Late Tang Dynasty Floating Life

Chapter 1035 Tactical leader
Xiapi has been in chaos since the fifth day of May.

The sergeants were busy, struggling to load supplies on board.Take a closer look, most of them are weapons, food, goods, gold and silverware and other things.

Don't say that martial arts are hard to give up.In fact, if you don't let them bring these things, you can blow up the camp on the spot.

In addition, many old and weak women and children boarded the ship.

The Huai army has controlled Xiapi for several years.There are quite a few family members of sergeants who have migrated here, as well as family members of officials and military academies, and they also want to run away with the army.

As a result, more than a hundred ships, large and small, were packed to the brim, and the Xiapi defenders could only travel on foot.

On the morning of the sixth day of the Lunar New Year, Qin Shiqiu, the guard of Xiapi, led 4000 people across the river and arrived at the west bank of Surabaya. They knew that there were Xia soldiers on the east bank, so they deliberately avoided it to be safer.

In the evening of the same day, Zhou Ben, the naval envoy, ordered that the supplies that could not be moved be gathered together and burned.

Zhou Ben was from Suzhou, a descendant of Zhou Yu, a famous general of the Three Kingdoms.In his early years, he served as a general under Zhao Yu, the governor of Chizhou.Defeated, Zhou Ben surrendered to Yang Xingmi and became a general in the Huainan army.Because of his courage and proficiency in water warfare, he made a lot of military exploits, so he was promoted all the way, and now he is the governor of the Huainan military government.

Xiapi has a total of more than 3000 land and water troops, all under his command, including more than [-] infantry and [-] sailors, all from Chi and Xuanzhou.

To be honest, Zhou Ben never thought that one day he would abandon Xiapi and flee in a hurry.Because this city is so easy to defend, surrounded by water, it is almost impossible to be breached with the cooperation of the navy.Even if the enemy digs dikes to irrigate, it's useless. At worst, it's just a wading battle. If it doesn't work, you can retreat by boat. What can you do?
But being cut off is another matter.

A scout came to report that a group of Xia thieves attacked and occupied Suqian County with thousands of people.More than a thousand Xuzhou soldiers guarding the city only resisted for a day, then they took off their uniforms and dispersed to the countryside.The county magistrate and county lieutenant were also idiots. They were killed in the process of enlisting the Tutuan villagers.

In fact, Zhou Ben knew that the target of the Xia people was not the city of Suqian at all, but the wharf outside the city.

They just want to control the ship's berth and cut off the river at the same time.Attacking the city was just a side task, but I didn't expect it to be completed easily.

After receiving the information, Zhou Ben was flustered and decided to run away on the spot.Of course, you can't just use the term "escape" directly. He led the boat to the south to attack Suqian.

The news has been sent to Linhuai, Qingkou and Xuzhou respectively.Zhou Ben thought it was interesting enough not to leave without saying goodbye.

These trash!Zhou Ben spat, boarded the boat, and ordered the boat to sail overnight.

From Xiapi south to Suqian, the speed of taking a boat is very fast, and it takes almost two days to arrive.But with four thousand infantry, it was not so easy.

It was not until the tenth day of May that they finally saw the slightly dilapidated city wall of Suqian and the busy wife by the pier.

At this time, there was a light rain in the sky, which seemed to herald the official start of the rainy season between the Jianghuai River and the Huaihe River.

Zhou Ben's face was a bit ugly, the pontoon bridge had already been built.

At the same time, I'm a little lucky.Fortunately, he made a decisive decision without delaying for too long.Otherwise, if you wait a few more days, I'm afraid it will be a lot of trouble if I give you an iron rope to cross the river.

"General Qin, if we don't destroy the pontoon bridge erected by the thieves, I'm afraid it will be difficult for you and me to return to Huainan." Zhou Ben pointed to the bridge across the two banks of Surabaya, and said, "Today we can only fight."

Qin Shiqiu said with emotion: "What Zhou Dutou said is very true. In this battle, there is no retreat!"

After that, he went down from the ship building and went to rectify his troops.

******
On the east bank of Surabaya, Wang Jingluo, the Marquis of Yu, the capital of Yi Congjun, noticed this large-scale fleet. There were hundreds of ships, large and small.

The fleet of the Huai army did not anchor and anchor, but continued to rush forward, heading straight for the pontoon bridge - the anchor is of course a stone, not an iron anchor, because it is too expensive to be widely used, and it can be used on some major ships. Use it to the top of the sky.

Taking advantage of the momentum of the water, the boat hit the pontoon bridge with a "boom".There were a few left-behind sergeants on the pontoon bridge, and all of them were shaken so badly that they couldn't stand stably.

"Whoosh! Whoosh!" A dense rain of arrows fell on the deck.

The soldiers of the Huai army were condescending, and while Xia's soldiers were rolling all over the ground, they started killing.

At the same time, a large group of sailors and sergeants jumped off the deck and rushed to the pontoon bridge to fight.

"Kill the thief!" A brigade of sergeants on the east bank of the pontoon rushed over holding thick and wide wooden shields.

This is a warrior from the Yi Cong Army.

Things started in a hurry, and they only had time to build a pontoon bridge and reinforce it.As for other things, such as iron chains, cannon carts, and shield carts to defend against crossbow arrows, etc., they had no time to prepare, so they had to carry them hard.

One side was in a hurry to escape, and the other side tried to stop them. The two sides fought fiercely on the pontoon bridge.

The Huai Army used refueling tactics. The number of people who came down at one time was small, and when their foothold was not stable, they were hacked to death by the spears and short knives of the Yi Cong Army.On the other hand, the arrows on the boats of the Huai Army are very dense, even if they are covered by shields, their lethality cannot be underestimated.What kind of iron armor can't stop the close-range shooting of armor-piercing heavy arrows, and there are soldiers and soldiers screaming and falling into the water, staining the river red.

Zhou Ben watched from a distance, feeling a little anxious in his heart.

What does Xia mean by this?It is meaningless to bear the condescending arrows on the unsheltered pontoon bridge, which will cause quite a lot of casualties.He didn't even need to send sailors off the ship, he only needed to let them shoot arrows and crossbows to wipe out all these Xia soldiers, and it only took a little more time-even if the strongest soldiers in the world are also flesh and blood, Standing in front of a huge warship, you will be torn to pieces.

There were orderly shouts of killing on the west bank of the river.

Zhou Ben looked around, and it turned out that Qin Shiqiu was impatient, left a thousand people to guard the supplies and vehicles, led three thousand soldiers himself, and killed more than a hundred righteous soldiers on the west bank of the pontoon bridge, ready to come to help.

also good!With their help, Xia Bing on the pontoon bridge can be cleared faster, and the pontoon bridge can be dismantled faster, fleeing southward.

"Ugh-"

"Woooo-"

Horns sounded one after another, followed by dull hoofbeats and painful neighing of horses.

Zhou Ben was taken aback, looking for his reputation, he saw a large group of cavalry coming out of the woods to the west.

Their ranks were spread out, as if they had to do so because of the rain and slippery weather, soldiers and horses kept falling to the ground.But the speed has slowly picked up, and the slanted long spear in his hand is also slowly leveled, aiming at the three thousand soldiers of Qin Shiqiu's troops.

"Damn it! What a cunning thief!" Zhou Ben was furious, and kicked over the stupid lieutenant general, saying: "Let the second commander unplug the anchor, come up for me, don't save arrows, yes Shoot on the shore."

But it was too late.

The raging wave of cavalry rushed to the shore in the blink of an eye.Qin Shiqiu was completely cut into two sections, then three sections, and four sections...

The silver spear pierced Huai Bing's body easily, and the flying arrows fell into the crowd, creating great chaos.

The Huai army collapsed on the spot.

The irrational sergeants rushed onto the pontoon bridge, crowded together, and people kept falling into the water.

Someone was chased so anxiously that he waded directly into the river, ignoring that he was still wearing armor.

There were still people kneeling down to beg for surrender, but under the turmoil, no one noticed what they were saying, and they were directly submerged in the crowd of war horses.

The pontoon was packed with people.They didn't dare to rush to the east bank, because there was a large group of Xia soldiers waiting in front of them, and they didn't dare to turn back. They could only cry on the pontoon bridge, begging the navy to save their lives.

The cavalry pawns of the Silver Spear Army put away their light spears, took out their bows and threw them.

The drizzle affected the power of the bow and arrow, but at such a short distance, it still caused great panic, and more Huai soldiers fell into Surabaya.

"Chi la——" With the violent shaking of the crowd, the pontoon bridge, which had been damaged by the collision of the ship, could not bear the weight and was disconnected from it.

"Plop! Plop!" The turbulent river broke the pontoon bridge, and the Huai soldiers fell into the river like dumplings, and disappeared after only plopping for a while.

The cries on the river became more intense.

The boat shook violently and floated down the river.

Zhou Ben reacted, his face turned extremely ugly.

He didn't expect that the pontoon bridge would break in such a way - at the cost of four thousand innocent souls.

There were also sobbing sounds one after another on the ship, it was the weeping of the sergeant's family members.

The father, elder brother, and younger brother died so tragically before their eyes, most of them had no bones left, which greatly shocked their hearts.

"Alas!" Zhou Ben closed his eyes, unable to bear to look any further.

The boat went down the current in a hurry, and there was no time to save the lives still thumping in the water.

This battle was a terrible defeat!

******
Qin Shiqiu's head was brought over.

Under the canopy, Shao Shude took it with one hand, looked at it carefully, and asked, "How about the bandit army?"

"The bandit general Qin Shiqiu commanded an army of [-] infantry, and it has been defeated. More than [-] of them were beheaded, [-] were captured, and the rest fell into the water. It is unknown whether they are alive or dead." Li Yixian reported.

Shao Shude nodded, then looked up at the sky again, the rain was getting heavier and heavier.

Since the expedition, the Silver Spear and Flying Bear armies have moved to various places, and achieved great results.

In the first battle in the west of Xucheng, Chen Hanbin, the thief general, captured and beheaded more than [-] people.

In World War II near Huaibei, Zhang Jian, the governor of Sizhou, was severely injured, and two thousand people were captured and beheaded.

In the third battle to the southeast of Hong County, the thieves wiped out Feng Jingzhang's [-] soldiers and horses, and the [-] remnants of Hong County asked to surrender.

In the fourth battle in the west of Suqian, almost all the four thousand rebels were wiped out, and the rebel general Qin Shiqiu died in the rebellion.

Taking advantage of the high mobility of the cavalry, they appeared and disappeared, fought more and fought less, and waited for work with ease. In a month's time, they had killed two bandit generals and captured more than [-] people.

These four battles were almost the pinnacle of Shao Shude's understanding of cavalry combat.

Make use of strengths and avoid weaknesses, fight when you can fight, retreat when you can't fight, repeatedly harass and mobilize the enemy, and use high mobility to create local advantages in mobile warfare.

To put it bluntly, these military principles are very simple and not esoteric.However, without the military experience bonus of years of fighting, and without a strong force built by single-handedly enforcing orders and prohibitions, it would not be so handy to implement them.

Shao Shude remembered that 20 years ago, he was still stumbled to learn from Song Le, Zhang Yanqiu, and Zhuge Shuang. He concluded that when encountering an enemy, he likes to fight in formation, fight inactively, and use more troops and supplies to suppress people.

Now after 20 years, he has his own understanding of marching and fighting, and has his own tactical routines.

This is how people progress.

"Please call me cavalry tactical leader." Shao Shude said silently in his heart, "Let Wang Jing build the pontoon bridge, I want to cross the river."

(End of this chapter)