Chapter 2537: Eight Arrays of Stone Soldiers, Capture Shangyong
Chapter 2537: Eight Formations of Stone Soldiers, Capture Shangyong
Sun Wu led his army to retreat to Zhangling Army. In addition to safety, it also had another major advantage, that is, it could borrow a road from the Song Dynasty to return to Jiangdong.
Runan County of Song State borders Lujiang County in the north, while Zhangling County of Daqin State borders Runan County of Song State.
Therefore, after Sun Wu arrived at Zhangling, he could borrow a road from the Song Dynasty, enter Runan County from Zhangling, take a detour to the north of the Lujiang River, and then return to the east of the Yangtze River from the north of the Lujiang River.
Returning like this is equivalent to a big circle, but although the distance is a bit far, it is better than safety. After all, neither Qin nor Song Dynasty can attack their ally Wu for the time being.
Of course, it was obviously not an easy task for Sun Wu to escape from Yunmengze to Zhangling County. The biggest obstacle was not the Chu army that was ten times his own, but the five thousand Jingchu cavalry under Wei Zhang.
The most important reason why Sun Wu dared to go deep into Jiangxia alone was because he had a complete battle plan. The main reason was that the main force of the Chu army was contained in Zhangling by the coalition forces of Qin, Wei and Song, and there was not even a single cavalry in Jiangxia.
No.
If there are cavalry in Jiangxia, they don't need to be too many. Even if there are only 500 cavalry, Sun Wu will never dare to go deep alone.
But the problem was that Deng Yu was defeated miserably. Liu Xiu was worried that the Three Kingdoms Allied Forces would also go south, so he left all the cavalry to Wei Zhang and ordered him to contain Zhang Ling's Three Kingdoms Allied Forces. This gave Sun Wu the confidence to advance alone.
After all, the Chu army was much more numerous than the Wu army, and if its mobility was faster than that of the Wu army, then this battle would not have been fought at all.
Sun Wu fought successively in Jiangxia, but later moved to Yunmengze because he was worried that Liu Xiu would transfer cavalry back from Zhangling.
After all, with the speed and mobility of the cavalry, it was easy to catch up with them, and five hundred cavalry were enough to entangle him. But for Sun Wu, once he was entangled, his entire army would be annihilated.
It was precisely because of this that Sun Wu chose to withdraw into Yunmengze.
Yunmengze has mountains and rivers, making it easy for Tibetan troops to attack, and the water network is dense, which can limit cavalry operations to the greatest extent.
After several defeats, Liu Xiu intended to send a cavalry force back to Jiangxia from the Zhangling front line, but he did not expect that Sun Wu would retreat into Yunmengze.
Liu Xiu knew that the terrain of Yunmengze was not conducive to cavalry operations, so he did not send the cavalry back. Instead, he sent Gan Ning's navy to cooperate with the encirclement and suppression. The result was repeated defeats.
After losing nine battles in a row and losing nearly half of his troops, Liu Xiu was obviously in a hurry. In order to wipe out Sun Wu, he did not hesitate to mobilize Wei Zhang's main force to go south.
The reason why Liu Xiu made this decision was mainly because Pang Tong's words woke him up.
When talking about the situation in Zhangling, Pang Tong bluntly said that for the Wei and Song Dynasties, helping the Qin army to contain the Chu army was the limit, and he would never really fight for the Qin army and the Chu state.
After Liu Xiu thought about it carefully, he also felt that it made sense, so he decisively decided to transfer Wei Zhang to the south.
The two armies of Liu Xiu and Wei Zhang launched a sweeping search for Yun Mengze. Sun Wu had nowhere to hide, and it was only a matter of time before his traces were found.
But what Liu Xiu never expected was that all of Sun Wu's military actions after his lone army penetrated deep had only one purpose, which was to force him to transfer Wei Zhang from Zhangling.
If Wei Zhang's troops had stayed in Zhangling, Sun Wu would have had no chance to retreat to Zhangling.
But now Liu Xiu took the initiative to transfer Wei Zhang south, which gave Sun Wu a chance to escape, but it was just a chance.
Even if Sun Wu once again jumped out of Liu Xiu's encirclement and turned around the Chu troops gathered in Yunmengze, it would not change the fact that all of his troops were infantry.
At the infantry's marching speed, it would take at least three days to escape to Zhangling County.
However, it only took one day for Wei Zhang's five thousand Jingchu cavalry to rush from Yunmengze to Zhangling County.
After more than half a month of fighting, Sun Wu's army had already suffered nearly half casualties, and the remaining troops were also outnumbered. Once they left Yunmengze and headed north to Zhangling County, they would be 100% sure to be overtaken by the Jingchu cavalry.
In the current state of the Wu army, let alone five thousand Jingchu cavalry, even five hundred would be enough to completely defeat them.
Therefore, it is basically impossible for Wu Jun and Sun Wu to escape Wu Jun's pursuit with their own strength, and the only way is to use external forces.
At present, for Sun Wu, the only external force that can be borrowed is Zhang Ling's Three Kingdoms Allied Forces, so he sent a letter to him through flying pigeons to ask for help, hoping that the Three Kingdoms Allied Forces could send cavalry south to meet the Chu army.
Sun Wu's letter asking for help was quickly passed on to Huang Feihu, who in turn was informed by the generals of the Wei and Song armies.
"So, Sun Wu wants us to send cavalry south to meet him?" Cao Bin asked.
"That's right." Huang Feihu nodded.
Yuan Chonghuan couldn't help but sneered: "Since Sun Wu dares to go deep alone, he has to bring the army back by himself. Now he doesn't have the ability, but he wants us to take risks for him. Why is this?"
"Yes, Uncle Yuan is right." Zhao Defang said solemnly.
"You can't say that. After all, we are allies and we should help each other." Cao Bin said.
Yuan Chonghuan retorted without hesitation: "But..."
"..."
Seeing that Yuan Chonghuan and Cao Bin held different opinions, Huang Feihu also roughly understood the attitudes of the Wei and Song Dynasties.
The territories of Wei and Wu are not bordering each other, and there is no bad blood between the two countries. The two kings of Wei and Wu are still sworn brothers and have a close alliance, so they support sending troops to rescue Sun Wu.
The territories of Song and Wu are bordering each other, and there is a conflict of interest between the two countries. Moreover, Sun Wu's performance this time is too strong, and it is difficult for people not to be wary of his ability, so Song does not support sending troops.
Seeing that the two of them had been arguing for a long time but still couldn't come up with a solution, Huang Feihu said directly: "Since there are people who agree and disagree, let's vote based on the one with the most votes."
After saying that, Huang Feihu raised his hand and said: "I, Da Qin, support sending troops..."
After Cao Bin and Yuan Chonghuan looked at each other, they smiled and raised their hands: "I, the Wei Dynasty, also support sending troops."
Seeing this, Yuan Chonghuan knew that he could not stop sending troops. After all, the Zhangling Three Kingdoms Allied Forces totaled 45,000, and Qin and Wei only accounted for 35,000.
Although Yuan Chonghuan knew that he could not stop him, he was still unwilling to say: "But even if we send out cavalry to rescue Sun Wu, he may not be able to persist until we arrive."
What Yuan Chonghuan said is correct. After all, Sun Wu's troops were all infantry. At the marching speed of the infantry, it would take at least three days to reach Zhangling. However, Wei Zhang's cavalry could catch up with him in only half a day. The Three Kingdoms Allied Forces just wanted to save him.
It was obviously too late.
After hearing this, both Huang Feihu and Cao Bin frowned, and then Cao Bin said: "Maybe Sun Wu has other ways to hold back the Jingchu cavalry."
"Yes, Sun Wu is too wise to seek death on his own initiative. Besides, even if he can't hold back, he still has to send troops out of his obligation to be an ally. Whether he can escape is Sun Wu's problem, and whether he sends troops or not is our problem." Huang Feihu said calmly.
vocal tract.
As soon as these words came out, both Cao Bin and Yuan Chonghuan showed different expressions, obviously they didn't expect the eldest boss Huang Feihu to say these words.
Now that the dispatch of troops has been confirmed, the next step is to discuss how many troops to dispatch.
After a brief discussion, the Qin army dispatched 500 cavalry, the Song army dispatched 500 cavalry, and the Wei army dispatched 3,000 cavalry, for a total of 4,000 cavalry, and went south to meet Sun Wu.
This was also the first military operation of the Allied Forces of the Qin, Wei and Song Dynasties after entering Zhangling.
Sun Wu, who led his army to escape from Yunmengze, was secretly relieved after receiving a message from Huang Feihu and learning that the Allied Forces of the Three Kingdoms had agreed to send troops to assist him, but the bigger problem had not been solved yet.
Liu Xiu was so angry that he almost vomited blood when he learned that Sun Wu had crossed the Chahu Lake four times, crossed the Han River three times and a series of other tricks to fool the Chu army in circles, and jumped out of the encirclement again.
When he learned that Sun Wu was heading north, he immediately understood that Sun Wu was planning to flee to Zhangling, and realized that the Allied Forces of the Three Kingdoms were likely to join Sun Wu, so he decisively asked Wei Zhang to lead 5,000 cavalry to pursue him.
"Sun Wu, Sun Wu, you sometimes make mistakes."
Liu Xiu sneered. This time he was slowly gaining confidence. After all, with the marching speed of the Wu army's infantry, what if there was support from the Allied Forces of the Three Kingdoms? By the time the Allied Forces of the Three Kingdoms arrived, the Wu army would have been crushed by the Jingchu cavalry.
The remaining 5,000 Wu troops obviously knew the situation they were facing. It was a struggle to escape with their lives. Even though everyone was exhausted physically and mentally, their marching speed was actually more than 50% faster than usual.
But even so, the speed of the infantry is far inferior to that of the cavalry, and it will only be a matter of time before Wei Zhang's cavalry catches up.
"Grand Governor, running away like this is not an option, you will be caught up sooner or later.
By that time, the brothers' physical strength was exhausted and they had no power to fight back.
It is better to stop here and recover some strength, so that we can fight to the death with the Chu army."
Ling Tong said coldly, his eyes filled with determination, and he was obviously ready to die in battle.
"Yes, Brother Ling Tong is right."
Zhou Tai echoed.
Seeing this, Sun Wu said: "Don't worry, none of us will die."
Then he pointed to the north and said: "There is a rocky valley five miles away. As long as we reach there, we will have a chance of survival."
Hearing this, Ling Tong and Zhou Tai felt a glimmer of hope in their hearts. He didn't even think about risking his life, but gritted his teeth and continued on his way.
On the other side, Wei Zhang also received Sun Wujun's movements.
"General Wei, Sun Wu's troops have fled into the Rock Valley."
"Rocky Valley?"
Wei Zhang's brows furrowed. He obviously knew that Rock Valley was not suitable for setting up an ambush or defending. Escape here would be a dead end.
Although Wei Zhang did not understand Sun Wu's intentions, he would not let Sun Wu go just like that. However, he also felt vigilant in his heart to prevent falling into Sun Wu's plan.
The Jingchu cavalry were all light cavalry and were very fast. They caught up to the Rock Valley in less than an hour.
Looking at the traces of the march at the entrance of the valley, Wei Zhang was sure that Sun Wu's troops had fled into the valley. He was also worried that Sun Wu would run away, so he decisively led his troops to break in. However, after entering, he found that there was something else going on inside.
Wei Zhang had been to Rock Valley before, but when he came back this time, he found that it was different from what he had seen before. After wandering around, he came to a cliff.
Wei Zhang was convinced that he was following the correct route in his memory, but he still took the wrong route. This puzzled him and he could only turn back and look for a way out, but he ended up in front of this cliff every time.
In the Rock Valley, in Anlu County twenty miles away, Sun Wu's Wu army has fled here.
Seeing that the soldiers were extremely tired, Ling Tong couldn't bear to say: "Grand Governor, take a rest, brothers are very tired."
"No, we can't rest now. The conditions in the Rock Valley are limited, and the stone array set up by the governor is also hasty. We can only trap Wei Zhang for a while, but not for a long time.
Once Wei Zhang gets out of the Rock Valley, he will soon catch up. Our army is not completely out of danger yet and must not stop at this time."
After hearing what Sun Wu said, Ling Tong had nothing to say. He could only go back and encourage the soldiers to continue on their way.
Under the leadership of Sun Wu, the Wu army passed Anlu County and marched north for more than 20 miles, but Wei Zhang in the rear had already led his cavalry to catch up.
"Kill and never let Sun Wu go."
Wei Zhang shouted in embarrassment. He was actually trapped in a maze made of stones. He wandered around the rocky valley for a long time before escaping. This was simply his biggest shame since joining the army.
When Sun Wu saw Wei Zhang chasing after him, his expression suddenly changed and he quickly shouted: "Form up."
But Wu's army was already out of men and horses, and it still had the physical strength to fight.
At this moment, the sound of a large number of horse hooves came from the north, and it was Huang Feihu who led the cavalry who arrived in time.
"Don't worry, General Sun Wu, Huang Feihu is coming."
Huang Feihu galloped his horse and roared loudly.
When Wei Zhang saw this, his face suddenly turned red, and he knew in his heart that Sun Wu could no longer be kept, so he ordered with difficulty: "Withdraw."
Seeing that the Chu army retreated on its own initiative, Huang Feihu did not pursue it. After all, further south was Chu's territory. If the army went deep alone, it would be easy to be ambushed, so he just responded to Sun Wu and returned.
After escorting Sun Wu's troops back to Suixian County, Sun Wu said to Huang Feihu with a grateful face: "Thank you, general, for arriving in time, otherwise our army might be in danger."
"It was not my fault that General Sun held Wei Zhang back, otherwise I would have been too late."
Seeing Sun Wu and Huang Feihu complimenting each other, Cao Bin and Yuan Chonghuan both looked unhappy. After all, the Qin Army only dispatched 500 cavalry, so the credit all went to the Qin Army.
Sun Wu narrowly escaped from prison, and Huang Feihu hosted a banquet in Zhangling, but at the banquet he received military information from Shang Yong.
Han Xin has now captured the entire territory of Shangyong, and the two counties of Shangyong New City have been occupied by Qin, and then led his army to Xicheng.
Of the three counties in Hanzhong, Qin had already captured two.