To the north of Wuyi Town in the south of Chuzhou, the garrison camp queues stayed on the official road, and more and more rogue bandits appeared in the west and north.
Wuyi Town is located on the west bank of the Qingliu River. It is a large town in the south of Chuzhou. It is also a market that relied on transportation arteries. A river originating from Langya Mountain passes through the town. There are three bridges on the river, and the river flows under the bridges.
, merge into Qingliu River from west to east.
On the west side of the official road is Langya Mountain, which gradually slows down to the east, changing from gentle hills to plains along the river. The official road goes north through the plains, and on the east side is the Qingliu River.
"Sir, not far ahead is the Baijia Bridge. This bridge is only eight miles away from Chuzhou. There is the Drunkard Pavilion in Langya Mountain, which is where Ouyang Xiu wrote the Drunkard Pavilion. The water in the pavilion converges and flows downward, which is from under the Baijia Bridge.
Pass."
Pang Yu turned around and took a look. This was one of the two guides he hired in Jiangpu. The other guide was too frightened to speak. The guide speaking in front of him was a Nanjing businessman who had been doing business between Pukou and Fengyang for a long time.
He was very familiar with the roads along the way. What surprised Pang Yu was that he was not too scared when he saw the bandits. He could also talk about the terrain in a concise and comprehensive way, and he could also introduce the towns, scenic spots, and objects along the way. He was more like a tour guide.
However, Pang Yu was not interested in Zuiweng Pavilion at this time. After coming out of Wuyi Town, more and more rogue horse soldiers were moving around. Even if Chen Yuwang's cavalry was added, the garrison camp could not expand the investigation line.
Especially the appearance of more than 200 horsemen on the west side forced the garrison to march at a turtle's pace, covering only five miles in the whole day. Pang Yu no longer had to find reasons to delay, and King Chen Yu could testify to Zhang Guowei.
This guard had just led the team back from the northwest. He went to drive away a small group of rogue cavalry so that the forward could continue to advance. Pang Yu guessed that Zhang Guowei's purpose of sending him was to strengthen the cavalry, but the most important thing was to serve as a
Supervise the army to prevent Pang Yu from being perfunctory.
The goal of the garrison camp today was originally to occupy Baijia Bridge. After crossing Donggeyi, the surrounding terrain became increasingly flat. There were no strategic points such as passes. The most important thing was bridges. There are usually spontaneous formations around such official road bridges.
In the market, although the bandits burned down all the houses, they were able to leave some walls to keep out the cold and provide a defensive support point.
"Let the First Division advance a hundred steps."
Guo Fengyou arranged for a Tang Ma behind him to deliver the order. The Tang Ma ran forward along the official road. On the way, he met a cavalry returning to the Chinese army. The Tang Ma almost fell off the road.
Pang Yu rubbed his forehead. The army has been under the threat of rogue cavalry in recent days. Today it has been harassed by the other party's cavalry for a whole day. It is extremely exhausted physically and mentally. There are more and more mistakes made by those hired in the middle.
Businessmen are even more unstable. Negative emotions are spreading among the army. The morale boosted by the victory at Puzikou is about to be exhausted. What Pang Yu needs to consider most at the moment is no longer how many rogue bandits to eliminate, but how to defeat rogue bandits and horse soldiers.
Maintaining an army under pressure.
The closer we get to Chuzhou, the stronger the rogue bandits' interception becomes. It seems that today's goal will not be easy to achieve, and we need to be prepared to camp on the spot.
Pang Yu looked around the area. There was no particularly good location. There was no shortage of water here. He only considered the issue of cold protection and defense. The direction close to the Qingliu River was very flat. The river could provide a barrier in one direction. Pang Yu looked at it from a distance.
Searching in the center, about less than two miles to the northeast, there is a village by the river, probably a fishing village, which is the most suitable camp today. The garrison camp needs to advance another mile and a half along the official road.
At this time, the First Division began to advance, and Pang Yu began to feel nervous again. He could feel that the soldiers around him were similar. He had a total of five infantry units, deployed in four directions, and fifty marines were mixed with the baggage.
It is relatively stable when it is not moving, but once it starts to move, there are loopholes everywhere.
The first division moved according to rounds. After the first round was in place, it started, and then the other two rounds. When the garrison camp began to move, the cavalry approached from the northwest.
There were about five hundred horsemen visible in the field of vision, surrounding the garrison one mile away. Some of them had already headed to the official road to the south, and the garrison was surrounded.
Pang Yu's throat was a little dry. He took off his coconut scoop and shook it. It was almost dry inside. The wells he passed today were covered with rotten matter. The entire army did not get any water. There was a lot of surface water along the way, but the garrison camp also had no water.
Don't dare to take it. If you delay it for a while, the army will be hungry and thirsty and its combat power will be very weak.
Next to him, Guo Fengyou handed over the kettle. Pang Yu shook his head and poured all the water from his coconut scoop into his mouth.
"The Second Division and the baggage are moving forward."
The five square flags of the Chinese army waved. The Second Division and the marines advanced in response to the flag. King Chen Yu's cavalry headed south to respond. Pang Yu concentrated his attention. The infantry on the march was very weak, but the baggage was even weaker, especially the amateurs recruited this time.
Baggage train. These businessmen running touukou usually run for their lives when they see bandits. In order to hire silver at a high price from Pang Yu, they took the risk to run transportation. When they saw Shenwu from the garrison at Puzikou, they thought that the bandits would flee. Little did they know that the bandits would flee.
Once they passed the mountains of Jiangpu, the situation reversed. The garrison camp was frequently surrounded by rogue bandits. These people did not know how to count the cavalry. Anyway, there were rogue bandits everywhere in the field, and there must be more people than the garrison camp. Under repeated harassment by the horse soldiers
, those people are already on the verge of collapse.
The second division was on the outside of the official road. They bypassed the two fish ponds in front. The rogue horse soldiers came again. They approached with strange screams and threw arrows far into the air. The second division advanced despite the rain of arrows.
, King Chen Yu's cavalry and some rogue bandits entered into a melee, and everything was in chaos.
In this chaos, the Second Division had no time to pay attention to the covering baggage train, and did not notice that the slow speed of the baggage carriages had already distanced themselves from the covering troops.
Suddenly there was a commotion in the baggage train, and two mule carts collided inexplicably. The mule pulling the cart was bumping around like crazy, and the baggage train behind them stopped in place.
Pang Yu finally discovered the situation of the baggage and immediately said to Guo Fengyou, "Let the Second Division stop advancing."
Before the order could be issued, a whirling sound came from the west side.
The sound of horse hooves suddenly rumbled, and the harassing rangers in front dispersed one after another. Two dense groups of cavalry rushed towards the second division and the third division behind them respectively. There were more than three hundred in total.
These two groups of cavalry have been hiding behind the hills on the west side, and were covered by the front rangers. Pang Yu didn't notice them at all, otherwise he would rather set up camp now. The leader of this bandit should be very experienced. After discovering the loopholes in the garrison's defense,
, and immediately dispatched this hidden force.
Pang Yu had seen rogue cavalry several times, but those were more like horse thieves. The one in front of him looked like cavalry. These animals weighing six to seven hundred pounds ran in groups with an astonishing momentum.
King Chen Yu only had more than forty cavalry and was unable to resist, so he immediately retreated to the first division.
Due to the advance of the Second Division, the gap between the Second Division and the Third Division was widened. Now the two Divisions can only rely on their own defense.
Pang Yu couldn't think of any way. His personal troops were on the east side to prevent the bandits from attacking from the river side, and the artillery was on the march. He didn't have any maneuvering power in his hands, so he could only hope that the two infantry could stabilize the formation.
Amidst the heavy sound of hooves like raindrops, the galloping horses shook the earth. They were only a hundred steps away from the infantry. Pang Yu felt that his heartbeat was about to stop. His infantry only had three lines to extend the width of the defense.
Not sure if it can stop those cavalry.
At seventy steps, Pang Yu's palms became sweaty when he suddenly heard another trumpet sound. Before he could figure out what was going on, two scattered cavalrymen suddenly turned around and rushed towards the baggage train in the middle.
Due to the chaos just now, the Second Division widened the distance between the baggage train and the baggage train when they bypassed the fish pond. The side of the baggage train on the official road was completely exposed, and the target of the rogue pirates was still the baggage train.
The tactical advantage of the cavalry was fully brought into play. They could fight without formation. The two cavalry left the front of the infantry and relied on speed to turn their targets towards the baggage train.
"Let the third round come to me. Guo Fengyou, you go and lead the infantry."
Pang Yu had just given the order and turned around to steal, when the rogue horse soldiers rushed into the baggage train.
…
"Do evil, do evil!"
Tang Ershuan muttered in panic, the surrounding area was filled with the screams of mules and horses, and the carriages collided with each other, making frightening sounds.
The Marine Corps he belonged to was used as light infantry and was transferred around by Pang Yu. This time it was mainly used as a guard baggage unit. Originally, there was nothing to do. The empty frame could still lie down. Who would have thought that after passing Donggeyi
After that, he became the main target of the rogues. When he thought of joining the water camp Marine Corps, it was two different things from the water camp.
Countless cavalry appeared from the outside, wielding swords and guns to kill the animals. Some frightened animals fled to the east side of the official road, dragging their frames and falling under the shoulder of the road.
The cavalry then went up the official road, killing people and animals everywhere they could see. In front of hundreds of cavalry, the dozens of scattered marines following the car were almost useless.
The rear of a frame next to it was tilted upwards, shaking constantly. The packhorse in front of it had fallen to the ground, and its hooves were still kicking wildly.
Tang Erchuan hid behind the wheel, and several rogue horse soldiers rushed past him, chasing and killing the two horsemen who had escaped in front. Some of the horse soldiers rushed into the east side of the official road, and some rushed along the official road to the flag of the garrison camp in front.
The wooden handle of the throwing ax in his hand was sweating, and Tang Ershuan was about to throw it at the back of the nearest cavalry soldier, but finally hid behind the wheel again.
There was a scream behind him and the sound of wheels approaching. Tang Erchuan turned around and saw a mule dragging a carriage and crashing into it very quickly. He was most afraid of these mules. The baggage team had lost a lot of carriages, mostly with mule carriages.
These animals have low intelligence. Whenever the bandits make some noise, they will panic and run away. The three people who died in front of the baggage train were all mule cart drivers. They didn't care about hiding at the moment and jumped up and ran in front of the carriage.
There was a roar from behind, and the mule hit the upturned frame. The left wheel of the mule cart was damaged and collapsed to the left. The rice beans on it were scattered on the ground. The mule was tilted and could no longer run, and was still on the same spot.
Screaming and struggling.
Tang Ershuan was sweating profusely and was at a loss. As soon as he stood up, a horse's head suddenly appeared in front of him, followed by the rider on it. A rogue horse soldier had just jumped onto the official road.
"It belongs to your grandma!" Tang Er Shuan howled desperately, and threw the flying ax at the horse soldier.