn't this God's gift for us to defeat the enemy!
It is estimated that even if he is an illiterate person who knows the phrase 'put yourself to death and live again', he probably only heard about it by listening to the story of Han Xin's 'last-ditch fight'."
Shen Shuren talked a lot, but he didn't go into too much detail. In some places, he even sacrificed historical authenticity for the sake of simplicity and conciseness.
Otherwise, these big bosses under his command would definitely not have the patience to listen to him drop his book bag.
However, the morale-boosting effect of these words has obviously been achieved.
There are many generals who have little education and do not know the historical allusions. Now it is revealed that He Yilong has committed so many "military taboos".
I learned that Sun Wuzi also fought with the Chu army on this land, but He Yilong didn't choose any of the correct options that Sun Wuzi chose back then. Then wasn't he looking for death?
Shen Shuren is a civil servant, so when it comes to the final stage of fighting with real swords and guns, he can't help.
Only before starting the battle, when planning the chapter, do your best to increase the morale buff to the limit.
If morale could be digitized, it is estimated that the heads of Zuo Zixiong and others would now have a "Morale 120" health bar just like An Rong's "Three Kingdoms" game in later generations.
"He Yilong repeatedly violated military taboos, trapped himself in a desperate situation, and still resisted stubbornly. Our army must kill him!" Zuo Zixiong rubbed his hands and raised his arms while shouting.
Among the generals, there were also those with a slightly higher level of education, such as Zhang Mingzhen. After listening to Master Bingbei's encouragement, he thought thoughtfully and asked:
"Sir, you also said that you should risk your life to survive. Didn't Han Xin also find himself in a desperate situation and arouse the desire of the soldiers to fight to the death?
When He Yilong comes here, his men must have thought that the only way to survive is to fight to the death to break through the encirclement, otherwise the whole army will be annihilated. Shouldn't we be wary of them jumping over the wall in a hurry and breaking out like a trapped beast?"
Chen Shuren laughed with his pearls of wisdom in his hands: "You have read more military books than Zuo Guerrilla, but unfortunately you only read half of them, and in the end you ended up sticking to the pillars and playing the harp. Sun Wuzi and Han Xin risked their lives and survived only by relying on the desperate fight against a trapped beast. Did you win?
Of course not, this is just a way for them to lure the enemy. It is to make the enemy underestimate the enemy and advance rashly, and it must be combined with other key tricks to win. In the battle of Jingxing, Han Xin's key was to seduce Chen Yu and steal the house.
That being the case, we have forced He Yilong into a corner today. As long as we don't advance rashly, don't ask for a fight, and let He Yilong take the trouble, we will be in an invincible position——
That’s why I asked you to fight steadily, dig trenches at any time as soon as you advance five miles, and turn around when encountering the enemy and hold on immediately. In such a dangerous place, whoever attacks will suffer, and we will win if we don’t hurry!"
Zhang Mingzhen was confused for a while after hearing this. His previous experience in reading the Art of War was simply superficial compared with the master's exquisite analysis.
"The troops are prepared by God's calculations, and the generals will be unable to catch up!" Zhang Mingzhen and Yang Jinjue sincerely admired in unison.
Zuo Zixiong and Jin Shenghuan also wanted to applaud, but they lacked vocabulary and did not know how to describe complimenting others' intelligence.
…
On the other side of the battlefield, there is the mouth of the "Big Tunnel" sixty miles away to the north.
He Yilong's troops have actually arrived here for two days and one night. So far, He Yilong still doesn't feel that his original plan is wrong——
The strength of our own troops is at least three times that of any of the official army. As long as we have the advantage of mobility and can defeat them one by one, even if we cannot destroy the official army, we can still break through, right?
Liu Guoneng was a gangster like him, so how could he fight to the death like this for something without any benefit?
But now, the impossible has really happened. Liu Guoneng is not working hard this time, but working hard to resist harm and spending all his money to intercept him!
The two armies only had a small battle on the first day. The two sides fought for more than an hour with similar quality and types of weapons and equipment. The battle ended with He Yilong's casualty rate several times that of the enemy.
Liu Guoneng relied on his defensive advantage, and before He Yilong arrived, he had been operating at the entrance of the "Big Tunnel" for four or five days, digging a relatively deep trench and piling the excavated soil into rammed earth behind the trench. The wall is also equipped with some sharpened wooden thorns and bamboo stick traps and obstacles.
All these gave Liu Guoneng a frontal tactical advantage. In addition, the valley was narrow, and the side with more people could not deploy a formation. The number of people that both sides could invest in the front of the battle was always the same, and the one with more people could only be kept as a reserve. This news Under his leadership, it was normal for He Yilong to be defeated in the first battle.
He Yilong summed up the reason for the initial defeat as "I was tired from coming a long way", so he hurriedly ended the first day's battle and let the troops have a good rest while thinking about countermeasures.
After one night, he really came up with some ideas for improvement: isn't the terrain too narrow and the side with more troops can't expand? Then let's play wheel battles!
He Yilong deployed his troops into several batches in advance, and only brought two batches of troops to the front line at a time to fight Liu Guoneng in a bloody battle. Afterwards, most of the troops stayed near Pingjing Pass to rest to prevent their physical strength from maintaining combat readiness for a long time from declining too quickly.
Once the front line becomes weak and wavering, the tired troops should be withdrawn and replaced with fresh troops to continue the fight.
The number of people on Liu Guoneng's side was only one-third of his. In this kind of mountainous battle, Liu Guoneng couldn't rest. He would definitely be exhausted later in the fight. That was the moment of victory in the breakout battle!
After making up this idea, the fierce battle on the second day was much bloody than the first day.
Although each batch of troops would easily lose morale and flee after a certain proportion of casualties were reached. However, He Yilong could not bear to divide the troops into so many batches. The soldiers in the rear who were preparing for war and recharging their strength would not be affected by the previous batch of soldiers.
Demoralizing effects.
As a result, the bloody battle on the second day lasted for five rounds. Each wave of troops fought for more than an hour before withdrawing, and the battle lasted almost from dawn to sunset.
There were corpses everywhere in the Datun Valley. He Yilong's stubborn old battalion suffered heavy casualties, but they still could not break through Liu Guoneng's defense line.
In desperation, He Yilong began to doubt life.
He wrote a letter to Liu Guoneng, stating the conditions he was willing to give. He also hoped to be moved by emotion and ask him not to be so cruel to the old gangster brother. He also sincerely asked Liu Guoneng for his motive for fighting to the death. Let's see.
Is there any possibility of negotiation?
On the other side, He Yilong had no choice but to see if the way back was possible. If Liu Guoneng was so crazy that he refused to give way, he would have no choice but to prepare to kill the Shuren.
But after two days of bloody fighting, the army's condition has deteriorated even more. Like a rat in a piston cylinder, it is clear that there is no chance of winning if we turn back.