Li Jing's headquarters of 67,000 people walked along the sea route, and Tu Wanxu's six tribes had 150,000 people. Among them, Wei Yunqi, Qu Tutong, and Ashina Danai tribe followed Li Jing. Because these three tribes had too much baggage, they had to prepare
As for the siege equipment, the other three units must use the Lulong Road to prevent hundreds of thousands of people from crowding into the Liaoxi Corridor.
It was Li Jing who built the bridge, so He Chou and Li Chun followed Li Jing.
He Chou had 500 small boats for setting up pontoons, and Li Jing also had 500 assault boats for landing.
In a normal march, Banghai Road could be crossed in five days, but it was not normal at the moment because the Tiejiuli had not been cleared, so Li Jing had to mobilize Mai Tiezhang's three sons to lead a team to set off early to clear the obstacles on the road.
"I really don't know what Wei Yunqi is doing? The army is about to move, and there are so many roadblocks. How long will it take?" Mai Mengcai seemed to be leading a group of engineers, doing hard work in front, and kept complaining.
Mai Zhongcai, the second oldest, rode aside and said with a sneer: "My grandpa said that this kind of large army battle is the most difficult to coordinate. This one doesn't agree with that one, and that one doesn't agree with this one. Alas... there is no way.
"
The three brothers didn't have to bend down to pick up the iron pear, they just sat on the horse and gave instructions.
Mai Jicai, the third child, said: "We have just set out and we encountered something like this. It's not going well. I think it's not going to be easy to fight Liaodong City this time."
At this time, Li Jing's personal guards came from the rear and urged the three of them to speed up. The army in the rear was already impatient.
The Mai brothers looked at each other and had no choice but to dismount and personally participate in clearing the roadblocks.
After nine days of walking for five days, Li Jing arrived at Tongding Town, which belongs to Liaodong County.
There are troops stationed in this military town, but not many, only 800 people. The full strength is 1,500 people. Those who are short of positions are dead.
After all, this was the frontline between the Sui Dynasty and Goguryeo. Every three days, some conflicts would break out between the two sides. Although they were deliberately suppressed to prevent the situation from expanding, deaths were very common.
The general of Tongding Military Town is named Zhu Man, who is from Hebei. Half of his soldiers are Sumo Mohe people. These Hu people were unable to survive in the north and defected to the army. They were incorporated into the military government and given fields.
Count your life as a sacrifice.
As soon as Li Jing arrived at Tongding Town, he called Zhu Man over for questioning.
"There are so many roadblocks on a seaside road. How do you guard this gate?"
Zhu Man explained with a bitter face: "The big model of Liaodong City, Zhong Shiwei, led more than 10,000 people across the river. We were only a few hundred people. We only dared to hold on and did not dare to leave the city. However, the general sent a scout to inform Zhuo immediately.
The reply from Commander Wei was to hold the troops still. Governor Deng and Governor Yang of Liucheng County have also been sending people to clear the roadblocks, but as soon as we finished clearing the roadblocks, more people came from the other side."
"Where is Deng Hao?" Li Jing asked.
Zhu Man replied: "I am leading people to survey the river conditions. I should be back soon."
Deng Hao is from the south, and he was the governor of Jiuchen before. When the Sui Dynasty destroyed Chen, he surrendered to the Great Sui Dynasty, and then stayed in this bitter and cold frontier land. This is normal. The good places have long been carved up by the Guanzhong people.
The Liaohe River water map in He Chou's hand was drawn with the help of Deng Hao.
After a while, Deng Hao, who was in charge of Liaodong County and Yan County, came back. As soon as he came in, he sighed:
"On the other side of the Liao River, the enemy has set up six camps. The best opportunity to build a bridge has been missed."
He Chou and Li Chun looked at each other, feeling helpless.
It's not that they didn't know when to build the pontoon bridge, but unfortunately they were just craftsmen and couldn't mobilize the army. However, the emperor wanted to send all the troops together, so that everything on the other side was ready.
Li Jing will not be upset about missing the opportunity, because that is already in the past. What he needs to consider now is how to successfully build the pontoon bridge under the strict defense on the other side.
"Is it feasible to build a bridge at night?" Li Jing looked at He Chou and asked.
He Chou shook his head: "You can't see at night, the river is cold, and the soldiers can't float for a long time. It's best to start building the bridge at noon."
To build a pontoon, soldiers who are familiar with water properties need to jump into the river to strengthen it. They will stand on the edge of the boat and tie the boats to each other with ropes to ensure that the hull is stable and does not float. At night, the river water is too cold to carry it. live.
A pontoon bridge is connected by two sides of a boat, with wooden planks erected on it for marching, and heavy objects need to be placed on the boat to weigh it down to ensure that it is not washed away by the current.
This is an emergency situation. After the river is successfully crossed, ropes will be pulled up on both sides and wedges will be driven in to completely stabilize the pontoon bridge to ensure that it can be used for a long time.
At present, a camp has been built on the other side, and it is clear that a big fight will be carried out when the Sui army crosses the river. Li Jing does not want to lose too much during the crossing, so he asked if he could build a bridge at night.
After receiving a negative answer, Li Jing pondered for a moment and said:
"General Manager Xin has set up camp outside Tongding Town. General Manager Mai will rest for the day and build a pontoon bridge tomorrow at Mao hour."
The two men took orders separately.
Among them, Xin Shixiong's command had to allocate 4,500 people from the Third Army, that is, Yang Wanshi's tribe, to He Chou's bridge-building force. The dismantled hull will also be assembled today and launched into the water early tomorrow morning.
As the pioneer of crossing the river, Xue Zuo's task today is to eat well and have a good sleep. Tomorrow will be the time for them to charge into battle.
Wei Yunqi, Qu Tutong, and Ashina Danai, who also took the sea route, stationed their troops in three military formations in western Liaoning, Luhe, and Huaiyuan and built camps.
The next day, it was just getting light.
Yang Wanshi had already commanded the guards to push the boats into the river. There were six people on each boat, with different divisions of labor. There were people at the bow and stern who pulled the ropes, and two others were responsible for rowing the boats into the predetermined position.
Each boat has a number and its own fixed position. The remaining person is the strongman and is responsible for pulling the neighboring boats closer and closer together.
Because the pontoon bridge will be used for war horses, military vehicles and baggage in the future, the boats must be placed next to each other to make it stable. If it is only for pedestrians, there will be a distance between each boat, so there is no need to be so dense.
There are two floating bridges, five miles apart, one 1,100 meters long and the other 1,000 meters long.
In other words, it is very safe in the early stage of setting up, because the other side cannot reach you, but starting from the last 200 meters, it will be very dangerous, because the effective projection distance of the catapult is 200 meters.
Because the pontoon bridge does not have ropes on both sides, as it becomes longer and longer, it will swing with the current. If the oarsman on the boat fails to control it well, it will go astray.
He Chou watched with fear from the shore. He originally planned to deploy more than 200 small boats. Later, an order came from above. His Majesty's royal carriage and the official documents must also pass through here. In order to ensure stability, he petitioned the Ministry of Civil Affairs.
, and more than 300 boats were added.
It was so suspenseful. He Chong wiped the cold sweat from his forehead and thought that the prince was really foresight. He reminded himself many times to pay attention to the length of the pontoon, and it turned out to be true.
The current of the Liao River is so fast that the pontoon bridge has taken on a serpentine shape and cannot be reversed. If we hadn't asked for 300 more boats, it wouldn't have been enough this time.
This is the ship responsible for building the pontoon bridge. In addition, there are 500 landing boats, which are not under He Chong's control.
As noon approached, more than half of the pontoon bridge was erected.
As soon as afternoon came, drums sounded from the other side, and huge boulders were thrown into the sky one after another, drawing parabolas and hitting the pontoon bridge.
As long as it is hit, the entire ship will break into several pieces. On both sides of the pontoon, dozens of small boats are constantly repaired under the control of the guards.
The generals on the shore had their hearts in their throats.
It will be difficult if the pontoon bridge cannot be built before night.
Li Jing immediately ordered Liu Jun, a general under Xue Zuo's command, to land with 200 small boats.
Suddenly, a dense number of small boats were launched into the water, with ten people in each boat rowing desperately towards the other side. These people were basically a death squad. Their mission was to buy time for the bridge-building troops.
Whether it is a catapult or a bow and arrow, they are not very lethal to the assault boat. Firstly, the target is too small and moves at high speed. Furthermore, there are rowers standing in front of the small boat, with large guns made of refined steel.
The shield holds up.
Their biggest danger is that after landing, they will be fighting in close combat, with no numerical advantage and being scattered.
Before the assault boat even reached the shore, the enemy troops on the opposite side had already come over with spears, but they were surprised to find that their spears could not kill anyone.
On the shore, densely packed spears were like thorns on a porcupine, jingling on the large shields wrapped in cowhide.
The cowhide is punctured, but the shield is fine.
There are only two arms under Xue Zuo's command, the platoon soldiers and the Gong Chai troops, while the Gong Chai troops hide behind their butts and fire cold arrows.
As the two armies approached, both sides began to shoot at each other. Here were clusters of armor-piercing arrows. They were so fierce that Goguryeo's originally extremely strong shore defense line was shot down in just one piece.
Goguryeo was immediately dumbfounded...
Fortunately, there was no panic in the military formation. The enemy general quickly adjusted his formation, withdrew the spearmen and put the shield soldiers in front.
As more and more Sui troops landed, the two sides fell into a close-quarters fight.
Here, Li Jing and the others were very relieved to find that the landing force went so smoothly.
Yang Wanshi sighed: "Your Majesty, God has given me the help to help me as the vanguard. If it weren't for the refined steel, Liu Jun's army would not have been able to land so easily. As a result, the morale has been greatly increased, and we will be able to cross the river tonight."
Xue Zuo was also very excited. Originally, he was appointed as the pioneer to cross the river, so he made plans to escape death. His family was settled, and he was waiting for his son to be a filial and honest man and become an official after he died in the war.
Right now, it seems that I may not die.
Seeing that the landing pioneers, although very few in number, had already established a firm foothold, the last section of the pontoon bridge was quickly being built.
Li Jing's eyes narrowed and he said in a deep voice: "Send my order to the general and lead the way across the river!"
"General, take your orders!" Xue Zuo replied loudly, and then ordered the flag officers around him to pass orders to all armies. Two moments later, the entire vanguard army crossed the river.
A general delivering the order, holding the command flag, rode his horse to each army to deliver the order.
When the time came, troops were dispatched from the two pontoon bridges at the same time. Two people in a row stepped onto the pontoon bridge and trotted towards the other side.
Xue Zuo himself, holding a shield in his left hand and a spear in his right hand, wearing bright light armor, boarded the pontoon bridge under the protection of twenty guards.