Chapter 42: Chasing the Dead and Chasing the North (1)
"Wang Yu, are you rebelling too?" In the Weiqiaocang City, a general asked with his hair disheveled and almost crying.
"There's nothing much to say. King Huang was deceived by a villain, so he didn't know the plight of us. We have no soldiers, no food, no weapons, and the Tang army gathered one after another. If we wait any longer, our brothers will not end well." Wang Yu put away his bow and arrows.
,road.
There was no need to fight anymore. There were more than 2,000 troops guarding Cangcheng. The walls were thick and the city was high. It would be difficult for 20,000 people to attack. But who knew they were insiders? After deceiving the city gate, they suddenly attacked and won.
It's a matter of course.
"Kill this person, and gather the rest if they wish to surrender. In addition, send people to put out the fire without delay." Wang Yu killed a lot of people today, all of whom were his former colleagues, but now that he has embarked on the right path,
There is no way to look back, we can only continue to fight to the end and fight to the death.
Li Xiang of Weiqiao Town personally led his people there. The defense there was weak and it would not be a problem to capture it. With these two places captured, Meng Kai's retreat was blocked. If he wanted to return to Chang'an, he could only go westward.
place, and then find a bridge to escape back. This is no problem in normal times, but if the enemy is clinging to it, our retreat is cut off, and news of former comrades surrendering to the enemy is constantly coming from around, then there are only two options
Path: One, fight to the death, defeat the enemy in front of you, and then retreat slowly; two, run away directly, don't care about anything, whoever escapes will have his destiny.
Li Xiang and Wang Yu are both veteran military leaders, and they know the current situation of Meng Kai very well. It is not enough to surrender the heads of the supervisory army alone. If they can hold on to Weiqiao Town, they will not let Meng Kai come from the east.
Running around Weiqiao is almost enough.
The Liuqianxia Suiya Army also rushed over and set up camp on the road. They were at the horns of each other with Weiqiaocang. Even if Chang'an sent a large army to help, they could hold on for a long time with the help of the geographical advantage. The opportunity was created, and now it's up to Tielin
Can the Yifang Army turn this advantage into victory?
Outside Gaoling County, the Tielin Army once again came out of camp to form a formation, inviting the rebels to fight.
Don't be afraid of having few soldiers, unless it's the kind of ten thousand fighting a hundred thousand, which is really a bit dangerous. Zhu Shuzong often said that the enemy has many soldiers and is arrayed for several miles. If you attack one group and attack the other groups, the soldiers in the other groups will be attacked.
He might even be sitting on the ground to rest. But this kind of thing is risky after all, and Shao Shude would never try it.
Today, Meng Kai has only 20,000 soldiers, and some of them are sent to Jingyang and other places. There are only more than 10,000 people in Gaoling. He has defeated them in field battles before, so he has a psychological advantage. In addition, the enemy's morale will fluctuate, so he is not afraid.
They are.
If you have the ability to fight against the odds like Xiang Yu, holding only three days of food, you can win seven battles and seven victories!
“After staying, the rebel army did not go out to fight.” On the high platform, Chen Cheng looked at the county seat in the distance and said.
"If you don't go to war, then you will wait to die and eat people when the food is exhausted!" Shao Shude laughed and said: "Not everyone has the courage to fight against the odds. How is it over there in Jingyang?"
“Li Xiaochang has sent people to report back that the bandit army wanted to retreat. They attacked once and gained a lot, but they were still repulsed.” Chen Cheng replied.
"As expected, the morale of today's Yifang Army is actually not much better than that of the bandit army. The future is uncertain, the generals have their own ideas, and Li Xiaochang has nothing to do." Shao Shude sighed: "The opportunity given to him,
Let’s see if he can catch it. What is Zhu Wen doing now?”
“I heard that he led his army to the west and accompanied the soldiers and horses in the river, intending to attack Chang’an.”
“Just make big claims.” Shao Shude laughed and said, “I don’t believe that Wang Chongrong has such ambitions.”
“Liu Hou, generals Zhou Rong and Linghu Jing have already camped in Weiqiao Town. Do you want to call them back?”
"I am also worried that Chang'an will send more reinforcements." Shao Shude hesitated: "Can Li Xiang defend Weiqiao Town?"
"There are tens of thousands of people and no way out. If we don't fight to the death, we will really get tired of living. If we stay behind, we can ask Li Xiang to camp in Weiqiao Town and bring back the Yamen army." Chen Cheng suggested.
"Yes!" Shao Shude nodded in agreement and said: "Wei Boqiu, immediately send an order for Li Xiang's troops to station in Weiqiao Town and guard the East Weiqiao Bridge. Zhou Rong and Linghu Jing escorted the grain and fodder from the Weiqiao warehouse back. Then order Zhu Shuzong to conduct a reconnaissance mission.
, search the Jing River and the north bank of the Wei River. If the rebels show signs of crossing the river, immediately notify Zhou Rong and Linghu Jing, and attack halfway across the river to drive them back. In addition, inform Marshal Zhuge of the situation."
Zhuge Shuang still had more than 2,300 troops on hand, and Shao Shude couldn't wait to use every bit of his troops. But after thinking about it, he decided to forget it. Tielin's army was 8,500, Xia Sui's army was 6,000, and Yifang's army was more than 10,000.
In addition to Li Xiang's 10,000 troops anyway, the total strength is more than 30,000. What's the use of a few thousand more? Besides, we have to keep a reserve force.
This is the first time he has commanded such a large-scale battle! Shao Shude didn’t know how to create such a large-scale scene. It seems that he had such an idea in his mind from the time he said he would surrender Li Xiang. Meng Kai,
It is bound to become a touchstone for commanding strategic battles.
Generals always have to go through such a journey. Otherwise, they will always be just generals and will not rise to the level of commander-in-chief. After all, I have not fallen too far behind Li Keyong, and I have taken one step ahead of Zhu Wen. Beware of arrogance and impetuosity.
Learning makes me happy!
On July 23rd, Wang Duo ordered the soldiers and horses from the western camp to advance towards Chang'an. Li Changyan, who was newly appointed as Fengxiang Jiedu and stayed behind, led more than 10,000 men to attack Xianyang in order to atone for his sins. Cooperating with him were the Jingyuan Army and the Xichuan Army.
, Xing Ning's army numbered more than 25,000, Huang Chao gave Shangrang, who was in charge of the war in the west, 20,000 more troops, and at the same time sent General Huang Ye to attack Weiqiao Town with more than 20,000 troops.
Shao Shude was so moved when he heard the news that it was so pitiful that after a year, the imperial officers and soldiers finally cooperated! It was simply a miracle!
After setting up the camp in the west, Wang Chongrong's camp in the east did not even need to cooperate. The more than 20,000 people in the camp in the south could rest. Shao Shude could conclude that Huang Chao would not be able to send reinforcements across the river to support Meng Kai. This way
Big fish, you can catch it yourself!
On July 26th, Li Xiaochang sent an envoy to report that he fought with the rebels in the eastern suburbs of Jingyang and won. More than 500 people were beheaded. The rebels retreated to Jingyang and defended, and no longer dared to go eastward to join Meng Kai.
On July 28, Li Xiang sent an envoy to report urgently and ask for help, but Shao Shude ignored him and ordered him to fight to the death.
On the first day of August, scouts came to report that the rebels were washing the city in Gaoling, burning, killing, looting, and shouting loudly. Shao Shude immediately ordered to prepare for an attack. The rebels were about to leave the city and fight to the death.
Meng Kai still has some courage!
If they fled westward directly, their troops would definitely not be able to be reorganized. Once they were pursued by the Tielin Army, they would immediately be defeated.
At the beginning of noon, more than 10,000 rebels were arrayed outside the city. Shao Shude climbed up to a high platform to watch, and counted about 12,000 soldiers. Zhu Shuzong judged that there were 11,000, and Guo Qi thought that there were 10,000.
That's almost the number. It seems that a lot of people have escaped secretly these days. Shao Shude thought he had at least 13,000 to 13,000 people.
The two troops of Xia Sui Yamen have been recalled, but their garrison is more than ten miles away, so they may not be able to catch up with this battle. In today's field battle, 20,000 people from both sides joined forces at the corpse erection site. At most
The winner can be decided in half an hour.
“Dong dong dong…” The war drums continued to sound, and the Tielin Army began to form formation almost at the same time.
Under Shao Shude's instruction, Li Yanling sent people to lead hundreds of Chao Army prisoners to the front of the battle line and shouted: "The Jingyang rebel army has been defeated. If you don't surrender now, when will we wait?"
"Zhu Wen and Li Xiang defeated Huang Chao's army and surrendered, and now they have been awarded high officials. If you had surrendered earlier, you would not have lost your status as a state or county, so don't make a mistake!"
"The imperial court's 200,000 officers and soldiers have arrived in Chang'an. Huang Chao doesn't have much time left, and he still doesn't wake up? Wait and see, how long has it been? Has Huang Chao sent reinforcements?"
More than a hundred cavalrymen with loud voices shouted back and forth in front of the formation, shaking the morale of the nest bandits. Shao Shude guessed that Meng Kai must have concealed the news in the army. Most of the things were only known to the upper levels, and the lower-level sergeants were still kept in the dark, such as
Zhu Wen and Li Xiang surrendered.
The ordinary sergeants of the Nest Thieves are not stupid, they just don't have the channels to get the information. Now that they are being shouted out by the Tielin Army, they are a little hesitant. Combined with the fact that the army is short of food and no reinforcements have arrived, many people have already felt doubtful.
The more I believed it, the lower my morale became.
Husband fights with courage!
A warrior must first unite as one, and if a unit is united, then a thousand people will be of one mind; if a thousand people are of one mind, then they will have the strength of a thousand; if ten thousand of them will be of one mind, then there will be no use for one of them.
The morale of the thieves, which had just been raised by washing the city, was greatly reduced by the "appearance and explanation" of the prisoners in the nest. Meng Kai did not dare to wait any longer and marched directly in front of the enemy.
The Tielin Army formed the familiar Yanyue Formation here. Thousands of people from the trapped camp advanced forward on the right wing. The center army consisted of four battalions of infantry, and the left wing consisted of two battalions of infantry, auxiliary troops, and cavalry all arranged in the rear formation.
The Tielin Army has fought many field battles of this scale, and Shao Shude is already familiar with it. The tactics of the rebel army are the same as those of Xue Zhiqin back then, with warriors as the frontline, followed by elite soldiers, and then the main force.
In the central army, there are only a thousand cavalry on standby as a decisive force.
"Woo..." the first horn sounded. Four groups of archers came out from the front two battalions of the Tielin Army and fired the first wave of arrows on the battlefield today. The sergeants of the two battalions behind put their spears at their feet and
Launched a projectile.
“Kill!” The rebel warriors carried the dense rain of arrows and rushed forward at the cost of dozens of casualties.
“Kill!” The sword and shield hand in the first row of the Tielin Army leaned forward, held the big shield in front of him, and slashed with his right hand with his sword.
A shieldman was stabbed in the abdomen by a spear thrust from the side, and fell to the ground screaming. While holding on to the spear that the rebels wanted to withdraw, he turned his head and looked at the Chinese flag in the distance. What can the commander do for him?
I'm looking for an adopted son to offer incense to you!
“Ah!” Another sword-and-shielder was stabbed in the right shoulder and subconsciously stepped back, not stopping until he bumped into Pao Ze.
"Fight with you!" He carried a huge shield and rushed forward with all his strength. The shield was filled with the harsh sound of cutting blades. As the saying goes, one man fights for his life, but several others are restrained. This man hit two or three people in succession with his big shield.
The bandits were stabbed by several spears and fell to the ground.
A rebel soldier ducked over and was hit in the face by the shieldman with his shield. He screamed and fell to the ground. However, before the shieldman had time to be happy, he was stabbed by two spears and blood flowed all over the ground.
The two thieves were not happy for long, and soon a long spear stabbed out from behind the shield hand, piercing directly through the chest and abdomen. The armor on their bodies was like paper, and it hardly played any protective role.
“Kill him! You thieves! Stab him!”
The fighting on the front line was bloody and brutal. The 300 warriors selected by the rebels charged twice in a row, but they did not attack the central formation of the Tielin Army. Their performance was not even as good as that of Zhu Wen's army.
“Shoot!” The archer came out from the gap, and there was another wave of arrows. More than half of the rebel frontmen suffered casualties, and they retreated with a scream.
The first wave of bandit troops charged into the formation, but the Tielin army did not move.