Chapter 380 0375 [How is the morale of the military?]
At the foot of the mountain at the Western Army Camp and near the river channel, many trenches were dug.
There are mounds of earth and wooden fences behind the trenches.
In places where it is really difficult to dig, low walls of earth and stone are also piled up.
On the high mountain on the other side of the river, there were always rebel sentries, who borrowed the general's telescope to observe the situation.
Whenever the Western Army asked the grain transport team to move away grain, Yang Zhi would lead his troops out and act like a decisive battle.
Liu Yanqing, who had previously tried to lure the rebels down the mountain, now faced the rebels coming down the mountain and had no intention of fighting. He just guarded trenches, fences, earth and stone walls and mountain strongholds. If the rebels attacked him, he would take the fight. If the rebels did not attack him, he would fight.
Just confront.
The grain transport team repeatedly circulated and transported the grain to a small station more than ten miles away, and the peasants came back again to continue carrying it.
Yang Zhi did not dare to forcefully charge the enemy's defense line. Firstly, he had fewer troops, and secondly, the morale of the Western Army increased.
The improvement in morale is visible to the naked eye and can be seen through a telescope.
The previous Western Army was very unorganized and lazily muddle along.
Now that I heard that the troops can be withdrawn, as long as they hold off the rebels and wait for the food to be transported, they can go home. The whole army is very energetic.
If the rebels attack at this time, the Western Army will definitely fight to the death!
Of course, this desperate effort is optional.
Let them hold the line of defense, and the soldiers of the Western Army will naturally be willing to fight tooth and nail. They are fighting to get home alive.
But if you let them cross the line of defense and fight, then I'm sorry, you have to escape if you should, because it's not for yourself.
"If we forcefully fill up those trenches, we can still get in through the fence," Wang Xiong said.
Yang Zhi had his own ideas, and shook his head and said: "The gain outweighs the loss, and the lives of the soldiers have been lost in vain. The battle must be fought halfway when the officers and soldiers are retreating. There are no obstacles to stop them, and the officers and soldiers are in a hurry to return home and will not fight tooth and nail. That's good at that time."
beated."
Yang Zhi simply ordered the troops to be withdrawn, allowing the soldiers to recharge their batteries, and at the same time organized civilians to transport food.
A few days later, the sentry sent back news that the officers and soldiers were abandoning the camp and retreating.
Yang Zhi immediately led his army to fight out. He only had 12,000 men.
As for Liu Yanqing's Western Army, in addition to those guarding the food roads along the way and those who had been killed or captured in previous battles, there were still more than 23,000 people left.
When Yang Zhi led his troops to fight, the main force of the Western Army had withdrawn three or four miles, but there were still thousands of archers left.
When the rebels filled the first ditch under the rain of arrows, the Western archers panicked, fired another hasty shot and ran away.
Yang Zhi ordered: "Fill in a passage and let the elite chase after it first!"
A passage several meters wide was filled in, the wooden fence was pushed down, wooden boards were put on the earth and stone wall, and Yang Zhiqin led his troops to pursue.
The further you go, the narrower it becomes. At the narrowest point, only one person can walk.
It is impossible to fight in this kind of terrain, or even to set up an ambush, because the mountains beside the road are difficult to climb.
After advancing for more than ten miles, we finally reached an open area. There used to be a village here, but now it was empty and there was no sign of ghosts.
It was probably once used as a transfer station for the Western Army, and many wooden fences were installed. The Western Army withdrew too quickly, and even the wooden fences were not destroyed. Yang Zhi repaired it a little and used it as a camp.
Yang Zhi took this road to defect to Daming Village in the first place. He knew the terrain ahead very well.
The road will become narrower and narrower, and eventually become a long plank road.
There is no use chasing them. The officers and soldiers only need to let hundreds of elite soldiers cut off their backs to block the rebels on the plank road.
And it's getting dark, so it's better not to pursue them at night.
…
Han Shizhong was at the entrance of the plank road. If the rebels came after him, he would immediately retreat to the plank road. If they didn't pursue him, he would line up in a long snake formation and spend the night.
This kind of terrain can only be a long snake.
"Cheer up, everyone, don't be like your parents who died!"
Han Shizhong was trying to boost morale, but nothing he said was of any use.
Except for Han Shizhong's troops (only a few dozen people left), the rest were all new recruits recruited this year.
The name is Duanhou, but he is actually an abandoned son!
It's like a person going home in the evening, always followed by a hungry wolf, who always has to throw two bones to escape.
Han Shizhong and these soldiers were the bones used to feed the wolves.
If it were any other terrain, they would have scattered and fled long ago. But here is the Tangluo Road. They either surrender on the spot, fight from behind, or chase the large army and be punished by military law. There is no other choice.
The military order they received was to try to block the rebel pursuit for at least five days.
The mission is actually very easy to complete, just hold on to the plank road with all your strength. The difficult thing is how to escape after completing the mission?
The old soldier in charge of the investigation came back: "Fifth brother, the bandits didn't catch up, they camped in that valley."
Han Shizhong asked: "Is the enemy camp tightly guarded?"
The detective soldier replied: "I couldn't see clearly, so I didn't dare to get too close. I just took a glance at it from a distance. The bandits were outside the camp and sent soldiers to patrol, and they were looking towards the mountain road. It might be difficult to rob the camp tonight."
"
Upon hearing this, Han Shizhong immediately gave up his night attack plan.
Even the scouts won't be able to get close. If a large force passes by, they will definitely be discovered. This thief will be so damn cautious.
Han Shizhong said: "Light up a torch and cross the plank road in the dark!"
As long as it is not in disrepair, there is no danger in crossing the plank road at night.
Passing through the several hundred meters long plank road area, in front of you is the military rations left by Liu Yanqing.
Moreover, the military rations were abundant, and he did not dare to run out of supplies, otherwise the 1,000-strong rear force would immediately flee.
Han Shizhong led all the troops through the plank road and took action immediately after dawn.
He first asked the soldiers to pry up the pallet. This operation was relatively easy, and he quickly pried it away twenty or thirty meters.
Han Shizhong also wanted to pull out the beams, but after a long time, not even a single beam could be pulled out.
This requires the use of professional tools to knock out the long triangular wooden wedges, and the remaining stack beams can be kicked off with one kick.
"The thieves are coming!"
Han Shizhong looked up and saw the rebels advancing slowly along the plank road.
"Archer!"
Yang Zhi was also shouting: "Captain!"
One squad leader after another moved forward cautiously. The remaining soldiers stepped on the plank road, holding on to the cliff vine branches and staying put, allowing the squad captains to move forward and shoot arrows.
The rebels have not yet formed a specialized archery unit, and only squad leaders are equipped with bows and arrows.
The long card player walked in the front carrying a huge shield, followed by twenty or thirty squad captains. Both sides threw arrows at each other across the destroyed plank road.
"The boards, nails, and plank road were destroyed!"
shouted the long player.
This sentence kept spreading, and Yang Zhi asked the carpenter to go back to the area around Shanwa to cut down trees.
It's definitely too late to plan the boards now, so I specially cut off the wood as thick as an arm and saw it into sections. This thing can also be nailed to the beams.
Wood, hammers, and nails are sent to the front.
A small captain put away his bow and arrows and said to the long card player in front: "Move the shield outward."
The team leader lay down, stretched out half of his body, put a piece of wood on the front stack beam, then picked up a hammer and smashed the nails. He only needed to fix his own side, the other end was too far away to reach.
Han Shizhong bent his bow and shot an arrow at the squad leader.
An arrow hit his head, but did not penetrate the bamboo helmet.
Ordinary bamboo helmets cannot withstand strong bows, but when weaving bamboo helmets, paper tendons are sandwiched between two layers of bamboo strips.
Not to mention bows and arrows, small-caliber bullets can be defended!
Paper armor actually has greater protection against swords, guns, bows, arrows, and bullets than iron armor, and it is extremely light to wear. As long as you don't soak it in water for a long time, it doesn't matter if you get wet in the rain, it will just become heavier.
The real fatal flaw of paper armor is that it is not durable!
After a few battles, the paper armor was basically useless and a new one had to be built.
If it is a high-intensity war, at the end of a battle, the paper armor will be beaten beyond recognition. This thing is purely a consumable.
The huge impact of the arrow still hurt the captain's head.
But it's still bearable. The dome-shaped structure of the helmet distributes the stress on the entire head.
"Shoot, shoot!"
shouted the long player.
The team leaders in the rear launched their missiles towards the opposite side to cover the friendly forces in repairing the plank road.
From morning to evening, the plank road was only repaired less than ten meters.
The four people in front and behind were shot in the hands by Western troops while hammering nails.
Many people were shot and wounded on both sides, but only two or three unlucky ones died due to the protection of their armor.
Yang Zhi had already pulled the extra troops back to the small valley and sent people in turn to build the plank road in front. He did not rest at night and continued the construction with torches.
Han Shizhong was so old that he couldn't dismantle the beams, so he wrapped them in firewood and set them on fire.
Although the wood of the plank beams has been specially treated to resist corrosion and fire, it will still break after being burned several times. Several plank beams at the entrance of the plank road were destroyed by Han Shizhong.
When the long poker player saw the situation, he immediately reported it to Yang Zhi, who then sent someone to build a long bamboo ladder. The last section of the plank road was directly laddered.
Just make the ladder denser.
It took two days before and after. As the distance between the two sides became closer and closer, the difficulty of repairing the plank road also increased greatly.
The man hammering nails not only wore three layers of armor and two layers of helmets, but also protected his face, neck, and hands. As soon as his upper body was stretched out, more than a dozen arrows were shot at him.
When there were only the last ten meters left, the soldiers of the Western Army began to panic.
"Fifth Brother, these birdmen want to steal food and escape!"
On the second night, more than ten soldiers were escorted to Han Shizhong.
The other soldiers were awakened and gathered in this direction.
Han Shizhong originally planned to deal with it through military law, but by the light of the torch, he felt that something was wrong with the atmosphere.
"Commander Han, withdraw. Our superiors said we would be on guard for five days, but we have already been on guard for two days. We have long been able to afford the food and wages."
"Why can others leave first, leaving us alone to take the lead?"
"Even though we were both born and raised by our parents, our lives are not worthless."
"..."
Soldiers surrounded him one after another, and Han Shizhong was forced to retreat continuously.
If we don't make a decision, the army will definitely mutiny, because these are not Han Shizhong's soldiers!
Han Shizhong's serious expression instantly disappeared and turned into a playful smile: "I've wanted to withdraw for a long time, but I'm afraid you won't agree. If you have any ideas, don't hide them. If you had said it yesterday, we would have withdrawn yesterday, so why bother?
Should I wait until now?"
As soon as this statement came out, the morale of the army was greatly boosted, and the soldiers happily went to carry the grain bags.
Han Shizhong looked at the excited soldiers and sat alone in silence. He was becoming more and more confused now.